Letter #88 - Week of 7 Oct 2009 - Fish Spa and Ibuprofen

Hello,

This week was excellent.

Zone conference got me really pumped to move forward. President Clark has such a firm grasp on what this mission needs. It's awesome to see an inspired mission president.

The zone activity fell apart last week due to timing with interviews and all. Elder Judd, Elder Jeffries and myself ended up going to a souvenir market. I got quite a few cool things, like some chinese art, and some framed Islamic writing. While there at the market, we stumbled acrosss a fish spa. People go there, pay a couple of dollars, and stick their feet in this pool full of fish that come and eat your dead skin cells off, so your feet are clean and soft. I couldn't resist. It was the most ticklish thing I ever put myself through, but after a couple of minutes you get used to. My feet feel real nice.

Saturday was good. Kelly came with us, and we taught another recent convert, as well as Matthew and his friends. Due to a Chinese holiday, Matthew didn't come to church on sunday, and neither did his friends.

On sunday, a former investigator that wanted to get baptized but suddenly went to China, came back to church. She is still interested in being baptized, but has mostly forgot the teachings of the church. It was fun to see Kelly, Mei and Sharon (the former investigator) interact together and respond to our lesson. They're all around the same age, and I'm really looking forward for them to grow together and strengthen one another as they move toward perfection through the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

Yesterday, the college students met us with lots more questions. They had a really good grasp on all the stuff that's presented on the internet, but still had questions on a few doctrines and church government and so forth. Elder Jeffries and I answered all their questions , and afterwards we were discussing the answers to them, and he helped me to realize something when he said "It's a good thing you were there: I wouldn't have known how to answer some of those questions." I thought about that for a minute, and I wouldn't have known how to answer them a year and a half ago either. I think it's easy to forget the continual nature of learning and improvement. I always find myself thinking I've made it, that I've always known the things I know and that, although there is much more to learn out there, I probably won't be able to learn it.

You can send the package to the Singapore address. My first instinct was to have it sent here, because I should finish my mission here, but if I got transferred for some odd reason it would be a lot harder to get to me.

I don't know if I mentioned my first real sushi experience last week. We went with Esther to a Japanese sushi restaurant. I ordered the STAMINA ROLL: grilled eel, seaweed, rice and vegetables. It was awesome.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today. I'm thankful for modern medicine, though. Ibuprofen has done wonders today. Actually, ibuprofen isn't available here. I guess it comes from a pig or something. No matter. Elder Jeffries bought a costco bottle of 500 pills. I don't know what he expected to do with all those on his mission, but it is still pretty awesome.

The clock is winding down. The Assistants mentioned last week that the scheduled day for us to go home falls right in the middle of when new missionaries are coming. I know President Clark has been trying to set a more regular transfer schedule, so he prefers missionaries going home when missionaries are coming in. I know at least one Elder from my group will be going home a month early for school. I'll see how it goes, but I will extend a month if it helps the mission. Neither the mission president nor the office couple has mentioned it yet, so I guess I'll just find out when they send my itinerary some time soon.

Things are going very well overall.

President Clark has put in the expectation of a baptismal service every two weeks again. That gets me excited. I know that when I was in KK, that goal helped me so much to stay motivated and focused. I hope it will do the same again.

I feel so bad for Elder Bearnson. That's rough. It's the rough experiences that teach us, though.

I don't know if I mentioned it, but Cathleene in Ipoh got baptized. Elder Hall brought me a picture last week.

Love,
Elder Muffler