We're Down but NOT out!

hey hey hey (at letter number 102 i can't think of any new greeting, sorry)

 

     wow your emails were awesome.  i can't believe you got my flight plans!!! ha ha that is nuts.  i'm a dead man.  ha ha.  president's day eh?  ok sounds cool.  i forgot about that one.  that's cool that joseph is home.  actually yeah i've heard of this Lin guy.  basketball is not very big here though.  so not really.  ah weber state weber state... great great great.  ha i remember in the mtc there was so much i wanted to tell you guys but when i sat down at the computer i couldn't remember anything.  also the computer shut down at exactly 30 min.  maybe kolton is just has no time there.  i love good talks.  can you send me the link or something to that one on the atonement.  oh man dad what are you doing to me??  ha ha trying to kill me?  telling me about my talk, asking if i want to know the topic.  sheesh.  yeah let me know asap.  ha ha.  i've been trying to think of things to share actually.  well i've been just trying to remember experiences from throughout my mission but it's hard. 

Typical Malaysian sign, vague...still couldn't find the stall

    oh man so this last week... oh man.  it was pretty good.  i mean we're still kicking.  but one by one, over a three day period, almost every single investigator called us and gave us the axe.  some were more brutal than others.  ha oh man it hurt.  i usually hold the phone.  most people are to weenie ish to tell us to our face that they don't want to meet again.  so the usually sms us.  we would get a text and then i would turn to brodie and say "i've got some bad news..."  ha it happened like 8 times.  it's kind of funny but it sucks.  let's see here's a few.  sunday morning we got a text from a family that said "hi we won't be coming today, i don't think my family should be baptized twice, also maybe we won't meet you again".  another said "elders i'm sorry my family doesn't want me to switch religions, they are very mad".  another said "stop bothering us, we're busy lah"  ha ha ouch.  there was "i really don't enjoy your church, i don't understand malay so it is confusing"  one said "i can't go to your church until i'm 100 percent sure it is true, so i'll let you know"  so yeah basically there's a billion excuses.  they're all garbage.  i just wish some of these people would confront us face to face.  oh man.

8 yo with older bro...I did the confirmation

     despite that slew of trials, we still have a few really awesome investigators.  we're down but not out.  i'll tell you about a few.  first is this awesome girl named Senci.  two weeks ago a member brought her to church.  she is really sincere.  our first lesson about the restoration was great.  she answered all of the questions 100 perecent.  but we were still pretty tentative.  this past sunday she couldn't come to church because she went to kampung to visit a sick family member.  well we met her yesterday and she's on fire.  she read and marked up like 20 scriptures from the Book of Mormon including like all of moroni,  most of 3 nephi, some in alma and in 2 nephi.  she said she just went through and looked for chapters about Christ.  ha ha well they are all about Christ.  she told us that at kampung it rained and rained so she couldn't go outside.  she just sat on her bed and read a ton.  that rain was a little miracle.  she said she feels awesome when she read.  we taught her the plan of salvation and she said she's never heard these kind of things and it really makes sense to her.  she also said her husband really wants to come to church this next sunday and she really wants her younger sister to come too.  also can!  she is kind of hesitant to get a baptismal date but it's because she seriously wants to know.  it's actually a good thing.  we have high hopes for her but in light of everybody else just dropping us we don't want to get our hopes up too high.

     we also have this lady named Welista.  well it's a long story how we met her.  basically she is the neighbor of a member.  her husband is working all the time except for saturday night and sunday. and on those days his friends come over and the all drink all day.  ha ha.  so the member thought maybe they would really be interested.  well we were able to meet this lady the wife.  she is way cool.  turns out to be senci's sister in law as well.  she doesn't know a whole lot about Christ.  she doesn't really have a religion.  she seems to really enjoy our lessons so far.  we've taken it really slow with her.  we've only taught about prophets and Christ and prayer.  but we've taught her 12 year old son a lot more at our weekly fhe's next door.  he even came to church on his own.  we are praying mightily for that family.  they have 5 small kids. 

     another all star is elis.  she learned from the missionaries in like october or september.  then she moved to the tip of borneo.  in the last few months she finished the book of mormon.  she doesn't understand much about the church but she knows it is true and wants to get baptized.  she really is cool.  way sincere.  we still can't really meet here that often but when we have it's been great. 

Me & the Boys...Peter (peace sign) & David (bml)
Peter is headed to Texas on a mission.  He's so cool!  I call him Petrus. David is a total character.  He is crazy but he is the famce of the KK branches.  Everyone knows him, and he knows everybody.

     

    so yeah things are going good.  we're still seeing cool miracles despite a bunch bad things happening.  we've been really blessed.  i just really hope someone we have can hang on until baptism.  i have a few random thoughts from the past few days.  the first is about a return missionary from before i left.  he said in his homecoming talk that there was a point on his mission where he just wasn't sure if the church was true or something.  he said he just had to pray and find out.  well i agree with you dad, every day that goes by just strengthens my testimony.  there is no doubt in my mind that this church is the only real church on the whole earth.  this is Christ's church no doubt.  everything points to that.  logically there's no flaw.  also i can't deny the many spiritual experiences i've had to confirm it.  it's true.  i've never really questioned it.  so i don't know what was going on with that other missionary.  

next is a common thought that we seem to come across.  it seems like most people don't really think that there can only be one true church.  so if we get them to the point that they think the book of mormon is true and we say ok then this church is true, they just think yeah it is and so is mine.  ha ha but i was talking about this with brodie.  there can only be one true church.  and this is it.  it wouldn't make sense if there was more than one.  it is hard to get people to see that because i have the whole huge big picture.  they don't.  at first they just have a 30 min discussion about prophets and joseph smith and i hope they see the church is true.  ha ha it's just something i was thinking about.  i'm so glad i know what i know.  i don't know why i'm so blessed to be born in the church.  there's billions of people who don't know what i know.  it's not fair really but i am thankful. 

     well sorry for all of those random thoughts.  hope you understand.  i really love you guys.   keep it up back home.  i can't wait to see you.  i'm still working hard all the way to the end.  thanks for everything.

 

elder petersen