Sister Wynn's E-mail from December 28

Inu rangga guys?

Been working with a Penan family. None of them speak a lick of Malay except for one guy and a little girl, but boleh tahan. Or however you say that in Penan. The less active guy in that family wants to berubah hati lagi and bring his whole family to church. Repentance is real you guys.

Anyway, Christmas in Sawarak was unreal. Also kind of ridiculous, but all of us missionaries survived without getting kidney stones or appendicitis. On Christmas Day, we went rumah ke rumah and ate so much food. So much heavy, greasy, delicious food. And so much soda. The days surrounding Christmas were so hot too. We only had one ridiculous half hour bike ride from Krokop to Senadin, but it was welcomed because I think we all wanted to mati. Christmas night, we biked back to the church for Cindra's baptism. Super cool because Sister LeBaron and I started teaching her a year ago, and then the Chinese elders picked her back up a few months ago. She looked beautiful and bore a sweet, short testimony about how happy she was that she got baptized.

Christmas visits

It was so nice to Skype my family the day after. I don't know where I'd be without them, they just told me to keep my head in the game and leave it in the field. They keep me grounded. My dad also mentioned that I have this perfect image of them in my mind, and in reality it's going to be pretty boring when I'm home haha. It's true that we idealize our families on our missions, but to me, my family is perfect. And I've missed them so much since meeting so many people who don't have a family to lean on. But essentially they want me to forget about them for just one more month. My mom told me not to bring home lice or tapeworms. They told me to get back to work after my hour on Skype was up. Love them.

Skype with the family

So I thought Christmas festivities were over and I was planning on using Friday to recover and eat only pure foods like water and fruit, because I felt so horrible and greasy after all the noodles and rice and kari ayam and sugar. But man, was I wrong. We got roped into visiting even more church members from branch 2. I was happy to see them and catch up with them, but I was force fed so much more food. Then we jumpa-ed a couple more houses. I really thought I was going to die. Then the next day, I thought we could finally rest, but we had one more house to visit. Then Sister Pitts and I visited some less actives up north and shared a sweet little Christmas lesson from Matthew 2 about the wise men.

I love how the wise men were like stake presidents from the middle east, sent to witness Christ's birth and then return to tell their congregations that He lives. And I love how they immediately fell on their knees to worship Him, and gave Him the most precious things they had, frankincense, gold, and myrrh. We asked everyone we visited how we can follow Christ today, because obviously we don't have a star to guide us today. We also asked what gifts we can give to Him this new year. As for me, I'm going to give my whole soul to sharing the news that He lives and loves these people.

On Saturday, we went back to the church for another baptism, well, for a lot. Sister Fonbuena and Sister Pullicar continued teaching the kids of some less active families Sister LeBaron and I used to teach, and they were able to be baptized by their dads. So much white. Best Christmas gift ever. How lucky am I to be back in Miri? How lucky am I that God allowed me to meet the people I did?

Baptism

We met with some investigators on Christmas eve in case they wanted to balik kampung, and one of our investigator dads got hit by a car while he was on his moto that morning! We ran into his friend who told us, but we found out he was okay and just a little scratched up. The silver lining was we were able to meet with his wife, who told us she had been praying and knows The Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith really was a prophet of God. And also everything that we had been teaching them in our very broken, belum lancar Malay was true. Everyone committed to praying harder for safety, and it's been sweet that as we've been jalan-jalaning around Miri, everyone is super concerned for our safety. They always tell us hati-hati jalan.

After church, I had the honor of helping Dividson, Patrick, and Darrell do their mission papers. They filled out their forms in paper, and I rewrote it in pen and explained some stuff to them since the forms are all in English. My heart swelled with joy seeing how excited and nervous they were. A couple moments I never want to forget: Me snatching Dividson's papers from him because he was messing them up as he erased things. "You are such a boy."

And when I asked Patrick "Apakah cita-cita kamu?" What are your occupational goals/life ambitions?"
All of them said in a sing-songy voice, "Menjadi orang kayaaa. Become riiiich." It was so funny.

Also, they kept puji-ing my handwriting. "Cantik tulisan tangan kamu." I don't know what I'm going to do without my entourage of Iban homeboys validating me all the time.

As hot as Christmas week was, the last couple days, it's been so rainy. And so cold. Last night as Sister Pitts and I proselyted, we shivered. On the way home, it was pitch black and started raining harder and harder, so I started yelling the words to "Come come Ye Saints" as the rain stung my eyes and lips and teeth. Chee-hoo.

I love how the members here think missionaries are heroes. We're not, but they love us like that anyway. Harap-harap I always live up to that expectation.

2014 was a good, good year. I'm so blessed in so many ways.

xo Sister Wynn

Miri Christmas

Selamat Christmas everyone,

It's a Christmas Miricle! I'm hilarious. Never in mission history has a zone been unaffected by a transfer until now. In the words of Elder Stewart, "We've avoided the all-knowing gaze of President Mains."

"Everyone, good job staying under the radar." said Elder Fowler.

Lots of Christmasy things going on. We went to the last night of Youth Conference and got to see all our youth perform their way cool tradational Sarawak dances,  I got to see Nayan and Subyia, now converts, at the Christmas party, we got a Christmas tree for the house, we've been caroling with the branch a million times. As we've contacted people at their doors, Sister Pitts and I just break out singing Christmas songs.

And they LOVE it.

"Mild He lays His glory by
Born that man no more may die.

Born to raise the sons of earth,
Born to give them second birth."

And then we yell the chorus. "Hark! The herald angels sing! Glory to the newborn king!"

Caroling

As a zone, we decided to do secret Santa between the missionaries, and I get to be Elder Geilman's secret Santa, which I'm stoked for because he's the nicest 18 year old boy ever, still kind of new in the mission so he doesn't have a million souvenirs already, and may or may not be the great-grandson of President Packer (I'll be sure to send him a sarong or something haha).

Sister Pitts and I have been focusing on rescuing less-actives lately, because I've been rescued too. Rescued by my parents, the missionaries in Glendale, by incredible YW leaders, Sunday school teachers, my seminary teacher, and by Christ. It's been underwhelmingly easy to find them, and even though many of them hid from the missionaries just a few short months ago, they were ready to let us in and expressed sorrow for not being able to come to church. A lot of them still read their scriptures every day, and it's usually a work or transportation issue that keeps them from coming to church. For whatever reason, Sister Pitts and I felt impressed to leave many of our less actives alone last transfer and to find new investigators through our own efforts, but this transfer it seems like we're supposed to focus on reactivating them. Lebih senang because that means I get to spend more time in people's homes for my last month here. I love the people here. Have I expressed that enough?

The elders, the senior couple, Sister Pitts, and myself were able to visit a member in the Miri hospital from Bintulu. Elder Ferguson gave me a call a few days ago to let me know and then we figured out the logistics of getting us there. I love that we take care of each other. I love the Priesthood.

I'm grateful for all of the emails from my friends and family expressing how happy they are I'm here for Christmas. Christmas in the mission field is the best. But it's also hard. So, so hard. Lately I've been longing to be home, so it was nice to get reminders from back home that this is the most important thing and to get my head back in the game. Christmas and missionary work are synonymous.

"The Son of God became a man to enable men to become Sons of God." -C.S. Lewis

I'll see you guys real soon.

Merry Christmas, love you guys to the moon and back.

xo Sister Wynn

Mana Ada Dead

Hey guys,

My dad is right, I had a blast in Singapore. A lot of last's, last good-byes, last testimony. But tenang hati aku. We flew out Monday and like always, had good dalam conversations with my friends on the plane rides. Made new friends. Caught up with old ones. We met up with Kota Kinabalu zone in Kuala Lumpur and I'm starting to get what Ammon went though when he was reunited with the sons of Mosiah in Alma 27.

Final Zone Conference: soon to be departing missionaries.

Miri Zone (and part of Bintulu Zone) are Xscape room champions. Except we all failed. The sisters did the Harry Potter room and we were so close to escaping, we were on the last step yelling out spell names and we ran out of time...but after that I sherpa-ed for the sisters and took them for good eats and shopping at Little India. It's funny how after serving there a couple times, you learn all the shortcuts with the buses and get to places a LOT faster.

Xscape champs.

That night for the zone activity, we made candy leis for service and put together Christmas bags for orphans. I'm sure there's pictures floating around somewhere of me, Elder Ferguson, and Elder Jackson absolutely failing at making them. Seriously boys are stupid. But there were a couple times they made me laugh so hard I cried. I love those young men. It's like reliving the MTC all over again.

I got to catch up with so many people and there wasn't enough time to really tell everyone how much I love them, but I'm so blessed with incredible friends who are missionaries as well as the people I'm serving all over Malaysia and Singapore. So, so blessed.

The actual zone conference left me feeling a little unfulfilled because President Mains only talked to us for a couple minutes, and I think I along with all the other missionaries were thinking "Talk more! Tell us what to do better!" But it's okay.

I gave my departing testimony along with the elders from Sister LeBaron's group. All of the testimonies were so good. So humble and repentant. I said something along the lines of how as departing missionaries, we all want to say something profound and meaningful, but I hope I just invite the spirit with a humble testimony. One thing I thought about reflecting back on my mission was how I've been blessed to meet so many people from all over the world and teach them the gospel, and meet so many missionaries who are an example to me. And how the Lord has blessed me with the capacity to love so many people so much. I talked about how in my inadequacies, my prayers have turned into pleas for help, and how Heavenly Father qualifies us in our weaknesses. We are always a child of God. That knowledge is what's carried me through my life and through my mission. I know God lives.

I didn't know who Jesus Christ was until I read The Book of Mormon.

And that's really all I said. It was short and sweet and anticlimactic. (A couple of my friends have a recording of it somewhere so I'll track it down sometime.)

We had a nice Christmas program and afterwards, our zone activity was to go caroling at a mall. We were all apprehensive about it at first, but we got there (laughing all along the way) and it was the same mall I caroled at last year. I went to the front desk to tell them we were there, and when I got back, the elders had lari-ed to get some food. Go figure. So me and the other sisters started singing off the balcony. "Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing o'er the plains." The elders slowly wandered back and joined us one by one, and it was the prettiest as the chorus got louder and louder. As we sang hymns and popular Christmas songs, a lot of people stopped to listen to the random white kids. We made so many people smile. It was nice to feel the spirit and have other people feel it too.

Zone Activity: Caroling at the mall.

We got back and I said my good-byes. All throughout the zone conference, everyone teased me. "Wow Sister Wynn, you're dead!" I didn't mind. Throughout the zone conference, I just felt God's love. And I got tons of pictures with all the missionaries from Malaysia because they're my favorite. The church is going to be just fine here because of incredible people like them. Future branch presidents, and later bishops. There were a lot of zones that had a layover in Kuching, so we split off from there. My goodbyes were unceremonious, and mostly in passing as we went through security and immigration. But I didn't mind because I'm more of a see-you-later type of person anyway.

We landed, got home and got back to the grind. I love stepping off planes in this mission, putting my tag back on, and immediately doing missionary work again. It makes me feel like a fancy, very important business exec or something. This week was good. Tough, but good. One of our investigators who we dropped because he's pulling knives on our other members randomly had this change of heart, stopped drinking and smoking and hanging out with his sketchy friends, and came to church. He told us he still wants to be baptized, so we're working with him. God works in mysterious ways, and sometimes He converts people through Alma-the-Younger experiences. I shouldn't talk, my conversion sometimes seemed like a huge slap in the face, because I needed it.

I went on ghetto splits with Sister Fonbuena yesterday because Sister Pitts and Sister Pullicar were sakit and it was like good old times. The primary did their Christmas program in church and I kept tearing up because they were so cute. One of my investigators didn't want to meet with us and said, "No. I'm not going to ikut. I'm Anglican!"

"I don't care. And God doesn't care. You're a child of God before you're an Anglican or an Iban or a Dayak." He still didn't want to ikut but we'll get him back.

We then went to Sister Fonbuena's area to Pujut 8, and I got to see Satam and Rungi and ALL the saudara mara and they were happy to see me too. They've since rebuilt their janky kampung house and now they have this nice house with straight edges and a tall ceiling and a beautiful porch for the kids to play on. This is what the gospel does, it elevates us above where we're at.

Last Sunday, the night before we left for Singapore, I had the best, and hardest fast of my life. I won't go into too many details here but I testify that God qualifies us in our weaknesses. Again, my prayers have turned into pleas for help. Help to find the right door to knock on, and help to say what we are supposed to say to soften the hearts of the people we speak to.

Mana ada dead.

Here's to the best 6 weeks of my mission coming up.

xo Sister Wynn

P.S. TRANSFER NEWS: Everyone in Miri is staying! :) Which is awesome because these missionaries and I make a pretty good team :) Looks like I was born here and will die here! <3

In lieu of Ellen's email Dec. 8 - Fwd: Sister Wynn

Dear Friends & Family:

We didn't receive an email from Ellen this past week because she was traveling from Miri on Sarawak to Singapore to attend her last Missionary Zone Conference.  She warned us last week that she might not have the time nor opportunity to drop an email.  However, we did receive an Ellen related email from a Sr. Couple (missionaries who are typically retired adults that have volunteered to serve a mission together), Elder & Sister Hadley, who met Ellen at this Zone Conference in Singapore this past week.  I responded to their email, and those two emails are what I am sending out this week in lieu of an email from Ellen.  My response to the Hadleys appears first below, and their original email follows that.  The connection they discovered with Ellen is evident in their post.  I have also attached a two pictures of Ellen, that the Hadleys kindly attached to their email.  I did this for the benefit of you folks from Ashton.  As you can see from the photo, there is absolutely NO DOUBT that Marie Hadley is from the Myers clan, right down to the color of her hair.  I thought it was very kind of the Hadleys to take the time to drop an email and the photos of their encounter with Ellen.

I also received an email from the Singapore Mission this past week and was informed that Ellen has a release and return date.  Apparently she is scheduled to return to us here in Salem on Jan. 28.  Hard to believe it has already been a year and a half.  We are trying to get into the Christmas spirit here.  Hideko has done a good job getting our outdoor lights set up and Mikel did a great job with the tree.  I was EXCELLENT in a supervisory capacity.  We didn't go with any Christmas socks on the mantle this year because our newest cat, Link, proved that they wouldn't stay up and survive his onslaught.

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas and the happiest of holiday seasons.

As always,
Todd

Brother and Sister Wynn,

Sister Hadley and I are Public Affairs missionaries for Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. We met Sister Wynn last night at a Zone Conference and wanted to report she is an awesome missionary. We were excited to hear she is an “Idaho” missionary because that is where we are from. Then when we found out you are from Ashton, Sister Hadley was thrilled. She is Glenn and Nina Myers oldest daughter. You may know Darla, or Ron, perhaps you are even younger.

Your mother was Marie’s young women’s leader when she was 16. She remembers camping at Bear Gulch with your mother and still has great memories of her.

Thanks for sharing your daughter. She is a great missionary

Elder Hadley


Dear Brother & Sister Hadley:

Thanks so much for your email and kind words about Ellen.  It always amazes me how small the world, especially in the church, can be.  I have lived in more than my fair share of cities all around the world, but Ashton will always be considered home.  I love to get back there every chance I get.  Obviously, I know the Myers well.  I am Darla's age and went to school with Kathy, Darla and Ron (we called him "Mose").  Mose and my little brother Alan were best friends, so he was my good friend too, and we were all together a lot.  I still see Darla every once in a while when I am in Rexburg and need to go to Deseret Book for whatever reason.  I always thought, and continue to think, of Darla as a salt-of-the-earth type person.

Nina was mine and Alan's Trail Blazer leader.  I can't ever remember her doing anything else.  She was a good one.  Always had great activities planned, Klondike Derby, camping, cattle drive, etc. and started many boys, including us, on their way to becoming Eagle Scouts.

Thanks again taking the time to write.  Best of luck in your continuing missionary activities and hope you have a Very Merry Christmas.

Todd

Grateful for Grace

Nama berita kita wai,

Hope you all had a good Thanksgiving. It's cool that I got to spend both of my mission-Thanksgivings in Miri. This year, the Risers, the most kindhearted, Christlike senior couple in the history of senior couples, had all the missionaries over and we had a nice Thanksgiving dinner. It felt like home.

A world away from us biking to Pizza Hut last year haha. Fun memories from last week that I forgot to include: Sister Pitts almost getting tagged twice on the highway and our prayers of gratitude for the safety, a guy on a moto trying to grab my hand/my handlebars as I was biking on the highway, and our spare tire falling off the Niah Caves Party Van on our P-Day excursion last week. The driver kept on driving, even with the sound of metal scraping against the road. I yelled, "Um sir, I think it would be a good idea to stop." A couple hundred meters down the road he pulled over and fixed the van.

Party van!

I promise this place is magic.

I've had a million thoughts swimming around my head this week so I hope I can articulate them well. Today is my 16 month mark, I can't believe it's December already. I can't believe it's December again. I should send a quick text to Elder Fowler. Last week, Miri hit its baptismal goal as a zone and the week before, Sibu zone hit its goal. I'm on the best team ever of missionaries. Hand-picked by the Lord.

We passed off all of our investigators to Elder Sheranian and Elder Hill. It was hard to let them go, and of COURSE they all came to church yesterday, and none of Sister Pitts and my investigators did haha, but sikit demi sikit we're building the membership around the church. Boys are so smart. In our pass-off lessons, I took notes on how the elders teach because they teach SO simply and clearly. Repentance = Berubah hati. Also Elder Sheranian is our new district leader and he says he's going to rule Miri with an iron fist. I call his bluff because he secretly loves us. Boys are so stupid. One of our investigators dropped us because he got drunk and got into a fight with one of our members (who is a youth) and pulled a knife on him and now is malu to meet with us. But men are usually pretty good about getting over that kind of stuff, right? Forgive and forget?

I had an interesting spiritual experience a few days ago. We were teaching a less-active part member family, and the dad was so drunk. He was so obnoxious and kept interrupting the lesson, and I saw how much his teenage daughter was bothered by it. She and her neighbor ignored him, and we kept teaching, but all I could think was "I hate you. I hate you so much. You are such a loser." My anger drove the spirit away, so I immediately prayed for charity. "Help me love this man for a little while." I had this feeling of peace and love come over me, and I knew that everything would be okay. And I thought about how the Lord loves me with a perfect love, even though I'm imperfect.

We have such a daunting number of less active members to work with. I got way bummed and asked the Miri 1 missionaries, "What's even the point?" I raged for a little bit more about how I want to move the stupid rock, I don't want to be satisfied with just pushing on it (if you know the metaphor, I know the rock isn't supposed to move on my own, but still) and I don't want to be satisfied with coming home from my mission saying "Wow, that really changed me. Good for me." Someone added they understood they wanted me to feel like I helped build up the church in Malaysia.

I got over it pretty quickly after praying for some humility. I think towards the end of my mission, I just want to do well. But instead of focusing on doing well, I need to say, "Lord, thank you for doing that, and thank you for letting me help." We as missionaries and members of the church just need to be worthy to do the work, and try to get out of the way as the Lord does it on His own anyway. I'm just grateful I got to be a small part of the conversion process for so many people I love.

A lot of missionaries keep wrecking my Malay lately. I don't know why, I feel like I'd been doing pretty well (yes I have a really American accent when I speak) and the members and locals say I'm doing alright. But I feel like I'm kurang for how long I've been out. My self confidence kind of crumbled yesterday, especially as I gave an impromptu talk. (I talked about the story of Christ appearing to the apostles at the Sea of Tiberias). But I learned a valuable lesson, that fear and doubt drive the spirit away just as easily as contention, irreverence, anger, etc. and I recommitted myself to having a "fake it till you make it" attitude like I adopted at the start of my mission.

I am grateful for grace. The Grace of Christ. It's what makes me bike faster and farther than I am capable of on my own and it's what gives me the capacity to love the people I cannot. Grace is what gives me the spirit. And the spirit speaks perfect Malay.

Yesterday in church, I looked at all of the members, these saints, and realized how much I was going to miss them. I love these people so, so much. To ridiculous amounts.

Love you all. See you soon.

xo Sister Wynn