Scrabble & the Spirit

hey guys

     ha ha jaynanne you crack me up.  it is good to hear from all you guys.  i don't really have a lot to say about your emails.  it is pretty interesting that so much is said nationwide about mormons now.  over here a few people have heard about our church but it is still very obscure.  i can't stand people that criticize us.  they are so ignorant.  they don't actually take the time to research us at all.  i really enjoyed Elder Ballard's talk about the name of the church.  it was pretty good.  i wonder if the church leaders ever talk with Mitt Romney or if they don't really care.  very interesting.

     well i don't really know what to say for this week.  sorry i am emailing late.  i know it is probably killing you.  i was in meetings in KL all week.  one day we had a zone leader counsel and then the next day we had mission leadership training.  it was way fun to see all my buddies again.  i love going to those big meetings.  also the meetings are very inspiring.  i always learn something new.   i'll say it again, president clark is awesome.  he is a very good speaker.  another thing about seeing all of the elders is meeting all of the strange characters.  ha ha there are some weird elders.  they are entertaining.  oh i saw elder williams for the first time since august last year.  you probably don't remember him but he is from georgia and was in my mtc group.  ha ha he is so funny.  we caught up on old times. 

     i don't know how thomas knows for sure his release date.  that seems strange.  when you first go to the mtc they give you a projected date.  i think he's counting on that.  maybe it is just our mission though.  it all depends on when other groups come in.  there is a chinese speaking elder that told me he asked president when he is going home and president said he is coming home with my group.  he said we're going home feb 22 but i don't know if that is true.  i don't really care yet.  elder kelley got his flight plans already to go home jan 3.  me and elder chin have started a countdown.  every day we change the number on the board and announce it.  today elder kelley has 82 more days.  ha ha he's dead. 

     last week after emailing we went to a buddhist temple.  they had a celebration for something.  we're not really sure what.  so that was cool i'll send you a picture.  later at home we decided to play scrabble.  i was looking through a scrabble dictionary earlier in the day for inspiration.  the game was going pretty well and i was ahead.  i then made an awesome word.  it was like tipsy or something and it went over a triple word bonus.  it was right on top of another word so it formed two two letter words.  i was sure these were words because i saw them in the dictionary earlier.  so the whole thing was like 40 points.  elder kelley said no way those were words.  ha ha so he challenged me.  when he realized he was wrong he was ticked.  ha ha then elder chin kept making up two letter words because nobody wanted to challenge him and lose all the points.  ha ha in the end we stopped playing because it was too heated.  but for the record i won.  ha ha.

     on saturday we had a branch party.  it was fun.  it was kind of like a talent show.  there was piano playing and violin playing and a comedy thing and a painting and stuff.  we did a puppet show.  it was pretty dumb but everyone was cracking up.  they loved it.  then we sang a song with everyone.  it was a scout camp song.  basically every time you sing the song you add an action.  by the end everyone is dancing around like monkeys.  ha ha it was so funny.  also our investigator came and did balloon animals.  it was a hit and she had a good time.

     because of the long planned party we didn't watch conference on saturday.  we're planning to watch it this next saturday.  but we did watch the two sunday sessions.  they were awesome!!  oh man sunday morning was so good.  it was the perfect session for any investigator or non member.  the talks were so clear and powerful.  they were about prayer and the name of the church and the book of mormon and God.  so good.  while watching conference i just totally feel the spirit.  how can this church be false?  it just doesn't make sense, not to mention the spiritual witnesses.  i am so glad to be a member of this church.  i don't know what i've done to be so lucky to be born into it.  i love conference, too, and can't believe i never watched it before.  i regret it.

     well sorry this letter is short.  because it is not pday i have to run.  transfers are coming up on saturday.  something will definitely happen to B-town.  i'll let you know.  i love you all. have a good week.

elder petersen 

Onward & Upward

hi one and all

 

     oh man oh man oh man your emails were all so good.  jaynanne you are killing me.  are you just trying to make me trunky?!!  ha ha oh those pictues were awesome.  it looked like you got all dressed up just to make cookies...did you?  ha ha i bet you did.  man spencer looked sharp.  he looked dang tall though wow how tall is he.  dad's story from the conference center was quite funny.  i really liked when we went down there that one time.  the place is just so huge.  it seems like when you're there you think i'm not alone.  even though that is just a fraction of the members worldwide, you just get a vision of how big and far reaching the church actually is.  the blog article was cool mom.  thanks for sending that to me.   i'm glad you liked my last email.  i hope you like this one as much.  i don't really have anything to write about. 

     well elder chin is nuts.  ha ha he is so funny.  i remember thinking back in sandakan what it would be like to serve with him and i thought ya know maybe he's too crazy, i'd rather not.  but it is a lot of fun.  he is a dang good teacher.  he asks good questions and clearly explains stuff.  but he has to teach in malay.  his english isn't that good.  ha ha a famous quote of his is "petersen you sucks" ha ha.  well we finally met up with one of the johnson's referrals.  i might have already told you about her.  her name is lisa.  she lives just down the hall from them.  she is way nice and is one of those people that is prepared to hear what we have to say.  to everything we say she nods her head and agrees or gives a perfect answer.  she is a strong christian but sees flaws with her church and some of the practices of other churches.  i don't want to tell you all of her concerns but she doesn't have it easy at home.  so i think she really like to meet us.  someone to talk to.  she is married with one 4 month old baby.  we are really excited to teach her.  we've already met with her three other times.  sweet.

     on saturday we went out to a town 27 minutes drive away called Kulim.  there is a family from Sarawak that moved out there.  they don't really know english so the johnsons never visit them.  well elder chin has been in Sarawak his whole mission so now he can speak their native dialect Iban.  they loved him.  ha ha they gave us so much random food.  they had two friends over who actually seemed really interested in what we had to say.  so we shared a lesson with them about joseph smith.  they liked it and agreed that we can come back next week.  before we left they wanted a picture with us. ha ha i don't think the friends have ever met white people before.  ha ha so funny. 

     the rest continues to roll forward.  the church attendence finally stopped going down.  we are trying to weed out our investigator pool.  there is this strange malaysian mentality that after someone has given us their number and agreed to meet us again, they cannot say no later.  these people cannot just tell us that they don't want.  they just avoid us and put off our lessons and run away.   ha ha just tell us and we won't bug you!!  so we've been calling people and just asking them straight up if they want to learn about the church or not.  it's good, we don't want flaky investigators anyways.  so another thing that we've been doing since i got here is praying that we will meet someone that has been prepared and the placed in our path for us to find.  i mean God knows everyone and i believe he definitely has the power to do that, so that's what we've been praying for.  we meet lots of people that seem interested and seem like an answer to our prayers but they always tend to drop off and lose interest.  it is kind of disturbing.  i wonder if it means that our prayer wasn't answered because they weren't the prepared ones, or if they were prepared and we blew it by something we said.  i'm scared of that.  i don't want my weaknesses or something offensive i say turn away a prepared individual.  what are your thoughts.  the easy answer seems to be "oh yeah you're planting seeds no effort is wasted don't worry".  but it is frustrating.  i asked president clark and he said just said don't worry keep working hard.  don't worry i'm not complaining or depressed,  it is just something i was thinking about. 

     sorry this email isn't well thought out.  i'm being rushed along by four other missionaries.  i had a few questions.  mom how did your single adult activity go.  you never told me.  and is jaynanne just still going to the 1st ward or what.   alright i love you all.  don't change too much before i get back.  from jaynanne's pictures it seems like you guys are always having good times and making cookies together.  ha ha so it better be like that when i get home.  oh yeah i haven't watched conference yet.  maybe this weekend if we get the dvd.  if not then next weekend.  i hope to see it soon.  i love it.  ok buh bye.

 

elder petersen

Puppets and Rain

hey guys.

     this week was great.  a lot happened actually.  ha ha i knew you would comment on my socks mom.  that is why i even took the picture in the first place.  ha ha.  alright i'll be looking for oskar but i don't think we'll see conference for at least 2 weeks.  man i'm so jealous that they are going to that concert (Taylor Swift).  ha ha i would love to go.  jaynanne would be proud that i am a loyal fan now.  all the missionaries here know it.  oh man thanks for the recipes.  that is so awesome.  sister johnson will be thrilled.  yeah we get that a lot, that people don't think we'll understand them (so they talk in front of us).  it is funny. 

      alright first, we went to ipoh.  it is a pretty big town here in west malaysia.  it is one of the four in our zone.  the elders down there were going to have a baptism so we went down to do the interviews.  they all passed with flying colors.  while we were down there the johnsons took advantage of the situation and roped us into helping them.  they are humanitarian missionaries so a lot of times they are doing service things.  they had like 200 health care kits to give away.  so we went to an indian elementary school and put on a puppet show.  me, kelley and thurman were the main event.  the church gave them a big stage and like 15 puppets to use.  so we kind of just made something up on the spot.  we thought it would be like 30 kids but it was actually like 180 kids.  ha ha wow.  they loved it though.  they've probably never really seen puppets before.  they were laughing really hard and the teachers were also cracking up.  so it was a success.  then we passed out the kits and juice and crackers.  it was fun.  then the johnsons took us to a way way nice chinese restaraunt.  oh man i love chinese food!!  we also got a chance to play legit badminton.  my whole life i've made fun of badminton.  it's just been one of those dumb asian sports.  i love it now.  it takes some serious stamina.  we played with some way good kids.  they kicked my butt.  we played with some members and investigators. my fore arm and my shoulder and surprisingly my buns were way sore for like 3 days afterwards.  ha ha it was fun. 

     i've told you about darren before.  he is a little indian boy we met my first week here.  he's the one that liked to follow us around.  well he pulled through big for us.  he invited us over to his house saturday night to meet his cousins and eat.  we thought for sure he just wanted to parade us around and whatever.  also we were fasting so we were seriously considering not going.  we got our awesome elder's quorum pres to come with us.  darren had a lot of people there.  there was like his aunt and uncle and their 3 kids and another aunt and uncle and his mom and grandma.  they're all indian.  they were totally cool with us sharing a short message.  so we shared about joseph smith with bro ananda translating sentence by sentence.  they were all capitvated.  it was way quiet and they were really focused.  i was shocked.  at the end bro ananda shared his conversion story and stuff.  i didn't understand anything because it was all in tamil but it seemed good.  we wanted to get out of there but then they kept asking a lot of questions and the mood kind of deteriorated.  some people got distracted and made noise and stuff.  but they did say they wanted to meet again.  one of the uncles is a pastor in a carismatic church and his family is completely devoted to it.  the wife wears the pants there.  he looked like he was really pondering our message but she was just asking a ton of questions like trying to find a problem.  something cool is that he actually found a tamil book of mormon in the garbage can like a month ago.  coincidence? no way.  i hope he felt something different. 

     we have been caught in some crazy rain lately.  the other day we were going along and a huge storm came upon us.  we found shelter underneath an overpass and sat there for about 40 min.  ha ha and then the water on the road was like up to our peddles.  crazy.  later that night we met our branch president out in an area.  we were headed home and it wasn't raining yet.  president ching decided to follow right behind us because he thought it would be hard for cars to see us.  we were about halfway home and the rains came.  oh man it started pouring so hard.  we were instantly soaked.  then a few minutes later my back tire popped.  ha ha freak.  so i just got off and walked it in the rain.  we were like 5 min ride away.  i wasn't getting any wetter so i didn't care.  after the rain let up president made me put my bike in his trunk.  he's a good guy.  ha ha so yeah that must have been punishment for something but i'm not sure what. 

     big news.  there was another emergency transfer.  we're not exactly sure what happened but for some reason they closed down a branch in kuching and elder chin got transferred here to butterworth.  so we are a threesome.  he is awesome.  he is a native of sandakan.  i knew him before he went out.  he has been out since last september.  he can speak malay perfectly and can speak chinese pretty well.  he will be a huge asset here.  he is really funny.

     well that's all for this week.  things are going great.  our knocking efforts are slowly paying off.  the zone is good.  the mission is good.  we have another meeitng in KL in a few weeks.  new missionaries are coming in in a few weeks.  pres is cracking down hard on apostacy.  don't worry i'm in the clear.  we're diligent up here.  oh i was going to say i don't mind sleeping on the couch.  i can sleep on the tile floor now.  there's no carpet here.  tell the stowers to take their time.  like hurry but don't worry.  i know maybe you guys are stressed but i don't really care.  i shouldn't be at the house too much longer.  me and john and chase are really planning to find a house in salt lake. you may have to help us out.  i think it is awesome that you have let so many different people stay at our house.  it's a huge blessing.

     one other thing.  president ching's daughter is serving in the temple square mission.  her name is wendy ching.  her companion is sister cool from australia.  she requested that you bring her down some candy.  i told her i'd pass the message.  she is going to serve in minnesota for six weeks starting friday.  so if you're going down today or tomorrow try to stop by.  if not dont worry.  maybe in november. 

     alright i love you all.  i'll send you pictures next week.  i forgot my camera.  stay strong.  thanks for your love.  thanks for always going to church.  thanks for the emails.  say hi to everyone.  i love you!

elder petersen

Dogs and Texts

oh dear family!

     i'm just in a really good mood right now.  your emails were great this week.  jaynanne thanks for the pictures.  ha ha i crack my self up.  we look so funny.  i can't believe my hair was so long.  awesome.  where did you get those?  yeah spencer send me an email.  i want to know how the date was!  do you have any pictures.  what was her name?  send me a seperate email, ya know a private line.  byu LOST!!!!  ha ha ha oh man i am so happy.  when i heard that news i honestly couldn't believe it.  the score was way too lopsided.  i really wish people here cared so that i could rub it in someone's face.  it's so awesome.  them and their stupid theme.  i think i officially want to go there next year. 

     well it was another great week up here in butterworth.  i've only got a few things to report on.  basically it was just your average week of monotonous work.  i do have a few stories from knocking though. 

Butterworth, Penang, Malaysia

     i might have told you already but last week we knocked a pretty big house.  they had some awesome dogs.  the dogs in malaysia are all terribly dirty and grimy.  these guys had nice golden retrievers.  so they asked us if we wanted to see all of their dogs.  i guess that got us in the door.  there was like 5 chinese kids there.  the 20 year old boy dillon and 16 year old girl christine lived there and the rest were the friends.  they were pretty interested in talking to us.  and of course they wanted a picture with us.  they always do.  well a few days later one of the girls sms'd us and so we asked her if she read the pamphlet and stuff and went to the mormon.org website.  she actually had and she said she chatted with some members online.  sweet.  hopefully they go somewhere.

     another day i was sitting at my desk.  the last missionary had a bunch of quotes and pictures up on the wall.  i cleaned up and threw most of them away.  i took one  picture down and a small scrap of paper with a name and number fell down.  we thought sweet so we called the number and it was still good and eventually we set up an appointment with her.  we went to their house last week and had a good chat with them.  it is a husband and wife and two small children.  about 7 months ago the missionaries knocked on their door and then never really followed up with them.  they were really nice buddhists.  so that was sweet.  hopefully they go somewhere.  that was a sweet small miracle. 

     sometimes, but very rarely, the mission office will send us a referral from the calling center back in utah.  in singapore we got a bunch.  a few days ago the office elders called us and told us that some lady requested a book of mormon.  sweet.  so we wrote down her name address and number.  that's all we had to go off of.  her name was christine and she lived out where we'd been planning on going so that is cool.  we went out to find the house but it was definitely the wrong address.  ha ha we knocked the gate of some chinese lady multiple times.  she was ticked.  she just kept waving her hand saying "don't want don't want".  all we wanted to do was talk to her and find the address.  ha ha so frustrating.  so we tried to ask the neighbor.  the neighbor house was a day care.  as soon as we knocked on their gate about 12 kids ran to the door and all started talking.  we asked for their teacher, who we could see, but she would not come to the door.  she was a malay lady.  we said we just need help finding an address.  then i heard her say in malay "they are lying,  don't listen to them.  i've been sitting here for several days and have seen them walking around.  they don't want an address. tell them you don't know"  then all of the kids turned to us and said "we don't know" in unision.  ha ha it was comical.  we tried to reason with them and told them we weren't lying but to no avail.  so we were just dissappointed that we wouldn't be able to find this referral.  that is when kelley remembered that there was a number, he never told me previously.  so we called the number and a confused girl answered.  i only heard this half of the conversation but there was definite confusion.  so they hung up she she sent an sms.  as we were reading it somehow it all clicked together.  i saw the number and realized that it was the same christine that we contacted earlier in the week with the dogs!  she must have gone online and then requested a book of mormon.  ha ha we just both cracked up laughing.  it all made sense.  so we told her that we had the book and we set up an appointment.  we still haven't met her but we will soon.  ha ha i hope you followed all of that, it was funny. 

Cooking Fried Rice

     we have a sweet investigator named cindy.  the branch president has a food delivery business so he delivers food daily to the nearby condo's.  basically he knows a lot of people and somehow his family became friends with cindy.  she is from ipoh.  she is 22 and a student at the big dental college here.  she's been to a lot of family home evenings and parties and only recently we've had any lessons with her.  our last two lessons were really good.  she had a list of questions on her mind.  the list was like  why did you serve a mission,  have you gained anything,  how long have you been in the church, is there any difference,  is your family really close, would you ever change religions, have you changed, how do you know who the prophet is, and many more i can't think of.  so we've had some good discussions.  she's our best investigator.  we learned that while in india she went to a crazy carismatic church in some basement and it kind of scarred her.  we told her our church isn't like that and she seemed relieved.  she prays and is way smart and is really open so i hope she finds the truth.  she gave us some ear candles last week.  we tried them out.  ha ha i burned myself.  i'll send you a picture.  she also really wants us to experience malaysia and she wants to learn about the u.s.  when we try to dumb stuff down so she will understand it she stops us and tells us to just explain it normal.  ha ha that's not typical of a malaysian.  anyways she's cool.

High Fashion for Pday

Trying out an Indian Ear Candle

     elder dass is in penang and really doesn't want lazy p-days so he's dragging us along.  that's fine with me.  last week we went to the state museum and today we went to a thai buddhist temple and a burmese buddhist temple.  they were sweet.  also he's on a huge mcdonalds craze so we had that for lunch.  it was great.  he's a cool elder i'm happy he's up here.  transfers are next week.  parrish goes home so there'll be a new ap.  i don't think anything will happen to our zone.  friday we get to go to ipoh to do a baptism interview.  should be fun. 

mom tell the relief society sisters that muslims are awesome.  seriously it is a pretty good religion,  if you follow it down to the core.  it is really family oriented.  the only flaw with it is a malaysian law that says if you join you're in for life.  but the people have awesome traditions and are all so friendly.  we contacted  nice muslim man and wife last week.  we usually skip the muslim houses because it is illegal to preach to them but their house wasn't marked.  we talked for like 20 min and he gave us drinks and biscuits.  we're hopefully going out there for dinner soon.  to say muslims are scary is just narrow minded.  anyways pass the message.

     i love you all.  hope you have a good week.  mom did i suck my thumb as a baby.  you must answer this question.  also you never sent me the recipes!  i need saurkraut, hot fudge, and waffles!  don't forget or the johnsons will kill me.  ok have a good week.  say hi to eveybody!

elder petersen 

Looking for the Kingdom Builders

Beautiful Rainbow!

hello,
     ha ha your emails crack me up!  i miss you guys.  thanks for the quotes from coach mac.  there's some good ones in there.  spencer you better send me some pictures from the dance.  i can't believe you got a snow blower dad.  you're becoming a big softy.  that's why weber high is 0 and 3.  i'll look for oskar but we will see conference at least one week late so just let me know where he was sitting.  the story about the stowers and about our cousins just killed me.  so funny.  
     well i don't have too much time so i'll cut to the chase.  this week was pretty good.  last wednesday night we got a call from the top.  they told us that lewis in penang was getting transferred and that he would be replaced by elder dass.  sweet.  so saturday elder dass showed up here.  we're with him right now.  he is funny.  it's good to be with him.  he's ok from the mugging.  we've asked him a few times to tell us everything that happened and it was interesting.  he can't really remember anything.  he just remembers a sharp pain at the back of his head and then he remembers waking up a little and they were going through his pockets.  his companion was only like 20 feet away when it happened he just didn't notice.  so dass stumbled along without a bike or shoes or money until he found a pay phone and called his companion.  he said he passed out a few times on the way.  wow pretty intense.  this kid has had a rough mission.  in every area he has been in he has had troubles.  oh well we're glad to have him up here as long as he doesn't bring bad luck with him.

     well we basically still don't have any investigators.  so we've been doing some serious contacting.  it has actually been fun.  this is the best times i've had on my mission knocking.  usually it is a dreaded thing but not lately.  we've chosen two areas in the town that we thought would be good to go to.  then we've been praying that we can just meet somebody there that has been prepared for us.  then after we get out to the area, but before we start, we pray again.  we've met some interesting people.  we've gone out sometimes with absolutely nothing.  sometimes nobody is interested.  nobody even says hi.  nobody even smiles.  but sometimes people actually do talk to us.  we met this guy the other day named john.  he was totally opposed to us.  he just didn't want to hear about us.  he is like 50 with no wife or kids.  he came out to his gate and just started going off telling us how hard things have been for him.  he has had so many bad experiences with christians.  he said that he will die before he goes to a church again.  his ex had an affair with a married church man, a church has robbed him, and so forth.  so we just let him talk for a while.  after he was done we tried to say a little bit but he would cut us off again.  after a while he started to see that we weren't really arguing with him but that we were agreeing that most christians are in fact hypocrites.  he started saying that last time Christ only had one church and that people have changed his teachings.  we pulled out a pamphlet and showed him that the things he was saying was exactly what we teach.  as he started to tell us more about his past he actually got really emotional.  he started to cry.  i couldn't tell if was sad or felt the spirit.  he took it and said "i guess there's no harm in reading"  we just told him our testimonies and said that he can finally find peace in this church.  then i really did feel the spirit and i know he did.  after a while later he asked us where our church was.  he said "i guess there's no harm in coming to just see"  that was awesome.  he totally mellowed out.  he was still pretty reluctant but we left on a good note.  that was cool.  we met another guy who lived in utah for a little while but doesn't really know much about us.  he has three daughters and is catholic.  hopefully we can meet him again. 

A Lantern for the Lantern Festival

They just wanted our picture

Crazy Branch Mission Leader :)

     another thing i learned this week is that our branch has a lot of struggles.  oh man the branch president and the senior couple told us that we cannot baptize any more people with problems.  they were dead serious.  so we're trying to find "kingdom builders".  last week a member named ruben got his mission call.  he is going to the india bangalore mission.  he was way excited.  his mom and younger sister were even more excited.  ha ha.  he'll be awesome.  
     alright well sorry but that's all for this week.  mom sister johnson wants your saurkraut and hot fudge recipes.  asap.  i love you all.  have a great week!

elder petersen

Starting the "Slump"

hey guys,

     jaynanne i got a few letters.  but not as many as you were saying. don't blame me.  oh man that would have been awesome if usu won!!  i forgot to say elder parrish has a scholarship to play there.  he extended so that he won't be home when the season started.  so he'll start next year.  dad i know what the chains are.  ha ha ha i can just imagine coach mac saying that all the students are pansies.  she was always yelling that at us in PE.  ha ha she is so cool.  it seems only natural for everyone to raise their hand and welcome a new member into the ward.  that's what we do everytime.  one time the conductor forgot to and someone on the stand stopped him and made him.  that's funny. 

     well like i said last time we had zone conference.  our zone is pretty small.  there's only 8 missionaries in 4 cities.  but we combined with the KL zone so it was all of west malaysia.  there was probably about 24 or 26 elders there.  it was a lot of fun to see everybody from KL.  i miss those guys.  PJ2 is still on fire just like i left it.  i was able to see some members from there too.  they are so cool.  they were a lot nicer to me now that i am not down there.  our zone of 8 stayed at the senior couple's big house.  the house used to be a church so it is pretty big.  we played ping pong and stuff.  i met some of them for the first time.  they were all nice but we do have some definite weirdo's in our zone.   ha ha we are the ipoh zone and it's been said that we are the ipoh creepo's.  ha ha very fitting for some.  the browns made us french toast one morning and pancakes the next.  sweet.  the meetings were good.  the assistants actually gave a pretty good training and president's was good like always.  i took a lot of notes.  i really like talking about missionary work.  it is quite inspiring.  actually putting that talk into action is hard.  we have so many low moments that it is frustrating.  oh well we push on.  the meeting went pretty late because the general authorities could only talk to us at night because they gave a youth fireside.  i was happy to see my most recent, recent convert christina at the youth thing.  that's awesome.  she's like 13. i think she had a lot of fun.  elder gong is a really nice guy.  he gave a good talk.  he did this little scout camp type thing where he sad watch close and then said this little ryhme and used his hands and then you had to try to copy him.  i read him like a book.  all you had to do was do the thing and then put your hands together and down at the end.  he asked if anyone wanted to try so i volunteered and nailed it.  i hope i didn't steal his thunder.  nobody else got it for a few minutes.  but then everyone that did know it did it at once and it was pretty obvious and then everyone else finally figured it out.  he read mormon 1:4 or something that says mormon was "quick to observe" and that we all must be quick to observe.  it was good.  the other guy also gave a good talk but i was way sleepy.  he basically said you can't desire baptisms for the sake of success.  you have to desire them out of love for those you teach.  it was a good point.  that night the ap's and the sabah zl's and the singapore zl's slept at the brown's too and we played this game called mafia.  it was a blast.

Beautiful Butterworth Sunset

     the next day was a meeting called zone leader council.  i don't know if i said but me and kelley are zone leaders.  so the zl's from kl butterworth kk and singapore all met up for a training with president and the ap's.  i think it is monthly meeting.  this one was way good.  better than zone conference.  president is a lot more clear and to the point with us because we've been out for a while i guess.  we talked about inviting people to make commitments.  we talked about the difference between administering and ministering.  i can't remember all of the details right now but it was good.  i learned a lot.  at the end they call on a few people to bear their testimony and of course i got called on.  i figured i would be so i was thinking about what i could share.  i just talked about how good it feels to feel the spirit and that the most memorable times i have felt the spirit have been when bearing my testimony or when someone else was bearing their testimony.  i told of two times that we were teaching and felt the spirit so strong.  i also said how awesome it was that my recent converts were at the temple right then.  i still think that is so awesome.  i was brought to tears.  also the night before when elder gong bore his testimony i had a really clear impression.  he was saying how he knew that God and Jesus Christ have bodies of flesh and bone.  right then i just felt that is definitely true.  i could just imagine them both standing up in front of us with elder gong walking around.  it was so clear.  i know that God is real.  He's up there.  it's not just something we theorize about but for sure They live!  i am so thankful for the gospel and i love bearing my testimony about it.  you know those times when you just feel the spirit so strong and you know for sure that that thing is right?  i love that.  later i had a good interview with president clark.  he is pleased with my work so that is good.  i'm really enjoying the mission right now. 

     oh president told us that just the day before that elder dass (remember i served with him in singapore) was riding his bike in kuching and he rode past some guys on the side of the road and they whacked him with a metal bar and he went unconsious and they stole his bike and his money he just got out of the bank.  ha ha nuts.  his companion was just ahead so he didn't notice until it was too late.  dass did get a punch in but they got away and he was hospitalized.  he's good now no problems but sister clark is freaking out.  crazy malaysia.

The shoe shelves at church

     we've been doing a lot of knocking lately but it's ok we've found a few people.  it'll pay off soon.  i have a different view about knocking now a days.  i don't dread it like i used to.  it can be effective if you make it so.  well things are going as good as usual here.  i'm alive, i'm safe, i'm healthy, and we just got a waffle iron!  this morning i beat elder kelley in three games of squash.  it was tiring.  how's the new school year.  how is spencer doing now that he's a big bad junior hey and mollie is also in the middle of her school at 8th grade.  11th grade was so fun.  how's oskar at the top of the totem pole in noe?  don't let it go to his head.  i love you.  the church is true!  love each other.  don't fight.  i'll be back soon.  i heard the mission goes bump(6 months) hump(12 months) and slump(18 months).  i'm on the slump.  before i know it i'll be knocking on the door.  you better be ready.  have a good week!

elder petersen 

Raining...Praise

hello one and all

     wow it sounds like abbie was down and out.  i hope everything is ok now.  you sold my bike?! and didn't tell me?!  and you want to get a car instead?!  tsk tsk i still want a bike but mom is right it does have it's disadvantages.  i got my phone right after bartlett, i was a junior.  mollie there really is no need for one.  you'll just have to start paying money to "the man" earlier than needed.  waste.  sounds cool about joe.  he is dang lucky to serve a day and a half from the temple.  don't worry i will not be a hugger.  well maybe ha ha.  i don't see how a mission can change that.  you are kind of limited to who you can hug.  darren is good.  it was hard to explain the situation.  it is weird mom, but he introduced us to his family.  he's got some real potential.  don't worry though we're not stupid.  i wish i was learning how to cook.  i don't even know how to cook rice.  everyone uses a rice cooker.  how do you cook it in a pot anyways?  i make pretty good instant noodles though i must say.

     this week was pretty good.  it didn't look too good on paper but in the end everything turned out alright.  i ate way too much this week.  the johnson's took us out to dinner at this delicious seafood restaraunt.  i'll send you a picture of the beautiful sunset there.  they also feed us at their house two times a week guaranteed but usually more.  it's killing me.  on monday we ate at a super member's house named bro ananda.  his mom was in town and she helped make her special mutton.  his wife is an amazing cook.  she stuffed us with tons of rice and chicken curry and fried chicken and curry puffs and fruit and veggies.  i couldn't move after i was done eating.  it's pretty sweet.  we have to be diligent in our exercises though that's for sure. 

     on friday the assistants came up.  elder evanson went to penang and parrish came and stayed with us.  he was with us all friday and saturday and left after church sunday.  it was fun.  he is a really cool guy and a really good missionary.  unfortunately we didn't have many appointments for him but he is a pro contacter.  we took some pointers.  

BB with the locals

after tracting all day saturday we saw a bunch of chinese kids playing basketball.  parrish really wanted to play so we ended up challenging them to a game.  they were pretty apprehensive mostly because we were tall but we finally talked them into it.  we played three on three.  we dominated them.  ha ha if i held it above my head there was no way they could reach it.  but they were good shooters.  we won the first game easily.  so we said they could play four on three.  so they changed out players and got the four best.  we had a good lead but they closed the lead.  don't worry though we still dominated.  it was a lot of fun.  elder kelley almost blew it.  he's not the best at basketball but he did rattle in two good shots.  it was mostly parrish.  he's good. 

     it rained all week.  wow we got soaked.  three nights out of a four day period we came home soaked to the bone.  it was seriously as if we jumped in a pool.  just imagine biking in a huge rain storm.  crazy.  everyone thought we were going to get sick.  ha ha we're not malaysian.  they are so scared of the rain.  it is still hot here and during the day we do dry off pretty well.  it must officially be the rainy season now. 

     ever since day one here we've been receiving praise.  the johnson's have just been saying to everyone how good we are.  they say, "now these are hard working elders" we're no different then your average elder.  but on sunday our branch president called us in to his office and said "i want to thank you guys for working so hard." he said "you guys are out working hard every day despite the weather and everyone likes you"  ha ha so maybe we do appear to be diligent.  also can.  i think just their praise alone makes me be more diligent because i want to prove them right.  i'd say we do work a lot.  this area is definitely struggling but we are trying our best to turn it around and we have big hopes for it.

     monday was a landmark day.  in sandakan the weilands organized a temple trip. about 10 young women went and it was all their first time ever.  they've been trying to raise money for a while and i guess they got their goal.  included was rayne, rainah, rinijah, and their mom from the ning family.  that is so awesome.  it is bittersweet though because i wish it was their whole family.  they were baptized just over one year ago and they should be getting sealed.  the dad is inactive now.  i called up president weiland and we had a good chat.  he said that the family is as solid as ever.  that makes me so happy.  the little boy jasli is almost 12 and will recieve the priesthood soon.  pres said that now he can read malay.  last year he did not know how to read.  he is reading the book of mormon to learn.  awesome!

     zone conference is tomorrow.  on monday night i got in a bus and rode down to singapore for a visa run.  wow that was one of the worst experiences of my mission.  ha ha it was awful.  the bus was really crappy and cold and it took 14 hours to get there.  5 more than i expected.  i'll have to tell you about it later.  in singapore i went to the airport with everyone to greet elder schone.  if you remember he was critically injured last november and went home.  well he's back now.  he's had a bunch of surgeries and is still on meds i think.  but he's doing good.  president had kidney stones last weekend and had the possibility of surgery but luckily he didn't need.  singapore just felt like home.  seriously it felt good.  so clean, efficient buses, lots of cool elders, and good food.  it just seemed so familiar.  i didn't really get to do much though.  i got your package!!  thanks for the food.  thanks for the letter jaynanne.  the journals are awesome.  they are really nice.  thanks a lot.  i don't know if i can fill two more though.  i'll have to continue after my mission. 

Elder Rathnayake

i saw elder rathnayake for probably the last time.  he is a really nice elder from sri lanka.  i replaced him when i went to sandakan.  he can't stay in malaysia for very long so he's been in singapore for the last 15 months.  he was there all six months i was there.  i really like him.  he is like 27 i think.  he is the only member of the church in his family.  actually his family doesn't know he's on a mission.  actually his family doesn't know he is a christian.  ha ha.  he is an inspiration.  he is really nice and a really hard worker.  i hope one day i can meet him again.  


now i am in KL.  like i said tomorrow is zone conference.  elder gong from the 70 and someone from the young men general presidency is coming.   it should be pretty good. 

     well sorry this letter is so long and random.  i feel like i rambled a lot.  hope you followed it.  i checked out the old blog.  it looks awesome!  good work mom.  can you email me the password so i can add some stuff?  i love you all.  thanks for your support and prayers.  say hi to everyone.  i'll report on what profound things president tells us at zone conference.  until next week!

     elder petersen

Round-a-bout's and crazy traffic...

greetings from butterworth!

     well this week was packed with stuff.  your emails were great.  i'll give you the b-town rundown in a minute.  it's a bummer i'm missing out on all the back to school excitement.  it sounds like the world is still in chaos.  cool.  you never told me about adam but steffanie did in a letter.  that is a strange situation.  tell him good luck.  i hope it is all good in the end.  yeah find me a car that'd be awesome.  i'll take the cheapest oldest thing you can find.  preferrably stick shift.  whatever happened to my motorcycle.  OF COURSE I WANT TO RUN THE HALF MARATHON WITH YOU!! i didn't know it was so hard to get into.  get me there.  that race sounded way fun.  say hi to the stowers for me.  i don't know how you can share the gospel with that lady.  you can just ask her what the best part about temple square was.  tell her you thought she might like a certain article and then email her a link to some talk or mormon.org story.  or mention that you just finished emailing me and then say what i'm doing and where i'm at.  anything can.  i think it would be perfect for jaynanne to be a dental assistant. 

     alright first of all happy birthday to mom in advance in case i forget next week.  you're awesome.  my new companion is elder kelley.  he went to freemont.  actually he was in mine and thomas's racketball class at wsu.  cool huh?  we didn't really talk back then but i did find out he was going to this mission and then when he was in the mtc i emailed his mom and she told me a lot of info that i never recieved in the mail.  he was also my district leader in singapore.  he is in the group right ahead of me so he goes home in january.  we are the only two missionaries here.  there are two on penang island that are included in our district. 

ruby and sivam right after ruby's baptism

also the johnson's live over here really close to us.  they are an awesome senior couple.  they are so nice and she is a great cook.  they are perfect for this branch.  they're the perfect mom and dad type for the branch.  after every meal they have root beer floats.  she was a principle in a park city elementary school and he was in real estate.  we don't have so many investigators but we did have a baptism on sunday before church.  it was a one legged lady named ruby.  we had three people in the font to help baptize her.  pretty epic.   

this area is pretty similiar to sandakan but on the other hand it is way different.  the people here are equally as poor.  but it is a different people.  most people know english here.  everyone here is indian or chinese.  our branch is mostly indian.  they all speak tamil and i don't know what's going on.  or the chinese speak their dialects and i don't know what's going on.  ha ha so still a huge language barrier like in KL.  but with the different races there comes a lot of good food.  wow i've eaten so much this past week.  ha ha i'm definitely going to put on weight.  every elder that comes here does.  oh well i need it i guess.  also every elder that i know that has served here has absolutely loved it.  to some it was their favorite area.  the elders you might know from the list include elder thomas, hawkins, hunt, and christensen about a year ago there was a cool elder here named elder peterson.  ha ha so everybody tells me about him after i tell them my name is petersen.  i might have to think of a nick name for me.  this is a biking area so now for the first time i am on a bike.  ha ha no good.  i was so sore last week.  it's getting better but we go pretty far and i'm not in biking shape.  also i have a terrible bike.  i'm thinking about buying one but right now i'm using an old elder's for free.  it is really tall.  but the brakes stick and the chain skips a lot.  oh well.  you get a lot more rest on the bus.  i was wiped out the first few days.  also the traffic is crazy!  i won't tell you everything mom but i almost got taken out by a big truck on the freeway yesterday ha ha.  the round-a-bouts are pretty fun.  we made our way through a big three laned one yesterday.  it's a mad dash. 

for as much as people really like this area it is struggling.  the average attendence on sunday is around 40 and the baptisms are few and far inbetween.  we hope to change that.  i think that's about it.  do you have any specific questions?  it looks like i'll probably die here.  i think it will be good. 

     i just wanted to mention a cool kid we met last week.  his name was darren.  he is pretty funny.  last wednesday we walked out of the internet kedai and were unlocking our bikes when these two kids came up to us.  they just asked us where we were from.  both were indian, about 12, and didn't know that much english.  but they knew enough.  darren said that he has seen us before.  we weren't sure but we humored him.  we gave them our card and stuff.  they both got on their bikes and followed us a little bit.  we seperated and went and ate and got a hair cut.  then he called us and told us to meet him at our church.  so we biked down there and met him.  ha ha he didn't really have anything to say, he just wanted to follow us.  so they went shopping with us.  darren kept saying that he wanted us to go to a studio and get a picture with him.  that's what a lot of people do here.  we told him we'd go with him but he had to come to church first.  he said he was busy and wouldn't be able to come for a few weeks.  so anyways he called us like every 20 min that day.  we weren't expecting it but on sunday he showed up to sacrament meeting.  ha ha wow.  he came in late and sat by elder kelley.  the first thing he said to me is when are we going to the studio?  ha ha.  he was really nice and talked to all of the members even though he is so young.  hopefully good things will come.  we took a picture on my camera so i think that will suffice for the studio thing.  i think he just wants a white friend.  also can.

Elder Christensen's Brother, Me, Darren, Elder Kelley

      elder thomas finished his mission here with elder christensen.  i replaced elder christensen.  from friday night to monday morning christensen was here with his mom and younger brother and sister.  they went around visiting a lot of members and what not.  we went with them to a few houses.  his family was really nice.  they brought american candy and stuff for all of the kids.  on sunday elder christensen got to help with the baptism.  as he was here i thought of how fun it would be to bring you guys around here and to my old areas.  man that would be so fun.  think about it.  it might be better than a big vacation that summer.  i know it is way expensive.  even if dad came alone or with just jaynanne or spencer it would be fun.  keep that in mind next spring.  if not then we'll have to come back in a few years.

     i think it is really exciting that abbie got that job.  but it sounds difficult.  i can't believe you're teaching ap us gov.  i think that is pretty hard class.  good luck.  take it seriously.  a lot of kids really want to pass that test to get college credit so make sure you teach them everything.  ha ha no pressure though.  as a senior i had a pretty easy schedule.  i took just regular basic us gov.  ha ha easiest class ever.  the teacher was not that good.  and i already knew everything he taught us.  we just read from the constitution and filled out worksheets and just learned the duties of the branches of government.  we looked at some supreme court cases and made our own constitutional rulings.  anyways so easy.  good luck.

     well that's about it today.  we saw a mcdonalds a few days ago so we're going to go try and find it.  hopefully we don't get lost again.  i've been here a week and kelley's been here three weeks.  it's the blind leading the blind.  i missed out on the annual start of school blessings.  that's sad.  your letters were great.  i'm glad they brought mom the sacrament.  i remember doing that each week.  it was pretty fun.  everyone we went to was really grateful but it's good to hear it first hand from mom.  i love you.  have a good week.

here's my address.  send me some small mail here as a test run. 

     26-08 Jalan Harbour Place

     Pangsapuri Parkview

     Bagam Dalam

     Butterworth Penang 12100

     West Malaysia

     elder petersen

ps do you have any pictures from camp loll?  send me some!

The Testimonies of Three

hello family,

     thank you for your email.  spencer is..the man!! ha ha it sounds like he had some good times up at loll.  just you talking about it made me want to be there.  delose is so awesome.  i remember him using that line about deferring the decisions but i don't remember what he says.  i just remember jody talks about being bald and they all comment.  ha ha they're quick.  tell spencer to write down a few cool things that happened so that he can remember to tell me next year.  the story about mom trying to sleep was so funny.  ha ha i can totally imagine her being so jumpy.  thanks for sending the talk.  it was really good.  seriously it almost brought me to tears.  as you talked about your experience on the plane i thought of all the times i really felt the spirit while bearing my testimony.  it just feels so good.  it's hard to describe but it's the kind of feeling you want over and over. 

     well this week was so awesome!  i can't even tell you everything that happened.  there was so much.  we had a baptism!!  we baptized a man named Raju and two of his children named Christina 13 and Ruben 11.  they are a referral family from an awesome member.  that alone is a good story.  basically she knocked on their door, not knowing them, and asked them if they wanted to learn about the church.  anyways at the beginning of the week we weren't exactly sure if the baptism would go through or not.  they have a lot of challenges including money, work and transportation.  we were really praying for them.  we met them more than usual so that we could keep them on track.  well saturday they had their interviews and were all set for baptism on sunday.  the mom and the oldest son weren't ready to get baptized yet.  they haven't learned enough and they are not quite as eager.  well the mom and son both made arrangements so that they could make it to the baptism before church and stay for one hour of church.  we were pumped.  

saturday night we put a little bit of water in the font and were planning to put more in on sunday morning.  the font is really small.  the engineers of the building say that the font will be too heavy and will break through the floor of the 2nd story that we're on.  they tell us not to have it filled for very long.  so sunday morning we woke up extra early and went down to the church by 7:30.  we filled the rest of our tiny font up.  members started to trickle in and then the family came.  the mom and son actually came!  it was so cool.  surprisingly too a lot of members came.  i was so proud of our branch and of how many people turned out to support this struggling family.  at the same time that elder maughan was reaching over to turn off the font that was filling up, the bottom ring of the portable font broke.  the pressure was too great.  it was bad.  it put a lot of pressure on the remaining top ring.  if that broke too then the water would flood the church and the floors below.  we'd be done.  so the branch president and maughan and i used some ribbon from a flower arrangement and tied together as best we could.  it was sketchy but it would have to do. 

we had a good baptism program.  the talks were good and short and everyone was quiet.  the baptisms didn't go as well.  ha ha oh boy.  the dad was first.  he is a big indian man.  elder reeves was the guy for the job.  like i said the font was pretty small so the water only came up to about my mid thigh, and this man was scared of water.  every time he went down his feet would come up or he would fight it and keep his head up.  by the fifth time reeves kept him down.  we're pretty sure this is the first time in this man's life that he has been fully submerged in water.  ha ha later the dad said, "the water..is..suffocating!"  ha ha yeah that's why we told you to plug your nose.  the kids went fine.  so since the baptism was before church we were able to do the confirmations in sacrament meeting.  it went great.  the mom had to leave early but she told us that she really enjoyed it and liked church, it was the first time she came.  so that is really good.  church was great.  we had so much food after.  there was a feast because of the baptism and because i'm getting transferred.  oh yeah i got transferred.  i had to bear my testimony in church.  i'm really going to miss this branch.  they are so diligent in their callings and in missionary work.

     sunday afternoon we went to say goodbye to one of our favorite families, sister amy and brother lim.  amy and her son were baptized in may and brother lim and the two daughters have not yet been baptized but they really enjoy the church.  we go to their house every friday for good food and a lesson.  bro lim has been going to church as long as amy has but he's had some big challenges to overcome.  first he was the top dog in a big tea company so that conflicted with the word of wisdom.  miraculously about a month ago he quit that job so that he could keep that commandment even though he's not a member.  wow amazing!  the second challenge is his mom and his buddhist traditions.  he has a lot of duties as oldest son and he doesn't want to offend his mother in the sunset of her life.  after eating, we had a great lesson with them.  last time we talked all about the atonement and so we were planning on finishing the 2nd half of the plan of salvation.  it went really well as we went through and explained everything.  we helped him resolve some concerns.  right at the end elder maughan just started to bear his testimony about the importance of getting baptized and going to the temple.  he said "brother lim we love you and your family so much and we want to see you at the temple."  he couldn't say that without choking up and crying.  in turn brother lim got teary.  i also got teary.  i bore my testimony in the importance of doing what we need to here on earth so that in the next life we can have eternal happiness.  even the greeney gave an awesome testimony about the book of mormon.  everyone was really quiet and just really listening.  it was an awesome moment.  i could feel the spirit so strong.  we didn't harp on him and ask for the umpteenth time for him to get baptized.  we just asked him to read a chapter the book of mormon and pray about it.  i gave them a picture that we took a few weeks earlier of their whole family and i gave bro lim a tie.  he was pretty thankful.  well we took another picture and said bye.  i will really miss them.  

after that we walked over to raju's house to say bye to him and his children.  the mom was at work but they were all very happy to see us.  they miss me already.  i gave ruben and raju a tie and we took a picture.  they just seemed so happy.  they have changed in the short time that i've known them.  they were so quiet and sad the first time we met them but now they were all smiles and telling us how good they feel.  i hope they stay strong in the church.  it'll be the only thing that will keep them happy.

 monday morning i transferred up north to a small town called Butterworth.  google map it.  it was a long lonely bus ride.  there is a famous island off the west coast of malaysia called penang island.  butterworth is right across from it on the main land.  so far so good.  everybody that has served here has loved it.  thomas and hawkins both served here for long amounts of time and loved it so i think it'll be ok.  well tuesday morning i got a call from elder maughan back in KL.  he had some good news for me.  he said that a few minutes earlier that sister amy called him.  he asked if he could call her back because he was in a meeting but she insisted.  she told him that brother lim really thought about the things we shared and he wants to get baptized and his daughters too!  i am so excited to hear that!  maughan is going to meet them tonight to talk about it. he told me that they want it as early as this sunday.  it will probably have to wait until next sunday because they have to be taught a few more things.  that is so awesome.  like i said i'll really miss that area. 

     well there's tons more that i could write but my letter is already too huge.  i'll have to report on butterworth next week.  supposedly there is a lot of good food here so i might put on some weight.  thanks for elder kersey's letter.  dang he has a way with words.  i'm not as good of a writer as him but i promise you i have had unforgettable experiences on my mission.  i love being out here.  i love sharing about the gospel with families who need and are seeking this knowledge.  nothing is better than to see a family learn about the gospel and then to see changes in their lives as they follow it.  it makes it all worth it.  i hope you have a good week.  i look forward to hearing from you again next week.  tell mom i love her too even if she is on drugs.  ha ha say hi to everyone.

elder petersen