Hey,
Thanks for the letter dad. I'll admit, I was still a stress bucket until about 2 minutes ago. I got an email from President. He is so smart. Actually Sister Whittemore is so smart, this was her idea. President's sister and brother-in-law are currently here serving as a missionary couple in Saba. His mother is also there serving as a Senior Sister, (she is single, long time divorced I believe) with her daughter and son in law. She is 80+ years old. Last friday, President and Sister Clark were in town for Miri District Conference and Sister Clark came on splits with us. While we were riding around in the taxi with Sister Clark we were trying to get more information from her about new sisters coming (we still hadn't heard anything). We started talking about my situation and Sister Whittemore brought up Sister Clark (the older) currently serving in Saba. Sister Whittemore kept telling Sister Clark (presidents wife) she thought Sister Clark (the older) should be sent here to be my companion. We were joking about it for awhile about how I would stick her on the back of my bike (I have a little seat for when members follow us to help us teach) and she could follow me around everywhere. I didn't really think it was a possibility because after all, she is 80 and in Saba serving with her daughter.
Then President wrote me, he said "Hi, Thank you for your willingness to be a companion with my mother, Sister Clark. I have discussed this with her and she is excited to work with you. She is a little apprehensive she will not be able to keep up, and certainly she won't ride the bike. However I believe she will do just fine. We will plan to have Sister Clark join you in one week, so you will not need to find an exchange when Sister Whittemore goes home. Take good care of my mother!
Love,
Pres. Clark
He then went on to explain that another Senior Sister was coming to be Sister Clark's companion in Miri (since the senior couple, Elder and Sister Mckellar just went home Sunday), and that our job was to find them a place to live and furnish their apartment to prepare for when her new companion comes. Also, my duty will be to teach her the taxi and bus system here in Miri. I don't know a single thing about the taxi or bus system, I ride bike lah. So I'm thinking, during the day we will get everything set up for her and then at night she can follow me to my appointments, even though she won't understand anything I think she will be willing. IM SO RELEAVED! I was so incredibly stressed about this. I guess Sister Clark (president's wife) told him about our conversation in the taxi about his mother and me being companions and President liked the idea. I'm excited. From what I hear Sister Clark Senior is a pretty spirited, fiesty, ready-for-anything old lady; she has to be, for she is serving in Saba.
The week after being her companion, Aug 22, they are flying every missionary back to Singapore for a week of training. I guess they have a new Preach My Gospel we need to learn. Rumor is the previous Preach My Gospel failed. Failed seems like a harsh word, Im sure it didn't fail. The Brethren are always thinking of ways to make us better. One thing President did mention was missionaries aren't using the Spirit enough, still. Before "Preach My Gospel" was printed missionaries memorized lessons written by the General Authorities right? The idea of PMG was that missionaries would no longer memorize but use the Spirit to teach. One concern is that missionaries are still memorizing, only now, instead of memorizing lessons, good lessons written by general authorities, they are memorizing lessons they write themselves. Not so good. So, we go to Singapore in two weeks to learn how to be better. I'm excited.
Also, want to hear some terrifying news? I'm going to be a mommy! haha. It's a girl. She is due the week I go to Singapore. I got it out of the Assistants when they were in Miri this weekend for District conference. Yep, I'm going to be training. I feel bad for the poor newbie I'll be training. I just know she is going to ask me what people are saying and I'm going to answer, "I don't know either". Should be great. There are two new sisters coming, one from Singapore (another Sister Lim!, really that's her name) and one from California, Sister Wong. Ya, wierd they are both asian. I'm really scared to train. Sister Whittemore says I'll be fine, but she is dying what does she know. Please pray for me, please pray for my poor poor greenie so that she will be fooled and think that I know what I am doing.
Let's see, what happened this week. As I mentioned, we had District Conference. 5 big buses brought members from Bintulu, a city about 3 hours west of us, over for the conference. The chapel was filled. It was so awesome to see so many members. Instead of three rows being filled the entire chapel was packed and people were standing. Three branches from Bintulu came in addition to our two branches in Miri and the Chinese group here in Miri. President and Sister Clark gave wonderful talks. Our Distrect President stood up with each of them and translated for them sentence by sentence. It was great. I loved seeing so many black heads of hair sitting in that chapel :-). The church is true. It's growing. It's so exciting. I love the members here.
We have been working with a member in our branch named Petrus. I know I have mentioned him before. We are teaching his friend Jaya. Petrus is having a hard time right now. When we got with him to teach Jaya we usually ended addressing all of the concerns Petrus has instead of helping Jaya. Petrus knows this church is true, he has a strong testimony, he loves the book of mormon; but he has such a hard time following the word of wisdom. He wants to follow so so badly but can't. I don't know how to help him. His friend Jaya has the same problem. Petrus is no help to Jaya. The other day Petrus called us saying his life was destroyed and asked us to come over. He was drunk. He said he was going to "move to the forest and marry the gospel"....?? I feel so bad for the guy. And Jaya now doesn't think he can follow the commandment either because he is seeing how hard it is for Petrus. I wish they would move, they live at this contruction site with a bunch of men who smoke and drink all day. No wonder they are having a hard time. I pray we will be able to help them but I feel like we have tried so many things. We asked our District President to come give Petrus a blessing to help him overcome his temptations, just because he is really having a hard time right now. President Ingkon was confused, he said, "so what kind of blessing would that be?" I don't think he had ever given a priesthood blessing just for comfort or reassurance. He did beautifully though, from what I understood, he said it in Iban... I hope it helps Petrus. Petrus really is a good guy. He bought a bike so he could follow us everday and help us, but lately he has been so depressed he doesn't want to. He is a pretty dramatic guy.
The Elders have discovered my fear of bugs. For the life of me I don't know how they found out. Maybe it was on the hike up Lambir when I thought I saw a sblack snake but realized it was a huge slow moving line of millions of ants. I was pretty freaked out. I almost stepped on it! Or maybe they found out when then dropped by our apartment right as we were trying to kill a cockroach. I'm pretty sure I was standing outside the door yelling at Sister Whittemore to kill it.... Anyway, it is very unfortunate for me that they found out. They all think it is hilarious to stick bugs on me secretly, and wait, with their cameras ready, until I see it and predictably freak out. So rude. Yesterday after district meeting, I came up to my bike and found a turqoise beetle chilling on my little passenger seat on the back of my bike, strapped in by the bungie cords even, ready for a ride. It was about as big as my palm. Not funny. Luckily is was dead. The elders were behind the corner laughing. I guess I should thank them for helping me overcome my fears.
Guys, I know this church is true. I don't have many stories about investigators right now because they all seem to be not so great. None of them came to church last week. What a let down. But I know this is God's work, I know this is God's church. It has power to change peoples lives, but it's not easy. I know the Book of Mormon is true. We teach people who don't even know how to read, yet they believe it to be true and realize the importance of it. I am so grateful we have a prophet who lives. I know he is called of God. I love you all so much
sis v
No comments:
Post a Comment