Sister Wynn's E-mail from November 24

Nama berita kita wai,

Tenang ati aku. Just got back from the Niah Caves. The elders just sauntered into the internet kedai, looking fly in their white shirts and ties (for anyone who knows them, Elders Stewart, Fowler, Sheranian, and Hill are pretty dope).

Niah Caves

Saw lots of critters, like bright red millipedes, snakes, bats, cave bugs, the Bintulu elders, etc. The hike and boat ride and caves were super fun. Good company.

Boat ride

Miri is pretty wild. We met up with the elders to find some less active members in an obscure river kampung, which involved us riding our bike through a driving school (a couple of our members are taking driving lessons and I joked about how funny it would be if they accidentally tagged us), hoisting our bikes over a concrete fence, jumping said fence, crossing a sketchy wooden bridge, and trekking through the jungle while we got eaten alive by the mosquitoes. It was fun smacking everyone and telling them I was just trying to kill the mosquitoes. Hehe. I got everyone's blood all over my hands though, day in the life.

We asked all the neighbors, and it seems like everyone is way less active, Muslim, or don't remember the missionaries. It was pretty unfruitful, but still fun nonetheless. Sister Pitts and I got kena hujan-ed and sampai-ed another family's house soaked and cold. We got to know some of our church members better, and as I was puji-ing this family for being incredible and talked about their conversion stories, I said something like "I knew Christopher and Dividson when they were still investigators a year ago, and they're still the same, but different. They glow. But they're still the same hilarious, irreverent, flirty people I've ever met."

To which, Dividson said, "That was totally Christopher! Like that time he said you were pretty at English class? I was like 'WHY did you say that to that sister missionary?! What were you thinking?'" I died laughing. I also got to meet Dividson's cat, this fluffy white snooty little creature, and we thought it was hilarious that he spoils this cat. "It's my boss." I get it.

Also, in talking about conversion stories, one of the men said, "Before I had the gospel, I sinned so much. I never killed a man though. I almost did once. I stabbed him."

I spit my milo out and they laughed so hard at my reaction. "WHAT?! You stabbed a guy?!" Such a fun night.

The next day, I went on splits with Sister Hales and I told her Sister Pitts and I want more investigators. So we're going to get them. We went to Krokop, an area that hasn't been focused on in a few months, but has lots of flats and is closer to the church and the city bandar. We went to a river kampung looking for less actives, and asked a neighbor. We talked to her and I handed her a pamphlet. She told us she wants to learn, but she wouldn't be comfortable having us in her home because she lives with a bunch of angry drunk guys. Then she told us we really should get out of there. She was right. We had an experience that makes for one of those hilarious mission stories, but I can't write about it here because it is kasaaar. I've sworn off going to river kampungs though, they are sketch.

Anyway, we knocked a few doors here and there, and got into tons of them. Met exactly who I was looking for, people who are willing and yearning to change. Kingdom builders, people with transport, and men who love their families.

The biggest miracle from this week is our six new investigators, and more to come next week. People are hungry for the gospel. We found this storage house with thousands, literally thousands of eggs, and a bunch of employees loading them into trucks. I asked if any Christians lived in the flats above, and this really nice guy named Mega showed us to a room with a couple really nice Christian guys that said we could come back. I asked if he was Christian, and he said buuukan, so I assumed he was Melayu. The next day, I mentioned it and he said "I'm not Muslim, I'm Hindu!" So I gave him a pass-along card with a picture of Christ on it.

Anyway, this egg place (tempat telur) is basically a dorm. It has rooms to sleep in and a shared kitchen and bathroom. One section of it is a total frat, haha, with all these single guys running around in towels. They get squirrelly and malu when they see us though haha. We came back the next day, and one of the guys introduced us to his friends and neighbors in another section. And they were all families! Four families, plus a few single people. We keep going back for lessons, and they keep introducing us to more of their neighbors.

I asked one of the dads how he felt after the Restoration lesson, and he said, "I feel...really confused...but also really happy."

I laughed and said, "Yup, that's about how you should be feeling right now." Welcome to conversion! This is missionary work, haha, bringing people to Christ in a foreign language that you don't actually speak all that well. But it doesn't matter because the spirit qualifies the dorks like me to become powerful teachers. And our lives collide with the lives of random people in usually hilarious ways and they're converted and everything to them changes forever.

Because we're doing a lot of our finding in Krokop, we're trying to pass off our other investigators up north in Lutong to Elder Hill and Elder Sheranian because we forgot Elder Sheranian's birthday this week, and what better gift than an incredible person to teach? And also because they're all men, and they live a lot closer to the elders. It's hard because we love our investigators so much, and they're ALL on date for baptism in December, and most of them have been coming to church and are golden. But it's one of those it's-the-right-thing-to-do situations and we trust that the Lord will help us build up the area around the church. It's a little scary to essentially start over from scratch, but it'll be worth it to have investigators and eventually strong church members closer to the church itself.

Life is good. It was good seeing all my friends from Bintulu zone today. It was good having so many people interested in learning the gospel this week.

Love you all. Anang mancal.

xo Sister Wynn

In an Instant

I'm a bird. I'm a bird and they clipped my wings. WHERE is my bike?! I'm pretty useless without it. There's only so many people Sister Pitts and I can see on foot/by (very unreliable) bus. But apa boleh buat?

Update: My bike finally arrived this morning. It was a glorious reunion and I pointed out to everyone how light and fast it was as I carried it (still in its bike box) into the house gleaming.

Last week, Sister Fonbuena was waaay sakit with a fever so we used her misfortune to our advantage and used the Miri 2nd sister's bike for a few days. Then Sister Pitts also got a fever, so I went on ghetto splits with my mission grandchild, Sister Pullicar. I took her around her area because it's my old area and you never forget where the people you love live. We visited this family who was active last year but now is inactive and I caught up with the mom and we pleaded with her to come back to church. Maybe when she's ready, in her own time.

Sister Fonbuena gave some directions to a water kampung at Pujut 4, so we went over the river and through the woods, uh jungle, to find a potential investigator. We asked some neighbors, who didn't know, but we ended up getting their contact information too. Then we saw a sweet lady walking down the boardwalk and asked if she knew a Maria. "I'm Maria."

"Oh, well that was really fortunate." She led us back to her house, and when we asked why she wanted to learn more from the missionaries, she said it's because she wanted to learn how she can better follow God. We can help with that. Then Sister Pullicar proceeded to teach this awesome Restoration lesson pretty much by herself. (We taught like 3 Restoration lessons in a row that day haha). She doesn't have greenie power because it's like she's not even a greenie. Her Malay is better than mine.

We jalan-jalaned to my area and met up with Elder Sheranian and Elder Hill, and tried to find some church members in kampung Sealine to help us find less actives and investigators because the four of us knew exactly no one. I found some boys maining some bola (playing soccer) and asked, "Aye, boy, ada ahli-ahli gereja kami dekat sini?"

"My mom." We found a chain of families, some active and some less active and got to know them a little better. Then that night I got us lost trying to find our 1st counselor's house by some warehouses. Gaggal. But it was still fun.

The next day, Sister Pitts and Sister Fonbuena still had fevers, and I spent the whole morning vomiting, which was annoying, but then Sister Pitts and I dragged ourselves out of the house and biked up to Lutong because we hated that missionary work wasn't being done in our area. The next morning, we were both hampir mati, so we stayed in and cleaned up our area book. I consolidated a lot of records and made the information easier to read, drew some maps to people's houses (because Sarawak isn't about having real addresses), and made the teaching records as easy as possible to follow so the next missionaries will actually be willing to find the people we love, haha. We have been going crazy being stuck in the house with paperwork, so it was nice that all my pleas to heaven for my bike to sampai were answered.

Sister Pitts and I put another family-man on date, a guy who's missing part of his cranium (I don't know how I always manage to find people missing parts of their skull on my mission). I vaguely remembered Sister Pitts mentioning he drank, so when I asked, he said he completely stopped last week because he didn't like the way it made him feel. I didn't realize the magnitude of this miracle until I got home and looked at his teaching record, and Sister Pitts was kagum (sorry I forgot the word in Iban) about it and said he was an alcoholic for years and it destroyed his family. Other missionaries had given up on him, and I wouldn't have focused on him, but God can change hearts in an instant. He ALMOST went to church yesterday. He dropped his son off on his moto and felt malu and drove away. Darn. Our other investigators are doing well and really enjoyed church. A tender little mercy for us not being able to meet with them as often as we liked.

Yesterday, Elder Fowler's and Elder Stewart's bike tires got stolen (pics attached). We shouldn't have laughed, but we did.

Like always, church was good. Sunday school for both branches is full, to the back of the classroom now. I had this moment of trying not to cry all over myself because the church has grown so much in one short year. Miri is the promised land. The culmination of all the missionaries' work here may have made this the coveted place to serve now (in your face K.K.).

Love you. See you soon. Jaga diri.

xo Sister Wynn

Conquer Hearts, Save Souls

Coming into Miri.

Nama berita kita wai,

I'm sitting here at the internet kedai with all the little Malaysian kids playing CoD and I'm freezing and soaking wet. Udah kena ujan. It is SO good to be back in Miri. It feels like I never left, but I do feel different. Sister Pitts is an amazing companion and udah pandai jakuh Iban even though she's only been out three months. My area is beautiful.

Soakin' wet!

We just moved houses and it's weird to have an upstairs and so much space. Even living with 5 other sisters. Good news, we have a companionship of Chinese-speaking sisters here now. I'm also living with Sister Fonbuena again and she's training, and has the cutest companion. We have a good looking family line going. We're seeing how long we can go before she figures out I'm her grandma in the mission. There's also a new Chinese speaking sister. We met them as we got back home, covered in sweat and kampung mud, and as we were introducing ourselves, the power went out. We exclaimed, "Welcome to Miri!" The water wasn't running either, so Sister Pitts and I came to terms with the fact that we might be going to bed without showering. Luckily, the power came back on around midnight, but I love how anytime there are brand new missionaries, crazy things happen to them.

Our new house is about a block and a half from the church, so I STILL have to bike like half an hour every day to get to my new area haha. I'm just never going to get away from biking huge distances I guess. But I get to bike right through my old area, not a bad trade. Elder Stewart and Elder Fowler are my ZLs, it's nice to serve with someone from the MTC again. Elder Sheranian and Elder Hill are awesome to work with, Sister Pitts has been showing all of us around and introducing us to members. A lot of the members in my branch remember seeing me around, and they love pointing out that I'm a lot skinnier and more pandai bahasa Melayu now haha. "So you're saying I used to be fat and stupid."

My bike is still in Kuching...crossing my fingers that it'll get here soon because I miss it. Sister Fonbuena's (formerly Elder Rasmussen's) bike has been wrecking me. Just like old times, I say a prayer that I'll survive as I cross the Miri River bridge. Today, it was while trudging through six inches of water as it cascaded downhill. On days where I can't use Sister Fonbuena's bike, we just bus up to Lutong and Sealine and Senadin. We never know when the bus will get here, and apparently they stop after dark, but it's fun riding those janky, creaky buses and talking to all the friendly people here. Then we just jalan kaki around our kampungs and I meet members, teach a few lessons, etc. Transfers week is always like surgery in a battle field. You just make do with what you have. Like I said my first week in the field, embrace the chaos of it all.

My first night back, we swung by the church to teach English class. I saw these two ten year old boys who looked kind of familiar, then I realized it was Winsely and Rexman! They were a little taller, and so sweet and polite. "Sister Wynn? How are you?" They were happy to see me, and it was all I could do to not burst into tears right there because they are members of the church now. I met another hebat church member who's only been a member for a few months, and he said Brother Irak was the one who invited him to learn the gospel.

Chruch was tenang. I ran into so many people from the 2nd branch and I'm sure I felt like Alma when he was reunited with the sons of Mosiah. Selina and Monicca are really active now, and they straight up cried when they saw me. I told them "Anang menangis, kalau kamu nangis, saya 'kan nangis!" I said hi to Apai Sigat and Sister Belaiya and she held my hand for a long time, and then we decided to trade shoes. They were stoked I could actually speak a little more Iban now.

Then down the hall, I spotted Brother Irak in his white shirt and tie. He stopped when he saw me, and I walked directly over to him in slow motion and gave him the firmest handshake I could. "Apa hal Irak? You're a church member now." We caught up and I teased him for being SO stubborn when he was an investigator and for never coming to church, and he laughed and apologized for not understanding how life-changing the gospel was sooner. And now he's 1st counselor in the branch presidency. To this day he is still one of my favorite people I've taught.

I said hi to his wife Wynndy and she looked so natural fulfilling her calling in the primary, trying to herd her kids into a classroom. I thought my heart was going to explode with joy. There never was happiness like what I felt this weekend.

The branch that Sister LeBaron and I worked so hard for back when I was a brand new missionary grew. Same with my new branch. The people Sister Anderson taught got baptized, they're strong members, and a handful of them are going on missions. Our branch mission leader, Dividson, still remembers me from back when he was an investigator. He's counting down the days til he's been a member for a year so he can go on a mission as soon as possible. "Dividson, why do you want to go on a mission?"

"Because I think about everything Jesus Christ has done for me and berbaloi to tell other people about the gospel, it's not even a sacrifice." He said it so matter-of-factly.

Sister Pitts and I put a couple family-men on date for baptism last night, because this is Sarawak, and despite all of its problems, there are good men out there who love their families and want to change and want to help build up the church. We made our game plan for the next six weeks, which involves winning over the hearts of our strongest members because we love them, and having them help us find their friends to teach and reactivate. We need to find more families, especially the ones with dads who can help build the kingdom in Miri. There's no shortage of work here.

Saying goodbye to everyone in Singapore was hard. I miss the 1st ward already, even though it was such a hard area. When we told WML John the transfer news, he said, "Can you swing by work for one last Quiznos dinner?" The five of us had so many good laughs, John said more profound things about missionary work with his sarcastic Scottish accent, and offered to fly me back out to Singapore after my mission because he needs a babysitter for his kids so he and his wife can actually go out for once haha.

Elder McCarthy (who is now a zone leader in SG, called it) gave one last incredible district meeting. He asked me to share why I came out on a mission and I said the simple answer is because I love Jesus Christ and the Atonement is real. I think of all the opportunities Heavenly Father gave me to grow and to finally decide to come on a mission. It doesn't matter if people think our testimonies are indoctrinated or recycled. This is real. This is the most important thing, for the rest of my life, to share the gospel. I wish you could have seen the glow on Irak and Wynndy and their kids. They are so changed, all in one short year. This is what the gospel does to people.

At the end of the meeting, Elder McCarthy did the hakka for us one last time (he said he probably won't do it anymore because some Maori words sound like English swear words haha) and we all said our goodbye as we went to our new areas. I'm probably going to finish my mission here in Miri, and you better believe I'm going to make these last 3 months count.

Wish me luck.

xo Sister Wynn

Right Back Where We Started (Transfer News)

Hello everyone,

I hope life is so good. Last P-Day, my roommates and I naiked the Marina Bay Sands hotel and saw all of Singapore from above. What a beautiful city. I forgot to mention the P-Day before we went tomb-raiding in one of those escape-puzzle rooms and pretended we were archaeologists. Have I mentioned I love my mission friends? Sudah? Seribu kali lagi. Sister Parcell called me and STL-ed me good and basically told me to snap out of my melancholy. I love that girl.

I started seriously working out again on the 29th, because that was my 3-months-to-go-mark and I don't want to come home a blob and have all my friends and family think, "Aw Ellen, the nice returned sister missionary. She has such a sweet spirit." Just kidding, I haven't gotten that fat, but a little muscle tone in my arms would be nice. We made a cute cake for Elder McCarthy's birthday week to make up for the fact that we were his worst district ever and forgot. Sister Opatha and I cut out little giraffes to put on it because he's tall, and I made a card that said "Stand TALL, you're a son of God." And then I pasted a giraffe on it. Turns out giraffes are his favorite animal. We gave it to him during district meeting and he got all weirded out because he hates attention but it was still nice. As per usual he gave another inspiring, encouraging district meeting. I always feel the spirit.

On Halloween I celebrated Mikel's birthday and my 15 month mark quietly, and in the evening we went to the Peterson's house for homemade pizza. They were all dressed up as Star Wars characters and we all geeked out about Star Wars for a while and committed Sister Opatha to watching it after her mission. "I love you."

"I know."

They gave us SO much American candy that I haven't seen much less eaten in a year or so, and we gave tons of it to Elder McCarthy and Sister Opatha so they could soak in the magic of the holiday that is feeding our kids tons of processed sugar. Elder McCarthy lost all control and ate so many Butterfingers. The next morning we all found ourselves at the stake center for exercise time. I felt so sick from all the sugar and tried to not look like I was internally dying as I sprinted back and forth. Elder McCarthy tried to work out but wanted to die, all the while Sister Opatha and Elder Andrus laughed at us.

Sister Opatha and I had a good week in that we helped a lot of our less-actives and investigators. It feels good to know we've helped them develop a habit of scripture study even though they're SO busy, but it's important especially because they're busy. So many of them have these huge hurdles to jump over and it's cool to see how their scripture reading is allowing them to have stronger, self-sustaining testimonies. I hope everyone I've taught can still have their testimony that God lives and Christ is our Savior if everything else in their lives fail. I hope the same for myself, because in the end, that's all we have, right?

Church was miraculously so good. We've been meeting with the presidencies of all the auxiliaries (this week, Sister Opatha and I met with the Primary, Relief Society, and Young Women) for the primary purpose of seeing how each auxiliary can do missionary work, and also earning their trust and support. I also asked the bishopric if we could have 10 minutes of their time during their meeting. It was a little hectic making sure our progress record was flawless and detailed (with specific action items and who we want to carry them out) but they were happy to have us and backed our ideas. I had been pleading in my prayers for it to work. Meeting with all the presidencies has been working because all of the leadership in the ward was very warm and supportive during ward council. It was a huge weight lifted from my shoulders. It was comforting to sit with the Elders and John and feel like this is our team and present our game plan.

We had three potential investigators come to church because other missionaries serving in Singapore brought them. Two guys from Ghana, who asked our roommates on the MRT, "How can I be saved?" and also this gorgeous ex-pat from Vietnam. The general theme during all of our meetings was about missionary work, which means we're seeing the beginnings of the ward culture being changed to be more missionary-minded. Looks like a miracle to me. It's nice because even though these members are so busy and have these daunting personal and family challenges, to me, they are perfect.

And I'm not afraid to promise that if they do missionary work, they will see miracles in their own lives.

Man, I love these people.

One sister said in sacrament meeting, "We have all the truth. It doesn't make us special, it makes us responsible."

I was reading the story about Helaman's stripling warriors this morning, which was exciting because before then I was trudging through the boring war chapters. I got to Alma 57:25 and teared up a little when it talked about how all two thousand of these young men survived the last battle. "Nevertheless, according to the goodness of God, and to our great astonishment, and also to the joy of our whole army, there was not one soul of them who did perish; yea, and neither was there one soul among them who had not received many wounds."

For some reason I immediately thought of my MTC elders, my brothers, and all the other incredible missionaries I've had the privilege of working with. These warriors were young. They were like my friends, and I wondered what hardships my friends have been through since we've been out here. I thought about all the stories of them being mugged, harrassed, crow-barred, and hit by motos, and on top of that everything they sacrificed to be out here and their trials at home. I thought of personal conversion stories and the ones I heard from missionaries this week made me a little achy. Conversion is a painful process. I like what Spence-man wrote to me a few weeks ago, that we're bound to sustain a few wounds. But it's okay because the Lord recognizes our sacrifice and He protects us. So it's all okay. Rub some dirt in it.

How beautiful are the feet in the kampungs of Miri are she who bringeth good tidings of good? Who says, in Iban, "Rajamu hidup. Memang Dia ada!"

I'm going back. Miri, balik kampung!

Yang benar,
Sister Wynn