Letter #82 - Week of 26 Aug 2009 - Castle, Fruit Farm, and Letters from Primary Class

Hello,

Today has sure been a crazy day. President Yap (the branch president) and Sister Chris (the relief society president who loves to spoil the missionaries) decided to take us to see some sights around Ipoh. So right after studies this morning, President Yap picked us up and we all went to Kellies castle. I got some awesome pictures, but I forgot to bring my camera just now. I wasn't really looking forward to going there, but it was a really cool place. It was built by one of the British guys who made a fortune here a hundred years ago. He wanted to build this huge castle for his wife, and was putting in all sorts of cool features, like a tennis court on the roof, and an elevator (the first in Malaysia), but then when he went to Portugal to pick up his elevator, he got sick and died, so the castle never got finished and kind of went to ruins. But then someone rediscovered it and cleared it out. It's a really awesome building.

After the castle, we went to a little fruit farm. They specialize in pumelos, but also have guavas, mangosteen, bananas, and limes. A nice old Chinese lady let us pluck our own guava. Before today, I remember having eaten pumelo, but I ate lame sour ones. Today we got a sweet one that was amazing. I had 3 big chunks.
After the pumelo farm, we went to lunch, then to the airport to welcome Elder Dhillon home. There were probably 20 church members there to see him home. He has done wonderful things here in Malaysia.

This week was another disappointing week. We are just stuck in a hole that we can't seem to get out of.

Sister Cathleene hasn't been making any changes lately. She still tells us she'll come to sacrament meeting, then ends up at the Methodist church. We'll have to stop teaching her soon.

Lately we've been teaching 5 Indian girls, all sisters, who come from a Hindu family. Last time we went, we saw that on an altar in the back of the house where they kept an idol, on either side of the idol they placed a Book of Mormon. That's not something you see every day.

Send my thanks to the primary classes that wrote letters and drew pictures for me. Those make me so much happier. I had a question about one of those letters. The return address is from Sister Jones. Is there a Sister Jones living across the street?

That is great about Grampy serving as a missionary. I didn't know they called ... um ... seasoned church members as ward missionaries. In most of the branches and wards around here it's just young single adults.

Still no lifeguarding for me. Tomorrow the pool should finally be ready.

I want to ask about this H1N1 flu. People here are going crazy about it, telling us we should be wearing masks 24/7, giving us all sorts of extreme stastics that obviously aren't true because they conflict with each other. Is this strain of flu any worse than other strains of flu, and how widespread is it?

Lots of changes are coming in the mission next week.
Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #81 - Week of 19 Aug 2009 - FHE with Cathleene

Hello,

This week was kind of slow.

We had exchanges with the zone leaders yesterday. Elder Stone chose to go with me (it's the third time we've been on exchanges after we were companions). They were excellent.

We got to have a family home evening last week with Sister Catherine Doss and her family (they're the ones who referred Cathleene). Afterwards, we taught Cathleene a lesson on the Book of Mormon. It was a really awesome lesson. Elder Hall and I each talked about how we started reading the Book of Mormon and the changes that started to happen. It was really good to look back at my own life and recall what happened. I first started reading the Book of Mormon in 8th grade. We had just finished fall break, and it was the first day back to school. We had dropped Andrew off at the MTC the week prior to that. I say that because I think being in that environment might have influenced me. I don't know. But that morning, I got ready for school extra quick, and had lots of time. I don't know why, but I decided to start reading the Book of Mormon that morning. I read 3 chapters and felt great. I felt great at school that day, so great that when I came back from school that night, I read a couple more chapters from the Book of Mormon. Well, anyone that knows me well knows I'm a creature of habit, so it shouldn't surprise you that the next morning I woke up and did the same thing, recieved the same great feeling, and came home from school and continued. Over the weeks that followed, I started to read progressively more, until I was spending 3 sessions a day, 4 chapters at a time, reading the Book that gave me such a happy feeling. The real tribute to the Book of Mormon I want to give is that I don't remember when, but at some point after reading from the Book of Mormon, I started praying, morning and night, and sometimes a lot in between. At some point, I started to start actually speaking to people between the hours of 8 and 3. Video games moved down a few levels on my priority list and taking a shower every day moved up. As I entered high school, with seminary and sports and studying more, I couldn't quite keep up 12 chapters a day, but I continued to set aside some time to read the Book of Mormon every day. During those emotionally difficult and awkward years of high school, I had something to keep me steady and sane. Many of the things that present such enticing and powerful temptations for youth never looked very enticing and powerful at all, because I read about their consequences every day. After high school came to an end, and my mission loomed before me, the Book of Mormon became a source of enlightening doctrine. When I came on that mission, and realized I didn't have answers to the questions that really matter, the questions that deal with what the Lord wants me to do today, the Book of Mormon has provided me the answers I need. I love the Book of Mormon, know of its truth, and have seen and know that anyone who reads it consistently, no matter how slowly or little they understand at first, will see tremendous blessings come into their lives.

Actually, I didn't notice you made a mistake by writing Rowley instead of Rausch. I used to get their names mixed up all the time.

I didn't get to use my lifeguard skills yet. The week Elder Hall got to start swimming, the pool was closed for maintenance. I'd be a useless lifeguard anyway. I told him he better stay where it's shallow, cause if anything happens, I ain't going in after him, not cause I'm not allowed to swim, but cause I can't.

That email from Elder Bearnson is funny. If you could pass a message onto him from me, tell him to relax and enjoy the time.

Elder Caywood sure sounds fiery. I loved reading his email. I'm really looking forward to seeing him again. I think he will be so different from the kid I knew in high school. He's very inspiring.

Next week, Elder Dhillon comes home here to Ipoh. We're planning on going with the branch to meet him at the airport a week from today. The week after that, well, there'll be all sorts of crazy changes in the mission. 16 new missionaries are coming in one week. I think the most they ever had before this was my group. We had 7. I'm sure Elder Hall and I won't be companions after that. One of us is going.

We got a new couple, Elder and Sister Dabels, today. We helped them move some furniture around and take their suitcases to their apartment this morning. They are really nice. Sister Dabels makes awesome bread.

Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #80 - Week of 12 Aug 2009 - Missionary that gets to Swim!!

Hello,
Mr. Rausch's AP Gov class is awesome. It's hard work, but it can be a lot of fun .

Sorry to hear about Elder Bearnson's grandfather. He'll be in my prayers.

The past few days have been kind of hectic.

On Sunday, Elder Ip, an Elder from Hong Kong, came to stay with us because his companion Elder Pulver was going to Singapore for a visa. That was really convenient because then I had a companion while Elder Hall was gone (Monday, Tuesday, and part of today). Apparently Elder Hall's problem is just an ongoing strained muscle from too much exertion on that region of his leg. President Clark approved the doctor's suggestion to go swimming, so I'll have to spend some time watching my companion swim every morning.

It was fun to be with Elder Ip, especially when contacting Chinese people, because nearly all the Chinese in Ipoh speak Cantonese, which is Elder Ip's dialect.

Elder and Sister Spanos are getting transferred. They are needed in Sibu, East Malaysia, where one branch was recently split into three. They found out last Tuesday, and were asked to leave as soon as possible. Like they said, every time they think they have things figured out, something changes. I know they're in for a lot of surprises.

Cathleene continues to inch along. Another problem has come to our attention: she is involved with some sort of witch doctor. Hopefully we get that out of her life quickly. Anything that drives the Spirit away like that can really hamper all the work we've done for her.

I finally took a few pictures. First ones in a long time. I know I should take a lot more, I just don't. I'll try to send them in a minute.

I had a nice little lesson in the importance of heeding what the Book of Mormon teaches on Monday. As I studied Monday morning, I read Mosiah 10:1,4,5 "And it came to pass that we again began to establish the kingdom and we again began to possess the land in peace. And I caused that there should be aweapons of war made of every kind, that thereby I might have weapons for my people against the time the Lamanites should come up again to war against my people 4 And I did cause that the men should till the ground, and raise all manner of agrain and all manner of fruit of every kind. 5 And I did cause that the women should spin, and toil, and work, and work all manner of fine linen, yea, and acloth of every kind, that we might clothe our nakedness; and thus we did prosper in the land—thus we did have continual peace in the land for the space of twenty and two years."

I was thinking about the word cause. Although the people were good people, and surely hard workers, it was really up to their leader to cause these things to happen. If the king hadn't caused these things to happen, they would not happen. It's that simple. Through his coordination and direction, he had the power to cause great things to happen. I suppose that I, as a district leader, as a missionary, as a priesthood holder, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, also have the great potential to see things happen, but I need to cause them to happen.

On Monday, this message was vivid in my head, but far from my heart. I didn't know very far in advance that Elder Ip would be here, so I had to make last minute plans. I neglected calling a few people I desired to meet that night, figuring that one of them would surely be home. I don't need to tell you what happened, because it's obvious. I did not cause those people to be home by calling them and telling them we would be coming. So they weren't home. And because of that, I took poor Elder Ip (he'd never ridden a bike before last Monday) all over town seeing if different people were home.

A mission is a great place to learn important lessons. Think about the lessons you could learn from that one simple experience that made up just a couple hours of my 2 years. You could learn that Heavenly Father has things to tell us through the Book of Mormon. You could learn that a little effort to prepare for an event will save a lot of effort during the event, and things will turn out better anyway. You could learn that a Spiritual prompting should be heeded and not forgotten. And it may be that I learn later that due to my mistake, I was not able to help somebody I otherwise could have made a difference to.

Love,
Elder Muffler

Letter #79 - Week of 5 Aug 2009 - "I don't think anyone knows what goes on in Relief Society"

Hello,

Things are picking up nicely here in Ipoh. We just had to be patient. This last Sunday was wild. We met lots of interested people, one after another.

I love that picture of Ben rafting. Everyone in the raft is leaning in and holding on to their lives, and Ben looks like he's telling a joke or preaching a sermon or something. One hand on the paddle and the other hand making a point.

Cathleene is still facing stiff opposition, but she is doing well. She is determined to be baptized despite difficult work circumstances and lots of family and friends telling her otherwise. We had a fun lesson last night, talking about the prophet. She hasn't been to sunday school or relief society yet, so we tried to persuade her to come. I told her what happens in sunday school, then when it came to relief society, I said "Then the men and women split up, and the men have a class where they talk about using the priesthood properly, and the women have their own class where they ... well, I don't think anyone really knows what goes on in Relief Society".

One of these days, Elder Hall will have to go to Singapore for some testing. He has been having pain consistently in his leg. Four doctors haven't been able to diagnose anything, but the last two suspect there's a hernia. That didn't make much sense to me, because they didn't act like there was anything he could do to prevent further damage. I hope they can get him treated. I'll probably follow him when he goes.

That is fantastic to hear Elder LeBaron will be giving it another go. I really hope he makes it.

I don't have a whole lot else to say, but if I think about it, I'll probably send another email.

Love,
Elder Muffler