Letter #4 Week of 5 March 2008 - Chinese Book of Mormon

Salaam,

Things are starting to go a lot better for me. I'm still not completely loving life, but at least now I'm kind of enjoying it.

We've had five people commit to baptism this week. Everyone in the mission office told me I was lucky to be coming here. I think that's why. We have a lot of people ready to accept the Gospel.

My companion, Elder Dhillon, is a very good guy. He's from Ipoh in West Malaysia. He's about 6'3", 250, with a very easy going attitude. Before he came on his mission, he finished about half of his schooling to become a lawyer.

Every morning, I wake up at 7, exercise in the house for 30 minutes, eat breakfast for 30 minutes, then take a shower and get dressed. I have been eating crackers with peanut butter for breakfast every morning. It tastes good, it's easy, and it's safe. After we get ready, I have an hour and a half for personal scripture study, an hour for study with my companion, and an hour of language study. That brings us to 12:00, after which we proselyte until we come home at 9:30. We eat most of our meals at little restaurants. I was a little reluctant to do that at first, because in the missionary handbook we're instructed not to, but it is actually cheaper than eating at home and it saves a ton of time. Usually, when I eat at a restaurant, I try to get noodles or soup or something like that. The less meat I eat, the less likely I am to eat something weird or get sick, and so it's all pretty good. The first day for lunch, my companion took me to an open air restaurant where there were flies all over the place, and he ordered chicken and rice for me, and the chicken was cold and I was not a happy fellow. But since then, I've had much better meals.

Elder Dillohn was so proud of me yesterday. We were walking to an appointment when I saw a stand where they were selling drinks. Without thinking, I pointed to the cooler and asked for "Air" (pronounced ire- the malay word for water). That was the first time I've been able to order something in Malay. Elder Dillohn was so happy with me that he told the Zone leaders last night.

I really serve in a unique mission. Last night, we taught an old Chinese man. He doesn't understand malay at all, but he does speak a little english, so that's how we talk to him. However, he speaks very little english. So when we teach something, we try to teach from the scriptures as much as possible. We give him a Chinese Book of Mormon and ask him to read a passage out loud for us in Chinese. Then we try to explain to him in English what it means. A lot of what we say he doesn't understand, so having him read in his own langauge is so important. We have Book of Mormons in five languages: english, Indonesian (the closest legal thing to malay), tagalog, chinese, and tamil.

I think it's so funny how little pieces of american culture are all over the place. In the cyber cafe I'm in right now, there are posters for a bunch of movies like Jurassic park, armageddon, and independence day. In most of the stores and in the busses when we hear the radio, it's about half malay music and half american pop like n-sync and britany spears.

A lot of things are just ... different here. I wanted to buy some shaving cream yesterday. I was looking all over the store for it, then went to the counter to ask about it. When I went to the counter, I saw it in a glass case. For a small can, it cost almost 20 ringit ($7). Shaving cream is a luxury here. The air is so moist here that there is no need for shaving cream. So I'll do without.

I have a confession to make. I went grocery shopping. I had the opportunity to taste exotic foods that I will probably never have the chance to buy again. I bought penne and prego. I didn't feel bad, though. That's what my companion bought, too.

I've got to know: how has BYU basketball been doing? I'm missing their run at the national title.

I havne't been able to see any exotic animals yet. The Beczuk's have shown me pictures of things they've found in the house I'm living at, though. There was this 5 inch long millipede crawling around in the kitchen. I'll probably get to go to see some orangutans and some crocodiles within the next month. Today for P-day, though, we will just be cleaning up the house.

Love,
Elder Muffler