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
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