Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Getting Old...donggongon it....


hi ya'll
     well first i'm really sorry for last week's email.   i wish i could have had longer but i was pretty busy.  i hope you understood everything i told you about transfers.  ha ha it made sense to me.  well your emails were so entertaining.  for some reason i feel like i haven't talked to you forever so it was way good to read those.  it sounds like it was kind of a sad week though.  i hope all is well there.  dad i don't think i could run the full marathon in may.  i don't think that is enough time to prepare.  sorry but i'd love to the the half.  thanks for the world news mom.  it's interesting to hear.  i have been peppering the two greenies in our apartment with questions about home.  ha ha they were kind of clueless though. 
     alright so it is AWESOME up here!  i'm really liking it.  it definitely feels like home to be back here in sabah.  it is totally different than other parts of the mission i've been in.  you know, i've had a way diversified mission.  my comp is cool.  he is from lehi utah.  he is kind of gung ho.  he knows malay way better than i knew it ha ha but he is still kind of funny to listen too.  he will be good though.  it is weird to be a zl and trainer but our zone is one of the smaller ones.  it covers sandakan- two elders, tawau- two elders, and kk- four elders two sisters.  so only ten of us.  we call our zone the sabah tribe instead of the sabah zone.  and don't worry we're working really hard.
     well like i said last week we kind of are opening a new area so we kind of have no investigators and are easily lost.  i didn't realize our area was so spread out.  we actually cover a huge area!  but the sisters gave us a few investigators that are pretty solid and then we did find a couple.  we share a branch with the sisters.  actually the branch only split about 3 months ago.  so all of the leaders are new and everything.  we are back on the buses.  it is fun to talk to people there.  i've met some crazy ones.  if you end up sitting by a muslim then you are stuck for the whole ride next to someone you can't teach ha ha.  actually i just had a good chat with a 20 year old muslim student.  he was way cool.  we talked for like 20 min.  if only i could share the gospel.  he was asking a lot of questions about the church but i had to defer the question or change the subject or something. 
     just today we went out knocking out away from the city.  it was in a place called donggongon.  try saying that 5 times fast.  out there there is a lot of jungle and just stand alone houses.  we talked to a bunch of christians but none were super interested.  one lady was so nice.  she was one of those people that i can totally picture as members.  she had 3 kids like 17 13 and 10 and she was so friendly.  she was well enough off to drive to church and would be, i pictured, a good leader in the church.  but she just would not commit to meet again.  we kept talking though and she did soften up and really listen but still nothing.  it is sad.  i hope that's not her only chance you know.  hopefully she will read the pamphlet and call us back.  i pray every day that someone will just actually read the pamphlet we leave and feel something and give us a call.  the problem with most of those houses is that they have a big gate in front of the driveway.  so you don't knock the door you knock the gate.  then you hope that they will come over to the gate so you don't have to yell at them the whole time.  we met another lady and she was cranky.  she was way in the doorway and we were out at the gate.  she was just like i'm RC and my husband isn't home.  she was definitely trying to ditch us.  so i was just like ok can we give you this booklet and stuck it through the door.  she walked out and then, by design, she had to wait while i filled out my name on the back while talking to her.  after talking then she was way nicer.  we had a good chat and she said she would read the book and that we can meet again saturday.  also can.  i swear if people would just listen to us then they would like what they hear.
     as zl i still have the responsibility of doing baptismal interviews.  i interview a girl last night.  she was way solid.  she was way funny too.  she definitely knew the questions i was going to ask and had perfect answers.  really solid.  it threw her for a loop then when i asked her in all seriousness "ok do you know the name of joseph smith's little brother?"  ha ha she was like what that's not one of the questions!  ha ha but yeah she did good.  she passed.
     well dass is doing good.  he still cannot move but he has feeling back in his limbs.  his spine was not broken in any way he was just like sent into some sort of shock because of the pain and the way he landed or something.  he is still out of commission and will probably go home after this but he is expected to make a full recovery.  it is a big relief. 
     sorry i am emailing at a different time yet again but i've got more big news.  today was not our p-day, we only emailed, because tomorrow we are going to mount kinabalu!!  it is so sweet.  friday is zone conference so tonight the ap's and pres and the other elders from our zone are flying in and then tomorrow early we are going to hike mount kinabablu.  we cannot go to the very top without a pass and tour guide and sleep over but we are going to go like half way up.  it should be fun.  president clark was so excited to tell me.  i asked him back when i was still a greenie if i could hike it.  it's so sweet.
     last thing.  it is weird to have to greenies in our house of four.  everything is new to them.  we have to explain everything.  actually my whole mission i've been with older missionaries.  all of my companions have pretty much been in the same graduating class as me or even one year older.  i never thought i'd be with someone from 2010.  well it's funny because laycock is from 2010 and even crazier elder bradley is from 2011.  what the freak!  ha ha when he told me that i was blown away.  i could totally picture him as one of jaynanne's friends.  wow.  i'm an old missionary.  i don't feel old but i remember the missionaries of my age when i was a greenie seemed so old.  ha ha crazy.
     alright well that's all for me.  hopefully next week i have some investigators to report on and some cool stories from sabah borneo.  keep up the good work back home.  i love you guys so much.  seriously i tell everyone how awesome you are.  don't worry i'm going to finish out strong here.  thanks for your prayers.
 
elder petersen

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