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