Investigators Attendance

hey...

     well, well interesting email dad.  thanks for the pictures jaynanne ha ha classic.  i'm always so surprised at how young i look.  i think back and i felt old at that time.  right now i feel old but i'll look back later and look really young in all my mission pictures.  i can't believe what's going on back there.  sounds crazy.  i hope everything is alright. i can't believe you went to a jazz game.  i have written down in my notes here to ask you about going to a jazz game.  do you think you can get me and thomas a ticket for may?  or me and you?  or maybe i should ask brett haha.  that would be awesome.  ha ha dad you can't make me any more trunky than i am.  ha ha i am completely ready for american food!  i haven't been eating exotic food, just a lot of rice and bland foods ha ha.  actually last week was the end of the month and me and brodie still had a bunch of money left so we went to pizza hut.  we got the combo meal which was 2 regular pizza's and 4 soups and a pitcher of pepsi.  we downed it.  so good.  and on monday we had our usual big mac monday and i got the mega mac.  wow so good.  ha ha so yeah basically my stomach can handle anything.  it better not be oatmeal.  but ice cream and hot fudge is like number 1 priority.  oh man i was looking forward to going to the fast sunday.  plus i want to hear you give your talk.  oh man.  oh well

Sandakan Family

    
   well yeah this past week was alright.  it was only the second full week of 2012 that i've been in my area.  so it was weird.  but we got a lot done.  well come to think of it i can't think of anything specific. ha ha but everybody is doing pretty good.  we finally sorted through all of the sister's old investigators.  it is weird to only have to missionaries sini.  it's just like, i don't know, quiet.  some of their investigators were garbage that we quickly sifted out, but they actually gave us some really, really cool people.  this sunday was even better than the last.  we had a whopping 16 investigators at church!!  wow.  kk hasn't had that much since 2010.  also we had the highest attendence since the Larsons got here 18 months ago.  kk1 had 75 and for the second week in a row and the second time only kk2 had more than kk1 with an all time high of 79 making for a total of 154 total in kk.  that is awesome!  i hope we can sustain it.  district conference is coming up in two weeks and i think we should have quite a few people here for that.  also sandakan and tawau are coming over.  it should be sweet.

FHE in Sandakan

Tamparuli Market...Mt Kinabalu in background

     a few days ago we decided to try out a new restaraunt for lunch and to our great surprise they were playing a live nba basketball game on a huge flat screen tv.  ha ha also can.  we watched a quarter of the lakers whooping the timberwolves.  it was so cool.  i haven't seen that level of basketball in a long time.  it was cool to see.  dad you gotta get me to the energy solutions arena!

Suspension Bridge between Villages

Peter helping me at the Upside Down House

     two sundays in a row this deaf guy has come to church.  last week  the sisters never got his number so there was no getting a hold of him.  sunday he came again so i didn't let him get away.  his name is simon.  on monday we went over to his house with a member.    simon is very flamboyant ya know but he's cool.  he's like 30+ and unmarried.  basically he can't hear what anyone says right so he walks to the beat of his own drum.  he wears pretty tight shirts and is a little bigger ha ha.  but he was so excited to see us.  it was hard to communicate with him.  basically he doesn't know malay that well.  just sign language.  but we wrote out the lesson line by line on paper.  he told us he knows sister ritchie, harrison, and petty.  that was quite a while.  apparently his parents weren't too happy that he met with them. but recently they both died.  so he immediately came to church.  can.  when we asked him if he wanted to be baptized he just lit up.  he was so excited.  so that is great.  i hope he can get a friend at church but even if he doesn't, i think he'll keep coming.

Upside Down House in Rumah Terbalik

     oh man i can't think of anything else to write.  i'm running out of interesting things.  basically things are going good here.  we're just doing the same old same old that i've been doing for the past 2 years.  oh president clark had a heart attack.  he didn't pass out or anything.  basically he was on a ten mile run with his buddy in singapore and he felt some pain in his chest.  he walked the rest.  he went home showered got ready etc and then drove down to the hospital.  when they ran some tests they told him he definitely had a heart attack.  his artery was 95 percent closed.  despite him being extremely healthy this condition was genetic.  his father died of a heart attack at about the same age president is now.  but being in shape helped him.  so they had a stint put in and now he's doing good.  we're supposed to meet him tomorrow in miri sarawak but he can't come.  elder perkins, the asia area president, is touring the mission.  so the ap's are in charge.  oh great.  president's a boss.  nothing can keep him down. 

Nuf Sed

     lately i've been reading this one teaching's of the presidents of the church book wilford woodruff edition.  it is really interesting.  he had a crazy life.  it's good.  um what else.  i've been trying to keep my journal up to date but keep falling behind.  people here are talking about the hunger games.  i'll have to read it when i get home.  yeah well that's about all i got this week.  i promise next week will be better.  or maybe i'll just keep all of my stories so that i have something to tell you when i get home.  i feel like we might just have a lot of awkward silences when i get home cause i have nothing to tell you that i haven't already.  hey i read that talk on grace like 3 times.  it was awesome!!  wow so good.  actually the guy was in elder brodie's bishopric back at byu.  he says he is a way good speaker.  cool.  thanks for the talk.  it is inspiring. it really put things in perspective.  i mean nobody is perfect but that doesn't mean we give up.  we just try again.  it was a good message.  i want to hear your comments too.

     hey what is the popular music there?  i need to be up to date when i get home.   basically

Borneo Homesteads

 right now we've got adele somebody like you, katty perry the one that got away, stereo hearts, sexy and i know it, and yeah that's about it.  oh and love you like a love song.  are any of these still played over there?  i heard t swift has some new songs.  true or not?  let me know

     well don't worry i'm still working like crazy.  i'm having the biggest numbers i've had on my whole mission, except for baptisms.  but i feel like i'm really making a difference anyways.  the branch is strong.  we're not going to slow down.  the church is absolutely true.  thanks for your support.  i 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

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

KK Shake up

hey fam bamily

     it's good to hear from you.  that is awesome that kolton is set apart.  i won't see that kid for a really long time...oh well ha ha.  wow.  i wasn't nearly as sick as you but i've been really down lately.  like i'm fine but my bowels aren't.  nothing is staying in me if you know what i'm saying.  ha ha.  sheesh.  it's not fair that i get to sleep downstairs?  ha ha.  why would you want to sleep down there.  i'll trade any of them for an actual room to my self upstairs.  ha ha well maybe.  actually probably not.  nice already planning a trip for when i get home.  that's what i'm talking about.  i think i would rather do southern utah.  anything can though.  wow steffanie april 10 eh? that's close to me.  like dad says hopefully we don't speak on the same sunday.  i want to hear what she has to say.  that's sweet.  you wouldn't believe it but i do hear a little bit about the election over here.  from what i can see there is a lot of low shots.  it seems like it would happen everytime but it seems like until there is one canidate that the party is all divided.  seems counter productive.  it seems like romney is in the lead.  true or not?  oh well i don't really care right now.  seriously sister song replaced sister wong ha ha.  dad your band foto is a crack up.  you just do not get embarrassed do you?  haha i can just hear spence asking nathaniel who he likes. that is funny.  hey don't let me coming home stop you from going out camping.  i'll just meet you guys at the house.  in fact, my friend can just pick me up.  i'll hold down the fort until you get done with the vacation.  seriously don't let me stop you.  i know what you're saying about the ward boundaries thing.  it is a big problem here and especially in singapore.  but it is different.  here the concern is where does a recent convert attend church.  with the friend that referred them or in their boundry?  president clark says every time it is better that they go with their friend for at least a year plus.  then eventually of course they must go to their geographical assignment.  the singapore stake pres kind of disaggrees.  here in malaysia though pres clark is the law so that's what we do.  my question is this.  should a ysa be required to go to the single's ward.  i just told thomas my post mission plans and he said he didn't know yet if he was going to the home or the single's ward.  well i feel like we should go to which ever one we can actually help.  after serving with a bunch of flaky members i just really wish that they would go where they were supposed to and i've always been extremely thankful for the members that were strong and added to the branch.  i think the single's ward would definitely welcome us.  but is it required? nope don't really want anything for my birthday. 

     well this last week was crazy.  like you knew hawkins went home.  so me bradley and laycock pal'd around for the week.  at the start of the week, we went to singapore like i told you.  then at the end of the week we tried to see all of the recent converts and investigators between the two areas.  on saturday morning disaster struck.  we were waiting and waiting for the assistants to call.  they were supposed to tell us transfer news.  i'm zone leader so i find out early right.  we expected somebody to come be with bradley and then a zone leader to replace laycock.  nope.  elder bradley got transferred to JB and elder laycock got transferred to Sibu Jaya.  Elder Brodie was coming up here.  so yeah that's the scoop.  only two elders up here.  sucks.  oh well.  should be good.  laycock and bradley are going to two awesome areas.  the rest of the empty zone leader positions in east malaysia got filled up with some really awesome elders.  so that is sweet. the real disaster is that me and brodie are going to cover kk2 not kk1. so i have to give the sisters everything i had going including the amazing flora.  nooooo.  and now we have no investigators and we are in the smaller branch and the non christian part of the city.  oh man!!  it's alright though.  from what i heard elder brodie is really sweet and a hard worker so i see big things soon.

Elder Brodie

     after transfer news we were pretty unmotivated to work because i didn't want to work in the sisters' area and the other two were leaving.  but you know me, we went out and worked anyways.  luckily that night we had a baptism.  it was a cool guy named Jerni.  he is indonesian.  he is really short.  maybe 23.  he is actually a gardener for the church and the sisters contacted him one rainy day when they ran to the church for cover.  so cool story.  also to top that off our recent convert elly baptized him.  me and laycock were so proud.  he had to do it a few times but he eventually got it.  awesome! elly's family came to watch so we had a lot of investigators there as well.   really cool.

     so this morning really early both the kids left and i went on splits with our bml.  elder brodie just got here.  he's cool.  i don't know the other branch at all though.  i don't know the area or the members.  there are no investigators.  so i don't know what we will do the next few days.  ha ha.  pray for me. oh and brodie has to go on a visa run friday.   ha ha oh man.  so yeah that's all i got today.  the last week was really fun.  i really like my son.  elder Laycock is so cool.  i got so lucky to get a good greenie.  and i got to be companions with elder bradley.  he is also awesome.  last night before we fell asleep we were just talking about all the funny random things that have happened in the past 3 months.  i've loved my time here. i hope the next three months is good too. 

     for my birthday...i don't really need anything.  i'm sick of junk food.  i don't really want money either.  if you give me money tell me something specific that i must buy with it.  even if it is as small as one ringgit or as big as 200 ringgit.  if you don't i won't get anything. i love you guys.  have fun back home.  i'll come crash the party soon!

elder petersen

Wong Song New Year

hey family.

     thanks for all the awesome emails.  no need to work dad.  ha ha.  i don't even know where to start finding a job and this could be the last free summer of my life.  but i agree i've got to eventually find something.  it would be a blast to go back east with you.  but it does seem potentially boring.  you'll have to make it sound more enticing.  what else could we do.  i would be great with sleeping at koa's.  maybe just leave the girls home.  yeah, the hike, in the Teton's, it's brutal.  if we did the same as i did that one time it was nearly 50 miles.  50 steep miles.  i was dead.  oh man i can just imagine oskar ha ha and i can just imagine you walking into that bathroom and laughing at him.  i would.  well that's too bad that you were all sick.  GO UTES!!  i don't even know how the presidential primaries work.  maybe you could explain that to me.  ok the last thing is my ipod touch, guitar, and bed.  it's not that big of a deal but seriously all three of those were gifts to me.  like if someone recieves a gift that means they own that thing right?  and these are all not cheap things.  if there is some sort of replacement then ok that's fine but you can't just up and take them.  not cool.  i'll admit the bed, not a big deal.  the guitar, i never played but i could sell it, it's really nice.  the ipod on the other hand, that is definitely mine.  on all three of those birthdays that is basically the only thing i got.  think about it. 

New Year's Eve with members

     well yup this was a pretty good week.  first was transfers.  one of the assistants went home, and like 4 zone leaders.  president clark did something new and he called four assistants.  two are specifically for east malaysia and two for west.  interesting.  they are pretty good guys.  i'll be honest i really like the assistants in west malaysia.  oh well.  so there was no other transfers this week.  there's just a few three-somes including us here in kk.  next week a new group comes in so there will be transfers then.  pretty sure laycock is gone and two guys will come up here.  i should probably get put with an older missionary.  hopefully.  also a sister from singapore got transferred here.  her name is sister song.  she's pretty cool but really no one could replace sister wong.  i got a few letters from back home.  one was from the johnson's.  it was great.  tell them thanks a lot.  i can't believe joe is getting married. do you know when?  crazy.  also i got a letter from the bowdens with a bunch of letters from the primary inside.  they were so funny.  i was going to type them all out for you but i forgot to bring them to the internet kedai.  next time.  mikell manning's was so funny.  she said people were going crazy there.  i just remembered that my driving liscense expires on my birthday.  can you please check and see if you can extend it three months or something.  i don't want to have to reapply for anything.  please.

     on monday sister wong and hawkins died.  actually it was kind of sad.  we've been joking about it for a long time but i can't believe the day actually came.  we went out to the airport with them and with a bunch of members.  looking back i've been in the same city as hawkins since last april except for a short time in butterworth.  definitely one of the missionaries i've been around the longest.  i really like him.  we've had a lot of fun together.  high quality guy.  well that will be me soon.  i don't want to go home.  i'll try not to think about it for three months.  

tuesday we went on a visa run.  it was great.  we got to eat carl's jr and see some of the sights.  in the evening we went to the webb's.  they are so awesome.  they were happy to see me and they gave us awesome american food.  they gave me an update on michelle.  i don't know if you even remember her but we spent a lot of time with them teaching her.  she is from china and after being baptized she went back to china.  she miraculously found the church there thanks to bishop neff from the expat ward.  it's kind of a hush hush thing so i thought she would never find it.  

i'm so happy she is attending.  she is a pioneer for that country.  she is planning to meet the webbs in hong kong in the summer and go to the temple to do baptisms.  that would be so so so awesome.  i hope it works out.  i can't even tell you how excited i am to hear the news.  i love the webbs. we just got back from singapore so that is why i'm emailing so late.  somehow we got the hookups and on one of our four flights we took singapore airlines.  ha ha it was so nice!  i think it is pretty expensive.  thank you sister garret!

     We have this one really miraculous investigator.  i might have already told you about her.  oh well.   Her name is Flora. She is a co-worker of Peter Wong who is in the branch presidency and about to go on his mission to Texas. 

Singapore Merlion

She has been having some big trials in her life and Peter said, "if you want to find peace follow me" and brought her to church. Ever since we miraculously met her at Lawrence's baptism she's been on fire. That night she read the lesson 1 pamphlet over and over until 2 am. Since then she watched the restoration dvd back to back three times and as read moroni 10 serveral times taking notes on everything. She told us it was true. She told us that she was receiving some opposition from her family but she followed the example of Joseph in the dvd who didn't retaliate or lash back at the preachers for mocking him. She just told us that she knows that what she has read is definitely true. We asked her if she would like to prepare for baptism on the first week of february but she said "actually I think I can do it in one month" so she moved it to January 28th. Awesome! Our biggest problem now is that the sisters want to steal her from us.

     well i love it over here.  thanks for all of the support and help.  say hi to everybody back home.  i got some pictures from bradley mccann and i did not recognize him.  have i changed that much?  i feel like i look the exact same.  john told me i look more lanky.  ha ha my new year's resolution is to gain weight.  ok stay healthy.  kalau kamu rasa sakit, jangan jauh lagi dari tandas!

elder petersen

A Perfect Day...Merry Christmas

merry christmas!!

     i love you guys.  oh man monday was so awesome to talk to you.  thanks for the great letter dad.  happy birthday old man.  i'll be there for the big 5-0.  sorry you guys were all sick.  that sucks.  ha ha i can only help but think back to two years ago when i was there.  oh man i was so sick.  the worst in my life.  it all started with a big mac right before a temple session with dad in ogden.  ha ha it's a miracle i'll even eat big mac's these days.  i hope jaynanne likes wsu.  college is seriously easier than high school.  but more important.  don't get too lazy.  i can't wait to be there for next christmas.  sounds like you had a good one.  sounds like church was good too.  i know what you're saying about crying during the hymn.  ever since being on my mission i've become just a big baby.  ha ha if the moment is right i'm quick to cry.  feels good though.  i can only imagine going to a sacrament meeting with some good singing. 

     i don't know what to say.  i said it all while talking to you.  seriously. i ran out of things to say ha ha.  but i'll think of something.  let's see.  well even though i already told you i'll tell you what we did christmas day.  church started at 10 with both branches combined.  so we got up at normal time and got ready.  the other elders opened their packages from their families but i was impatient and opened it last wednesday.  they didn't really get anything cool.  especially compared to my awesome package! ha ha.  

Elders Laycock, Petersen & Pres. Francis Simon

   the sacrament service was really awesome.  the larson's spoke with a translator.  it was so good.  i really really like them.  i hope we can stay in touch.  their talks were tear jerking.  then the district president gave a really good talk.  but right in his talk he said santa wasn't real.  ha ha.  i don't know if any kids were listening but he assured the parents not to worry.  ha ha.  he is a good guy.  after that we thought church was over.  the last we heard is that church would only be the first hour and then after that everyone would go out and visit less actives.  well since that was the news we spread, most people left.  everyone forced us back into the classes for the other two meetings.  so there was only like 20 of us or so.  ha ha oh well.  after sunday school i did a quick baptism interview.  for the third hour we combined and watched the 1st presidency christmas devotional.  it was awesome.  really really good.  president monson seemed so old in it.  there was a cool video in there of Christ's birth.  you should look it up online.  after church we were planning on going around to deliver cookies to our recent converts and some awesome members.  our ride ditched us so we asked the kk1 branch pres.  he was leaving town right after church so he couldn't.  we asked the kk2 branch pres and he said...also can.  ha ha.  

Christmas Trees?

so we went around and delivered all of the cookies me and laycock made along with a few pictures of us.  it was a hit.  we also caroled two songs at every house in malay.  awesome success.  we were able to hit 22 houses.  president chuah was a miracle.  it was a great christmas.  then we went home and played that card game you sent me after planning.  perfect day. :)

    

   oh yeah so those pictures are from the christmas party.  the four of us were decorated as christmas trees.  it was a competition.  it was pretty funny actually.  the members got really into it but there's only so much you can do so we basically all looked the same.  the christmas party was really fun.  it was on friday night. there were a ton of less actives there and actually we got a lot of investigators there.  let's see.  seriously my package was awesome.  easy cheese is awesome.  the two games are great.  the candy is all good, no lame tacky business.  the yo yo goes up and down.  jaynannes letter topped it all off.  sweet.  

yesterday the ap's came and today they gave us a quick training.  president and the aps are hiking to the top of mount kinabalu tomorrow with the district president from kl.  i'm jealous.  today we went to the beach for elder hawkins' and sister wong's last p day.  it was a lot of fun.  

oh yeah so it looks like april 5th is the day although i think it will be the 4th.  i'll let you know once i get flight plans...maybe.  me tovar and williams are extending and going home together.  thurman chose not to for some reason.  it should be a blast to go home with those guys.  oh yeah but i will totally miss general conference.  it is that first week of april so i'll be here in malaysia.  here they play it a week late so that first week will just be fast sunday.  then when i get home it will just be fast sunday again.  ha ha.  i'll just watch it on the internet.  

it's sweet that you finally got a pingpong table.  i can't wait to try it out.  i can't believe spencer has an iphone.  i've just been thinking about that for the last two days.  i want one!!  what price range are we talking?  how big is the memory?  i've got a bunch more questions. 

     

well dad you said I'll never quite comprehend the blessings my mission has been to the family.  i hope so.  i remember in sandakan i was teaching somebody.  i said i know my family is blessed because i am out here serving the Lord.  then i thought to myself is that really true?  so the next p day i asked you.  i can't find the email but you said yes of course it's true and you told me a few evidences of it.

just yesterday in district meeting we were talking about the blessings that missions bring and elder larson said "you guys can talk about this but you don't really know what you're saying and you won't know until many years later when you reflect back over the years."  well maybe i can't see it but i do have faith and hope that i will.  actually i already feel like i've seen tons of changes and blessing so i'm excited to just see even more later.  i really love you guys and i hope that things are going good back home.  i always pray for you.  mom dad thank you for your patience and teachings over the years.  you guys are awesome.  without a doubt i've got the best family anyone could ask for.

     i hope you have a good week.  i'll let you know what happens next week.  hawkins is dying but new missionaries don't come for another week so most likely me laycock and bradley will just be a threesome for a week.  i love you.  don't have too much fun over christmas.  jumpa lagi

elder petersen

Still & Strong

selamat hari natal!

     well well thanks for the awesome TRUNKY email dad.  it's nice to see that you guys are having a good time.  what the freak spencer ha ha pretty much all of the clothes you were wearing were mine before ha ha.  oh well.  how tall are you now kid?  i'm glad you liked my last email.  i feel like i didn't really do the story justice.  it was cool though.  just an update.  that referral that came is so awesome!! her name is flora and she is just perfect.  it's true that there's no perfect investigator but she is just eating up our lessons.  she is taking tons of notes and she said that that night she read and reread the restoration pamphlet until 2 am.  ha ha wow.  and the other elders' investigator jerney is doing awesome.  just yesterday he told them that they need to meet more often and he is looking to be a miraculous end of the year baptism.  sweet.  yeah dad i totally remember that night caroling ha ha ha so funny.  don't worry about me giving a long talk later dad.  i've got nothing to say.  :)

     let's see.  awesome awesome week.  last Wednesday and thursday we went on splits to tawau.  it was really really fun.  Elder Brooks and i had some miraculous experiences finding.  i don't really have time to tell you them all.  but they've been struggling to find new investigators and we went out and found a bunch of good ones.  saturday was a great day.  

Trevor, Peter, Elder Laycock

Peter's family

elly and peter were both baptized!!!!  quick background on them.  elly is iban and was a referral from tawau.  a lot of his family was baptized in tawau.  some of them moved over here for a few months and so they introduced him to us.  he is about 30.  peter is the son of a long time member who has like 11 kids.  he is also like 30.  his brother right now is on a mission to washington dc.


he met the missionaries before but just wasn't ready to go all the way.  about 2 months ago he came to church on his own and asked if we could teach him again.   it was so sweet.  they are really awesome guys.  they both have pretty big families that came.  also the other elders had a baptism at the same time so they drew a crowd.  all in all between the three guys our little baptism room was packed.  but it was sweet.  flora was there again along with a few other investigators.  

Trevor, Theddie, Elly, Elder Laycock

we had theddie and peter, who are both about to go on missions, baptize them.  they did it perfectly first try.  like usual the baptism was a little bit stressful.  we were just running around trying to get everything in order and everything right.  

we just want everyone else to have a really good experience ya know?  that seems like missionary work in a nutshell.  well the biggest payoff of the night was when the two of our guys bore their testimonies.  this same thing has happened to me before.  sometimes when you are teaching an investigator you don't really know what they're thinking or how much they are absorbing.  

Theddie & Peter's family

both peter and elly are quiet guys.  they never exactly opened up to us but they clearly enjoyed having us teach them and we could see small changes in their lives. 


well they both gave extremely powerful testimonies.  they both talked about how before they weren't the best and they didn't really have anything to do with religion.  they both got really teary eyed when they said thank you and they expressed their beliefs in the gospel and the spirit they've felt.  it was really awesome.  i feel like i can't really understand how much this means to the people i teach.  i always seem to learn far after the baptism about how grateful my investigators were to meet us and how different they were before.  it is awesome.  that's got to be like the coolest part of missionary work.  sweet!

  
 on monday morning we took a bus to sandakan to do splits.  it was a blast.  i absolutely love sandakan!! i really really wish i could introduce you guys to the members there.  that would be so cool.  jaynanne if we have enough money i really want to go back there with you and tour the jungle of sabah.  we were able to see a bunch of members and also go caroling.  while caroling, one of the members brought us over to their cousin's house.  i actually remember knocking on the door and contacting the lady that lived there.  i don't know how i remembered.  she remembered me too.  that was atleast in august of 2010.  ha ha it was great.  so actually i might have planted a seed and harvested a seed.  one of my recent converts there is named jasli.  he has got to be my favorite.  he is 12 and a freaking stud.  last year he did not know how to read.  he has never been in school but he's really smart.  now a year later he can read malay and english.  he is going to be an awesome missionary.  there's another 12 year old named joshua.  we baptized him there along with his whole family.  he is the oldest.  when we were teaching him we basically had to drag him in to hear the lessons.  he really just wanted to join islam, but in the end reluctantly decided to follow the family.  now he is doing awesome.  he is totally different.  he has the priesthood, he is 100 percent active, he carries around the book of mormon everywhere, and he also will make a great missionary.  it's so cool to see.  i absolutely love sandakan. 

A house on a swamp in our area

    

lately we've been kind of low on our finding new investigators.  this past week was finally good.  we found a part of town that is almost 100 percent christian.  when elder laycock was on splits here with elder bradley they found a cool family.  they only talked to the wife though.  she is 21 and indonesian.  she's got 1 kid.  me and laycock went back and she was so cool.  she has read both of the pamphlets that they left with her and she asked us if she could buy a book of mormon from us.  we didn't have any with us but we said she could have one for free tomorrow.  the next day we went back and gave her one.  her husband was finally there so we had a good talk with him too.  he said "hey i've met your friend before" in my experience that is rare so i doubted whether or not it was really from our church.  he said "yeah elder, elder, elder oren"  i've never heard of him so we were just like uh yeah maybe.  he ran into the house and then came out with a name card just like ours and a plan of salvation pamphlet.  on the name card was elder oren and elder osborne.  i recognized elder osborn.  my group replaced his group.  so that means that this guy, yanto, has hung on to that pamphlet and name card for about 2 years.  wow.  that is impressive.  clearly this guy had been prepared to meet us.  exactly what we pray for each day.

     well merry christmas.  happy birthday mollie!!!  i'm planning to do skype here at 9 am monday morning, there 7 pm sunday night.  you better be there or else.  i'm so excited.  i don't really have anything to say to you guys though.  i just basically said it all in this email ha ha.  jaynanne i loved all the pictures you sent me.  you crack me up.  ok talk to you monday.  i love you

elder petersen