Letter #61 - Week of 1 April 2009 - Singing in the Branch Talent Show

Hello,

Well, this last week was excellent. Zone conference was good as always. President Skelton gave a good training on becoming better teachers, and the Assistants got everyone fired up again to talk to everyone about the Gospel, all day every day. I can definitely feel a change after zone conference. My interview with President Skelton was really short. He commended me again for an increase in confidence, told me the mission is failing right now and the only way to turn it around is through individual missionaries doing their part to work harder and smarter, then sent me on my way, then made me commit to doing better.

Lots of awesome things happened last week. Saturday night, there was a branch talent show. The four missionaries contributed by singing "Abide with me." That was a difficult situation. We practiced a couple of times, and at some point during the practice, I got it in my mind that I couldn't sing one of the notes, and so every time I came to that part of the song, both me and Elder Kunioka bursted out in laughter. As it was, we were both singing the melody for that part of the song, so it was very necessary for us to be singing. Well, when talent show time came around, everything was okay. I just barely held in my laughter, and we ended up singing an okay song.

The best part of the talent show was having five investigators come. Five was a really significant number to me and Elder Compton, because since we've been together, we've never had any more than four investigators come to sacrament meeting, so we took that as a good signal for what was going to happen on Sunday morning.

Jonon and Rosaia and their children were among those there at the talent show. Jonon did not come to church on sunday due to being sick, but his wife and children did. They're doing well. Rosaia is fantastic to teach. She reads the pamphlet we give her over and over again and asks tons of questions. The downside is that she has not yet read from the Book of Mormon, which is the source of the answers to all of her questions.

I can't remember telling you about Denis and his mother Leo. Denis is a young man around 18 years old who recently finished high school and will be starting college in Sandakan in June. He is really interested and open to what we've been teaching so far, and came to church on Sunday. His mother, Leo, has been gone most of the week, so we could only teach her once. She actually went back to Telupid, which is the same kampung that Jaimi and Bibi and Juarak are from. They're probably related. Telupid isn't that big. I should probably bring a picture of them next time I see Leo.

I think my favorite couple of lessons this last week were with a man named Adry. On Thursday, we didn't have a whole lot of time to teach him, so we decided to just briefly explain the background of the Book of Mormon, reading passages from the first few chapters how Lehi heard prophets testifying of the destruction of the Book of Mormon, and how after praying and being chosen as a prophet himself, Lehi was commanded to take his family and set sail for the promised land. Well, the next time we met him, we started by asking how his Book of Mormon reading was going. He told us it was going great. He then recounted a detailed summary of the first 10 chapters of the Book of Mormon, remembering the names of all the characters (including the name of the third child Sam). He told us details like "after they got the plates, they searched them and found out they were descendents of Jacob". He has embraced the Book of Mormon. I've never heard anyone accept a baptism date with more enthusiasm. When you ask most people to be baptized the response is like "Yeah, well, I guess." For him, it was more like "Memang! " "Of course."
Another cool part of Adry is his job. He works down at the Sutera Harbour golf course on the maintenance crew.

I've been noticing more and more lately changes that have happened in my personality and my life. I've always heard you change a lot on your mission, but it's clear to me those changes either come in spurts or they are undetectably subtle. If asked two months ago, I would have said either through ignorance or accurately that I haven't changed all that much. But I realize now I have changed so much in the last 14 months. I think those changes are accelerating.

One example, that totally makes sense to me and makes me laugh but you'll probably read and say to yourself "I don't get it.": For the first couple of weeks of March, I found a puzzle in the house, and tried to piece it together on P-days and whenever I had a few moments during lunch time or at night. It was a nice way to relax and think about my day. I didn't make so much progress (it was a hard puzzle), and right before zone conference, Elder Troxel asked me if I wanted to move it or just put it away altogether. I told him to just put it away. He was shocked. "You've worked so hard on that puzzle! Now you're just going to throw all that effort to waste?" I said "Waste? There was no effort wasted. I didn't do that puzzle to see a finished product. I used to be a puzzle finisher, but now I realize: it was nice while it lasted, but it's time to move on." Actually, that's a slight modification of the conversation. The analogy really arose in regards to another subject, but that's what I like to think of it now.

Well, I should get going.

Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #60 - Week of 25 March 2009 - Sister Lilian's help

Hey,

Thanks for the pictures of Ben's volleyball. I really wish I could have played. For sure I tried. Here's what happened. Spring of my freshman year rolled around, and there was an announcement "Anyone interested in playing men's volleyball over at Doherty meet after school at this time and this place." Well, I went, and noone was there, and that was the end of my volleyball dreams.

Well, today is set to be a fun day. Zone conference. It'll be a little different, because the Skeltons are getting in during the evening rather than the morning. But that'll be nice. We're set to play futsol in an hour and a half. Elder Compton and I just got back from the market. I bought a watermelon and 3 soursops (that's quickly becoming my favorite fruit).

We've got a lot of exciting things happening this week. Last week, we found a lot of new investigators in a village built on the side of a really steep hill. My calves have been getting a good workout. But even more importantly, people have been embracing the gospel. Sunday night, we decided to take a member named Sister Lilian with us to teach a few of these people. The idea was that she's a Runggus, and so she'd naturally connect with the Rungus people we are teaching. We met up with her and went on to our first appointment. As it happened, there were a lot of people sitting around drinking, with someone going away on the karaoke machine. It was someone's birthday party. But Suziana, the woman who had been the most receptive, was sober and came out to talk to us. After introducing Sister Lilian, Sister Lilian took Suziana by the arm and started off in their language. Every now and then understandable malay words would come across, like the word for church and sunday would come across. And before we knew it, they had exchanged phone numbers. Suziana apologized and we set another time to meet, then we went on our way. Sister Lilian explained that she would be taking Suziana to church, and had talked a little about the church and about how important and easy it is to study the scriptures while nursing a baby and a few other things. We didn't need to sit down.

Because of the extra time we had, we decided to stop by a family I didn't have much hope for, and really expected an earful from. We had met the wife before, who told us they are Jehovah's witnesses, and love to study the scriptures. She was extremely nice and polite when we tried stopping by another day, but could not teach her because her husband wasn't home. As I climbed the unstable wooden stairs to their home, I could hear the husband telling the children off for something. After knocking on the door, he greeted us, and welcomed us in. It didn't take long for Sister Lilian to work her magic again, this time speaking the Dusun language. We started our lesson as always with a prayer. We explained who we are and what we do, and then told them we would share why our church is different from the others. Most of the lesson is kind of a blur to me, but this is what I remember. I remember the husband especially was extremely attentive, just ready to catch a mistake we made. I remember he expressed several times that he was confused about why there are so many different churches. And I remember my surprise that, after teaching the lesson, the only response we got was "We're absolutely coming to church this week." Only during the car ride home and a talk with Sister Lilian did I understand everything that had transpired. Apparently, we had met Jonon (the husband) the week before. He was one of the countless drunk men we have met and gave our name card to and haven't given any more thought to. Jonon has attended every church he has seen, and although he is currently studying the Jehovah's Witness church, he still does not feel satisfied with it. He was excited at the prospect of meeting with us, and when he saw us at the door, he felt an overwhelmingly peaceful feeling in his heart.

I am so thankful for Sister Lilian's help. I am also thankful to be able to teach awesome people right now.

It's awesome to hear Brandon's going to the MTC soon. It's especially good to hear his parents went to church for his farewell. You know, President Monson when he was a mission president, used to have what he called the "Monson rule of proselyting." It was this: write your parents every week, and a miracle will happen. If an elder had less active or nonmember parents, invariably, those parents would be active members before he finished his mission. Elder Kunioka (one of the zone leaders I'm living with now) saw that happen. I hope Brandon sees it happen too.

It has been an unusually rainy dry season here in Malaysia. It's still raining every day, but it's down to like 2 hours a day. I can feel a big difference in the temperature though. It's hot again.

Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #59 - Week of 18 Mar 2009 - Where is your girlfriend?

Hello,

Good to hear about the mission calls around the stake, especially Robert Miller going to Indonesia. In the MTC he'll probably be in class together with some Elders coming here to Singapore, now that they're all learning Indonesian. Yeah, Indonesian is practically the same language as malay. The best comparison I can make with english is that Indonesian is like middle age english, like what you would find in the King James Bible, and malay would be the every day english Americans use. So if you walk around speaking Indonesian here, people understand, it just sounds funny with the choice of words and little differences in the accent. Like a couple of weeks ago, we were teaching a group of Indonesians who are pretty fresh (all under a year). We had been bringing a member with us before that, but that member didn't come with us on one occasion. The Investigators asked us "Di mana kau punya cewit?" "Where is your girlfriend?" We explained she wasn't our girlfriend, which embarassed the investigators, because they were just using the Indonesian word for a friend that's a girl. I guess like it is in english.

Well, Jeevan didn't show up for church or his baptism interview on sunday, and we can't reach him on the phone, so his baptism is postponed for the time being. However, Jeevan's friend Naresh came to church. I didn't think he thought much of it (he left after Gospel Principles class) until last night. We had an appointment with a member fall through, so we had some time to try and meet him. We agreed on a time, and he invited us to come to the place where he works as maintenance supervisor. It is called KK Box Karaoke. Now, if he had invited us to enter the Karoake spots in front of our apartment, I would have staunchly refused: those are places no missionary or ordinary member of the church ought to be going. However, I had seen signs for the KK box "family concept buffet/karaoke", so I wasn't so afraid. Good thing, too, because that was one of the nicest places I've seen. We entered this reception hall with a buffet and a couple of halls going off in different directions. It kind of looked like a hotel reception area. We asked at the desk for Naresh and were immediately escorted to a room off to the side of the reception hall. The opening of the door revealed a clutter of microphones and stereo equipment, with 3 Indian guys sitting around a computer with a Tamil movie on the screen. Naresh turned around and greeted us, while the other guys turned off the movie and subsequently introduced themselves. By and by, we got settled, and Naresh and his other Christian friend sat down as we discussed the basic principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and how those have been restored in their fulness. I had talked to Elder Kunioka earlier in the week about how he and Elder Kumar (a Malaysian missionary of Indian descent who served here about a year ago) had taught some Indian guys before, and they came to church and all, but Elder Kunioka stopped lost contact with them. Well, those were the guys, and they expressed interest in learning about the church and later being baptized. I think it'll be a lot better now with the zeal of their friend Jeevan. Naresh described some of the same feelings at sacrament meeting as Jeevan: overwhelming peace and goodness.

Jemimi is still doing well with everything. She has tried to become as involved as she can in every activity in the branch. It's wonderful to see. She has also continued to share the gospel with her family members. We taught her little brother and niece yesterday (who are both about 18), and although right now they are living 3 hours away, they are looking to work in KK and stay with Jemimi.

As mom knows, this last week marked the birthday of the relief society. I know it's untraditional, some might even say it was questionable, but the missionaries were invited to the Relief Society birthday party on Saturday night. Actually, the invitation also went out to husbands, and children who would otherwise be left on their own. It was nice.

The best part by far was the opportunity we had afterwards to teach Sister Joce's friend Ana. This last week, while looking through the area book, I came across the name of a less active member I had never heard. It turns out there is a lady named Sister Joce who used to live in Tawau but has been here at least a year. We called her up, and the conversation went something like this "Hello, Joce?"
"Yes?"
"Hi, My name is Elder Muffler. I am the new elder here in KK."
"Oh, Elder, finally! God answered my prayer. I have been trying to call you all this week. I have tried in the morning and at night, but you haven't answered. Last Sunday, I had some friends that wanted to come to church, but then we got lazy and didn't come. Anyway, they want to learn from the Elders. When can you come visit?"
By that time my jaw was stuck open, and I couldn't say much.

Sister Joce and her friend Ana and Ana's children came to the birthday party and loved it. We taught them a lesson, and it was very fun for us and them (and Elder Douglas). I figure I must have something in my personality or character that fits me to teach Filipinos here.

Well, things are awesome, I'm no longer sick, and next week is zone conference.
With that, adieu.

Elder Muffler

Letter #58 - Week of 11 Mar 2009 - Beverly Hills (not 90210)

Hello,

Well, I think the best thing that happened this week was that Jemimi's cousin Ana and her two children came to church. That was quite unexpected. Apparently, they had someone talking bad about the church to them, and they were kind of phased by that, but whatever it was, it didn't have too strong of an effect on them. The daughter, Jessica, was very happy to be at church. We talked to someone later that said Jessica was a really good example of enthusiasm during class to the rest of the youth. I didn't get the chance to say much to them, though. We should be seeing them tonight. Jemimi said they wanted to come to the sports night at church.

After talking it over with the other Elders, it was decided we would get a new area to work in, with some less active members in it. It's a place called Beverly Hills, a gigantic complex of flats. We went yesterday, and it was one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen. There are at least six phases, and each phase has buildings labeled with letters. Of the 2 phases we went to, one had letters A-Q, and the other had A-X. The point is, there are a ton of people there. We didn't get to meet any of the members there yet. We did talk to two, who were busy at the time but should be available to meet on Friday. (See map of Beverly Hills: http://wikimapia.org/#lat=5.9364511&lon=116.1031938&z=16&l=0&m=h&v=2)

I'm not feeling too hot today. I think I'm becoming Malaysian. For the first part of my mission, when we'd get rained on, it didn't bother me much. If we weren't wet from rain, we'd be wet from sweat anyway. But now, when it rains, I just get cold. We got rained on two days in a row, so now I'm a little sick. It'll be all right today, though. I'll have some time to lay low.

We met a very interesting less active member on Friday. His name is Chai You Xin. When we visited him, he brought out a personal history prepared by the previous couple. It was fascinating to read. The story started with his Chinese family facing persecution during the Japanese occupation of World War II. The Japanese were very cruel during the war, but Brother Chai's father somehow got a job as a chef for the military leaders, and they secured a Japanese flag to drape over their house during bombing raids. Their association with the Japanese led to problems with the locals, but everything turned out all right. After the war, Brother Chai got a job at the new Jesselton hotel at the age of 17, the place where he still works today, over 50 years later. He actually works as a bartender, and is quite a famous bartender around southeast Asia. He showed a picture of him in a Hong Kong newspaper's travel section. Also, flipping through his pictures, we saw Brother Chai serving Mohammed Ali. Well, Brother Chai came to church on Sunday, first time in quite a while.

I am so envious of Ben playing volleyball. I was just talking to Elder Compton about how I wish I would have done what it took to play volleyball during high school. That's awesome. I want to see pictures.

Next week will be kind of hectic. Elder Compton and Elder Troxel need to go on visa runs, and Elder Troxel and Elder Kunioka need to go on exchanges in Sandakan, and Singapore is swamped with too many people in on visa runs, so they can't take everyone at the normal time, so I will probably spend at least day with Elder Kunioka and one day with the Douglas's.

Jeevan's still looking good for his baptism in two weeks. I'm not sure he understands everything, but that is not a prerequisite for baptism. He has the desire. It is evident from his works that he has repented and has a desire to serve to the end. He fulfills the Lord's requirements.
Jeevan's friend, Naresh, called to apologize for not coming to church due to work responsibilities.

BYU basketball. Good stuff. I can't believe it's March already.

I have been addicted to Chinese food this last week. I can't have anything else. I've realized I've gone through phases on my mission. At first, I didn't really want anything, then I started kind of liking whatever. After that, I was in Indian food mode. After Indian came malay, and for the past week and a half or so, Chinese food has been most appealing to me. I've eaten noodles every day. Steamed food is just so appealing to me now.

In closing, I'd like to share a beautiful verse from the Book of Mormon. It comes from Mosiah 18:26 "And the priests were not to depend upon the people for their support; but for their labor they were to recieve the grace of God, that they might wax strong in the Spirit, having the knowledge of God, that they might teach with power and authority from God." As we all work in our callings and responsibilities in the church, we will not be rewarded with treasures on earth, or being known and respected. Rather, we will recieve the grace of God, and the greatest gift from God on this earth, the gift of the Holy Ghost. We will feel good about what we do, and what more could be asked for?

Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #57 - Week of March 4, 2009 - Jemimi's Baptism

Well, I lost my email again.

There's another hour of my mission I wasted. That is so frustrating. It's so unfair to you, but we have to go. We can't stay too long here. I'm sorry.
I'll try to hurry through another one.

Jemimi's baptism was excellent. She is very excited about her membership in the church. We talked about her baptism with her last night. She said "When I was baptized, I thought for a moment I had died. I wasn't breathing, and I felt as though I had left the world. However, when I came back up out of the water, everything was bright and beautiful. I felt as though I was born again." Of her confirmation she said "I feel very good and easy about everything. Things that frustrated me before don't affect me now.

Last night, we brought the Douglas's to talk about family history work and baptisms for the dead. We briefly reviewed the plan of salvation, to which Jemimi responded "See! That's what I want my family to understand. That's why I want my cousin to learn from you, so they can know this." As the Douglas's continued the lesson with Elder Compton and myself translating, they told her that she could start by writing down information like full names, birth places and dates. She immediately sent Ralphie to retrieve some paper, and she asked for my pen so she could start in that very moment. She wants no delay for her ancestors.

Jeevan invited a friend to learn from us. He is as excited as ever. I love to see him continuing to come to church, because with his limited understanding of malay and english, it would be hard to go to church. However, he goes to feel the Spirit, and nothing else will stop him from doing that. The friend should turn out great. His name is Jaresh. He is a younger man than Jeevan, 23, and understands English and Malay better than does Jeevan. He should be good.

In closing, I'd like to share a scripture from Mosiah, chapter 4.
11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing gsteadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.
12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.

I know it seems kind of foreign talking of nothingness and unworthy creatures, but the essence of these verses is gratitude: acknowledging the hand of the Lord in our lives and living in such a way that we demonstrate our thanks. Look at the blessings for gratitude in verse 12. If we do this, we will always rejoice. We'll be filled with the love of God, and retain a remission of our sins, and grow in the knowledge of that which is just and true. It is my hope that we all spend a little more time and a little more effort being grateful, especially in our prayers, and toward other people, that we might merit the promised blessings.

As for other things, The Morreys got their passports back. The thief threw them on the side of some road, and someone found them.

I am the bowling champion.

I bought two pineapples for two ringgit last week. Pineapple season is delicious.
Sister Merly and Brother Ferlick made some more Filipino Spaghetti Saturday night. I don't think I had ever eaten so much in one night, with the post-baptism food and that. I'm definitely putting back the weight that was lost. Well, my waist is still the same, so that's good.

Love,
Elder Muffler

Here is a picture of Elder Compton, Ralphie, Jemimi, Jemim's other son, and Elder Muffler at the baptism. Click on it to see closeup.