Week 16

So I am really really bad at timing these. Technically it's my 9th week in Malaysia, but it's my 15th week away from home, so I'm going to try being better at that.

So....more about my week.

Let's see...

This was actually a slower week than normal. Our dead time Wednesday through Friday is between 1 and 6, because everyone works, so really that's the slowest time of the day. I try to find things to fill up my time during that time.

I am just going to jump around my week a bit. On Friday, we went out to dinner with Jeffery (the member that has driven us around a lot lately) and his family. The kids just graduated from school so its a big deal to them now.

At the dinner, I picked up a soup, and I was about to eat it, and Sister Caroline asked me "Do you know what that is?" and of course I don't know what it is, so she tells me that it is fish lips. And so I'm like.... "Ou, so I am kissing a fish!" It was funny to them, but I just imagine a ton of fish kissing me and it grossed me out a little. So I think that's the most interesting thing I've eaten here so far. :) but hey, soon we will be eating Biawak, which is like a komoto dragon. You'll have to look it up. :)

Also on Friday, we went to a couple lessons. One of them was to a family with a bunch of small kids. And during our lesson, we were trying to talk about prophets, but then the mom lifts up her shirt to a kid that's like 4 years old, and then I totally lost focus about what I was teaching, because they show everything here. Culture shock for me!

As I said, I went to a market on Saturday. I bought a few things there like a shirt, a G-shock watch, which seems to be a pretty expensive watch in the States but I've never heard of them before,  and I also bought something called a Tikai. A Tikai is usually a bamboo mat that people lay on (You can see it in the Mormon movie called The Other side of heaven, it's a great movie) but I bought a softer mat. I tried it Saturday night, and its really hard. I woke up extremely sore because the floor is just too hard. maybe it would be better on carpet, but that is almost non-existent in Malaysia. After that we took a short visit to some caves. I'll send a couple pictures of it :)

Sunday, I woke up and one of the elders, Elder Poppleton, got extremely sick. He is a disaster right now. We think he got sick from some of the food we ate the night before, which was a birthday party for Jackson, a member in our church branch. He has only been out for 3 weeks though so he still isn't used to the food. I am so glad that didn't happen to me. His companion and I gave him a Priesthood blessing that night. It was a really cool experience for me because I've never given a blessing with oil before.

But that night, Elder Hirschi and I went over to a Budayuh family's house. They were baptized into the church a few months ago, and they are really cool. I was having a rough time understanding his Malay, but he was making me laugh nonstop. It was great. :D :D 

Anyway, I can't think of anything else for this week. Those are the highlights. :D :D 

Love you guys! Can you guys send me more pictures of what it looks like outside?  Then I"ll send you more pictures of what it looks like here. :D :D

-Elder Vincent

Week 15 - Back From Zone Conference in Singapore

Okay so!!!!! Hello everyone, I am back from the lovely place of Singapore.

I have to say this, because I was asked this maybe three times already. The weather is fine, we are not affected at all by what's going on in the Philippines.
But Indonesia is a perfect shield against all sorts of weather like that. We really don't get hit like ever. We still get rain, but it's not really that bad.

So I guess I should talk about my week a little bit. Since that's why I'm on here, right?

Tuesday we had our "district meeting", but it really just ended up being a visit with our district at Mcdonalds, and we were about to go back to our area, but then it starts raining like crazy. So we stayed inside for quite some time. I had my camera and I had no plastic bags to put them in, so I really couldn't go outside without getting soaked. That took up a lot of our day.

Then on Wednesday we got up pretty early to get to the airport. We have to wear our casual clothes because of immigration stuff. It was super fun to see all of my friends from the MTC there. Sister Wynn, Elder Capener, and the whole likes of them. We almost had the whole MTC group together except a couple in Singapore and West Malaysia (but I saw Elder Lambert in Singapore later on).

Got on the plane and all I brought with me is my backpack (which is really really big), with only 8 kg worth of luggage. I brought it so I could bring some more razers and batteries from Singapore (batteries for my laser pointer!)

So after we got to Singapore, we basically just got to do whatever we wanted until 7 that night. We could go see the Marina bay, which is where all the pictures of Singapore are taken like of the Ferris wheel, etc, or go shopping. I chose to go shopping with some other elders.

Basically it was just a great adventure.

Our goal was to get to the top of a building without getting in trouble. We were going up this really really tall building, we got in the elevator and there was a person in the elevator to manage it. He asked us which floor we want to go to and we're like uhhhhhhh, we were looking at the elevator numbers. He got suspicious, so we just told him to go to floor 15, which is about half way to the top. We got off and it was just offices, so we decided to go down the stair well instead of going down the elevator again.

Funny thing though, we checked every door going down, and they were all locked. There must have been some laughing gas in the stair well, because we were about dying of laughter, literally on the floor. We finally got to the ground floor and it was luckily open. Phew!!

Then we just went to get some food at Subway, which is super super expensive. 6 inch for like.... 10 American dollars.  I lost a lot of money off Singapore.

Then I went to the tie shop, which has really awesome ties. I bought 5 for 10 sing.

After that we went back to the church, and I read my letters from Ellie, you, and Brother Tolman. Really made me happy to get them all. :D :D

I got to our hotel about 12, but didn't go to bed until about 1. It's so awesome, there is hot showers there!!

Thursday we had a lot of meetings. I can't really remember anything specific from it, but it was just basically training anyway. They gave us pizza and there was a lot, and I knew I had no money for the rest of the conference, so I just ate tons. that lasted me until Friday until I got back from Singapore.

Singapore was really cool. I will have plenty of more chances to go there. I will go there in about 3 months.

Afterwards we just got home. Brother Jeffery took us home, and on Saturday he took us to a fruit market. It had fruit for super super cheap. I got enough fruit for 2 weeks for only 4 USD.

There are other things that happened this week but I don't want to spend too much time just writing this. Hope you guys have a great week!

love you guys!
Elder Vincent

 East Malaysia Missionaries - Zone Conference in Singapore

 Zone Conference - MTC Group Reunion -East Malaysia Missionaries

Week 14

So it's really week 14 or something, but its week 8 in Malaysia.

So....let's see, what should I talk about...

This week went by so quickly that I just have no idea where to start.

Monday, we went to do some shopping and I bought a 4 foot sumpit, which is a blow dart gun. I have had a lot of fun with that. I have been shooting pillows with it. :D :D

Tuesday we had our district meeting, which ended up just being a social meeting for the rest of the day.

Wednesday, we just went to a few members houses, got to know them. One of the members poisoned me. He gave me this bitter seed to try and it made my mouth more bitter than ive ever felt before. it's crazy. it just gets worse and worse too. The members just stuff us full of food. I want to stop eating but they just tell us "don't be shy!" and then you have to eat it.

The rest of the week, it was just raining really really hard so we couldn't do a whole lot outside.

Elder Poppleton and Elder Griffin, the other elders in our house, don't have bikes, so its been a little difficult figuring out what we can do together, and what we just do on our bikes and leave them. We try to include them, but some times peoples houses are just too far to walk around.

Today, we are celebrating Deepavali! it's an Indian holiday which is a ton of fun! we are at our president's house who is Indian so he is celebrating it. Deepa means lights in Hindi, I think. Its kind of like a holiday where you eat and eat and eat from morning until night. It's a holiday to ward off the evil spirits. 

I bought another sarung which is really nice. It's the Muslim skirt that they use to pray. It's really comfortable to sleep in. I'll take a picture next week. :D :D

Week 13

Hey guys! This was a super busy week I have no idea where to start. So...!!!!

I don't even know where to start. On Monday, my entire plans for my mission changed. I always knew there's a possibility for being transferred but I thought for me, I thought I was going to be in West Malaysia for another 4 months.

The next couple days were really hectic. I had to pack everything including some christmas presents that I didn't have time to send off yet. I needed to make sure that I didn't go over 30kg and I did not want to forget my shirts this time. :P
So on Wednesday, I got ready and Elder Dailey came to the train station with me to pick up his companion, Elder Hobbs (sadly we found out that he got in an accident and had to go to singapore to fix up his chin)

We said our farewells and then I got on a train to the airport. It's kind of weird feeling to be the only missionary. Kind of lonely. In the airport, I got a little lost and wasn't sure exactly how to get around, but I figured it out soon enough.
I talked to a dutch and muslim couple on the way. Really super nice people.

Then KUCHING!!!  My new companion is Elder Hirschi.

I was expecting to get hit in the face with Malay, but fortunately the first member I talked to had some knowledge about English. His name is Jeff. He is the nicest guy ever. He has been like a taxi driver and has driven us around a lot and helped get me a bike. I think the bike I got should last me throughout my entire mission, unless it gets stolen.

So every night, we've been with the members of the church a lot. they are SOOOO cool. I absolutely love them all. They like to make fun of all the missionaries and it doesn't matter what reason either. they just love to tease us.

Also, my Malay has improved  more in the last 5 days than it has in the last 12 weeks. The only challenge is that they also speak Iban and Sarawakian, so its impossible to know which language they are speaking. :D :D

So I have a few pictures of the members. most of them are women because here there aren't a lot of active men in the church. It's also find to see the young women. They will claim you as their boy friend sometimes.

I love it here. It's a completely different mission than it is in West, which is good and bad sometimes. I learned how to do things a lot differently, but here, things are done differently, so I'm kind of lost sometimes.

Still it's really fun, I enjoy it and I hope I get to stay here for a while. :) :) Love you guys, have a great week. :)

-Elder Vincent

Week 12

Hello guys!

This week was pretty good. I wish I could share some awesome spiritual teaching experiences, but I still really have not taught more than 6 lessons since I've been here....Sooooo slow through the entire zone, sadly. 

First off, the highlight of my week goes to Elder Misa'alefua, the Samoan trainee that lives in Puchong with me. On Wednesday, he couldn't get into his office because he lost the key, so he tried picking the lock. He couldn't do that and so...he decided to kick the door down. Probably bad of me, but I just couldn't stop laughing after I saw a huge crack in the middle of the door!  I also had my new missionary training in Putra Jaya chapel, and it was great. President and Sister Mains always know how to cheer me up and give me strength when I'm about ready to give up. 

Then I got my package full of goodies and deliciousness. The muffins are amazing, but we don't have a muffin tin so I just put them on a pan and they came out weird, but they still taste great.

Thank you mom, for that! :D

I also got my name tags in Chinese and English. I probably won't wear my Malay one until I actually go into a Malay area.

It's starting to rain a lot...Almost everyday and it rained this morning for probably 2 hours. I was thinking "ou I really hope that I can go emailing..." but it cleared up before 9. :)

Tuesday and Wednesday, they celebrate some sort of Malay New Year, and so nothing is open. Which means I missed the day I could actually send letters home. Fortunately, I found another Pos Malaysia before the week was over.

Another thing that happened is we were taking a taxi to the Sunway Pyramid mall, and while we were all getting in, the driver started to drive off without Elder Stahle and everyone is just in shock. then I just yell "stop stop stop!!!"

and the taxi driver is like "ou, I didn't see him, he is too skinny"

I also went to a Muslim wedding. :D :D It was a church member's daughter getting married, and the father is taking it hard because she had to convert to Islam, which means she will never have contact with the church again.

Our investigator, Tony is really cool and legal, and even though we didn't ask him to be baptized, he calls the church he went to before he met us as his "Former church" 

I'm pretty sure we can make some good progress with him. :)

So transfers are this week, and I should be finding out in about an hour via email where I'm going, or whether I'm staying. so I'll probably send another email telling you guys where I'm going.

Have a great week! Thank you all for supporting me much in my mission and helping every step of the way. You are all in my prayers.

Have a great week. :)

P.S.:  Transfer came and I am being transferred to Kuching East Malaysia.  My new trainer will be Elder Hirschi.

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           Malay                   English                      Chinese

Week 11

Hey guys! So this week was good. I am just going to write a few.

Monday I did just as I said, I relaxed, watched a movie, and then went to contact for a little while.

Tuesday on our way to our meeting, we met a lady who was really interested and even invited US to come over before we asked if we could meet with her. It was really cool that she showed interest.

Wednesday we were at the bus stop and I was trying to find people to talk to but nobody would show up. Some Muslim girl started talking to me and she told me a lot of the cool things about Islam. She wasn't super religious though.

Thursday we had a big thunderstorm/rain storm again and we got soaking wet. Had to leave everything in the dryer room. So it was a short day because we can't really contact outside in the rain.

Friday I called a ton of people, hoping to find someone from the old potential investigators list. We found one! and we had a lesson with him on Saturday. He seems like he could be good. He took a book of Mormon in Chinese and we will probably meet with him every Saturday. We also listened to General Conference. Only 10 people showed up, which was really sad. I was expecting more.

Sunday we had general conference again which was really good. 

Remember the Nigerians?  One of them came again so he is showing interest, and we will try to have a lesson with him this week. :)

In other news...

I lost my scriptures on Sunday and I looked all over for them but nothing. I checked the church 3 times, but still nothing. Elder Stahle found them over near the pulpit of the church on Friday, I think.

Oh and another thing is MEGAMACS!!! So imagine a big mac, but twice the size, and you get a mega mac. 4 patties of deliciousness. I loove Mcdonalds here. :)

Week 10

Hey guys Happy to email you all again I always look forward to Monday to hear from you.

Here are some interesting things that happened this week.

Monday we went to Pasar Seni which is basically a black market where we can barter for stuff, usually souvenirs and what not. I bought a powerful laser pointer! It has different lenses so I can make patterns on the ceiling. I can point a laser at a cat from 4 floors up. 

Tuesday we met a Nigerian that is soooo cool. basically all Nigerians know about the church and we got his hand-phone number.

Wednesday, I found an octopus massage chair, and I MUST TELL YOU ABOUT THIS!!!! ITS AMAZING!!! massage chairs are really popular, but this one is amazing. you should look it up, and it acts like youre being massaged by an octopus. I really want one at home so bad!! but it's like 13000 ringgit and 1500 to ship it so like....5000 American dollars.

Thursday, we found a Jawi alphabet book (the Arabic-like script that Malay used to be written in) and we started to learn how to write Jawi. :)

Also, it finally rained! We were outside when it started so we ran inside a food kedai to buy some bags to put our stuff in. Rain is 10 times harder here than America. it's basically feels like a hurricane. Trees were scattered all over the road.  When we got to the church, I was soaking wet. I played the piano for a while and I'm teaching myself how to play. 

Friday, I took some pictures with friends and then printed them.

Saturday I  met a  Muslim man, he started just randomly preaching to me and I couldn't say anything to him, but one of the weirdest things he said was that he thought Barack OBama was better than him because he doesn't commit any sin..  So OBama is basically the perfect Muslim (He was supposed to come to Malaysia on Friday, but he cancelled).

Sunday was an awesome day.  Four people came to church today! all Nigerians that we talked to during the week.

That's basically my week in a nutshell! :)

I love you guys and hope you have a great week. :)

Love

Elder Jesse Vincent

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