Letter #66 - Week of 6 May 2009 - "He might as well have said I was not a real man!"

Well, this last week was kind of long to tell you the truth. Starting on Thursday night, Elder Shipp started to get the flu. We didn't really leave the apartment on Friday or Saturday, and did sort of a reduced load on Sunday. I was doing all right until Monday morning. I didn't get it as bad as Elder Shipp though. With some ibuprofen, I was good to go for the day. I'll be sure to get plenty of sleep this afternoon.

We really aren't teaching a lot of people right now.

The members of the church here are going to be great for missionary work. It hit me the other day that for the first time on my mission, I am around people that have been a member longer than I have. One of the most responsive of these long time members is Sister Letchemy. She is an Indian woman who takes care of a few super old chinese ladies in her home. After listening to general conference and Elder Perry's talk, she has really been trying hard to find someone for us to teach. The other day she was waiting in line at the hospital, and making small talk with a Chinese lady next to her. She turned the subject to religion, and after finding out she was Christian, handed her our card and took her phone number. The lady was really suspicious why a stranger wanted her phone number, but gave it anyway. Sister Letchemy will call her back, try to become better friends, then see if she can't convince the lady to meet with us.

Sister Nickie is a 30 year old Chinese woman who is full of energy. We sat down for a few minutes with her at the cafe she works at. We talked for a minute about her boss, who some past Elders had taught. Nickie was frustrated at the boss's blatant refusal to accept anything other than what the pastors said. However, we invited her to think about others she could invite, and she immediately had two other coworkers in mind. She told us she knows it's her responsibility to find people for us to teach and she will do her best. To her, there is no gap between hearing instruction and doing. She knows the instructions from the Apostles lead to blessings if followed, so she obeys.

Sometime during the blur of events while I was in Singapore, Elder Perrot told me about a woman in the Ipoh branch that "is one of the keys to missionary work. She is hard to get along with, but once you learn to get along with her, you're set." I forgot who her name was, but I think he was talking about a Sister Loh. Sister Loh is a really nice lady, but she has an attribute that takes getting used to: she cannot go more than a sentence or two without either criticizing something you're doing wrong or making her opinion known on something you should be doing. It does take some getting used to. Apparently, my low tone of voice on the phone conveys a message of lack of excitement. I could go on with my newly found faults, but I'll stop with that. I think it's easy to get along with her as long as you remind yourself she means well and as long as you don't take anything personally. She really has been helpful so far, and will continue to help us more tonight. She works as a schoolteacher.

On Saturday, we did get to take a breath of fresh air, as the branch president, President Yap, brought us out to eat lunch at a place called Crazy Ice Cream. I ordered a Chinese soup I don't think I'd tried yet, and I don't think I'll try again. After the food of course we had ice cream. They don't call it crazy ice cream for no reason. There's a tradition for new elders in Ipoh. President Yap ordered it in Chinese before I knew otherwise. They brought me half a watermelon topped with a few scoops of ice cream and a watermelon. He said he didn't know if I could finish it. He might as well have said he didn't know if I was a real man, or didn't know if my name was really Elder Muffler! You better believe I finished it!

Things are going well in Ipoh. I really like it here. Church is conducted completely in English (which is probably a problem with our malay speaking investigators). Ipoh is actually one of the first places the Church started in Malaysia. It's been here something like 30 years.

A lot of the Chinese members have a hard time pronouncing my name, so they have started calling me Elder Muffles or just Elder Moo.

7:30 AM Sunday Ipoh time.

Love,
Elder Muffler