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

Around and Around...Transfers

alright all ya'll listen i might not email you later today.  right now i am in the singapore changi airport.  i've been transferred.  about 15 new guys are coming into the mission today.  so i am being kicked out of butterworth and that will put chin and kelley together as comps.  then another elder will train there too so there will be four elders.  i am going to KK baby!!!!! dang i'm pretty excited.  you probably don't remember but that is kota kinabulu in sabah.  i will be zone leader.  but i will be training a new guy.  hawkins will also be zone leader but he will also be training a new guy.  so we won't actually be comps but we were already comps in singapore.  so sandakan is in the zone and hopefully i'll make it there soon for splits.  i can't wait.  i went to kk a few times for zone conference and district conference.  it is an awesome city.  i'll be opening a new area though so who knows how that will be.  plus i'll have a new guy so it is a gamble whether or not things will be as great as i imagine.  should be awesome though.  also sister wong will train there so there will be three greenies in the one city.  i think it will be pretty dang fun.  like i said i'm in singapore now using the free internet at the airport.  i don't know if i'll have a chance to email you later so i just wanted to let you know whats up.  hopefully later i give you the usual shpill.  alright i love you.  peace out!!

elder petersen

alright i'm in the office right now.  i don't really have that much time to email the usual so you'll have to wait until next week.  my new companion is elder laycock.  he is from utah maybe.  i forgot.  we went to little india with them for lunch.  so so good.  ok so sorry but have a good week.  jaynanne last week i printed off your novel of an email.  it was awesome.  i really enjoyed reading it.  i think i'll write you back in a letter so be patient.  we finally finished conference and it was awesome!! i loved it.  i love you bye

elder petersen

Here's my new comp.  check it out.  his name is elder laycock from lehi utah. alright peace

elder petersen

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

greetings from butterworth!

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

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

ruby and sivam right after ruby's baptism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

     26-08 Jalan Harbour Place

     Pangsapuri Parkview

     Bagam Dalam

     Butterworth Penang 12100

     West Malaysia

     elder petersen

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

Transfers...it was a GRAND 6 months!

apa khabar

     wow i am incredibly jealous of your trip.  it sounds like so much fun.  it just brings back all of the memories of havasupi.  but it sounds like you were able to do more.  it is definitely something you will never forget.  most of the youth will never do something like that again in their lives.  like i said before, you had better plan a huge trip for when i get home.  that is sweet that the santoscoys went.  i forgot to tell you that last sunday i had to give a talk.  i talked a little bit about us having a lesson with them in our home.  thanks for all the details dad.  it wasn't too long to read.  the more details the better.  i just got mom's email.  one more thing for spencer, at bartlett we wore t-shirts most days of the week.  at loll they wear the green button shirts every day.  buy a few more.  i only had one.  so i borrowed one from the camp.  it doesn't have to have all the patches on it and stuff but you do need more than one shirt.  this is key.  that's sweet that you'll still be going to boston.  take a lot of pictures.  john says he will most likely spend next summer down here sleeping at chase's.  then he's still planning on going to the U but plans change. 

     well well i've got news.  i am no longer in singapore.  i got transferred to the capital of malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (KL)!!  so right now i am here in the big city.  the big dirty city.  well actually i'm not in the actual city.  i'm in a suburb called petaling jaya (PJ).  i serve in the petaling jaya 2nd branch.  i am so excited.  it is supposedly doing the best out of the five KL areas.  we found out about transfers saturday night.  there were three elders going home this week and no one replacing them.  so my area in singapore got absorbed into another area by the sisters.  so hawkins also got transferred.  actually he got transferred to an area in KL called klang.  so we were seperated but not too far.  my new companion is elder maughn from california.  he is pretty sweet.  i think we're going to get along great.  he's been out for like 9 months maybe.  he loves rock climbing.  it is his passion.  we've had a bunch of conversations about that already.  he has some pretty treacherous stories.  i told him about loll.  he worked at a huge famous high adventure camp in new mexico called philmont.  we got into malaysia yesterday aroung 2.  so we've just been settling in.  maughn was just companions with a native that ended his mission.  he says that we have a few investigators that know no english.  maughn has been in english speaking areas his whole mission so he said he would just let the native do all the teaching.  ha ha hopefully i can remember my malay from 6 months ago.  i'm excited to try.  by and large KL is all english speaking.  i mean everybody know malay from school but they all speak english.  there are tons of different races here though.  the church services are entirely in english.

     so i don't have a whole lot to tell you about KL.  and i didn't do that much in singapore last week.  we went to the webb's for the last time.  oh man so good.  they gave us cafe rio style salads.  they weren't as good as the original but pretty darn good.  mexican food in asia? can.  a few weeks ago me and hawkins didn't know any members so instead of knocking all day we tried to visit as many members as we could find.  all we had was addresses.  we went to this one single sister.  we knocked on the door and the lady told us that she must have moved away.  so we shared a little bit with that lady.  she's like 27.  from malaysia.  she had just moved in that week and she said she was christian but didn't really know what church to go to.  perfect.  as we were talking, her husband walked up just home from work.  he was really nice too.  he wasn't christian, free thinker.  we had ran out of materials from tracting all day but i did have a pass along card so i wrote our number on that and gave it too them and told them to go to mormon.org.  a few days later she texted us and wanted to know where our church was located.  we met up at a food court and had a great lesson.  they are really awesome.  sunday morning we met them at an MRT station and took the bus with them to church.  they seemed to really enjoy church.  they are really nice and were sad to hear that we were both already leaving.  i think they'll be good investigators.  a young married couple with no kids is exactly what that ward needs.  it was a cool experience. 

     dad you asked for some details about singapore.  let's see.  i don't really know how the police were dressed, i didn't really see any.  it is compulsory for every single young man at the age of 19 to do the two year national service.  they have a wide range of tasks from overseas army to defensive stuff to local stuff.  so there are random people walking around in camoflauge just patroling i guess.  the mailman, i don't really see either.  from what i've seen, the mail men use scooters with big metal boxes on the back.  so you see them cruising around sometime.  i guess they just wear their little windbreakers.  fire fighters, i never see.  the sirens that i've heard sound like america.  in the main city the streets are pretty crowded.  it is atleast 50 percent white people.  there are tourists everywhere.  but there's also tons of other foriegners.  like filipino, indian, african, malaysian, you name it.  americans don't really stand out no except that they are taller.  well actually they do. i always notice if there is a group of white people.  it is weird.  i quickly pass judgement.  i really liked singapore.  i can't wait to go back one day.  it was an absolute blast.  the members are awesome, local and expat.  the people as a whole aren't really that open, but we had some good investigators.  i'll miss that area.  it was a grand 6 months.  i learned a lot and had the chance to do a lot.  it's one of the only areas with so many missionaries in such close proximity.  that is also an added bonus. 

     well i forgot to bring my camera cord to the internet kedai so i can't send you any pictures.  sorry.  next week i guess.  hopefully by then i'll have some KL stories for you.  this weekend is district conference.  i love you all.  have fun back home.  write me some letters.  hmmm i don't know our address.  i'll let you know that too next week.  if you have any questions then ask me so i have something to email you.  well, bye.

elder petersen

On the Move

hey hey hey!

     wow a lot happened this week.  

     well on friday night we got the transfer news.  we were gearing up for it because i was pretty sure i'd be transfered.  elder cheel called and said "elder petersen your new companion is...elder hawkins."  yep i'm still in singapore.  somehow elder thomas beat me out of singapore.  he got transfered to zone leader in butterworth west malaysia.  i was quite disappointed to stay here i'm not going to lie.  i love singapore i really do, it is better than any other mission for sure.  but the longer i'm here the less time i'll have in malaysia and the less likely president will send me to east malaysia where i want to go.  oh well.  nothing i can do i guess.  so yesterday elder thomas left on a bus and in the evening elder hawkins came.  he's pretty cool.  he came out the group right before me.  so yep i'm still the junior companion.  i don't believe it.  he seems nice.  he's pretty tall.  i don't know much about him yet.

     sunday was awesome.  we woke up really early.  we had to get up at 5:30 so that we could make it to the church by 6:45.  we met all of the other elders there and also president and sister clark and two senior couples.  then we loaded into the van and headed off to mount fabier.  it's not really a mount.  ha ha there's no mountains here.  it was a large prominent hill.  we went up to the predetermined spot, right on the very top, and were surprised to hear a ton of people singing.  some other group beat us out.  so we went around the hill to another spot.  it was smaller and more private.  we sat and read our scriptures until elder perkins, elder chen, president lai, brother turley and brother neilson came.  we had a good devotional.  me and 8 other elders sang a musical number, "he is risen".  it went well.  then president lai (stake president) read the dedicatory prayer.  singapore was dedicated for the preaching of the gospel at that same mount by Elder Ezra Taft Benson in i think 1969.  the prayer was awesome.  really inspiring to hear all of the blessings and prophecies.  a lot of the prophecies in there have come to pass.  it kind of rekindled that fire to go and baptize thousands.  i really enjoyed that.  that was the main chunk of the devotional. we sang "Christ the Lord is Risen Today".  it was a really peaceful really spiritual meeting.  i could really feel the spirit.  i just imagine what the first two elders to singapore are now thinking in the spirit world when they see the group of us gathered together under much better circumstances and so many members in the stake.  it's cool to think how much this place will change in the next 40 years.  i can't even imagine.

     after church we got the privilege of meeting personally with elder perkins and the church historians.  these guys are amazing.  they are the top dogs.  i mean the very top.  they know it all.  they have the key to the vault if you know what i'm saying.  they just said hello and then opened it up for anybody to ask any question about general church history. there was no question asked that they didn't have an answer to.  and they gave lengthy answers quoting sections of D&C and dropping names and dates and places. ha ha it was cool.  none of the questions were really crazy, but they were informative.  they could have talked for hours.  and they were really entertaining.  then after that, there was a two hour stake fireside given by them.  so we listened to even more about church history.  it was just really cool.  i can't adequately describe it to you.  sorry.  

     easter was kind of...normal.  ha it was just like any other day.  no easter basket.  no egg salad.  no relatives.  sister clark did give us a bag of easter candy.  that made my day.  church was packed.  the expat ward had 363 people there.  that is a stake record i believe.  the other local wards that we go to are getting about 106 people.  the expat primary is bigger than that.  ha ha crazy.  

     well even though transfers are over, our area is still not settled.  on thursday we will have to move house.  that will take all day.  we are moving in with the zone leaders at the same condo as everybody else.  so that's cool.  we'll be closer to the church. but now we won't have a sweet gym or as nice of a place to stay.  but at least we'll live with other people.  i have only lived in two person houses.  also next week there are four sisters coming in from the mtc.  we have heard that they are going to put two sister companionships here in singapore.  that will definitely effect our area because we cover the most wards.  we won't know until this weekend how our area will shake out.  i tell you what, if they take the expat ward from me i will be ticked.  ha ha those dinner appointments keep me alive.  the expats are just so awesome and friendly.  so i'll let you know next week what happens.

     well that's about it really.  you're lucky mom.  i just read your email right before sending this.  thanks!  it was great.  i like to hear stuff from you.  it's hard to explain but it is easy to read.  i like the news.  nice! spencer beat davis! that's what i'm talking about.  say hi to james for me.  sorry this email is shortish.  i didn't really comment on yours.  i haven't read your talk yet but i am looking forward to it.  don't forget, i am the golden child!  ha ha.  well peace out. send me letters! send me pictures!

elder petersen

Jungle Biking and MRT

umm.... i don't have any new greetings

     ha ha sorry.  wow your letters this week were great!  i don't even know where to begin.  i want to comment on them all but i don't know if i will be able to remember.  first of all thanks for all of the advice.  i'll take it into consideration.  i've got another concern but i'll wait till next month to ask you.  ha ha ok old man i'll take you right there at the baggage claim.  i'll still pin you in no time flat.  do you ever take spencer down?  i can't believe you guys are going to boston.  i am quite jealous.  oh well.  ha ha i'm in singapore which is freakin sweet!  you want to go to europe eh?  i would gladly join you unless i was the third wheel for some romantic get away.  actually if my plan works out i'll be in europe anyways with elder garrett running the amazing race!  i knew your musical referrence before you cited it daddio.  i am for some reason quoting a lot of musicals/old school movies lately.  nobody knows them. i also nailed mom's karate kid referrence (was that right?).  but anyways things sound great there.

     well sorry this email was a little late.  this morning we went on an adventure.  last week president clark took about 6 missionaries on this crazy jungle biking trail.  i don't have a bike so i didn't go.  this morning me elder ngo and elder ulrich went on the trail.  it was tough.  through the jungle.  saw a bunch of monkeys.  crazy rocky down hills and up hills.  i am so sore.  it was about 20k.  i'm not in "bike shape" so i took a beating.  but i survived and then watched the best two years.  ha ha ha so much funnier now. 

     i read james's email.  he sounds good.  he only gets 140 bucks a month and can only now text?!  we get 600 dollars a month and live off of our phones.  i can't imagine not having it.  we'd be lost.  everyone here is attatched to their phones.  i heard our mission is one of the more expensive missions.  they spend a lot more as far as support, flights, supplies, housing, phone, etc.  i am lucky

     this week seemed pretty mundane so perhaps you'll enjoy this letter.  it may be short.  first two questions.  ok my motorcycle?  are you going to sell it?  now would probably be the best time of year to sell?  don't sell it unless you get a good deal because that is my money.  but i trust dad yang thrifty.  also i was considering something you said last week about the book of mormon being like unto nowadays.  i was reading in ether.  moroni really talks about secret combinations for a while.   so today what do you see as secret combinations that could possibly overthrow/infiltrate the government and even hurt the church.  we've been promised that the church will be around until the 2nd coming but maybe it could still get hit.  any thoughts?

     alright so i got the new companion.  mr elder thomas from bountiful utah.  went to woods cross and might know elaine.  graduated in 2008.  he goes home in july.  pretty cool guy.  i feel bad for him.  no malay elder wants to get transferred to singapore and nobody wants this as their last area.  he is a little depressed.  also we had a bad week so it made our area look even crappier ha ha but things are looking up.  we have gotten a ton of referrals this week.  we went tracting door to door for ever with no success.  at least finally we got referrals.  that's the way it's done. 

we went to a sweet parade.  it was on saturday.  this was no cherry days parade.  it was huge.  huge floats. huge cast.  sweet costumes. fire.  firecrackers. loud music.  it was so cool.  it was at the base of the flyer ferris wheel.  so that was cool.

     well i have nothing to write so i'll tell you a detailed description of yesterday. we woke up at 7:00 and went down to our gym.  i ran on the treadmill and then pumped some iron.  i'm huge now.  then i had an egg and ham and cheese sandwhich.  very tasty.  we studied and then at 10:00 headed out to district meeting at the church.  ddm started at 11:00 we had a rivetting training by our zone leaders who relayed a lot of information to us from president about retention.  investigators now have to go to sacrament meeting 4 times before baptism instead of 3.  hmm.  we went to lunch at mcdonalds, because it was mctuesdays of course.  i got the big mac.  and a sundae.  we went over to a part of town called clementi. there we contacted only for a little bit and then met daniel.  he is so awesome.  we taught him the plan of salvation and he said he wants to be baptized after he understands more.  he asked deep questions about post celestial kingdom and outer darkness.  ha ha we couldn't answer them all but i think he was satisfied.  then we headed to bukit batok to find a referral we recieved.  found the house but he wasn't home.  the chinese auntie invited us in and gave us a bunch of snacks and juice.  very tasty.  we did teach her though.  she's buddhist but her nephew was listening and he is christian.  cool.  then we headed to the shopping center to eat.  i ate rice with two kinds of pork and a fried egg and green beans.  very tasty. then we talked.  i got to know elder thomas pretty well.  by now it was late so we headed home.  it took 50 min to get home.  a lot of our day is travel.  at night we planned and then chilled.  we talked with some missionaries in malaysia.  then went to bed.

     hope that wasn't too mundane.  i did skip some stuff cause i was bored.  ok well i have to go.  have a good week.  send me cool emails next week. love you!

elder petersen

Red Packets for Chinese New Year

sing yuen kwai le (another chinese new year greeting)

     i hope you all had a great chinese new year!  i love your emails.  they are just fascinating.  i makes me quite trunky.  man dad your theories are very interesting.   what you said about the muslims makes a lot of sense.  the muslims are interesting people.  they have great teachings.  unfortuneately for them, everybody focuses on the radical members that don't really represent the whole.  they are good people.  but they have a lot of problems.  i read this one book in sandakan about the history of islam.  it was good.  it's cool to learn about other religions.  your takes on the singles ward are interesting.  i think they sound great.  i don't see any downside to going to a singles ward.  eventually the singles will have families and move into a residential ward.  but not now.  singles wards are designed to help people of the same needs and concerns that sometimes get looked over in residential wards.  interesting.  that's pretty crazy that the stowers will move in.  so there is nothing in the basement? tv? fooseball? craft? will you have access to the cold room like when grandma and pa lived there?  hope it all goes well.  atta boy oskar.  don't let it go to your head.  i thought the temple was already closed and would open soon after i got home.  oh man i'll have to wait longer than anticipated.

     this week was quite prosperous and eventful.  we did in fact receive some red packets.  i got about 50 dollars.  which is more than i expected. one companionship got 100 each.  i can see that everything about chinese new year is about money and wealth and prosperity.  what a great tradition.  when i get home i expect to get red packets from you on chinese new year.  i expected there to be big celebrations here for the holiday but there was nothing.  everybody spends the time with their families.  the stores were all closed.  it was a ghost town.  none of our investigators really wanted to meet with us because they were busy.  which is understandable but it is a shame.

     speaking about rice krispie treats.  we had a dinner appointment with an australian family.  they are pretty cool.  there name is the dube's.  i guess brother dube was in charge of making the rice krispies.  ha ha he didn't follow all of the instructions.  he put like 3 times the amount of marshmellows and also a lot more vanilla.  they were delicious of course but they were loaded with sugar.  there was a thick layer of marshmellow that settled to the bottom of the dish.  ha ha it is better than them being too dry though that's for sure.

     no baptisms this week but we have been having awesome lessons with our investigators.  right now we are teaching some quality people.  i would say i am teaching as much as i was in malaysia.  the difference is that in malaysia we teach mostly families and here we teach single individuals.  a lot of students and maids and such.  also here they are very intelligent.  not to say that malaysians aren't smart, but they think different.  malaysians are more open and receptive.  here we have to be top notch.  we put michelle on baptismal date.  that's awesome.  she has awesome fellowshippers so she's doing really well.  i just realized that if i don't have a baptism this month, it'll be the first month since last july without a baptism.  that is 6 solid months of baptisms.  how awesome.  we'll see how this month plays out.

     well transfers are today.  elder dass got the boot.  i am in fact not training.  on the contrary, i will still be junior companion to elder thomas.  he is coming in from sibu.  he is in the same group as elder garrett that goes home in july.  i think he'll be pretty cool.  he's probably bummed about coming to singapore as most people are.  oh well.  there were a ton of transfers this week.  the whole mission got shaken up.  its cool.  i'm coming up on my year mark.  i want to do something to celebrate but i don't know what.  i'll probably burn something.  dad did you ever do anything like that? 

    on monday we had a dinner appointment right across the river from the singapore indoor stadium.  afterwords we went over and took a picture.  sorry jaynanne, that's as close as i'll get to taylor swift, standing outside the stadium.  at the time we were there, janet jackson was performing. we could hear it from outside.  at a restaraunt outside the stadium they were playing the superbowl.  we watched a few drives and i had to explain mostly all of the rules to dass.  we saw the packers intercept a pass and run it back for a touchdown and then we saw the steelers drive and score a field goal.  oh man it was so weird to watch.   it was the first time seeing american football in one year.  it was awesome.  ha ha trunky!

     well that's about it.  i was thinking about backpacking the other day.  i can't wait for our trip dad.  i love yellowstone but i really want to go on the teton crest again.  i don't know which would be better.  also we need new/more gear.  like filters and stuff.  i suggest you talk to dan mauchley from loll.  he would know the best stuff to get.  anyways have a good week.  stay warm. i know i will. dad you are right, our family is awesome!  us siblings are just so cool.  i'm glad we all get along and can have fun.  i miss you all.  keep up the missionary work.  mom see if you can get another baptism before i get home. ha ha but seriously.  alright peace out.

elder petersen

G.A.'s are people too :)

what up homie

 

     oh your emails are so interestng.  they make me miss home i tell you what.  i'm glad you enjoy mine as well.  i feel like every week is the same here and its kind of boring to keep telling you what happens.  this week was a little different.  i'm way jealous you saw harry potter.  i see a lot of movie previews here in the city.  there are big screens and posters everywhere.  as much as i hate the harry potter movies, this one looked kind of exciting.  i remember those dreaded ward conference meetings. its good to hear that my little siblings have strong testimonies.  keep it up.  guess what?! last week i passed my 10 month mark.  i might have already said that.  its sweet.  the chickens are birthing?  ha ha wow.  so much for eating the eggs.  i thought that's why you wanted the eggs, not so they could hatch.  jaynanne! i got your letters.  oh it made my day.  now that i'm here i get them as soon as they arrive instead of waiting a few weeks or months.  i didn't procrastinate this time and have already sent you a letter back.  its kind of short though but i did it! send another!

 

     this week was interesting.  i'll start out with last p-day.  after we emailed we went to a lazer tag place.  it was way fun.  there were 13 elders because the elders from Johor Baru came down.  i won't lie, i dominated.  i had the high score baby oh yeah.  my score wasn't even close to anybody else's.  ha ha but i paid the price.  i got a blister on my trigger finger.  they were old guns and i shot so many times that it took its toll on me.  ha ha it was fun. on Thursday, Elder Carl G. Pratt came to singapore.  Every january they have a mission tour where a general authority comes and tours the mission with president clark.  so on thursday the 13 of us plus senior couples met at the stake center to recieve training from president and sister clark and elder and sister pratt.  it was really good.  president clark talked about what you can and cannot take with you when you die.  you would have loved it.  surprisingly you take a lot of stuff with you when you die.  very good talk.  the pratts talked a lot about the spirit.  also good.  when elder pratt was answering questions at the end i got a good impression.  i just felt that this was a normal man.  you know, he is not anybody great but he has been called to a high position.  he's nobody special but he is different.  his authority and the spirit he has makes him different.  i just kind of gained a testimony of our general authorities.  they are all normal guys who have authority and are very in tune with the spirit.  its cool.

     on monday elder dass had to go on a visa run to Johor Baru, right across the straights of singapore there.  for some reason they detained him and kept him in a room for like 2 hours.  finally they only gave him a 1 day chop.  they said he can't just do a u-turn.  so on tuesday he went back to JB.  when he crossed the border this time they told him he would have to stay for at least 2 weeks.  i thought oh man i will just have to be a three some with another singapore companionship.  our area just got a bunch of referrals and investigators so i was pretty worried that it would take a hit during this situation.  tuesday was also the day of transfers.  so a few elders were coming through the office on the way to their new areas.  one elder, elder sugiyanto, was getting transfered to jb.  president decided that he will just be my companion for 2 weeks here in singapore.  so that's the deal.  ha ha oh man he is so funny.  he is from jakarta.  he has been out for 18 months.  actually he served in singapore 1 year ago.  he knows this place.  yesterday was a good day so i think it'll be a fun two weeks. 

     sorry, that's all i really have to say this week.  hey will you send me some american deodorant.  oh that'd be great.  i mean if you are planning on sending me a package soon.  next week is my birthday! i'll no longer be a teenager. sad.  i love ya'll.  have fun watchin movies and playing ball and doing school work.  jangan enkau membunuh orang.

 

elder petersen

New City, New Ways

HELLO

where to begin.  well first of all happy birthday mollie!!!!! and merry christmas all.   my letters might be shorter because i won't be typing as long.  oh well.

     i'm loving Singapore.  its really sweet.  i'm kind of scatter brained right now and don't know what to type.  i'll just give you my first impressions.  first of all it is a big city.  there is one stake here and like nine wards.  it's weird to be serving in wards.  me and elder dass cover 3 wards.  2 local wards called the clementi ward and the woodlands ward.  and then the 1st ward also known as the expatriate ward.  this is for all expats so everybody that is not from sinapore.  it is mostly full of white people.  i was having like reverse culture shock on sunday.  i was in a big chapel packed with white people.  so weird!  on sunday 2 of our wards meet at the same time in different buildings so we go on splits with local YSA's to cover both. then we meet up at 1:00 for the last ward.  its interesting.  its cool to be out of a city and district of 2 elders.  here there are like 10 elders and then sometimes the assistants also.  there is Teng and Law(chinese), Ulrich and Kelly(office), lam and Nightingale(ZL), me and Dass, Whittaker and Rathnayaka, and the ap's Rajah and Hormon.  its cool.  we actually do stuff on p-days and throughout the week. 

     we had a baptism on saturday.  thats what i like to see.  it was this lady named Christine.  she is mostly deaf and mostly blind and cannot talk.  ha i don't know how they taught her. Dass learned a little bit of sign language.  ha the baptism went pretty well.  this week i've eaten dinner at about 5 member's houses, and gone to 2 parties.  we went caroling with a few white families and i've recieved numerous christmas presents.  ha oh man you've gotta love christmas in singapore.

     during the week before i moved here, Kelly, Ulrich, Dass, and Martin worked on translating like 30 hymns into malay and singing and recording them onto a cd and typing up the words in a booklet to give a cd and booklet to every member family in malaysia.  this last week we assembled everything and got it ready to ship.  it took a while.  next month president clark wants us to translate selected primary songs as well.  so that takes up some time.

     there's not a whole lot of investigators here but we do have a few.  there are so many different people and backgrounds here.  everyone is pretty set in their ways that i try to contact.  ha but the work rolls forward.  the city is awesome.  there is all of the american commodities and more.  lots of good food.  from american fast food to asian cuisine.  its pretty cool.  there's a lot of electronic stuff.  all the top name brand kinds of stores.  its sweet.  the main shopping district is centered on Orchard Road.  it is comparable to times square in New York i hear.  so that's pretty cool.

     Dass is pretty cool. so far so good.  he was born in the UK near to scotland.  his mom is half indian half english. his dad is full indian.  he moved to malaysia like six years ago.  now his family lives in KL.  his parents were converted when he was young or maybe before he was born.  he's great and english and malay.  he has a funny accent because it's indian and british.  i have to ask him to repeat a lot of stuff because i just don't understand.  ha ha buts it's nice that he speaks malay a lot.

     the other day we were at a member's house for dinner.  their kids are mostly grown up like upper teens low 20's.  there were a bunch of elders.  after dinner the mom told everyone to pull out their scriptures.  5 iPhones came out!  everyone used the scripture app.  ha ha only in Singapore.

     well that's all for today.  i'll let you know about skype.  but i think it'll be easier to call.  i'll call you first around 7PM there sunday night.  then you can call me back. i can't wait to talk to you.  i don't know if i'll have anything to say though ha ha.  Merry Christmas.  hope its a good one even with a married daughter and a son in a far off land.  the church is still true.  i'm so glad you guys are active members.  you don't realize it but you change so many lives.  so keep it up.  jump lagi!

elder petersen 

Bittersweet Transfer

merry christmas!

     man i don't even know where to begin this email.  a lot happened this week.  the biggest thing would have to be that on friday morning i got a call from the zone leaders that i was being transferred....to singapore.... i had mixed feelings for sure.  i was happy to finally move, i was disappointed to go to singapore where i couldn't speak malay, i was really sad to leave my recent converts, and my future companion was not looking good.  shoot.  

     so friday saturday sunday and monday we went to many people's houses.  we went and saw all of my recent converts, we saw most members, we went to a buddhist temple, we ate at all of our favorite places and went to all of our good investigators.  so it was pretty busy. 

     i never thought i would be so emotional for a transfer but i tell you what, it was tough.  

     the hardest one was to say goodbye to Ning and his family.  they were basically like family to me.  i met them clear back in june and have been really good friends ever since.  almost all of our other baptisms and success have stemmed off of them and their referrals.  when i told them i was going it was tough not to cry.  i just tried to tell them thanks and how much fun i had with them and how much malay i learned from them and how much they've strengthened the branch.  i was really crying.  ha ha embarassing.  that was on friday. on saturday rayne called.  she's the oldest daughter, like 17.  she was crying.  ha ha she's like why do you have to go and all this stuff.  i don't think she ever 'liked me' like had a crush on me but she was dying.  then i talked to rinijah, like 10.  she was crying.  they said there mom was crying too so i talked to her.  ha ha they were all crying.  i asked if the boys were crying and they said no but they're sad.  so they talked me into coming over to their house for one more evening.  

     sunday was pretty tough too.  we, i got up and bore my testimony.  all the members make fun of you if you cry so i didn't really cry.  but i couldn't look at rayne or rinijah cause i knew it would make me sad.  ha ha.  dang, well looking back on it i don't know why i was so sad.  i can't tell you how much they've helped me and the branch.  it just can't be measured.  also i've just really really seen their faith grow you know?  man being in one area for so long just really kills you.  you get too attatched to these people.  but i guess that's a good problem to have.  on sunday we ate at three different houses.  sister doris cooked so good for us.  i'll send you a picture.  her family was so good to us.  on monday we ate dinner at two houses.  gotta love the members.  

     recap of sandakan: i loved it!!!! oh man it's gotta be the best area in the mission.  the worst part about it is that there are only two elders so it gets boring and you can't cover so much of the city.  it was so fun.  me and elder carter worked hard and me and elder garrett reaped the rewards. we had a lot of fun.  what a great place to start the mission.  really good people, really good malay, really good experiences.

     so now i sit in the big city.  on tuesday i got to travel all day alone.  wow that was sweet.  i got to the mission office around 6:30 pm.  elder dass met me there.  he's my knew comp.  his name is pronounced like doss, ryhmes with boss.  he was born in KL.  he's indian.  he lived in england for a while.  that's all i know.  his malay is of course really good and his english is good and he speaks tamil.  anyway i met him at the mission office and we had to go out because we had a dinner appointment.  he seemed pretty cool actually.  he's pretty nice.  he speaks malay a lot so i don't think i'll forget it all.  he seems like he works hard. and he doesn't seem to strict on the rules.  i could see it going both ways but i'm going to be positive.  well our dinner was so good.  we cover the expatriate ward.  so if any white people live in singapore they go to our ward.  its cool.  that means we get a lot of dinner appointments.  oh yeah!  also that means christmas will be good.  also this is the best time of year to be in singapore,  there are christmas decorations everywhere and right now i'm listening to mariah carey christmas music in the mall.  also chinese new year is right around the corner.  its huge in singapore.  i'm pretty excited.  so singapore is looking good.  i'm hopeful.  i don't want to be here for 7 months but i don't think i'll have a choice.  its a far cry from sandakan east malaysia.  but i think i'll like it.  plus there's like 8 elders here. that's good.

    today we went to the singapore zoo.  it was a lot of fun. i don't really know my schedule for the next little while.  i will let you know next week when i will call you.  probably monday the 27th here  so that'll be sunday night there.  i have to check with elder dass.  i hope you are having fun at home.  an elder's family came here to pick him up.  the skanchy's.  they might email you.  they went to the zoo with us.  it made me miss you guys.  ha ha we've had fun at the zoo before like in seattle.  anyways i can't wait to talk to you.  i hope it snows there..and here. say merry christmas to the ward!

elder petersen