First full week in East Malaysia

Halo Keluargaku,

The first full week in East Malaysia was awesome! I think I'm adjusting really well here and I love it more all the time. The people here are super friendly, the branch is awesome, and Elder Stewart and I have been getting along really well.

The branch is awesome, although I guess there were a few fewer people there this week "sebab banjir," which happens to mean "because of flood." Turns out it's been raining here a lot for the past week despite all the rumors that I heard that Tawau is a very dry place, and although the regular streets and town area hasn't really had many problems, the "kampungs" where a lot of our members live don't have the best water drainage system. So now I know why all their houses are built up on stilts. Knowing we were likely to have problems, Elder Stewart and I actually went to go get one of our investigators who really needed to come to church this week. So, after wading through knee deep water, enjoying all the time the suprised stares of the people in that kampung (they're not so accustomed to "orang putih" (white people, it's what everyone calls us here) wading through flood in their neighborhood), we finally arrived at our investigators house, only to have her absolutely refuse to come. Many Malaysians are actually kind of scared of rain/flood/water. They're sure if they go out in it, mereka "nanti sakit" (They'll get sick later).

So, East Malaysia is pretty great. My Malay is really coming along. It makes a big difference to get to speak your mission language all the time (fancy that).

Alright, anyway, I'm doing really awesome! Very happy and working hard. Aku belajar macammana cakap Bahasa Melayu! (I'm learning how to speak Malay). Hooray!

Alright, I love you all! The church is true absolutely!

Elder Blissett