Around and Around...Transfers

alright all ya'll listen i might not email you later today.  right now i am in the singapore changi airport.  i've been transferred.  about 15 new guys are coming into the mission today.  so i am being kicked out of butterworth and that will put chin and kelley together as comps.  then another elder will train there too so there will be four elders.  i am going to KK baby!!!!! dang i'm pretty excited.  you probably don't remember but that is kota kinabulu in sabah.  i will be zone leader.  but i will be training a new guy.  hawkins will also be zone leader but he will also be training a new guy.  so we won't actually be comps but we were already comps in singapore.  so sandakan is in the zone and hopefully i'll make it there soon for splits.  i can't wait.  i went to kk a few times for zone conference and district conference.  it is an awesome city.  i'll be opening a new area though so who knows how that will be.  plus i'll have a new guy so it is a gamble whether or not things will be as great as i imagine.  should be awesome though.  also sister wong will train there so there will be three greenies in the one city.  i think it will be pretty dang fun.  like i said i'm in singapore now using the free internet at the airport.  i don't know if i'll have a chance to email you later so i just wanted to let you know whats up.  hopefully later i give you the usual shpill.  alright i love you.  peace out!!

elder petersen

alright i'm in the office right now.  i don't really have that much time to email the usual so you'll have to wait until next week.  my new companion is elder laycock.  he is from utah maybe.  i forgot.  we went to little india with them for lunch.  so so good.  ok so sorry but have a good week.  jaynanne last week i printed off your novel of an email.  it was awesome.  i really enjoyed reading it.  i think i'll write you back in a letter so be patient.  we finally finished conference and it was awesome!! i loved it.  i love you bye

elder petersen

Here's my new comp.  check it out.  his name is elder laycock from lehi utah. alright peace

elder petersen

Round-a-bout's and crazy traffic...

greetings from butterworth!

     well this week was packed with stuff.  your emails were great.  i'll give you the b-town rundown in a minute.  it's a bummer i'm missing out on all the back to school excitement.  it sounds like the world is still in chaos.  cool.  you never told me about adam but steffanie did in a letter.  that is a strange situation.  tell him good luck.  i hope it is all good in the end.  yeah find me a car that'd be awesome.  i'll take the cheapest oldest thing you can find.  preferrably stick shift.  whatever happened to my motorcycle.  OF COURSE I WANT TO RUN THE HALF MARATHON WITH YOU!! i didn't know it was so hard to get into.  get me there.  that race sounded way fun.  say hi to the stowers for me.  i don't know how you can share the gospel with that lady.  you can just ask her what the best part about temple square was.  tell her you thought she might like a certain article and then email her a link to some talk or mormon.org story.  or mention that you just finished emailing me and then say what i'm doing and where i'm at.  anything can.  i think it would be perfect for jaynanne to be a dental assistant. 

     alright first of all happy birthday to mom in advance in case i forget next week.  you're awesome.  my new companion is elder kelley.  he went to freemont.  actually he was in mine and thomas's racketball class at wsu.  cool huh?  we didn't really talk back then but i did find out he was going to this mission and then when he was in the mtc i emailed his mom and she told me a lot of info that i never recieved in the mail.  he was also my district leader in singapore.  he is in the group right ahead of me so he goes home in january.  we are the only two missionaries here.  there are two on penang island that are included in our district. 

ruby and sivam right after ruby's baptism

also the johnson's live over here really close to us.  they are an awesome senior couple.  they are so nice and she is a great cook.  they are perfect for this branch.  they're the perfect mom and dad type for the branch.  after every meal they have root beer floats.  she was a principle in a park city elementary school and he was in real estate.  we don't have so many investigators but we did have a baptism on sunday before church.  it was a one legged lady named ruby.  we had three people in the font to help baptize her.  pretty epic.   

this area is pretty similiar to sandakan but on the other hand it is way different.  the people here are equally as poor.  but it is a different people.  most people know english here.  everyone here is indian or chinese.  our branch is mostly indian.  they all speak tamil and i don't know what's going on.  or the chinese speak their dialects and i don't know what's going on.  ha ha so still a huge language barrier like in KL.  but with the different races there comes a lot of good food.  wow i've eaten so much this past week.  ha ha i'm definitely going to put on weight.  every elder that comes here does.  oh well i need it i guess.  also every elder that i know that has served here has absolutely loved it.  to some it was their favorite area.  the elders you might know from the list include elder thomas, hawkins, hunt, and christensen about a year ago there was a cool elder here named elder peterson.  ha ha so everybody tells me about him after i tell them my name is petersen.  i might have to think of a nick name for me.  this is a biking area so now for the first time i am on a bike.  ha ha no good.  i was so sore last week.  it's getting better but we go pretty far and i'm not in biking shape.  also i have a terrible bike.  i'm thinking about buying one but right now i'm using an old elder's for free.  it is really tall.  but the brakes stick and the chain skips a lot.  oh well.  you get a lot more rest on the bus.  i was wiped out the first few days.  also the traffic is crazy!  i won't tell you everything mom but i almost got taken out by a big truck on the freeway yesterday ha ha.  the round-a-bouts are pretty fun.  we made our way through a big three laned one yesterday.  it's a mad dash. 

for as much as people really like this area it is struggling.  the average attendence on sunday is around 40 and the baptisms are few and far inbetween.  we hope to change that.  i think that's about it.  do you have any specific questions?  it looks like i'll probably die here.  i think it will be good. 

     i just wanted to mention a cool kid we met last week.  his name was darren.  he is pretty funny.  last wednesday we walked out of the internet kedai and were unlocking our bikes when these two kids came up to us.  they just asked us where we were from.  both were indian, about 12, and didn't know that much english.  but they knew enough.  darren said that he has seen us before.  we weren't sure but we humored him.  we gave them our card and stuff.  they both got on their bikes and followed us a little bit.  we seperated and went and ate and got a hair cut.  then he called us and told us to meet him at our church.  so we biked down there and met him.  ha ha he didn't really have anything to say, he just wanted to follow us.  so they went shopping with us.  darren kept saying that he wanted us to go to a studio and get a picture with him.  that's what a lot of people do here.  we told him we'd go with him but he had to come to church first.  he said he was busy and wouldn't be able to come for a few weeks.  so anyways he called us like every 20 min that day.  we weren't expecting it but on sunday he showed up to sacrament meeting.  ha ha wow.  he came in late and sat by elder kelley.  the first thing he said to me is when are we going to the studio?  ha ha.  he was really nice and talked to all of the members even though he is so young.  hopefully good things will come.  we took a picture on my camera so i think that will suffice for the studio thing.  i think he just wants a white friend.  also can.

Elder Christensen's Brother, Me, Darren, Elder Kelley

      elder thomas finished his mission here with elder christensen.  i replaced elder christensen.  from friday night to monday morning christensen was here with his mom and younger brother and sister.  they went around visiting a lot of members and what not.  we went with them to a few houses.  his family was really nice.  they brought american candy and stuff for all of the kids.  on sunday elder christensen got to help with the baptism.  as he was here i thought of how fun it would be to bring you guys around here and to my old areas.  man that would be so fun.  think about it.  it might be better than a big vacation that summer.  i know it is way expensive.  even if dad came alone or with just jaynanne or spencer it would be fun.  keep that in mind next spring.  if not then we'll have to come back in a few years.

     i think it is really exciting that abbie got that job.  but it sounds difficult.  i can't believe you're teaching ap us gov.  i think that is pretty hard class.  good luck.  take it seriously.  a lot of kids really want to pass that test to get college credit so make sure you teach them everything.  ha ha no pressure though.  as a senior i had a pretty easy schedule.  i took just regular basic us gov.  ha ha easiest class ever.  the teacher was not that good.  and i already knew everything he taught us.  we just read from the constitution and filled out worksheets and just learned the duties of the branches of government.  we looked at some supreme court cases and made our own constitutional rulings.  anyways so easy.  good luck.

     well that's about it today.  we saw a mcdonalds a few days ago so we're going to go try and find it.  hopefully we don't get lost again.  i've been here a week and kelley's been here three weeks.  it's the blind leading the blind.  i missed out on the annual start of school blessings.  that's sad.  your letters were great.  i'm glad they brought mom the sacrament.  i remember doing that each week.  it was pretty fun.  everyone we went to was really grateful but it's good to hear it first hand from mom.  i love you.  have a good week.

here's my address.  send me some small mail here as a test run. 

     26-08 Jalan Harbour Place

     Pangsapuri Parkview

     Bagam Dalam

     Butterworth Penang 12100

     West Malaysia

     elder petersen

ps do you have any pictures from camp loll?  send me some!

The Testimonies of Three

hello family,

     thank you for your email.  spencer is..the man!! ha ha it sounds like he had some good times up at loll.  just you talking about it made me want to be there.  delose is so awesome.  i remember him using that line about deferring the decisions but i don't remember what he says.  i just remember jody talks about being bald and they all comment.  ha ha they're quick.  tell spencer to write down a few cool things that happened so that he can remember to tell me next year.  the story about mom trying to sleep was so funny.  ha ha i can totally imagine her being so jumpy.  thanks for sending the talk.  it was really good.  seriously it almost brought me to tears.  as you talked about your experience on the plane i thought of all the times i really felt the spirit while bearing my testimony.  it just feels so good.  it's hard to describe but it's the kind of feeling you want over and over. 

     well this week was so awesome!  i can't even tell you everything that happened.  there was so much.  we had a baptism!!  we baptized a man named Raju and two of his children named Christina 13 and Ruben 11.  they are a referral family from an awesome member.  that alone is a good story.  basically she knocked on their door, not knowing them, and asked them if they wanted to learn about the church.  anyways at the beginning of the week we weren't exactly sure if the baptism would go through or not.  they have a lot of challenges including money, work and transportation.  we were really praying for them.  we met them more than usual so that we could keep them on track.  well saturday they had their interviews and were all set for baptism on sunday.  the mom and the oldest son weren't ready to get baptized yet.  they haven't learned enough and they are not quite as eager.  well the mom and son both made arrangements so that they could make it to the baptism before church and stay for one hour of church.  we were pumped.  

saturday night we put a little bit of water in the font and were planning to put more in on sunday morning.  the font is really small.  the engineers of the building say that the font will be too heavy and will break through the floor of the 2nd story that we're on.  they tell us not to have it filled for very long.  so sunday morning we woke up extra early and went down to the church by 7:30.  we filled the rest of our tiny font up.  members started to trickle in and then the family came.  the mom and son actually came!  it was so cool.  surprisingly too a lot of members came.  i was so proud of our branch and of how many people turned out to support this struggling family.  at the same time that elder maughan was reaching over to turn off the font that was filling up, the bottom ring of the portable font broke.  the pressure was too great.  it was bad.  it put a lot of pressure on the remaining top ring.  if that broke too then the water would flood the church and the floors below.  we'd be done.  so the branch president and maughan and i used some ribbon from a flower arrangement and tied together as best we could.  it was sketchy but it would have to do. 

we had a good baptism program.  the talks were good and short and everyone was quiet.  the baptisms didn't go as well.  ha ha oh boy.  the dad was first.  he is a big indian man.  elder reeves was the guy for the job.  like i said the font was pretty small so the water only came up to about my mid thigh, and this man was scared of water.  every time he went down his feet would come up or he would fight it and keep his head up.  by the fifth time reeves kept him down.  we're pretty sure this is the first time in this man's life that he has been fully submerged in water.  ha ha later the dad said, "the water..is..suffocating!"  ha ha yeah that's why we told you to plug your nose.  the kids went fine.  so since the baptism was before church we were able to do the confirmations in sacrament meeting.  it went great.  the mom had to leave early but she told us that she really enjoyed it and liked church, it was the first time she came.  so that is really good.  church was great.  we had so much food after.  there was a feast because of the baptism and because i'm getting transferred.  oh yeah i got transferred.  i had to bear my testimony in church.  i'm really going to miss this branch.  they are so diligent in their callings and in missionary work.

     sunday afternoon we went to say goodbye to one of our favorite families, sister amy and brother lim.  amy and her son were baptized in may and brother lim and the two daughters have not yet been baptized but they really enjoy the church.  we go to their house every friday for good food and a lesson.  bro lim has been going to church as long as amy has but he's had some big challenges to overcome.  first he was the top dog in a big tea company so that conflicted with the word of wisdom.  miraculously about a month ago he quit that job so that he could keep that commandment even though he's not a member.  wow amazing!  the second challenge is his mom and his buddhist traditions.  he has a lot of duties as oldest son and he doesn't want to offend his mother in the sunset of her life.  after eating, we had a great lesson with them.  last time we talked all about the atonement and so we were planning on finishing the 2nd half of the plan of salvation.  it went really well as we went through and explained everything.  we helped him resolve some concerns.  right at the end elder maughan just started to bear his testimony about the importance of getting baptized and going to the temple.  he said "brother lim we love you and your family so much and we want to see you at the temple."  he couldn't say that without choking up and crying.  in turn brother lim got teary.  i also got teary.  i bore my testimony in the importance of doing what we need to here on earth so that in the next life we can have eternal happiness.  even the greeney gave an awesome testimony about the book of mormon.  everyone was really quiet and just really listening.  it was an awesome moment.  i could feel the spirit so strong.  we didn't harp on him and ask for the umpteenth time for him to get baptized.  we just asked him to read a chapter the book of mormon and pray about it.  i gave them a picture that we took a few weeks earlier of their whole family and i gave bro lim a tie.  he was pretty thankful.  well we took another picture and said bye.  i will really miss them.  

after that we walked over to raju's house to say bye to him and his children.  the mom was at work but they were all very happy to see us.  they miss me already.  i gave ruben and raju a tie and we took a picture.  they just seemed so happy.  they have changed in the short time that i've known them.  they were so quiet and sad the first time we met them but now they were all smiles and telling us how good they feel.  i hope they stay strong in the church.  it'll be the only thing that will keep them happy.

 monday morning i transferred up north to a small town called Butterworth.  google map it.  it was a long lonely bus ride.  there is a famous island off the west coast of malaysia called penang island.  butterworth is right across from it on the main land.  so far so good.  everybody that has served here has loved it.  thomas and hawkins both served here for long amounts of time and loved it so i think it'll be ok.  well tuesday morning i got a call from elder maughan back in KL.  he had some good news for me.  he said that a few minutes earlier that sister amy called him.  he asked if he could call her back because he was in a meeting but she insisted.  she told him that brother lim really thought about the things we shared and he wants to get baptized and his daughters too!  i am so excited to hear that!  maughan is going to meet them tonight to talk about it. he told me that they want it as early as this sunday.  it will probably have to wait until next sunday because they have to be taught a few more things.  that is so awesome.  like i said i'll really miss that area. 

     well there's tons more that i could write but my letter is already too huge.  i'll have to report on butterworth next week.  supposedly there is a lot of good food here so i might put on some weight.  thanks for elder kersey's letter.  dang he has a way with words.  i'm not as good of a writer as him but i promise you i have had unforgettable experiences on my mission.  i love being out here.  i love sharing about the gospel with families who need and are seeking this knowledge.  nothing is better than to see a family learn about the gospel and then to see changes in their lives as they follow it.  it makes it all worth it.  i hope you have a good week.  i look forward to hearing from you again next week.  tell mom i love her too even if she is on drugs.  ha ha say hi to everyone.

elder petersen

Transfers...it was a GRAND 6 months!

apa khabar

     wow i am incredibly jealous of your trip.  it sounds like so much fun.  it just brings back all of the memories of havasupi.  but it sounds like you were able to do more.  it is definitely something you will never forget.  most of the youth will never do something like that again in their lives.  like i said before, you had better plan a huge trip for when i get home.  that is sweet that the santoscoys went.  i forgot to tell you that last sunday i had to give a talk.  i talked a little bit about us having a lesson with them in our home.  thanks for all the details dad.  it wasn't too long to read.  the more details the better.  i just got mom's email.  one more thing for spencer, at bartlett we wore t-shirts most days of the week.  at loll they wear the green button shirts every day.  buy a few more.  i only had one.  so i borrowed one from the camp.  it doesn't have to have all the patches on it and stuff but you do need more than one shirt.  this is key.  that's sweet that you'll still be going to boston.  take a lot of pictures.  john says he will most likely spend next summer down here sleeping at chase's.  then he's still planning on going to the U but plans change. 

     well well i've got news.  i am no longer in singapore.  i got transferred to the capital of malaysia, Kuala Lumpur (KL)!!  so right now i am here in the big city.  the big dirty city.  well actually i'm not in the actual city.  i'm in a suburb called petaling jaya (PJ).  i serve in the petaling jaya 2nd branch.  i am so excited.  it is supposedly doing the best out of the five KL areas.  we found out about transfers saturday night.  there were three elders going home this week and no one replacing them.  so my area in singapore got absorbed into another area by the sisters.  so hawkins also got transferred.  actually he got transferred to an area in KL called klang.  so we were seperated but not too far.  my new companion is elder maughn from california.  he is pretty sweet.  i think we're going to get along great.  he's been out for like 9 months maybe.  he loves rock climbing.  it is his passion.  we've had a bunch of conversations about that already.  he has some pretty treacherous stories.  i told him about loll.  he worked at a huge famous high adventure camp in new mexico called philmont.  we got into malaysia yesterday aroung 2.  so we've just been settling in.  maughn was just companions with a native that ended his mission.  he says that we have a few investigators that know no english.  maughn has been in english speaking areas his whole mission so he said he would just let the native do all the teaching.  ha ha hopefully i can remember my malay from 6 months ago.  i'm excited to try.  by and large KL is all english speaking.  i mean everybody know malay from school but they all speak english.  there are tons of different races here though.  the church services are entirely in english.

     so i don't have a whole lot to tell you about KL.  and i didn't do that much in singapore last week.  we went to the webb's for the last time.  oh man so good.  they gave us cafe rio style salads.  they weren't as good as the original but pretty darn good.  mexican food in asia? can.  a few weeks ago me and hawkins didn't know any members so instead of knocking all day we tried to visit as many members as we could find.  all we had was addresses.  we went to this one single sister.  we knocked on the door and the lady told us that she must have moved away.  so we shared a little bit with that lady.  she's like 27.  from malaysia.  she had just moved in that week and she said she was christian but didn't really know what church to go to.  perfect.  as we were talking, her husband walked up just home from work.  he was really nice too.  he wasn't christian, free thinker.  we had ran out of materials from tracting all day but i did have a pass along card so i wrote our number on that and gave it too them and told them to go to mormon.org.  a few days later she texted us and wanted to know where our church was located.  we met up at a food court and had a great lesson.  they are really awesome.  sunday morning we met them at an MRT station and took the bus with them to church.  they seemed to really enjoy church.  they are really nice and were sad to hear that we were both already leaving.  i think they'll be good investigators.  a young married couple with no kids is exactly what that ward needs.  it was a cool experience. 

     dad you asked for some details about singapore.  let's see.  i don't really know how the police were dressed, i didn't really see any.  it is compulsory for every single young man at the age of 19 to do the two year national service.  they have a wide range of tasks from overseas army to defensive stuff to local stuff.  so there are random people walking around in camoflauge just patroling i guess.  the mailman, i don't really see either.  from what i've seen, the mail men use scooters with big metal boxes on the back.  so you see them cruising around sometime.  i guess they just wear their little windbreakers.  fire fighters, i never see.  the sirens that i've heard sound like america.  in the main city the streets are pretty crowded.  it is atleast 50 percent white people.  there are tourists everywhere.  but there's also tons of other foriegners.  like filipino, indian, african, malaysian, you name it.  americans don't really stand out no except that they are taller.  well actually they do. i always notice if there is a group of white people.  it is weird.  i quickly pass judgement.  i really liked singapore.  i can't wait to go back one day.  it was an absolute blast.  the members are awesome, local and expat.  the people as a whole aren't really that open, but we had some good investigators.  i'll miss that area.  it was a grand 6 months.  i learned a lot and had the chance to do a lot.  it's one of the only areas with so many missionaries in such close proximity.  that is also an added bonus. 

     well i forgot to bring my camera cord to the internet kedai so i can't send you any pictures.  sorry.  next week i guess.  hopefully by then i'll have some KL stories for you.  this weekend is district conference.  i love you all.  have fun back home.  write me some letters.  hmmm i don't know our address.  i'll let you know that too next week.  if you have any questions then ask me so i have something to email you.  well, bye.

elder petersen

New City, New Ways

HELLO

where to begin.  well first of all happy birthday mollie!!!!! and merry christmas all.   my letters might be shorter because i won't be typing as long.  oh well.

     i'm loving Singapore.  its really sweet.  i'm kind of scatter brained right now and don't know what to type.  i'll just give you my first impressions.  first of all it is a big city.  there is one stake here and like nine wards.  it's weird to be serving in wards.  me and elder dass cover 3 wards.  2 local wards called the clementi ward and the woodlands ward.  and then the 1st ward also known as the expatriate ward.  this is for all expats so everybody that is not from sinapore.  it is mostly full of white people.  i was having like reverse culture shock on sunday.  i was in a big chapel packed with white people.  so weird!  on sunday 2 of our wards meet at the same time in different buildings so we go on splits with local YSA's to cover both. then we meet up at 1:00 for the last ward.  its interesting.  its cool to be out of a city and district of 2 elders.  here there are like 10 elders and then sometimes the assistants also.  there is Teng and Law(chinese), Ulrich and Kelly(office), lam and Nightingale(ZL), me and Dass, Whittaker and Rathnayaka, and the ap's Rajah and Hormon.  its cool.  we actually do stuff on p-days and throughout the week. 

     we had a baptism on saturday.  thats what i like to see.  it was this lady named Christine.  she is mostly deaf and mostly blind and cannot talk.  ha i don't know how they taught her. Dass learned a little bit of sign language.  ha the baptism went pretty well.  this week i've eaten dinner at about 5 member's houses, and gone to 2 parties.  we went caroling with a few white families and i've recieved numerous christmas presents.  ha oh man you've gotta love christmas in singapore.

     during the week before i moved here, Kelly, Ulrich, Dass, and Martin worked on translating like 30 hymns into malay and singing and recording them onto a cd and typing up the words in a booklet to give a cd and booklet to every member family in malaysia.  this last week we assembled everything and got it ready to ship.  it took a while.  next month president clark wants us to translate selected primary songs as well.  so that takes up some time.

     there's not a whole lot of investigators here but we do have a few.  there are so many different people and backgrounds here.  everyone is pretty set in their ways that i try to contact.  ha but the work rolls forward.  the city is awesome.  there is all of the american commodities and more.  lots of good food.  from american fast food to asian cuisine.  its pretty cool.  there's a lot of electronic stuff.  all the top name brand kinds of stores.  its sweet.  the main shopping district is centered on Orchard Road.  it is comparable to times square in New York i hear.  so that's pretty cool.

     Dass is pretty cool. so far so good.  he was born in the UK near to scotland.  his mom is half indian half english. his dad is full indian.  he moved to malaysia like six years ago.  now his family lives in KL.  his parents were converted when he was young or maybe before he was born.  he's great and english and malay.  he has a funny accent because it's indian and british.  i have to ask him to repeat a lot of stuff because i just don't understand.  ha ha buts it's nice that he speaks malay a lot.

     the other day we were at a member's house for dinner.  their kids are mostly grown up like upper teens low 20's.  there were a bunch of elders.  after dinner the mom told everyone to pull out their scriptures.  5 iPhones came out!  everyone used the scripture app.  ha ha only in Singapore.

     well that's all for today.  i'll let you know about skype.  but i think it'll be easier to call.  i'll call you first around 7PM there sunday night.  then you can call me back. i can't wait to talk to you.  i don't know if i'll have anything to say though ha ha.  Merry Christmas.  hope its a good one even with a married daughter and a son in a far off land.  the church is still true.  i'm so glad you guys are active members.  you don't realize it but you change so many lives.  so keep it up.  jump lagi!

elder petersen 

Bittersweet Transfer

merry christmas!

     man i don't even know where to begin this email.  a lot happened this week.  the biggest thing would have to be that on friday morning i got a call from the zone leaders that i was being transferred....to singapore.... i had mixed feelings for sure.  i was happy to finally move, i was disappointed to go to singapore where i couldn't speak malay, i was really sad to leave my recent converts, and my future companion was not looking good.  shoot.  

     so friday saturday sunday and monday we went to many people's houses.  we went and saw all of my recent converts, we saw most members, we went to a buddhist temple, we ate at all of our favorite places and went to all of our good investigators.  so it was pretty busy. 

     i never thought i would be so emotional for a transfer but i tell you what, it was tough.  

     the hardest one was to say goodbye to Ning and his family.  they were basically like family to me.  i met them clear back in june and have been really good friends ever since.  almost all of our other baptisms and success have stemmed off of them and their referrals.  when i told them i was going it was tough not to cry.  i just tried to tell them thanks and how much fun i had with them and how much malay i learned from them and how much they've strengthened the branch.  i was really crying.  ha ha embarassing.  that was on friday. on saturday rayne called.  she's the oldest daughter, like 17.  she was crying.  ha ha she's like why do you have to go and all this stuff.  i don't think she ever 'liked me' like had a crush on me but she was dying.  then i talked to rinijah, like 10.  she was crying.  they said there mom was crying too so i talked to her.  ha ha they were all crying.  i asked if the boys were crying and they said no but they're sad.  so they talked me into coming over to their house for one more evening.  

     sunday was pretty tough too.  we, i got up and bore my testimony.  all the members make fun of you if you cry so i didn't really cry.  but i couldn't look at rayne or rinijah cause i knew it would make me sad.  ha ha.  dang, well looking back on it i don't know why i was so sad.  i can't tell you how much they've helped me and the branch.  it just can't be measured.  also i've just really really seen their faith grow you know?  man being in one area for so long just really kills you.  you get too attatched to these people.  but i guess that's a good problem to have.  on sunday we ate at three different houses.  sister doris cooked so good for us.  i'll send you a picture.  her family was so good to us.  on monday we ate dinner at two houses.  gotta love the members.  

     recap of sandakan: i loved it!!!! oh man it's gotta be the best area in the mission.  the worst part about it is that there are only two elders so it gets boring and you can't cover so much of the city.  it was so fun.  me and elder carter worked hard and me and elder garrett reaped the rewards. we had a lot of fun.  what a great place to start the mission.  really good people, really good malay, really good experiences.

     so now i sit in the big city.  on tuesday i got to travel all day alone.  wow that was sweet.  i got to the mission office around 6:30 pm.  elder dass met me there.  he's my knew comp.  his name is pronounced like doss, ryhmes with boss.  he was born in KL.  he's indian.  he lived in england for a while.  that's all i know.  his malay is of course really good and his english is good and he speaks tamil.  anyway i met him at the mission office and we had to go out because we had a dinner appointment.  he seemed pretty cool actually.  he's pretty nice.  he speaks malay a lot so i don't think i'll forget it all.  he seems like he works hard. and he doesn't seem to strict on the rules.  i could see it going both ways but i'm going to be positive.  well our dinner was so good.  we cover the expatriate ward.  so if any white people live in singapore they go to our ward.  its cool.  that means we get a lot of dinner appointments.  oh yeah!  also that means christmas will be good.  also this is the best time of year to be in singapore,  there are christmas decorations everywhere and right now i'm listening to mariah carey christmas music in the mall.  also chinese new year is right around the corner.  its huge in singapore.  i'm pretty excited.  so singapore is looking good.  i'm hopeful.  i don't want to be here for 7 months but i don't think i'll have a choice.  its a far cry from sandakan east malaysia.  but i think i'll like it.  plus there's like 8 elders here. that's good.

    today we went to the singapore zoo.  it was a lot of fun. i don't really know my schedule for the next little while.  i will let you know next week when i will call you.  probably monday the 27th here  so that'll be sunday night there.  i have to check with elder dass.  i hope you are having fun at home.  an elder's family came here to pick him up.  the skanchy's.  they might email you.  they went to the zoo with us.  it made me miss you guys.  ha ha we've had fun at the zoo before like in seattle.  anyways i can't wait to talk to you.  i hope it snows there..and here. say merry christmas to the ward!

elder petersen