RATS!

salam melikom!

i don't think i spelled that right but that is the muslim greeting.  wow its good to read your emails.  sounds like a great week.  oh man oh man i wish i saw that utah game!!  you have got to keep me updated.  it sounded intense. GO UTES!!! elder garrett also enjoyed the recap of overtime.  he is considering playing basketball there.  mom.  the shortest distance to any given point is a straight line.  that is why they run it up the middle.  ha ha ha the line men should open up a hole but that doesn't always happen.  that is so cool that danny is coming home.  i'm going to want details about him.  if he's the same goofy danny, if he's fat, mature,  good speaker,  if he speaks italian only etc.  i sure miss those guys.  did christian say how camp went.  also ask him if he knows if delose ever got my letter.  i was worried that jaynanne wouldn't get my one letter because i had to repair the envelope to fit.  i hope you enjoyed the pictures.  don't lose them because they were all deleted.  ha. have fun planning the court of honor.  its not that big of a deal.  to tell you the truth i don't really remember that much about mine.  ha ha.  so don't sweat it.  dad i did meet elder parrish.  he's cool.  he was surprised that i knew his dad's name.  ha ha he said he's heard of the twins.  so mission accomplished.  he is serving in west malaysia somewhere so maybe i'll see him again.

     this week.  nothing huge has happened.  we are getting a lot of referrals.  its so great.  it makes our job a cinch.  did i ever tell you about the funeral thing.  one of the members' dad died so we were really involved with the funeral for some reason.  we had a service and stuff.  its done different here because they have native traditions but also christian traditions.  us jason and president wieland went and dedicated the grave site.  it was a first.  but because of this funeral we found a large family.  they are really nice and accepting so we'll see how they go.  but stuff like that has been happening a lot.  we keep finding random families to teach.  its so cool. 

     our companionship is doing good.  elder garrett is pretty cool.  he's a good teacher and he's good at malay.  this is good because then i don't have to talk as much.  he likes his sleep though.  we have fun.  we get along and have similair interests.

     so one of the biggest events this last week has been our rat situation.  its  kind of absurd.  stupid rats.  they are not in the house.  i don't really mind them because they just stay outside, but our washing machine is outside and a lot of times it smells like rat pee.  so last p- day i bought a rat trap.  they didn't have like any spring loaded mouse trap things or any rat poison.  all they had was this cage thing.  so i bought the cage and i bought some peanut butter for bait.  it was an 18 ringget investment.  but it paid off. the first day i caught a huge one.  yes! but then i had a new problem.  i had to kill the little guy.  we have a machette but i didn't want to just chop it up.  it would be messy and difficult.  so i just left it outside all day.  when we came back at night it had been roasted to death. that thing was fried in the sun.  for the next two days i caught one a day.  i figured out it was easier to drop the cage in a bucket of  water and just drown them.  so thats what i did.  since that third one i haven't had any luck but i think we scared them off because now it smells better and i don't hear them out there.

     man last week i said that i would have my thoughts more organized for this email.  i was prepared, but now i'm just drawing a huge blank as i sit here and type.  is there anything you want to know?  our church attendence is in the fifties.  we may have a baptism this week.  it is the cousin of Ning, our recent convert.  we've been playing a lot of ping pong.  the members can't stand to lose so its fun beating them.  testimony meeting last week was good.  i bore my testimony.  i would say my malay is coming along very nicely.  its fun learning new words. i'm getting better at understanding people.  the people here speak so fast.  even their english is really fast.  nobody talks slow.  for the last month there's been a holiday going on called ramadon where the muslims fast all day.  it ends this week with a huge feast.  our muslim taxi driver and a few other friends have invited us over for dinner.  boleh!  we aren't allowed to teach them but we have the green light to eat with them.

     thats about it for this week.  i hope you have a good week.  again, say hello to danny for me.  oh hey i'm putting in a request here.  i want to hear from spencer.  i haven't ever heard from him.  i want to know how high school is going and what not.  i miss that runt. email me boy.  keep me updated on the utes.  i will wear a red utah tie every saturday in their honor.  i love you guys.  saya harap kamu diselematkan.  jangan lupa saya.  saya mengasihi kamu.  saya tahu injil ini benar. saya bersyukar untuk keluarga saya dan juga semua kawan saya.  selalu mengikut yesus kristus. selamat jalan!

Elder Petersen

Singapore Mission Changes

wow,

 it is great like always to hear from you.  your letters are funny. it sounds like things are going good at home.  dad it is dang weird to think that i am one fourth done with the mission. scary really.  mom what is normal.  ha ha you say you will eventually return to normal.  i think our house has no normal.  normal for us is constant change.  ha ha its been a long time since there has been no chaos at our house.  but i hope it does settle down.  but don't get bored if it does.

so much happened this week that i really don't know where to start.  first of all i already told you a little about singapore.  it was a blast on sunday is when we switched companions so all that week we cruised around singapore together.  it was a good way to meet a new companion i'd say.  anyways the conference was really good. i learned a lot.  did i ever tell you about the mission split?  so basically they are subdividing the mission.  it is technically one mission still but it is split.  you see the state of Sarawak, also on Borneo, is very different than any other state.  they have a seperate passport chop than any other state.  and there culture is very different.  very poor and "native" and what not.  the mission will have two parts.  the singapore sarawak mission, and the singapore west malaysia and sabah mission.  so whatever area you begin in will be where you serve for the whole two years.  so this means i'll never serve in sarawak.  its kind of a bummer.  that is where everyone wants to serve.  in the jungle, nobody speaks english,  they have cool traditions, and the baptize like crazy.  oh well i guess.  i will enjoy sabah while i am here.  in west malaysia and singapore they don't really speak malay or anything like that.  we will have to see what happens.

     so since we arrived on friday night we've been working pretty hard.  we went to dinner with the wielands that night after they picked us up from the airport.  saturday we went and visited many investigators and just kind of showed garrett around the area.  like i said before we are huge.  ha ha wow.  we're pretty much equal height.  i guess i'll tell you about him.  from st george. five kids.  parents are cooks at the frosty top drive in or something.  that famous one with the icees.  he played college basketball before the mission at a junior college in idaho.  and he's been out for one year.  so get along pretty good.  i think we will have some good success. 

     as far as the work is going, its going good.  we are getting some excellent referrals.  that is great because that means less tracting.  so hopefully the work really picks up soon.  i don't know what else to say.  things are normal ha ha whatever that means.  i can't wait for your package.  i sent you and the johnsons a postcard.  i hope you get it.  tell them thank you for their letters.  its weird to think that i am not starting school this year.  every august for like 13 years i've gone to school. now i'm in borneo.  ha ha i miss dad's blessing.  i also remember the blessings from last year.  that was cool.  when i gave dad a blessing it was the first one i ever did.  ha ha good experience. 

     well i'm thankful for you guys. you're great.  next week i will try to organize my thoughts into a better letter.  i love you.  i enjoy your letters.  have fun with this next school year.  live it up jaynanne.  wow jaynanne's a senior, spencer is in high school, mollie is in junior high, and oskar is a big bad sixth grader?!! oh man thats nuts.  time flies.  alright i'll hear from you next week.

elder petersen