I'll take Fries with that?

komo estaka (filipino greeting i don't know how to spell)

 

     we had a baptism this week!  whaaaooooooo!!  her name is Isa. she's pretty cool.  she is from indonesia.  maybe about 32 years old.  its been pretty sweet to be able to teach her in Malay.  every time we go to her house she gives us home cooked food so it is a lot like malaysia.  but oh man i can't understand her.  she talks so fast and with a thick indonesian accent.  ha ha usaully dass does most of the talking.  but its been cool.  it has for sure been a blessing.  she's had a rough past so she was way excited to be baptized.  big life changer for her.  on the day of her baptism she was extremely sick.  she had terrible back pains and stuff.  we weren't sure if the baptism would even happen.  but it did and we are glad.  we had to go with the carpenters and pick her up.  elder dass was the one that baptized her.  she couldn't bend very well because of her back so it was a little difficult.  i had the oppurtunity to confirm her on sunday morning. i got to do it in malay.  so even though i am in the big city surrounded but white people and chinese i still get to use the language.  its sweet.  even though only three people in the chapel understood me i still really felt the spirit.  i just felt peaceful.  it was cool.

     when i got into this area it was pretty dead.  so me and dass have been doing a lot of tracting.  we've met some prety interesting people.  it is very frustrating some times.  we met this lady the other day that was so aggravating.  she kept saying the bible is the only thing we need.  she for sure had a messed up version of the bible because of the things she shared with us.  like she said that the true church would have nobody's name in it, not even Christ.  we were like what?!  and she kept saying, "young men, be careful.."  ha we were like whatever lady.  afterword dass told me to be patient and calm down.  i get worked up with some of these people.  i have no patience with them.  i almost started yelling.  we met a man the other day that claims to be a free thinker. he's all about science.  so annoying.  we had been contacting all day and this man came up to us.  we both thought this is the blessing we've been waiting for.  so he was really friendly and talkative but like i said he was messed up.  he said with all of our technology today we should be able to prove that God exists.  he wanted someone to go to the other side and then return to report.  we talked about Jesus and the bible but he said that happened so long ago that it is irrelevent.  i was fed up.  i testified many times but nothing. he was a waste.  i was mad.  ha ha oh the people of singapore.

     on saturday i did something very stupid.  oh man.  there is this restaraunt called new york new york.  when i first got to singapore the other elders told me about it and said that i must try their challenge.  i was game.  saturday was elder ngo's birthday so we went there to celebrate.  i was kind of roped into doing the challenge.  i had maybe 2 hours notice and was mentally unprepared. ha well the challenge is this.  there is a huge burger and plate of fries.  if  you finish it all within 1 hour it is free and you get a free t-shirt and bragging rights.  if you don't finish it it is 40 dollars.  so i had to sit all alone and sign these waivers and stuff.  i was so nervous.  they brought it out and i knew i was dead.  it was huge!!  well i threw it down. i ate the first quarter in about 7-8 min.  i was finished with half at about 22 min.  the third quarter was tough.  by that point i was full and it no longer tasted good.  it tasted awful actually.  absolutely disgusting.  i slowed down considerably.  i barely finished the 3rd quarter.  i ate the third quarter of fries.  i was not out of time but i was out of space in my stomach and out of appetite.  it was impossible.  i gave up.  i failed.  ha ha oh well.  i was so stuffed i couldn't walk.  some guys told me before hand that they would sponsor me 5 bucks if i failed so i didn't have to pay the full 40.  they had a record board and the top ten ranged from 37 min to 20 min.  that is insane.  it was huge.  needless to say i was full until sunday night.

     well thats what we do in singapore.  it is a lot of fun.  companion is cool. zone is cool.  city is cool.  temperature is not cool.  i'm liking it here.  tomorrow we have mission tour.  elder pratt will tour the mission starting in singapore.  we have to impress him.  it should be good training.  i hope all is well at home. say bye to james for me.  i'm excited for him.  say hi to everyone.  i feel like there's something else i wanted to tell you. oh well.  next week.  

jangan buat bodoh.

 

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