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.
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| 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.
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| 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?
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| 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
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