It was WONDERFUL being able to skype my family. I've been more homesick than I'd like to admit lately, and chatting with them was a good boost. They're still the same, still goofballs. I had all of the missionaries introduce themselves to my family, and they all said nice things about me (yay for validation?) and it was also kind of weird to have my mission life and personal life mesh. It was a lot of people I love meeting each other haha. While I was waiting for Elder Reynolds to finish skyping his family, I said hi to everyone's families really fast. It was SO cool (and a little awkward). I got to say hi to Sister Fonbuena's beautiful family, Elder Strathearn's, Elder Reynold's, and Elder Bester's. Elder Bester's family is SO Canadian. I love it. I feel like as I meet people's families and they meet mine, we get a better sense of who the other person is. I think having the missionaries meet my family and see how I interact with them helped explain SO much of why I'm so giggly, irreverent at times, open, and most importantly why I'm so happy. All the time.
 |
| Skyping with the family! |
I loved seeing all the missionaries whom I love light up as they talked to the people they love. I told everyone's family members how good their son or daughter is at missionary work.
I'm excited to come home and be a better sister and daughter.
Shout out to my awesome mom, she's beautiful inside and out. And still hilarious. She's so much of the reason that I'm trying to do good things with my life. I love her.
President Mains emailed us and talked about how important it is to show other people how important their families are. I want these people to be with their families forever. I want them to fix family relationships if they need to, and help them become closer to Christ so they can become closer to each other.
Anyway, as I was biking away from the internet kedai last week, I was thinking about my email home. I wrote something like, "If I learn how to work hard, then this is all worth it." And then I thought, "Why did I write that? Why do I think that way?" If I bring one person closer to Christ, and make their life better, then THAT'S what makes these 18 months worth it. I have the rest of my life to think about myself. I've recommitted myself to giving myself to others.
Last P-Day, we swung by the Sarawak Museum and pretended like we lived in a longhouse. We also went to a mosque, it was cool to see how other people worship God. Elders Scott, Elder Mitchell and Sister LeBaron know a TON about Islam, so they were explaining a lot of it to me. I also ate a biawak. I've been waiting all my mission to eat biawak. It's pretty good. Kinda chewy. Sister Matina, the sweetest, told us the most hilarious story. So biawak are kind of hard to catch, kan? So I asked the family who caught it. "Siapa tankap ini?" Then Sister Matina said, "I did! I caught him in a trap, and when I found him, I was so scared. I found the biggest log I could find and bashed and bashed and bashed his head in! Aku memukul dan memukul dan memukul dia!"
 |
| Museum |
 |
| The mosque |
 |
| Biawak |
I said afterwards to Sister Fonbuena, "Sister Matina bashed in the head of a biawak for us. If that's not love, I don't know what is."
Oh I also threw up during a dinner appointment. The 4 Sentosa missionaries biked out to the Elder's area to visit a member who lives by a paper-making factory in the middle of a rice field. I already wasn't feeling so good, and mixed with the sweaty, weird smells of worker's quarters, I felt horrible. Then this member made us TONS of food, like sketchy fried fish, haha. I tried to be polite and eat, but then I couldn't take it anymore and ran to their bathroom. As I opened the door, Elder Bester said, "Oh be careful! There are cats! Hati-hati, ada kuching!"
 |
| Food... |
"WHAT?" I looked in the tiny bathroom, it was literally 3" x 3 " cement box, with mildew on the walls because there's always water dripping through it. There was also a hole which was the toilet, and 3 cats that looked up at me.
"Mow?"
"What the heck?" Then I dry heaved, jumped into the bathroom, and puked in front of these poor cats. I tried to put on a happy face for our church members, and they didn't realize I was sick so the made me eat more food. I tried, and as we were leaving, the dad said, "Sister, you haven't finished your Milo." Elder Bester offered to drink it for me when he wasn't looking but I just shrugged, downed it, said goodbye to the family, ran out the door, and threw up in a gutter. Then when our members came around the corner, I put on a happy face. He gave us 3 huge rolls of toilet paper (the industrial kind) because that's what he makes for work haha. As we biked home, I pulled off the road a couple times to throw up more. Elder Bester said, "Just puke as you bike so we don't have to stop."
So that's what I did. And that's the story of how I projectile vomited in front of Elder Bester and Elder Reynolds, and how I barfed a little on Sister Fonbuena. They still love me for some reason.
Anyway, this week, as we were diligent in our obedience and in working hard (this week I tried to do a couple more things than I thought I could each day) and we saw SO many miracles. We ran into a church member from Bintulu who has the coolest family ever! And they want to learn about the gospel. We were prompted to say what our people needed to hear during unplanned lessons that helped them understand the people more. We were at the right place at the right time for all of these things to happen. I'm a firm believer that if we do everything we're supposed to be doing, and show God our plan and pray that it's acceptable to Him (and also show Him our backup plans), He will show us miracles. Not even the small ones, but the big ones too. But first we need a plan to deviate from the plan.
I'm sure I have a million other stories from this week I forgot to write about, but oh well.
Families are forever. I love my family in Kampung Salem. I love my families here. See you when I see you.
-Sister Wynn
 |
| More food! |
 |
| Kitty! |
 |
No comments:
Post a Comment