Letter #42 - Week of 26 Nov 2008 - Late Letter about Thanksgiving in Sandakan

Well, last week I thought I sent this, but apparently I sent it to "muffler@msn.com", which thankfully doesn't exist. (Received on 1 December, I changed the date to be Nov 27, 2008)

So here you go from last week:

Hello,

Well, this is a little different. I'm emailing right now from the Morreys. I had about a half an hour worth of email written up a few hours ago, then the power went out, so that was the end of that. In that email, I told you about how because of Thanksgiving, President Skelton gave us a Thursday P-Day (and he gave us the full day off, as opposed to going out in the evening like a usual P-day; we'll be going to a less active regardless tonight.) Anyway, we just had a delicious meal. It's amazing what Sister Morrey did with the ingredients and recipes she had available. We had oven baked chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, rolls made from scratch, fruit salad, bird nest drink (I couldn't stand not having a little Malaysian touch in the dinner. I bought a can ofbird nest drink with real bird nest). We're about to have a delicious looking pumpkin pie. I forgot what Sister Morrey called it. It had some french name. It's like a pumpkin cream pie. It looks delicious.

Well, this last week has been very awesome. Good news about Hani. She won't be going back to her village for December like we previously thought, so she will still be here. She is doing great. She is a very anxious learner, taking notes during our lessons and always ready with her Book of Mormon in which she highlights the verses she likes the most. She'll be a great addition to the branch. I'm not sure when she'll be baptized. We'll talk to her about it on Saturday. She's been busy this week entertaining her husband's family.

Keng Shun and Alice are also doing very well. We had an awesome appointment with them last night. We brought Choon Sun, our old Chinese elder's quorum president. He and Keng Shun hit it off talking in Cantonese about the old days in Sandakan. It turns out Keng Shun knows Choon Sun's father and sister. You see, back in the 50's, Keng Shun was a professional soccer player, paid mostly to play the English navymen who would come into Sandakan harbor. He played soccer with Choon Sun's father. Keng Shun is very open to our teaching. His biggest problem is that he's nearly blind, so reading just isn't an option. He told us last night that some time ago, he was looking back on his life, and thinking about his life as a Buddhist, and decided he wanted to search for the religion that was right. He started accepting the invitations of many of his friends to go to the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Charismatic, and Jehovah's Witnesses churches, but he has yet to feel that any of them is really the right one for him. He told us he fully intends to attend our meetings as much as he can over the next few months and observe and learn from us, so that he can make a proper choice as to whether this is the right choice. He told us all of this in response to our talking about baptism, and when it was all said and done, he did agree to prepare to be baptized January 31, although we assured him if he didn't feel he was ready then, he was under no obligation to us to keep that exact date. I think he'll be ready sooner than that with that attitude. I wish everybody was as open minded and open hearted as Keng Shun. I am confident that anyone who approaches our teachings sincerely seeking to know whether they are true or not will come to the conviction that what we teach is indeed true, that the Church of Jesus Christ and its priesthood authority has been restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith, that we have recieved additional scripture to fortify our understanding of the Bible and give us a more full understanding of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and Plan of Salvation, and that we are led by a prophet who lives and continues to recieve revelation from God.

Alice is also doing well. She expressed concern over her daughters, ages 16, 15, and 12. She's worried about the influence of their friends. She said something like "When I talk, they don't listen, but when their friends, or someone like you talk to them, they'll listen." I'm glad she trusts us to be able to reach them. Hopefully, we'll be able to get them to come to church and make some good friends there.

That was just an interesting appointment we had. We brought a member who talked casually to the investigator in Cantonese. We then taught the Chinese Buddhist man in english a lesson on prayer, then we taught the Indonesian Christian lady in malay a lesson on the Restoration of the Gospel. I just can't see that happening in many other missions: teaching two people together who speak different languages, are from different families, have different religious backgrounds and very different needs.

Rosemarie's parents aren't doing so great. Her father Roberto came to church on sunday. That was excellent. He pulled us aside after church, and told us he had something to tell us. He said something like "I had a dream last night. In my dream, a man told me 'Roberto, it's good to believe in Jesus, but you're old and your legs hurt. There's no need for you to go to church. You've been baptized in the Catholic church, and there's no need to change churches." I'm not sure why he came to church after that, but he did. I think he was either lying about the dream, or he knew the dream wasn't telling him the truth, but the real conclusion he was telling us was that he doesn't want to change churches. He was born a Catholic and he'll die a Catholic, no matter what anyone tells him. It's important to believe in Jesus, that's all. That philosophy really bothers me. It keeps so many people captive here.

I think I will like the Christmas night here, Christmas morning there option the best for my call home. I'll tell you in a few weeks. It should be the same as mother's day: I can call a day early or a day later if I desire. I do hope to spend Christmas in Sandakan for one reason. There's not so much of a risk of members feeding you meals all day (there just aren't so many members as other places). Malaysians and Filipinos both are really hospitable and love feeding the missionaries. My zone leader Elder Niederhauser described Christmas in his first area. They started going to members houses in the morning, and just started eating one meal after another. After his 8th meal, he was so full he threw up, but he was really happy, because he felt like a million bucks and could start eating again. I'll have to remember that trick. I don't need to employ it today. Elder Stone and I usually for exercise run up and down a hill for about 15 minutes right outside our house. But today we decided to get up a little earlier and run somewhere. We ran a little less than 3 miles I reckon, and it felt so good to just go run somewhere to run for longer than usual. It also made me super hungry, so it wasn't a problem to put down so many of the rolls. They weren't quite like your rolls mom, but they were good.

Rose from the internet cafe is still a little intimidated by us. We didn't ask her about the pamphlet we gave. I thought we would be going back later today. Oh well, we'll talk to her some time.

Going to Burger King with Grampa ... "I said I wanted LOTS of onions, not BIG onions !!!"

Poor Elder Stone. He twisted his ankle this morning and he's limping a little.

Sister Morrey put the Christmas music on. Fun stuff.

Brandon's such a good letter writer. I'm doing good if I can get him a letter once a month. I'll try to be that good when I'm at home and he's out.

Oh, by the way selamat petang- good afternoon ; anakku- my son ; yang- that is; terbaik- the greatest (the prefix ter sometimes is used to mean accidentally, or with no one causing the action, but in this case, it means the most, and baik means good) Well, I guess that's all. Next week, we have zone conference, so I'll talk to you again on Monday from KK.

Yang Benar,
Elder Muffler

Letter #41 - Week of 19 Nov 2008 - Missionary Work Getting Better

Hello family,

Things are really starting to get exciting here as a missionary in Sandakan. For the last 6 weeks ago, we have really been in a dead spot. I'm glad I could still be here to work through this.

On Thursday, a young Filipino man named Ednel referred us to his friend Rose, who happens to be the girl who works at the internet cafe that missionaries in Sandakan have been going to for who knows how long. I always assumed she was Muslim. Nope. She's a Filipino Christian. After we found that out, we decided we would try to come on Thursday to talk to her. We got all ready for it, then came to the building, and I said to Elder Stone "Wait a minute, how are we going to do this? This is going to be aqward." He said "I was just thinking the same thing." So we thought a minute, and decided we would just start talking about Ednel, and tell her that we would like to meet together with him to have Gospel sharing (I don't know why Filipinos like that term, but they always use it). So we climbed the staircase and stepped in. Upon seeing us, Rose looked around at all the computers as usual, and found two computers together (she knows the missionary rule). Then both Elder Stone and I started talking at the same time "No, no, no." We stopped to let the other person speak, and I finally ended up talking "Namamu Rose, kan?" "Your name is Rose right?" Her eyes got about twice as big with suspicion and nervousness. "Yeah, why?" "Well, last night we were talking to your friend Ednel. He's a member of our church. He said you were also Christian, right?" "Yeah ..." We then shared a short message, and invited her to meet with us, which she declined, I think more out of shock than anything else. We'll ask her in a few minutes if she read the pamphlet we gave her, and maybe try again.

Hola mi son? How about, "Selamat patang, anakku yang terbaik."

We met the greatest guy last week. We had found three people in an area last week that agreed to meet us again. One of them was a 20 something Kadazan Roman Catholic man, another an 18 year old Indonesian maid, and finally a 60+ year old almost blind Chinese Buddhist man. Now, if we had to make a decision based on probability of which was most likely to go anywhere, it would be the Kadazan guy first, then the maid, then far behind would be that old blind Chinese guy. But that's the problem with making quick judgements: things just don't work out like you'd expect. As it was, the Kadazan guy told us to not come back, the maid told us her boss got angry with her so she doesn't get time to meet with us, but that old Chinese guy invited us right in and listened very sincerely to what we had to say. His name is Ng Keng Shun. We found out he went to a Catholic school when he was young, so he is at least aware of some of the Biblical teachings, however diluted or distorted he may have recieved them. He expressed a great willingness to learn, but frustration that he couldn't read any of the things we gave him. We invited him to church, but he didn't give us a solid commitment. Almost at the last moment, I remembered that we had a baptismal service the night after we met him. We invited him to that, and he said okay. Of course, he didn't know the way and would have a very hard time finding it by himself in the dark, so we offered the help of a member to come get him. After this, we were talking about prayer, when a woman drove up. He told us it was his maid, that she is Christian. She came in, and very uncharacteristicly to rich people with maids, he asked her to sit down for a minute and talk with his friends. We were all for that. We told her about the Restoration of the Gospel, and she didn't seem particularly interested. Then, Keng Shun said "Hey! I'll be going to a baptism tomorrow night at their church. Do you want to come with me?" She wasn't sure at the time.

When Saturday rolled around, we were faced with a dillema on who we could ask for help to bring Keng Shun to the baptism. The 1st counsellor in the branch presidency, Alex Voo (a former Buddhist himself) would have been perfect, but he was busy. Thankfully, we now have the help of a very awesome member by the name of Andrew Yap. Brother Yap was Sandakan's second branch president (we're now on number 4) who has spent the last 3 or so years in Mesa, Arizona, and is currently just waiting on a fiancee visa to go back, get married, then live the rest of his life in the U.S. While here, he is not working and doesn't have much to do, so last week when we talked to him, he essentially offered any kind of help any time (which he has fulfilled very well so far, including buying us lunch at pizza hut today). Andrew Yap makes me laugh. In reality, he's a 40 year old Malaysian, but he acts like a 20 something from Arizona. He describes himself as a banana: yellow on the outside, white on the inside. He can be ridiculous sometimes, but he was more than willing to put off dinner with his family to help us out. Sure enough, both Keng Shun and Alice came to Juarak's baptism. I'll get pictures sent some time.

Hani is still doing awesome. She came to church on sunday and loved it. But she had some sad news for us. Her parents, who she hasn't seen for 9 years, wanted to take her back to her village from this last week until Christmas. Luckily, they haven't come yet, but who knows how much longer she'll be here. She expressed her disappointment at not being able to be baptized this month. We told her we could choose another date in January and she said "Yeah, but that's so far away." It's true. Maybe she'll be able to stay long enough to be baptized before all the opposition from her family sets in, though. I hope she doesn't go to her village and cave under all the pressure which she will surely face.

Our zone leaders came yesterday for exchanges. That is always very fun. I don't know if I ever told you, but one of my zone leaders now is Elder Pace, who was in my MTC group. He was with me yesterday. It was very good to see him and talk to him again. I feel kind of sorry for him, though. This is his first malay speaking area. He has been working on learning malay every day, but it's not the same in english areas.

December 1-5 will be kind of crazy. We'll be having zone conference on the 1st and 2nd in KK. Elder Stone and Elder and Sister Morrey will then be going on a visa run on the 3rd through the 5th, as will Elder Niederhauser, so I'll be with Elder Pace in KK for those days. Last night, it sounded like one of the Elders from Tawau will also be going at that time. I'm not sure which one, but it's possible I'll be with Elder Pace and Elder Ogden, both of whom I was in the MTC with. That would be so awesome.

It sounds like President Skelton usually switches our P-Day to Thursday so we can celebrate Thanksgiving. We'll find out next week.

Sorry I don't have pictures this week. They just slipped my mind.

We had a missionary return to the Sandakan branch yesterday (it was kind of lame- there was no one except his sister to pick him up). He was serving in the Phillipines. He called us up this morning and offered to come with us whenever we could use him. I'll try to take him up on that tomorrow morning. A returned missionary will be awesome to have in the branch.

I don't know if I ever told you, but Elder Van Wagenen and I have had a little competition going on. When I first got here, he sent me a post card.

I just had to one up him, so I sent him a 4 page double-sided letter. He responded by sending me a tie. Well, I've been thinking long and hard about how I might get him, and then last week when I was at the grocery store last week, I found just the thing. I got him good. I saw cornees, Malaysian corn and milk flavored hard candy. As we say it here in Sabah "Habisbah." It's over. Finished.

I was really impressed by a verse I read this week from the Book of Mormon.
It's Alma 50:1 (I think. The computer's being slow and I can't load it
now) " "I was thinking about how Moroni, even though things were going all right, continued to make preparations for war. He didn't ever stop working. If Moroni was a missionary, I think he would start working hard every morning at 7:00 when the alarm clock went off, not at 12:00 when he left the apartment. He would continue to work until 11:00, not until 9:30 when he came home. Since I've been with Elder Stone, I've learned so much about the importance of all the little things we do before we go out and after we come back. I've learned that personal revelation comes to those who seek it, the the Lord is more than willing to tell me how I can be a better missionary or what I can do to help my investigators, if only I am willing to diligently seek that revelation through diligent scripture study and planning every day. I've learned that because of the intense satanic opposition to my every action as a missionary, if I do not actively seek to make good plans and do everything I can to ensure those plans come to pass, I cannot expect anything to happen. Moroni understood that he could not slack off, and he has provided a great example to me, and I hope everyone else. You may not be a missionary and be expected to devote every second to the Lord, but be assured that you can and should be anxiously engaged in the work of the Lord, and are entitled to His help as you try to do your duty, whatever that may be.

Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #40 - Week of 12 Nov 2008 - "Come Meet" with you , not "Come Eat" with you and learning to Bamboo Dance

Hello,
Thanks for getting that stuff in the mail.

Send my congratulations to Elder LeBaron. Brazil. Wow.

This was an awesome week. I have a lot to talk about. I forgot that I told you about the Kenyan. I came close to having the chance this week. We were sitting on a bus going to downtown, when we stopped in the front of a shopping center that had a hotel. A young black man got onto the bus, and after glancing around for a minute, sat down next to me. I was really curious who he was. The bus boy came to collect the money from him, and he said he wanted to go to town, but he pronounced it more like "tone". The bus boy didn't understand him, but the Chinese guy behind us clarified. It took me a couple of miles before I could figure out how to start talking to him. I asked him if he stayed in Sandakn, and he said no, he was just visiting. He had excellent english. It turns out he was the physical therapist for the Kenyan national rugby team, in town with the team for a tournament on the weekend. Of course, I shared a little about the church, and gave him a pamphlet with the web site. He promised to read it.

Oh, happy birthday Dad!

I can't remember if I ever told you about Hani. One day, we followed the Morreys to a less active member they had visited a few times who had started coming back to church. The wife told us there was someone down the street who might be interested in meeting with us. We met her for the second time last Friday. She's excellent. She hasn't been to church since she's been married. She has kind of a strict husband, though. While the husband is working in a lumber camp hours away, she can what she wants during the day, but has to be in the house at night. He's okay with her going to the church, but not the children. She's very interested in the church, though. She's been reading from the Book of Mormon (we saw that she highlighted some verses: the only other investigator that I saw read that closely was Jaimi). We set a baptism date for the 29th, but she hasn't come to church yet, so that will probably be moved back.

I think I have sweated more today than in the rest of my life. The power was off when we went to bed last night, so I didn't have the chance to turn the air conditioning on (it's happened before, but every other time the power was off, we turned on the air conditioning before the power went off, so that when the power came on, so did the air conditioning; that didn't work last night). It was just a hot, uncomfortable night. Then after that, I went running, and it just seems to be a day I'm sweating more than normal. My shirt is soaked right now.

I don't know if I ever told you about Jonathon's dream. If I did, forgive me. I'm telling it again. We've been visting him a lot lately, so I've been thinking about it a lot more than when I first heard about it. One Saturday night, Jonathon had a dream. In the dream, he was talking to a man whom he did not recognize. Jonathon asked the man who he was, and was told that he was Jonathon's mother's grandfather. The man congratulated Jonathon on finding the true church, then told Jonathon, "Tell your mother I want to be baptized." We're helping them get their family history together so that can happen. I'm excited for them. Rosemarie has been coming to church the past couple of weeks, and Jonathon said his parents are on good terms again. We'll be meeting Rosemarie's father next week and teaching him.

Elder Stone and I were discussing a phenomenon we've noticed, and while doing so, I realized a big mistake we have made that has led to this phenomenon. Here's the phenomenon: it seems that whenever we try to meet with long time members to ask for referrals, they feel obligated to feed us. In fact, it seems like that's all they expect or want of the visit. Past missionaries may have had an influence on that, but there still must be something we can do to change that. What are we saying wrong? We tell them 'We would like to come meet with you on Wednesday.", not "We would like to come eat with you on Wednesday." That's when it clicked. come meet. come eat. It sounds the same. That explains so much.

We had a branch activity last week. The youth showed us how to do a bamboo dance. It was way cool. I didn't have my camera, but Elder Morrey did, and I can steal pictures from him some time this week.

We met a very, very interesting new investigator this last week named Ulysses. The morning before we met him, I read about Alma contending with Korihor in Alma 30. That just happened to be where I was in the book of Mormon. I knew that it would be helpful, but I didn't know how closely Ulysses resembled Korihor. He's in his 50's. The first return appointment with him was quite difficult. He asked a lot of questions, some sincere, some just contentious. When he was young, he was active in the Catholic church along with his family. His cousin started to have spiritual phenomenons. She used to talk with a spirit. He and a few of the other cousins didn't believe her until one day when they were gathered together, and they all started hearing a voice that they knew couldn't be coming from anywhere else. However, the voice was talking in a language that only one of the cousins could understand, Latin. The one that understood translated for them. The spirit told them that, while belief in Jesus Christ is good and right, that was all that is needed. They were specifically told not to go to church, to pray, or to read sacred books like the Bible. So Ulysses followed that counsel. Most of the first appointment with him was spent trying to convince him that those three things are the most important things he can do at this point.

Ulysses was much different by the second lesson. He had a little arguing to do, but mostly he just listened as we taught about the Plan of Salvation. He expressed how his family is the most important thing to him, and the real reason he doesn't go to church anymore is that when he went to church when he was young, he felt something very special inside, something that fulfilled him. He said that during the few times he has been to church since he got married over 30 years ago, he felt nothing. We promised him that he would feel something special if he came to our church, and I think he is starting to believe us. It's been really cool to see how, as we boldly and firmly testify of truth, he has changed.

Things are going pretty good here.

Talk to you later,

Elder Muffler

Letter #39 - Week of 5 Nov 2008 - Visa Run and Lifting Weights with Polynesian Rugby Player

Hello,

This last week... I don't remember this last week too well. Coming to Singapore is frustrating. I always forget things. Let's see. We've got a lot of new investigators that look promising. A couple of weeks ago, we had gone door to door in a flat complex for policeman. We had met the wife of one, and tried going back to meet the husband. When we were going there, a tall man stopped us and angrily said "What are you doing here? You cannot be in here doing your business." We told him the name and address of the woman we met. He told us we weren't allowed on the premises, that we needed to register our visit with the office. That's funny, because we had been there several days without problem. We had actually been questioned by a policeman in the surrounding neighborhood, who we later saw in the complex. He just pointed out where all the Christians were. I don't know what that guy's deal was, but I'm pretty sure he just wanted to intimidate us to make us leave. Later we asked the guy we met (his name is Matthew, and he was excellent. I thought his wife was pretty uninterested, but he's really open to us coming), and he agreed. he said we have every right to be going wherever we want, that there's a reason we didn't see any signs forbidding us from entering.

Jaimi's mother is still doing very well. She should be all set for her baptism on the 15th. She actually came to church this past sunday without Jaimi. She fits right into the branch. She is like our only old lady. She goes around shaking everyone's hands and giving the ladies a hug and a kiss on the cheek. She's a sweet old lady and is so happy all the time.

I had a new fruit yesterday morning. Most elders in the mission say that their two favorite fruits are mangosteen and soursop. I've had a little mangosteen before, but I got a bunch yesterday (come to find out most were rotten- but the rest were delicious). Tuesday was the first time I had soursop. It's a very interesting fruit. The taste is pretty unique- like a kiwi, but not. The consistency is something between a pumpkin and a banana, just a lot more juicy. I liked it okay. I'm sure I'll like it the more I try it: that's what they all say.

We came to the Little India of Singapore for lunch today. It was the first time I had real Indian food (at least, Singapore's India food is closer than Malaysia's). It was way good. Not as spicy as I would have liked it, but the curry was very thick with tomatoes. It was nice.

My whole body is sore now. Last night, me and another Elder serving in East Malaysia stayed with the Singapore zone leaders. One of them, Elder Taiamoni, is a Polynesian from New Zealand who I am almost certain is a rugby player. He's a really fun guy. He asked me to get up early with him to go to the gym, because his companion prefers sleep. I was more than happy to go. I didn't think much of it at the time, but that's just another unique thing that I can check off the list of cool life experiences: lift weights with a polynesian rugby player. Maybe next visa run I'll go running with a Kenyan.

Yesterday was a really good learning experience for me. I was on exchanges with the zone leaders, and got to tag along to meet 2 investigators. I'm so amazed how different the people are here. They're so much more complex. Their concerns are deep. As Elder Taiamoni said yesterday "Malaysians only have like three concerns: 'Kopi- susah', 'Tiada Kubur', and 'Sudah dibaptislah." If they read the Book of Mormon and come to church, they will almost certainly be baptized. They're wonderfully humble and sincere people. The investigators we met with yesterday were asking questions that were extremely difficult to handle about post-life judgement and about satan using feelings to manipulate people. You just don't get deep doctrinal questions like that in East Malaysia. If they choose to act, they'll progress toward baptism. They don't get thrown when they don't have every loose end tied down. It was a good experience, though. I love researching questions like that.

Yesterday was a pretty funny day. There are 5 elders on visa runs now, so the senior couple that runs the mission office came to the airport to pick us all up. We all went to the mission office together. We all knew we had to change without ironing our shirts. Thankfully, I had my garment bag, so my shirt was crisp. but everyone else's looked terrible. One of the Elders said "Hey- do you think anyone can tell we're East Malaysian missionaries right now?" We all laughed, because we knew it was true.

Yesterday, before all our appointments and what not, we did an awesome service project. The zone leaders took all the elders on a visa run (plus a few others from Singapore) and went to a senior home and sang hymns to ancient Chinese people sitting in wheelchairs. They liked it a lot.

I've heard Obama won. Is it true he was raised in Indonesia? Maybe he knows some bahasa, so one day we can meet and talk in my mission language.

Has Steven LeBaron gotten his mission call yet?

I love those free burritos.

60 degrees on Halloween? Holy smokes! I don't think it was ever above zero when I went.

The plane ride to KK yesterday was interesting. The airport was absolutely packed when we got there. We had policemen escort us from the ticket counter through security. I'm still not sure what's up. All I know is that there were a bunch of Malays dressed in white on my plane that got in a back way, so I'm guessing they're doing their pilgrimage to Mecca, and all their friends dressed up and came to the airport to see them off. I can't imagine that being the cause of all those people and police being there, though. I reckon maybe the prime minister was coming to Sandakan. I don't know.

Brandon has been sending me letters almost every week since he's been at BYU-Idaho. Those are the best. They're way uplifting. You can just tell he's getting stronger and stronger every week. He's in his elder's quroum presidency with a couple of returned missionaries. He's been through some fun times and some challenging times in the BYU-Idaho environment. I can't wait until he goes on his mission. He'll do wonders.

All is well in Sandakan.

Love,
Elder Muffler