hello hello
How is America doing? Sister Sanders from our branch left for the US this week to visit her kids for a couple weeks, I told her to say hi to America for me. It miss it. I hope you are all finishing up the semester ok, that is never a fun time of the year. Very stressful. But you're all champs so no worries.
I am excited to read your book Dad. I'm not sure if I can read it here though. I find out. Maybe, maybe not.
Malaysia is treating me pretty well. It seems to get hotter and hotter every day. I have a good amount of shirts to wear that I brought but I cycle through only four of them. I only wear these shirts because when they get wet they don't look any different. This is important because we sweat a ton here. I feel like I'm walking around in a hot yoga room every day. I don't mind though, when I am sitting on the trains or inside I find myself wanting to be outside in the heat again because I get so cold.
We have done a lot of contacting this week. We don't have very many people to teach who are able to meet us in the afternoon because of work, so we contact. Lately we have been going to the parks to try and talk to people there. Sister Lim and I play Rock Paper Scissors to determine who goes up and starts the conversation. She is very good a Rock Paper Scissors.... So, I'm the one getting practice starting conversations out of nothing, which is never an easy task.
The other day we had a not so great day of talking to people, plus all of our appointments set up for the evening canceled last minute. Walking home that night we weren't too happy. Sister Lim kept throwing her umbrella on the ground and kicking it. I finally had to take it from her so she wouldn't destroy it. (she has gone through two already in the two months she has been here). I was able to cheer us up by acting like an idiot and dancing around with her umbrella and making her laugh (missionaries aren't supposed to dance but it was late so...), plus that night I taught her how to make German Pancakes which she LOVED. So, we were able to end the day in good spirits. And now she has made German Pancakes every night for the past four nights...
I managed to stay another transfer in KL, and I'm going on my sixth month here. The Elders kept telling me I was going to get transfered because I had already been here six months but they were wrong. I'm glad too because it means I have more time with Sister Lim!
Watching conference was AWESOME. Except my bum hurt so bad after sitting in a plastic chair for that long. Watching conference on a comfortable couch at home is a completely different experience. Also, I don't know what it is but the mission has definitely turned me into a cry baby. I cried in every talk, I even cried in the songs haha, what is the DEAL. The messages were so good. On Sunday between the sessions we had a pot luck at the church. It wasn't supposed to be a pot luck, everyone was just supposed to bring food for themselves because it was only an hour break and no one would have enough time to travel home. However, for the missionaries it was a pot luck, every member was begging us to come eat with them. Why do members feel like they always need to be stuffing our faces! I do appreciate them though.
I'll tell you about a good lesson we had yesterday. Back in Feb we started teaching a guy named Vimalan. He is a friend of one of the members. We taught him few times and tried to get him to come to church but he wouldn't so we put him on the back burner for awhile. Last week we were shocked when we walked into the church building and saw Vimalan sitting there. He just decided he wanted to come and see what church was like. For a few days after we tried to committ him to come to church again but he kept giving us the excuse, "ah see first lah" or "see how lah", which translates into "I don't want to come so I'm not going to committ". I hate it when people tell us "see first lah" because first of all, it doesn't make sense and it isn't even real English, and second it means they aren't going to do whatever you asked them to do. But yesterday, in the lesson we read with him in the Book of Mormon when Christ came and was teaching the people. I felt the spirit very strongly as we read, but I never know if it is just me feeling it or if everyone else is too. At the end of the lesson I asked him one more time if he would come to church this Sunday. Jonathan, his friend that's a member, said "see first lah" jokingly, probably because he didn't want to make Vimalan feel uncomfortable. But Vimalan simply replied, "I'll be there". I was shocked and happy. He never says he will do what we ask him to do. It was awesome.
I love members who help us teach. It makes our investigators feel so much more at ease when they have a friend that is there.
love you all so much
sister v
Sunday, April 18, 2010
April 6, 2010
yo yo my peeps
I forgot it was Spring Break time, I always loved that time in the school year. Sounds like you all were busy. That's awesome.
And Happy Easter to you all! I am jealous, you got Conference and Easter on the same weekend. That rocks. We will be watching conference this weekend. I am amazed how fast they can get it to KL. Tech is awesome. Easter Sunday was great, it was also fast sunday so the branch choir did one musical number to start and then the rest of the meeting was testimonies, which i love. Brother Kong got up and bore his testimony about how he threw out all his liquor the other day. He talked about how he lined the bottles up in a row by his sink and dumped them, he also talked about how when they mixed in the sink they made all sorts of colorful swirls...?? It was a sweet testimony. We have been trying to get him to dump them for awhile. He doesn't drink it, but he couldn't bring himself to chuck them because it was worth so much money. Im glad he finally did.
The Elders had a memorable baptism on Sunday. They planned the baptism to occur right after church. Now, something you should know is our baptismal font takes about 12 hours to fill, a baptism can occur in about 10 hours though easy. We usually start the font the night before and let it fill all night. Saturday night there was a district Easter Musical in Petaling Jaya and we got back late and we all forgot about the font. Sunday morning came and the Elders were feaking out. We had three hours to fill a 10 hour font. It wasn't going to happen. During Gospel Principles class, Elder Madu taught while Elder Pulver brought in bucket after bucket of water, to aid the slow trickle of a faucet we have. They didn't want to interrupt Relief Society so while the women were in class, they had all the young men help fill every single trash can in the buiding with water from the outside spicket. When RS ended the young men carried in and dumped about 10 trash cans of water. Would you believe it we still only had about a foot of water in the font; about mid calf. There wasn't much else we could do so the Elders explained very carefully to John, the guy getting baptized (from Myanmar), that his entire body had to be submerged and we went on with the show. Elder Pulver kneeled down in the water and they had john sit with his legs out in front of him. After the prayer they had him lay down and there was just enough water to cover him. It was awesome. We do the best we can with what we got.
After church the Branch mission leader invited us over to have dinner with their family. They are from texas but he is working here for Exon Mobile; they have 5 blonde kids who are crazy. They invited the Elders, Bro Kong, and Kelly, another recent convert, as well as a new ex-pat couple that just moved here from China. What a life these ex-pats live, I don't know if I could do it. We always are excited when another ex-pat moves into the branch, it is like we are getting a new set of couple missionaries, they help so much because they know how the church is supposed to run.
Sunday night we spent with our neighbors from Korea. We watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD (in korean) and then we colored easter eggs! They have two kids a boy and a girl. Everytime we come over the girl runs around yelling "this is the best day of my life!" she is crazy. The easter eggs didn't turn out half bad. Rachel's, the girl's, looked like poop, but that is because she put them in every single color. These kids had never colored eggs before and didn't really know that you can't mix colors too much. We had fun though. Thanks macsen! They fed us Milo and Moche. Milo is a famous chocolate drink here and Moche is a japanese treat, maybe you know it dad? it is the wierdest slimy-est tasting thing, pretty good though. Im impressed with Sister lim, she knows quite a bit of Japanese and Korean, all from watching Korean and Japanese drama. haha she loves the soaps. She speaks Hokkein and Mandarin form her mom and dad, and learned Cantonese fluently just by watching the drama shows from Hong Kong. Impressive.
I have to tell you about something hilarious that happened yesterday. There is this old Chinese man in our branch named Anthony. He called us up and told us he had a friend he wanted us to meet named Jimmy. We met them both yesterday for lunch. I thought it would be a good idea to see what jimmy already knew about our church, if anything. Like everyone always does, he mentioned the Osmonds but before he could say much Anthony piped in "Do you know about the word of wisdom? we can't drink tea, we can't drink coffee..." I thought to myself, why, WHY do members always bring this up when we first start meeting with investigators, save it for a later lesson once they have a testimony! But he didn't stop there, he went on to say, "what about Polygamy? have you heard of that? where one man can have more than one wife? what do you think of that?" haha oh man I thought, WHAT IS HE DOING! I tried to talk over him, I tried to change the subject. How could he have thought that bringing those things up was a good idea. Members are crazy, I love them. Once we got the lesson headed in the direction I wanted it went pretty well. But what a rough beginning haha.
As we were leaving to come email Sister Lim got me laughing really hard. We pray every time we leave the house you know, and sometimes we just don't know what to say. Sister lim is praying and she asks for safety as we email, which i thought was pretty funny, but apparently she had nothing else to say and just stood there silently for a while. Then she speaks, asking me "what else aah?" i couldn't keep it in, I died laughing. And she was laughing too. We got composure and she said, "start again". She tried to pray again but it was no use, we were laughing too hard. I hope we are forgiven for our irreverence.
Yesterday Tina, a member invited us over to her place for lunch. We went with the Elder Madu and Kiwi. Elder Kiwi usually serves in PJ but they were on splits. The curry she made was fabulous and we had a good time spending the afternoon with her and shirley, a recent convert of ours. When we left we got stuck in the elevator though. This has never happened to me and it was slightly scary. The elevator just stopped and Elder Madu and Kiwi started freaking out. Elder madu was pulling on the doors with both hands trying to pry it open and Elder Kiwi just kept saying, "aw frick man....frick man" over and over again in his adorable New Zealand accent. Sister Lim and I were laughing pretty hard. In all we were only stuck for a few moments but still, it was scary. In the apartment buildings here the elevators are always questionable, they usually smell like a bathroom and on occasion I have seen them acctually used as a bathroom. you never know if you will make it out of one.
Ah, good times.
love you all, I pray for you everyday. I mean we pray about 20 times a day so I'm bound to mention you guys at least once. :-)
sister viehweg
I forgot it was Spring Break time, I always loved that time in the school year. Sounds like you all were busy. That's awesome.
And Happy Easter to you all! I am jealous, you got Conference and Easter on the same weekend. That rocks. We will be watching conference this weekend. I am amazed how fast they can get it to KL. Tech is awesome. Easter Sunday was great, it was also fast sunday so the branch choir did one musical number to start and then the rest of the meeting was testimonies, which i love. Brother Kong got up and bore his testimony about how he threw out all his liquor the other day. He talked about how he lined the bottles up in a row by his sink and dumped them, he also talked about how when they mixed in the sink they made all sorts of colorful swirls...?? It was a sweet testimony. We have been trying to get him to dump them for awhile. He doesn't drink it, but he couldn't bring himself to chuck them because it was worth so much money. Im glad he finally did.
The Elders had a memorable baptism on Sunday. They planned the baptism to occur right after church. Now, something you should know is our baptismal font takes about 12 hours to fill, a baptism can occur in about 10 hours though easy. We usually start the font the night before and let it fill all night. Saturday night there was a district Easter Musical in Petaling Jaya and we got back late and we all forgot about the font. Sunday morning came and the Elders were feaking out. We had three hours to fill a 10 hour font. It wasn't going to happen. During Gospel Principles class, Elder Madu taught while Elder Pulver brought in bucket after bucket of water, to aid the slow trickle of a faucet we have. They didn't want to interrupt Relief Society so while the women were in class, they had all the young men help fill every single trash can in the buiding with water from the outside spicket. When RS ended the young men carried in and dumped about 10 trash cans of water. Would you believe it we still only had about a foot of water in the font; about mid calf. There wasn't much else we could do so the Elders explained very carefully to John, the guy getting baptized (from Myanmar), that his entire body had to be submerged and we went on with the show. Elder Pulver kneeled down in the water and they had john sit with his legs out in front of him. After the prayer they had him lay down and there was just enough water to cover him. It was awesome. We do the best we can with what we got.
After church the Branch mission leader invited us over to have dinner with their family. They are from texas but he is working here for Exon Mobile; they have 5 blonde kids who are crazy. They invited the Elders, Bro Kong, and Kelly, another recent convert, as well as a new ex-pat couple that just moved here from China. What a life these ex-pats live, I don't know if I could do it. We always are excited when another ex-pat moves into the branch, it is like we are getting a new set of couple missionaries, they help so much because they know how the church is supposed to run.
Sunday night we spent with our neighbors from Korea. We watched the Finding Faith in Christ DVD (in korean) and then we colored easter eggs! They have two kids a boy and a girl. Everytime we come over the girl runs around yelling "this is the best day of my life!" she is crazy. The easter eggs didn't turn out half bad. Rachel's, the girl's, looked like poop, but that is because she put them in every single color. These kids had never colored eggs before and didn't really know that you can't mix colors too much. We had fun though. Thanks macsen! They fed us Milo and Moche. Milo is a famous chocolate drink here and Moche is a japanese treat, maybe you know it dad? it is the wierdest slimy-est tasting thing, pretty good though. Im impressed with Sister lim, she knows quite a bit of Japanese and Korean, all from watching Korean and Japanese drama. haha she loves the soaps. She speaks Hokkein and Mandarin form her mom and dad, and learned Cantonese fluently just by watching the drama shows from Hong Kong. Impressive.
I have to tell you about something hilarious that happened yesterday. There is this old Chinese man in our branch named Anthony. He called us up and told us he had a friend he wanted us to meet named Jimmy. We met them both yesterday for lunch. I thought it would be a good idea to see what jimmy already knew about our church, if anything. Like everyone always does, he mentioned the Osmonds but before he could say much Anthony piped in "Do you know about the word of wisdom? we can't drink tea, we can't drink coffee..." I thought to myself, why, WHY do members always bring this up when we first start meeting with investigators, save it for a later lesson once they have a testimony! But he didn't stop there, he went on to say, "what about Polygamy? have you heard of that? where one man can have more than one wife? what do you think of that?" haha oh man I thought, WHAT IS HE DOING! I tried to talk over him, I tried to change the subject. How could he have thought that bringing those things up was a good idea. Members are crazy, I love them. Once we got the lesson headed in the direction I wanted it went pretty well. But what a rough beginning haha.
As we were leaving to come email Sister Lim got me laughing really hard. We pray every time we leave the house you know, and sometimes we just don't know what to say. Sister lim is praying and she asks for safety as we email, which i thought was pretty funny, but apparently she had nothing else to say and just stood there silently for a while. Then she speaks, asking me "what else aah?" i couldn't keep it in, I died laughing. And she was laughing too. We got composure and she said, "start again". She tried to pray again but it was no use, we were laughing too hard. I hope we are forgiven for our irreverence.
Yesterday Tina, a member invited us over to her place for lunch. We went with the Elder Madu and Kiwi. Elder Kiwi usually serves in PJ but they were on splits. The curry she made was fabulous and we had a good time spending the afternoon with her and shirley, a recent convert of ours. When we left we got stuck in the elevator though. This has never happened to me and it was slightly scary. The elevator just stopped and Elder Madu and Kiwi started freaking out. Elder madu was pulling on the doors with both hands trying to pry it open and Elder Kiwi just kept saying, "aw frick man....frick man" over and over again in his adorable New Zealand accent. Sister Lim and I were laughing pretty hard. In all we were only stuck for a few moments but still, it was scary. In the apartment buildings here the elevators are always questionable, they usually smell like a bathroom and on occasion I have seen them acctually used as a bathroom. you never know if you will make it out of one.
Ah, good times.
love you all, I pray for you everyday. I mean we pray about 20 times a day so I'm bound to mention you guys at least once. :-)
sister viehweg
March 28, 2010
Yay i'm so happy to finally hear from you dad!! :-). Your emails have so much detail about home, i love em. I'm always so suprised to hear about the stuff happening at home, so much is the same, yet so much is changing. Hope you all can take what comes expertly :-).
Right now I am in Petaling Jaya, the district next to KL, for zone conference today and tomorrow. Wierd to think that it is time for another Zone Conference. I met with President today and the Assistants this morning. Both interviews went well. It is always good to hear what we are doing well and what we can improve on from the Assistants.
Macsen - before I forget. I was so excited that you sent an easter-egg dye kit. I was wondering where I was going to find one. But, when I got back to Malaysia I realized, THERE ARE NO WHITE EGGS HERE. I haven't seen a white egg in about 5 months. All they have is brown. Can you dye a brown egg? Will it still look good or will it look like poop... I will let you know how it goes, we plan to do it for an activity tomorrow night with a recent convert and her daughter.
So I have some explaining to do. A "chop" is just a stamp in your passport. Singapore is NOT part of Malaysia, it is its own country. We are here on a tourist Visa that lasts 3 months so every 3 months we go to Singapore to get that stamp that we need, to stay longer.
When I saw all the books you sent me I didn't know you had written inside of them. When I got home and read them I was so happy. I wanted to keep them all! Your testimonies were so special, they are so powerful. I gave one to Nanda already. I couldn't decide who's to give so I mixed them up and put one in my bag - they were all so good! - Turns out I gave him your's dad. I loved it. I had him close his eyes and hold out his hands - he was apprehensive at first but when I placed to book in his hands and he saw what it was he was thrilled. He said he has been looking online everywhere for one like mine but couldn't find one. I told him to let me know if he needed help reading the testimony inside. Sorry Dad but your handwriting is not the clearest. Later that night I messaged him asking if he understood, This is what he text back "Ya I read it so good .same like Lord words .I like it. and I really like to meet him onetime. can?" haha how cute is that. Hope it is ok Dad, but I told him if he is every in Idaho he can look you up :-).
Yes, Oven is a full fledged member now and he is loving it. Remember Dad his name is Om but he decided for some strange reason he wanted to go by Oven...
Two Sundays ago we got some exciting news. The Kuala Lumpur branch is going to split, and they are giving us 12 months to prepare. This is so exciting. When our branch President announced this in church there was an audible gasp haha. He said we had 12 months, but we were capable of splitting next month. This is awesome. Some members are worried and scared about the split so we are trying really hard to help everyone see that this is a necessary step in the growth of the church in West Malaysia. We are that much closer to becoming a stake, and having a temple!!! I can see it happening in 20 years easy. Maybe I'll be sitting down watching conference when they will announce a temple, like you Dad.
In Sunday School President Renner, the branch pres, talked to all the members about how they need to step it up so this split will be a success. I guess some years back the branch split before but they had to bring it back together. Everyone has to do their part so that won't be a repeat. President Renner talked directly to Brother Kong and Oven about how important they, as new members, were and how we were counting on them. It was awesome, it made them realize that they are going to be stretched in ways they probably weren't planning on. They are putting them directly to work. In East Malaysia recent converts can receive the Melchizadek priesthood 3 months after they are baptized, because they want the church to be able to grow and progress faster. I think that is awesome. President Renner also talked about how he wants the branch to prepare for a trip to the temple in Oct or Nov; he challenged everyone in the room to prepare themselves to go. It is all very exciting.
I'm not sure what else I can tell you. Sister lim and I have kind of been struggling lately because we feel like we drop investigators faster than we are finding them. But, if they aren't willing to keep commitments and go to church there isn't much we can help them with. We just have to work hard at finding more people.
I love Sister Lim to death. She is the funniest person and she thinks I'm funny haha, that always feels good. The other day Elder Madu and I were talking about how his nose was running and sister lim started laughing hysterically saying "HAAAAA nose running??? where go? down the street? hahahaha" The translation didn't quite work. Sister Lim speaks amazing English, but I live for those moments when she makes mistakes, they are the best.
We are really working on the members right now it I think it is finally starting to pay off. We started visiting members when we didn't have appointments and at first they were wondering "why do you want to come over? what is the purpose of you visit" etc. But, after pushing them and working with them we are starting to get referrals. Last week a member Tina, said she had 3 friends she wanted us to teach, and a member Anthony told us he had three friends also. A recent convert Joyce says she wants to introduce us to her neighbor, and a recent convert Jonathan introduced us to his coworker. It is all about the members! They are rocking. And the news of the branch splitting I think is helping, they feel like it is their responsibility to bring in enough people so the split will be a success. I'm excited.
We have also been looking up previous investigators that were dropped for various reasons, some on their record just said it was bad timing. So we have made contact with a few and they seem promising.
The past few weeks have been hard, but I think it is starting to turn up.
I love you guys, i miss you guys. I pray for you all every day.
sister viehweg
Right now I am in Petaling Jaya, the district next to KL, for zone conference today and tomorrow. Wierd to think that it is time for another Zone Conference. I met with President today and the Assistants this morning. Both interviews went well. It is always good to hear what we are doing well and what we can improve on from the Assistants.
Macsen - before I forget. I was so excited that you sent an easter-egg dye kit. I was wondering where I was going to find one. But, when I got back to Malaysia I realized, THERE ARE NO WHITE EGGS HERE. I haven't seen a white egg in about 5 months. All they have is brown. Can you dye a brown egg? Will it still look good or will it look like poop... I will let you know how it goes, we plan to do it for an activity tomorrow night with a recent convert and her daughter.
So I have some explaining to do. A "chop" is just a stamp in your passport. Singapore is NOT part of Malaysia, it is its own country. We are here on a tourist Visa that lasts 3 months so every 3 months we go to Singapore to get that stamp that we need, to stay longer.
When I saw all the books you sent me I didn't know you had written inside of them. When I got home and read them I was so happy. I wanted to keep them all! Your testimonies were so special, they are so powerful. I gave one to Nanda already. I couldn't decide who's to give so I mixed them up and put one in my bag - they were all so good! - Turns out I gave him your's dad. I loved it. I had him close his eyes and hold out his hands - he was apprehensive at first but when I placed to book in his hands and he saw what it was he was thrilled. He said he has been looking online everywhere for one like mine but couldn't find one. I told him to let me know if he needed help reading the testimony inside. Sorry Dad but your handwriting is not the clearest. Later that night I messaged him asking if he understood, This is what he text back "Ya I read it so good .same like Lord words .I like it. and I really like to meet him onetime. can?" haha how cute is that. Hope it is ok Dad, but I told him if he is every in Idaho he can look you up :-).
Yes, Oven is a full fledged member now and he is loving it. Remember Dad his name is Om but he decided for some strange reason he wanted to go by Oven...
Two Sundays ago we got some exciting news. The Kuala Lumpur branch is going to split, and they are giving us 12 months to prepare. This is so exciting. When our branch President announced this in church there was an audible gasp haha. He said we had 12 months, but we were capable of splitting next month. This is awesome. Some members are worried and scared about the split so we are trying really hard to help everyone see that this is a necessary step in the growth of the church in West Malaysia. We are that much closer to becoming a stake, and having a temple!!! I can see it happening in 20 years easy. Maybe I'll be sitting down watching conference when they will announce a temple, like you Dad.
In Sunday School President Renner, the branch pres, talked to all the members about how they need to step it up so this split will be a success. I guess some years back the branch split before but they had to bring it back together. Everyone has to do their part so that won't be a repeat. President Renner talked directly to Brother Kong and Oven about how important they, as new members, were and how we were counting on them. It was awesome, it made them realize that they are going to be stretched in ways they probably weren't planning on. They are putting them directly to work. In East Malaysia recent converts can receive the Melchizadek priesthood 3 months after they are baptized, because they want the church to be able to grow and progress faster. I think that is awesome. President Renner also talked about how he wants the branch to prepare for a trip to the temple in Oct or Nov; he challenged everyone in the room to prepare themselves to go. It is all very exciting.
I'm not sure what else I can tell you. Sister lim and I have kind of been struggling lately because we feel like we drop investigators faster than we are finding them. But, if they aren't willing to keep commitments and go to church there isn't much we can help them with. We just have to work hard at finding more people.
I love Sister Lim to death. She is the funniest person and she thinks I'm funny haha, that always feels good. The other day Elder Madu and I were talking about how his nose was running and sister lim started laughing hysterically saying "HAAAAA nose running??? where go? down the street? hahahaha" The translation didn't quite work. Sister Lim speaks amazing English, but I live for those moments when she makes mistakes, they are the best.
We are really working on the members right now it I think it is finally starting to pay off. We started visiting members when we didn't have appointments and at first they were wondering "why do you want to come over? what is the purpose of you visit" etc. But, after pushing them and working with them we are starting to get referrals. Last week a member Tina, said she had 3 friends she wanted us to teach, and a member Anthony told us he had three friends also. A recent convert Joyce says she wants to introduce us to her neighbor, and a recent convert Jonathan introduced us to his coworker. It is all about the members! They are rocking. And the news of the branch splitting I think is helping, they feel like it is their responsibility to bring in enough people so the split will be a success. I'm excited.
We have also been looking up previous investigators that were dropped for various reasons, some on their record just said it was bad timing. So we have made contact with a few and they seem promising.
The past few weeks have been hard, but I think it is starting to turn up.
I love you guys, i miss you guys. I pray for you all every day.
sister viehweg
March 24, 2010
Hey peeps.
I'm writing you from a glorious Internet Cafe in Singapore. Wow, It is nice, the keys don't stick when you press, they are all present and accounted for, the connecting is flaw-less, the seat is comfortable, the computer is new, etc. What a change from the usual weekly internet trip. This is my second time in Singapore and this place continues to amaze me. They need to build glass walls around it and call it Singapore mall; because that's what it is, one very large mall. We flew in yesterday. Sister Lim and I and an Elder Ng-Woon from New Zealand serving in Petaling Jaya, a suburb of KL, all went to the airport together. The assistants had told us Sister Lim was coming, but when we got to the airport she had no ticket. We called the zone leaders, who called the office couple, and apparently the Assistants forgot to tell us that Sister Lim was no longer going. She was pretty bummed, we sent her back to KL in a taxi to spend the next couple days with a senior couple serving in Petaling Jaya. So it was just Elder Ng-Woon and I. The flight was pretty empty so we got some seats towards the back and layed down for a nice 45 minute nap. I didn't know who I was meeting in Singapore, I figured there would be some girl I was supposed to be with. After Elder Ng-Woon and I got through immigration we met the office couple and found out that almost all of the sisters were also flying into singapore that day. I was so excited. We are the only sisters in West Malaysia so I was excited to see all the other sisters serving in East Malaysia. Sister Goodwin from my MTC group came with her companion and it was so good to see her again. Sister Petty, Richie, and Harrison also came. There were a bunch of Elders flying in from various cities too so it was a lot of fun. We all went out to dinner and walked the streets of this busy city. In all honesty, they don't have anything planned for us when we come so it is very much like a vacation...Last night all the sisters stayed at the Office couples home, they have a pretty big crib, and it was a lot of fun. The two Indonesia Sisters from our MTC group were also in Singapore, they had to leave Indonesia only for a few days and it happened to be the same few days we were here. It was good seeing them again.
Today Sister Petty and I got up and ran through a park near to where we stayed. Like everything else here, it was beautiful. I really like Sister Petty and Richie, we have very very similar personalities. Unfortunately Sister Richie is leaving in two weeks, and Sister petty is leaving only a few months after that. At the rate they are transfering sisters I don't think I will get the opportunity to serve with either of them. Most sisters stay in an area for 9-10 months. Which is totally unfair, the elders moved about every two months. After running, and after dying Sister Petty's hair, we went to the beach. Oh it was glorious. With all the Elders and Sisters we made a pretty large group. We played volleyball, threw football, and sat on the beach staring longingly at the water...It is beautiful here. You should all take a trip to Singapore someday. It's not tropical Island beautiful, it is huge modern skyscrapes running into the ocean beautiful. We stayed at the beach for a couple hours but it soon got too hot to stay; when no water is involved, you can only endure so much of a hot beach, despite how pretty it is. After emailing we plan to hit up Little India, which should be fun.
This week in Kuala Lumpure was ok. Oven was baptized on Sunday after church. Kiran baptized him. After he was baptized Kiran got up to share his testimony and he started by saying "I wanna sare testimony but I wanna sare in Nepal becos I wan to sare to my brother oven" Then he talked in Nepali for a couple minutes. After he finished Oven got up also and shared his testimony. It was so good to hear how happy he was. He told everyone that a few months ago he started looking at his life, thinking he wanted something more in it. Then his friend Som introduced him to us. I was sitting in the back at the piano and almost started crying. Sunday was slightly emotional because it was Kiran's last Sunday with us. This week he goes back to Nepal to wait and prepare to go on his mission. He wore his full suit to church on Sunday that he just bought for the mission and he looked so good! Just like an Elder. Seeing him baptize Oven and then share his testimony with him was so awesome. I am soooooo going to miss Kiran. He has helped us missionaries in KL so much. After the baptism I was playing postlude music and Kiran comes over very sad and said, "sister I am sad" I said, "why are you sad Kiran" He said, "Sister I am sad to leave Kl, you will forget me I know it" I said all I could to encourage him that no one in the branch could forget him, they all love him to death, and also that the mission is going to rock his world. He will be missed though that is for sure. I hope I get his address when he finally gets his call because I really want to write him and encourage him.
So sister lim and I sing a hymn before we start companionship study every day. At least we try to. I think it is from having studied for two hours already but my eyes have the hardest time reading the words in that small hymn book. And I don't know what sister lim's excuse is but she has a hard time too. We sing the wrong words, and mess up a lot, and I don't think we have been able to get through a hymn yet without laughing. We usually end up throwing the book down and just pray and get on with our studies.
Our cute Korean neighbor came over the other night and asked for my help in grading his English paper. It was adorable to read his English, so simple. It actually was really good. I showed him how to change words and reorder things to make it sound like better English. It was fun. I told him to come over anytime if he needs help. it is amazing how fast small children pick up other languages, no fair. We are going out to dinner with his family on Saturday, we'll see if we can get them to want to learn.
Oh I got your packages! Thank you macsen and thank you family. You guys are really the best. I walked into the office yesterday and one of the office elders runs over and hands me not one, but two packages and says, man sister viehweg you are loved. Yes I am. I made the mistake of opening them in the office in front of all the office elders and all the elders there for their VISA runs... the candy is gone. It went fast, but we all enjoyed it! So thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And macsen, just yesterday I was at the store looking at seasoning packets thinking I wanted to buy some to cook with and then I saw the price and had a heart attack. How did you know to send them. you're awesome. Thank you thank you for the books too! they are perfect.
sis v
I'm writing you from a glorious Internet Cafe in Singapore. Wow, It is nice, the keys don't stick when you press, they are all present and accounted for, the connecting is flaw-less, the seat is comfortable, the computer is new, etc. What a change from the usual weekly internet trip. This is my second time in Singapore and this place continues to amaze me. They need to build glass walls around it and call it Singapore mall; because that's what it is, one very large mall. We flew in yesterday. Sister Lim and I and an Elder Ng-Woon from New Zealand serving in Petaling Jaya, a suburb of KL, all went to the airport together. The assistants had told us Sister Lim was coming, but when we got to the airport she had no ticket. We called the zone leaders, who called the office couple, and apparently the Assistants forgot to tell us that Sister Lim was no longer going. She was pretty bummed, we sent her back to KL in a taxi to spend the next couple days with a senior couple serving in Petaling Jaya. So it was just Elder Ng-Woon and I. The flight was pretty empty so we got some seats towards the back and layed down for a nice 45 minute nap. I didn't know who I was meeting in Singapore, I figured there would be some girl I was supposed to be with. After Elder Ng-Woon and I got through immigration we met the office couple and found out that almost all of the sisters were also flying into singapore that day. I was so excited. We are the only sisters in West Malaysia so I was excited to see all the other sisters serving in East Malaysia. Sister Goodwin from my MTC group came with her companion and it was so good to see her again. Sister Petty, Richie, and Harrison also came. There were a bunch of Elders flying in from various cities too so it was a lot of fun. We all went out to dinner and walked the streets of this busy city. In all honesty, they don't have anything planned for us when we come so it is very much like a vacation...Last night all the sisters stayed at the Office couples home, they have a pretty big crib, and it was a lot of fun. The two Indonesia Sisters from our MTC group were also in Singapore, they had to leave Indonesia only for a few days and it happened to be the same few days we were here. It was good seeing them again.
Today Sister Petty and I got up and ran through a park near to where we stayed. Like everything else here, it was beautiful. I really like Sister Petty and Richie, we have very very similar personalities. Unfortunately Sister Richie is leaving in two weeks, and Sister petty is leaving only a few months after that. At the rate they are transfering sisters I don't think I will get the opportunity to serve with either of them. Most sisters stay in an area for 9-10 months. Which is totally unfair, the elders moved about every two months. After running, and after dying Sister Petty's hair, we went to the beach. Oh it was glorious. With all the Elders and Sisters we made a pretty large group. We played volleyball, threw football, and sat on the beach staring longingly at the water...It is beautiful here. You should all take a trip to Singapore someday. It's not tropical Island beautiful, it is huge modern skyscrapes running into the ocean beautiful. We stayed at the beach for a couple hours but it soon got too hot to stay; when no water is involved, you can only endure so much of a hot beach, despite how pretty it is. After emailing we plan to hit up Little India, which should be fun.
This week in Kuala Lumpure was ok. Oven was baptized on Sunday after church. Kiran baptized him. After he was baptized Kiran got up to share his testimony and he started by saying "I wanna sare testimony but I wanna sare in Nepal becos I wan to sare to my brother oven" Then he talked in Nepali for a couple minutes. After he finished Oven got up also and shared his testimony. It was so good to hear how happy he was. He told everyone that a few months ago he started looking at his life, thinking he wanted something more in it. Then his friend Som introduced him to us. I was sitting in the back at the piano and almost started crying. Sunday was slightly emotional because it was Kiran's last Sunday with us. This week he goes back to Nepal to wait and prepare to go on his mission. He wore his full suit to church on Sunday that he just bought for the mission and he looked so good! Just like an Elder. Seeing him baptize Oven and then share his testimony with him was so awesome. I am soooooo going to miss Kiran. He has helped us missionaries in KL so much. After the baptism I was playing postlude music and Kiran comes over very sad and said, "sister I am sad" I said, "why are you sad Kiran" He said, "Sister I am sad to leave Kl, you will forget me I know it" I said all I could to encourage him that no one in the branch could forget him, they all love him to death, and also that the mission is going to rock his world. He will be missed though that is for sure. I hope I get his address when he finally gets his call because I really want to write him and encourage him.
So sister lim and I sing a hymn before we start companionship study every day. At least we try to. I think it is from having studied for two hours already but my eyes have the hardest time reading the words in that small hymn book. And I don't know what sister lim's excuse is but she has a hard time too. We sing the wrong words, and mess up a lot, and I don't think we have been able to get through a hymn yet without laughing. We usually end up throwing the book down and just pray and get on with our studies.
Our cute Korean neighbor came over the other night and asked for my help in grading his English paper. It was adorable to read his English, so simple. It actually was really good. I showed him how to change words and reorder things to make it sound like better English. It was fun. I told him to come over anytime if he needs help. it is amazing how fast small children pick up other languages, no fair. We are going out to dinner with his family on Saturday, we'll see if we can get them to want to learn.
Oh I got your packages! Thank you macsen and thank you family. You guys are really the best. I walked into the office yesterday and one of the office elders runs over and hands me not one, but two packages and says, man sister viehweg you are loved. Yes I am. I made the mistake of opening them in the office in front of all the office elders and all the elders there for their VISA runs... the candy is gone. It went fast, but we all enjoyed it! So thank you thank you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And macsen, just yesterday I was at the store looking at seasoning packets thinking I wanted to buy some to cook with and then I saw the price and had a heart attack. How did you know to send them. you're awesome. Thank you thank you for the books too! they are perfect.
sis v
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