Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Sing Until Your Heart's Content

hello friend!  what is your name! (the standard english greeting people yell at us all day long)
     Thank you for all of your emails.  they are awesome.  it sounds like you had an awesome stake conference weekend.  that is so so so so cool that james got his mission call. tell him congrats for me.  he's going to be really awesome. 

     i'm sorry this letter is coming late.  we spent the morning at a zoo, well i wouldn't call it a zoo but thats what the sign said.  ha it cost 3 ringgit to get in, the price should tell you the quality.  it was pretty cool.  they had a lot of monkeys and fish and birds and thats about it. i'll send you a picture maybe.  Torch is leaving for the mtc on friday so yesterday and today we've been going around with him.  we had fun.  tonight he is having a farewell party.

     this week i just have a lot of random stuff to tell you about.  first of all we had a baptism on saturday!!!  her name is kimberly.  she is 13.  her mom is a long time member and a long time inactive.  kimberly has a lot of friends at the church so she enjoys coming and learning.  it was a frustrating baptism though.  she needed a ride to the church.  it started at 7 so president and sister wieland went up to her house around 6.  all the people in the house said that the mom, lilybeth, wasn't home.  so sister wieland said she'd sit there and wait because lilybeth would have to come home eventually.  president took kimberly to the church so that she could get ready and change clothes.  well after a while, maybe like 40 min, i'm not really sure what happened but kimberly and president went back up the house.  sister wieland was still waiting.  the secret got out that lilybeth was hiding in her room that whole time.  sister wieland went in and forced her out and told her that she must support her daughter.  apparently kimberly and lilybeth also had a yelling match.  meanwhile i was sitting at the church this whole time waiting and getting impatient because they were late.  kimberly came in tears.  i was confused.  the young women did good at supporting her.  the baptism went on.  it was a happy occasion.  needless to say, lilybeth didn't come to the confirmation the next day.  this upcoming saturday we are having another baptism. i'll tell you about them next week. 

     after church on sunday we were waiting for president wieland.  it was us and some youth and some of the ning family.  i taught them 'go fish'.  they loved it.  i've played it like 6 times since sunday.  ha ha i guess its simple enough that they understand and anybody could win, even the little guy.  it was hard to explain actually.  i finally got them to say 'go fish' in english if they didn't have the card.  they like it. 

     i wanted to tell you about this one lady.  sister _______.  she's pretty cool.  ha ha but she sings pretty bad.  well its not too bad but its high pitched and super loud.  any song we sing, you can hear sister _______ belting it out.  elder garrett's theory is that she is a long time member and wants everyone else to know that she knows these english songs.  on sunday i led the congregation in the rest hymn, called to serve, in indonesian.  we recently got these indonesian hymn books.  we still sing three songs in english but we are trying the rest hymn in indo.  its hard to get sometimes because of the syllables and they don't all know the tune.  so i was in the front trying to lead it.  it was going good except for sister _______.  she was belting it out in her high pitched tone in english.  i was so ticked.  she doesn't want to sing indo. she could at least sing quiet or hum.  maybe after i get transferred i'll look back and this will be funny but right now she's bugging me.

     if someone says good morning or says how are you at the pulpit then the crowd all responds.  its cool.  different then in america.
     there is this one word i want to explain.  it will be hard.  it is so weird.  the word is 'anu'.  it has no meaning.  it is like saying hmmm or uh.  everyone uses it.  for example "do you know anu?"  and then i'm like who? and they say "you know, anu.  they live in anu"  ha ha i laugh every time.  they think i can read their mind or something.  this is only a sabah thing.  there are some words and what not that are only used in sabah and this is one of them.  i'm not doing it justice for you but trust me its funny.

     when people see white people they usually throw out a white or american reference.  for example they say obama! or a movie star.  i get a certain one where ever i go.  without fail.  every person i've met has called me this character.  its not even a cool guy.  its....mr bean.  ha ha ha oh so many i'm sick of it.  they all say Mr. Bean!  or i pull a face and they laugh and say oh like mr bean.  ha ha there is no similarties between me and him.  elder garrett laughs every time.  malaysians...

    i told you i had some random things.  don't worry there'll be more later.  and don't worry i'm still having plenty of sweet spiritual experiences.  i  just didn't write any this week.  for example yesterday we had a really good lesson with freddy.  oh man i felt the spirit.  i hope things go good this next week for you.  good luck with observing the sabbath better.  say hi to the ward.  i'm counting down the days until i can call you.  haha i know its still a while away but it'll be here before you know it. anyways peace out girl scouts
elder petersen 

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