Vida Thayle

Iban and Malay name badges

District Meeting

Grandma, Nenek yang saya sayang,

My cheerleader, friend, and biggest support,

I will miss you. And I won't forget my most recent memory of you, visiting you in Idaho Falls the first time we thought you were going to die, and you were so happy, excited, and proud of me for deciding to serve a mission. You asked me all about Singapore and Malaysia and I had no idea what to tell you but you were so excited anyway. You gave me such good advice. How many missions did you serve? 3? Thank you for being an example of righteousness in our family, for raising my dad to be the awesome dad he is, for loving my mom like she is your own daughter, and for raising 9 amazing kids, who are best friends, who I know would die for me. Because they're best friends, some of my best friends are my cousins. We really are a keluarga yang erat (tight family).

I love the way my dad put it in his email to me this week:

"Grandma Wynn died shortly after noon today, Wednesday Nov. 20.  As there is no easy way to say it, I thought I would just put it out there just like that.  Actually that's the way Grandma Wynn would have wanted it.  I used the word "died" because she didn't like to say or hear "passed-on".  I know that sounds a little weird, but that's how she felt.  I have to laugh a little when I think about it.  She said she understood that people felt they were softening the blow a little by using words like "passed" or "passed-away" or "passed-on", but she said that, in fact, they were dead.  She told me specifically not to refer to her as "passed' or anything like that, but to say she had died.  So there you have it."

That is so you. That's me too. I always have to catch myself here, the word for "to die" is "mati," but everyone says "meninggal" (to pass away) here. Dad also told me you died of a ruptured thoracic aneurysm, I know you're proud of the fact that I know what that means because I'm an aspiring nurse. Man, our family is so weird when it comes to death. In Cloe's email, she said, "I like that our family is slightly unorthodox when it comes to handling death." I hope it didn't hurt when you died. I'm excited to see you again when you were young. You were always beautiful, but man, I saw your pictures from high school and you were a babe. I love you, I know you'll always be with me as I try to teach the people here. I know you'll be my guardian angel to guide and protect me, not just in the kampungs of Malaysia but anywhere else I go for the rest of my life.

Anyway, for the rest of you, kirim salam.

It was Thursday here when I got the call from President Mains that my grandma died. Sister LeBaron and I panicked a little when we saw his name on our handfone because he's the mission president. He's a busy, important man. Sister LeBaron answered, said "Oh Sister Wynn? Yes she's right here." and handed me the phone. He said, "Sister Wynn, I have some sad news. Your father--"

my stomach clenched

"--informed me today that your grandmother died."

Okay, worst way to start a sentence ever, haha. But I told him, "It's okay, she can be my companion here always." I thanked him for calling me. It must be hard to be a mission president and mission president's wife. When your missionaries (all 170 of them) hurt, you hurt. I know they pray and worry and think about us all the time. I'm really fortunate that it wasn't sudden news. It was also Sister LeBaron's birthday that day, so I didn't want to ruin it by crying or being sad, haha.

I can't even take credit for the line about grandma being my companion always, I first heard it from an Elder in my district here. On the trip over to Singapore, he told Sister LeBaron and I that a couple weeks before he got his mission call, his little brother died. And he said, "It's okay, he can always be my companion now," as he showed us pictures of him.

I keep learning about these daunting personal challenges other missionaries have, and they're here because all they want to do is serve God. They turn outward and serve others instead of worrying about themselves or their families. Some of the stories of these missionaries would bring you to tears.

Last Monday, Sister LeBaron and I spent our P-Day figuring out our bicycle situation. Sister Lea, a really awesome Filipina lady from the Chinese group picked us up and drove us to Elder Snyder's and Elder Scheutz's apartment so we could pick up Elder Wayment's extra bike for Sister LeBaron to use. They got their white shirts dirty, and we got oil and dirt all over the inside of Lea's van. I already had Sister Guzman's bike in a box for me to use. Lea took us to a bike shop to memperbaiki these bikes, but we left after they tuned them up because one of the guys kept saying I needed a new chain. I said it should be fine because it was only in a box for a month and to put more oil on it. He kept pushing me to buy a new chain, and I didn't really trust him so I told him I'd just buy a chain from the bike shop in Lutong because I'm friends with them. You know you kind of have a grasp on the language when you can be a little sassy in that language.

We then drove over to the other Elders' house to pick up the key for the lock on Elder Wayment's bike, and they gave us butter paus that they made because the elders are obsessed with butter paus and learned how to make them. Sister LeBaron and I told Lea that we were pretty much useless because the elders learned how to cook for themselves and can fix their own bicycles.

The next day, we walked our bikes to the bike shop by our house, and lo and behold, they told us I didn't need a new chain (that saved me about 80 ringit). One of the employees poured oil on the chain I already had and loosened each link individually, taking great care to do so. Yes I will relate this to missionary work: Sometimes we look at people and say, "They're broken. Why should we take the time to care about them?" when sometimes they just need love. So no matter how many Iban tattoos they have, how many teeth they're missing, how hardened their faces are, we need to give everyone love.

Lately, I've been trying to look at people, not as they are, but as they can become. I imagine everyone wearing white, entering the waters of baptism, and wearing white, being sealed to their families forever. It's really helped me grow in love for all of the people, even the men that cat call us as we bike by.

On Sister LeBaron's birthday, I wrote her a nice little letter and gave her some candy, since I'm a lot better at expressing love through writing instead of words, like normal people. I wrote, "In the words of Taylor Swift: I don't know about you, but I'm feeling 22. Everything will be alright if you keep next to you (because we're companions and it's against the rules to be separated). Everything will be alright if, we just keep proselyting like we're 22."

And it occurred to me a couple weeks ago that I can understand what people are saying when they speak Malay (Iban, belum fasih still). I gave a talk yesterday in church, and a lot of people told me I was pandai bahasa Melayu (good at the language). And when people say things like that here, they mean it. It's not like in America where if you train wreck, people still tell you you did a good job, haha.

Miracle of the week: We met a really sweet lady named Melissa, who was at our investigator's house (Julia and Dawi) because Julia told her we were coming to teach them. Melissa listened to our lesson, and after we gave her a Book of Mormon, she said, "So when can I get baptized? Can I get baptized on the same day as my friends?" Again, my jaw dropped. Sister LeBaron and I scrambled to redo our schedule so we could teach Melissa a lot this week and next week. Yesterday, we went over to her house, and Julia explained everything as if she were already a member of the church. She would explain things like, "Well you can know this book is true if you pray about it, because the Holy Ghost will let you know through how you feel." Sister LeBaron and I almost said, "Yeah, Julia, you just teach the whole lesson." Julia is basically a missionary, and she isn't even baptized yet.

Something else I've been thinking about this week is how the Atonement of Jesus Christ fixes everything that's unfair about life. Sister LeBaron and I come from good families, but we've had trials that have shaped us. People have been unkind to us, in high school and in college. I was thinking, grandparents are supposed to die. Dads and brothers aren't. Young missionaries aren't supposed to die on their missions. But it's okay because Christ already took care of everything that will ever hurt us. I read Romans 5 this morning.

Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope at the glory of God.

And not only so, we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.
And patience experience, and experience, hope.

Last week, I also wanted to share Hebrews 6:19 about hope.

Hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast.

And John 16:22. Your joy, NO MAN taketh from you.

Even when people steal your bike, even when your grandma, your best friend dies.

I love being a missionary, I love you all.

Sampai salam,
Sister Wynn

Let Us Waste and Wear Out Our Lives

Gembira email kamu semua,

Well I guess the most exciting news first, my bike got stolen.

But let me back up to last week, where I ended my email by saying my bike had a flat. After emailing last week, Sister LeBaron and I went to the bike shop to replace my tube. Easy, right? Then this past Thursday, while I was on exchanges with Sister Blauer (she and Sister Thompson flew in from Kuching), I got another flat tire. No big deal, we had Sister Racheal and her Husband Edwin give us a ride home, and the next day, Sister LeBaron and I went to the bike shop again and they pulled a nail out of my tire. I replaced the tube again. No big deal. New tubes are like 10 ringit, even though the bike shop always tries to make me buy the 20 RM tubes. I always tell them a nail is a nail, no matter how good the tube is.

On Saturday, Sister LeBaron and I bought a cabbage so we could make a salad for the Relief Society activity. Sister Gloria, the RS president asked us to teach the Sisters more about simple exercises to do and maybe a healthy recipe. In the mini-roundabout, the bag with our cabbage split and fell off of Sister LeBaron's handlebars, and it rolled into the middle of the roundabout. Miraculously, all of the cars zooming by dodged it, and the rest slowed down. I hopped off my bike and was waiting for the cars to stop so I could grab our cabbage, and as I went to get it, this car rammed into it and it exploded. The second our cabbage got destroyed, it started pouring rain. Imagine me standing in the middle of a roundabout, cars stopped, and me yelling, with my arms outstretched, "Apa hal?! I was going to eat that! You could have stopped! My cabbages!" (Kudos if you get the reference). I laughed it off, but Sister LeBaron was pretty bummed about our cabbage. We went to the grocery store right by the church and got a new cabbage, and went on our merry little way, in the pouring rain.

The Relief Society activity was so much fun (pictures included) and all of the Sisters thought our stretches were so fun/funny, but they loved them. I asked them, "Do your shoulders ever hurt? Or your back?" and all of them said, "Always!" So they loved learning new stretches/strengthening exercises that will help them as busy moms. It was good because Sister LeBaron and I didn't know we were going to be teaching exercises for 40 minutes, we just kind of wing-ed it (you do that a lot as a missionary, it's great). The next day at church, the Elders told us all of the Sisters were talking about how much fun it was, which made me feel good.

After the Relief Society Activity (they brought some delicious Iban noodles, and lots of cakes), we went to our appointment, placing our bikes next to a house in a kampung, like we always do, out of sight of the main road. Usually, we lock our bikes to a sokang (support/post) but we were using a different bike lock because we (ahem, Sister LeBaron) lost our keys when we were in Singapore. The lock wasn't big enough to put around the post, so Sister LeBaron, since it was her kunci day (kunci is the word for key) and it was my handfone day (handfone is the word for...phone. It's really weird), she locked the bikes together. I had the thought, "We should really try to lock our bikes to the post like we usually do" but I shrugged it off because we've never had a problem before, even when we couldn't lock our bikes to something stationary. Plus they were out of sight so I thought it would be fine. P.S. When I come home and call my phone a handphone and say SMS instead of text, don't think I'm too weird.

We had an amazing lesson with Julia and Dawi, the prettiest girls from Indonesia ever. They've walked to church with their kids (Dawi as a 3 year old and Julia has an 18-month old) two weeks in a row now. Julia is only 20 and Dawi is 23, which makes me wonder what I've done with my life because they're both amazing moms. We're still trying to get Dawi's husband to want to learn from us but he'd rather drink for now. Julia's husband works offshore. They want to both get baptized before Julia goes back to Indonesia. We've asked the APs and office couple in Singapore to find out if there's a church in Marakai, Indonesia, so if any of you know, let me know.

I was really excited to teach them that we have God's power on the earth right now, called the priesthood, and there are men on the earth, in Miri, who have this power. The power to heal, to comfort, and to bless. How great is that? I showed them a picture of my family and told them how grateful I was that my dad and brother had the priesthood, and then I flipped to a picture of my MTC district and told them about when I was sick in the MTC and I was grateful that Elder Jackson gave me a blessing of comfort.

Anyway, Satan must really think we're doing good work in Miri, because when we went to get our bikes, they were gone. Sister LeBaron said, "Sister Wynn, I'm so sorry I was careless." She looked so heartbroken. I tried so hard to be mad at her, and at the thieves, but I couldn't. I think it's funny when we try to be mad haha. I said, "I'm sorry too Sister LeBaron. I had the thought we should lock our bikes to the post and didn't say anything." We asked everyone in the neighborhood if they saw who took our bikes, and searched and searched and did everything we could. At first, I asked these kids about my age, and then I thought, "I should try to contact them." So I brought up that I was from America, and a volunteer from my church. They weren't interested, maybe because I was talking about how the gospel of Jesus Christ could make them happy and I looked really sad haha. Sister LeBaron got a return appointment with someone named Wynn. I'll get to that later.

We saw a kid ride by on a bike, and it was dark at this point and I was at a loss of what to do, so I took off running after him. Sister LeBaron and I saw him turn into a kampung, so I said, "Act cool." and we casually walked into the kampung. It wasn't our bike. We asked around some more, called Rachael and Edwin to give us a ride home again (they're so great) and we made the sad walk to the red kedai to get picked up. We bought ice milo pops for 20 shillings to eat away our sorrows. The Elders were so sweet. Elder Wayment said we could borrow his spare bike and Sister Guzman called this morning and said we can use her bike since she's in KL.

That night, we decided we weren't even mad at the thieves, just sad that they would resort to stealing. There's something sinister about how whoever stole our bikes must have been watching us because we put our bikes out of sight. It'll be awkward meeting the thieves in heaven and saying to them, "Um...you stole my bike. I needed it to do missionary work. But it's okay, I tried to forgive you as quickly as I could."

That morning, we read together the Sermon on the Mount, where Christ talks about loving our fellow man. "And if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy bicycle, let him also have thy brand new tubes also. And whosoever shall compel thee to bike a mile, go with him in twain."

When I texted our zone leaders, and asisters, and President and Sister Mains (wow we are such a bother) to tell them our bikes were stolen, I said, "It's okay. We still have our helmets. And testimonies!" Sister LeBaron said as we were walking, "They can have our helmets too." 

Sunday, Rachael picked us up for church, and dropped us home that night after coming with us to a lesson. We walked to all of our appointments after church, and you know what? Miri looks different on foot. Sometimes we zip by so fast on our bikes we forget to slow down and take it all in. Ngian and Tungalim gave us t-shirts that say, "I heart Miri" and shrimp crackers, and they also wrote in our notebooks letters about how much they love having us in their homes. We went to find Wynn, and couldn't, but found a lady that said she was a member of the church and invited us in to teach her friends.

During this lesson, I felt for the first time like I wanted to give up and go home. No one was really interested, and one of our less active members we've been working with for a long time stumbled out of one of the rooms in this random house we were in, drunk out of her mind. We've been trying to get her to stop smoking and drinking for a while and she was so willing to throw her cigarettes and alcohol and buah pinang into the Miri River before. My heart broke.

Sister LeBaron and I wrapped up the lesson quickly, because I'm pretty sure we were both about to cry. I gave our drunk friend a pack of Hack's candy with menthol. Sister LeBaron bought a bunch to give to all the people we're working with who want to stop smoking. I said her name and said, "We want to give this to you to help you stop smoking like you said you would. You need to stop smoking and drinking. I care about you so much." We left. It was pouring rain again, and we felt so low. But we ran into Wynn, and his cousin Anu and his wife Solia invited us into their house because of the rain. "Masuklah!" They had 3 cute little kids and they had a sweet spirit about them.

We explained what we were there for, and Anu said, "I know! I love missionaries!" and showed us his Buku Kenangan (Book of Rememberance) with his baptism pictures in it! We asked why we've never seen them at church, and Anu said they always had work on Sundays. We taught the importance of reading scriptures, and told them we would get them The Book of Mormon in Malay (they only had copies in Indonesian). And then we asked them to ask their bosses to get time off to go to church. And Anu said, "Saya berjanji." I promise.

That was huge. You know why? Because when we ask people to do things here, they say, "Tengoklah," (we'll see) or "Tidak berjanji," (I'm not gonna promise). But no, Anu, this amazing priesthood holder told us, when we were going to give up on missionary work for that day, "I promise you I'll be at church next week." We really needed that. He said he was so grateful for us, and that we go door to door in the hot sun and that the missionaries found and taught him. Sunday turned into a good day, my broken heart was mended.

Last P-Day, the district went to Parksin's and stopped by the handicraft souvenir shops. I caved and bought myself a sumpit (an Iban blow dart gun, you know you're jealous) with turtles etched into it. I also bought a beautiful vase with an Iban longhouse etched on the front of it. I love it. I'll send pictures next week.

I also ate durian for the first time. It's true, it's pretty nasty. If gasoline and rotting onions were a fruit, it would be durian. After district meeting, we had all the greenies try it. Pictures to come next week. 

Sister LeBaron's any my motto this week is from D&C 123: Let us waste and wear out our lives and cheerfully do all things that lie in our power.

With or without bikes, the work goes forward.

This week was hard, but I'm happy, as always. I can always rely on my Heavenly Father, always pray to Him.

She Was Raised With Elders

Zone Conference: East Malaysia Group

Apa khabar?

No offense to the rest of you, but I'm serving in the coolest mission in the world. I know everyone says that about their mission, I guess I'm one of them haha. I don't know what I did to deserve all of the love I've seen from other people, but I'll take it.

Here's a moment I never want to forget: On Tuesday, after District Meeting, Elders Snyder, Shuetz, Mitchell, and Fletcher and Sister LeBaron and I were biking over to Kevin's house since he's our branch mission leader. We biked by these kids hunting in a gutter (all of the houses have a gutter in front for all of the sewage but surprisingly it doesn't smell that bad), and they all ran out of the gutter, covered in mud and sewage. They were yelling and chasing us, and one of them was holding a bayowak over his head, running and screaming. What's a bayowak you ask? Well it's the Malay word for "monitor lizard." People like hunting and eating them here. I have yet to try one but one of these P-Days the Elders want to go hunt in a storm drain and cook one up. I'm in.

Anyway, I pointed at the kid with the giant lizard over his head and yelled "Hebatlah!" I love the kids here. I love that they were laughing and we were laughing as they ran down the street with us.

On Wednesday, the district and I hopped on an airplane to Kuching. Yes, I have the route memorized to the Miri airport by now. We drive right through our area to get to it, and Sister LeBaron and I think "Man, we bike far everyday..." as we see how many miles it takes to get to it by car. And yes, I know where everything is in Kuching's airport now too. We saw a group of white kids and I thought, "Bingo, more missionaries." I got to see my Elders from the MTC again, at least the ones serving in East Malaysia, and we caught up some more even though I just saw them at new missionary training. I love seeing how much we grow every time we meet. Our bahasa Melayu gets better, we love the people more, and we're better teachers. Better missionaries.

We got on another plane to Singapore, the lion city, and once again I was in awe at how huge Singapore is. On the MRT (metro), Sister LeBaron gave 2 Book of Mormon copies away in the time it took me to give away exactly 0, but I tried really hard and I was surprised at how much easier it was to talk to people about the families, and Jesus Christ, than it was for me 2 months ago. And of course, people still rejected me but other people were really interested. And no, I'm not awkward or a weirdo about bringing up religion, it's actually really easy to tie in how the gospel can bless someone with pretty much anything they say.

 We dropped our stuff off at the church, and a bunch of us headed to Chinatown. Sister LeBaron and I bought little keychains (36 keychains for 10 Sing. How could we not?) for our investigators and families, I picked some ties out for the Elders because they were overwhelmed with all the choices, and Sister LeBaron and I ditched the group to buy chocolate chips, mostly because she heard some sad news about one of her former investigators from Singapore and wanted to be alone. We took pictures all along the way. We met up with the Elders at Baja Fresh, and I almost cried when I ate my carnita burrito. It was so good, I forgot how much I missed Baja Fresh haha. Then, Sister LeBaron said, "Where's Elder Wayment?" Elder Wayment was talking all week about how excited he was to go to Baja Fresh. All week. Someone told us they heard his greenie, Elder Christensen got held up at immigration. It was really funny but also really sad because poor Elder Wayment just wanted his Baja Fresh. We found them later and I asked Elder Christensen "What happened?" And he said with a completely straight face, "The customs people thought the shoehorns in my suitcase were pocketknives." But it's okay because they ended up going to Chili's, and Elder Wayment was still pretty happy.

We got ice cream sandwiches (literal ice cream sandwiches) and took pictures by a big MockingJay statue and headed back to the chapel to start zone conference. It was tempting to catch up with all of the Elders from my MTC group and their trainers, but I also wanted to talk to other people on the MRT. If someone made eye contact with me, I would stop my conversation with whichever Elder I was talking to and go talk to that other person. I showed people my family photo album, and a lot of Singaporeans said my family was beautiful. Mom and Cloe were gorgeous, and Mikel and dad were handsome. The people on the MRT look so tired, and initially it's scary to talk to them because they like keeping to themselves, but they light up so much when you talk to them and ask them how their day is going. I think missionaries forget we have a special spirit about us.

At the chapel, President and Sister Mains, along with Elder Harper and Elder Crosland, addressed us. Elder Harper spoke about how working hard is not the end goal. We shouldn't look back at the end of our missions and say, "Well, at least I worked hard." We really should focus on helping other people, and being effective and doing as much good as possible. He also recited the poem, "The Strength of Brothers." What strength of man cannot fulfill, the strength of brothers can fulfill. Something like that.

Elder Crosland talked about the internalizing pattern from Preach My Gospel, where we do what we want to improve on each day, and evaluate and change what we need to to become better teachers. He also said missionary work isn't trial and error anymore, we have all the tools we need to become successful missionaries. I love Preach My Gospel because it lets us be ourselves, just in missionary form. And there's a lot it doesn't say. As I've been on my mission, I've learned that there's no exact formula to teach people. Every area is different, every family is different. Elder Crosland said to not worry about ourselves--as we focus on others, Heavenly Father will take care of us.

Afterwards, we wrote notes to the youth for the East Malaysia youth conference coming up in a couple weeks, about standing in holy places. Elder Ferguson made fun of me the whole time, but he said he missed me. Elder Parker too, but he said he didn't miss me. Elder Liddle asked Sister LeBaron how we find new people to teach, because he said we were good missionaries. It meant a lot to me, but I told him he's doing great himself and he's doing everything right. One of the trainers was asking me something I don't remember, probably something I thought was funny that none of the other sisters thought was, and Elder Ferguson said, "Of course. She was raised with Elders." I loved it because he made it sound like I was raised with wolves or something in the MTC. Oh, I remember what it was, I was telling someone I wished Sisters were more understanding that Elders are just 18, 19, 20 year old boys, and yes, they are men of God, but sometimes you just have to let them be goofballs and be patient with them. I don't really have that problem because I pretty much think everything is funny.

Before we left the chapel, I was talking to Elder Capener about Elder Strathearn since Elder Strathearn is serving in Singapore. As we were talking about how we wish we could see him, he appeared and said, "Woah I didn't know zone conference for East was going on right now." Elder Capener gave him a huge hug and I freaked out a little because I was so happy to see him. He seriously looked like a saint. And his Australian accent is back because he talks to so many Australians now. I gave him the picture of our MTC district the day we got caught in the rain because I know he loves that picture. I quickly wrote on the back of it, "You're one of the most Christlike people I know. Jangan putus asa!"

That night, Sister LeBaron and I got lost trying to find Sister Stokes' and Sister Schriever's apartment due to some bad directions and addresses, but I was happy to make new friends even though I was exhausted. I only slept 4 hours that night because Singapore is noisy and bright, and I missed quiet little Miri, but I crept out of the room and prayed for a while. I asked God, "I'm really tired, and can't sleep. Can I wake up at 7:30 tomorrow instead of 7? I know the other sisters will understand." and I had this thought, "Sister Wynn, you know we wake up at 7 in this mission." I said okay, and got up at 7 like Heavenly Father asked me to. I've seen miracles this week as I've tried to be more obedient. I obey because I love, remember?

Zone conference was awesome. The way we do it in our mission is Singapore, West Malaysia, and East Malaysia have their separate zone conferences with multiple zones. We also had KK's zone join us because as they were trying to go to the West Malaysia zone conference, their plane turned around halfway though their flight back to KK. Yes, I know KK is in East Malaysia, but they were supposed to be grouped with the missionaries in West Malaysia. I heard really good talks about why it's important to open our mouths. Elder Lundquist said that we need to preach along the way, and even something as simple as smiling at people testifies of our message. When we smile we're also opening our mouths. We had really good training on the importance of goal setting, and how our goals help us stretch ourselves to talk to and teach as many people as possible. When we don't meet our goals, we make specific changes to meet them the next week. We heard the testimonies of all of the departing missionaries. Elder Pratt, one of the Elders serving in KK, said Sarawak is "where it's at" and that he misses it. I learned from pretty much everyone that the mission goes by fast. Don't waste a second of it.

We took our group picture, and I got to see Elder Lambert (also serving in Singapore) because he happened to be by the chapel and we needed someone to take the picture. I was so excited to see him. One of the Sisters in Singapore was telling me earlier how he and Elder Strathearn were doing really good work. I caught up with more of the Elders from my MTC group, made friends with more Elders and Sisters, and then Sister LeBaron said, "Sister Wynn, I found a friend," and took me to see Elder Fabiano! It was good to see him, meet his new trainee, and hear about the work in Singapore. Apparently, the Chinese Elders in Singapore always have lots of people to teach and the work is doing really well. Elder Fabiano said he really misses Miri though. He's a great missionary. He might be one of my favorite Elders. I have a lot of favorites, haha. We went to dinner at Subway with him and a couple other Chinese Elders. No, they aren't all literally Chinese, it's mission slang. We have Malay Elders, Malay Sisters, and English missionaries too haha. I met a lot of really great people on this trip who are good examples to me of how to be missionaries that do a lot of good. 

I understand the irony of me being in one of the food capitols of the world and eating at Subway and Baja Fresh.

After dinner, we had a couple converts to the church, Brother Smart, from South Africa, and Brother Hyro, the Costa Rican ambassador for Singapore speak to us. Brother Hyro was introduced to the church while President Hinckley was working with him and the president of Costa Rica to build another temple there. We had a little more training within our zones, and then zone conference was over. I said goodbye to my friends, felt edified, and happy. The next morning, Sister LeBaron and I met up with our little Miri district (after going to the wrong terminal) at the airport. We had our layover in Kuala Lumpur, which has a really cool airport, and then landed in Miri. I kept saying, "I can't wait to go home." Miri is home to me. I'm grateful I get to fly so much in this mission, I love planes and airports.

We got home around 4 pm, and in my old life, I would've taken a nice little nap. But missionary work doesn't stop. We unpacked and ran out the door to get to our appointments that night. Sister LeBaron's bike broke (the wheel axel cracked) so the best district leader ever, Elder Wayment, and Elder Mitchell, Elder Fletcher, and Elder Christensen replaced her wheel, taking time out of their day to help us. Elder Fletcher lent her his bike and we got to our appointment. I can't get enough of how wonderful people are.

Miracle of the week: A couple of the girls we've been teaching (one is 18, one is 15) said their mom didn't want us teaching them anymore, so we stopped coming. Then, when we were looking for their next door neighbors, who are members of the church, the older daughter and mom invited us into their home, and let them teach them a lesson. Then the mom shared some spiritual experiences she's had, and then said she believed the Book of Mormon was the word of God. We asked if we could continue teaching her and she said yes. It was one of those moments where I'm sure I looked stupid because my jaw dropped. God is preparing the hearts of people everywhere.

Missionary work is still hard. Some days I have to pray really hard to feel happy enough to teach, and I always do. My bike has a flat tire. But I'm happy, and it's all worth it.

Love you like always.

-Sister Wynn

More Gratitude Give Me / Jalan-jalan to Singapore

Namah berita?

Beritah baik? Maneh. That's pretty much all the Iban I know, but that's okay. 

"Render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice...I say unto you if ye shall serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another-- I say if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants."

Obviously, since it's November, I've been thinking about all the things I'm grateful for. And I cut out a turkey out of paper and the Sisters and I are adding feathers with what we're grateful for every day.

Has it already been over 3 months since I walked through the doors at the MTC? It all feels like a dream but it also feels like yesterday. I get to pakai airplane this week and go to zone conference! It's about that time where we missionaries renewed our visas. The missionaries in West Malaysia and Singapore just had their zone conference. I saw a picture and all of the Elders from my MTC group look so happy. Our zone conference is all the missionaries in East Malaysia. And Mikel, I'm flying on a Boeing 737 (I'll try to get pictures) and I have a layover in Kuching on the way to Singapore but a layover in KL (Kuala Lumpur) on the way back. I'm excited to see Singapore again, it's a whole different animal from East Malaysia.

President and Sister Mains visited Miri this weekend and inspected our home, and I got to have my first interview with President since the day I landed in Singapore. He is so humble and does so much to make this mission move forward. He said Heavenly Father is mindful of me and my concerns, mission-wise and personal. I really needed to hear that. I cried pretty much the whole interview, he and his wife have such a special spirit about them. When I bore my testimony to him (crying like a baby, which is weird because I haven't cried so hard my entire mission) I said I was grateful for the privilege God gives me to see His children change, even though I'm not a perfect missionary or perfect teacher. Or a perfect person. I've seen miracles and have seen people have so much joy as they learn about their Savior Jesus Christ. The Mains were happy because apparently, that day was the cleanest they've ever seen "The Miri Mansion," as it's called in the mission. I'm really grateful for the beautiful home we get to live in, but I also wouldn't mind living in a little wooden house on the river like the Ibans do.

Last week, Nayan, one of our investigators, showed us her brand new dress she bought for church. She looked so pretty on Sunday. One of her older sons, Subyia, was able to come to church too because he had work off! And her other two older kids, Stanley and Shetu, said they can come next week because they asked their bosses if they could have work off to go to church. I had one of my favorite lessons with them this week; Stanley and Subyia are really struggling with stopping smoking, so Sister LeBaron and I were planning their lesson and were thinking, 'What do they need? They need to know they are sons and daughters of God, who loves them a lot and because He loves them, they can stop smoking!" So we taught them just that. They are royalty in God's eyes, kings and queens. I told them "Dengan Yesus Kristus, kamu tidak dapat gaggal." (With Jesus Christ, you CANNOT fail." I redid Stanley's stop smoking plan, and I saw that there were tears in his eyes. So many people don't know their worth. I never get tired of telling people how important they are.

Also, Irak and Wynndy, Brother Chaong's son-in-law and daughter, said they would go to church if they could get work off. The whole time we've been teaching them, they would say, "No we're still going to the Roman Catholic church," or "Tidak janji," (not promising), to "Tangoklah" (we'll see) to "We'll go if we can get work off." And they meant it. Last night we taught them about the Word of Wisdom, and I shared that I was grateful for my health because Sister LeBaron and I bike jauh (far) every day, and we wouldn't be able to do God's work if we weren't healthy. Plus it's really fun asking good, upstanding people and little kids not to do drugs. When they say, "Okay, I won't do drugs," Sister LeBaron and I say "Whew! We were so worried about you!" But then again, for some people we teach, it's a real struggle.

I have way too many things to be grateful for, if there is such a thing. I've lived a happy, privileged life. I have had so many opportunities to grow, to learn, and to have fun. I am grateful every day that I get to wake up in beautiful Malaysia and think about how I can help people grow closer to God. I get to see people change into better people.

Brother Simon and Brother Horman, I know I drove you crazy sometimes because of my inability to berfocus (Sister LeBaron is pretty sure I have ADD) but you gave me everything I need to become a successful missionary. Everything. Thank you for the advice, for being patient with me and my district, and for giving us tough love when we needed it. I can tell you were exceptional missionaries, and your Malay is awesome (even though Brother Simon taught us ghetto Malay, we're a little more classy over here in Miri. Not as classy as KK though). I hope I can become like the missionaries you were by the time I'm done with my mission. I have no problem saying you were some of the best teachers at the MTC. Brother Pulver, Brother Blissett, and Sister Harrison, you too. Know that all of you have made my mission better.

I'm also grateful for all of the home teachers, Sunday school teachers, and young women teachers I've had while I was growing up. At times, it was stressful uncluttering our house for it to be presentable enough for the home teachers to come over, and sometimes I was annoyed with all the activities I was invited to in Young Women's. But all of you visited and supported me and my family because you love us. I'm forever grateful for Brother and Sister Kirby, Brother and Sister Plant, Sister Papritz, Brother and Sister Kelly, Brother Wadsworth (the best seminary teacher ever. Seriously seminary was what made high school bearable), Sister Hale, Sister Hewson, Sister Keck, Sister Rudolph, and everyone else. I know I'm forgetting so many people. But know that if you ever taught me, I'm grateful for you.

Mom and dad, where to even begin? I can't say enough to express how much you mean to me. I thank God every day that I was lucky enough to get you have you as my parents. I'm grateful you let me make my own decisions, my own mistakes, and I'm glad you emphasize the importance of having experiences (like getting on a plane to Malaysia). You taught me how to be a good person, and then had enough faith that what you taught me and my siblings was enough. I'm grateful that when I washed back up on your doorstep last December, that you embraced me and comforted me, and when I said I wanted to serve a mission, you said, "We can make that happen."

Mikel and Cloe, my eternal best friends. You're a couple of the very few people I feel like understand me. Thank you for the letters and emails. I love telling people all about you, and they say you are very handsome and pretty respectively.

I was thinking about how I do things for the people I love, like my family. Dad, when you ask me to rake the leaves in the yard, I do it (most of the time). Or clean the gutters, or mow the lawn. Or make sure the kitchen's clean at the end of the day for mom. I would take a bullet for Mikel and Cloe. But mostly I just buy slushies for you in the summer. And you do the same for me. Why? Because I love you all.

Sister LeBaron taught me this week that that's the most important reason why we should follow the commandments of God. Because we love Him. He gives us so much, and in return, all He asks is to follow His commandments which are supposed to protect us in the first place. He even gave us an example to follow, Jesus Christ, because we still needed help learning how to follow commandments, haha.

I love the Miri district of missionaries. I love singing with everyone at district meetings because everyone knows the harmonies to all the hymns, so I feel like I'm on an episode of Sunny, when they randomly sing a capella. When Sister Noorda was bearing her testimony at the end of her mission, and reflecting on all of it, I wrote in my planner in all caps, "I WILL MISS THIS WHEN IT'S OVER." I know I still have more time than not on my mission, but I know it will go by too fast and then before I know it I'll be at PDX again. It gave me a renewed enthusiasm to work hard everyday, and to throw myself into missionary work.

More about the culture here, in the kampungs, when there are a lot of houses connected together, the kids are taken care of by all the moms. I still have no idea whose kids are whose with some of the families we're teaching. It's pretty smart though. And the kids just wander in from a different dwelling to the ones we teach. I usually have to ask, "Is this one yours? No? Whose kid is this? Oh okay."

I still love sitting on the floor in a circle to teach. It's rude to walk over someone's legs, and rude to walk through the circle of people, so you have to go around the edge behind everyone, or if you absolutely HAVE to walk in the middle of everyone, you kind of stoop over and put your hand in front of you. It's fun, I love doing that. Also, the addresses and genealogy is a MESS. No one has real addresses, so keeping our area book up to date is fun. Also, there are no maps of Miri. We've asked gas stations and book stores and the people there just kind of give us a weird look. And people's last names are their dad's first names, so I would be Ellen anak (child of) Todd. And my dad would be Todd anak Ross. But if my dad was a deadbeat, I would be Ellen anak Hideko. So family history work is really hard to do here. 

Everyone wears their religion on their sleeves, their hearts, and on their doors. It makes it easy to know who we can legally teach. If they have Chinese characters, they're Buddhist, or if they have a picture of Jesus or Mary on their door, we're good to go. If they have lights on their gutters, no go. We don't want to get arrested. Since Malaysia is a Muslim country, there are SO many places to buy cute, modest clothes. I want to buy my whole wardrobe here.

Missions are fun. They're hard. I love it here, I might never want to leave.

Forever grateful for everything. Jumpa lagi,

Sister Wynn