Apa khabar,
So if you want a visual of my mission, imagine a quiet little street, palm trees swaying in the breeze, me in a pink dress riding my bike with no handlebars (I learned how to do that my second day in the field). Also, I'm wearing a dorky bike helmet and sweating profusely, all the time. And I always have this stupid grin on my face. This is my life. I love every second of it.
Happy [almost] Birthday mama-bear! You are incredible and if I can be half as good of a mom as you one day, I'd be pretty happy with myself. I'm glad I had time to send a personal email to the family.
Just in case any of you wanted to google-earth my area, I live in Lutong, by the EconSave/Myy Mall, but we bike across the Miri River every day to Pujut, our area. The church is next to the HSBC bank. I want to know how many miles I live away from the church. Last P-Day, our rides to the crocodile farm fell through, and today, it's raining really hard so we decided not to go again because we want to hold baby sunbears in our lap and feed monkeys, and they probably won't want to come out and play in the rain. Last week, the roommates and I went to downtown Miri and I finally got a little souvenir shopping done. I didn't buy much, but I bought a really pretty purple sarong. I love the sisters I live with, we are a really good house (which apparently that didn't always used to be the case). I also love my district. Yesterday, I made everyone gyros and we broke our fast at the church. (You know you're jealous of my mad cooking skills). The Chinese speaking Elders and Sister LeBaron and I switch off making lunch (or dinner for fast Sundays) every week. A couple weeks ago I made everyone yakisoba.
That reminds me, we just found out Elder Fabiano is getting transferred to Singapore. He's the Italian-Hawaiian looking Elder in all of my pictures (which I will send...eventually). I thought I was the only compur (mix) in my district. He's a cool kid, and speaks perfect Chinese. He also started a weekly English class at the church. Sister LeBaron and I got roped into teaching the advanced class, and it's so much fun. They also find a lot of investigators this way. He tried speaking Iban to me once, he said, "Mama burrito," to which I said, "Uh, you mean 'nama berita'?" I can't make fun of him though because he was always nice enough to translate sacrament meeting during Chinese group so we could translate for the Indonesians that come. That's my ode to Elder Fabiano, he's going to go change some hearts now in Singapore. His trainee, Elder Mitchell (the redhead in all my pictures), is now going to train in Miri, so they will both be going to Singapore this week for Elder Mitchell to pick up the new guy.
I was really sad when the sister assistants (or asisters) came back from Singapore with no mail for me. I was a little disappointed in myself that I was kind of sad in the first place. I know it's not important to get letters, but I do love having those little reminders of home. I guess that's what I get for burning all my bridges before I left, haha. Sister LeBaron and I go running every morning, except there are angry dogs that chase us all over our neighborhood. It's good exercise though, and everything is less sore since we've started running, especially my back.
In other news, we have a security guard for the church at night, or I should say we used to because he died last Monday! His name was Dason Dixon, but the missionaries called him Boss, and he was this really sweet Muslim guy. We always thanked him for keeping our church safe. When the new security guard told us, I started laughing, and Sister LeBaron gave me this mortified look. I (my whole family, actually) handle death in a highly inappropriate way...by laughing. Don't judge me.
We also ended up teaching this drunk guy, who was the neighbor of one of our less actives. He desired to change because he doesn't like how angry he gets when he drinks, so we taught him the Word of Wisdom lesson right then and there. Except he kept interrupting me, and he kept talking in circles. I said, "Okay, when we teach you next time, you aren't allowed to be drunk. Promise?"
I can't remember if I talked about the miracle where we found this less active family, and the miracles that followed. Sister LeBaron and I were looking for a totally different family, and we biked by these little girls who were playing. I thought I heard one of them yell, "Sisters!" so I called Sister LeBaron back, and we talked to them. I said, "How did you know we were called Sisters?" and they let us into their house and it turned out they were a less active family! The mom's name is Karen, and her daughter Teo is the most beautiful 12-year old I've ever seen. She's half Iban and half Chinese. Karen can't talk because she has a throat sickness, but wrote on a piece of paper that she wants the missionaries to teach her kids. Her friends, Bangi and Linthia, came over right then, and we asked if they wanted to learn. They said yes and were stoked on their Book of Mormons we gave them. Wait, it gets better; while Sister LeBaron and Sister Thompson went to teach Bangi and Linthia on our exchanges, another family, Nayan and her kids, who live in the same house, wanted to learn. So we've been teaching them (there's 9 of them total) and they love being taught about the gospel. A couple nights ago, we taught that they can become perfect, and have perfect bodies again, and be with their families forever. Shetu, the oldest daughter, who is 23, the night before had cried and told us she knew she had been saved by Jesus Christ. Then, during that lesson, she said Sister LeBaron and I had the face of God. I don't really know what that means, but it was sweet. I like to think Sister LeBaron and I have hope and optimism, and the light of Christ in our eyes.
Lately, I've been thinking about how amazing our generation is. We heard a talk in the MTC about how when we heard the invitation to the call to serve from President Monson last October, we said, "Yes we will!" And because of the huge number of missionaries (80,000 strong now), we said, "Oh, we only have 6 weeks to learn Malay instead of 9? Bring it on." I didn't realize that other missionaries would end up meaning so much to me. I have full faith in them as future leaders. Take Sister LeBaron for example; I didn't realize how difficult her training situation was-- She is whitewash training in a country she'd never actually been to (she spent her first 6 months in Singapore) in a language she never needed. My first day in Malaysia was her first day in Malaysia too. And she is doing an incredible job. This week, we had the most member-present lessons, most investigators at church, referrals contacted, and progressing investigators in our zone. Not because we're that great, we told each other it's times like these where we wish we could hi-five God. "I do not boast in my own strength nor in my own wisdom...but I will boast of my God." Maybe it's beginners luck, or maybe we are supposed to be teaching these people right now.
I've been studying D&C 4 and want to live it, "Therefore, O ye that embark in the service of God, see that ye serve him with all your heart, might, mind and strength."
I want to give my mission everything I have to give. I want to come home exhausted. Everything I teach, I know is true.
-Sister Wynn
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