Letter #93 - Week of 11 Nov 2009 - Lady "Trying to Speak in Tongues, Or entertain a baby"

Hello,

This has been a very tiring week. Probably one of the most tiring weeks on my mission. For one, it takes some getting used to adjusting to a new area, especially a bike area. Also, it seems like we are never finished with calling people and planning before about 10:55. I'm sure I'll have it worse with children some day, though.

The Penang branch and area has been awesome. There are a lot of recent converts from about 2 years ago, who all fuse the branch with energy. I really love the members of the branch. Every Friday, we get to teach an english class (and in the process learn a lot of Mandarin). The branch's sunday services are conducted in English, with many people taking advantage of a Chinese translator. There were 65 people that I counted at sacrament meeting this week. About a year ago, and before that, Penang (we're techinically just in the city of Georgetown, but we call it Penang) was a Mandarin area. That is, there were Mandarin speaking Elders here. But then, for some reason, they phased that out. When I got to the mission, there was a pair of Elders that were absolutely amazing, according to what everyone says about them. There are a lot of really strong recent converts from their era. It's wonderful to have a history like that: the members expect you to do wonderful things, so you end up doing wonderful things.

We're teaching some really good people. There's a Thai lady ready to be baptized next week. She's been going through some opposition from a few members that are in the process of apostatizing over wanting some money from the church and having their request denied. They were trying to convince her to go with them to a huge 4 day retreat at which they would be baptized with hundreds of others into another church. This Thai lady, Maem, is still strong though.

On Monday, we went to the restaurant which Maem owns. She wasn't there yet, but there was a young Malaysian Chinese man named Daniel who began talking to us. He was somewhat interested in what we had to say, then stayed and listened to the lesson we had with Maem. Actually, he took the privilege of helping to teach the lesson. Hopefully, we'll be able to help him gain a testimony of the truth. He has only been a Christian about 4 years, and has a very dynamic personality. He'll make a great branch missionary. I know we only met him once. That's just what I see.

I'm really excited about a Chinese-Kadazan man who we met. He moved away from KK (in the village I used to work in) the same time I did. He is really humble and interested in our message. We'll be teaching him again tomorrow.

Yesterday, we had a district meeting with the 2 companionships in Butterworth and the senior couple there. Butterworth is a city on the mainland right across from Georgetown. We hopped on a ferry to get there. I think that was my first time on the ocean since Massachusetts. Elder Stone says that one of the members here loves to take us fishing in the ocean, that we could go every week if we wanted. They catch a ton of stuff, it's just usually too small to eat. Often, they'll catch stingrays. I'm excited.

After that, we went on exchanges. I went with Elder Barlow, the district leader, in his area. That was a lot of fun. It's amazing how, when you're called to a position of responsibility in the church, you're also blessed with the talents and abilities to perform well. As a zone leader, I find myself way more able to be social around the other missionaries. I find myself better able to contact new people. We had a really good day together. Last night, we had an appointment with a Catholic lady who has committed to baptism. We were watching the Church's Finding Faith in Christ DVD when out of nowhere, I heard ridiculous noises spewing from my right. I turned to see Mary with her eyes closed as if praying. Every now and then, she would throw in a discernible Alleluia or Praise Jesus, so it was obvious she was trying to speak in tongues. Or entertain a baby. No, I'm pretty sure it was tongues. After the film, she talked to us about that: "Was it okay?" We had the senior couple with us. Elder Thorne seems to have served in a lot of positions in the church where he was called upon to counsel or be a judge of situations. And even if he wasn't, he is very wise and mature. I would completely trust his judgement. He tried to deflect the issue telling her she would understand more with time, counselling her not to do it in public, but saying she could pray whatever way helped turn her thoughts to God in her own home. That answer didn't seem to satisfy her, so I read with her Jacob 4:13, and told her that perhaps if she had strong feelings about Jesus, they could be better expressed through something that uplifts and edifies others, some way that others understand, such as a testimony or a hymn. That still didn't seem to satisfy her. She said she only felt free when she immediately started to babble after the urge came. Then I asked her a question "Does God force us to do anything?" She agreed that he didn't. Then I read with her Galatians 5:22-23, which has a phrase in her version that we don't have in the King James. Instead of Temprance being a fruit of the Spirit, her Bible read "Self-control." With that knowledge, she recognized that perhaps those feelings were interfering with, not a result of, her communion with the Holy Ghost.

I am really impressed with the Butterworth district. I've noticed that when Elders are together at home every night, one of three things happens: the apartment is quiet and people aren't really enjoying missionary work. the apartment is vibrant with Elders doing things that are sometimes quite irreverent at best. or the Elders can't stop laughing as they talk about how awesome their day was and the people who they met. Last night definitely followed my last description. It seems like it is a nightly occurance for each companionship to tell the other Elders about every person they talk to. And when they do so, the way is more Jay Leno than Tom Brokaw.

Right now, there are 6 companionships in the zone, including us. There are also 2 couples. One of our companionships, who we'll be going on exchanges with next week, consists of Elder Ip, who is from Hong Kong, and Elder Teng, from mainland China. Isn't that awesome? We can't send missionaries into China, but we get missionaries from China. Before my mission, I never knew quite how big the church is in China. There is a five figure membership. Of course, there is no proselyting in China, but there are plenty of Chinese who get baptized in other places and go back.

The rain has been picking up here. It rains almost every day.

They're going to change myldsmail soon. The church got a contract with google, so they'll be switching to using g-mail.

I'm disappointed our cell phones haven't gotten here yet. They'll be so helpful.

I should probably get going.

Love,
Elder Muffler