Such a Small World!

dua minggu lagi!

     thanks for the emails they were  awesome.  really touching.  from mom it sounds like things are really busy.  well i can't believe you went to another jazz game.  oh man.  save a ticket for me will ya ha ha.  i definitely want to go to the temple when i get home. 

What a cute white guy :)

     this week was ok only.  hold on i have to remember what happened.  well actually last week wasn't that good.  our numbers were way low.  but good things happened.  the thing is that about 7 of our investigators went back to their village for various reasons.  that is so frustrating.  ha ha so we couldn't teach them and they couldn't go to church.  if only we could force them.  just kidding...but seriously..  last thursday we flew to sibu sarawak for our zone leader council.  oh man ha ha we were all scared.  from what we could tell we though president was going to rip into us.  there have been a few cases recently of missionaries being idiots and not following some big rules.  we thought he was going to rebuke us for obedience.   well that's not really his style.  he did talk a lot about commandments and obedience but he's a nice guy.  nothing condeming but we got the message.  i love those meetings.  i'm very lucky to be able to sit with president once a month. and the zone leaders are so awesome right now.  it is a lot of fun. 

     well i don't remember who i've told you about already so here's to gang.  first we have an awesome investigator named simon.  he is deaf in one ear and can barely barely hear in the the other (like only loud claps or horns or something).  apparently he was in a backpack on his dad's back when he was young and his dad was hunting.  the sound of the gun just broke his ears and some tree branch or something took out one of his eyes.  maybe all at once.  it's kind of sad.  from what we understand the dad then took off.  he didn't want to take care of him anymore.  he met the sisters a few years ago but never stayed with it.  about 3 weeks ago he just showed up in church.  he is really eager to learn.  we've been teaching him ever since and he is set to be baptized the week after i leave.  he's not mentally disabled but it is hard for him to understand what is going on.  but he is really really cool.  we have good spiritual lessons.

     next is a girl named senci.  she is really cool. she has read about half of the book of mormon already and loves to learn.  she wants everthing we have to give her.  she is set to get baptized on the 31st.  she went back to kampung (village) last week.  it's always kind of a nervous time because we don't know if the kampung church will anti them or if their parents will get mad.  but she said everyone sat down and watched the restoration dvd with her and they all really liked it.  that is so awesome!  there's no chance the church will go up there anytime soon but it's good that they like it.  so she is doing really good.  she is related to a strong member so it's exciting.  i'll keep you posted

     next is a little miracle.  she is a lady named josephine.  actually she is half european.  wow.  so we met her way way back in october or november.  she came to church a few times but could never meet us.  then she was having some passport problems and just dropped off the map.  her strong member friend dorkas had no idea where she was.  so we were pretty sad but moved on.  last month she showed back up.  she has been coming to church everyweek since she showed back up but we could still never meet her.  so basically she has come to church a lot and knows a lot already from that.  on monday we finally met her.  she's great.  we taught lesson 1 and things started to come together for her.  she just kept saying "this is true".  ha ha ya it is.  so we asked her if she wanted to be baptized and she said "yes of course".  also can.  we were trying to choose a date with her.  i said "well if you are really fast then you could get baptized before i leave".  she said "ya i must be baptized while petersen is still here".  i said "ok well that would be next week then".  she was just like "ok next week i want to be baptized".   ha ha it was awesome.  really she already knows everthing from sunday school.  she stopped smoking immediately and we've already seen her twice this week.  it's so cool. 

Stenley, Pres. Chuah, Maylin, & Viviana

President Chuah & his Family doing
a traditional Dusun dance.
Later, we all joined in and it was a lot of fun.

The cute primary kids singing, "I am a Child of God" for the Larsons

The Reads & Larsons with gift

Larson's, Trevor, Read's

so that's not everyone but it is a few good people.   this past week a new senior couple came.  they are the Reads.  the Larsons leave next week so they overlap for one week.  actually i found out that he worked with the weber state administration and she worked in the chemistry department of weber state.  i said i was from north ogden and she asked me if i knew the lipperts.  i said ya that's my bishop!  ha ha they know the lipperts really well.                         well at least she knows all of the boys names.  you'll have to ask them if they know her.  on saturday was a welfare party, welcome to the reads and farewell to the larsons.  it was a lot of fun.  i'm really going to miss the members here.  they are so strong and so fun to be with.  there is one awesome member named jen.  she helps us out with missionary work a lot.  she had a passport problem so she had to leave to indonesia yesterday.  she was so sad to leave before me and the larsons because she wanted to go to the airport with us to say goodbye.  she was just crying.  i hope i can meet her again.  i hope i can see most of these people again.  i hope they remember me.  if nothing else i'm the tallest elder to ever serve here ha ha.well one more week.  i'll make it count.  president is coming in to town tomorrow for district conference.  we'll be going to mount kinabalu again.  the sandakan and tawau members are going to be coming in.  it should be a lot of fun.  thanks for the emails.  i can't wait to see you.  say hi to everyone.  i love you!!

elder petersen

Iban & Indon Villages, I Love the Natives....

saya sudah mininggal,

 

Trevor's 2012 Valentine

     hey what's up everyone.  thanks for the awesome emails.  pretty funny.  it sounds like valentine's day was fun.  sounds like oskar is a little player ha ha.  pretty much nothing happened here.  i have no kekasih.  you didn't meet joseph did you?  i wonder what he's like now. are you going to the homecoming?  ya that would be sweet if thomas came to arches.  is there room?  john comes home to washington the last week of may.  it seems like just yesterday we all left.  crazy. 

spencer's got to get off starcraft.  we just had a training about addictive destructive wasteful things and video games was in the line up.  ha ha.  they're not bad just time consuming.  president clark said his smart smart son in law did terrible in college because he just always wanted to play video games.  so he couldn't even do the program he wanted.  

oh hey i just got another letter from the johnson's yesterday.  it was good.  it looks like i'll be home to see joe married ha ha.  

what the heck mom!  just throwing that last line out there nonchalantly.  ha ha you are so mean.  oh mercy funeral potatoes and spare ribs sounds so so so good.  jahatnya kamu!

things are still going awesome here.  i can't remember what happened this last week to tell you about though.  let's see.  i've gone on two trips since last wednesday.  thursday we took off to tawau for two days.  tuesday we flew down to sibu for two days.  it is so fun.  in tawau we just went on normal splits. 

Traditional Bajau Wedding Picture
....just a picture :) 

old EngKang...He is the man
Elder Trotter and Trevor

Sitting on the Kursi Raja (King Chair)
it's not as comfy as ours at home,
but EngKang handcarved it.  Pretty cool.

elder trotter and i saw this little culture fair thing so we went and checked it out.  they had a bunch of different booths from a bunch of different malaysian and indon native tribes.  the iban one was so funny.  this old guy really wanted to dance for us.  at another one they dressed us up because an old lady really really wanted to take pictures with us.  we also got our picture with a bajau girl in a wedding type picture haha, and also a cool kadazan man playing the flute.  it was a lot of fun.

while meeting all of these people we made some contacts and found out about another iban village that is all christian that is not far from tawau.  that is really good news.  hope it pays off.  also while in tawau i met up with a family that has a son in kk that i baptized.  the old dad lived in kk for a while and he is so funny.  he just moved back to tawau.  he was happy to see me again.  i'll send you a picture.  ha ha i love the natives. 

Iban Traditional Clothes

we went to sibu on tuesday for zone leader council.  it is a once a month meeting.  it was actually really good.  president clark is awesome.  he gives such good trainings.  i always leave those things feeling pumped.  i'm supposed to give the same training to the other districts in our zone.  i feel bad for them because i wish they could just hear it from pres clark.  i can't do it justice.  it is always a blast to see the whole gang each month.  the zone leaders across east are way funny right now.  every one is a good reunion.  there's me, brodie, maughan, pendleton, stratton, howell, hunt, gallinger, polley, and georing.  awesome.

well there was no big, big advances by any of our investigators this week.  but things are still progressing.  we are teaching a way nice family.  i'll keep you posted on them if they progress.  the dad's name is peter.  we are praying hard for them.  on monday we met a really cool referral named sensi.  she was just one of those people that gives all of the right answers to every question.  she is way way good.  we invited her to church on sunday but she said she had to go back to kampung because her father in law or something had a stroke.  bummer.  but she is way good.  she just really digested everything we told her.  later the same day we met a different referral from a different member across town.  she's awesome.  we invited her and her family to church on sunday but she said that this weekend she has to go back to kampung because someone had a stroke.  we thought hmm is there a bunch of strokes going around?  could it be the same guy?  ha ha we asked and sure enough the two referrals are cousins.  they are from the same kampung.  wow.  so two referrals were referred to us by two different families and they are both cousins.  that's cool.  not a coincidence.  they are both good.  we're excited.  but feel bad about the guy with the stroke. 

     oh my gosh other big news is that on tuesday my recent convert got engaged!!  that is crazy.  she is from my favorite sandakan family.  her name is rainah and she is...16!! ha ha wow i was shocked to hear it.  she's still in young women's ha ha.  it's to a member though so that's good.  better to a member than to a muslim.  apparently it's official.  the families got together and the dad's bartered over a price.  ha ha kind of like johnny lingo.  i think it's more of like a promise thing because it is still way far out.  so we'll see.  so weird.  dad pretty soon i'm going to need you to come over here to malaysia to barter for my kadazan princess.  ha ha ha...but seriously. 

     well this email was lame.  but i hope you enjoyed it.  i can't think of what to write.  i hope you liked my pictures.  i should be home pretty soon.  pretty much everyone i meet tells me i'm dead and asks me if i'm trunky ha ha.  yup it's true.  i still haven't got any flight info for going home.  i think they'll just email it straight to you.  let me know i guess.  well i love you all.  no need to get me an iphone before i get home ha ha i was just wondering about it.  but on the other hand i didn't get anything for my birthday.... jk ha ha.  ok well say hi to the ward.  i don't really recognize any of the names you were dropping.  i don't think i'll know anybody when i get home ha ha.  might as well move to washington.  have a good week.

 

elder petersen

Passport Power...less

hey guys

     sorry this is late.  thanks for the awesome emails.  sounds like things are going good back home.  seriously i don't know what you would send me that i can't find here.  i mean it's the thought that counts.  let me know.  thanks though.  my 21st birthday isn't that big of a deal...  actually i just bought some cool things today.  yeah we used to be in the same branch as the sisters.  but the other companionship got pulled out of the other branch.  so we replaced them and gave kk1 completely to the sisters.  oh well.  now i get to meet even more members.  it's been ok so far.  i don't know if i'll be that social when i get home dad.  i mean i haven't changed that much ha ha.  ok we can all sit around and eat crossed legged on the floor with our hands when i get home.  also can.  i loved your basketball analogy.  agreed.  i think missionary work is also a team thing.  in a companionship then also in working with the branch.  your letter wasn't that...like spiritual but i admit i got a little teary eyed.  it was good.  i can just imagine all of the flags and what the police officers thought as they drived through that.  also the story about the messerley's was awesome.  i hope i can meet up with some of my recent converts in 40 years and find that they are still faithful in the gospel.  that would be incredible.

     well right now i am down in kuching sarawak.  look it up on the map.  in a few hours i will go to sibu sarawak.  we have zone leader council tomorrow and then missionary leadership training the next day.  i'm in kuching on a 9 hour layover.  because of chinese new year it is impossible to get reasonable flight tickets.  so i met up with stratton and howell the kuching zl's.  brodie is going through singapore on a visa run.   it's pretty sweet here.  i bought some souvenier type things.  cool stuff is pretty expensive though.  zlc should be a blast tomorrow.  oh i wanted to tell you that i ate the peanut butter and jelley popcorn.  it was just like caramel popcorn basically.  but it was good no doubt.  also the flaming hot cheetos.  not so hot.  just like sour.  like vinegar.  made my jaw hurt but didn't make my nose run or my eyes water like spicy food here does.  but again thanks.

     since brodie's been here we've been at work.  he is a pretty smart guy and a really hard worker.  i imagine dad being a lot like him when he was a missionary.  i think as we get to know each other more we will have a lot of fun.  he does kind of dominate in the lessons so far.  but he was just with a greenie who probably didn't know how to speak the language.  we'll get it.  we basically didn't have any investigators to start out so we just visited the two member families i knew.  the branch president's family and the 1st counselor's family.  they were really nice.  ha ha really funny.  we got to know them and had a good referral pumping lesson.  we actually got some on the spot but we told them to think about it and we'd be back later this week.  i think they oldest son wants us to meet his friend's family.  i pray it works out.  on sunday one of the old branch presidents, a 28 year old single guy named curdy, took us around and we met a lot more members and got to know our area.  we actually got a bunch more referrals.  the dismal week actually turned out really good.  we got a lot of referrals and a lot of new investigators.  i hope we can build on this momentum. 

     brodie went on a visa run the other day.  he came back and they only gave him 7 days in malaysia.  freak.  so we spent two days at immigration running around trying to fill out a bunch of paper work for an extention to the regular 90 days.  well after going to a few different buildings and stuff we still got stopped up.  the guy looked through all of the papers we filled out, the photo copy of his passport, the i.c. of a local member, the signature of a local church leader, etc, and then he was like uh no sorry we can't give this to you.  what??  elder brodie just asked to see the boss.  so we met her in a little room and had a good chat with her.  she said nope.  so brodie hopped on a plane to singapore.  hopefully i meet up with him tonight.  we'll see.  those people with the stamps have too much power.

     we did have an awesome miracle occur.  we were looking through our area book and we called an old investigator that the elders haven't seen since october.  she immediately answered and said she wanted to meet right then.  also can.  later she told us that she never answers numbers she doesn't recognize.  but she felt like she just should.  so that alone was sweet.  she said maybe, only maybe she would come on sunday.  so sunday morning we were at the church and brodie remembered to give her a call.  she said she was already planning on coming with her two kids as well.  wow sweet.  so she came and had a great time.  later she told brodie that that morning she was trying to decide whether to go to our church or the anglican church.  she was reading the bible in timothy and somehow it motivated her to go to ours.  within minutes after that is when brodie called.  she said that just confirmed it and she had to come.  so she is doing great.  i'll update you next week but we are really excited for her and her daughters.

     well i have to run and catch a flight.  i'm like a business man ha ha.  this mission is crazy.  i don't know any mission like it.  i fly way too much.  anyways i love you all.  say hi to the whole gang.  pray for me.  see you soon.

elder petersen