June 30, 2014 - Transfer News

Hey guys, it's been a while since I've been on. Last Monday we went to Singapore for our zone conference, and that's where I spent my birthday. We went to Chili's and I got a nice steak with a cookie ice cream desert and a chocolate desert as well. The world cup happened to be on so we got to see a little bit of it before zone conference.
Zone conference was really good. It was all about repentance and obedience. Not just how to teach people about repentance, but also about the blessings of us being penitent every single day and becoming better missionaries every day. It was a really good pump up zone conference.

I bought a few monster energy drinks a long with a bunch of chocolate like Toffee and Geisha. Best lah! I shared that candy with the youth while I taught them to make pancakes on Friday.  And then Saturday, Elder Kwok, the elder that baptised Martha's family actually came for 3 days so we went to Martha's and ate there with him.

I've been basically been saying my goodbyes already, cuz I basically knew I was leaving before getting told.  8 months is pretty unheard of in one area... so anyway, if you didn't hear, I'm going to Sandakan, Sabah with Elder Jahali. Pictures to come soon. Hopefully an internet kedai is there that can send pics without putting viruses on my flash drive.

Anyway, we've started to have some good luck with new investigators, but I guess it doesn't matter too much for me right now. Good luck for the new elder coming in. :)

uhmm..... So tonight we're going to martha's for family home evening. I had planned to make brownies for it, but I wont have time. We're going to the beach like usual later today for a barbecue.

Tomorrow I'll be making cookies with Salleh's, and just trying to see all the members before I move to Sabah. :)

Sad day... this is gonna be a rough, heart wrenching week. :(

wish me luck...

Love,
Elder Vincent

June 15, 2014 - A Temple Week

Hello everyone, Happy Fathers Day to ya.

This week we had some pretty interesting experiences including a post temple trip experience, some diarrhea and the Iban cure for it, a celebration for my birthday, and Evelyn's return from kampung!

So as of Thursday night, we went to Therissa's house and there must of been something in that chicken because 6am on the dot Friday morning I was running to the bathroom. It was the worst.  That night was the night that Sungai Plan branch wanted to share their testimonies about the temple with the other 3 branches to get them pumped for the temple next year. (Only have one trip per year to the Philippines) I was in the bathroom for a lot of it but it was a pretty cool experience. Bujangs family is as pumped as ever.

So as I was sick, the members asked me two questions a lot "u taken medicine yet?" And "u drink hot water?" Yes I have taken medicine but no I don't drink hot water. So their culture belief is this, if you get your body hot enough, you'll get better faster. Martha one time gave me hot salt water... salt water... uhhh... well I guess it helped cuz I feel better now. While at Martha's she had a company Amway come over and show her a new crock pot that was advertised to cook rice in 8 minutes or chicken in 9. Martha asked me if I would pitch in 100 but I would only agree if she cooked for me every night. ;) haha... not happening. :)

Saturday Evelyn finally got back from kampung and she was extremely excited to have us over. Her little daughter stole her book of Mormon, the triple combinations in Indonesian. Were lacking in those a little but I think we'll manage to give her another one. She finally decided to skip second Nephi because she wasn't getting anything at all. So Jacob here we come.

This Sunday I wanted to follow the youths class but what turned them into singing happy birthday to Oliver turned into singing to me. They caught me by surprise cuz first of all my birthday is in 2 weeks. But I guess it wouldn't be much of a surprise if it was on the Sunday before my birthday. Everyone had written a little birthday note and Robecca put together a hollow book filled with pictures of me and her gang... Nangkai gave me a key chain made of seashells. It was a really sweet gift from all of them. If I had to choose  between everything I've collected in Malaysia, it would be those small gifts.

Next Saturday we are teaching the "gang" how to make pancakes.:)

Love,

Elder Vincent

June 9, 2014 - Post Gawai Week

Hello everyone.

Short email for this week.
This is the "Post-Gawai" Week, where the gawai holiday is technically over, but everyone is still visiting family otuside of bintulu, so it's pretty difficult to meet people. It wasn't until Sunday we started having more than 1 lesson per day (and some days we had literally nothing)

But there was a miracle this week. A member who was having some really rough times last month didn't want to meet with us anymore, and I was really worried about him. But this Sunday he finally came back to church, and so that was really cool.

Things are getting a little rough as far as the work, but yesterday (Monday) we got to Niah Caves again and we actually met the Miri zone again. Fun experience, but it was a hard down pour on the way home, and so everything got wet unfortunately. My camera is ok, but the phone is busted... :/ Down goes all of our contacts. This week's goal? Getting them all back.

Afterwards we had the fun, cold, wet ride back home, and then immediately going to a family home evening appointment, which was a nice ending for the day.

Hopefully work picks up this week and we can keep going on.

Zone conference is in a couple weeks, and im pretty excited to go again for my birthday, so i'll be celebrating it a little early.  :)

Love all you,

Elder Vincent