Happy Thanksgiving!
This gurrrrl gots so much to be thankful for; number one item: INDOOR PLUMBING. I am reminded time and time again here in Miri, how thankful I am for a toilet, instead of a missing board plank on the floor. #2 A family that rocks. That's you guyzzzz. Thanks a million for the letters. (I hope your feelings aren't hurt that you aren't #1 on my list, but think about it...a toilet...that's hugely important, necessary, vital to my happiness...
So what y'all eat for thanksgiving? DidKristin's squeeze make it home with her for the festivities? I hear britt brent lisa max and MYSELF will not be there. That's sad. I'm sure no seat will be missed as much as my own....
This is the first year I have ever spent Thanksgiving at the beach! What a miracle of a day. We celebrated on Wednesday because that is our P-Day. We assigned out food and, despite my worries, the Elders actually pulled through on their assignments. One house of 4 elders BBQ'd chicken there at the beach, the other house of 4 brought mashed potatoes and gravy that was divine, the senior sisters brought soda, yams, and some cut up pinapple, watermelon, grapes, papaya, oranges, etc. in a big bowl and Sister wong and I made APPLE PIES. I don't want to brag but they were fantastic pies. We looked everywhere for pumpkin or canned pumpkin to make pie but couldn't find it. Oh well, the apples were a success. We spent all afternoon playing beach volleyball, futsol (wich is pretty much soccer), and catching crabs (which were taking over our beach). All in all it was a fantastic day. The best part was we biked about an hour to and back from the beach so we were able to work off the feast a little bit. I haven't showerd yet, we came to email straight from the beach and I still have that sticky salty feeling on my skin. I love that. There at the beach it was hot, but the wind was blowing so it made it quite nice. We had a blast. I love the missionaries I am serving with in this area. Never have I ever laughed so hard; that's a lie, I pretty much laugh at everything. we have a good time.
We brought with us one of our investigators named Josua. Josua is awesome. We use to teach him and his wife but she recently ran off with another guy. Sad story. Josua has been really, I mean REALLY depressed lately. He is only 20 years old. Yesterday we found him sitting at a little food stall. We walked up behind him and I saw a glass of clear liquid sitting in the middle of the table and a white stick hanging out of his mouth. I thought, "oh great, he is so depressed, he is smoking and drinking is sorrows away," Boy was I wrong. We sat down at the table and he pulled a green sucker out of his mouth and took a sip of his ice water. I was so releaved. He is a good kid. It was about 3:00pm and Josua said he had been sitting there since morning just drinking water, eating suckers and watching people. We convinced him to follow us to our appointments that day to give him something to do. He followed us to three appts and he loved it. At each house they fed us juice and biscuits, like they always do, and Josua thought it was the coolest thing. We invited him to the beach today with us to help him get out of his depression. The senior sisters picked him up and brought him in their car. When they came to our apartment to pick up the food Josua went over to the Elder's apartment and chilled with them as we finished getting things ready and into the car. Elder Evansan said Josua kept telling them how happy he is. He told the Elders he followed us "yesterday and got fed tonz of crackers and juice and met so many nice people, and has never had to go to the bathroom more in his life and he was really really happy!" Hearing that makes me pumped. When we invited him to the beach today he was so excited. It worked out nice to have him there because four of the Elders are native so he didn't feel threatened being around a bunch of white people. But all us white people could still talk with him anyway. Josua was off the walls, he acts like a 12 year old its so funny. He kept climbing all the coconut trees and bringing down coconuts. He would crack them and make us all drink the juice, over and over again. The coconuts weren't ripe so the juice was pretty sick.
As we walked along the beach the Elders would run after all the tiny crabs trying to catch them. They looked hysterical. The crabs were so small you couldn't see them so it just looked like the Elders were running around in circles and diving at the sand randomly. Those little crabs were FAST. Then the Elders started throwing them at me; that was not fun at all....aww it was a great day.
Josua is getting baptized in 3 weeks.
I'm excited this weekend because Karen and her little girl Teo are getting baptized. I don't think I have written too much about Karen, which is too bad because she is amazing. She has a 9, 7, 6, and 3 year old, and a husband that is the scum of the Earth. I probably shouldn't write that...but he is. They are by far the poorest family I have met here. They have nothing, the husband wont work. Karen goes dumpster diving each night at the restaurants and malls to find food for her kids. The husband is a drug addict and is never home, he only comes back when he doesn't have money; which is rediculous because Karen doesn't have any money either. Karen can't talk either. Well, she can talk but it sounds like someone who has had a stroke; very very difficult to understand. When we first met her I couldn't understand her at all, but amazingly her kids understood every word. The little nine year old girl would translate what her mom said to us. Little bit by little bit though, I have gotten to the point where I can understand most of what she says. She is a hysterical women. And she does everything for her kids. This is so rare among parents here, so many parents view their children as an annoyance. A few weeks ago Sister Lowe came with us to teach Karen and her kids. Sister Lowe decided she wanted to help them out a bit and went a bought enough rice and other essential foods to last those little kids months. We went back a week later and it was all gone. Karen said her husband ate it all. She says he eats five times a day and eats A LOT. I couldn't believe it. He has these starving little kids and he eats all their food. The baby still drinks a bottle and you know what they put in it? Water and sweet and condensed milk. Ya that baby's teeth are all rotted out. The other day the baby was crying because she didn't have a bottle, Karen said her husband had used all the baby's milk for his coffee. She told him not to because they baby would cry if she didn't have a bottle but he just hit her. I hate that man, that's not very Chirst-like of me. Karen says he won't sign the divorce papers, for the life of me I don't know why not.
Anyway, we'll just forget about him. Karen and her daughter are getting baptized this saturday!! Teo is the top student in her class, which is really amazing since she comes from and incredibly disfunctional home. She is nine years old and she already has a job. Now that school is out until next year she works at a little food shop for 10 ringgit a day. She also watches all her younger siblings when her mom goes out to find food. It's incredible. She is a really smart girl. I am so happy because the Church has made such a difference in Karen's life. Besides her children, it's one of the few sources of happiness she has. She's quite the women.
I like going to their house because they have a pet monkey we play with, it's cute. They say at night crocodiles come under their house (their house is on stilts over the river) but we have yet to go their at night. I would be a little scared....The kids shower in that river! Which is nast because everyone's plumbing and waste dump into that river. Teo said one morning she couldn't shower before school because their were crocks in the water. AND THE MOM LEAVES THESE KIDS HOME ALONE! it's insane.
We have so much. I have so much. I'm so so so so so so so grateful for the stuff, the endless amount of stuff I have.
I'm incredible grateful for the things that happened in my life to get me on a mission. At the time, I thought everything wasn't working out at all! But now I realize everything wasn't working out the way I wanted, it was working out the way Heavenly Father wanted. Throughout college if things would have gone according to my plan, there is no way I would be on a mission in Malaysia right now. It is so cool to look back and see how Heavenly Father has guided me to here, to Miri.
There is a new District movie out. The District, is a training movie for missionaries. They followed a district of missionaries in California with cameras and filmed what they did everyday. In the DVD they also have interviews and commentary throughout, done by the missionaries. There is one quote by one of the Elders that I absolutely love. I believed they were filming either early in the morning or late at night because he looked so tired. He quite tiredly said, "I don't know why I'm so happy.... because I am so tired aaaaallll the time". Amen to that. The mission is the best best best stuff.
I love you guys
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