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 

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

Eternity is for Families

dearest family,

     this week was great!  sounds like your week was good too.  i remember when dad and mollie flipped over on the alpine slide.  that is rough.  i would be scarred too.  jaynanne you have a mission.  take a picture of that plaque and send it to me so i can just see it for myself.  i can't believe anybody reads the blog.  that is awesome but i just don't want people to see anything embarassing or offensive on there.  you never said how oskar did on the soccer games.  i take it he lost then?  ha ha oh yeah i was reading back through my journal and i can't believe carter. looking back he was dang obedient.  i would hate to be companions right now with my old self.  i would drive me nuts.  ha ha let's just say i'm more relaxed now.  so are all of those greenies from last week.  they are all pretty cool.  i testify dad you are an aggresive tourist when it comes to guided tours.  ha ha you are the big group commentor.  ha ha somebody has to be.  i bet your reunion was fun.  i don't think i told you but elder parrish is the ap right now.  you know his dad right?  he is way cool.  best ap in a long time.  ah yeah i remember kez.  she is pretty cute.  is she single?  ha ha remember i'm going to need referrals when i get home.  i've heard about some of this crazy world news.  it's a mess.  oh well i don't have to worry about it right now.

     alright so right now is ramadan.  it is not as cool as last year in sandakan.  the muslim percentage here isn't as high.  but there are still a ton of them.  they fast every day from 5:30 am to 7:30 pm for 1 month.  dang that would be hard.  so throughout the afternoon they sell food really cheap so that they can buy it to eat as soon as they break the fast.  i've reaped the benifits of this.  the food is good.  mcdonalds also has a buka puasa special.  so we're eating well right now.  i wanted to tell you a funny story.  we went tracting with a member.  he's a young man about 18.  he's kind of inactive but lately he's given us a lot of referrals.  he is really cool.  so maughan and reeves split from me and him for about 45 min.  we were at opposite ends of the same neighborhood.  well i wasn't planning on him really saying anything but he said to me "ok you talk first a few times so that i can see how it's done."  ok.  so i did the first few.  we were knocking on gates about 20 feet away from the front doors.  i said the next one's yours.  he was ready.  so the lady came to the door and i said hello and then turned to him.  she was indian and he didn't know if he should try english or malay.  so he was stuttering.  ha ha then he said in malay "...we....book of mormon!.."  ha ha that's all.  so then i took back over.  it was so funny but i didn't laugh in front of him.  it was later when i told the other elders that we had a good chuckle. 

     mollie i got a letter from you!!  it was big.  it was also old.  there was like 3 letters and 2 awesome pictures.  actually your pictures made me miss you guys pretty bad.  they brought back such good memories.  the first was us playing cards at mt rushmore.  ha ha i was pulling a funny face.  that was so fun there.  that was a cool trip.  the 2nd picture was all of us at paradise bakery before going to the Utah football game.  we were all decked out in red and everyone was making a funny face.  ha ha that was also so fun!  i got that on saturday.  so saturday and sunday i kept thinking about that.  president clark has asked us to bear our testimonies on every fast and testimony meeting.  i decided to talk about you guys.  so i just said how i got these awesome pictures.  i said how much i missed you guys.  but i don't miss you that bad because i'll see you again soon.  throughout this last week we've taught the plan of salvation many times.  i said that i've only been gone from you guys for a few months and i miss you, i can't imagine being alone for eternity.  that would be so sad.  i'm grateful for the plan of salvation because i know that i can be with you again.  i almost got teary eyed.  i controlled myself.  but i do miss you guys.  i'm glad we've had so many fun times together.  i can't wait to see you guys again.

     sunday was also a big day for another reason.  one year ago on sunday was my first baptism.  it was Ning's family.  oh man the memories came flooding back.  i miss those guys so much.  they are awesome.  i called them up on sunday night.  the fruit remains!  they are still going to church.  ronny, rayne, rainah, and rinijah all bore their testimonies at church.  that is so awesome.  the youngest guy jasli turns 12 soon and will become a deacon.  they've brought so many relatives to church.  they've found a lot of friends there too.  it is pretty sad though that the father doesn't go to church. i don't think he's been there since i've been there.  that disappoints me.  i hope he goes back soon.  i think he will.  he's a great dad though and a good leader to his children.  they also all miss me.  whenever i talk to them they tell me to come back.  ha ha i wish i had a say in where i was going,  i'd go back in a heart beat.  i miss sandakan so bad.  it's been such a big year.  also this past saturday a guy named benjamin in singapore was baptized.  he is someone me and thomas started teaching back in april.  he came to church every week.  he's from main land china.  that is sweet that he got baptized.  i'm proud.  i hope he can help the church grow in china. 

     it was a fun week.  we worked hard.  our numbers and results were lower than the week before but i feel like we had a way better week.  we saw a lot of people and helped people get closer to baptism.  i hope this next week ends well too.  elder reeves says some funny things.  i noted a few.  he says 'hey' a lot.  almost at the end of every sentence.  like "he is cool hey"  ha ha.  he said "play sport"  like they played sport.  he said i was "very crack up" to mean very funny.  and he says "guttered" if something went bad like "oh that guttered."  ha ha these are a few.  he's cool.

     well i hope you all have a good week.  let me know how the registration goes and how loll is.  ask spencer if he got my letter.  go to church. pray.  you know the drill.  i love you all.  don't forget it.  did you send a package?  if you did not yet, send some printed pictures so that i can show people here pictures of you.  get a good one of ben lomond.  alright talk to you next week.

elder petersen

A Peck of Pickled Peppers...

hey guys you are awesome!!

     this week was a rush.  oh man i can't even remember what happened.  well your letters were great.  dad's was huge but it was great.  it cracked me up.  yeah send a package to the mission office.  if you send it soon i'll get it at the end of august.  i have a visa run then.  don't delay!  that is so cool that you went to elder thomas' homecoming.  how did you find out about it.  oh man i love that guy.  he is such a character.  he does have a huge constant smile.  did the wards go or something?  well that's sweet.  i wish i had his email. i'll get it.  i can't really reply to dad's whole letter.  hiking ben lomond reminded me of the time me and john and greg tackled big ben.  oh man that was so cool.  i can't believe we did it.  there was a lot of snow on the backside.  i think it was june.  i can relate.  that's cool that there was a stake fair.  that seems rare.  the story about the mile guy was awesome.  i got the chills just reading your description.  ha ha last year chariots of fire was approved and i watched it.  dang it was good too.  some elders here don't catch the excitement of running.  people here said transformers 3 was better than 1 or 2.  how was harry potter.  it seems like it would be cool.  although i do hate all of those movies.  they are terrible compared to the books.  but the last one could be good. 

     alright well i'll try to remember what happened this week.  thursday i met up with maughan and reeves.  friday we just tried to get everything situated.  we crammed three beds into one small room and three desks into another so that we'll all be in the same rooms.  that took some effort.  but it's worth it i'd say.  well here in our four companionships in KL we got four greenies.  they're all pretty alright.  we could have done a lot worse.  they are all pretty obedient.  that's a good thing i guess.  it's just that they automatically judge us all.  elder Land is dying in three weeks and he totally doesn't care about anything.  ha ha he is the most relaxed elder ever.  one of the greenies pulled out the white handbook on him and he ripped him apart.  don't worry we're not all apostate here.  it's just little things like saying people's last name only or where you sleep or things to do in public or if you leave the house late.  president clark said once, that in the mtc, they drill everybody so hard with the rules that almost every new elder thinks his first comp is apostate because he's not like the mtc's expectation.  he's trying to bridge that gap though.  he's been hitting the rules hard.  it's good.  this week we've been pretty obedient and it's been a really good week.  so can't complain.  but yeah reeves is really cool.  he's really quiet which is weird for a polynesian.  we get him talking though.  he is big into water polo so he is also ripped.  ha ha now people refer to him as the strong one. ha ha. a member was telling us how to say things in chinese and she said reeves you can say "i am strong" petersen you can say "i am tall" and then she stopped to think and said maughan you can say "i am..short"  and then she just started laughing really hard.  ha ha it was funny. 

he talks really soft.  and he has a cool accent.  so we don't know what he's saying most times.  ha  and he uses weird new zealand slang words.  he's taught us a few.  he's pretty good at teaching.  he is an eager learner and really wants to tract so we let him at it.

     on friday president clark was in town and he wanted to go on splits with us.  he didn't realize how far away we lived so he convinced us to bring him along.  of course they were late to the appointment.  every time president and the ap's come to a lesson it ends up going bad.  we were nervous that they would probably botch it but it went alright.  because it would take them so long to get back to where they were staying they left early too.  so actually they just had the pre-lesson dinner.  it was at our recent convert amy's.  she cooked awesome chinese vegetarian food.  everyone loved it.  so all in all it went good.  it was good to see president.  on sunday night we went back to that family's house.  it was the daughter's birthday and they were having a big dinner.  they invited us over.  it was a feast!  oh man so good.  it was lots of chicken curry,  sweet and sour prawn, and some random veggies.  and lots of watermelon.  oh man it was so good.  wow dang.  the shrimp was amazing.  seriously it would have been a fifty ringget plate for the amount she made.  it was incredible.  oh i'll tell you background on this family.  the mom and son were baptized in may.  the father and two daughters not yet baptized.  the father has been to the church regularly since march.  the daughters came to church both for the first time last sunday.  so good.  i think they'll all make it soon.  our branch president is a really great guy and he had a good chat with the mom and dad about joining the church and dealing with the relatives.  so yeah they're great.

     well that's really all i've got.  we've been teaching english class and at the end of last one we had everyone recite the peter piper tongue twister.  ha ha it was funny.  a few of them were pretty good.  we timed everyone.  at the end i destroyed the competition with a six second time.  that was cool.  with all of the new elders here it takes me back to when i first came out.  ah good times.  my perspective has really changed since then.  i don't think that right now i could be companions with my old self.  ha ha i'd drive me crazy.  hey just out of curiosity is there a missionary plaque up at the church for me.  if so is there a map of malaysia?  just thinking about that recently.  also what happened to the rest of the santasquoy talk?  sorry to confuse you with the transfer thing.  i'm in a threesome but technically maughan is the trainer.  this pretty much guarantees that in two weeks i'm gone.  there's three other threesomes.  6 elders going home with nobody replacing them.  i'll keep you posted.  right now i'm just kind of floating around.  alright well have a good week.  it's already august.  school's going to start soon.  ha ha good luck.  ok bye!

 
elder petersen

15 Minutes of Fame!

hi fam

 

     your emails were great.  ha ha you crack me up dad.  that is so cool that oskar is going to sing at general conf.  in the mtc choir we were hoping so bad that we'd get that chance.  don't forget about it.  and don't fall asleep.  ha ha this is your last general conf as a primary kid.  next one we'll all go to priesthood session together.  whoa weird.  i heard about usa losing.  oh well.  it's just women's soccer.  mom it sounds like you'll do good at that calling.  it is actually quite a lot of people.  that is a big responsibility.  good luck.  yeah i hope grandma reads my letter.  you better make sure tomorrow.  tell her hi again.  i am so jealous you are going to boston.  that sounds fun.  don't go to loll on the last week.  spencer will be busy.  go like the start of august.  ha ha when i left, no offense, jaynanne just wasn't that great of a driver yet.  i can just imagine the scene of her turning around that big car in front of everyone.  ha ha so funny.  she'll have to take me for a car ride when i get home. 

     so first of all we made it big!!  ha ha we ended up going to that soccer game.  it was really sweet.  i could tell you so much about it.  you'll just have to wait until i get home.  but it was me hawkins maughan stratton hunt and lang.  the fearless six.  we went to a street market called pasar seni and bought knock of malaysia jerseys for 20 ringget.  we were all wearing yellow ones but hawkins wore a blue one.  we went early to the game and there was a lot to do out in front of the stadium.  pretty much everyone was in arsenal jerseys.  nobody had malaysia pride except the six big white guys.  ha ha instantly people started wanting pictures with us.  it was really fun at first but after a while it got old.  i'm not joking we took at least 100.  i know i'm all over malaysia's facebook.  i wish i could search it somehow.  there were these one guys with really big cameras that wanted our picture.  so we took a bunch with them.  they said they were from the bernama news agency.  ha ha we were hoping to make it in the print.  so i bought a bunch of stuff like a malaysia scarf and headband.  the game was pretty boring.  soccer is just not appealing.  there is no action and no funny time out or half time entertainment.  just ninety min of kicking a ball.  malaysia got beat 4-0.  ha ha predictable.  but it was a blast.  also it was elder lang's birthday.  he is the zl.  we've become pretty good friends.  he is really cool.  it was an epic p-day.  the next day me and maughan were the first ones to find it.  we went to the news stand to see if our picture made the papers.  as we walked up i looked over one guy's shoulder who was open to the sports page.  there it was.  there was a big picture of us right there.  atleast 1/4 of the news page.  it said "imported fans"  later it talked about how nobody wore the national colors or cheered for the national team.  ha ha so funny.  i bought a copy to save. we got a bunch of texts during the day from people in maughan's last branch.  they said that our picture was on the internet and there was tons of comments about it.  i got my 15 min of fame.  it was so cool.

     on thursday we got stopped by some cops.  we were walking to our last appoinment of the day.  it was dark already and we were just walking through a neighborhood.  a cop car drove past us slowly and then stopped ahead of us.  on the passenger side the window rolled down and he signaled for us to walk up.  there are always two cops in the car.  they just fed us some crap.  they wanted trouble i think.  they asked us why we were here and we said we were from an international christian church like we've been told to say.  they asked for our passports and we gave them the photocopies we carry around.  we don't carry around the real deal so that they don't get ruined in the rain and so that some power hungry cop can't just hold on to it to make us comply to something.  he said where's the real one and we said it was back in our apartment.  he said where is your visa and we said the same thing.  i handed him the small certificate president told us to carry around that says we don't get paid and we'll leave after two years.  they looked at it for a while, told us to carry the real passport around, and then just drove off.  ha ha they had nothing.

     the work is going really well here.  we have a lot of investigators.  we hit a record attendance at church this week.  there was 87 people.  that is the most i've hit in malaysia.  sweet.  we put the father of a family on baptismal date and hopefully his family will soon follow.  today we were deciding whether or not to wear our shirts and ties because we were going to do something for p-day.  we chose to wear them.  it was a good thing.  we were walking back to our house earlier and this guy came power walking up to us from behind.  he stopped us and talked to us.  he said he was christian.  he is from nepal.  he told us he knew we were mormon.  he said he would like to meet us at his house and introduce us to his 15 nepal christian friends and that we could share about our church.  we were like ha ha great!  he said how about i give you my number and address and you can call me to set up an appoinment.  ha ha wow he just said everything we wanted to say.  then we set up an appointment for tomorrow.  he seems really nice but maybe too talkative.  oh well you can't beat that.  i wish more people ran up to us and set up appointments.  the zone is really awesome here.  we're still doing monday makan.  makan means eat.  that is a blast.  i will miss this district.  atleast half of us will leave from transfers this weekend.  it was really fun while it lasted.  oh yeah there was a wedding reception here.  a girl from this branch has been going to byu hawaii.  she met and married a guy from harrisville utah.  he went to freemont.  the two of them came here to visit the family.  the branch had a big party.  it is the first wedding here ever i think.  it was a big deal.  it was fun.  a lot of people sand and preformed.  the primary kids did this little breakdance number.  ha ha it was so comical.  primary must have changed a lot since i was in it.  the white guy was pretty nice too.

     alright well that's all this week.  it was a good week.  this area is really cool.  hey i want to know your thoughts on this.  here in malaysia they sell a lot of pirated dvds.  i mean everywhere.  i don't even know anybody that buys regular ones.  most missionaries buy a bunch to watch back when they get home.  they are way cheap.  is that bad to buy?  just out of curiosity. 

    ok all y'all.  have a good week.  don't forget about me.  i'll let you know if anything happens with transfers.  let me know how the last harry potter movie is.  let me know if you hear from spencer.  go to church read your scriptures say family prayers.  seeyaloveyabye

 

elder petersen

Politics & Stomach Growls

hey guys!

     great emails.  mom i loved the pictures.  the chickens look good.  there's a lot of chickens running around here but they're all undernourished ha ha.  the picture of dad and brett cracked me up.  those two old men think they're so hip.  ha ha.  jaynanne looked too excited for her vacation.  and you guys all looked pretty dead after the run.  but i do have to say mom and abbie looked good.  keep it up.  thanks for the advice with the "drama".  here they write the date different so it was 11/7.  ha ha besides that i don't think malaysia would ever give anything out for free.  but that's sweet that oskar worked the system and got three free slurpees.  ah i do remember that scene from the great escape.  a lot of elders have never seen that classic movie.  what an awesome movie.

     alright i've got a few things to report about.  first is that rally you heard about.  it was pretty big.  i'm actually not in KL.  i'm in a suburb about 30 min away called Puchong.  the rally was in KL.  it was for electoral reform.  apparently the same party has been in power for 50+ years and it is because they are unfair.  they throw in a ton of marked ballots and they don't give the minority parties any tv time and they don't announce when the election is until last minute.  ha ha that sucks.  so this group called bersih 2.0 (bersih means clean and 2.0 because this is the second rally) planned to have a huge peaceful march to the government buildings or something.  well the gov told them to not do it in the streets but to do it in the national stadium.  then last minute they said they were illegal so they couldn't have the stadium.  this made everyone mad.  we met with one of our investigators, who is a huge advocate of this, a few days before the rally.  he said it was going to be huge.  he predicted atleast 100,000 people.  d-day was on saturday.  so thursday friday and saturday they didn't let any commercial busses into KL from other parts of malaysia.  on saturday they had huge road blocks everywhere.  nobody was let into the city.  there was barbed wire and police lines across the roads.  there were protesters that got in a few days in advance.  there was estimated to be about 50,000.  they marched around i guess.  they got hit with tear gas and water cannons.  ha ha but they made a point.  the last rally was in 2007 and it made a big difference in the 2008 election so we'll see what happens.  a funny thing is that on sunday during priesthood a member came into the church late.  ha his eye was all swollen and he told us that they hit him and he got tear gassed.  ha ha you should have seen him.  he was like a wounded soldier wandering into church.  but pretty much everyone we talked to is in support of the rally.  every race is kind of stepped on except for the malays (muslim).  the government preaches 1 malaysia but they have completely unfair treatment.  crazy.  but i'm safe.  the worst that happened to us is that we got caught in a huge traffic jam.

     every friday we go and visit our recent convert amy.  she teaches a bunch of kids "tuition" which is extra classes.  it is the same kids every friday evening so we know a bunch of them pretty well.  they beg me for magic tricks now everytime we go there.  last friday there were two girls one 8 and one 10 waiting for their ride.  i thought i would be good and teach them how to play go fish.  it turns out they already knew how to play.  so we played a little but then amy fed us.  the little girls borrowed the cards and then started playing with another kid.  i looked over from the dinner table and the little girls were playing a game called tee.  it is like scum but you lay down poker hands.  ha ha so i was trying to be nice and teach these kids go fish and it turns out the little girls could whip me in poker.  the chinese are so smart.

     on sunday we had quite a few investigators at church.  but we were expecting more.  some had to go to work because they couldn't work on saturday because of the rally.  so that's a legit excuse i guess.  we have a couple investigators that are really nice and really enjoy church but are just kind of "off".  the branch is really nice to them though and listens to their crazy comments in class.  sunday after church we had branch council meeting.  the first and most heated point they talked about was food.  after church it seems like everyone is eating.  since church is so far away a lot of times members bring food to eat after church.  i don't really know the procedures.  apparently our investigators don't either.  the members were complaining that our 'gators' were eating all of their food.  ha ha i know exactly who it was.  they said that they actually took food out of the members' bags.  ha ha again i can imagine exactly who it was.  anyways the members were ticked.  i thought, freak, maybe the members can be nice and share their food.  they said that is not how it works.  ha ha i had to defend our investigators.  i mean after church everyone is just eating.  of course they'll think the food is free for all.  i did.  someone just has to explain it to them.  food is a touchy subject here. 

     alright that is all for now.  the work is going good here.  we have a lot of investigators but none are really progressing so well.  but there a few.  transfers are coming up and i'll definitely be affected.  there are so many.  it seems like president is talking a lot about obedience lately.  i think he wants to root out all apostasy when this new group comes in.  he will maybe do away with the approved movie list.  oh well.  it was nice while it lasted.  sorry this letter wasn't all too spiritual this week.  maybe next week it will be....maybe.  ha ha i love you guys.  if you ever hear from spencer let me know.  i think i'll send him a letter.  hey if you are thinking about ever sending me a package i need a new journal soon.  i would like one like the last one but i don't think i'll fill it all.  maybe you can send me the next size smaller.  i'll send you a picture next week so you can see what it looks like.  alright sweet have a good week. 

oh yeah later today we're going to an arsenal vs malaysia soccer game.  i'll report next week

elder petersen

Grandma's RULE

oh man!

     oh you guys!  great emails this week.  it's these big holiday kind of weeks that make me trunky.  ha ha you guys sound like you're doing great.  it sounds like your numbers keep dropping.  only 5 at dinner?!  ha ha the table is going to be too big for the family to eat around.  don't worry i'll be home soon enough.  i really hope spencer likes Loll.  he might not.  i mean we're not the same right.  and it will be different starting a few weeks later.  he missed out on some stuff.  but i think he'll love it.  his email to me was great.  it was cool.  i can't believe the national guard actually came to utah to help with the floods.  wow.  dad every week is uneventful.  every week i don't know what to write when i sit down to the computer. i just start typing and see what comes out.  ha that is why i feel it sometimes doesn't flow. oh well as long as you like it.  i can just imagine dad eating it up when all of the sisters enjoyed him teaching them how to cook.  don't let your head get too big.  that is pretty funny about what happened to doug and the dog lady.  ha ha i can just picture it all.  ha ha.  tell tara i never got a letter from her... no just kidding.  it's on the way.. just kidding. but soon.

     alright well this week was pretty boring..  ha ha so you'll probably like it.  actually things are still going great here.  i'm having a lot of fun.  this city is kind of frustrating though.  the transportation is just garbage.  we wait forever at hot bus stops for the right bus.  besides the fact that our area is so spread out it is really nice here.  the elders are really cool.  nobody is that old and nobody is that young.  we have one elder that dies at the end of the month with the big group.  the rest of us are all middle aged.  even our zl is younger than me.  our zone leaders are really cool.  elder lang and elder hunt.  lang was pretty good buds with garrett.  he is a really chill zl.  he's getting us all shirts and stuff and he doesn't breathe down our necks about every little thing.  i guess he knows what it is like to have a gay zone leader.  lately on p day and for a few minutes after district meeting we've been playing some good cards.  elder stratton used to be with elder thomas and they played a lot of cards back then.  so he's teaching us a bunch of games like mormon bridge, hearts, ucher, greed, tiga belas, tee, and spades.  it is a lot of fun.  we get pretty competitive.  ha ha some elders are just no good at cards.  i'm glad we used to play back home.  i'll have to teach you guys these games.  tiga belas and tee are local games that people in east malaysia just play for hours.  they sit around all day with nothing to do and they waste the day away playing it.  ha ha it is pretty entertaining.  so yeah our zone is great right now.  we meet together for makan mondays and grab a burger.  next p day we have big plans.  i'll let you know next week if it works out.  in a few weeks it will all change.  at the end of july, 16 elders are going home and 19 are coming in.  so i might even get transferred, cause maughan hasn't been here that long either.  it could be either of us.  so i have to enjoy this all while i can. 

     so me and maughan have been trying to teach english class.  we've had two lessons now.  we have it tuesday nights.  our hope is that members will come and bring their friends.  it is going pretty well.  the first week was good.  we had all adults almost, and they were all members.  also, there was a 14 year old non member that came.  well that kid brought his sister and came to church last week so that is pretty immediate results.  but yesterday wasn't as good.  it was all kids and no members.  we don't want it to be a bunch of kids only.  we don't know what to teach really either.  ha ha we're both novices at teaching a new language.  i mean we learned malay but it was all gospel oriented.  we don't really want to teach the gospel...yet.  we just want them to enjoy it and come back to the church.  we got some workbooks now so hopefully we can figure something out. 

     on the 4th of july we met up for makan mondays at carl's jr.  that is about as american as we could get.  it was expensive but oh so good.  that's all we did on the 4th.  the 5th was district meeting so we had district meeting at the brown's.  they cooked sloppy joes and bought root beer and potato chips and water melon so that was pretty American.  and we sang the national anthem for an opening song.  so Go America!

     we have a few investigators that are buddhist.  i might have already told you about them.  i forget to tell you something that they all have in common.  most of their parents say no way to baptism.  they don't want to ruin their family traditions or something.  some of the parents say ok sure but the grandma says no way.  it is always the crazy grandma.  ha ha well this is pretty much an unavoidable obstacle.  we cannot change the mind of an old chinese auntie.  we figure our only hope is to pray that they, ya know, die or something.  ha ha that sounds terrible.  we have a recent convert named amy.  her husband wants to get baptized but doesn't want to offend his mother.  amy actually told us to pray and fast so that her mother in law croaks.  ha ha that is terrible.  so we were scheming with the other elder on how we could take out these obtacles.  it was pretty funny.  in the end we decided we probably should just let them be.  oh well.  i'm pretty sure amy is still praying for it though.   

     alright that's all i got for you.  have a great week.  i love you all.  tell the ward i love them.  oh yeah i was going to say happy 10 year north ogden anniversary.  we've been in north ogden for 10 years right? july 3rd?  wow so much has happened in that house.  i'm glad we got out of beaver ha ha.  mom thanks for the great email.  i really enjoyed it.  don't worry you raised me right.  you raised us all right.  the test is just if we follow what you taught or if we drift.  it's up to us really.  alright see ya'll later.

   

elder petersen

Tea Bagged....courage

ah mercy

     wow i had some really interesting emails this week.  thanks for the men of harlech lyrics.  ha ha i think it would be impossible to memorize those.  yes our church is full of kooks.  ha ha you would crack up if you met the members here.  ha ha just our discussions in sunday school or priesthood are pretty comical.  you went to seven peaks huh? so does that mean that it finally warmed up over there?  i didn't know if it would.  

     alright well this week was pretty uneventful.  just the usual day to day grind.  things are going really well in our branch right now so i'll just tell you about a few people.  first of all last sunday was oyoki's confirmation.  it was great.  on the day of her baptism she brought a neighbor or cousin or something named raymond.  he is 17 and really cool.  this sunday he came again and brought another friend named john.  he is also really nice.  they both loved church and want to come back again next week.  right now we are just cranking out the referrals.  there is this one lady in our branch who sometimes goes out knocking.  ha ha perfect.  she has given us a few referrals. on sunday the father and son of a family she met came.  they loved church and committed to come back for sure next week.  the dad just went off and off about how much he needs to go and how good it felt to be there.  we visited him yesterday and he out of the blue he turned to his son and said son do you want to go to church and be baptized?  yes!  ha ha perfect.  also at church a good member brought her boyfriend who really enjoyed it.  sunday is the best day of the week and this week was especially good.  i guess all of the members noticed all of these new faces and they wanted to be apart of it because after church like 4 members told us about friends that they wanted us to meet.  ha ha wow so we got so many potentials.  things are looking good.  like i said, the recently switched buildings.  since they switched attendance has almost doubled.  things are just looking really good.  i don't want to drop the ball.  at the start of may this one lady and her son were baptized.  the father and the two daughters were not baptized.  the father loves church and comes every week but he is like the top dog of a big tea company.  last week the sister told us that he had plans to quit his job so that he could be baptized.  we were supposed to keep it on the down low because it was more of a hope than a real plan.  well on monday he quit and started a new job.  that is so awesome.  it would be really hard for me to do something like that.  he is a champ.  so pretty soon he may be baptized.  sweet.

     last week after we emailed we went over to this place called seoul garden.  it is an awesome restaraunt.  i feel like i already told you this.  oh well.  it is buffet style.  in the middle of each table they have a pot of soup on a burner surrounded by a grill.  you just go pick out raw meat and slap it on there.  i cooked so much chicken.  ha ha oh man so much.  we destroyed the place.  it was good.  i have a few pictures.  speaking about eating, i have gained a lot of weight.  wow.  i don't think you'll recognize me when i get home.  i'm getting quite fat.  ha ha too much rice here.  and everything is deep fried.  ha ha oh well.  this morning we went bowling at the mall by our house.  it was really fun.  i dominated.  my high score was 167.  no one was even close. 

     for the last few weeks we have been going around trying to find members so that we can pump them for referrals.  we marked on our map where there were clusters of members so that we can hit a lot.  this place is so spread out so we've been doing a lot of walking.  well last week we found the coolest house ever.  we found the house of a member on our list and it was a freaking mansion.  wow i'm serious it was huge.  nicer than any house i've been to in singapore.  that is impressive because there are some major slums here.  well the member was really cool.  we talked for a while.  the father was one of the first ten people baptized in malaysia.  they have three generations of church goers now counting a little toddler.  the girl was pretty impressive.  she could read at one year old, before she could walk ha ha.  the chinese are crazy.  the secret is flash cards.  anyways after we talked for a while we were ready to leave but the guy was like i'll give you a tour of the house.  ok.  so the main floor was pretty nice.  really clean and modern.  they have two or three maids.  on the back porch they had 7 washers and dryers.  in almost every room they had a big flat screen mounted on the wall.  we went up to the second floor where all of the bedrooms are.  they all had big flat screens.  really nice.  they showed us what they called the mom's sanctuary.  it was the bathroom.  huge.  the bathtub was massive with tons of jets.  there was a huge tv at the end of the tub mounted on the wall.  the wall tile was flecked with real gold.  over on the side there was a door with a finger print scanner lock.  it was a door to a huge walk in closet.  i mean huge.  back in sandakan we helped someone build a house and it could have fit inside of there.  in the middle there was a big massage chair.  wow.  then we went to the top floor.  there was an automatic sliding glass door at the top of the stairs. it opened up into a big hang out room with a full kitchen and a huge tv and couches and a projecter and speakers and a playstation three and tons of stuff.  needless to say this house was huge and way expensive.  i can't even get into all of the details. I was just amazed.

     well i'm sorry this email was lame.  ok throughout this next week i will make a note of things to tell you so i don't forget.  have a good week.  don't be too bored this summer.  i'll be home soon.  i love you all

elder petersen

Patience

fambamly

     oh man where to begin.  jaynanne you trunked me out of my mind.  ha ha those pictures were awesome.  so many!!  i think a lot of them need explanations though.  dad did you have a garmin watch on?  that is sweeet.  did justin wear his number on his shorts so that he could run without his shirt on?  jaynanne you're looking pretty cute, so are some of your friends ha ha. the trip looked awesome but i feel like it would be like hurding cats with all of those kids.  mom you looked pretty slim in those pictures.  it kind of looked like jaynanne and tara owned the place.  the pictures on delose's blog were cool.  it sucks that you can't even go to camp yet.  it will totally shorten your summer.  i remember on mid summer's night eve (longest day of year) last year that we all danced shirtless around a bon fire covered in blue paint and offered a sacrifice of pine needles to the pagan gods.  ha ha spencer missed that.  dad your talk was good but really frustrating because it was a cliff hanger.  (spencer do you recognize this "cliff hanger hanging from a cliffffff and that's why he's called cliffhanger.. can't..hold..on..much..longerrrrr!") 

     HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!!  hope it was good.  i'll be there next year.  well i had a bunch of stuff to tell you about but again i didn't write it down and now i can't remember and i'm in a time crunch.  haha it's an endless cycle.  the big news is that on sunday we had a baptism!!!  but it could have been better.  after church we were planning on baptizing this woman named oyoki and her two sons.  they are chinese.  in the past the father has been against them learning.  he doesn't want them to forsake all of their family traditions.  our branch president went over a few weeks ago and they talked for a while and wrinkled out the problems.  so it was good to go.  on saturday they had their interviews.  on sunday all three showed up so we were looking good.  then she told us that the husband was once again against it.  she said he didn't mind her getting baptized, it was her own choice, but he didn't want the sons to be.  so for the next two hours during church we tried to communicate with this lady that knows no english and very little malay.  after a long talk we decided to put off the kids for a few weeks.  it is so frustrating not being able to communicate here.  i don't know how she sits through church not understanding anything.  she is solid though.  she read the whole book of mormon in chinese and the whole gospel principles manuel in like less than a month.  so after church she was baptized.  that is a good thing.  maybe her husband will see that she is happier and still normal and will later allow the sons. 

     after being back in malaysia i remembered how much malaysians frustrate me.  oh man my patience is tried during church.  dad would be losing his mind.  if there's one thing i've developed from my mission it is probably greater patience.  some of their talks are just pointless rambling.  or they don't take stuff seriously.  that's what really bugs me.  they stand up and joke at the pulpit.  east malaysia was way worse.  ha ha oh well.  it's a first generation church.  it will come with time.  i don't know if i told you but when the church historians came to singapore they said something like since joseph smith there have been a total of 16 million members and right now 14 million are alive.  this really is a first generation church.  they said it is always 1830 somewhere in the world referring to the size of the church in 1830 in america.  so true.

     speaking about not understanding people, yesterday i was lost.  i think that most missionaries that go to a foriegn country go through a short time where they just don't understand what's going on in the lesson because they don't know the language yet.  but they move past that.  in this mission you never move past that.  ha ha.  i learned malay.  people here speak chinese, tamil, hindi, tagalog, or any dialect of those.  so it is a very typical thing not to know what is being said during a lesson.  we teach a lot of lessons with members so that they can translate.  i've gotten good at just sitting there smiling.  yesterday i went on splits with the branch pres to go talk with sister oyoki's husband.  he doesn't know english or malay.  so i had a lot of time to sit there.  every now and then pres chi would ask if i wanted to add anything and i would say something that i hoped would gel with the last statement.  he was actually pretty good at translating for me.  we tried to talk to the husband about the importance of families in our church. i brought my four generation pedigree chart to show him.  after i gave my shpill i just sat there.  i thought a lot about that chart.  i thought a lot about what my ancestors had to go through.  like immigrating to america or trekking west or surviving the great depression.  i thought a lot about grandpa petersen.  he went through quite a bit in his long life.  i'm so thankful that he raised such a good family because dad is a product of grandpa's influence.  dad is like the best guy i know so grandpa must have done something right.  i'm just grateful to him and grandma because they provided the way for me to have a happy family.  i noticed that on my chart it doesn't say a death date or place for grandpa.  it almost made me cry to think that grandpa is gone.  like i said i had a lot of time to think so i just ran through all of my grandpa memories.  there's quite a few but unfortunately they are mostly from the last year and a half of his life.  to tell you the truth if grandpa would have died a few years earlier i would not have been as impacted or aware because i just didn't know him that much.  i'm so glad that we had the life changing oppurtunity to take care of him when he was sick.  i learned so much more about him, about his past and about his personality.  i really came to love the old guy as i took care of him and was almost forced to be responsible for him.  i think our family even came together more.  it is something i will never forget.  he lived with us for like 7 months and i will always remember that.  one thing i loved was just to see him give a genuine smile.  ha ha it was always fulfilling to get grandpa to really laugh or be tickled by something you say or did.  i can just picture him now smiling up at me.  ha ha i miss that.  anyways i don't want to get to sappy these are just some thoughts i had while sitting through a long lesson that i didn't understand yesterday. 

     well the zone here is really cool.  last week we had a zone fast.  we broke our fast together at chili's.  it was delicious but i ate way too much.  PJ is treating me good.  like everyplace it has it's ups and downs.  the transportation here is frustrating ha ha.  we were going to do something cool for pday today but it fell through thanks to some weenie elders so i can't report on that.  hope the summer is going good.  have a good time there.  don't forget about me here in asia.

elder petersen