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

New Zealand Comp

alright so the new guy's in,

yesterday i met up with them.  they got in late so we basically just dragged his bed into our room and went to sleep.  they had no chance to email home in singapore so here we are today.  he seems pretty nice.  he's from new zealand.  his name is elder reeves.  he's half mauri.  he's pretty freaking ripped, i think he did water polo. he's soft spoken but seems wise.  so far so good.  it sounds like singapore was a lot of fun.  i missed out.  oh well me and elder lang had some good times up here.  i found a t shirt at a thrift store of this old chinese guy doing karate.  nice.  i feel like this greenie is a lot like i was back in the day.  he seems pretty obedient.  too obedient.  i feel like the mission field is not exactly like what they tell you in the mtc so almost every greenie thinks his trainer is apostate.  i see that judgement coming.  ha ha but like i said so far so good.  oh well i'll probably be out of here in three weeks.  hey maughan brought back mail for me from singapore.  i had three letters from jaynanne and one from jessica.  cool.  jaynanne's were dated in december january february march and i think june ha ha oh well better late than never.  they were entertaining.  alright well have a good week. 

ARRRGGGHHH!

hey guys

     dang i am so jealous of your trip to boston.  that is so sweet.  it sounds way fun and very memorable.  i hope you had fun.  dad i'm sure those amish people thought you were pretty weird.  i loved washington dc because of all the historical significance and it sounds like boston was even better.  the food also sounded awesome.  i remember when we went to dc we ate a lot of good food.  every night we tried to find something cool.  i think we had pretty good chinese once and one night we went to an irish pub and one night we almost got caught in a police bust at ruby tuesdays. ha ha good times.  our trips are always so memorable.  thanks for taking us out.  i've met a lot of people out here and back home and their parents weren't travelers.  it sounds so boring to stay home.  that's one of my goals.  i want to go on family vacations.  ha ha yeah you have no idea how much i stick out here.  i don't realize it either.  i've gotten so used to it now i feel shorter than i am.  then i see myself in a mirror next to a bunch of asians or in a photo and i laugh because i'm huge.  ha ha ha it is pretty cool.  alright send me some pictures.  i'm sure jaynanne took quite a bunch.  i'm glad grandma read my letter.  tell her she doesn't have to worry about responding.  maybe you can help her email or something but writing is painful for her i know.  jaynanne sent letters?!  alright.  i also sent spencer a letter.  whenever you see him ask him if he got it.  yeah i don't feel too bad about buying dvd's.  ha ha that might be bad but oh well.  i have quite a few.  they are only five ringget for one.  that's less than 2 US dollars.  so if i do only watch it once when i get home oh well. like i said president has an approved movie list so most of the ones i got used to be approved.  i probably won't buy too many more.  hey did you guys see transformers or harry potter?

     this week was pretty alright.  that david guy proved difficult.  he's not in our area so we passed him.  we went to his house the next day and it was so far away.  ha ha we didn't realize it was so far.  oh man it was a journey.  on the way back we were at the start of a bus line so when we got on we were one of the only ones on the bus.  the seat next to me is always almost the last one filled.  nobody ever wants to sit by me.  eventually though i guess someone figures that sitting next to the tall white guy isn't as bad as standing.  so that day this odd looking chinese man sat by me.  actually i thought he was drunk.  i thought i could get a funny conversation going so i said hello.  he either didn't understand or he didn't want to talk.  so i ignored him and looked out the window.  about 2 minutes later he started muttering under his breath.  he would just kind of make groaning noises.  then all of a sudden he'd throw his head back and let out a big ARRRRGGGHH!!!  ha ha ha i was like what the freak.  it caught me so off guard.  then for the next thirty minutes, no joke, he did this.  he would say about three words under his breath then through his head back and make a pirate noise.  like "sarga arrgh varga HARRRGGGAA!!"  ha ha it was comical but it got on my nerves.  maughan was across the aisel on the other seat and he was cracking up.  after a while i decided to take a video.  the guy's eyes were closed so i didn't feel bad.  we were getting close to our stop so i thought i could just endure it but then the unthinkable happened...  he reach over while muttering and he put his hand on my thigh!  ha ha whoa.  so i casually pushed it off.  a few seconds later he did it again.  i slapped that sucker off.  then i left my hand at my side to protect my thigh and he put his hand on my hand.  after he did that twice i pushed it off and stood up and moved.  elder maughan didn't really see any of that but he came and stood by me.  i told him and he was laughing so hard.  oh the crazy people you meet on the buses of asia.

     well i wasn't really planning on telling you that but it just came to me.  i feel like there are a bunch of people here trying to micromanage my life.  our landlord is one example.  every now and then she comes over to our place.  she is a really nice cancer survivor old aunty.  but she makes sure seat covers are lined certain ways and that switches are switched right and that everything is perfect.  she tells me how to clean.  she told me that my bathroom is too dirty.  it is the cleanest one i've seen in the mission.  she told me what soap to buy and then how to clean the shower tiles.  then she still didn't trust me to buy it so she went and bought soap and scrub sponges and toothbrushes to use for the fine detail.  ha ha step down lady.  our branch mission leader is also trying to tell us everything to do.  he tells us who to visit and what to teach and how to schedule and where to go.  i mean it's good that he cares but we are capable.  and he never offers help.  he tells us what to do and then tells us he is too busy to help and runs away.   ha ha impossible.

     i don't know if you can ever keep my investigators straight but we have been teaching this one indian family.  they are pretty good but pretty poor.  they work a lot and barely scrape by.  they just recently opened a food stall that the mom and dad run all day.  they go home and prepare food for the next day sleep and repeat.  luckily, they don't open shop on sundays.  the dad is a nut but believes one must have a day of rest.  the mom works at kenny rogers on saturday and sunday.  if she didn't then their small stall would not be enough income for the five of them.  the father has come to church about 5 or 6 times.  he is great.  he is definitely crazy.  but he enjoys church.  whenever we see him for the first time he shakes our hands and says "praise the lord".  ha ha maughan started doing it back.  this last week we put him on baptism date.  a few days later we put his three children, 11 13 17, on date.  the mom is still a tough cookie.  she won't come to church even though work starts after church.  i sympathize for her.  she works her butt off.  she looks way tired.  i just hope she gets to a point where she can see that her children are getting happier and that she might benifit from coming.  so that is our top investigator right now.  they're looking to get baptized next month.

     well transfers are in.  the group of 16 is officially gone.  they should be back in america soon.  i'll miss a lot of those guys.  like thomas.  he is pretty dang cool.  also carter my trainer.  he's crazy but a good guy.  today the group of 19 comes in.  basically everyone left in the mission is training or is zone leader.  except me ha ha.  i'm staying here in pj2.  so is maughan.  maughan is training a greenie.  the three of us will be a companionship.  in only three weeks another group of 6 goes home and nobody is replacing them.  5 of them are zone leaders.  i'm pretty sure in three weeks i'll be transferred, along with the few other threesome elders, to zone leader.  i don't know what to think.  i'm fine with it i guess but i see myself most likely getting transferred somewhere i don't want to go.  oh well.  maughan and every single other elder in our zone is in singapore right now to pick up the new guys.  they'll be in on friday.  elder Lang is a zone leader.  he is one dying in three weeks.  his companion is training so he's in a threesome too.  so he's still here in singapore.  it's just the two of us.   it'll be a good three weeks.  he's really cool.  hopefully we'll go on splits a few times.  so that's the scoop.  i'll let you know what happens with a greenie here.  i'll also let you know what happens in august.

    

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

Rice, Rice, and more Rice

hey guys

     wow i don't even know where to begin.  you guys delivered great emails this week.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY JAYNANNE!!!!!  you thought i forgot didn't you. how could i forget.  my little girl is all grown up.  don't do anything stupid now that you are an "adult".  that is so cool that spencer blessed the sacament.  i remember the first time i did it was on shut-ins with spencer shupe.  i read it out of the book of mormon and i said wine without noticing.  he corrected me and i did it again.  i was pretty nervous the first time i did it in sacrament meeting.  sounds like you did fine.  dad i don't think you could make me any more trunkier than i am.  ha ha i want to go backpacking when i get back but april is probably too early in the season.  arches would be fun.  i want to do something with my friends but they won't be back until a little bit later.  are you guys still planning on going to europe?  that would be a blast.  but anywhere can.  i'm wide open.  i spelled my companion's name wrong.  it is maughan not maughn.  he's from sacramento area.  yeah he loves yosemite.  he's told me a bunch of stories.  he's done this one big climb called el capitan a bunch of times.  and also the face of half dome.  he like to do multi day climbs.  crazy.  i'm so glad that dallas won.  that is sweet.  about the santasquoys i just talked about how we had them over for a lesson and they didn't really accept it but that we didn't lose our friendship.  i'd say most members are scared of losing friends and that is why they don't share the gospel.  it is false.  since being on my mission i've been asked to invite investigators to be bapitized on the first lesson and it makes me think back to that.  i have mixed feelings but in the end i think it is a good idea.  they have to know why we are even meeting with them.  but you don't nail them.  you say something to the effect of "if you were to find out for yourself that this was the true church, would you want to be bapitized and join it?"  if they say no you don't drop them.  it can't be an attacking invitation.  most people would say yes to that broad of a question.  i remember dad was pretty nervous because the missionaries wanted to ask them about baptism.  haha.  it also helps us to see how determined of an investigator they really are. 

     well yep the new area is pretty sweet.  it is way different from singapore or sandakan.  i swear our mission is so diverse.  east malaysia is a lot poorer all around.  KL has its slums but it has some really nice facilities.  east is almost all small cities.  in west there are a lot more chinese and indian people and everybody tries to find middle ground with english.  east is pretty much all good malay.  we have a senior couple but they are over all 8 missionaries here and we don't really ever see them.  they go to a different branch.  they're cool.  they are the browns.  they are from harrisville.  they'll go home around the same time as me.  they are mostly over family history for west malaysia.  we're on public transportation.  KL is so weird.  there's so many different types of transport.  taxis, big buses, small buses, LRT train, big KTM train, and a mono rail thing.  they are not nearly as organized as singapore.  we've already waited for a bus more than once for almost an hour.  none of the systems really connect up that well.  ha ha it's a mess.  it is mostly muslim here.  there's mosques everywhere playing that call to prayer.  there's also a lot of hindu and buddhist people.  christians are pretty rare.  our apartment is awesome!  it is brand new.  it's a condo.  it is reported to be the nicest in the mission but i think singapore had better.  it is pretty small, just the two of us.  there's three rooms and three bathrooms.  we have a flat screen tv that we can use on p-day.  ha ha awesome.  they just moved the pj2 chapel and so we live about a 15 min walk from it.  and it is in a great place by a busy road so it's easy to find.  the food is the same.  a lot of rice.  a lot of rice.  i mean a lot of rice.  there's fast food but it is expensive.  we do live right next to a big mall.  i hope i'm not here for 7-8 more months because i want more that 2 months in my last area.  hopefully i'm here for 5 there for 4 or something.  i don't know though because between the end of july and the start of september there are like 35 missionaries out of 80 going home.  ha ha so it's anyone's guess.

     last sunday was district conference.  so the four branches in KL and the branch from malacca got together.  basically i didn't know anyone but the missionaries and a few members haha and i couldn't tell who was in my branch.  so i still don't really know anybody.  the talks were all awesome.  the theme was about strengthening the church by strengthening families.  it made me trunky.  i was in the back and couldn't hear that well so i kept zoning out and reminiscing about home.  haha.  elder dass's dad is in the district presidency.  he gave a talk and he is just like elder dass.  all of his mannerisms were the exact same.  ha ha it is comical.  i saw president clark.  we had a good chat.  he's doing a run here on july 30 and if i can find a willing investigator then i can run.  it was good to see all of the elders there.  we have a sweet zone.  we're planning on going paintballing soon.  that would be so fun.

     bad news.  there's this one elder named elder ulrich who i became pretty good friends with.  he came out the group right before me.  he was in singapore the whole time i was.  he is from kaysville and went to davis high.  he was big into debate and drama.  we knew some of the same people.  anyways like yesterday he went home.  oh man.  he had 6 more months left.  he was having some medical problems and he reacted bad to a drug he got here.  he was so awesome and i didn't even get to say bye to him.  it's a bummer.  i think he knew it was coming though because a few weeks ago we talked about what it would be like to go home early.  i hope i didn't offend him by saying how much it would suck to go home early.  ha ha i can't wait to meet up again.  he was cool.

     hey dad did you ever get a message on facebook from someone named john lee?  he sent you one.  and jaynanne too i think. 

     sorry i emailed so late this time.  we were out a batu caves this morning.  it is this big cavern thing here with a lot of indian shrines all about.  you have to walk up like 200 steps into it.  there are tons of monkeys and if you hold out food they will climb up you and take it.  it was fun to mess with them.  sorry that i don't have any good stories from KL yet.  nothing too exciting has happened yet.  we might have a baptism this weekend.  that will be sweet.  i'll let you know.  i hope i can meet more members.  i'm going to send you guys a cd with a bunch of pictures from singapore.  it doesn't have them all though because i switched cameras.  and you've already seen a lot of them.  i might send you a postcard too.  i don't know my address or where the post office is either so i don't know how i'll send it.  well have a great week.  i look forward to your awesome emails next week.  if you get bored this summer then write me a letter! i love you all!

elder petersen

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