Hey fam fam.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRYSON!
Also you all should say a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me. I am one year old tomorrow, Sept 2. Which is so crazy to think about. Can't believe it's already been a year. Oh how the time flies; truly it does. I just got here right?? Wrong.
This week has been great with Sister Wong. Except my voice feels shot every night because of all the talking. Sister Wong is a lot better at the language than I expected, but still, I end up having to talk a lot more than when I did with Sister Whittemore. It's great having a greenie. She is so excited to do everything. Everything is fun, to her; even knocking doors in the middle of the day in the hot hot, oh so hot, sun. It sure makes me take a second look at my attitude. I don't mind contacting or knocking doors but my excitement level definitely doesn't reach Sister Wong's.
Everyone thinks Sister Wong is local because she is Chinese. Her mom is from Taiwan and her dad is from Hong Kong but she was born in CA and doesn't speak or understand a lick of Chinese. We will be at the store or knocking somewhere and everytime we run into Chinese people they go off speaking in Chinese to poor Sister Wong. She tries to explain to them that she doesn't speak Chinese but it's all in vain; they see her face, assume she understands and don't listen to her try and explain. I just laugh... it's pretty comical. The great thing about Sister Wong is she is not shy at all. The best daughter I could have asked for. She will try talking to anyone, even though she doesn't really understand what they say in return. I really appreciate that. Doing this will help her learn the language so fast too.
So Sister Wong is really short, like really really short. I'm not sure if she is 5 ft. When we were flying back from Singapore I did something really stupid. We were going through immigration in Kuching (another city in Sarawak) and I was standing in line. I thought Sister Wong was right behind me but when I turned around to look for her I couldn't find her. We were with a bunch of elders and I kept looking trying to find my companion. I thought out loud "where's my companion?", and the elders were looking at me like I was an idiot. Then I looked down.... Sister Wong had been standing in front of me the whole time. She really is that short. I had turned around and her person had not even entered my field of vision. I didn't know that could really happen haha, I thought it was just something people joked about with short people... it's fact though, I truly did not see her. She said, "I figured i'd just wait and see how long it took you." She's a good sport. We have fun.
Let me tell you the greatest thing about training. She thinks I'm good at everything. haha. It's great. I'm sure she will soon realize otherwise but for now, it's really helping to build my confidence.
For the first few days of the week this week President, Sister Clark and the Assistance were in town. We had a bit of training with President Monday morning and then he went on splits with the Elders while Sister Clark came with us. President goes on splits with every Elder, every quarter. And we go with sister Clark. They don't understand anything but it is still kind of fun to have them tag along. Sister Clark came with us to teach a girl named Lisnawati. She is the daughter of Essau and Tungalim who I think I have mentioned before. She is a really cute girl and is scheduled to be baptized this month. When we were teaching her with Sister Clark the other day though, the issue came up that she had a Muslim boyfriend. We totally abandoned our lesson plan and focused on this issue alone. It's such a sad thing we have to deal with. Just because if she married Muslim then she would have to become Muslim, all her children would be forced Muslim, all her grandchildren would be forced Muslim and so on; and they would never be able to convert. This decision alone literally strips her posterity of their agency to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this life. It's tragic, and serious. So we asked her some very blunt questions about what she believes and what she wants for her family. We encouraged her to pray. I pray she will make the right decision. She is 20 years old and I'm not sure she really understands how serious this all is. A handsome Malayu wants to date her and likes her, why give that up for a church she doesn't quite understand. This happens a lot among the young women here. So many have converted to Islam so they can marry their Malayu boyfriends; and once they convert, they can't go back. Unless they leave the country, which none of them will ever have the money to do. ahh it breaks my heart. (NOTE: this is a sensitive subject Dad, I almost want to say delete this paragraph before you send it out to everyone but I don't really think that is necessary. I heard someone posts my letters on a public blog, I don't think it would be a good idea to post this).
Yesterday was Independence Day for Malaysia. Our branch had a party at the church to celebrate, from 6:30AM until 5:00PM!! I don't know about you but that seems like overkill. That's about the longest church party I have every heard of. Who knows why they started so early either. I asked a member why they were starting so early and her reply was, "we have to stetch and warm up before we play all the games". They take their fun seriously. And play they did. We had meetings in the afternoon at the church with President and the Assistants and from what I saw I don't think the fun and games every stopped even for a moment. Ibans crack me up.
For District Meeting yesterday, in honor of Independence day for the 4 Malaysian Elders in our District of 8 missionaries, we sang America the Beautiful but inserted "Malaysia" instead of "America" in the chorus. It felt wrong to do, because I am quite patriotic, but the local Elders sure loved it.
Hope the first day of school went great for everyone!
love you all
sis v
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