On Fire, On Track :)

Apa Khabar

     It sounds like things are going great back home.  that's so awesome that Jonathon is getting baptized!  that whole story is really just sweet.  i'd say mom had a huge role in his decision.  go mom!  congratulations on actually getting together and quilting.  you've always said you've wanted to so that's good that you did.  save some pears for me.  or better yet send me some.  That's sweet that jaynanne went to the dance.  i hope she had fun.  i know that kid.  he ran cross country.  pretty nice.  the next time we meet president clark is going to be october 19th.  all missionaries in east malaysia are going to Sibu in Sarawak for part two of our huge training.  so if you sent a package soon i would probably get it then.  if not i might get it at the end of november.  oh man also thats super cool that stephanie is serving a mission.  she'll be good.  she wrote me a letter telling me how great you are for offering to take her to the temple.  thats pretty sad about grandpa and grandma.  tell them i'm thinking about them.  and give them updates on my work here.  so why was susan fired?  just downsizing?  thats sad.  and why are they looking in weber?  i mean that is sweet but seems a little bit random.    GO UTES!!!  oh man it sounds like they are starting out a terrific season.  oh byu, so sad.  do they have anything going this year like their "quest" t shirts that one year.  ha ha idiots.  thats good for danny.  it sounds like thats how i will be.  actually if i get into four areas that would be good. its looking like three areas ha ha.  oh well at least i'm in a good area. 

     whoo!  that was all in response to your letters.  i love your emails.  always enjoyable.  This last week was really fun.  things are just going really good here.  last wednesday we had a farewell party for John Chin.  he left to the manilla mtc on thursday.  he was the bomb.  he went out with us like every day.  we will miss him for sure.  on thursday we flew to KK for zone conference.  it was a good conference.  KK is fun.  it is a lot bigger than sandakan.  also it has McDonalds!!!!  we ate there like four times. ha ha i got a bunch of souveniers there.  they have a huge mall.  one thing i bought was a 500gb hard drive.  it might have been an impulse buy, slightly, but i will use it.  it was pretty cheap i think.  i don't know what they run for in america.  i will back up all of my photos to it.  now i can take more photos and videos.  also i can use it after my mission.  our training by president clark was great.  he talked about angels. very good.  also he talked about agency.  pretty deep stuff.  he is very wise.  on saturday and sunday we had district conference in KK.  a lot of branch members came on a 6 hour one way bus.  it was fun to see them all.  we have the best branch.  that conference was also very good.  there were some awesome talks.  there was this man named elder subandriyo (spelled wrong for sure).  he is an area 70 or something.  he is a native indonesian.  he was a good speaker.  and everyone could understand him because he spoke indo.  i was talking to him after  and he has a son serving right now in the ogden utah mission.  maybe one day you'll meet him.  he's been in bountiful and kaysville and layton. 

     right now the missionary work is on fire!  we are getting a lot of referrals. we just put two families on baptismal date.  we just met another 6 member referral family.  things are going good.  we run out of time in the week to meet everybody we want to.  this is an excellent problem to have.  hopefully a few of them get baptized.  president clark told me that he is expecting big things for sandakan.  he has some faith in us up here and i don't want to disappoint. potentially i can see us having about 20 baptisms before the year is up.  that would be huge for this area.  also he talked to the couple about starting to look for land to build a nice new chapel.  wow! that would be awesome.  so things are going good here.  i'm safe, i'm healthy, and i'm having a good time.

     i got your package!  it was so cool.  the assistants brought it all split up in their luggage.  ha ha it was big.  whats with all of the wet wipes?!  ha ha so many.  its like monk or something. i haven't had anything as sweet as starbursts in months.  that will blow the malaysians minds.  they won't be able to handle it. the journal is perfect.  that tennis article was incredible.  i am in disbelief.  their entire match lasted like 11 hours.  i can't imagine that.  wow. truly insane.  they hit like 98 and 95 aces.  ha ha  wow.  that would have been one to go to.

     I love you!  i miss you.  i hope you don't forget about me.  don't worry about me.  keep reading the scriptures and saying your prayers.  hey hows that family home evening chart going.  stay safe and write me a good email next week, coughcoughspencercoughcough.  i will look forward to it.  sampai minggu depan,

Elder Petersen

Monkey'n Around

selamat hari raya!

wow what a great week.  your emails were awesome.  i loved the pictures.  mom i'm not really sure what you were saying.  you sent me like 3 emails.  the first one seemed pretty full and complete.  it had a bunch of sweet pictures.  then the other two were like bullets from the first letter.  but anyways thank you i enjoyed it.  i'm not sure what that picture of a mouse was but no we did not eat it.  we eat a lot of random stuff here.  mostly rice though.  probably like twice a day average.  ha ha gotta love it.  sometimes once a day.  it looked like spencer got some nice patches.  i saw a yoda one in there.  nice.  ha ha that sounds like good ol danny.  ha ha i love those guys.  thats cool that christian got to go to the tetons.  it truly is a once in a life time experience.  its awesome!! i want to return.  alright jaynanne! going on the dates!  good for you.  i'm sick of chickens so no offense but i'm on jaynanne's side on this one.  i just got an email today about that alkoran thing from president clark.  its terrible.  we live in one of the most muslim populated places in the mission but i haven't heard anything.  the muslims love us.  president just told us to stay on the lookout for violence or mobs and to avoid them.  don't worry i think we're pretty good here.  i'm glad you enjoyed my rat story.  i enjoyed killing it.  yeah the members are terrible at singing.  well that isn't true.  some are really really really good.  and a lot of them can play the guitar and piano but cannot read music.  but the ones that are bad are the ones that sing the loudest ha ha so we sound terrible.  oh well.  GO UTES!! nice keep me updated.  hopefully the byu fans keep quiet.  i look forward to that new era story.  president clark sent us an awesome new era story about baptisms and missions but i don't know if that's it.  i started reading the old testament.  very interesting.  its not really like i expected.  it doesn't flow like the book of mormon.

 

so now for my letter...  it was a good week.  as i told you before, since the 10th of august until the 10th of september all the muslims were fasting.  they fasted every day from 4:30 am until 6:30 pm.  it was a good month because instead of eating food they cook it and sell it in bandar.  the streets were closed every day and filled with food stands.  

                                      

anyways at the end of ramadan they have hari raya.  its kind of like the muslim new year i think.  for four days they eat a lot and party.  and they love to have white people come over.  on friday we went to three houses, on saturday we went to one, and on monday we went to another.  it was a blast.  they take tons of pictures of you with their children and they are amazed that we speak malay.  we were mostly fed rice with many meats and veggies and little treats.  it was good. they also all have really nice clothes and are all dressed up really pretty.  really just an interesting event.  it was fun to see.  this doesn't happen everywhere in the mission.  at least not on this scale.  so i'm glad i was here.  so like i said the muslims like us and i don't think we're in a lot of danger for the 9/11 thing. 

     also on saturday we had a baptism!!  it was very good.  his name was Mandding.  His son Jasli was baptized with the Ning family and Ning is is cousin.  Ning did the baptism.  both were obviously inexperienced but it went well.  it took a few times.  in all honesty i'm pretty sure that Mandding has never been all the way under water before.  like he's probably not had a big bath in 30+ years.  so he was a little scared. but i witnessed it, he went under.  it was really good.  besides that the work is just going good here.  we are getting the referrals.  i haven't knocked a door in a month.  we just put another family on date so we look forward to their progress.  this weekend is zone conference in KK.  tomorrow we fly out.  also there is district conference for the branch so we will stay for that.  we return on Sunday night.  i'm expecting to get some mail there.  the zone leaders said there is a letter from abbie and dad.  hopefully there is also a package.  if not i won't see it for a few months. 

     i'm trying to figure out how to attach pictures.  its not working so well.  ha so you might get some.  i still want to hear from spencer!  also i'm calling in a favor. maybe ask christian,  i want the full song lyrics to men of harlech.  ask delose because i've looked on the internet before and haven't been able to find every verse that we sang at scout camp.  thank you kindly.  sorry this letter is later than usual.

today we went to the sepilok orang hutan rehibilitation center.  it was cool.  i saw a bunch of monkeys.  we went on this one random trail.  i'm pretty sure nobody else goes there.  we weren't seeing anything so we started heading back.  i was giving my best impression of an orang hutan call.  suddenly a big one just swung down to us from the trees.  he walked on the trail for like 100 meters.  it was cool.  so human like.  i guess my call was legit.

i bought a post card to send you.  i wanted to buy a t shirt but they wanted my arm..and my leg!  they were expensive.  maybe you could donate to the elder-petersen-wants-a-souveniour-sandakan-shirt-fund.  if you're feeling charitable.

    well i hope you have a good week this next week.  i hope schools going good.  keep up the hard work.  say hi to everybody.  sampai lagi.

elder petersen