Letter #64 - Week of 22 April 2009 - Transfer to West Malaysia!!

Hello,

Well, this has been an eventful week for me as well. I'm emailing from the mission office right now. President Skelton just walked in singing some old song in a terrible British voice. He paused, looked at me, sighed, and said "Oh, what a night." Then walked on.

Last P-day, I thought it was kind of fishy when I didn't get my visa run ticket for this week. Knowing there were Elders going home on monday, we knew there would be a transfer, and Elder Compton and I had been together for quite some time. Well, Elder Kunioka confirmed it on Friday night. I was to leave KK to head to Ipoh, Perak in West Malaysia. So, I flew here on Monday morning. Getting on the plane was something of a challenge. The girl at the ticket counter, rather than wearing the usual flowery Malaysia Airlines dress, was wearing a professional blue and white school girl dress: she was a new trainee. She saw I had a one way ticket to Singapore (I will be travelling to Ipoh by bus), and so asked me "Will you be working in Singapore?" Now, our policy for questions like that is to be as vague as possible. I told her I was just travelling. She asked how long I'd be there, and I told her I wanted to be there maybe 3 months. She asked where my return ticket was. I didn't have one. After consulting the other people at the desk (talking about me as though I didn't understand malay), she told me I could not get checked in without a return ticket. Now, I know that's a lie, because after searching frantically for a phone card and contacting the Assistants to the President, I went back and told her I would be taking a bus to Malaysia. Simple as that. She checked me in, and raised my blood pressure.

We enjoyed General Conference this past weekend. The first day, we didn't have English DVD's, so I had to watch the Saturday sessions in Indonesian. It was a lot better than doing so in the past. I could understand almost all of what was said (but only if I paid really close attention, which is really hard to do for 6 hours). Most of it was lost on me due to lack of concentration. The best part of conference was the investigators that came. One was Nasri, a 20-something year old Rungus man from Kudat (we suspect he is related to Sister Jemimi; I'm sure they'll find out later). Another was a woman named Leo, who just moved to KK a couple of weeks ago from Telupid, the same hometown as Jaimi, Bibi, and Juarak. She's super nice and interested. Also, we finally got Nina to come to church. She got a new job that didn't make her work on Sunday.

With conference and the transfer, Saturday and Sunday went by in a blur.
My new companion will be Elder Shipp. That'll be way fun working with an Elder who came out the same time I did.

I got to see Elder Kunioka meet his parents here in the office last night. That was way fun to see. I got the best view. I was sitting at a desk directly in front of the door, and so could see through the narrow windows, which no one else in the room could do (there were a lot of people here on visa runs and what not). I saw when they first came out of the elevator. They peeked through the window and hesitated. They talked nervously for a minute, then made a simple, quiet entrance. Everyone in the room fell silent, as the crowd made way, unveiling Elder Kunioka to his parents. It was really a touching thing to see. After spending a week or so in KK, they'll be off to the temple to be sealed.

Lame... The bus ride to Ipoh will be about 8 hours. Oh well. I hear that it's very scenic, though.

I had a dairy queen blizzard for you, Mom.

Whenever I ask anyone about Ipoh, the first thing that comes to mind is the food. Apparently it has the best food in the mission, and food is very cheap, and the amount of money Elders recieve in West Malaysia is more than in East. That's supposedly to account for the fact that West Malaysia missionaries usually use buses while East Malaysia missionaries usually use bikes, but as it happens, I've been riding the bus on less money and now I'm going to a bike area with more money. I'll have to work hard not to gain some weight.

I've been thinking about something that would be crazy. If I stay in Ipoh for 4 months or so, I'll be able to see Elder Dhillon's homecoming.

It was kind of hard to leave KK. That's an awesome place to serve as a missionary. I especially found it hard to say goodbye to Sister Jemimi. She started crying as I said a last prayer with her before we left.

I'm excited to get going. I'll be leaving in 15 minutes or so. I've never been on one of those buses. I hear they are super nice, way nicer than airplanes.

Thanks for the picture of Elder Caywood.

Love,
Elder Muffler