December 1, 2010

woohoo Christmas came early this year baby! Thanks for the package family!! It arrived Nov 29. I believe that is seven days only, from what the stamp on the box said. When did you send it? I'm impressed, the post here isn't half bad. So for all of you who are thinking you want to send me something (I know there is a lot of you...) the address is

Lot 2827 Jalan Berembang 7

Pujut 7-B

98000 Miri, Sarawak

East Malaysia

Mail gets there so fast!

I can't believe you made gingerbread cookies to send me. How did you know that was what I missed most last year? K maybe not the most, but they were missed. I probably told you last year of something. And Halelujah for new clothes!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The senior sisters were a little upset when wripped open the box right when they gave it to me. They said, "what are you doing! you have to wait til Chirstmas!" No way I don't. The label said clothes, so it's gettin opened now. I love the dark blue shirt, I think I shall wear it everyday for the next three months. Deb your the best. Thanks for the mascara, the ones from last Christmas just ran out this week. What luck. I'm sure people think I'm vain for still wearing make-up, no one here wears it, but with clothes as stained as mine, and hair as frizzy as mine, I gotta look cute some how.

This week has been great. Karen's baptism went fabulously on Saturday. We asked Moses, our recent convert with the 6 daughters, to baptize them. At first he said no he wasn't ready, but as we talked with him he decided that he wanted to. Oh boy he was nervous. It was cute. Little Teo had to be baptized twice because her hand didn't go in, but that is pretty standard around these parts. Baptisms, they don't have to look pretty....:-). After the baptism the Senior Sisters wanted to take Karen and her kids out to eat. The kids were pretty pumped. We ordered a dinner to go for the Dad, who didn't come, in attempt to soften his heart. I think prayers are the only way to help this family. Thanks for being willing. The senior sisters wanted to help them too, but we have to remember we are missionaries, not social workers. They are in the hands of the branch, they are in good hands.

This weekend Jantai, Eda and their son Venna are getting baptized. I am really excited. This family has been a long time coming. Venna is 8 years old and adorable. We were teaching him about baptism the other day to help him understand better. We showed him pictures of someone being baptized. After looking at the pictures he said he did NOT want to be baptized. He started talking to his mom in Iban and suddenly she started laughing so hard. She told us Venna thought in the picture the man was getting ready to hit the little kid on the head. You know how the priesthood holder raises his arm to the square....Venna thought it was a wind-up for a big smack. Haha no wonder he didn't want. We clarified and eased his fears. Oh it was funny. Jantai is going on his fourth job now since we started teaching him. He keeps trying to find a job that gives him off days on Sundays. It hasn't been easy but he has a lot of faith. Hopefully this most recent job will be the one, he says the hours should work out for him to be able to come to church. Work on Sundays is such a trial here. Satan really knew what he was doing when he gave people the idea that they HAD to work of sunday or they wouldn't make any money. It's one of our biggest, if not the biggest, obastacles.

Interesting that so much importance is placed on chuch attendance. Member can be following every other commandment but if they aren't coming to church on Sundays they are labled in-active. It's interesting that if a member wasn't keeping one of the other commandments but was still coming to church every Sunday they would still be active members. Makes yoy realize how important church is. When they don't come to church, they start to fall. How sad it is, how often it happens.

People, I got my first cum (chume*) the other day. Let me explain. Parents, or grandparents, instead of kissing their kids or grandkids will put their nose close to their head or neck and take a huge sniff. It is equivalent to kiss from a parent in our culture. It's kind of strange. I don't think I have ever seen a parent kiss their baby, they just sniff em. Anyway, we were at Bonnie's house and Bonnie's day loves me. I think it's because after learning from us his son doesn't drink or smoke anymore, this makes him happy. As we were leaving Bennet, the dad, put his nose to my neck and took a big sniff. It freaked me out. But then I realized it was a cum, kinda like how a grandpa would give you a kiss on the cheek. It was funny.

We found out Ahwei, Karen's daughter, use to have a smoking problem. She's seven. Teo teases her a lot about how she use to smoke and it hurts her feelings and makes her cry. How like an older sister, to tease em til they cry. It is so weird to hear the words, "Ya, but I already quit smoking!" coming out of the mouth of a 7 year old.

I think that's about all I have to say.

Somehow we still manage to find new investigators in an area I swear as been worked over thousands of times. People are being prepared all the time. It's cool to witness, but also frustrating to witness those who are not yet prepared.

Next we are going to Kuching! wahoo! I hope you all have an awesome December! It's such a magical month. Pray that there will still be snow in MARCH so I can go skiing.

Loves

sis v