June 1 2014

Selemet Hari Gawail :)

Family and friends:

 

Wow I am just so bad at the big weekly e-mails so here is my attempt at a real good one!

 

Monday- We went to a nature reseve here in Kuching and it was really cool, I was able to meet about 90% of the missionaries serving in Sarawak and I can tell I am really going to love the work here. The nature reserve was so cheap too, only 1 RM which is crazy cheap in comparison to what Singapore would charge. It was so beautiful and I am excited for you to see the photos I will send off this week.

Tuesday-District Meeting as usual. Haha my district is just so dorky and nerdy, and I just couldn't help but laugh the whole meeting, but I already love them with my whole heart. Not only did I get district Meeting on Tuesday, but it was like a day of Miracles! We had a lesson with our investigator Shana, with a member present (MIRACLE) then went back to KDC (the chapel) and as we were trying to figure out what in the world we were going to do with the rest of our day that would be more effective than contacting we were able to get an on the fly lesson with another one of our investigators David Ho, (even more of a MIRACLE) and it was a member present as well!! In between our two lessons we were able to meet with the Elders and make a game plan about working with members, and Sister Hales and I made a cigarette box full of "Spiritual Smokes" for our investigator who was having a hard time quitting. Literally such a stellar day.

Wednesday-was pretty uneventful, we went contacting at a mall nearby and I was able to talk with this super cool Nigerian who just moved here to Kuching, we have a lesson this week so I will keep you updated on him. Wednesday night though we were able to meet with a less-active family that lives out in Matang (like a 2 hour bike ride away..we taxied...) and it was SO FUN! we talked about the My Family booklets and geneology with them. Hopefully they feel the urgency to do family history work. They are just so so sweet. After the lesson we were able to play a couple of games with them and it seriously reminded me of Sunday night games at our house. It was a blast. I love working with families and seeing how happy the gospel can make them!

Thursday-Yuck. Weekly planning. It was the pits. But after some super long hours of staring at a white board we got out of the house and went door knocking! Really though, here it should be called gate knocking. It was something I have never done yet on my mission and I did it pretty begrudgingly but I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. We met 3 super cool people and I am excited to go back and visit them again. So the rules here in Malaysia are pretty strict concerning talking to Muslims, and we just aren't allowed to talk about religion so when we go knocking we have to be super wary about which houses we hit. The only way to tell if they are Muslim is if they have Christmas lights hung. Sister Hales and I weren't paying attention too well and it was super dark and we rattled the gate and we saw someone start walking out towards us and that's when I saw the lights. Haha instead of being a normal person and just asking where Christians lived, I freaked out and yelled Muslim and ran away. Luckily it was dark so hopefully no one saw my name tag. Haha I am the worst trainer ever.

Friday-3 appointments! I was so proud of us, one of them was practically handed to us! So to meet with Shana we have to bike about 30 minutes away, it's quite the journey, and we had set up a member to go with us, so it was going to be this epic trip. We get to the petronas we usually meet her at and she wasn't there, we waited, and she still wasn't there. We get worried so we call her and she had been stuck at work and completely unable to meet us there. We felt horrible for the member who had to bike with us and wait around in the heat, we were seriously roasting. Instead of being discouraged though our member turned into a killer missionary and said "I think I know where a less active lives around here, let's go and visit him!" In shock we both said of course and by some miracle he was home! Bam, 1st lesson! Then on our way to our bikes from the surprise appointment, Shana calls and says she can meet us at her work place, we were able to high tail it over to her work and have a quick lesson on the GOJC and prayer. Bam, 2nd lesson! After Shana we were able to meet with a potential Stella who brought her entire family to meet with us and get us drinks, it was seriously insane. My spirits were unbelievably lifted on Friday.

Saturday-It rained ALL DAY! our appointment cancelled on us so we went to KDC to plan some lessons, make some object lessons, and talk about our vision for the branch we are in. It seemed unproductive, but it is for the greater good! Afterwards we went contacting at this super cool park that I will have to send photos of next time we go. Honestly so cool.

Sunday-GAWAI!!!!! So apparently Sarawak has this holiday called Gawai, which is basically like New Years for us, but they celebrate like we do Thanksgiving. So all day yester Sister Hales, our Elders, and The Pryzbylas (senior couple), went from kampung to kampung eating ludicrous amounts of food (most of which I couldn't identify...). That's the holiday, that's how they celebrate it. Haha so funny.

 

Fun Facts:

Weird foods I have eaten on the mission:

• A bowl of chicken hearts (yes a literal bowl full of chicken hearts....)
• Chicken/Pork/Duck liver (the WORST)
• Pig Ear
• Pig Intestine
• Chicken Lung
• Raw Octopus coated in sugar and chilli powder

I don't even know what else, they are just so normal to me now....

 

Funny story of the week, courtesy of Elder Pryzbyla:

So we were waiting for all the missionaries to show up to KDC for district meeting for forever, so I decided to talk with Elder Pryzbyla about fun things to do in Kuching on P-days, I want adventures while I am here. So he tells me about the Fairy Caves which leads to us talking about fireflies and glow worms. So I asked if it was the actuall bug that glowed or just their poop, ( I know, it's a dumb question but I had heard somewhere that is in actuallity their poop haha). So we laugh about it for a moment and then it gets really really silent between us, because honestly what would you say after that? Then all the sudden he says, "Aren't you so grateful that we don't have glow in the dark pooh." Haha I almost died, then he continues to talk about it and how it'd be helpful for babies and changing diapers. I seriously loved every second of our conversation.

 

 

Favorite Moment of the week:

On the long drive back from Kampung it was kind of silent and I get so uncomfortable when no one is talking. So I decided that everyone in the care needed to share their favorite spiritual moment on their mission. It got really quiet and I felt supe lame for suggesting it, and being a complete sister missionary, but then all of the sudden Elder Mitchell started it off. IT WAS SO GREAT! I needed it really bad to hear just how much the Lord's hand is in the work and other peoples spiritual experiences. It doesn't get much better than that. It was so important for me to recall some of those experiences I've had as well.

 

 

Basically this week was so so good. I am absolutely loving it here. It is truly so different from Singapore, and there are many moments where I just feel like I have no clue what I am doing, but I know that I am here for a reason and by some crazy stroke of luck Heavenly Father trusts me enough to do this. This is amazing work. I'm obsessed!

 

Sister Emma Lynne Hansen