Noodle Making Contest Trophies

hello! macam mana minggu ini?

this week was awesome! i kind of have a lot to say.  i'll probably forget it a lot. ha ha. your emails were very interesting.  always a good read.  that is really sad to hear about grandpa.  i always hoped i would be able to see him again. or at least be able to go to his funeral.  oh well.  it'll be better if he can just move on.  i feel bad for him.  you know? but thats why the plan of salvation is so cool!  because we know exactly where he's going.  there's nothing to worry about.  GO UTES!! i don't care if they are beating easy teams.  a W is a W.  i'll take it.  always keep me updated on them.  Steffanie's farewell sounded interesting.  i'm excited for her.  she'll do good. 

i have a lot of random thoughts here.  mom, i enjoyed the world news.  is anything going on out there?  keep me posted.  did you guys ever recieve a mission video.  President Clark makes a video and sends it to all the families.  we actually are not going to Sibu on the 19th.  instead it got moved to KL on the 11th.  we're pretty disappointed.  we were looking forward to the people we would meet in Sibu.  plus elder garrett served there and we had big plans for meeting members and getting stuff.  oh well.  KL will be fun.  its just not the jungle we were expecting.  one question.  when i was in the mtc you told me that you would all gather around and read my emails.  is the fire still there?  are you still excited? ha or am i just old news.  i'm just curious. 

Sandakan is on FIRE!  man right now we are doing so so good.  i am really excited.  we had 14, yes 14 investigators at church on sunday and now we have 17 people on date.  that is incredible.  this area has always been kind of weak, kind of struggling.  we are changing that.  i can't say its anything i've done.  it is totally a blessing from above.  we're just helping it along.  i hope this stays alive.  i have been here a while.  i'm a little bit afraid of being transferred now.  i have to see all these people out.  and sandakan is probably my best option of malay speaking areas that i could even go.  so i guess i need to enjoy this while it lasts.  dad, a while ago, when i was in mission prep, you started to look through Preach My Gospel.  i was wondering if you still read it.  it is an awesome book.  there was a section in the Liahona about it.  if you're not reading it you should.  i believe it is scripture.  i mean you don't have to, ha i feel out of place telling you to do something. but i invite you to.  its good.

short story.


this week we have a branch social with a noodle making contest.  sister weiland was trying to figure out what to give as prizes.  in our house there are about 100 or more pingpong and badminton and other random event trophies that the previous owner left to us.  we told her we would donate some. so after popping off the ping pong players and what not we put them in an open box.  elder garrett carried it.  ha ha it was funny.  walking through sandakan and riding the bus with all these trophies.  this one guy asked me how we won them and i told him we were really good at ping pong.  we got some honks and thumbs up and stuff.

also yesterday was our recent convert Rayne's birthday.  we we went and bought a cheap cake and put her name on it.  we went to her house and lit candles and put a birthday hat on her and sang.  it was really funny.  she was very embarassed.  they aren't so into birthdays here.  the dad didn't even know it was her birthday or how old she was.  ha ha so we were there to make it a special day. 

one last thought.  i love the scriptures. everyday i get to read for like an hour and a half or two hours.  very interesting stuff.  i just read jacob 5.  i remember the first time i read it in 9th grade.  i was so confused. i just pushed through it so i could finish it.  this time i read a chart that outlined it and stuff.  it makes perfect sense.  its a cool analogy.  also at the end there are some great verses.  i  just can't believe how much i can get out of the scriptures.  i feel the same but when i look back i can see that i have really grown out here.  i have the spirit to help and guide me.  i'm doing things that i've never done before.  it feels completely natural to go into a stranger's house and testify about Joseph Smith and Jesus Christ.  it feels good.  I know this is what i'm supposed to be doing right now.  I know that missionary work is so important.  it is all part of Heavenly Father's plan.  we are here to help his other children find the truth.  its exciting to be a part of this eternal effort.  I love you guys.  keep doing whats good.  keep reading the scriptures.  keep praying.  pray together.  samai minggu depan!

Elder Petersen

On Fire, On Track :)

Apa Khabar

     It sounds like things are going great back home.  that's so awesome that Jonathon is getting baptized!  that whole story is really just sweet.  i'd say mom had a huge role in his decision.  go mom!  congratulations on actually getting together and quilting.  you've always said you've wanted to so that's good that you did.  save some pears for me.  or better yet send me some.  That's sweet that jaynanne went to the dance.  i hope she had fun.  i know that kid.  he ran cross country.  pretty nice.  the next time we meet president clark is going to be october 19th.  all missionaries in east malaysia are going to Sibu in Sarawak for part two of our huge training.  so if you sent a package soon i would probably get it then.  if not i might get it at the end of november.  oh man also thats super cool that stephanie is serving a mission.  she'll be good.  she wrote me a letter telling me how great you are for offering to take her to the temple.  thats pretty sad about grandpa and grandma.  tell them i'm thinking about them.  and give them updates on my work here.  so why was susan fired?  just downsizing?  thats sad.  and why are they looking in weber?  i mean that is sweet but seems a little bit random.    GO UTES!!!  oh man it sounds like they are starting out a terrific season.  oh byu, so sad.  do they have anything going this year like their "quest" t shirts that one year.  ha ha idiots.  thats good for danny.  it sounds like thats how i will be.  actually if i get into four areas that would be good. its looking like three areas ha ha.  oh well at least i'm in a good area. 

     whoo!  that was all in response to your letters.  i love your emails.  always enjoyable.  This last week was really fun.  things are just going really good here.  last wednesday we had a farewell party for John Chin.  he left to the manilla mtc on thursday.  he was the bomb.  he went out with us like every day.  we will miss him for sure.  on thursday we flew to KK for zone conference.  it was a good conference.  KK is fun.  it is a lot bigger than sandakan.  also it has McDonalds!!!!  we ate there like four times. ha ha i got a bunch of souveniers there.  they have a huge mall.  one thing i bought was a 500gb hard drive.  it might have been an impulse buy, slightly, but i will use it.  it was pretty cheap i think.  i don't know what they run for in america.  i will back up all of my photos to it.  now i can take more photos and videos.  also i can use it after my mission.  our training by president clark was great.  he talked about angels. very good.  also he talked about agency.  pretty deep stuff.  he is very wise.  on saturday and sunday we had district conference in KK.  a lot of branch members came on a 6 hour one way bus.  it was fun to see them all.  we have the best branch.  that conference was also very good.  there were some awesome talks.  there was this man named elder subandriyo (spelled wrong for sure).  he is an area 70 or something.  he is a native indonesian.  he was a good speaker.  and everyone could understand him because he spoke indo.  i was talking to him after  and he has a son serving right now in the ogden utah mission.  maybe one day you'll meet him.  he's been in bountiful and kaysville and layton. 

     right now the missionary work is on fire!  we are getting a lot of referrals. we just put two families on baptismal date.  we just met another 6 member referral family.  things are going good.  we run out of time in the week to meet everybody we want to.  this is an excellent problem to have.  hopefully a few of them get baptized.  president clark told me that he is expecting big things for sandakan.  he has some faith in us up here and i don't want to disappoint. potentially i can see us having about 20 baptisms before the year is up.  that would be huge for this area.  also he talked to the couple about starting to look for land to build a nice new chapel.  wow! that would be awesome.  so things are going good here.  i'm safe, i'm healthy, and i'm having a good time.

     i got your package!  it was so cool.  the assistants brought it all split up in their luggage.  ha ha it was big.  whats with all of the wet wipes?!  ha ha so many.  its like monk or something. i haven't had anything as sweet as starbursts in months.  that will blow the malaysians minds.  they won't be able to handle it. the journal is perfect.  that tennis article was incredible.  i am in disbelief.  their entire match lasted like 11 hours.  i can't imagine that.  wow. truly insane.  they hit like 98 and 95 aces.  ha ha  wow.  that would have been one to go to.

     I love you!  i miss you.  i hope you don't forget about me.  don't worry about me.  keep reading the scriptures and saying your prayers.  hey hows that family home evening chart going.  stay safe and write me a good email next week, coughcoughspencercoughcough.  i will look forward to it.  sampai minggu depan,

Elder Petersen

Monkey'n Around

selamat hari raya!

wow what a great week.  your emails were awesome.  i loved the pictures.  mom i'm not really sure what you were saying.  you sent me like 3 emails.  the first one seemed pretty full and complete.  it had a bunch of sweet pictures.  then the other two were like bullets from the first letter.  but anyways thank you i enjoyed it.  i'm not sure what that picture of a mouse was but no we did not eat it.  we eat a lot of random stuff here.  mostly rice though.  probably like twice a day average.  ha ha gotta love it.  sometimes once a day.  it looked like spencer got some nice patches.  i saw a yoda one in there.  nice.  ha ha that sounds like good ol danny.  ha ha i love those guys.  thats cool that christian got to go to the tetons.  it truly is a once in a life time experience.  its awesome!! i want to return.  alright jaynanne! going on the dates!  good for you.  i'm sick of chickens so no offense but i'm on jaynanne's side on this one.  i just got an email today about that alkoran thing from president clark.  its terrible.  we live in one of the most muslim populated places in the mission but i haven't heard anything.  the muslims love us.  president just told us to stay on the lookout for violence or mobs and to avoid them.  don't worry i think we're pretty good here.  i'm glad you enjoyed my rat story.  i enjoyed killing it.  yeah the members are terrible at singing.  well that isn't true.  some are really really really good.  and a lot of them can play the guitar and piano but cannot read music.  but the ones that are bad are the ones that sing the loudest ha ha so we sound terrible.  oh well.  GO UTES!! nice keep me updated.  hopefully the byu fans keep quiet.  i look forward to that new era story.  president clark sent us an awesome new era story about baptisms and missions but i don't know if that's it.  i started reading the old testament.  very interesting.  its not really like i expected.  it doesn't flow like the book of mormon.

 

so now for my letter...  it was a good week.  as i told you before, since the 10th of august until the 10th of september all the muslims were fasting.  they fasted every day from 4:30 am until 6:30 pm.  it was a good month because instead of eating food they cook it and sell it in bandar.  the streets were closed every day and filled with food stands.  

                                      

anyways at the end of ramadan they have hari raya.  its kind of like the muslim new year i think.  for four days they eat a lot and party.  and they love to have white people come over.  on friday we went to three houses, on saturday we went to one, and on monday we went to another.  it was a blast.  they take tons of pictures of you with their children and they are amazed that we speak malay.  we were mostly fed rice with many meats and veggies and little treats.  it was good. they also all have really nice clothes and are all dressed up really pretty.  really just an interesting event.  it was fun to see.  this doesn't happen everywhere in the mission.  at least not on this scale.  so i'm glad i was here.  so like i said the muslims like us and i don't think we're in a lot of danger for the 9/11 thing. 

     also on saturday we had a baptism!!  it was very good.  his name was Mandding.  His son Jasli was baptized with the Ning family and Ning is is cousin.  Ning did the baptism.  both were obviously inexperienced but it went well.  it took a few times.  in all honesty i'm pretty sure that Mandding has never been all the way under water before.  like he's probably not had a big bath in 30+ years.  so he was a little scared. but i witnessed it, he went under.  it was really good.  besides that the work is just going good here.  we are getting the referrals.  i haven't knocked a door in a month.  we just put another family on date so we look forward to their progress.  this weekend is zone conference in KK.  tomorrow we fly out.  also there is district conference for the branch so we will stay for that.  we return on Sunday night.  i'm expecting to get some mail there.  the zone leaders said there is a letter from abbie and dad.  hopefully there is also a package.  if not i won't see it for a few months. 

     i'm trying to figure out how to attach pictures.  its not working so well.  ha so you might get some.  i still want to hear from spencer!  also i'm calling in a favor. maybe ask christian,  i want the full song lyrics to men of harlech.  ask delose because i've looked on the internet before and haven't been able to find every verse that we sang at scout camp.  thank you kindly.  sorry this letter is later than usual.

today we went to the sepilok orang hutan rehibilitation center.  it was cool.  i saw a bunch of monkeys.  we went on this one random trail.  i'm pretty sure nobody else goes there.  we weren't seeing anything so we started heading back.  i was giving my best impression of an orang hutan call.  suddenly a big one just swung down to us from the trees.  he walked on the trail for like 100 meters.  it was cool.  so human like.  i guess my call was legit.

i bought a post card to send you.  i wanted to buy a t shirt but they wanted my arm..and my leg!  they were expensive.  maybe you could donate to the elder-petersen-wants-a-souveniour-sandakan-shirt-fund.  if you're feeling charitable.

    well i hope you have a good week this next week.  i hope schools going good.  keep up the hard work.  say hi to everybody.  sampai lagi.

elder petersen

RATS!

salam melikom!

i don't think i spelled that right but that is the muslim greeting.  wow its good to read your emails.  sounds like a great week.  oh man oh man i wish i saw that utah game!!  you have got to keep me updated.  it sounded intense. GO UTES!!! elder garrett also enjoyed the recap of overtime.  he is considering playing basketball there.  mom.  the shortest distance to any given point is a straight line.  that is why they run it up the middle.  ha ha ha the line men should open up a hole but that doesn't always happen.  that is so cool that danny is coming home.  i'm going to want details about him.  if he's the same goofy danny, if he's fat, mature,  good speaker,  if he speaks italian only etc.  i sure miss those guys.  did christian say how camp went.  also ask him if he knows if delose ever got my letter.  i was worried that jaynanne wouldn't get my one letter because i had to repair the envelope to fit.  i hope you enjoyed the pictures.  don't lose them because they were all deleted.  ha. have fun planning the court of honor.  its not that big of a deal.  to tell you the truth i don't really remember that much about mine.  ha ha.  so don't sweat it.  dad i did meet elder parrish.  he's cool.  he was surprised that i knew his dad's name.  ha ha he said he's heard of the twins.  so mission accomplished.  he is serving in west malaysia somewhere so maybe i'll see him again.

     this week.  nothing huge has happened.  we are getting a lot of referrals.  its so great.  it makes our job a cinch.  did i ever tell you about the funeral thing.  one of the members' dad died so we were really involved with the funeral for some reason.  we had a service and stuff.  its done different here because they have native traditions but also christian traditions.  us jason and president wieland went and dedicated the grave site.  it was a first.  but because of this funeral we found a large family.  they are really nice and accepting so we'll see how they go.  but stuff like that has been happening a lot.  we keep finding random families to teach.  its so cool. 

     our companionship is doing good.  elder garrett is pretty cool.  he's a good teacher and he's good at malay.  this is good because then i don't have to talk as much.  he likes his sleep though.  we have fun.  we get along and have similair interests.

     so one of the biggest events this last week has been our rat situation.  its  kind of absurd.  stupid rats.  they are not in the house.  i don't really mind them because they just stay outside, but our washing machine is outside and a lot of times it smells like rat pee.  so last p- day i bought a rat trap.  they didn't have like any spring loaded mouse trap things or any rat poison.  all they had was this cage thing.  so i bought the cage and i bought some peanut butter for bait.  it was an 18 ringget investment.  but it paid off. the first day i caught a huge one.  yes! but then i had a new problem.  i had to kill the little guy.  we have a machette but i didn't want to just chop it up.  it would be messy and difficult.  so i just left it outside all day.  when we came back at night it had been roasted to death. that thing was fried in the sun.  for the next two days i caught one a day.  i figured out it was easier to drop the cage in a bucket of  water and just drown them.  so thats what i did.  since that third one i haven't had any luck but i think we scared them off because now it smells better and i don't hear them out there.

     man last week i said that i would have my thoughts more organized for this email.  i was prepared, but now i'm just drawing a huge blank as i sit here and type.  is there anything you want to know?  our church attendence is in the fifties.  we may have a baptism this week.  it is the cousin of Ning, our recent convert.  we've been playing a lot of ping pong.  the members can't stand to lose so its fun beating them.  testimony meeting last week was good.  i bore my testimony.  i would say my malay is coming along very nicely.  its fun learning new words. i'm getting better at understanding people.  the people here speak so fast.  even their english is really fast.  nobody talks slow.  for the last month there's been a holiday going on called ramadon where the muslims fast all day.  it ends this week with a huge feast.  our muslim taxi driver and a few other friends have invited us over for dinner.  boleh!  we aren't allowed to teach them but we have the green light to eat with them.

     thats about it for this week.  i hope you have a good week.  again, say hello to danny for me.  oh hey i'm putting in a request here.  i want to hear from spencer.  i haven't ever heard from him.  i want to know how high school is going and what not.  i miss that runt. email me boy.  keep me updated on the utes.  i will wear a red utah tie every saturday in their honor.  i love you guys.  saya harap kamu diselematkan.  jangan lupa saya.  saya mengasihi kamu.  saya tahu injil ini benar. saya bersyukar untuk keluarga saya dan juga semua kawan saya.  selalu mengikut yesus kristus. selamat jalan!

Elder Petersen

Singapore Mission Changes

wow,

 it is great like always to hear from you.  your letters are funny. it sounds like things are going good at home.  dad it is dang weird to think that i am one fourth done with the mission. scary really.  mom what is normal.  ha ha you say you will eventually return to normal.  i think our house has no normal.  normal for us is constant change.  ha ha its been a long time since there has been no chaos at our house.  but i hope it does settle down.  but don't get bored if it does.

so much happened this week that i really don't know where to start.  first of all i already told you a little about singapore.  it was a blast on sunday is when we switched companions so all that week we cruised around singapore together.  it was a good way to meet a new companion i'd say.  anyways the conference was really good. i learned a lot.  did i ever tell you about the mission split?  so basically they are subdividing the mission.  it is technically one mission still but it is split.  you see the state of Sarawak, also on Borneo, is very different than any other state.  they have a seperate passport chop than any other state.  and there culture is very different.  very poor and "native" and what not.  the mission will have two parts.  the singapore sarawak mission, and the singapore west malaysia and sabah mission.  so whatever area you begin in will be where you serve for the whole two years.  so this means i'll never serve in sarawak.  its kind of a bummer.  that is where everyone wants to serve.  in the jungle, nobody speaks english,  they have cool traditions, and the baptize like crazy.  oh well i guess.  i will enjoy sabah while i am here.  in west malaysia and singapore they don't really speak malay or anything like that.  we will have to see what happens.

     so since we arrived on friday night we've been working pretty hard.  we went to dinner with the wielands that night after they picked us up from the airport.  saturday we went and visited many investigators and just kind of showed garrett around the area.  like i said before we are huge.  ha ha wow.  we're pretty much equal height.  i guess i'll tell you about him.  from st george. five kids.  parents are cooks at the frosty top drive in or something.  that famous one with the icees.  he played college basketball before the mission at a junior college in idaho.  and he's been out for one year.  so get along pretty good.  i think we will have some good success. 

     as far as the work is going, its going good.  we are getting some excellent referrals.  that is great because that means less tracting.  so hopefully the work really picks up soon.  i don't know what else to say.  things are normal ha ha whatever that means.  i can't wait for your package.  i sent you and the johnsons a postcard.  i hope you get it.  tell them thank you for their letters.  its weird to think that i am not starting school this year.  every august for like 13 years i've gone to school. now i'm in borneo.  ha ha i miss dad's blessing.  i also remember the blessings from last year.  that was cool.  when i gave dad a blessing it was the first one i ever did.  ha ha good experience. 

     well i'm thankful for you guys. you're great.  next week i will try to organize my thoughts into a better letter.  i love you.  i enjoy your letters.  have fun with this next school year.  live it up jaynanne.  wow jaynanne's a senior, spencer is in high school, mollie is in junior high, and oskar is a big bad sixth grader?!! oh man thats nuts.  time flies.  alright i'll hear from you next week.

elder petersen