Letter #25 - Week of 30 July 2008 - Planting and Sharing Vegetables - "Bawa kawanmu ke gereja!"

Hello family,

Well, that was lame. 20 minutes of email erased. Anyway ...

I appreciate the emails from Brandon, Brady, and Steven, and all the letters I got from the 4th of July. They really help me keep going. I started to write letters last week, and I should be able to finish them today and get them sent out within the next week. I actually already wrote my letter to Brandon, and also Kalab, so they're ready to go.

I'm excited for Brandon, Kalab, Brady, and Steven to all go on their missions soon. It's so awesome to think we all can be missionaries together, along with Elder van Wagenen and Elder Perucca.

It sounds like Grandma is living it up with the senior center. Bingo and restaurants and concerts.

This week was a huge roller coaster ride. Rose avoided us last week, and her friend told us they don't want us to come back. Jessryn has not been to church in the last month, and if he does not come to church this week, we'll have to stop teaching him.

Jamie, on the other hand, is doing very well. This week, we taught her about reading the scriptures and praying often. She told us about a dream she had after reading the Book of Mormon and praying about it. In her dream, she wanted to plant vegetables. For some reason, she decided to plant some seeds in a river, although her friends told her otherwise and logic told her nothing would grow. However, she watched as plants grew out of that river, and brought forth huge vegetables. She took the vegetables and shared them with her friends. On Sunday, we went to her house before church to remind her to come to sacrament meeting. I peeked my head inside and saw a woman I didn't know. I told Jamie "Bawa kawanmu ke gereja!" "Bring your friend to church" I watched as she immediately turned around and muttured something to the friend, to which the friend nodded. 20 minutes later, the opening hymn was interrupted by the circus of 8 children the 2 women brought. Jamie makes me happy. She's already sharing her vegetables.

Another highlight this week was Brother Tony on sunday. Brother Tony is the most feisty, determined man I have ever met. When he has an objective, he pursues it quickly and aggressively. That is a very good thing now, because he usually wants things that are righteous. Well, on sunday, after sacrament meeting, he did things every missionary dreams of members doing. He walked up to us with a young Chinese woman he brought. He introduced us. "Elder Muffler, this is Amy. She lives on Singapore road. She wants to learn from you and be baptized and all. When can you come to teach her? I will show you where the place is and come help you teach. My son turns 8 on the 26th of next month. Maybe she can be baptized then." It was the most zealous member missionary work I had ever seen. I kind of didn't know what to say at first. I was stunned. I talked to Amy, and she doesn't seem so enthusiastic to join our church as Brother Tony made it sound like, but I think she is interested and that she eventually will want to be baptized. We'll be meeting her at her home tonight.

I don't know if I told you, but from now on, all missionaries coming into the Singapore mission will be learning Indonesian in the MTC. I was one of the last priveleged souls to come here cold in the language.

I think Ben will like Mr. Rowley. He really likes college basketball, and he is just a fun history teacher. Broadcasting, huh? I could totally see Ben doing that. He has a ridiculous funny imagination.

We played futsol (indoor soccer) with the young men on saturday. It was a very fun activity. I was pretty sore afterwards. Elder Howes could barely walk.

Misdi is moving to KL on sunday to work in a factory there with his brother. I'm a little worried about him getting there okay, but his brother has already made the trip, so I think he'll be fine. We'll call the elders in KL to make sure he knows where the church is and all.

Well, I should probably get going.

Thanks for all the encouragement and prayers on my behalf,
Love, Elder Muffler

Here is a picture of Robby, Elder Muffler, Misdi, Jessryn, Elder Howes:



Here is a picture of Elder Muffler and Elder Howes at the Young Men Futsol Activity:

Letter #24 - Week of 23 July 2008 - Zone Bowling Champion and Foot Race with Dogs

Hello,

This last week felt like a very, very long week.

Zone conference was fantastic. We got a lot of great counsel and instructions. Among that, we were challenged by President Skelton to have a baptsimal service every two weeks from now on. That's going to take a lot of work, but we think we'll be able to see that happen before long.

For our zone activity last week, we went bowling. That was a lot of fun. I was the Sabah Zone bowling champion!

We met with some great people last Saturday. I don't know how it happened, but there was some confusion, so we didn't show up for an appointment that we thought they had cancelled, but they were really expecting us the whole time. It's okay, though. We ran across them again on friday, and we set an appointment for saturday afternoon. We taught a couple of Filipino ladies and a few children. We brought the Morreys, because almost every Filipino here prefers to speak english over malay. The lesson was kind of scattered, because people kept walking in and out, and right in the middle, they decided to get some fried bananas (which are quite excellent) and drinks for us. But after an hour and a half, we finally began to conclude. I started to bear my testimony of the Book of Mormon, "I know this is true." I wanted to continue and explain, but I was interrupted by Rose, who said "Yes. I know the Book of Mormon is a true book." We were surprised and didn't know what to say for a few seconds, but then I continued to bear my testimony. She promised to come to church, but she didn't come. We'll be visiting her again this afternoon (it seems that Wednesday afternoons are the only time she can meet with us. That is going to make P-days very difficult for us, since we have a lot to clean over the next few weeks, and usually only have an hour or two to do it anyway. But her needs are more important than ours.)

We've been meeting with Jamie a lot lately. She's one of the women that came to church the same week we met her that brought all their kids. She is continuing to progress and learn. We're hoping she'll be baptized on the 9th of August. She's been reading the Book of Mormon a lot- I think she's already in Jacob.

Jessryn, Misdi's friend, is also doing very well. We found out on Saturday that he has already quit smoking and drinking coffee. That excited us, because that meant if he came to church this last Sunday and this coming Sunday, he could be baptized the day before Misdi left for KL. Maybe Misdi could even baptize him. Unfortunately, though, he did not come. Last night, we gave Jessryn a long talk about the importance of coming to church and keeping God's commandments. Jessryn makes me laugh. There is absolutely no trace of hypocrisy in him. If there is something he believes in, he follows it. If there is something he wants to do, he does it. I remember when we taught him about the Word of Wisdom, he told us he wasn't sure if he believed in God, and only after several invitations he decided he would keep it. Well, last night, we read from the Book of Mormon the commandment to keep the sabbath day holy. We asked him how he felt the commandment. He responded "Tidak bagus." Not good. I wish other people were as honest as he is. We explained why it is important to keep all of God's commandments. And again, after inviting him several times, he said he would follow it. I fully expect to see him at church every Sunday from now on. I hope this is just like the word of wisdom with him. After the day we taught the word of wisdom, I was afraid we would never see him again, but then less than 2 weeks later he had already quit smoking, and he really enjoys having us come. I hope this is similar.

I think I forgot to tell you about my latest dog experience. 2 weeks ago, we were going to go teach a security guard in one of the richer neighborhoods near the church. The problem is, I didn't know exactly how to get there (and I later realized I was trying to go to the wrong place anyway). I checked out a map before we left, so I thought I knew where we were going, then we were off. Since it was P-day, the sun had already set by the time we got off the bus and started walking on the road I thought would take us where we wanted to be. After about 15 minutes of weaving through roads, we finally managed to find one that looked like it would go all the way through the neighborhood we were in and on into the neighborhood I thought we wanted to go to. We were on a dark road without a flashlight, but could faintly see because of the light from the moon and the surrounding houses. We turned a corner onto a dirt road. A dog started barking in the distance. I could see its shadow. It wasn't a wimpy street dog. It was a big, healthy dog that someone had fed and likely trained as a guard dog. I told Elder Howes I didn't feel comfortable going that direction. He was braver than I. What's the problem? The dog will run as we approach it. Well, while we were discussing this, I realized I didn't hear barking any more. I looked up and thought I saw a couple more shadows running towards us. I didn't know at the time whether it was reality or just my imagination, but I know I did not want to be standing in the dark anymore, so I took off running. Again, Elder Howes was braver than I. "Elder Muffler, why are you running? I've got rocks. Watch." It wasn't 10 seconds before Elder Howes, myself, and 3 of our little furry friends were having a footrace on a warm July evening. Luckily, we weren't too far from a street light. The dog that was chasing me caught me just as I got under the light. I aimed a kick at him (He was within kicking distance), but he turned away, as did the two that were chasing Elder Howes. That was quite a rush.

Elder Howes drew me a sweet picture on the plane ride home from zone conference last week. He made an Elder Muffler anime character. In the picture, I'm dressed in missionary attire, quite handsome, and I've got this giant sword of truth in one hand, with a Book of Mormon in the other.

The pocket dictionary is helping me a ton. I like it a lot.

The Hiews do still have us over for their family home evening and dinner every monday night. They're a wonderful family. I can tell they really like having the support of the missionaries. They're still new in the church, but they take on a lot of responsibilities. Brother Hiew is the young men's president. Sister Hiew is the young women's president. They've got a lot of family opposition, but they are doing very well. I am glad we can be there to help encourage them, as well as teach them.

I know I mentioned that the last week seemed very long, but time is really going by quickly as a whole. I've almost been in Sandakan for 5 months.

Things are going very well here.

Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #23 - Week of 16 July 2008 - Zone Conference

Keluargaku,

I'm in Kota Kinabalu right now for zone conference, so that's why I'm a little early this week.

Elder Howes and I are getting along well. He's just really easy to work with. He's very humble and easy going, so we have no problems at all.

I did take out that money this morning. I'm planning on buying a pocket dictionary and maybe some other things while I'm in KK. But that's not Grandma's money. I'm going to use that for something good like a blowgun (the Iban head hunters use them here). I don't know yet. I'll have to see first.

This was a very fun and busy week. We finally found an area where a lot of people are recieving us, so things are going well. We have a lot of new people to meet this coming week.

The zone leaders came on Friday and Saturday for exchanges. That went very well. On Friday, they trained us on the importance of learning the language, and challenged us to always use Malay outside of the house. That's going a lot better than I expected (when we remember to do it, which isn't too often). I'm coming along in the language. I can at least communicate with people now.

Of the three women that came to church last week, I think only one lives in Sandakan, while the others live in their village miles away. That one woman and her children did come to church, however. We set a baptism date for August 16 for her and her 12 year old son. She is progressing well. I'm still not sure she really has a testimony of the Church, but she has been coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon, so a testimony will come soon. It's much better to act than to know. Knowing will come. We've got pages of names and addresses of people who believe this is the true Church. We only have a few who have acted on it.

Jessryn is doing well. I was afraid for him the day we offered to teach him to read. I think he didn't trust us or want to do anything we said in the first place, and asking him to read just magnified it. But our next visit, he seemed very excited to have us there. It was very good.

Elder Van Wagenen sent me a tie that I recieved today. It's a good looking tie- sky blue, simple pattern. Sounds like he's doing well.

The weekend was kind of hard with the zone leaders. They are putting a lot of pressure on me to improve my teaching skills and language skills and all. Actually, they aren't putting very much pressure on. I just feel a great desire to improve based on suggestions they've given me, and it's hard to improve. But I know I just need to work hard, and things will change. I've seen a lot has changed already. I don't feel shy at all about talking to people on the bus. I realize that to a large degree, I was kind of afraid of people before my mission. But now, I realize they're not going to be uncomfortable talking to me if I'm not uncomfortable talking to them, so I just need to have confidence, look them in the eye, and deliver my message. I think that's the big thing that's changed. Confidence.

Sorry I don't have a lot to write about. Some days I have about two hours worth of material that I have to get into an hour of email. Today it was about 15 minutes worth of material.

So, I guess I'll just keep talking. I started eating oatmeal this week. It was so good. You know, now that milk really isn't available to me, I'm really starting to love the taste of milk. I never used to, but now I do. Every morning now, I have oatmeal with powdered chocolate milk (I originally bought it because I wasn't getting any calcium- I add it to my hot chocolate. It's super high calcium milk for old women. But I like it anyway) It is so delicious. I eat a bowl of oatmeal, an orange, and an apple every morning. And maybe also a banana if I have some. When I get bananas, they go quickly. You can buy bananas everywhere here. They grow everywhere. There's a banana tree in front of my house. I think it's on public land, so we might be able to take the bananas without a problem. I'm not going to try it, though.

I remembered some things to talk about.

As I said, I was feeling kind of stressed and really tired on Saturday morning. I remember praying and asking for help with how I could be happy but at the same time do all that was asked of me. Later, we were going house to house knocking on gates. When we were waiting at one gate, I heard someone practicing their accordion across the street. I didn't think anything of it at first. But then I realized the tune they were playing. It is a familiar tune "Count your blessings." It didn't sink in at first, but I later realized that was an answer to my prayer: if I just counted my blessings, everything would fall into place. And so it has. Sure a lot is expected of us all. But Heavenly Father is not a cruel master who just wants to beat us into shape. He is our Father, who wants us to be happy, and slowly but surely be made perfect through obedience and diligence.

On Saturday night, we were teaching Misdi, Jessryn, Dulailah, and Maeslina at their house. We were teaching about the plan of salvation, and after that, we brought the game Jenga for them to play. That's the game where you have a tower of blocks, and you take one out at a time with the goal of not making the tower fall. Well, we called the game "Apostasy", and said that each block was a doctrine, so every time it was your turn, you had to pull out a doctrine, and tell everyone else what that doctrine was. And eventually, the tower, or the church, would fall. So, we played. We played quite a long time. Everyone was skilled. We took out the words of Christ, and the priesthood authority, the ten commandments and service. Finally, it was Misdi's turn. He told us "This is resurrection", then pulled the block and the tower fell. That night, I thought that was the most profound thing he could have said right before the tower fell. I think the importance of resurrection is often taken for granted or overlooked. Really, without the resurrection, there is no reason for a church. There is no reason for faith or repentance. Priesthood is useless. The whole purpose of life is swallowed up in death. But because Christ overcame death, the whole plan of salvation could be fulfilled. Because Christ has given all the gift of resurrection, we all have the privelege of enjoying a life with a body which will exist for the rest of eternity. Resurrection. Wow.

Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #22 - Week of 9 July 2008 - Doubling the size of Primary

Keluargaku,

I am doing very well this week. I have had a very happy week. It's been a tough week adjusting to a new companion and trying to get things figured out for myself about the area (Elder Dhillon did most of the dirty work himself- I never had to make decisions about what we would be doing, where we would go to find people, what time we needed to be where. But I've had to take over that, and Elder Howes is slowly taking it from me while I am getting used to it, so it's all good now).

Elder Howes is a very smart and talented person. He's got a few quirks, but who doesn't? He actually takes a shower at night and eats breakfast really quickly, so he spends a half an hour every morning drawing Japanese anime pictures. Speaking of Japanese- he's brilliant with languages. He's only been in Malaysia for a month longer than I have, but he's way better at malay than I am. He has also picked up a lot of Iban (one of the tribes down to the south), and knows Japanese and German (I think that's what he said- I know for sure he knows German). He's really helped me get out of the teaching routine that I've sunk into and improve the quality of what I say.

Well, about our investigators this week... For the past few months, Elder Dhillon and I would usually only schedule 1 appointment for Wednesday nights. That was okay, because it usually took up most of our time available, and was a quality appointment. Elder Howes, however, just came from Sarawak, where they are usually so busy with the Iban people (who are joining the Church in masses), and so he is used to more aggressive scheduling techniques. We discussed it, and he was content with just the one appointment, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to the conviction that we really could make better use of our time. So I moved the appointment back a little to make room for some time to knock on doors. We started the night at a place that is a five minute walk from the church. We were at sort of an apartment complex (it's hard to describe) where there were locked fences around most of the buildings. We managed to get to one of the gates just as someone was leaving it, so we could go in. There, on the bottom floor, we met a young man (a Christian) that invited us in to his home. There were kids running all over the place, but the young man and a couple of older women listened as we shared the story of Joseph Smith. Since they were so close to the church, we invited them to come to church on Sunday. We promised to stop by and walk with them to church. Sunday rolled around, and true to our promise, we showed up at their house a half hour before church was to begin. We were invited in, and it seemed clear that they had forgotten almost all of what we said- including that we had church. After 20 minutes of sitting and waiting and talking, we left. We told them they were welcome to bring their children to church, but we had to go. I didn't think they would come. But just as sacrament meeting began, the circus of children came into the chapel. I think there were 10 children under the age of 12 that came, as well as 3 women in their 30s and 40s. I absolutely loved watching the kids during sacrament meeting. They were pretty well behaved. They mostly stayed quiet. Of course, they moved around a lot, but an hour is a long time to sit. The primary president was happy to have a primary as twice as big as usual, and Sister Morrey helped her keep control. The branch was excellent with the whole family (I'm still not sure how they're all related). We didn't have to show the children or the adults where to go. They befriended the new family without us saying anything. It seemed like the women enjoyed church. I know the kids enjoyed primary. After church, they came running and screaming and laughing, and they all wanted to show pictures they had drawn to their mothers. It was a happy day. If the kids really enjoyed primary, they're going to beg and pester their mothers to come back over and over again. It's the closest church to their house. I'm really looking forward to seeing the mothers, and a couple of the older children baptized within the next month or so.

I'm still really enjoying visiting Misdi and his friends. Every time I see him, I feel something very special about him. I noticed yesterday that, when he addresses people, he uses the pronoun "engkau", rather than "kamu". That's usually the term of respect we use only in prayer. Misdi gives everyone that kind of respect. Last night, when we were sitting around waiting for Misdi's friends to come into the room, a man I had never seen before walked in. Sensing he was a dignified guest, I stood up and introduced myself and asked his name. He responded "Bungin". It took a while for me to connect the dots, but I understood at the same time Misdi told me "saya punya ... " "Bapa", I filled in. Misdi's father was visiting him. That was pretty awesome. I gave him a Kitab Mormon (which are very difficult to obtain due to customs problems; we only have a couple left).

We started teaching one of Misdi's friends, Jessryn, how to read. Elder Howes has done it before, so I'm all for it. That'll be quite interesting.

I'm happy to hear you all had a fun fourth of July. Here, well, I didn't realize it was the fourth of July. Sandakan isn't a big holiday city. Now, I realize they wouldn't have celebrated the fourth of July anyway, but they also don't really celebrate any of the harvest festivals or Chinese holidays. Of course, they celebrate most of the Muslim holidays, like Hari Raya, but that all happens within the home.

Glad to hear about Ben's work. I didn't know Tim is back again. Ben, could you tell him to send me an email with his address in it? I've been trying to figure out how to talk to him.

Thanks for the email, Andrew. Jackson is only three months away? Craziness. I'll probably still be in Sandakan when he is born. I'm glad it looks like he and Christina are healthy.

I'll leave you with a scripture I really like. It is a few questions that we should all ask ourselves as often as possible. "And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now? Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?" I know that if we always focus on doing what is right, even though we are weak and make mistakes, then we will be able to feel that change of heart, and move forward without guilt.

Sincerely,
Elder Muffler

Letter #21 - Week of 2 Jul 2008 - Goodbye Feasts and letter from Grandma Bunny

Hello,

This week was pretty good.

I'll start by answering the questions. Elder Howes is from one of those towns near Provo. I don't know the name of it. He has been on his mission 1 year and 9 months. His release date is on or around the 22nd of September. He's a very experienced, smart missionary that has a lot to offer me, a lot that I can learn from. He is nearly the polar opposite from Elder Dhillon, though. Elder Dhillon was very methodic. Just about everything about him was lawyer-like. He helped me a lot with my people skills, and my leadership skills. Elder Howes, on the other hand, is helping me refine what I teach a lot more than how I teach it. He'll be good for me.

Last week was a pretty sad week with the investigators. We had a lot of people tell us to not come back, whether explicitly, or by avoiding us when we came. There is one bright spot, though, and I'll tell you about that in a minute.

Let me tell you, I had a lot to eat last week. The custom of saying goodbye to someone you care about or respect a lot is that you make a feast for them. Consequently, both taxi drivers we regularly use had us over for dinner in their homes. I had been to Ahman's house before. Ahman's family is so great. They're just so... pure. I have no doubt where they'll be in the next life. They treat us like angels. We also went to Jad's house. That was the first time I had been in his home. He has a pretty nice home. He lives in an apartment above shops. He has three young children: a 9 year old and 6 year old boy, and a 3 year old girl. They were so funny when we came over. They're very shy, even though we've met them before. When we came, they were all sprawled out on the couches in the living room/dining room (which was very big). But the minute we entered the door they were in a clump in the corner of the room.

We had 4 investigators at church on sunday. 1 of them was brand new. One of the less active young women brought him, but kind of left him on his own when he got to sacrament meeting. Normally, Elder Dhillon would have talked to him, and shared the story of Joseph Smith with him, and all, while I stood and smiled. Not this time. Elder Dhillon, for better or for worse, left me to struggle to speak with him. I asked him a lot of questions, and I didn't understand a whole lot he said back to me. I explained the Restoration of the Gospel. I'm not sure how much he understood, but I know for sure he understood that I was happy that he came, and he is welcome to come back every week. I hope to see him more, even though I had such a hard time communicating with him.

Elder Howes and I visited Misdi last night. The changes that have happened in Misdi since his baptism have been amazing. I think he had been taught the same lessons over and over again for a little less than a year before his baptism, but we were still struggling to help him to understand right before his baptism. Last night, he was helping to teach the lesson to his friend (whom Misdi brought to church). When we visited Misdi when I first got here, we would visit Misdi, and his friends Maeslina and Bidarah and Dulailah and Robby. They were always timid and quiet. They would rarely look at us during the lessons, preferring instead to look at the floor. When we asked who wanted to say the prayer, no one would volunteer. no one would say anything. But now- it's amazing! We say we want to have a prayer, and Misdi assigns someone to do it. When we want to read a scripture, Misdi (who previously struggled to read out loud) will read it boldly and without error. There's just a glow around him. It's amazing what that simple ordinance can do to simple people.

Misdi's friend, Jessryn, accepted the baptism date of July 26. I'm a little worried about him making that, because he smokes. But once again, I think Misdi can be instrumental in helping him. Misdi missed several baptism dates because of smoking problems. He told us last night that he figured out it was easy for him to quit smoking after he decided to gradually stop: he smoked 5 cigarettes a day one week, then 4 the next, then 3 the next, and so on. He told Jessryn, and Jessryn agreed to try to stop.

I got a strange letter from Grandma Bunny, who lives in Salt Lake City. It was addressed to the MTC mailbox 248 some time ago, with an unreadable first name, last name Muff. So I guess they finally decided it was to me. Well, I opened it up, and it was Grandma Bunny's letter to all her grandsons and other relatives on mission, including Elder Jordan Huff, who is in the Phillipines right now.

I also got a letter from Kalab. He's going to be a great missionary.

I'm glad Michael is doing well. It's tough learning a language.

So Ben, what are you doing at the golf course? I hope you get to do bunkers like Tim and me used to do. That was the best. We had so much fun doing bunkers.

Well, I have to go. Things are great in Sandakan.

Sincerely,
Elder Muffler