KL, Thanksgiving & School Rules

 you ok!?(common greeting said by pretty much every punk we walk past with the hand in the thumbs up position)

     well well its things sound great at home.  it makes me a little trunky that you guys are having so much fun.  after church sunday we went to the weilands for dinner.  that's when i got the big news.  oh man GO UTES!! that was so awesome.  ha it sounds like they played terrible at first.  dang that would have been so exciting to watch.  oh man so trunky.  ah that's interesting what you say about the right hand deal.  i mean it is kind of logical that you might use your right hand but i wouldn't say it's required.  i had elder garrett read what you wrote me and he's not convinced.  he just said it was dumb that you guys took it to the extreme by saying well should they prepare and bless with their right hand?  ha ha i think that's a great argument.  i don't think i'll be able to change any minds, everyone is pretty hard headed, but at least i'm convinced.  i don't get what you're saying about the blessing thing.  aren't you supposed to do it with the right hand on the head and the left hand on the shoulder?  here's one, does it matter if the person that is actually giving the blessing is on the very bottom.  that's how they always do it and sometimes it's awkward waiting for them to put their hands up there. christmas isn't so big no.  there's a huge muslim holiday called hari raya.  that's there biggest deal here.  christmas is celebrated by the christians and chinese though.  a few stores have christmas signs.  i don't think a lot of people can afford santa to come if you know what i'm saying.  so its pretty small here.  black friday sounded fun.  i've always been interested to know how it really is.  so what did you buy? anything sweet?  atta boy oskar.  you done me proud.  don't let your head get big.

     right now i am back in sandakan.  it feels like home to be back.  did you know i've almost been here for 7 months! holy cow.  we got back from KL this morning.  that's why i didn't email you yesterday.  we didn't get a p day in KL.  the trainings went pretty good.  it is very repetitive by now but its still good stuff.  that was the last training for a while i believe.  it was good to see all of the elders.  ha ha man there are some funny guys.  i mostly was with my mtc group, tovar and thurman.  we went to burger king and carl's jr and chili's so yeah KL was a success.

     what is the wilkins address? i want to send a little something something.  i've seen those lyrics before to men of harlich but they are different.  try to get from mr delose.  thanks though. 

Footpath mid construction

you saw that footpath huh?  it's pretty dang lame.  ha ha oh man a lot of work and not a lot of pay off.  i don't think it will really be used and i don't think it will really help anybody become super healthy.  whatever.  the wielands made us a thanksgiving feast!  it wasn't the same as being home.  it sounds like thanksgiving was kind of a small deal at home this year.  i guess without me you guys are just all lost.  

Up close look

oh i was going to tell you about the schools here.  they're messed up.  most people go to private schools.  that's more of the norm.  there's government schools but they are mostly muslim and i think they have big disadvantages.  their school year goes from january to november so they are all on break right now. they have grade 1-6 like in america then they have form 1-6 like US grade 7-12.  after form 5 you choose whether or not you want to go to form 6.  there's no advantage to graduate really unless you're rich.  there's no advantage for most jobs here to go to a university.  it doesn't change your pay and its a big hassle.  ha so a lot of students have no motivation.  it's totally different than america.  also because it is a muslim nation they have to learn a lot about the muslim religion.  they totally hate christians.  like some of our investigators say "my teacher said that there's not enough room for everyone so only muslims go to heaven and all christians go to hell, is this true?" ha we're like no!  anyways its an interesting country.

     that's almost it for this week.  it was fairly uneventfull.  a big chunk of it was taken up at KL.  if i don't get transferred on the 14th of this month then i probably won't get transferred until late january.  ha ha i want to get out of here.  i love it here but i feel like i'm getting kind of lazy.  i'm losing my sandakan motivation.  i talk to a lot of my friends and they are like on a regular 6 week transfer cylce and stuff.  like they say "i'm with my 4th companion and we're in our third transfer cycle" or something.  ha i'm just like oh yeah i'm in my first area with my second companion.  we don't have any cycles.  i'm here until somebody leaves.  ha ha this mission is crazy.  did you get that email about elder schone?  pretty crazy.  he's recovering  but still in bad shape.  i'll keep working hard till i leave this place.  i got your christmas package.  it's awesome.  thanks.  merry christmas! we got a small tree up in the house.  ha next week we might decorate a little.  alright don't miss me too much this holiday season.  i'll be back before you know it.  i love you! 

elder petersen