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.

 McDonalds Fried Apple Pie - Much Better Than American Baked

 Dad "These Taste Sooo Goood!"  You'll have to come over here to get one!

           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

 PETRONAS TWIN TOWERS

APARTMENT LAYOUT

Week 9

Hey everyone! This week was a lot better than last. We actually had some success. Slowly but surely things are getting better, and we are building a foundation with people by doing a ton of contacting. It isn't effective, but it's all we have to work with at the moment. We have found 7 or 8 people that are really interested, and only were able to teach 2 this week, but it's a start.

Monday we went to Batu caves, which translates basically to some caves with a ton of monkeys! you can buy a dozen bananas to feed them. While I was looking at a monkey to feed it, another monkey jumped on me and stole all of my bananas. I think some of the other missionaries got a good picture of it. It was pretty cool. They have some fun things there. :)

Tuesday we kind of went exploring into the jungle today. We had a referral to meet but we had no idea how to exactly get there. When we got to the person's house, it was pretty much in a huge jungle. People freaked out and thought we were "orang Eropah" which is Europeans. I guess everyone here thinks we are Europeans, but they were scared of us because nobody ever comes to their neighborhood. Someone called security on us, but we got a ride back home from one of them.

Wednesday, I ate my first durian. The national fruit....It's alright but after eating a whole durian, I wanted to throw up. Anyway, I gave a Book of Mormon in Tagolog. We basically have to keep a Chinese, Tamil, Tagolog, Malay, and English Book of Mormon with us all the time, because you never know who you are going to come in contact with.

Thursday, I ate some Domino's which is as cheap as Little Caesars. The pizza here is okay but not as good. I met one person that wants to meet with us tomorrow. Yay! Finally. We went home early because Elder Dailey was having a killer headache and the loud traffic wasn't helping out.

Friday, I had my first bloody nose...woohoo! I thought I was going to be over them, but nope. But that didn't make the day bad, because we taught our first lesson! , seems pretty interested but he's hesitant about baptism because he has already been baptized. We will probably teach again next week. We also met 2 other people today, one of which basically told us that we better call him within a few hours or he'll be upset (he never answered) We've placed 7 books of Mormon this week which almost doubles Elder Dailey's record.

Saturday,  Finally we are getting stuff to do. We walked over 8 miles today.

Oh, and also I've been offered a prostitute several times now, but it's from a guy that speaks really bad Malay, so I don't understand a word he's saying, but Elder Dailey just tells him that we already have a girl back home so we don't want one.

Sunday- We had our first baptism since December! He's an investigator from the other Elders in Puchong, Really fun day. Every week, we have food after church that the members bring. I wish America was like that. They looooove food here. :D :D

Also, I don't know if I let you know, but there are NO stars here. Absolutely none. The clouds and smoke cover them up, so I haven't seen one star since I've come. Sad day, but oh well! It usually gets dark around 7:30 here.

So there is my week, I love you all! Have a great week. :)

Love

Elder Vincent

 Batu Caves

 Monkey at Batu Caves that Stole My Bananas

Week 8

Thursday we got to Singapore, and we went through customs. I thought we were going to have a hard time through it, but they just looked at my passport, stamped it, and done. I then got my baggage, which really scared me. I found my one bag, but was missing my other bag for about 20 minutes, finally it came through the baggage. :) Then I met my mission president and his wife, who are super super cool. I can't even describe how awesome they are. They are very relaxed about things as far as some things go. Sister Mains is very nice, but when she puts her mind on something, she goes overboard. She gave us all a whistle to make sure that we would be safe from dogs, and she has a huge book teaching us to use the correct pronouns in prayer like thy, thine, thou, etc. President Mains really is cool. He doesn't know Malay, but he has been so busy that he hasn't gotten the chance to yet. We then went on the SMRT (which means "dead" in Czech) which is the transit system, which is super super advanced. They have cards that we use to access, but we don't even have to get them out of our wallets, they can read them through our wallet and it will let us go through the little gate thingy. We tried proselyting there for a while as we were going back to the mission house, but we only placed one Book of Mormon, and that was because some kid just came up and was really interested in the church already, so I don't count that one. We are supposed to place one each day, but I've been kind of failing at that so far...It's hard to talk to people here, everybody is on their handphone, but I am starting to figure out how to do it. So really, it's not that difficult, but I am just having a difficult time getting used to the way people talk. I sometimes have a hard time understanding what they are saying, but getting better.

I met my new companion, Elder Dailey on Friday morning. He is really nice. Met me by giving me a hug.  We went out to lunch together at the mall in Singapore, which is super super huge. I got a yam panggang which is something like grilled chicken, but better. Everything is real here, so it has bones. Of course there was rice. We tried for like 20 minutes to find a place to sit, but it was literally impossible. Finally, a small Chinese lady offered us to come sit by us and we talked to her, but she left before we could talk to her about the church.

Most people are really friendly here, but since we are white, they won't really talk to us unless we talk to them first. But, the children are absolutely hilarious. I'll talk about them in a minute, but first my first night at Singapore....wow, it was super hard. Most people were asleep by 6:30 and they were zonked. You couldn't get them awake if you kicked them in the head. But I knew that I had to pack my things, even though I was about to pass out myself. This was a STUPID idea, because when I got to Malaysia, I opened up my bag and I had absolutely no white shirts. I left them in Singapore...ughhhhh so I was feeling like an idiot about that for a really long time, but I was like "okay, the Lord is just going to start my trials now. I can go through it." And I did, I found another elder's shirts that I can use. They are a little dirty, but I washed them and now I have 5 shirts I can use, which isn't too good, but it will last me until I go back to Singapore.

Sorry, I'm jumping all over the place. So Friday, we had our flight at 5:50 to KL, so we were at airport by 3. We changed out of our dress shirts and put on a casual shirt to go through customs.  We didn't get back into our normal clothes until Saturday afternoon. As for my flight, it was 1 hours long and I didn't feel like sleeping, so I talked to a Chinese man all the way there. Really nice man, just not interested in the Church. Has a friend though that he talks to that's Mormon. Anyway, we got to Malaysia, through customs just fine, and got our baggage. not much to say there. We rode a super long train to an area of KL called Klang...and we stayed with Elder Stowell and another missionary there, because Elder Dailey left his stuff in Klang. By the time we got there, it was 12:30.  I took a shower, finally. I felt super gross. I hadn't shaved for maybe 4 days.

Then the next morning we got up, and we had a service project to go to. (Saturday) We were going to meet a member and clean the church , and so we tried getting a taxi. Nobody wanted to take our bags. Nobody...so we wasted an hour just to have to call a cab to take us there. But as we were going there, a group of Chinese high schoolers ran up to us and wanted to take a picture with us. I guess no white person had ever talked to them before. Then, when I started speaking to them in Malay (cuz i couldn't understand their English) they started freaking out, and then took a video of me speaking to them in Malay. It was really funny, which made my day a little better. :)

We got to our the church about 12:40 and we missed the service project, but we met the member and he took us out to lunch. I ate duck with noodles. Yes, duck. Buahaha, I'm going to tell Ethan that. :) I was still learning to understand people's accents, so I had a weird visit with him. Then we went to our apartment, put our stuff away, and then took another shower.
Which now I will take a break in writing, and tell you a few cultural differences. Here there are toilets, but no toilet paper. I'll explain in a sec how that works. Every bathroom is about 10 centimeters lower than the rest of the house. So there is a little step that you go up when you get out of the bathroom. The shower is just a corner of the bathroom with a shower nozzle on it, and tile descends a little so that the water goes out, but there are not tubs or anything. There is hot water, but you have to turn it on, and let it sit on there for a while. As for the toilets, once you are done pooping, you take the hose, point it up your butt, and get water literally EVERYWHERE. Simple as that. Just don't wear pants, and it's all good. I actually don't mind it. I am still learning how to use it, but it's alright. :P

Uhmm.....let's see...

This area we have no one to teach right now. The missionaries that came before us wrote down nothing, so people they contacted are completely gone. We just have to go street contacting until we actually get a few investigators. Saturday I was pretty upset about this, because I was hoping we would get straight into the work, but right now we just have to do a lot of prep work. Our district leader and his trainee gave us some people to contact. We have another couple visits with people, but not too many. We will just have really slow days for a while. Our numbers will be super low, but hopefully within 6 months, we will be bosses. And I am making sure that we write down everything, so that the next missionaries have stuff to do.

Sunday, we went to church at 10, and I was surprised that there was actually 80 people there. It's a pretty big branch. There haven't been any baptisms since December though, but the other companionship has an investigator of the church that might be getting baptized in January. The people are sooooo very nice! I love them all. I will talk about a couple of them. One of them is a former missionary. He has a learning disability, but he is very sweet. He wants to teach his friends here, and so he has asked us to come with him to talk to them. We are probably going to see one of them tomorrow, and then another one probably Thursday or Friday...not sure. He walked around with us for a while as we tried to talk to people, but Sunday really isn't a good day to talk to people...not many people out at all. Then the other member..is Japanese, and he speaks very little English, so I used my Japanese that I have learned with him. He invited us to come over to his house on Wednesday for lunch. Hopefully I can become fluent in Japanese by then. :D :D

Most of what we have done is some training. Elder Dailey has been training me on how to teach people and told me a lot about the culture here. I have a lot of questions for him as I go throughout the day, and he seems fine answering even the dumbest questions I have. By the way, this is a left-side of the street country like I said, which is really confusing sometimes. I will be looking for traffic to my left, and realize that I should be looking right, but then there are some one-way streets, which doesn't help matters.

At our apartment, we have a really really nice pool. I wish I could go swimming in it for my morning exercise, but alas... tidak boleh.

Anyway, that's about all for my days in Malaysia. The first few days are going to be really rough starting off, but I will make it fun. I have a good companion.

Week 7 - Arrival In Singapore

I AM IN SINGAPORE!!! YAY and it is absolutely amazing here. We got here safely and I have both my bags so all is well. everyone thinks its super hot but i don't think its bad yet.. :)

Oh, and we tried placing a Book of Mormon today (English one) and a 18 year old ish guy just came up and asked for one. That was pretty cool. :) That was the only one.

 Elder Vincent with Mission President and his wife