Bear Tracks and Three Amigos

well hey hey hey happy leap year

     good to hear from you guys.  mom thanks for that article.  i read it.  ha ha it has a lot of flaws.  i mean it has inaccurate info about the church.  no wonder people over there are all confused.  that'll be the day if our church is ever highlighted in the paper over here.  no one really cares ha ha.  oh ouch.  backed into a parked car eh?  ha ha better not do shut ins again.  nope i'm clean dad.  never hit anything.  well there was that one time where i was driving down ogden canyon in the winter and the car would not stop sliding and then i carved the gaurd rail.  do you remember that.  that's all.  good luck with tennis spencer.  is there anyone good out there.  i remember back when i was a sophomore there was this one kid that was so good.  he was a state champ.  out of everybody's league on our team.  anyone like that?  oh yeah i know who tyson thornock is.  i used to be friends with his sister until she got popular and well i didn't ha ha.  ya i can't wait to get home to mom's cooking.  oh yes dad i'm getting good at taking rejections ha ha should be no problem when i get home. 

     this past week was awesome!   i mean there were tons of lowlights but some awesome stuff is happening here.  after p day last week we flew to sandakan. it was a blast.  elder nowland and i went and visited one of my recent converts, Jessica and Kong.  they are basically inactive unfortunately  but they are still awesome and still love me.  their oldest son joshua is 13.  when we were teaching him he was so shy.  he always sat in the back and really didn't want to learn.  we had to drag him out.  now surprisingly he's an all star.  he is way active.  he's really involved and has even taught himself how to read.  it's interesting to see.  he's a stud.  sandakan overall is kind of struggling.  it makes me so sad.  i mean we really had the place going back when i was there and i hope it can get out of this slump.  well the biggest thing from this past week is transfers.  seemingly out of the blue there was sister transfers.  both sis gopinath and sis song got taken out of kk.  in fact, there is no one to replace them.  so as of monday kk is down to two missionaries only.  we inherited all of their investigators and now cover both branches.  our area is huge now.  i really don't know how we can manage it.  we'll see what happens. 

     sunday was an awesome day.  on saturday we visited a ton of people and invited everyone we could to church.  we ended up having 13 investigators at church.  dang.  we were so excited.  plus the sisters had 5 which are now ours.  ha ha so many.  plus we had the highest attendence kk2 has had since splitting off last august.  we had a whopping 72 at church.  and for the first time we had more than kk1.  the members are really excited right now.  though you don't know them here is a list of everyone who came to church:  durus, senci, helen, elis, jason, elly, ketty, richard, eric, alvin, ritchie, josephine, and simon.  basically each one has a really cool story behind them.  i can't tell you everyone's.  so i won't tell you anyone's ha ha.  besides that we even had about 5 that we were really hoping would come that let us down.  oh well. 

     when i was walking through town with elder ahmad in sandakan a guy called out to us.  well a lot of people say crap to us because we're white and they think it's funny.  but this guy said hey are you from kk.  that's weird so i stopped and said yeah.  he said he is too.  he was in sandakan for work for just a few days.  he said he's seen us on the bus by his house and stuff. cool.  so he asked is there a time like a month when people can typically join the church because i was raised buddhist but want to switch to christianity.  ha ha wow. also can.  i said ya we baptize people anytime.  we can baptize you tomorrow if you want.  ha ha.  but seriously he is so good.  we met him again yesterday.  he said the same things.  he doesn't know much but for some reason he is really interested.  so i had to go all the way over to sandakan to meet this new solid investigator.  he told us yesterday that he in fact saw me on the bus because i was standing right next to him. what the heck.  why didn't i say anything to him then.  luckily i ran into him again.  talk about me being in the right place at the right time.  my thoughts are wow.  how lucky is this guy.  he doesn't know this church from any other christian church.   he just wants to go to any church.  hopefully he can also realize how blessed he just was.

     yesterday we spent all day out and about.  it was jam packed.  today also we have a few appointments even though it's p day.  we're willing to take the hit though because these people are awesome.  after someone is baptized we as missionaries reteach all of the lessons again.   because the sisters moved yesterday we met and taught flora.  she is amazing.  holy cow she is one of a kind.   she completely gets it.  she is a different person.  she tells us that everyone can see it.  she is also really eager to share the gospel with her friends and family.  wow cool.  i can't really put into words how excited i am.  and i can't describe how good it makes me feel to see someone catch the gospel and just run with it.  so fulfilling.

     well thanks for the talk topic.  ha ha i have a story i wanted to share with you that coincidentally goes along with that topic.  oh man it was so funny.  we went to this one curry house by home with awesome roti cobra daging.  well they have a two huge flat screen tv's.  we sat down to eat and there was a lame movie on.  all of a sudden there was some "bear tracks" if you know what i'm saying.  we could see that there was going to be a bad scene coming up.  so i asked the waitress if she could find something else on.  she was confused so she called this other guy over.  it kind of made a big scene but they eventually switched it to the next station.  ha ha on the next channel was the thee amigo's with steve martin.   ha ha ha oh man it was so so funny.  but it's really old school you know.  so because everyone didn't understand it and it was old they didn't really like it.  i mean this was a pretty full restaurant.  then there was this one scene where they do this little number called my little buttercup.  ha ha ha me and brodie were laughing so hard.  but nobody else was.  so we were trying to suppress our laughter.  we got out of there quick and just started busting up.  everyone totally judged us.  there was this guy behind me that brodie later told me was just hitting his head.  i'm sure all of those cool muslim guys were thinking why on earth would these two young white guys switch the channel from a guy and a girl to three guys in goofy outfits singing my little buttercup.  ha ha i can't think about it without laughing out loud.

     well that's about it for today.  sorry.  my keyboard sucks and my thumb is tired of pounding the space button.  don't get trunky for me.   hey mom all of my white shirts are spoiled.  i was thinking it would be good probably if you could get me a new one for church when i get back.  i forgot what size.  like 15.5 neck or something.  i'll tell you next week.  ok well keluarga have a good week.  love you all.

elder petersen

We're Down but NOT out!

hey hey hey (at letter number 102 i can't think of any new greeting, sorry)

 

     wow your emails were awesome.  i can't believe you got my flight plans!!! ha ha that is nuts.  i'm a dead man.  ha ha.  president's day eh?  ok sounds cool.  i forgot about that one.  that's cool that joseph is home.  actually yeah i've heard of this Lin guy.  basketball is not very big here though.  so not really.  ah weber state weber state... great great great.  ha i remember in the mtc there was so much i wanted to tell you guys but when i sat down at the computer i couldn't remember anything.  also the computer shut down at exactly 30 min.  maybe kolton is just has no time there.  i love good talks.  can you send me the link or something to that one on the atonement.  oh man dad what are you doing to me??  ha ha trying to kill me?  telling me about my talk, asking if i want to know the topic.  sheesh.  yeah let me know asap.  ha ha.  i've been trying to think of things to share actually.  well i've been just trying to remember experiences from throughout my mission but it's hard. 

Typical Malaysian sign, vague...still couldn't find the stall

    oh man so this last week... oh man.  it was pretty good.  i mean we're still kicking.  but one by one, over a three day period, almost every single investigator called us and gave us the axe.  some were more brutal than others.  ha oh man it hurt.  i usually hold the phone.  most people are to weenie ish to tell us to our face that they don't want to meet again.  so the usually sms us.  we would get a text and then i would turn to brodie and say "i've got some bad news..."  ha it happened like 8 times.  it's kind of funny but it sucks.  let's see here's a few.  sunday morning we got a text from a family that said "hi we won't be coming today, i don't think my family should be baptized twice, also maybe we won't meet you again".  another said "elders i'm sorry my family doesn't want me to switch religions, they are very mad".  another said "stop bothering us, we're busy lah"  ha ha ouch.  there was "i really don't enjoy your church, i don't understand malay so it is confusing"  one said "i can't go to your church until i'm 100 percent sure it is true, so i'll let you know"  so yeah basically there's a billion excuses.  they're all garbage.  i just wish some of these people would confront us face to face.  oh man.

8 yo with older bro...I did the confirmation

     despite that slew of trials, we still have a few really awesome investigators.  we're down but not out.  i'll tell you about a few.  first is this awesome girl named Senci.  two weeks ago a member brought her to church.  she is really sincere.  our first lesson about the restoration was great.  she answered all of the questions 100 perecent.  but we were still pretty tentative.  this past sunday she couldn't come to church because she went to kampung to visit a sick family member.  well we met her yesterday and she's on fire.  she read and marked up like 20 scriptures from the Book of Mormon including like all of moroni,  most of 3 nephi, some in alma and in 2 nephi.  she said she just went through and looked for chapters about Christ.  ha ha well they are all about Christ.  she told us that at kampung it rained and rained so she couldn't go outside.  she just sat on her bed and read a ton.  that rain was a little miracle.  she said she feels awesome when she read.  we taught her the plan of salvation and she said she's never heard these kind of things and it really makes sense to her.  she also said her husband really wants to come to church this next sunday and she really wants her younger sister to come too.  also can!  she is kind of hesitant to get a baptismal date but it's because she seriously wants to know.  it's actually a good thing.  we have high hopes for her but in light of everybody else just dropping us we don't want to get our hopes up too high.

     we also have this lady named Welista.  well it's a long story how we met her.  basically she is the neighbor of a member.  her husband is working all the time except for saturday night and sunday. and on those days his friends come over and the all drink all day.  ha ha.  so the member thought maybe they would really be interested.  well we were able to meet this lady the wife.  she is way cool.  turns out to be senci's sister in law as well.  she doesn't know a whole lot about Christ.  she doesn't really have a religion.  she seems to really enjoy our lessons so far.  we've taken it really slow with her.  we've only taught about prophets and Christ and prayer.  but we've taught her 12 year old son a lot more at our weekly fhe's next door.  he even came to church on his own.  we are praying mightily for that family.  they have 5 small kids. 

     another all star is elis.  she learned from the missionaries in like october or september.  then she moved to the tip of borneo.  in the last few months she finished the book of mormon.  she doesn't understand much about the church but she knows it is true and wants to get baptized.  she really is cool.  way sincere.  we still can't really meet here that often but when we have it's been great. 

Me & the Boys...Peter (peace sign) & David (bml)
Peter is headed to Texas on a mission.  He's so cool!  I call him Petrus. David is a total character.  He is crazy but he is the famce of the KK branches.  Everyone knows him, and he knows everybody.

     

    so yeah things are going good.  we're still seeing cool miracles despite a bunch bad things happening.  we've been really blessed.  i just really hope someone we have can hang on until baptism.  i have a few random thoughts from the past few days.  the first is about a return missionary from before i left.  he said in his homecoming talk that there was a point on his mission where he just wasn't sure if the church was true or something.  he said he just had to pray and find out.  well i agree with you dad, every day that goes by just strengthens my testimony.  there is no doubt in my mind that this church is the only real church on the whole earth.  this is Christ's church no doubt.  everything points to that.  logically there's no flaw.  also i can't deny the many spiritual experiences i've had to confirm it.  it's true.  i've never really questioned it.  so i don't know what was going on with that other missionary.  

next is a common thought that we seem to come across.  it seems like most people don't really think that there can only be one true church.  so if we get them to the point that they think the book of mormon is true and we say ok then this church is true, they just think yeah it is and so is mine.  ha ha but i was talking about this with brodie.  there can only be one true church.  and this is it.  it wouldn't make sense if there was more than one.  it is hard to get people to see that because i have the whole huge big picture.  they don't.  at first they just have a 30 min discussion about prophets and joseph smith and i hope they see the church is true.  ha ha it's just something i was thinking about.  i'm so glad i know what i know.  i don't know why i'm so blessed to be born in the church.  there's billions of people who don't know what i know.  it's not fair really but i am thankful. 

     well sorry for all of those random thoughts.  hope you understand.  i really love you guys.   keep it up back home.  i can't wait to see you.  i'm still working hard all the way to the end.  thanks for everything.

 

elder petersen

Travel Itinerary for Elder Petersen

Trevor's mission was extended a month.  He comes home APRIL 4, 2010.  Here's the official word.....  

PETERSEN/TREVOR CHR 

  MISSIONARY TRAVEL

  SINGAPORE MISSION

SERVICE               DATE  FROM           TO             DEPART/ARRIVE

_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _____________

DELTA AIR LINES       04APR SINGAPORE      TOKYO          610A    155P

DL 622            WEDNESDAY CHANGI         NARITA

K ECONOMY                   TERMINAL 1     TERMINAL 1

           NON SMOKING      BREAKFAST                     NON STOP

                            RESERVATION CONFIRMED         6:45 DURATION

                  AIRCRAFT: BOEING 777-200/300

                            SEAT 50C NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

DELTA AIR LINES       04APR TOKYO          PORTLAND OR    330P    835A

DL 618            WEDNESDAY NARITA         PORTLAND INTL    

K ECONOMY                   TERMINAL 1

           NON SMOKING      DINNER                        NON STOP

                            RESERVATION CONFIRMED         9:05 DURATION

                  AIRCRAFT: BOEING 767

                            SEAT 36B NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

DELTA AIR LINES       04APR PORTLAND OR    SALT LAKE C UT 1025A   109P

DL 2189           WEDNESDAY PORTLAND INTL  SALT LAKE CITY

K ECONOMY                                  TERMINAL 2

           NON SMOKING                                    NON STOP

                            RESERVATION CONFIRMED         1:44 DURATION

                  AIRCRAFT: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A320-100/200

                            SEAT 13C NO SMOKING CONFIRMED

So Trevor leaves Singapore on Wednesday morning, arrives in Tokyo that day, Wednesday, and leaves for Portland, USA.  He arrives in Portland the next day, Wednesday, and leaves for SLC. He gets home on WEDNESDAY.  Crazy.  Singapore is 14-15 hours ahead of us, depending on DST.  He's travelling 17 1/2 hours backwards.  Doesn't that mean he's still 2 1/2 hours ahead of us?  :)  He's always kinda thought that :) We're so excited!  I think he'll be speaking in church on April 15, 2012 at 2:45 pm.

Iban & Indon Villages, I Love the Natives....

saya sudah mininggal,

 

Trevor's 2012 Valentine

     hey what's up everyone.  thanks for the awesome emails.  pretty funny.  it sounds like valentine's day was fun.  sounds like oskar is a little player ha ha.  pretty much nothing happened here.  i have no kekasih.  you didn't meet joseph did you?  i wonder what he's like now. are you going to the homecoming?  ya that would be sweet if thomas came to arches.  is there room?  john comes home to washington the last week of may.  it seems like just yesterday we all left.  crazy. 

spencer's got to get off starcraft.  we just had a training about addictive destructive wasteful things and video games was in the line up.  ha ha.  they're not bad just time consuming.  president clark said his smart smart son in law did terrible in college because he just always wanted to play video games.  so he couldn't even do the program he wanted.  

oh hey i just got another letter from the johnson's yesterday.  it was good.  it looks like i'll be home to see joe married ha ha.  

what the heck mom!  just throwing that last line out there nonchalantly.  ha ha you are so mean.  oh mercy funeral potatoes and spare ribs sounds so so so good.  jahatnya kamu!

things are still going awesome here.  i can't remember what happened this last week to tell you about though.  let's see.  i've gone on two trips since last wednesday.  thursday we took off to tawau for two days.  tuesday we flew down to sibu for two days.  it is so fun.  in tawau we just went on normal splits. 

Traditional Bajau Wedding Picture
....just a picture :) 

old EngKang...He is the man
Elder Trotter and Trevor

Sitting on the Kursi Raja (King Chair)
it's not as comfy as ours at home,
but EngKang handcarved it.  Pretty cool.

elder trotter and i saw this little culture fair thing so we went and checked it out.  they had a bunch of different booths from a bunch of different malaysian and indon native tribes.  the iban one was so funny.  this old guy really wanted to dance for us.  at another one they dressed us up because an old lady really really wanted to take pictures with us.  we also got our picture with a bajau girl in a wedding type picture haha, and also a cool kadazan man playing the flute.  it was a lot of fun.

while meeting all of these people we made some contacts and found out about another iban village that is all christian that is not far from tawau.  that is really good news.  hope it pays off.  also while in tawau i met up with a family that has a son in kk that i baptized.  the old dad lived in kk for a while and he is so funny.  he just moved back to tawau.  he was happy to see me again.  i'll send you a picture.  ha ha i love the natives. 

Iban Traditional Clothes

we went to sibu on tuesday for zone leader council.  it is a once a month meeting.  it was actually really good.  president clark is awesome.  he gives such good trainings.  i always leave those things feeling pumped.  i'm supposed to give the same training to the other districts in our zone.  i feel bad for them because i wish they could just hear it from pres clark.  i can't do it justice.  it is always a blast to see the whole gang each month.  the zone leaders across east are way funny right now.  every one is a good reunion.  there's me, brodie, maughan, pendleton, stratton, howell, hunt, gallinger, polley, and georing.  awesome.

well there was no big, big advances by any of our investigators this week.  but things are still progressing.  we are teaching a way nice family.  i'll keep you posted on them if they progress.  the dad's name is peter.  we are praying hard for them.  on monday we met a really cool referral named sensi.  she was just one of those people that gives all of the right answers to every question.  she is way way good.  we invited her to church on sunday but she said she had to go back to kampung because her father in law or something had a stroke.  bummer.  but she is way good.  she just really digested everything we told her.  later the same day we met a different referral from a different member across town.  she's awesome.  we invited her and her family to church on sunday but she said that this weekend she has to go back to kampung because someone had a stroke.  we thought hmm is there a bunch of strokes going around?  could it be the same guy?  ha ha we asked and sure enough the two referrals are cousins.  they are from the same kampung.  wow.  so two referrals were referred to us by two different families and they are both cousins.  that's cool.  not a coincidence.  they are both good.  we're excited.  but feel bad about the guy with the stroke. 

     oh my gosh other big news is that on tuesday my recent convert got engaged!!  that is crazy.  she is from my favorite sandakan family.  her name is rainah and she is...16!! ha ha wow i was shocked to hear it.  she's still in young women's ha ha.  it's to a member though so that's good.  better to a member than to a muslim.  apparently it's official.  the families got together and the dad's bartered over a price.  ha ha kind of like johnny lingo.  i think it's more of like a promise thing because it is still way far out.  so we'll see.  so weird.  dad pretty soon i'm going to need you to come over here to malaysia to barter for my kadazan princess.  ha ha ha...but seriously. 

     well this email was lame.  but i hope you enjoyed it.  i can't think of what to write.  i hope you liked my pictures.  i should be home pretty soon.  pretty much everyone i meet tells me i'm dead and asks me if i'm trunky ha ha.  yup it's true.  i still haven't got any flight info for going home.  i think they'll just email it straight to you.  let me know i guess.  well i love you all.  no need to get me an iphone before i get home ha ha i was just wondering about it.  but on the other hand i didn't get anything for my birthday.... jk ha ha.  ok well say hi to the ward.  i don't really recognize any of the names you were dropping.  i don't think i'll know anybody when i get home ha ha.  might as well move to washington.  have a good week.

 

elder petersen

My Dying Testimony...I WILL NEVER GO INACTIVE AS LONG AS I LIVE

sup

     thanks for your awesome letters.  it sounds like things are still moving on back home.  hope everthing's good.  you are always in my prayers.  yeah that would be way fun to go to Loll for a week.  we'll see i guess.  it might not be that fun as a leader actually.  ha ha i'd rather just go road trip with spencer and thomas.  i can't believe that was letter number 100 dad.  wow.  i'm an old missionary.  seriously.  so far the church hasn't been around that long for members to marry members but it seems like a few do get hitched.  the next few years will be telling.  hopefully they can get married and crank out some kids to get the membership up here.  ha ha it sounds like spencer loves to argue.  that's my boy.  i can't believe you didn't go to the fremont vs weber game though.  dang that is sad.  you got to get out there spencer.  so in theory biking in moab sounds fun but really i don't have any experience biking and most likely i'll be slow and clumsy.  ha ha i don't want to slow justin down.  but it would be a blast if i can get the hang of it.  it's good to hear that the new car is running.  keep it warm for me.  i'll pick it up soon. 

The city Mosque

     another awesome week.  the first story i want to tell you actually was happening as i was emailing you last wednesday.  a few weeks ago we called a former investigator from our area book named elis.  she seemed way good but she had moved two hours away to the top of borneo, kudat.  well last wednesday as we were emailing she called and told us that she was in town and wanted to meet.  as soon as we were done emailing we went over to the mall and met her for lunch.  she was awesome!  she has read the book of mormon up to 3 nephi 8.  she said this is definitely true.  wow.  she said her and her two friends have been looking for a good church for a long time and the three of them have been reading the book of mormon together.  she said she can come down to kk twice a month for church.  in july she will move back down here.  also can!  we put her on baptism date for march 31.  that was just an awesome miracle.  it really took no effort on our part except calling a former investigator.  even though she is far from the church she is still way sincere and very excited to learn.  awesome.

The Bintulu Mission President

     thursday through saturday we were in bintulu sarawak for zone conference.  it was combined with the miri, bintulu, and sabah zones.  it was a blast.  that is brodie's birth area so we got to see a lot of members and recent converts.  so much fun.  we ate a ton of awesome awesome food.  one house we went to had about 30 people packed into it.  besides visiting the members the trainings were way good.  i've said it before but i'll say it again, president clark is the man.  i love him.  he got extremely emotional as he told us he wanted to talk about the atonement that day.  all day, morning and afternoon, he gave a training on the importance, the need, and the doctrine of the atonement.  it was way good.  very strong spirit.  it's hard to comprehend and it's hard to express in words but i know it is real and it's a huge blessing.  at the end of the trainings they always call a few people to bear their testimonies.  if it is your last zone conference you for sure do it.  so yup it was my last one.  i gave my dying testimony!  oh man i'm dead.  it was good i think.  i really felt the spirit from the training and i was pretty emotional.  it's embarrassing to cry in front of people but i couldn't help it.  i thought back on all of the experiences i've had and i am so lucky.  so blessed.  i don't really want it to be over.  i mean it's not yet... but it's close ha ha.  the sad thing is that i'm the only one from my group who was there so i gave my dying testimony alone.  ha ha oh well i'll see them soon enough. 

Elder Matheson the other guy from North Ogden :)
He's serving in Kuching

     after being out of our area for a few days we went to work seeing everyone.  the gang is mostly still doing great.  no huge updates.  we found a new really nice family.  i think i told you last week.  like five years ago they went to a fhe at a members house but never really learned again.  last week we knocked on their door.  they were very excited to see us and invited us right in.  the dad is named peter so i can easily relate to him,  the mom is juliana and they have three kids 14 16 and 18.  i hope it all works out for them.  after getting so many referrals it is cool to find someone on our own efforts.  actually after having so many good weeks in a row we lowered our goal for new investigators last week.  i guess the Lord didn't think it should be that low because we were blessed with about 3 times as many as we were hoping for.  ha ha it is awesome!

This is a Sarawak Long House...there are about 40 houses in a row,
all connected, all on stilts, and usually all the families are related.  It's cool.

     yesterday the larson's made us some awesome taco's after district meeting.  wow.  ha ha i miss tacos.  they were so good.  after distict meeting we kind of had some extra time so somehow we got on a huge conversation about marriage.  the larson's are so nice.  they gave us so much advice and told us so many stories.  if i ever need advice in the future i'm for sure calling sister larson.  i hope to stay in contact with them.  they said i can go anytime to their home in north carolina.  also can. 

     well sorry that's about it for the email this week.  i'm hoping to add a bunch of pictures so hopefully that will make up for the shortness.  i love you guys so much.  i really do have a strong testimony that this church is true.  after seeing so many happy active families throughout malaysia i have committed to my self that i will never go inactive as long as i live.  hold me to that.  i'm serious.  i can't afford to not go to church.  i love it.  i hope you have a good week.  get my room ready because i'll be there soon!

Me and Emma Watson, yup,
that's right...a member made this up and sent it to me 

     elder petersen

The Seeds Are Being Planted

i'm 21 baby!  sudah tua ku

     well thanks for your awesome emails.  dad you really crack me up.  it was nice to see that happy birthday sign again.  ya know i felt it, when i was here i could just sense that the sign was hung up.  ha ha thanks.  that is funny about brian.  tell him happy birthday for me.  oh sms is just text message.  technically i think they are called sms's even in usa but for some reason they don't say text message here they just say sms.  ha ha weirdos.  yeah everyone calls them flats here.  must be from the british.  usually if i translate i just sit right next to them in sacrament meeting and kind of talk softly.  there is enough crazy kids running around so my voice isn't noticeble but we do have a translation system that we just fixed.  so next week i will just talk into a microphone that she can hear on a headset.  i can't believe you guys got a car.  ha ha i can't wait to actually get behind a wheel again.  it's been a while.  and i've been on the left side of the road.  actually it might not be a good idea ha ha. let's see my plans when i get home?  i kind of want to go to the single's ward.  at least see first.  we'll see if i can get thomas to go with me.  i think it has potential to be fun.  ha ha yeah i hope i can run 13 miles by may.  we'll see. thanks for the email mom.  yup your grammar was terrible.  ha ha sweet though.

My BD cake made by Sis Josie, it was huge & so good!

this week was awesome.  we are still on fire and not really slowing down.  let me think here.  first is my birthday.  pretty non eventful. we visited a few members.  actually we had to wait forever for a bus in the rain so yeah happy birthday.  but we got some awesome food and a huge cake by a professional cake cook member.  sweet.  

Elder Brodie, Flora, Peter Wong, Me

there are two main highlights this week.  first is flora's baptism!!!!  it was great.  she is so good.  right before she went down into the font she just couldn't stop crying.  ha ha makes me want to cry.  the service was good.  
our bml is a little bit irreverent which kind of ticks me off.  but better than most malaysians.  actually i got to tell you, dad would be pacing around the room scratching his head every day here in malaysia.  let's just say i've learned a ton of patience.  at the start of my mission i got angry so much at the ignorance and irreverence of the members.  but now i'm just like whatev.  ha ha i just sit back and watch the show.  really i've chilled a lot but i'm still like dad in some ways.  two of our investigators were able to come and they really really enjoyed it.  they are a couple  that, so we found, was never married but they have two kids.  they are filipino and they are going to go back to the philipines next month to get married then after that get baptized.  but during the service the dad said to his wife this is what our kids need.  we've got to raise our kids in this church.  boom.  awesome.  even though they are not going to get baptized immediately because of the marriage, they are solid.  they get it.  nice.  also there were a lot of members at the baptism.  flora is very friendly and well liked.  she'll be a good strength to the branch, expecially if she can marry one of the members ha ha.  some how the branch afforded to buy kfc for the branch social right after the baptism.  ha ha so afterwards we had fried chicken.  it was great.

     the other highlights of the week center on one member family, johnny and his wife rivina.  they are just incredible.  they are pretty young and have one boy named vincent who is like 4.  they were baptized about 4 years ago.  well we just dropped by their house when brodie first got here and we asked them if they had any friends.  they said kind of but not really.  they didn't get very specific.  so we told them we'd be back the next week.  the next sunday we went by but they weren't home.  their house is on the bottom floor of a flat.  there was a bunch of kids playing around and they were like elder elder hi.  what ha ha they were all non members but knew who we were.  so they told us that johnny and rivina were at the next block over at the mom's house.  so they took us over.  it was kind of awkward but we just talked at the door.  we apologized because we were going to be out of town the next day to sandakan when we were planning on meeting them.  they were like oh darn ok.. ha ha but then the miracle occured.  the previous week i noticed a really cool basket that they always carry to church.  it is made of those plastic strips like the newspapers are wrapped in.  i asked how i could get one.  well while we were standing at that door rivina pointed across the way and said that a lady over there makes the baskets.  she said do you want to go see now?  of course.  so the three of us headed over there and met jalina.  we introduced ourselves but mostly just focused on the baskets.  she was really nice and really talented.  so i commissioned her to make me a big one.  she said it would only take a few hours to make but we said we'd be back in the neighborhood next sunday so we'd come by then.  after we found out they were christian we asked her if we could also meet the husband and share a short message about Jesus Christ.  she agreed.  so fast forward to this past sunday.  we first swung by johnny's and grabbed the fam.  then the five of us headed over to jalina's. 

Jalina makes these baskets

we didn't really know what to expect because we hadn't seen them in a week.  and we were mostly coming on the basis of the basket.  so we showed up.  it was kind of awkward at the door.  but we got in.  we just tried to get some small talk going.  we told them about us, about our families, and why we were in malaysia.  also they told us about their family.  the next miracle was that the dad was really nice.  this can be a dealbreaker.  so whew he was cool.  then after we didn't have much more small talk to say we asked if we could share a short message.  they are pretty religious and they said can no problem.  so one of us said an opening prayer.  after that things went great.  we just just talked about the apostacy and joseph smith.  we didn't teach a full on lesson.  but we really bore our testimonies and promised them that this can help their families.  i told the dad maklis that it has helped my family.  that my dad is a good dad because of this gospel and that's he's nice to us and to my mom.  he seemed to like that.  he told us that this seems good and that this could be very good for his family.  he and his wife committed to read the pamphlet and to pray about it.  they actually seemed really committed.  so wow just because i wanted a cool plastic basket we found a cool family of five.  huge blessing.

     it doesn't stop there.  sister rivina is still wonder woman.  she told us to come to her house the next day for family home evening because there were a bunch of neighborhood kids that wanted to learn with us.  also can!  so monday we went to the house.  we had a good group of 8 kids that were all like 11.  they were all cool but surprisingly well behaved.  we didn't know what to teach a bunch of kids.  we first played a fun game and got on their good side.  then we taught the gospel of Jesus Christ which is faith, repentance, baptism, holy ghost and endure to the end.  we drew it out as a stair case to heaven and had them each draw it out on their own paper.  they were good and smart at answering our questions.  we committed them all to show the drawing to their moms and we also gave them a pass along card with a picture of Christ on it to show to their moms.  i think they really will.  we told them same time next week and to bring their parents to watch a dvd.  also we got all of their names and ages and addresses and number of siblings written down so if nothing else we will go knock their house in a few weeks.  sister rivina is just the bomb.  she told us about a bunch of other gospel conversations she had with some neighbors.  her answers are great.  she is always looking for oppurtunities to share the gospel.  i'm glad we went over and visited them that first week.  i was talking with elder brodie about those kids.  there's not a high chance that they'll all be baptized right now because who's to say their parents will listen to them.  but they'll always remember the time when they were little  and they met with the two white guys and how they felt.  maybe in 20 years+ they will meet the missionaries and big things will happen.  you just don't know.  a good seed has definitely been planted.

     you'd think that was all but it's not.  for the third day in a row we met rivina again.  she told us that her non member aunty needed a blessing.  so us and her husband gave her a blessing and shared a lesson.  she's pretty old and going back to the village so it won't really go anywhere but it shows that sister rivina and bro johnny really do like us and trust us.  that is huge. 

A Rotan bag I bought in Kuching, Sarawak

     alright that is all.  that is just one storyline of one of the good referrals we've recieved but that's not all.  i could go on all day.  we are doing awesome right now.  our area is on fire and we are having great lessons.  we've been pretty busy outside our area but we've been blessed on the hard work days we have had.  i don't want this to end!  ha ha on some of our long bus rides it hits me that i'll be home soon.  oh no i'm scared. ha ha i try not to think about it.  i really love you guys and love to hear from you.  don't forget about me out here in borneo!

elder petersen