Sister Simon, my favorite, snuggliest, kindest, best friend Indonesian missionary ever finished her mission today. We had the whole zone bike to the cafe next to our house this morning and had a nice farewell breakfast of paus.
Last week, Sister Pitts gave me an intense look and said, "Sister Wynn, I have a crazy idea. Let's be exactly obedient this week."
"Challenge accepted."
We assumed that as we strove to be more obedient (mostly getting to bed on time) and worked harder, miracles would just fall into our laps. But it seemed like the harder we tried, the harder things became. As our back up plans and back up back up plans fell through, I became really discouraged. And to add to this sad, sad, situation, it rained and rained and rained this week. But we pushed through it, and we talked to everyone we ran into, told them our message and how important it is. And I didn't even say they would like it or it would bless them, I told them "You NEED this."
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| "So banjir means flood... Good word to know here!" |
We taught a really educated Iban lady who teaches at a university (the kind of person we need to build the church here) the restoration lesson, to no avail. Also, I think I offended her because she told us we were wasting our time trying to teach the already strong Christians and that we needed to find the poor and destitute in the surrounding kampungs. She said it as a nice suggestion. "No, I'm going to continue to find strong Christians until someone listens to us. We need them to help build the church before we can help the poor here. So I'm going to knock on all your neighbor's doors." Oh well, apa boleh buat?
We found some more less actives and along the way, former investigators, one of which said she almost joined our church but couldn't get over the whole coffee thing and said we were sombong for not drinking coffee. I explained a commandment is a commandment whether we like it or not haha. We taught and retaught people, hoping something we said or did would induce a change of heart, but to no avail. Several times this week, I told Sister Pitts "Tell me no effort is wasted."
"No effort is wasted."
One night, we prayed ourselves to these flats over by a string of Buddhist temples to knock one night after every other option was exhausted. Sister Pitts said, "Well at least there's gotta be some Buddhists living here and these people can't ALL be [people we legally can't teach.]"
We knocked on a couple doors and asked where the Christians lived. "No Christians here, we are all [people you legally can't teach]."
"Okay, thanks. Selamat tahun baru."
I shot Sister Pitts the dirtiest look but it was so funny. We laughed it off and figured even though we had nothing to show for those hours, we learned what we were supposed to.
New Year's Eve, I came home so exhausted. I slept for a couple hours only to wake up to the sound of fireworks going off all over our neighborhood. I watched them for a while and then passed back out.
I've been sick all week, and the day we biked up north to work in the elders' area a little was a nightmare. Everything fell through and all our less actives/recent converts didn't really show any desire to come to church this week. Sad and jaded, we left their homes. At one point, we met up with the elders and I vomited right in front of them. But we laughed it off and trudged through the bajir (flood) that is Miri.
I also accidentally contacted this crazy man who told Elder Hill "Follow me. I have something for you." and proceeded to give him an old school missionary name tag from elders long ago. There are some crazies in the world. That reminds me, Sister Pitts and I got harassed by the resident drunk of a kampung last night. Not anything terrible, it was just dark as we were leaving and of course he was standing there right in our way. He scared me only because I didn't see him. I wedged my bike between us, high-fived him and wished him a selamat tahun baru and ran off. Sister Pitts wasn't as lucky haha.
But as terrible as some things were this week, as we pleaded for the Lord to help us, He graced us with incredible new investigators (Indonesian designers who are fluent in English and live in Bandar Miri) from the Chinese sisters. And many less active members and investigators just miraculously showed up at church.
Another unforgettable mission memory for the books: Sisters Pitts, Simon, Tui'one, and myself biking home from downtown Miri from our last appointment on New Year's Eve. As we biked by the restaurants and bars, we cheered and yelled "Yeah 2015!" like Polynesians as the rain obliterated us.
The floods and rains and hard times can't drown the light of my fire or the sparks I've kindled (2 Nephi 7:11 or Isaiah 50:11). It's been promised to me that my mission will get even harder, but it's okay.
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| Floods with smiles all around. |
As Jeffrey R. Holland said, "Look at the flame in my soul and the fire in my eyes." I've got nothing to lose and it's an incredible feeling. Go hard or go home am I right?
Love you guys.
xo Sister Wynn
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