January 19 2014 email

Chinese new year is bigger than Christmas. Like it is crazy. Go to a shopping mall... or really any store, and there are chinese people everywhere. I swear The chinese people stop working for a month and go shopping. It is ridiculous, especially when one of your potential investigators works everyday... and feels like she can't stop working on sundays till after chinese new years...

(This is in response to something I said about a fun Chinese New Years party we went to last year)

Oh my goodness I forgot about that! That was an awesome party! That is pretty much like every day here! Just instead of chinese robes I'm chillin in missionary attire... and there is no snow...

Zone conference was awesome! I got to meet Elder Larry Wilson of the 70, and he randomly picked people to have an interview to discuss the mission with ,and I got to talk to him about Kuching, missionary work, learning Malay, he told me that he knew that I was a hard working diligent elder and to continue what I do!

Singapore was fun, we went to Wendy's, and that was awesome :P

My new companion (just like my last 2) is awesome. We like a lot of the same stuff, we both put on our papers that we wanted to go to Japan :P Have a lot of similar stories, He is a little taller than me :P which is really strange, cause I don't ever see someone taller than me :P

Nama dia Elder Bukit :P sangat hebat dia! He has been in an English area his whole mission, so he can't really understand all of what is being said... I have to really step up, and I like it cause I feel like now we are really getting things done, the two of us are definitely supposed to serve together and I am really looking forward to serving with him!!!

Jumpa Lagi!

Picture with me and sutherland and the family holding the manila temple, that is A, he is a RM and he served in Salt Lake, and he has been in Kota Sentosa about as long as me... but he is already married

 

Sister K's family, we brought McDonalds there when Sutherland was leaving

 

Elder Hill at a group of houses :P

 

Me at the same group of houses

 

A little farm shack for tools

 

plants... malaysia... the works :P

 

Bro. A giving us some sugar cane! It was so good! We ate straight sugar cane and it is freaking delicious!

I found an english sign language book by the church... so elder and missionary.. and serpent looks really funny :P

January 12, 2014 email

hey this is what I sent to President Thomas, thought I should send it to you,

Well President, I have my first baptism approaching on the 25th!!! and I am overjoyed at the change I've seen in this man, just to give a quick report, I thought I'd tell a little about him.

So his name is A, and we were going to teach a less active, and met him and his buddies, absolutely drunk outside. However, regardless of their physical condition, we talked to them for a bit and joked around and then went to teach our lesson. When we were closing, A came upstairs, and it turns out that he is the less active member's husband.

We saw then a struggling marriage, a man who didn't live up to his potential, and we were determined to make a change.

A met with us the following Tuesday, and he expressed a sincere desire to change, he told us that he wanted to stop smoking and drinking, and that he was ashamed of many choices he had made in his youth (for example his tattoos) and absolutely loved the message and the Book of Mormon that we brought him.

As we taught him the first 3 lessons we found that he was truly prepared, and that as a result, he asked every question that he needed to, with perfect timing in order to open his heart.

As his wife was a less active member, he knew a little about the commandments, including the Word of Wisdom, and in the 3 weeks we have known him, he has stopped drinking alcohol, and smoking (and coffee etc, following the wow) without us teaching him.

We have gone over the baptismal requirements, and it is everything he wants in life. I have seen this man's life change, and now his wife has been re activated, and the two of them are happier and happier every time we see them. The church not only saved this man's eternal salvation, but his wife's, also their marriage, and has helped him quit several harmful addictions.

President I'm so grateful for the choice I made to serve.

Serve with everything you have!

Jumpa Lagi,

With all respect and admiration,

Elder Bester

 

Then he sent along a bit of email for us

 

and you should watch the latest mormon message and also make sure you are all reading your scriptures and praying TOGETHER for a considerable amount of time EVERY DAY If Dad can't make it home on time, then read in the morning.

And have a real FHE Every monday. and if you can't do it on monday, do it on a different day

also nothing is more important than those family unity things. Don't just reset goals. Drop everything and anything to accomplish them.

I'm just as happy helping a family achieving that as I am helping a person be baptized. It is so important do it everyday

transfer news, i am staying in sentosa, Elder Hill is coming here, and Elder Sutherland is going to Penang as a zone leader

 

 

January 5, 2014 email

ok so i'll write about A. So he is now on date for the 25th to be baptized. We clarified and he is legal... cause before we thought he wasn't...

but we met him when going to teach Y and T, two less active ladies in our branch, and we met him and his buddies absolutely drunk out of their minds by their umm... i guess like boarding house? out side there little square to live in... and we had fun with them... but then went inside.

we told A we were gonna teach him tuesday when he was sober... he comes up about an hour later when we are ending, and it turns out that he is Y's husband! and we did not like him. at all. but! We met him that tuesday and everything changed, and since then (we still haven't taught the W.o.W but he knows it cause his wife is a member) but he has already stopped smoking and drinking. Do you know how incredibly hard that is? and he has done it because he knows that the Book of Mormon is true and he loves this church.

anyways I'm going!

Jumpa lagi keluarga saya!

Dec 29 2013 emails

Once again, Elder Bester's plan of bike to the farm was spoiled by rain and some people didn't want to bike in rain... which we do everyday...
and we are trying to go with a group.

And we found a different place that is open a little earlier so we switched locations :P trying to get emailing done with because we are going to go to some nature reserve or something, which I think is the Kuching equivalent of nosehill

interesting things, our washing machine stopped working, so today will also be washing all of our clothes by hand day. umm apa lagi... it was really funny to say things in Malay and have none of you understand it :P

I asked him to explain some of the pictures

hmm lets see the pictures

so there is my rugby ball :P it is a ball used for the sport of rugby.

there is the picture with A and Y, Y is a less active member and A is her husband and our investigator... but that picture shows almost their entire house. for example, our kitchen back home (as in Calgary) is probably 3-4 times the size of their house.
the pink thing behind us in the picture is their bed which they have to put up against the wall to sit... and they put it down when they sleep.

missionaries sleeping in cars...

that fruit is a very sour fruit that I like, but not many people do, and we tricked Sister T into eating it... and it was wonderful :) because she doesn't do well with food :P for example she doesn't eat durian, so that was really funny for the rest of us :P

We went to President S's kampung (he is in the district presidency) for christmas, and a lot of the pictures are from there, he is Bidayuh

There is the shack with the jeep on the left, that is M's house, it really is just a wooden shack.

My christmas bike

J, He is a member in Kota Sentosa.

The Book of Mormon in Malay,

And what power outlets look like here

 

Well things are never really normal in either missionary work or malaysia :P umm christmas just ended, so I feel like finally we are starting again... but christmas holy cow that was crazy.

K so the day before christmas we went to a few members, ate at their houses etc... but Christmas was a nightmare and a half, but it was a really good nightmare :P

SO first of all christmas eve all the crazy chinese and Ibans set of fireworks all night... so we get up, go to skype and eat at brother c's house here we skyped...
Then we went to S's kampung, and I'm pretty sure most of them had never seen white people, cause everyone wanted us to go to their house. So we ate a lot there (I think only 2 houses... but we ate a lot...)

Then we went to Batu7 and ate at M's house... a lot.. and then to Sister K and Brother J... but we heard they were at Sister I's... so we went there, ate, sister K then took us to her house... feasted... then we went to Stutong... ate at Brother M's... then J's... J's family told us that earlier in the day a bunch of drunk guys attempted to murder their entire family... then we went to A's, ate a little... then Brother Y's... and ate some more...

So that evening was interesting after that...

Then the next day we did it again... but not quite as much...

and then again the next day... so I haven't spent money on food in like a week :P 

 Ugg Boxing day! I miss boxing day!

 

We have to go back to Singapore every 90 days at least because we come here on 90 day tourist visas... so we just border hop for a few days and come back, but our next zone conference is on January 9th

So just to put things in perspective, there may have been missionaries here before... but only 3 years ago were they allowed to wear name tags...
and my branch is decently new, they don't have many youth programs, there are no active ym. The YW do have activities in our branch sometimes, but not often, and they never have things like firesides. Malaysia is not organized like it is back home.

 

I asked about his washing machine

 

 

we have someone coming to fix it... like it started smoking...
there is alot we need to get done :P

Also so a bit about my mission.

So there is a stake in Singapore, and it has 2 Zones (North and South and the North zone has JB). There is 3 Zones in West Malaysia (Penang/Butterworth, KL, Ipoh) Sarawak has 3 (Kuching, Sibu, Bintulu/Miri) and Sabah has 1 zone (maybe 2... but I've never been there so idk...) Umm in Malaysia Kuching and KL are the biggest zones, Kuching has the most members, but not all that educated and organized... and KL is smaller but the people are a little more solid there.

The work is so new here :P   

 

oh crazy story!

So we had a guy come to our door and knock and ask to learn... and he is an israel muslim... so we got his number and stuff, but we called president and he said we can't teach him even though he isn't malaysian...
but we are starting to think that he could possibly have been sent from the gov't...

We did meet a new guy to teach this week and we are meeting him tomorrow!

 

I really liked the pictures you sent in the box of oranges :P

gotta go!

Jumpa Lagi