June 17, 2010

Thanks so much for your email dad. you're right, when you arrive in a new area you feel like you will never feel as comfortable as you did in the old one. But day by day it is getting better and better.
This email is coming to you late because of zone conference. Today, friday is our p-day and interviews and tomorrow will be our training. There are so many things to tell you and explain to you about this area, where to start?
Dad you wanted to know about our living conditions. I am living like a queen no joke. I can't believe the place we stay, compared to where all the members live. Our apartment is three bedrooms, not too big, but it is quite nice. Nicer than the one in KL. And guess what, every Thursday maids come and change our bed sheets, brings us clean towels, empty our trash, mop our floors and clean the kitchen and bathroom. Whoa. I don't know what it think. It's heaven. I'm definitely not living it rough here.

The church seems to still be in its fetal stages here in Miri. It's in the Kirtland stage for sure. Our branch president is 24 years old and was baptized less than a year ago. His counselor was baptized six months ago and has recently said he does not want to come to church anymore because he was offended in some way, a misunderstanding. It's stressful. It's slightly stressful trying to get investigators to feel comfortable and welcome at church when the members and the church itself are in chaos. But they are trying their very very best and they are learning a lot. Thank heavens for the senior couple missionaries here! Oh my gosh I don't know what this branch would do without them. They train everyone and are behind the scenes on everything. Tragically they go home next month. I really don't know what we are going to do without them. Do you know of any couples that might be ready to serve a mission???????? Send em our way. (i'm sure every mission in the world is voicing the same plea).
The first weekend I got here the sisters had a baptism, six people were baptized. It was a nice way to ease into an area. At the baptism the Branch President and another member served as the witnesses. When the first person was baptized both the branch pres and member looked at me as if to ask "what do you think? was it ok? valid?" People, it wasn't even close, his whole arm didn't go under. I shook my head no and motioned they had to do it over. Now understand, I don't even know the prayer in this language, that could have been totally wrong too. After each baptism they looked to me to see if it was ok or not. So, I went up and sat in the front row and either shook my head yes, or no. Plus I found a copy of the prayer to read along so make sure it was ok too. Most of the time it wasn't. I wonder, was it ok for me to kind of be a witness too? I mean, I don't have the priesthood but the witnesses weren't going to have it done over again, so I had to say something. I'm going to work at memorizing the prayer in Malay. I have a feeling the first couple of baptisms before I found a copy of the prayer were slightly wrong too. I hope there is a little forgiveness in heaven when things like this happen, afterall they're just babies!

Church on sunday was ok. I was sitting there in sacrament meeting sort of listening sort of not when suddenly I heard my name and everyone in the congregation was looking at me. great. I looked over at another elder sitting a few rows away and he was motioning for me to go up to the pulpit. I had no idea what they asked me to do but I figured/hoped/prayed it was just to introduce myself and share my testimony, because that is what i did haha. Then again at the end of sunday school I was shifting through my bag and heard it get quiet. I looked up and again everyone was looking at me, luckily sister whittemore nudged me saying they wanted me to give the prayer. And then again in Relief Society while the teacher was teaching she all of a sudden looked at me and said "Macam mana?" which translates to mean "How?" and I didn't know what she was asking. There was a nice sister who could speak english that told me the teacher wanted me to share how I felt about the scriptures. I got picked on a lot but it's good, I definitely need the practice.
One thing nice about serving here is people are actually home. No one is ever home in KL. Each day we just travel from house to house visiting people. It's nice. At every home we visit they serve us hot chocolate. Even though it is blazing hot outside they still serve us hot chocolate. When it's raining we walk in and they make a big fuss about how we are going to get so sick because it is so cold and then they serve us hot chocolate. I'm thinking to myself, "people, ya it's raining but its still so hot and im sweating, I don't want to drink your chocolate!" Yesterday I drank five mugs of hot chocolate, I felt a little sick. Bless their hearts they are such nice people. Its crazy, even when we show up unexpected they still bring out a pitcher of scalding hot chocolate. I don't know if they are able to whip it up in seconds or if they always just have it on hand. its impressive.

I've already had one skirt eaten by the bike. The skirts have a tendency to get caught in the rear wheel brakes. we were riding fast trying to get home one night because it was pouring rain and I wasn't paying attention to my skirt. when I tried to dismount the bike I saw my skirt wrapped around and around the rear break. After a bit of tugging and help from sister Whittemore we got it loose. It now has a hole the size of a tennis ball in it. I remember looking at all of sister lim's skirts and wondering why they had such big holes in them. Now I know. I have invested in a bunch of clips and they help a lot in keeping my skirt free from the tire breaks. Tucking it into the whites helps too....
It is crazy how young people get married here. It's part of the Iban culture I think. I met a girl the other day who was 23 years old, my age, and already had SIX children. SIX! how is that possible. The elders taught another girl who was already married at age 15. They asked her how long she had been married and she said she met her husband when she was 12. They asked, "so you were married at age 12???" she said, "no silly, we waited a year and then got married." ya, thirteen is much better than 12. Sooooo strange.
It has been fun so far teaching families who are living a different, slower pace of life. I like the family atmosphere. We are teaching a few families right now that are progressing ok. We are teaching one members parents who are living with her. This has been an interesting situation because the father looks as if he is on his death bed. The grandma is great and wants to be baptized. But we are not so sure the Grandpa is coherent enough to really understand. He looks like he belongs in a nursing home. All day everyday he lays in a lawn chair/beach chair in the middle of their room. Sometimes he talks, he is just so cute. the other day we were trying to teach him what a prophet was and we showed him a picture of Thomas S Monson. He held the picture, looked at it a bit, and told us it was the Malaysian Prime Minister. I thought that was hysterical. He is a bit senile. So ya we are kind of debating what to do right now. We don't want to deny him baptism but we just don't know how much he understands. I love him. He reminds me of working in the Alzheimers unit. I love old people. Each time we come when I shake his hand he doesn't let go for a few minutes and just stares at you. Its so cute.
The kids here are very cute. Whenever we bike by a bunch of kids on the side of the rode they yell out "hello miss, hello miss!" usually along with "i love you".
I hope everything is going well at home. It sounds like it is. I love you all
sister viehweg