Those are the words to my new favorite song, "Aku Anak Kampung." Ini maksud "I am a kampung child," and that's what I am! I live for the sweet kampungs. The most humble, kind people live there.
It's true what they say about missions, you get 50 years worth of stories in 2 years...and man we had a lot of crazy cool stuff happen to us this week. But let me start from last Monday:
We just had a nice lunch at a buffet with our zone, and the best part is Kuching is pretty much a Miri reunion. That's right, I get to serve with Sister LeBaron, Elder Snyder, Elder Wayment, and Elder "Sammich" Mitchell" again! They're all doing so great, and they're all still the same wonderful people they were in Miri, except more proficient in Malay (or in Elder Mitchell's case, Chinese). And I also get to serve with Elder Strathearn, who is still the epitome of Christ-like charity. And I'm making even more mission friends. We have a good little zone. We went to Waterfront afterwards, and we jammed with some of the locals and just took in how beautiful Kuching is. There's a huge sign that says "VMY 2014" (Visit Malaysia Year 2014) and I highly recommend all of you do it. Sister Parcell, who I think is just gonna be in my mission forever, said, "I totally get why you're so obsessed with East Malaysia now."
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| VMY 2014 |
That night, we went to Brother Martin's house for the most epic Malam Keluarga (FHE) ever. There was dancing on tables (by toddlers) and very bad karaoke (sung by yours truly). And Sister Bourgeois and I fell in love with the song "Aku Anak Kampung." They played it for us like 3 times because we were so in love with it.
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| Karaoke; let's hope they didn't quit their day jobs! |
The next day, 6 of us missionaries went to the bike shop (one of my tubes definitely had a slow leak) and while we were waiting, this guy named John started talking to us. He is a photographer for the Associated Press, lives in KL, and is from Seattle. He kacaued us a little but said he had good mormon friends in college and his boss is LDS. He gave us RM100 for no reason other than he is a good man. Then he looked at our tires and said, "Do you even have treads on your tires?" to which we replied no...and he said, "That's dangerous." He went back into the bike shop and bought us ALL brand new bike tires. Elder Reynolds, whom I call Elder Hijou (Elder Greenie) tried to give him a Book of Mormon by going up to him and saying, "Can I give you a Book of Mormon?"
We all laughed at him (including John) and so I decided to teach Elder Reynolds how it's done. I talked to John about his family and promised him he'd see his parents again and also explained that we were grateful for the new tires because we had an Elder die in Kuching recently as he was riding his bike. I testified of the plan of happiness and how everything unfair in life is made fair because of Christ. He still wasn't interested but he took a picture with us and was so cool. We told him he was Christlike, to which he guffawed and rode away into the sunset with his photo crew.
The next day, Sister Bourgeois and I were sitting at the bike shop waiting for them to change our tires, and contacted everyone who walked into the bike shop. We met the coolest guy named Oscar, who was genuinely interested in learning more about our church, and someone named Steve from the UK who lives a couple hours from Sibu and teaches English in schools. He wasn't super interested, but was so kind and we chatted for a long time. As we were walking away, I had the thought (prompting) to give him our blog addresses, so we did because I hate delaying promptings and I want Heavenly Father to know He can trust me. So if you're reading this Steve, apa khabar kamu? Keep working on your Malay :)
We had another night were the Elders showed us the homes of a couple less active families, and at one point Elder Reynold's chain fell off his gears on a bridge so I stood kind of in the road and obnoxiously stood there with my foot in the road so cars could see us. Hence the attached picture. Then the Elders gave a couple blessings to sick church members and I was reminded how grateful I am for the Priesthood, and how in those moments, all the elders I've ever served with turn from boys to men.
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| Light of the world? |
Sister Bourgeois and I (with the other sisters) got stuck in Batu Kawa last night, don't ask how, but let's just say disobedience was never happiness. And Batu Kawa is kind of JAUH from our area, like a 40 minute cab ride. It was getting later and later in the night and we hadn't seen any cabs, and Elder Robinson told us to get off the streets (he and Elder Toney were on splits in Kuching that night) but we prayed to find a cab. As we were looking, Sister Parcell and I spotted a white van with a nice looking couple in it, and we both felt like we should ask them where they were going...we did and they said, "Do you need a ride?" to which we said, "Yeah! We need to go to Kuching!" and they said, "Hop on in!" I chatted with them in Malay, and they said they were Melayu so I said I couldn't talk to them about my volunteer work with my church, but I kept thanking them for their kindness. Sister Parcell tried practicing her Malay, but I said, "Don't talk about church." and she said, "Aw man, that's all I know!"
But then she said, "Aku anak kampung!" to which the lady pointed to her collection of CDs and we said, "Play it!" So for about 40 mintues, we all jammed to "Aku Anak Kampung" until we got to Kuching, and then when they dropped us off at our apartment, they said it was free of charge, but to tell all of our friends about their van service. I said they were malaikat, angels.
And that's the story of how we hitch hiked from Batu Kawa to Kuching in a party van.
Aw man I'm out of time, so many more good things, like how we had 7 less actives from 4 different families come to church because reading The Book of Mormon with them works.
Aku anak kampung.
Aku anak Tuhan.
We're all anak Tuhan.
The church is true!
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