Letter #13 Week of 7 May 2008 - The Spider is Dead and Language is coming along

Hello family,

Sorry I wasn't very clear this week. I thought about it right as I left the internet cafe last week. You can call me on Sunday, May 11, at 7:00 am malaysia time, which I think is saturday, 4:00 pm Colorado time. We will have one hour to talk. Again, our number is XXX XXX XXX. If you can't get through or whatever, I'll try calling at 7:15.

That sounds like the greatest senior prank. I wish I could have seen it.

As for the Romanovs, I heard that they had found the bodies in September, and preliminary Dna testing confirmed it, but they still weren't completely sure when I left. Oh well. I was hoping for some money on a book deal when I got back, but I guess that won't work anymore.

The spider ... well, I was thinking as we were riding a bus home last week, I really didn't want any surprises at 2:00 in the morning in my mouth, so I decided to find it and kill it. The nice thing about big spiders like that is that they're lazy- he was behind the same bookshelf he ran after I tried to take a picture of it. I caught it in a clear plastic jar, took a few pictures, then we poured some clorox in the jar, and now, no more spider. Well, I shouldn't say that. We found another of the same kind of spider two days later, but it was a little smaller. He's in our vacuum now.

Misdi didn't get baptized this week. He's not very educated, so he didn't understand that a certain brand of cofee was against the word of wisdom, but he agreed to stop, and he should be baptized on the 17th.

My language is still coming along. I still do all the door contacting, and after I give the parts I know, Elder Dhillon takes over. When we are knocking, we can usually tell a lot from the door. Most Malay people (I'm talking about the race, not the country. The malay race is the predominant race here. All of them are Muslim) put "Selamat hari raya" (some Muslim festival) or a verse from the Koran on their door. Chinese people always have red on the door, and often have an alter for their ancestors. The others (Filipino, Kadazan, Indonesian), usually don't put much on their doors. THe first thing we are interested in knowing at the door is whether the people are Muslim, because we could get arrested if we started teaching a Muslim. So the first thing I say is "We are from the church. We find Christian people to teach. Are there any Christians here?" If the person is Malay, they usually say something like "Oh. No, we're Islam. But there's a Christian right there across the hall and another on top of us." They are the best, because they tell you exactly where you want to go. Chinese people, on the other hand, have one of three reactions: 1. They completely ignore you, even when their door is open and you're talking to them. They're too busy living their prosperous life to want to talk to people. 2. They immediately wave you off and close the door; sometimes kindly, other times not so kindly. 3. They say, with a strong accent, in english, "I no understand English.", which really puzzles me, because I just spoke in clear malay. I then say "Fahamkah bahasa melayu?" ( do you understand malay?), then they say yes, and I repeat what I just said about us being from the church. I think it's funny that Malay people understand my malay perfectly, but Chinese people don't understand at all.

The first woman who was baptized while I was here, Rosalina, left this week. She went to the Phillipines. I was really sad to see her go, because she was really starting to take off in her progress and understanding of the gospel.

I can't wait to come home and sleep on top of cans. so much fun.

I really don't have a whole lot to say about our investigators, because no one is making much progress right now. I hope they will soon, though.

Congratulate Dan on his promotion for me.

Thanks for the pictures, and I'll talk to you this week,
Elder Muffler