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

Still & Strong

selamat hari natal!

     well well thanks for the awesome TRUNKY email dad.  it's nice to see that you guys are having a good time.  what the freak spencer ha ha pretty much all of the clothes you were wearing were mine before ha ha.  oh well.  how tall are you now kid?  i'm glad you liked my last email.  i feel like i didn't really do the story justice.  it was cool though.  just an update.  that referral that came is so awesome!! her name is flora and she is just perfect.  it's true that there's no perfect investigator but she is just eating up our lessons.  she is taking tons of notes and she said that that night she read and reread the restoration pamphlet until 2 am.  ha ha wow.  and the other elders' investigator jerney is doing awesome.  just yesterday he told them that they need to meet more often and he is looking to be a miraculous end of the year baptism.  sweet.  yeah dad i totally remember that night caroling ha ha ha so funny.  don't worry about me giving a long talk later dad.  i've got nothing to say.  :)

     let's see.  awesome awesome week.  last Wednesday and thursday we went on splits to tawau.  it was really really fun.  Elder Brooks and i had some miraculous experiences finding.  i don't really have time to tell you them all.  but they've been struggling to find new investigators and we went out and found a bunch of good ones.  saturday was a great day.  

Trevor, Peter, Elder Laycock

Peter's family

elly and peter were both baptized!!!!  quick background on them.  elly is iban and was a referral from tawau.  a lot of his family was baptized in tawau.  some of them moved over here for a few months and so they introduced him to us.  he is about 30.  peter is the son of a long time member who has like 11 kids.  he is also like 30.  his brother right now is on a mission to washington dc.


he met the missionaries before but just wasn't ready to go all the way.  about 2 months ago he came to church on his own and asked if we could teach him again.   it was so sweet.  they are really awesome guys.  they both have pretty big families that came.  also the other elders had a baptism at the same time so they drew a crowd.  all in all between the three guys our little baptism room was packed.  but it was sweet.  flora was there again along with a few other investigators.  

Trevor, Theddie, Elly, Elder Laycock

we had theddie and peter, who are both about to go on missions, baptize them.  they did it perfectly first try.  like usual the baptism was a little bit stressful.  we were just running around trying to get everything in order and everything right.  

we just want everyone else to have a really good experience ya know?  that seems like missionary work in a nutshell.  well the biggest payoff of the night was when the two of our guys bore their testimonies.  this same thing has happened to me before.  sometimes when you are teaching an investigator you don't really know what they're thinking or how much they are absorbing.  

Theddie & Peter's family

both peter and elly are quiet guys.  they never exactly opened up to us but they clearly enjoyed having us teach them and we could see small changes in their lives. 


well they both gave extremely powerful testimonies.  they both talked about how before they weren't the best and they didn't really have anything to do with religion.  they both got really teary eyed when they said thank you and they expressed their beliefs in the gospel and the spirit they've felt.  it was really awesome.  i feel like i can't really understand how much this means to the people i teach.  i always seem to learn far after the baptism about how grateful my investigators were to meet us and how different they were before.  it is awesome.  that's got to be like the coolest part of missionary work.  sweet!

  
 on monday morning we took a bus to sandakan to do splits.  it was a blast.  i absolutely love sandakan!! i really really wish i could introduce you guys to the members there.  that would be so cool.  jaynanne if we have enough money i really want to go back there with you and tour the jungle of sabah.  we were able to see a bunch of members and also go caroling.  while caroling, one of the members brought us over to their cousin's house.  i actually remember knocking on the door and contacting the lady that lived there.  i don't know how i remembered.  she remembered me too.  that was atleast in august of 2010.  ha ha it was great.  so actually i might have planted a seed and harvested a seed.  one of my recent converts there is named jasli.  he has got to be my favorite.  he is 12 and a freaking stud.  last year he did not know how to read.  he has never been in school but he's really smart.  now a year later he can read malay and english.  he is going to be an awesome missionary.  there's another 12 year old named joshua.  we baptized him there along with his whole family.  he is the oldest.  when we were teaching him we basically had to drag him in to hear the lessons.  he really just wanted to join islam, but in the end reluctantly decided to follow the family.  now he is doing awesome.  he is totally different.  he has the priesthood, he is 100 percent active, he carries around the book of mormon everywhere, and he also will make a great missionary.  it's so cool to see.  i absolutely love sandakan. 

A house on a swamp in our area

    

lately we've been kind of low on our finding new investigators.  this past week was finally good.  we found a part of town that is almost 100 percent christian.  when elder laycock was on splits here with elder bradley they found a cool family.  they only talked to the wife though.  she is 21 and indonesian.  she's got 1 kid.  me and laycock went back and she was so cool.  she has read both of the pamphlets that they left with her and she asked us if she could buy a book of mormon from us.  we didn't have any with us but we said she could have one for free tomorrow.  the next day we went back and gave her one.  her husband was finally there so we had a good talk with him too.  he said "hey i've met your friend before" in my experience that is rare so i doubted whether or not it was really from our church.  he said "yeah elder, elder, elder oren"  i've never heard of him so we were just like uh yeah maybe.  he ran into the house and then came out with a name card just like ours and a plan of salvation pamphlet.  on the name card was elder oren and elder osborne.  i recognized elder osborn.  my group replaced his group.  so that means that this guy, yanto, has hung on to that pamphlet and name card for about 2 years.  wow.  that is impressive.  clearly this guy had been prepared to meet us.  exactly what we pray for each day.

     well merry christmas.  happy birthday mollie!!!  i'm planning to do skype here at 9 am monday morning, there 7 pm sunday night.  you better be there or else.  i'm so excited.  i don't really have anything to say to you guys though.  i just basically said it all in this email ha ha.  jaynanne i loved all the pictures you sent me.  you crack me up.  ok talk to you monday.  i love you

elder petersen

It's a Wedding, Drink Up?

dear family,

     i love you!!  oh man i don't know how to say it but for some reason your emails are so awesome.  so nice to read.  dad i got both of yours this week.  thanks.  i knew after 86 letters there was no way you forgot ha ha.  ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha mom's story about the NAL match is so funny.  ha ha oh man she must have been so embarrassed.  priceless.  i think i would have been embarassed if i was there.  if dad shouted out i would be fine but if mom did then i would also be dying ha ha.  that's rough about your shoes but yeah you're right at least you have shoes.  ha ha.  speaking of shoes i might buy some new ones but i think i can probably hold off.  i can't believe grandma and grandpa have been married for 50 years.  that is way cool.  please say hi to them for me.  alright the half should be sweet.  i can't imagine christian as elvis.  i'm sure it would be funny to hear jaynanne tell me about people in our home ward.  alright utah. GO UTES! alright taylor swift.  i don't know if i told you but i tell everyone here that she is my girlfriend.  a lot believe me.  i have this one picture of her cut out and taped to a picture of me.  it is hilarious.  actually last week i told this muslim guy that avril levine was my ceweh too because her song was playing.  he was amazed.  he said tell her hi for me.  ha ha ha so gullible.  thanks for your thought about abraham dad.  actually i was thinking about something similair to that recently.  i have been reading the old testament and i'm almost done.  i frequently have deep thoughts but i forget to write them down and then usually forget.  ha ha the bible is pretty good though.

     well it was another interesting week in borneo.  we went on exchanges again and left the greenies to fend for themselves.  we flew to tawau for two days and just got back last night.  it was a blast.  elder williams is there from my group.  he is so funny.  look up where tawau is in sabah.  it's the only other city here with missionaries.  so now i've completed my trifecta of sabah.  sabah is so cool.  the people in this state are so nice.  i just wish we could teach muslims.  oh well.

     sunday we had KK1 and KK2 combined for a primary presentation.  ha ha it was funny.  it wasn't as perfectly planned and executed as you would imagine in utah but it was still good nonetheless.  we had way good attendence and had a good group of investigators there too.  i think they really enjoyed it but it might be kind of weird to see on their first sunday at a different church.  eventhough it was kind of unorganized i still got the chills when they sang a child's prayer.  oh man i love that song.  it is just a tear jerker.  ha ha if you have a soul it should bring a wave of emotions.  so in answer to your question i don't know if regularly in malaysia they have primary programs but they had one this past weekend and it was great. 

     i want to tell you about a man named lawrence.  he is about 58 and he lives alone.  he is so awesome.  the sisters contacted him before we were in the area but we taught him after we got here.  he is just so willing to do what we say.  he really stops and thinks about what we are sharing with him.  we taught him lesson two with one of the ap's.  it went great.  he had a ton of great questions.  at different times throughout the lesson we would teach a principle and then he would sit back in his chair and think and smile and say "oh ok" and nod his head and then ask us to continue.  ha ha he was eating it up.  pretty much the whole time we've taught him he has read everything we asked him to and always come to church even though he's about an hour away and always prayed.  i thought he is too perfect.  he must have some concern about something.  but he never did.  i hope i didn't jynx him.  he is set to get baptized this saturday.  well monday night we got an sms from him.  he said "petersen i'm so sorry i have to postpone my baptism to december because this saturday is my cousin's wedding and for sure i will drink a little bit there. i'm so sorry"  oh my heck.  i was just devestated to read that.  he's not a drinker by any means but i guess he's not strong enough to stand up against a long time wedding tradition where everyone drinks a shot together.  we've just been really praying for him.  we haven't had a chance to talk to him.  it is worse because he knows it is a sin and he is still choosing to do it.  so frustrating.  he is still solid though and we hope he pulls through.

     well lately we've been doing a lot a lot of finding.  we've asked some members where to go and they've given us some suggestions.  it's actually been going pretty good.  we've been talking to a lot of people and we've gotten a lot of phone numbers.  we haven't really had many return appointments from that yet but we did have one with a nice preacher from another church.  he is a nice guy with a nice family.  he is at least interested enough to hear what we have to say.  so sweet.  we are really praying and working hard right now that we can find a family to baptize before the end of the year.  that is our goal.  that is our focus.  but we basically have to find them this week so they have enough time to learn.  i really hope it will happen.  well i am really loving it here.  we're starting to get to know more members and they are really being friendly.  me and laycock get along way good.  he is funny and really nice to the members.  i'm really scared though.  i hate to think about it but my mission time is coming to a close.  it's sad.  i just love teaching people you know?  i don't want to miss a chance or have any regrets.  as we've been out finding we have met a lot of people from other churches and they are just missing something but they don't know it.  i am so glad that i have 4 hours a day to study the gospel with my companion.  from these studies i feel like i've really learned a lot more about the church and about Jesus Christ.  i have to tell you i love this church.  this is for sure God's church.  this work isn't easy but i know the pay off is huge and God is definitely on our side.  i hope everything is going good back home.  i just wrote jaynanne a letter and in it i kind of said how i just hope so much that my recent converts stay active.  then i thought about how any parents hope that their kids will stay active and gain a testimony.  then i thought that even me as an older brother, i'm not really worried but kind of anxious to see if my younger brothers and sisters will do the good things i've done or if they'll slip up in the same places i did or if they'll choose a totally different path.  i just really hope that everyone in our family will always be strong in the church.  i'm telling you we will be so happy together. 

     well i love you guys so much.  if you send anything just send it to singapore.  i might get it a little late though.  i don't really need anything but some letters would be sweet.  or pictures.  say hi to everyone for me.  go to church.  say your prayers.  have a good week.

 

elder petersen