Beautiful City, Beautiful People

Apa khabar kawan,

My Malay is about to get real good. I just want to say Kuala Lumpur is BEAUTIFUL. I hope you like the pictures. It's also full of the most beautiful women I've ever seen, especially because they're all Muslim, Indian, or middle-eastern. Sister Parcell is amazing, but you already knew that because she's been in every area of my mission for the last 7 months, haha. It's cool to see how much we've both grown as missionaries since the last time we saw each other. She's amazing at talking to people on buses and the LRT. She makes everyone feel so comfortable, loved, and beautiful.

Well I rolled off the plane from Kuching with Elder Egbert last Thursday, looking fly. We dusted off the kampung dirt from our shoulders and bought KLIA passes (the express train that takes you from the airport to the center of the city) and impressed everyone at the airport with our Malay. Ironically, I feel like people here are more impressed that I speak Malay than people were in Sarawak haha. The Malay here is really pretty, I had a hard time understanding people at first because all of the verbs were actually conjugated haha and there's a different accent here. I also taught a couple lessons in Indonesian which is a whole other ballgame.

I got to meet my new district Friday morning, because we had a service project where we repainted at a women's shelter. I LOVE them. Remember Elder Ferguson, from the MTC? He's my new district leader, and he's still a diva. There's Elder Robbins, who I served with in Singapore, and then Elders Rasmussen and Beckstrand (who I also served with in Singapore). They're the KL Zone Leaders and also in our branch. Elder Rasmussen and I taught a couple lessons in Indon and he said it was really nice to have another bahasa speaker around.

District conference was this week, so we got to see President and Sister Mains. The Saturday night session was centered on member missionary work. You all hear that? Go thrash the nations. There are a lot of Americans in my branch because our area includes the U.S. Embassy, so yesterday, a couple families had us over for Sunday dinner and we ate Hawaiian haystacks. I almost shed a tear, I've missed homecooked American food. I told them all last week I ate biawak and gutterfish haha.

I had an interesting experience Saturday before conference. Sister Parcell and I made a goal to have more faith. We need our missionaries to have more faith. We told our leaders if no other missionary had faith in our zone, we'll find all the investigators if we needed to (jokingly of course). We're not working with a lot of people right now, so we've been calling endless lists of numbers of potential investigators and former investigators. A lot of sisters who served in our branch before told Sister Parcell "That person has been called a million times already," or "They're always busy, it's not worth your time," but we just shrugged and called them all again. And we stacked our week with appointments! Sister Parcell said a lot of those people she's never been able to meet with.

I called a former who was saved into our phone, and you could tell he has read The Book of Mormon but also has access to Google. Initially, the conversation was civil, but then he trashed me and kept asking questions full of guile but didn't really allow me to respond...I kept trying to tie it back into Jesus Christ. He said, "I bet your parents indoctrinated you."
"No, my mom is actually a Buddhist."
"Oh...well I bet you grew up in some Mormon bubble,"
"Actually, I grew up in Maryland, Oregon and Japan. Hey, so earlier you said you were lacking faith, do you still have your Book of Mormon? Can you read Alma 32 for me?"
"Alma 32? Please, every missionary gives me that chapter, you'll have to do better than that."
"Okay, what about Ether 12 or 2 Nephi 31?"

As this young man trashed my testimony, saying it was recycled and indoctrinated, I closed my eyes and prayed to love him. He asked something like, "Well what do you take to be a belief?"
I told him what I believed. I called him by name and said, "I KNOW, with all the conviction that I have, that Jesus is the Christ. He is my Savior and Redeemer. I know I have been personally saved by Jesus Christ. That's why I'm here calling you and everyone else. I want everyone to know they have a Savior, a big brother, and friend."
"Oh, it looks like we have something in common."
I expressed love for him, told him God loves him, and if there was anything I or another church member said or did that offended him, that I was sorry.
He hung up.

I looked at Sister Parcell. My hands were shaking. "What just happened?" She asked.
I cried for the first time on my mission and said, "Sis, this church is true." I cried and we laughed and then I asked if the Book of Mormon missionaries ever cried after giving a powerful testimony. Then we drew a picture of Samuel the Lamanite crying on the wall. We laughed so hard.

Jumpa lagi <3

Sister Wynn

Time to Conquer West Malaysia (Transfer News)

Apa khabar,

You guys, I'm still reeling from the shock of transfers. I thought for sure I'd stay in Kota Sentosa, with Sister Fonbuena and the Ibans who I love so much. We've seen a lot of miracles. Every night this week, we came home completely wrecked from biking everywhere and seeing everyone we possibly could. I was so tired I couldn't sleep. I worried so much about our investigators and less-actives I couldn't sleep. But it's the best kind of tired. I think I'm finally figuring out how to put others before myself.

We were making plans for Gawai, made plans to explore more of our area, and made individual game plans for each family. I felt like our area is taking off, we've met incredible less actives who are ready to come back to church, and we've seen miracles. Steward's family is a miracle. They're so ready to follow Christ. But this isn't my work, it's God's work, and I trust Him. I trust all the missionaries who come into the areas I'm privileged to serve in after me (some missionaries have a hard time with this one haha). I'm so sad to leave the families I love so much, but excited to see what God has in store for me.

How beautiful in the LRTs, and in the streets of Kuala Lumpur, are the feet of she who brings tidings of glad joy.

I'm so excited to serve the people of KL. I'm excited to learn about all the different cultures there, Indian, Malay, Iban, Bangladesh, Chinese. I'm excited to live in an apartment where I can see the Petronas Towers. I'm excited to be Sister Parcell's companion (I'm pretty sure we're meant to be best friends forever because I've been in her whole mission at this point, haha). I'm excited to bring those people closer to Jesus Christ.

I'm a little nervous, like I said before, Singapore is a different mission from East Malaysia is a different mission from West Malaysia. But if God trusts me to learn 3 different ways of doing missionary work, I'm in. The principles are still the same, and our purpose as missionaries is still the same.

At this point, I thought I'd never serve in West, I thought I'd finish my mission in Sarawak because we're down to 12 Malay sisters. But a long time ago, I prayed to serve in Singapore, West Malaysia, and East Malaysia. "Heavenly Father, I want to see ALL of this beautiful mission. But only if You need me to." That reminds me, Sister Hansen is coming to Kuching (she so badly wanted to serve in East Malaysia) to finish Sister Hales' training. Sister Fonbuena's training is being finished by Sister Anderson. A handful of Elders in my group just got made zone leader, and remember Elder Hunsaker, my district leader from Singapore? He just got made AP. There are so many incredible people in this mission. I have so many incredible friends here, Ibans and orang putih.

Ugh so many mixed feelings, can you tell?

Anyway, a couple weeks ago, I finished The Book of Mormon again. It's still true.
We had New Missionary Training at the Kuching Chapel, just like I had my own in Kuching 8 months ago. It was good to see the Mains and Elder Robinson again, it was good to officially meet Elder Plazier. I learned a LOT from the training, even though I've been to 3 NMTs and it's the same stuff, I always learn different things. I had my interview with President Mains, he's really inspired and said a lot of things I needed to hear. He's also really pleased with the work I've been doing, I hope Heavenly Father is too.

On Saturday night, it seemed like EVERYONE was burning their garbage, so Sister Fonbuena and I biked around Stutong in a haze of garbage smoke, all biasa. All this week, I really could have laid on the ground in any kampung and fallen asleep. I'm exhausted, but the good, selfless kind of exhausted. I thought to myself, "This is normal life for me." We invited Steward's family to a baptism at the KDC, they loved it. And it was fun to see President and Sister Mains again after I was all sweaty and smoky after a day of missionary work.

Well this week was good. I'm glad we saw the people we did, I'm sad I have to say goodbye this week. But it's okay, we as missionaries are irrelevant. Important, but irrelevant. Sarawak I'll see you again. Jumpa lagi, sampai salam.

-Sister Wynn

We Doubt Not Our Mothers Knew It

Selamat Hari Ibu!

It was WONDERFUL being able to skype my family. I've been more homesick than I'd like to admit lately, and chatting with them was a good boost. They're still the same, still goofballs. I had all of the missionaries introduce themselves to my family, and they all said nice things about me (yay for validation?) and it was also kind of weird to have my mission life and personal life mesh. It was a lot of people I love meeting each other haha. While I was waiting for Elder Reynolds to finish skyping his family, I said hi to everyone's families really fast. It was SO cool (and a little awkward). I got to say hi to Sister Fonbuena's beautiful family, Elder Strathearn's, Elder Reynold's, and Elder Bester's. Elder Bester's family is SO Canadian. I love it. I feel like as I meet people's families and they meet mine, we get a better sense of who the other person is. I think having the missionaries meet my family and see how I interact with them helped explain SO much of why I'm so giggly, irreverent at times, open, and most importantly why I'm so happy. All the time.

Skyping with the family!

I loved seeing all the missionaries whom I love light up as they talked to the people they love. I told everyone's family members how good their son or daughter is at missionary work.

I'm excited to come home and be a better sister and daughter.

Shout out to my awesome mom, she's beautiful inside and out. And still hilarious. She's so much of the reason that I'm trying to do good things with my life. I love her.

President Mains emailed us and talked about how important it is to show other people how important their families are. I want these people to be with their families forever. I want them to fix family relationships if they need to, and help them become closer to Christ so they can become closer to each other.

Anyway, as I was biking away from the internet kedai last week, I was thinking about my email home. I wrote something like, "If I learn how to work hard, then this is all worth it." And then I thought, "Why did I write that? Why do I think that way?" If I bring one person closer to Christ, and make their life better, then THAT'S what makes these 18 months worth it. I have the rest of my life to think about myself. I've recommitted myself to giving myself to others.

Last P-Day, we swung by the Sarawak Museum and pretended like we lived in a longhouse. We also went to a mosque, it was cool to see how other people worship God. Elders Scott, Elder Mitchell and Sister LeBaron know a TON about Islam, so they were explaining a lot of it to me. I also ate a biawak. I've been waiting all my mission to eat biawak. It's pretty good. Kinda chewy. Sister Matina, the sweetest, told us the most hilarious story. So biawak are kind of hard to catch, kan? So I asked the family who caught it. "Siapa tankap ini?" Then Sister Matina said, "I did! I caught him in a trap, and when I found him, I was so scared. I found the biggest log I could find and bashed and bashed and bashed his head in! Aku memukul dan memukul dan memukul dia!"

Museum

The mosque

Biawak

I said afterwards to Sister Fonbuena, "Sister Matina bashed in the head of a biawak for us. If that's not love, I don't know what is."

Oh I also threw up during a dinner appointment. The 4 Sentosa missionaries biked out to the Elder's area to visit a member who lives by a paper-making factory in the middle of a rice field. I already wasn't feeling so good, and mixed with the sweaty, weird smells of worker's quarters, I felt horrible. Then this member made us TONS of food, like sketchy fried fish, haha. I tried to be polite and eat, but then I couldn't take it anymore and ran to their bathroom. As I opened the door, Elder Bester said, "Oh be careful! There are cats! Hati-hati, ada kuching!"

Food...

"WHAT?" I looked in the tiny bathroom, it was literally 3" x 3 " cement box, with mildew on the walls because there's always water dripping through it. There was also a hole which was the toilet, and 3 cats that looked up at me.

"Mow?"

"What the heck?" Then I dry heaved, jumped into the bathroom, and puked in front of these poor cats. I tried to put on a happy face for our church members, and they didn't realize I was sick so the made me eat more food. I tried, and as we were leaving, the dad said, "Sister, you haven't finished your Milo." Elder Bester offered to drink it for me when he wasn't looking but I just shrugged, downed it, said goodbye to the family, ran out the door, and threw up in a gutter. Then when our members came around the corner, I put on a happy face. He gave us 3 huge rolls of toilet paper (the industrial kind) because that's what he makes for work haha. As we biked home, I pulled off the road a couple times to throw up more. Elder Bester said, "Just puke as you bike so we don't have to stop."

So that's what I did. And that's the story of how I projectile vomited in front of Elder Bester and Elder Reynolds, and how I barfed a little on Sister Fonbuena. They still love me for some reason.

Anyway, this week, as we were diligent in our obedience and in working hard (this week I tried to do a couple more things than I thought I could each day) and we saw SO many miracles. We ran into a church member from Bintulu who has the coolest family ever! And they want to learn about the gospel. We were prompted to say what our people needed to hear during unplanned lessons that helped them understand the people more. We were at the right place at the right time for all of these things to happen. I'm a firm believer that if we do everything we're supposed to be doing, and show God our plan and pray that it's acceptable to Him (and also show Him our backup plans), He will show us miracles. Not even the small ones, but the big ones too. But first we need a plan to deviate from the plan.

I'm sure I have a million other stories from this week I forgot to write about, but oh well.

Families are forever. I love my family in Kampung Salem. I love my families here. See you when I see you.

-Sister Wynn

More food!

Kitty!

Halfway Begun

Hey nama berita kita wai,

Well, May 1st was my halfway mark, a year ago from May 3rd, I opened my mission call and was SO surprised I wasn't getting sent to Japan or Ohio, May the 4th was May the fourth (we were going to take "May the fourth be with you" lightsaber pictures but Sister Fonbuena and I had a rough day yesterday) and today is Cinco de Mayo so Sister Hales made us pancakes. No one here celebrates any of those but we're pretty good at making our own fun.

Pankcakes

Can you believe I'm halfway done with my mission? Me either, I still feel like a rookie. But I've learned over and over that God qualifies us, and I'm usually doing all things better than I think I am.

Funny story from today: As we were walking into the internet kedai, a bunch of school kids were hanging out outside. A couple of them told me, "Heeey you're so pretty" and then proceeded to say some sketchy things to me. I walked by them and ignored them. They didn't see Elder Bester walking around the corner. As he walked by, he gave them a death glare. Sister Fonbuena said I should have seen their faces. They were so scared haha.

Yesterday was rough for me. After church, we finished studies, yelled "Let's go thrash the nations with the Gospel of Jesus Christ" and rode our bikes into the sunset (like we usually do) and we went through the roundabout by Stutong. There was a lot of traffic and we had just missed seeing a guy on a moto get hit by an SUV. He was already on the sidewalk, missing a shoe, and some people were trying to help out. As I got closer, I saw blood all over this man's hands and a huge gash above his eyebrow. I asked if we could help and one of the guys just said, "Ay, where you girls from?"

I rolled my eyes and said "Dekat sini."

Then the man driving the SUV and the guys with the guy on the moto started yelling at each other and it was one of those moments where the Spirit tugged at my heart to get out of there. So after a few failed attempts at calling Elders Bester and Reynolds, we biked away after the cops got there. After we turned a corner, I asked Sister Fonbuena if we could pray, so we prayed for the man and for everyone to be okay. We also thanked Heavenly Father that we've never had any accidents in that roundabout. It was humbling to think about how many times I don't even think about going through that roundabout, but if cars can't see people on motos, how can they see two tiny girls on tiny bikes in the dark?

We went to our appointment, and all of the extended family was drunk and yelling. I thought how crappy of an environment it was for a 13 year old, 11 year old, and 6 year old. Our little family took us next door to their peaceful, humble little house and we had a nice lesson but I was kind of sad the whole time. Then we went back because Matina wanted us to say hi to her husband Peter. That morning she said she couldn't come to church because Peter had an accident at work. We went in and he was sitting there with a bandaged face and his leg was covered. I felt so horrible. We shared Alma 7:11-12 and reminded him how much God loves him. He gave us His perfect son so He could take away all the pain that comes from how hard life is. Then he asked if we wanted to see his leg, and the inner nurse in me said yes. He uncovered his leg and there's this huge metal apparatus screwed into his tibia. Poor guy. We're going back tonight with the elders and some of the brethren from church so they can give him a Priesthood blessing. It was a hard bike ride home. I'm still pretty sad.

So yes, missionary work is hard. But if it takes these hard experiences to learn how to love people, to grow closer to my family, and to learn how to work hard, then it's all worth it in the end. But there are also really good times. I've never laughed harder than I have here. Last P-Day, we didn't have time to go to the mosque, so a bunch of us rode to the Sarawak museum (it was closed) and climbed trees. I got eaten alive by mosquitoes but it was well worth it. Look at the pictures of Sister Fonbuena and I dancing around our house like dorks.

Dancing like dorks...

Life is so good. Yes my mission is half over, but I'm not counting down the days, I'm counting up.

Here's to more jungle adventures, more laughs, more tears, more fun, more drawing people closer to Jesus Christ. Our message is too important not to share. I'm grateful for every day I've had to tell people they have a Savior, and that we have an Atonement.

-Sister Wynn