More Gratitude Give Me / Jalan-jalan to Singapore

Namah berita?

Beritah baik? Maneh. That's pretty much all the Iban I know, but that's okay. 

"Render all the thanks and praise which your whole soul has power to possess, to that God who has created you, and has kept and preserved you, and has caused that ye should rejoice...I say unto you if ye shall serve him who has created you from the beginning, and is preserving you from day to day, by lending you breath, that ye may live and move according to your own will, and even supporting you from one moment to another-- I say if ye should serve him with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants."

Obviously, since it's November, I've been thinking about all the things I'm grateful for. And I cut out a turkey out of paper and the Sisters and I are adding feathers with what we're grateful for every day.

Has it already been over 3 months since I walked through the doors at the MTC? It all feels like a dream but it also feels like yesterday. I get to pakai airplane this week and go to zone conference! It's about that time where we missionaries renewed our visas. The missionaries in West Malaysia and Singapore just had their zone conference. I saw a picture and all of the Elders from my MTC group look so happy. Our zone conference is all the missionaries in East Malaysia. And Mikel, I'm flying on a Boeing 737 (I'll try to get pictures) and I have a layover in Kuching on the way to Singapore but a layover in KL (Kuala Lumpur) on the way back. I'm excited to see Singapore again, it's a whole different animal from East Malaysia.

President and Sister Mains visited Miri this weekend and inspected our home, and I got to have my first interview with President since the day I landed in Singapore. He is so humble and does so much to make this mission move forward. He said Heavenly Father is mindful of me and my concerns, mission-wise and personal. I really needed to hear that. I cried pretty much the whole interview, he and his wife have such a special spirit about them. When I bore my testimony to him (crying like a baby, which is weird because I haven't cried so hard my entire mission) I said I was grateful for the privilege God gives me to see His children change, even though I'm not a perfect missionary or perfect teacher. Or a perfect person. I've seen miracles and have seen people have so much joy as they learn about their Savior Jesus Christ. The Mains were happy because apparently, that day was the cleanest they've ever seen "The Miri Mansion," as it's called in the mission. I'm really grateful for the beautiful home we get to live in, but I also wouldn't mind living in a little wooden house on the river like the Ibans do.

Last week, Nayan, one of our investigators, showed us her brand new dress she bought for church. She looked so pretty on Sunday. One of her older sons, Subyia, was able to come to church too because he had work off! And her other two older kids, Stanley and Shetu, said they can come next week because they asked their bosses if they could have work off to go to church. I had one of my favorite lessons with them this week; Stanley and Subyia are really struggling with stopping smoking, so Sister LeBaron and I were planning their lesson and were thinking, 'What do they need? They need to know they are sons and daughters of God, who loves them a lot and because He loves them, they can stop smoking!" So we taught them just that. They are royalty in God's eyes, kings and queens. I told them "Dengan Yesus Kristus, kamu tidak dapat gaggal." (With Jesus Christ, you CANNOT fail." I redid Stanley's stop smoking plan, and I saw that there were tears in his eyes. So many people don't know their worth. I never get tired of telling people how important they are.

Also, Irak and Wynndy, Brother Chaong's son-in-law and daughter, said they would go to church if they could get work off. The whole time we've been teaching them, they would say, "No we're still going to the Roman Catholic church," or "Tidak janji," (not promising), to "Tangoklah" (we'll see) to "We'll go if we can get work off." And they meant it. Last night we taught them about the Word of Wisdom, and I shared that I was grateful for my health because Sister LeBaron and I bike jauh (far) every day, and we wouldn't be able to do God's work if we weren't healthy. Plus it's really fun asking good, upstanding people and little kids not to do drugs. When they say, "Okay, I won't do drugs," Sister LeBaron and I say "Whew! We were so worried about you!" But then again, for some people we teach, it's a real struggle.

I have way too many things to be grateful for, if there is such a thing. I've lived a happy, privileged life. I have had so many opportunities to grow, to learn, and to have fun. I am grateful every day that I get to wake up in beautiful Malaysia and think about how I can help people grow closer to God. I get to see people change into better people.

Brother Simon and Brother Horman, I know I drove you crazy sometimes because of my inability to berfocus (Sister LeBaron is pretty sure I have ADD) but you gave me everything I need to become a successful missionary. Everything. Thank you for the advice, for being patient with me and my district, and for giving us tough love when we needed it. I can tell you were exceptional missionaries, and your Malay is awesome (even though Brother Simon taught us ghetto Malay, we're a little more classy over here in Miri. Not as classy as KK though). I hope I can become like the missionaries you were by the time I'm done with my mission. I have no problem saying you were some of the best teachers at the MTC. Brother Pulver, Brother Blissett, and Sister Harrison, you too. Know that all of you have made my mission better.

I'm also grateful for all of the home teachers, Sunday school teachers, and young women teachers I've had while I was growing up. At times, it was stressful uncluttering our house for it to be presentable enough for the home teachers to come over, and sometimes I was annoyed with all the activities I was invited to in Young Women's. But all of you visited and supported me and my family because you love us. I'm forever grateful for Brother and Sister Kirby, Brother and Sister Plant, Sister Papritz, Brother and Sister Kelly, Brother Wadsworth (the best seminary teacher ever. Seriously seminary was what made high school bearable), Sister Hale, Sister Hewson, Sister Keck, Sister Rudolph, and everyone else. I know I'm forgetting so many people. But know that if you ever taught me, I'm grateful for you.

Mom and dad, where to even begin? I can't say enough to express how much you mean to me. I thank God every day that I was lucky enough to get you have you as my parents. I'm grateful you let me make my own decisions, my own mistakes, and I'm glad you emphasize the importance of having experiences (like getting on a plane to Malaysia). You taught me how to be a good person, and then had enough faith that what you taught me and my siblings was enough. I'm grateful that when I washed back up on your doorstep last December, that you embraced me and comforted me, and when I said I wanted to serve a mission, you said, "We can make that happen."

Mikel and Cloe, my eternal best friends. You're a couple of the very few people I feel like understand me. Thank you for the letters and emails. I love telling people all about you, and they say you are very handsome and pretty respectively.

I was thinking about how I do things for the people I love, like my family. Dad, when you ask me to rake the leaves in the yard, I do it (most of the time). Or clean the gutters, or mow the lawn. Or make sure the kitchen's clean at the end of the day for mom. I would take a bullet for Mikel and Cloe. But mostly I just buy slushies for you in the summer. And you do the same for me. Why? Because I love you all.

Sister LeBaron taught me this week that that's the most important reason why we should follow the commandments of God. Because we love Him. He gives us so much, and in return, all He asks is to follow His commandments which are supposed to protect us in the first place. He even gave us an example to follow, Jesus Christ, because we still needed help learning how to follow commandments, haha.

I love the Miri district of missionaries. I love singing with everyone at district meetings because everyone knows the harmonies to all the hymns, so I feel like I'm on an episode of Sunny, when they randomly sing a capella. When Sister Noorda was bearing her testimony at the end of her mission, and reflecting on all of it, I wrote in my planner in all caps, "I WILL MISS THIS WHEN IT'S OVER." I know I still have more time than not on my mission, but I know it will go by too fast and then before I know it I'll be at PDX again. It gave me a renewed enthusiasm to work hard everyday, and to throw myself into missionary work.

More about the culture here, in the kampungs, when there are a lot of houses connected together, the kids are taken care of by all the moms. I still have no idea whose kids are whose with some of the families we're teaching. It's pretty smart though. And the kids just wander in from a different dwelling to the ones we teach. I usually have to ask, "Is this one yours? No? Whose kid is this? Oh okay."

I still love sitting on the floor in a circle to teach. It's rude to walk over someone's legs, and rude to walk through the circle of people, so you have to go around the edge behind everyone, or if you absolutely HAVE to walk in the middle of everyone, you kind of stoop over and put your hand in front of you. It's fun, I love doing that. Also, the addresses and genealogy is a MESS. No one has real addresses, so keeping our area book up to date is fun. Also, there are no maps of Miri. We've asked gas stations and book stores and the people there just kind of give us a weird look. And people's last names are their dad's first names, so I would be Ellen anak (child of) Todd. And my dad would be Todd anak Ross. But if my dad was a deadbeat, I would be Ellen anak Hideko. So family history work is really hard to do here. 

Everyone wears their religion on their sleeves, their hearts, and on their doors. It makes it easy to know who we can legally teach. If they have Chinese characters, they're Buddhist, or if they have a picture of Jesus or Mary on their door, we're good to go. If they have lights on their gutters, no go. We don't want to get arrested. Since Malaysia is a Muslim country, there are SO many places to buy cute, modest clothes. I want to buy my whole wardrobe here.

Missions are fun. They're hard. I love it here, I might never want to leave.

Forever grateful for everything. Jumpa lagi,

Sister Wynn