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

Gonna be a NEW YEAR :)

gong xi fa cai! (chinese new year greeting)

     whats up family!  how're ya'll?  it sounds cold back home.  it's cold here, but only if you are using the air con.  last week seemed to be pretty good for you.  i heard about ol jimmer in the white people ward.  that's pretty crazy but it is funny that they turn around and lost.  the jazz always find a mid season slump.  they'll be back on top soon.  no doubt.  the wilkins have cute daughters if i recall. abbie's house sounds fun.  that would be hard to fix up in the winter.  how long before they can move in.  8 acres? wow. that's a lot of acres.  i hope they are successful.  thanks for celebrating my birthday ha ha.  that is cool.

     well this week was good.  everybody is gearing up for chinese new year.  i believe it is the 3rd of feb.  it's huge.  i'm not sure why.  all i know is that if we get invited to people's houses that we give them 2 or 4 oranges and then say gong xi fa cai and they give us red envelopes with money inside.  the envelope is called ang pow.  last year sugi was here and he got like 120 dollars in ang pow.  ha ha i don't count on getting that much but an extra 20 bucks would be cool.  i'd say thats a good tradition.  i'm trying to remember a few other chinese phrases so that i impress the chinese people.  ha ha they love it if a white man knows something in chinese.

     we had a baptism on saturday!!!! oh yeah!  pretty sweet.  it was kim.  i had the privelage of baptizing her.  her full name is Doan Ngoc Kim Anh and its not pronounced like it looks so it was actually tough to memorize ha ha.  the water was cold and the numbers were few but it was a great meeting.  the two talks were good and her testimony was pretty good too.  she was confirmed on sunday at sacrament meeting.  i think she'll do good.  she likes the spirit at church.  the rest of our investigators are doing good as well.  it will be hard to meet anybody this week because of the holidays. oh well.

     major milestone a few days ago.  i accomplished a mission goal.  i had a goal to eat rice for breakfast lunch and dinner.  i did it!  ha ha sugi cooked rice two mornings for breakfast.  so on monday i thought sure i'll see if i can eat rice for lunch and dinner also.  ha ha so now i have experienced the asian culture.  i feel a rice belly coming on.  oh well.  i won't do that again. 

     another goal is coming into fruition.  i thought to myself a while ago that if i serve a mission in asia everyone will expect me to know how to use chopsticks.  thats not really the norm in this part of asia.  most people in malaysia and indonesia use a spoon or their hands.  but here in singapore there is a ton of chinese people so they have chopsticks right next to the fork and spoons.  i have been eating as many meals as i can with chopsticks.  i must say i'm getting pretty good.  i've made some big progress.  they don't use chopsticks only.  they also use a big spoon.  that is how you eat all of the rice.  but if it is at all sticky then i can pick up rice pretty well.

     i bought a new camera.  it's pretty sweet.  it is not the model i intended to buy but the sales man talked me into it.  it is a good one.  it is a panasonic 14 megapixel underwater camera.  i like it.  the pictures are pretty sharp.

     well yesterday elder dass made it back to singapore.  he only got a 13 day chop.  most likely he'll be transferred out next week and i'll train a new missionary that is coming in on wednesday.  elder sugi tried to get to his area in malaysia but they wouldn't let him enter the country.  so now he will serve in another part of singapore.  i'll still see him around.  there are a few other passport problems around the mission.  elders were entering back into Kuching in east malaysia and the immigration guy said i know what you mormons are doing here going around from door to door and stuff.  that elder only got a two week chop.  i think this is because we changed our policy to wear our missionary clothing and say straight up that we're from the church instead of that we're just visiting friends.  interesting.  so pray for us.  like president Monson says pray that the hearts of the leaders of countries will be softened for missionary work.  our mission could use that.

     i feel like there is more to tell you but i can't hink of it.  oh well.  have a good week and a happy lunar new year.  say hello to everyone.  dad don't forget to tell me about your muslim/book of mormon theories and about the singles wards.  i am interested to know your theories.  and don't get to excited about the fortune cookie thing.  it was probably refering to your son who will recieve tons of ang pow this week!  if you haven't send "forever strong" then don't.  we found it at a member's house. ok bye

elder petersen

A New Year

hey guys...happy new year!

     it was kind of lonely without you guys ha ha but we had fun.  sabar dulu.  your email was interesting.  all of our ap's served for their last few months so they die as ap.  your schedule was pretty similair to ours.  its interesting.  we don't get out as early as you did. and our meal times are very flexible.  thanks for the camera info mama.  i'm thinking i'll go with the sony one...maybe.  its like 400 sing dollar or something.  maybe less.  i don't know how that compares.  your new years party sounded fun.  

     well to be honest this week had it's ups and downs.  in one day we lost all of our best investigators.  they just texted us and told us that "the mormons" wasn't for them.  so we didn't even get a chance to really talk it out with them which is frustrating.  it was way sad.  very depressing.  ahhhhhh man.  so we had terrible numbers this week.  but it helped motivate us to do better.  seriously we made a resolve to do good this next week.  we just put a 16 year old named Melvin on baptismal date.  so that is good.

     right now we are working on a project commisioned by President Clark.  we are retranslating about 30 primary songs from indo to Malay.  a lot of the indo translations are fine for malay, but a lot of them have changed meanings and have better words in malay.  so me and elder dass are going through and working on that.  when we are done they are going to be sung and recorded to give to every branch in the mission.  its way cool.  i'm glad i get to help.  and i've re-realized that the primary songs are so awesome.  i love them.  i get distracted when we are working because i just start to go off singing them.  on saturday we went to another ward's baptismal service.  for the closing song we sang "i'm trying to be like Jesus".  it was so good.  primary songs are just so simple yet profound.  so simple a primary kid can understand it yet so deep that they explain clearly all gospel principles.  and they are all catchy.  they're great.  i don't know how you can't feel the spirit when singing some of them like "a child's prayer" or "i'm trying to be like jesus" or "he sent his son" or many more.  awesome.

     so on new year's eve we had a lesson at marina bay at 7:00.  after that we were in the heart of the sinapore parties so we went and checked it out.  now singapore had some dirty parties to be sure.  but where we went was open to the public and kind of family driven.



we went to that huge bay where i sent pictures before. there is the merlion and the casino that looks like 3 towers with a boat on top and the singapore flyer and beautiful city skyline.  

in the huge bay there were about 20,000 white inflatable balls floating on the water.  throughout december people could write their wishes for 2011 on them.  they shined lights on all of the buildings and also on these balls that would later coordinate with the fireworks.  we stayed there till about 9:00.  we were seriously considering staying till 12:00.  we hadn't heard that we couldn't





and the show was supposed to be huge.  but we decided it could get crazy and themrtwould be way crowded after so we headed home.  at home we had sparkling cider as a gift from one of the members.  so right before 12:00 you could hear people in their homes saying happy new year! because everyone's watches are different.  but when it was 12:00 on my watch (i did my own countdown) i opened our window and yelled as loud as i could and banged a pot with a big spoon.  ha ha ha you can see many towers of the condo complex and lots of people went to their window to see who was making so much noise.  elder dass was so surprised.  ha i was dang loud.  i guess its not a big thing to yell here.anyways then we went down to our pool and sat on the pool chairs and made a toast to 2011.  we went month by month and said the highlights of 2010.  it was good times. 2010 was such a huge year for me and for our family.  2011 will be 12 solid months on the mission and i want it to be amazing.  i'm looking forward to this year. 

     so thats the news here.  did you get my picture cd from elder garrett? did you ever get a movie from the mission office?  have a happy new year.  what time is church?  say bye to james for me.  jaynanne, give him a kiss from me...ha ha. i emailed him today.  he will be great.  how are the jazz? oskar update me. let me know if anything crazy cool happens.  kalau say mati sebelum kita berjumpa, saya mau kamu membakar semua barang ku.  bye!

elder petersen