November 24, 2014

Thanksgiving day three days early for me and the Elders in Sibu. We got some rules about our Thanksgiving dinner not being able to be longer than 2 hours, so our senior couples are going to be doing our thanksgiving today (Monday P-Day) and maybe we can get to watch a movie too, maybe like Ephraim's Rescue.

we'll see. :)

 

This week was good. Lots of trials with dropped appointments. This week actually overall was pretty hard with just strange things happening all around the zone. Our goal has been extended from 75 baptisms to 100  this year and ever since our sights have gone further, we've just had problem after problem. Satan definitely doesn't want us to get those last 25 people, but we sure can try! :)

Last Thursday I went into the immigration office and they gave me an extension until the 30th of December, but it doesn't matter because I will be going to zone conference on the 8th.

Hopefully I will be able to get back in after zone conference! :) I love this area and we have some investigators that are good, just having some really hard trials right now. 

James has been a huge help for us. He has the sickest car in Malaysia. He has his car painted with GB-13, which is the soccer team in Malaysia. He also has a PA system in his car so he can heckle people, haha. He is our main source of how people can come to church. If people can't find a way to get to church, he will pick them up. 

Our church is trying something different.  Because James is picking up people until 30 minutes after sacrament starts, we have a post-sacrament for him and the people he picks up. Only takes 5 minutes to do. I think that's a pretty good idea for those that are not able to come early.

We also have a functional Branch Council.  FINALLY! 16 months on my mission and my first branch council that meets together every week to talk about missionary work. Woohoo!! :) Anyway you guys have a great thanksgiving!

Love you,

Bye.

PICTURES FROM KUALA LUMPUR (KL)

 

 

Walk like a White person, Talk like an Iban

In church after I introduced myself and bore my testimony in Iban, a
woman whispered to me and said in Iban, "I thought I saw a white
person walk up to the pulpit, but when he started talking, I didn't
hear a white person. I heard an Iban."
That made me super super happy to hear something like that. I am back
in my hometown state, Sarawak. I absolutely love Sarawak, and I am
getting better at Iban than ever before. I can also tell that my Malay
advanced so much in Sabah, because I feel so confident with my
language. My teaching skills are doing a lot better than ever before,
and now I feel like I have the potential to blow up the area. Maybe
those are some dangerous thoughts of pride, but I feel really
confident in myself and I think that is good to feel. I am very happy
with this area. I am whitewashing it, meaning me and my companion,
Elder Weston, are both new to the area, but once we get on our feet,
we want to try to blow up the area. Elder Weston is from Oregon, the
vampire state as he says it, and he just barely got out of training. I
finally got to Sibu on Wednesday with only 14 days on my visa, but I
am hoping to extend it to at least our zone conference in Singapore. I
will be going to Sarikei on Thursday with the District president.
We have some incredible members here. They are really down to help us
with our work and following us. We also have a couple investigators
right now that have been coming to church now for 3 weeks, Ju and
Emile. They have been church shopping for a while and they have been
at this church for a while. After church I asked them, "Kani ka
berasai dik saritu?" (How was church today?) And they responded that
they felt very comfortable here. They loved our Sunday school teacher
today. Supper awesome family.
And yup.... that's about it for this week. other than that, I'm just
extremely excited about everything.  :) this is gonna be a good area.
I can tell that. I just hope my passport doesn't ruin anything.

Love
Elder Vincent

Halloween Comes and Goes

Happy Halloween everyone!

I just think of the song "Written in the Stars"

Oh written in the email
A thousand miles away
A message to the mains
Oh
Transfers come and go
But I will never change
And I'm on my way

haha those who know that song will know that's wrong, but that's the missionary song after you've been in an area for a while. haha well I don't have transfer news yet but we will see what happens. 

My buddy Ormsby and I think we're getting white washed together in Singapore. haha but we will see...

This week was OK. We have this amazing investigator named N who is Kadazan, Chinese mix. She speaks Malay, Chinese, a little Kadazan, and a little English. She is a freaking boss at everything. She is super smart, and retains everything we say. She was super super shy to come to church last Sunday, but once she met the members, she came and just was like a natural member. Like she belonged there. 

She even came with us to the Cheshire Home, which is for the mental handicapped, we do a little service for them about once a week when time allows.

Then we showed the restoration video to her, but we couldn't change the language because we don't have a remote so we had to watch it in English. She said it would be OK, but if anybody knows, the restoration video uses some tough English to understand for foreigners.

Then we ask her what she understood of it and she just basically made a full synopsis of his life, and she was really sad for all the bad things that happened to him.

Golden, kan?

Anyway, other than that, Saturday we had a huge service project at the church. We cleaned it with some members IN and OUT. The grass hasn't been cut for years, so it was growing everywhere and it took a bunch of time to clean and throw into a huge heap and burn it. Yes, I was in charge of the burning. BUAHAHAHAHA. Huge pile of smoke.

As For Halloween we didn't have much going on, but we had a little dinner at somebody's house. Nothing too big. We did get some Australian candy from a member's house that we felt to just stop by at for a second. 

And now... Basically just waiting for transfer news to come out. That's all for this week. :)

 

P.S.         SIBU 2nd Here I COME!