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