Airport Internet

hello one and all

well we never went to an internet cafe the other day.  but here i am in the singapore airport waiting for my flight.  they have free internet all over the place.  we just finished our week long training/mission conference.  it was so fun.  i met some really fun elders.  oh man there are some real characters out there.  its been a good week.  president clark is truly an inspired man.  he is just a real genius.  he knows how missionary work should be done and he's good at teaching it to us.  i'm excited to get back to work.  also i'm excited to get to work with a new companion.  (Elder Garrett) it will be different but it should be pretty fun.  yesterday we went out on the town to contact and see the sights.  it was a blast.

they were having the closing ceremonies of the first ever youth olympic games.  so we went down town.  the main stadium is right on the river/bay and there were tons of people all over the place with cameras on tripods and stuff.  they all told us that there was going to be some big fireworks.  so we sat around and talked to people and waited for the fireworks.  they were really good.  i got some really good pictures. it was so loud and the echos just came off the buildings really really loud.  just a lot of fun. 

thanks for the advice on the picture deal.  i already got a lot from elder carter.  email the wielands again and ask for more.   i'm not too bummed about any pictures i lost. just the mtc really.  ha ha oh well.  life goes on.  also thank you for the package.  i wish you sent it two weeks ago but oh well ha ha.  i probably won't get it until next zone conference in the end of september.  i did get a letter from stephanie.  will you tell her thank you and good luck.

well thats all for this week.  i just wanted to say hello and send at least a partially good letter.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!  don't think i forgot...cause i didn't.  it was all part of my plan to say it now.  you see, right now it is still the 26th in america.  if i would have said it earlier it would have been premature.  anyways happy birthday.  you are so awesome.  i hope this next year is a good one.  i won't be there for any  of it ha ha.  i'm thankful for you and all of the work you do to help me out.  i'd be lost without you. i love you!

elder petersen

No Cafe...

hey hey

this is going to be short.  yes, i know, i can handle anything. ha ha.  we are in singapore.  its going good.  the new companion is really good.  he's taller than me.  ha ha wow. we can't find an internet cafe.  so we stopped at an apple store and are using their computers real quick.  so this is short.  sorry.  i liked the emails. i'll give you a bigger report next week.  thanks for sending stuff. i love you bye

elder petersen

Photos to go...and Flat tires...

hati saya sangat gembira kerana saya sudah membaca email kamu!

     its so good to hear from you.  girl's camp sounded fun.  jaynanne was so worried.  oh man i'm jealous of all of your summer adventures.  i miss those.  oh well, i have plenty of adventures here.  daddio i have a question.  have you been riding my motorcycle at all? just curious.  i know what you're saying about transfers.  the grass is always greener on the other side.  i always flip flop between how much i enjoy sandakan and how much i want to leave.  ha ha i just feel like i want to meet new people and experience new things.  i see myself being here for like 6 more months because of some changes in the mission.  that is just a really long time.  oh well.  i'll just keep working hard where ever i am sent. 

     this last week was great.  a lot happened.  actually i start out with very very sad news.  oh man so since elder carter is getting transferred, yesterday we went to print some of his pictures that he wanted to give to members.  i figured i'd print a few because i was sending a letter home anyway.  so after i got off the computer, i put the memory card back in my camera.  i wanted to look at my pictures.  when i clicked the the play button it said i had no pictures.  i was like, what, no way!  so i showed the lady.  she stuck the memory card back in the computer and the pictures came up.  so they just weren't showing up on my camera.  so after repeating that process again, i told her to save all of the pictures to the computer and tomorrow i would go and save them to my memory stick.  as i was looking at the pictures, she saved, i saw that it definetely was not all of them.  there were no pictures from pre zone conference.  so that means all of my mtc pictures and early singapore pictures and first impression sandakan pictures have been deleted.  oh man it bites.  oh well you know?  there's nothing i can do but i am pretty upset.  so if you still have those pictures i sent from the mtc do not lose them because that's all i have.

     so we have transfers now confirmed.  Elder Carter is going to PJ which is right outside KL and Elder Garret is coming here.  i met him once in singapore.  is is an inch taller than me.  we are going to scare every native we walk up to ha ha.  every missionary is flying into singapore this sunday for a mission conference training so we will transfer there and then next friday we fly back to sandakan.

     so not a whole lot happened this week out of the ordinary except that we went to singapore which was a blast.  i can't wait to go back next week.  sometimes when we are at the church we play ping pong.

 i'm not the best but i can hold my own.  ha ha these members are pretty good.  they all spin it and drop shot it and slam it.  they're basically pro's.  so on saturday we were playing before a training meeting.  the 1st coulselor in the branch presidency challenged me.  i was scared.  i had already been watching him and oh man he was like olympian status.  ha he might have been going easy on me but i was keeping up with him.  the score was like 5-5, we were going to 11, and then he went on a run.  he scored like 3 or 4 in a row.  then, luckily,  the other leaders said we had to begin the meeting.  ha ha a bunch of the young men and other members were like "i guess elder petersen loses!!"  ha i know i would have for sure lost but i couldn't say that so i was like "oh man too bad we didn't get to finish.  we'll never know who would have won.  i was just hitting my stride.  i was on the comeback trail!"  ha they were like "no no no you would have lost i know it!"  ha ha i just kept saying "darn we'll never know."  the members are funny.  ha ha they are always joking around and are easy to tease.  one more story.  we were walking to the church for another meeting sunday night when all of a sudden we heard a huge pop-like bang.  we looked over and a car had a flat tire.  se we went over and offered help.  it was a bunch of chinese ladies who did not know what they were doing to they were very greatful.  the dang tire would not come off.  and there jack was so small and dinky.  it took forever.  the bolts were so tight.  the wrench we were using was heating up and bending but the bolts still would not turn.  after like 40 minutes we finally got it.  i was drenched in sweat and i got my long sleeve shirt dirty but it was fun.  we talked with them a little about the church.  they wanted to bring us to get drinks right then but it was still sunday so we said no no another time.  we are going to meet with them soon and teach them more about the church.  ha ha it was a good experience.  now i can check that one off the to do list as a missionary, help an old lady change a flat tire.

     alright i have to go.  it was great as always to read your letters.  they are very entertaining.  i'll let you know how my new companion goes.  thank you for your support and prayers!

elder petersen

WAHOO

hello hello hello

     as usual it is very good to hear from you.  oh man the jamboree sounds so awesome.  it brings back the memories when you talk about it.  thank you for those updates, they were awesome. 

     well not much to report this week except...WE GOT A BAPTISM!!!!  yes yes yes oh man it was great.  we baptized the family of seven.  they were so good.  but it was not easy, we had to fight for it, but the pay off was well worth it.  the day of their baptism, the mom was working and the car was in the shop.  we thought uh oh maybe this isn't going to go down.  actually even one hour before the baptism i wasn't sure it was still happening.  for instince the program changed so many times.  here is everything that changed: opening prayer, music leader, first talk, second talk, first talk again, a witness, and closing prayer.  pretty much every person we had scheduled dropped out. haha crazy malaysia.  but it all worked out. 

Ronny the oldest son chose me to baptize him. it was sweet.  it was in malay.  after the baptism they each got the chance to bear their testimonies.  the power went out during the youngest girl's.  so it was kind of hectic.  but in the end is was a great meeting.  we had one investigator come and also a less active family who hasn't come to church in ten years.  the next day i got to do the confirmation of the youngest daughter Rinijah.  it was a sweet experience.  again i did it all in malay.  i didn't know if i would be able to.  i didn't know if i knew enough malay.  the fact is i've only given a handful of blessings and none in malay.  haha i said a prayer and it was really good.  i surprised myself on this one.  i believe this is the first baptism in sandakan since last november.  so wow it was much needed.  now we need to find more investigators and crank out a few more baptisms.

     that was for sure the highlight of the week.  we just focused on that all week really because we didn't want to blow it.  oh i got a story.  we were at one member's house teaching his cousin investigator.  we were all sitting around the table talking.  just the four of us.  he has these really cute little girls, maybe like 4 and 6 years old.  they were running around and stuff.  one time i was talking and one of the girls started messing with my bag.  i was like what the heck.  so i tried to push her hands away but continue talking.  she was reaching inside my bag and it was annoying because we were in the middle of the lesson.  so i pushed her hands out and then zipped up my bag.  wrong move.  she just started crying and crying. i was like whats going on.  she was saying something in malay but i couldn't understand her because she was crying so bad.  ha then kennedy just started laughing so hard.  ha ha it turns out that she was getting ready for a bath.  she was running around with the shampoo and soap and accidentally dropped them in my bag.  when she tried to get them out i pushed her hands away and zipped the bag.  ha ha her dad was laughing so hard.  i handed them back and she grabbed them and ran away.  it was funny.

     now i am sitting at a pretty nice internet cafe in singapore.  wow this is a different world compared to sandakan.  this morning we went and played volleyball on the beach and now we are going to go eat some indian food and go shopping.  i think it would be really fun to serve here.  it really is like a different mission.  tomorrow we re enter malaysia so if you don't here from me next week it is because i got stopped by the border patrol and was detained.  ha ha main main sahaja.  transfers are on friday.  its looking like pretty good chances that elder carter is leaving.  he's been in sandakan for like seven months.  to tell you the truth i kind of want to get transferred.  the average time in any area here is like 5 or 6 months.  that is too long.  i think you lose some motivation.  its good to move around.  ah well its not my call.  i'll let you know next week what went down.  oh sister clark is getting transferred so it'll be the wieldands only in sandakan.  

     so thats about it this week.  i was kind of hoping for that promised package when i got here but it wasn't waiting for me.  ha oh well.  i'm not too offended.  i'll be back here in two weeks hint hint.  i enjoy your emails,  jaynannes was really good.  enjoy the rest of the summer.

Elder Petersen