It's October

Family!

Wow, time is legitimately flying by right now! I just can't believe that in just a short couple of days it's OCTOBER! Before I start out on my letter though....HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAN-MAN! Love you and miss you. I hope you had/are having the best birthday yet in Georgia of all places! :)

So this week:

TUESDAY:District meeting, new investigator, and taking Sister Leavitt around to say good-bye to alot of the members.
WEDNESDAY: Sister Leavitt left me, but Sister Romney made it here safe. We spent most of the day inside, visioning and getting to know each other better.
THURSDAY: Weekly Planning days. We met the Elders for lunch, set a goal of 10 baptisms in our branch this week, walked 40 minutes to raid an old mission apartment for bikes and food, then planned like mad the rest of the day. 
FRIDAY: 2 lessons, one new investigator. Such a busy day it seemed like. Also the day I biffed it hard core.
SATURDAY: The day spent at the KDC. We had a branch primary activity that we got to help out with. It was a blast, a treasure hunt, airplane constructing, bowling pin painting activity. I love my branch so much. I just can't say that enough. I absolute love them! Afterwards we got to meet with a referral from my branch president and was able to get another new investigator. She is so prepared and so sweet. Afterwards my Elders had a baptism. 

FUNNY STORIES:

The Airport Mishap: This is actually from 2 weeks ago on the way to zone conference, but I am horrible at sending out large e-mails soo....Anyways I get so flustered every time I fly due to immigration and not being in missionary clothes and not getting to wear my tag...it's just so stressful. So immediately after we get our baggage we go straight to the bathroom to put on our proselyting clothes and tag. While I was in the restroom I put down my passport and the phone in the stall. We leave the bathroom meet up with all the missionaries outside of the airport. I went to go check my phone to call my R.C. I went to visit and I could not find it anywhere! I was terrified. I turn to Sister Leavitt and manage to spit out that I can't find my passport or our hand-phone, I said that I must have left it on the other side of security in the restroom. We both look at each other and make a run for it. We kick our shoes off and our name tags obviously and try to make a break for it through the security doors. We made it about two steps when the alarm goes off  through the whole airport! we get caught and are escorted to the information desk. They blasted my name through the entire airport, I was mortified, all the missionaries heard. No passport was found. I go back sit by my luggage and all the sudden I hear the phone ringing. IT WAS IN MY BAG THE WHOLE TIME! I AM SUCH AN AIRHEAD!  I felt so silly, but I set the alarms off in Singapore so that was pretty cool.

That One Time I got a Rock Stuck in my Arm:

This is a real quick story. On our way to a potential appointment, we saw the person we were going to meet driving...in the opposite direction of our appointment....determined to not let him get away I started screaming, "BRYAN, BRYAN, HI, HI, HI, HI," all while obnoxiously waving. That was when I learned in order to properly break you need to use both hands to stop both tires. My back tire flew over the front end of the bike and I catapulted into the sky. Haha I blacked out for about two seconds, enough time for blood to gush all over my white shirt, I was ticked. Luckily we were in front of the chapel, unluckily it was new missionary training and the mission president and his wife was there. I am all good now, just bruised up a bit, but I should get a pretty gnarly scar on my elbow. :)

WEIRD FOOD:

Sting Ray-so exotic. It didn't taste like how I imagined, it was just so normal, but still I can say I ate sting ray now! :)

Lamb-Ok, not that weird, but I just felt so guilty every time I ate a piece.

MIRACLE:

Saturday my amazing Elders had a baptism for one of their investigators, which in itself is a miracle,but even better than that Sister Romney and I had 5 investigators come to witness the baptism. We only teach 7 people, so I was legitimately shocked when they all came! Not only did they come, but they were there because members invited them, not us. We were so behind the ball this last week due to transfers, but our members really pulled through for us! 5 investigators, ahhh so cool. It's going to be a white christmas here in Kuching, We are going to be filling that font everyday.

We also got 3 new investigators this week. We are just being so so blessed!

DO THIS:

So I started a prayer journal this week after realizing my testimony about prayer is not the strongest...which is just not ok as a missionary. It's Phenomenal. In the morning I study for about 5 minutes about prayer, why we pray, and so on. Then I write down what I am praying for. At night I write down how that prayer was answered that day. Obviously I don't pray for anything crazy, but I do pray for things that are slightly out of my complete control. Every night I have notice my prayers were completely answered that day. Since I've started it, when I testify about prayer in lessons I speak with a lot more conviction, but in addition to that I just feel so much closer to my Heavenly Father which brings a multiplicity of blessings along with it. I would challenge all of you to start a prayer journal. 

Sorry. This letter was rushed, especially writing about the individual days. This transfer is starting off right and I am so excited to be a part of the miracles here is Kuching for another transfer. Getting a new companion is always an adjustment, especially since I loved Sister Leavitt so so much. However I know that my new companionship with Sister Romney is very inspired. We are going to kill it these next 6 weeks!

Things are good, I'm loving life.

I never want to leave East Malaysia.

Sister Emma Lou Hansen

This week. Ayo.

Monday: This Monday will go down in history as the most boring P-day in the history of the Singapore Mission. Haha it was not my favorite, we spent the day at the KDC talking with a couple of the Elders who weren't playing the "elders only basketball game." Once we had decided to go home and catch up on sleep in perfect Malaysia fashion it began to down pour and we were stuck! It really wasn't that bad, we were able to get to know a couple of the Elders better, but I am determined to not do that again. 

Tuesday: District Meeting Days are always the best days. After another great meeting we took our new Cina elders out to meet a Less active who only speaks Cina or Malay. No English. She is the best though, I absolutely adore her, and I want her to come back so badly. She said that the reason she does not attend church anymore is because she has no friends. Heart-breaking. Anyways we took the elders to go and see her and learned that she doesn't speak Mandarin at all she speaks a different dialect called Hakkien. The elders tried so hard to teach her and to help her understand but could not. We could tell she was really sad and frustrated that she was unable to understand so we took her to Ice Cream! Once again in perfect Malaysia fashion it down poured again, so while we were in the ice cream shop we took the opportunity to teach her some English and do some major BTR (build trust relationship.) It was a lot of time, but I think...I know that it was well spent. After we met with our less-active we headed to the Mall to meet a potential that I had contacted a few weeks previous. It started out so so well, we met up we walked to a delicious Indian restaurant, we were eating DELICIOUS food, and then he say the three words no missionary ever wants to hear....I AM MUSLIM. I was so mad! Haha I wanted to flip the table. Luckily he never accepted our invitation to come to church or we would've been in big trouble. Anyways we kept our cool, pretended it didn't matter and promptly walked back with him and parted ways. The laws here are so frustrating. I can't wait to teach all the Muslim people I've met here in the Spirit World! 

Wednesday: This day every single lesson/appointment we set up fell through and we felt depressed so we decided to go contacting to lift our spirits, then in perfect Malaysia fashion it down-poured and we were stranded at a mall until we had to go in for the night. We were able to get some numbers and I finally caved in and used one of those completely unsanitary massage chairs they have in malls. It was worth the Ringgit.

Thursday: Ahhh Weekly Planning, I love Thursdays. I always get so much scripture study in it is insane. That's all I need to make me happy is a set of hi-lighters, my quad, and the scripture study manuals. Complete Bliss right there. After Planning though we met with a family of potential that we wanted the Cina elders to meet.  We weren't able to travel together, but we assumed they could make it. Haha we were wrong. About 10 minutes after our appointment is supposed to begin we call the Elders and poor greenie, Elder Pierce, got separated from Elder Fletcher and they were lost, it was raining (in perfect Malaysia fashion), it was dark, and obviously only one of them had a phone and it wasn't greenie. Haha I really shouldn't have laughed as much as I did at the situation, I would have been freaking out, but all was well and after 1 hour, 1 very long hour, Elder Pierce was able to get to the church and call Elder Fletcher. The appointment got kacaud but a miracle came from it I will tell you later!

Friday: We got a new investigator and biked all the way to Matang! (1 hour bike ride away, which seems to be uphill...both ways...)

Saturday: Contacting all day, in which I realized the happiest missionary is a finding missionary. I love getting to meet new people.

Sunday: Church. I love my members but they love to pick on the sisters. Haha I need to get a branch photo, we are all kind of misfits, but in the best possible way!

BONUS Monday: Today we went to bako, which is the miracle that came from the Elders missing the appointment! We had told them that we planned on going to Bako and they not only wanted to come with us but even picked us up and drove us there. Today was a blast, I look like a lobster, and my entire body is bruised from one to many dives  in our intense capture the flag game on the beach but it was such a good p-day and I am so happy I got to spend it with all the missionaries I love and the coolest potential investigators!

Sorry for the quick run down of Friday-Bonus Monday. E-mailing time is running out quicker than I can type! 

Funny Story:

All of what I am about to say is 100% true. Today at Bako I literally got attacked by a herd of monkeys. Haha. Bako is basically a jungle trek and as we were just walking to the trails a family of monkeys come up to us, and it was so nice and pleasant, and then they got this evil look in their eyes. We were completely surrounding and there was no one to save us. We had started to walk away slowly in hopes that they wouldn't pursue us, but they must have seen the fear in my eyes because as we get past a couple of them, one of them literally jumped on to my backpack making crazy monkey noises and stole my water! I couldn't stop screaming! Haha I felt like such a girl, but it was something that I thought I would never have to worry about. We passed like 20 more monkeys the rest of the day and I couldn't look them in the eye. It was terrifying. Haha I think I was more upset about him stealing my water though. 

I can now safely say that I've been attacked by monkeys though.

This week had quite a few ups and downs, it's so evident that rainy season is upon us, but WOW I love this work, I am obsessed with being a missionary, and I feel so much love for the people here. For all the fun stories that happened this week there were 3X more amazing lessons, people changed, and happiness felt. Next week I will try my hardest to write all of them down. I am so grateful to be here, the church is true, i learn it everyday! 

Love all of you!

Sister Emma Lou Hansen