June 29, 2010

Good morning.
First of all, Dad, I really need to apologize. You are the best, I love you so much, couldn't ask for a better dad, you're so supportive, you're funny, someday I hope to have your level of spirituality and your knowledge of the gospel AND... I have no idea when Father's Day is, or was... Was it this week? Was it last week? Two weeks ago the branch here celebrated Mother's Day and Father's Day together on the same day, (if I were a mom or dad I would feel cheated) I guess they wanted to kill two birds with one stone. And I don't have a calender so whenever Father's Day falls I guess it doesn't matter. HAPPY FATHERS DAY DAD!!!!! In your honor I made a delicious chocolate cake and ate it with my companion. you're welcome.

Now, making that cake was a nightmare. I found a package of brown powder labled AMERICAN CHOCOLATE CAKE MIX, tucked away in our cupboard and thought it would be like any other box cake mix, you know just add water sort of thing. Not so. Let me tell you how an Asian recipe goes. Everything I was supposed to add was measured in milligrams. Who bakes with a scale on hand?? It called for 500mg water, 500 mg eggs (eggs? you weigh eggs?) 350mg sugar, etc. So we tried to convert, to grams, to ounces, to something I could measure but It just wouldn't work. You can't really convert a measurement of weight to a measurement of volume easily. I gave up and just started guessing, thinking to myself the whole time, this is so stupid, what a dumb recipe, how do they expect anyone to bake like this, etc. I had a clue on the eggs, in the recipe is said to add the eggs "one by one", so I knew it called for at least more than one egg. I put two. All in all, after a lot of guessing, I think it turned out quite well.

It's been great here in Miri this week. A lot of the members we work with have decided that it is more beneficial for me to learn Iban than Malay. They have decided that next week I should only talk to them in Iban (which is not going to happen). Everytime I ask them for help on a word they tell me the Iban word. Whenever I teach they offer up what I said would be in Iban. If only they were this helpful with learning Malay. I keep telling them I need to focus on Malay first before I try to learn Iban, they disagree. I have been thinking a lot about it and maybe I should just bag the whole Malay language and focus entirely on Iban. There are only five sister areas here in the mission and three of those areas are in Iban country. The other two are KL and Kota Kinabalu; and I've already served in KL. Sisters here usually average serving in about three areas their entire mission so the probability of me staying in an Iban area is pretty high. Iban? or Malay? what to do....

Right now we are working a lot with a family who was baptized about a month ago. The father and mother are Essau and Tungalim, they are adorable. They have four kids. Between teaching them their recent convert lessons and also teaching a cousin of theirs living with them who wants to be baptized, we are at their home almost every day. Brother Essau told us the other day that the District President came to his home and told him was ready to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood next week. They really move them along fast here. They need the priesthood leadership. Essau is so excited. He brings it up every time we go to their home. This family truly loves the Book of Mormon. They refer to it as their friend. Sister Tungalim told us yesterday that she sleeps with it on her pillow when her husband is away working and she is scared.
Teaching Tungalim's cousin Frankie has been a joy. He is 18 and is very bright. He doesn't smoke or drink which is unheard of here. EVERY MALE smokes. Sister Tungalim said the reason she first decided to join the church was because of the Word of Wisdom. She hated so much that her husband smoke and drank. When they first met the missionaries their marriage was pretty rocky because every time Tungalim would find cigarettes or alcohol in the house she would throw it away. Essau would keep buying it and try to hide it but she would find it and through it out. She was Roman Catholic and was not really interested in the church but when her husband told her that if he joined the church he would never ever smoke or drink again, she agreed. Now of course, she has a very strong testimony of things other than the Word of Wisdom. It's interesting that everyone has something about the teachings of the church that hooks them; And it is different for everyone.

There is a really poor area of Miri where a lot of in-active church members live. We went searching around that area the other day and met a family who was baptized in 2005. We were shocked when her son told us he already had the Melchizedek Priesthood and that he use to serve as a counselor in the Young Men's presidency. I guess what happened was he got married and his wife was really controlling and wouldn't let him go to church. Now he is divorced from her, but once these people get out of the habit of going to church it is so hard for them to come back. We asked them to come to church Sunday and they said they would. We hear promises like that all the time though and most of the time they don't show up. We do have their phone number and we know where they live so... :-). We are trying to build a kingdom here! We need him and his priesthood!

There is a big holiday in the beginning of June that just ended this weekend. It's called Gawai, I think it has something to do with harvest or something. There was a party at the church on Saturday to celebrate its close. There was food, dancing, and lots and lots of kereoke. They love kereoke here. We got to watch members do some of the traditional Iban dancing at the party and it was pertty cool. Their traditional dance is really really slow and smooth looking. Very strange looking actually. we had a good time.

I hope home was great this week. I'm sure it was. you must be busy cuz no email. No worries, shannon wrote me, she always does. I love you guys!
sister v