Letter #34 - Week of 1 Oct 2008 - Hari Raya Aidilfitri

Selamat Hari Raya,

Well, today is Hari Raya Aidilfitri, the day after the fasting month of the Muslims. People all over the place are dressed in traditional Malay clothing today, and most of the restaurants and a lot of the stores are closed, and people are just really happy.

Hari Raya is fun and all, but it was lame last night when all 4 of the people we tried to meet with were out of town. We brought a member with us all around, and it was kind of frustrating. After they all fell through, though, Brother Voo brought us out for dinner at a Chinese restaurant. He ordered everything for us in Chinese, so we didn't know what we were getting till they brought it out. I've finally gotten to the point that I've tried most of the food, or at least something similar, so I wasn't too worried. We had crab and corn soup, and fish mixed with vegetables, and a meat I didn't recognize. Brother Voo had a hard time explaining what it was. "You know kancil?" Kancil. There's a popular car model named the Kancil. "Like the car?" "Yeah, same word as the car. It's an animal. It's like ... You know kambing?" "Yeah, we know kambing- it's lamb." "Lamb, yeah. It's like lamb, only with horns like this" and he made the shape of long, straight horns. I had my dictionary with me, so I looked it up before I ate it. It's mouse deer- this sort of primitive deer indeginous to Borneo. I found out today its meat is considered a delicacy. I agree.

Juni and his family didn't come to church on sunday. We visited them on Sunday night. Something seemed different about them. Julia was quiet and mostly just stared at the ground. We started to read together a chapter from the Book of Mormon. Not long after we started, I reminded them that the day they had agreed to be baptized had already passed, and asked them when they thought they would be ready for baptism. I was met by blank looks. "You still want to be baptized, right?" Julia muttered something with a sad look on her face. "What was that, Julia?" She didn't answer. We decided to continue reading. After we finished the chapter, we asked "Why didn't you come to church today? You can be honest. Was it because you couldn't, or because you didn't want to?" After the third time assuring them they could be honest, Julia finally opened up to us. "We didn't want to go because so much was in english, and we don't know any english." That's a legitimate concern. Malaysia is a multi-racial, multi-lingual country. Members of our branch have at least 5 different mother tongues, and with the maximum availability of church materials in english, it's little wonder that members prefer to speak english. We reassured them that we will have someone at their side translating whenever they come back, and they seemed pleased. Then Julia had another confession. "I haven't drunk coffee for 3 days already" She hadn't before shown any signs of wanting to stop. It was so excellent. Hopefully, she'll pull her husband along, and they'll be baptized before long. Their goal right now is the first of November.

I was worried about Douglas after Elder Howes left. Douglas was very attached to Elder Howes. I was worried that some things were going to come up and Douglas was going to give up on the church. When sacrament meeting started, he was not present. I saw him enter later, though. He asked me "Muffeh, did you think I not going to come?" "Yeah, Douglas, I was worried about you." Then he gave me the best line I've ever heard out of an investigator. "When have I broken a promise to you?" Wow. He hasn't yet. We asked him if he wanted to move his baptism up until this week, but he said he doesn't feel ready yet. He's scheduled for the 18th of this month.

We had a crazy hurricane-like storm on Friday night. I don't have time to go through the whole story, but I was in a concrete building at the time trees were falling and roofs were flying, but I did get to run through the river/road to get to the member's home 100 meters away and have a branch missionary coordination meeting. Both Elder Stone and I fell in the rain gutter, which was completely indistinguishable by sight from the other water. If you can find out anything about that storm, especially how much water fell in that hour, I'd like to hear that.

I hope everything goes well with Christina's baby. That's exciting.

Oh, Ben ... Doherty football games... going to the Roy's house ... Anything more I should know?

If you ever see any more of my high school friends, give them my email address, or take their address, or something. I'd love to hear from Steven Carson or Beth. If you ever see them or their relatives, see if you can't get an address for me so I can write them. Also, do you know anything about how James Nealy is doing with his headaches, or what he's up to these days?

We went to the Rainforest Discovery Center again with the Morreys today. I wanted to go for sure one more time before I leave Sandakan, and I'm not sure how much longer that will be.

Elder Stone and I get along very well. We see eye to eye on a lot of things. We spent over an hour last night talking about cross country, and Elder Howes, and BYU. It was good.

So, sounds like Nebraska is having a typical year this year. Nice that Sand Creek's doing well. Elder Morrey tells me BYU is ranked top 10. Craziness.

I'm excited for Elder LeBaron. I can really imagine him serving in Germany. I'm sure he'll make an awesome missionary wherever he is called. I've been meaning to send him a letter for a long time, but I just have been too busy.

Send my thanks to Brandon for his 3 letters. They were excellent. I'll reply before long.

Sister Van-Wagenen sent me a letter that I recieved today. If you see her, tell her thank you.

Well, I should probably get going. I feel very rushed this evening. This is the first time I have ever done my email this late on a normal P-Day. We're going to go right after this to visit Juni.

Love,
Elder Muffler