Halo Keluargaku,
Well, this is it, the last e-mail! Isn't that crazy? It sure feels wild how fast the time has flown. It's totally unreal to me at this point that I'm even going home though. It still just feels like a regular P-Day. I think it probably won't hit me until I get on the plane. Anyway, it's definitely sad to leave. I think I'll probably end up missing Malaysia and the awesome people here for the rest of my life, but I'm excited to see everyone again and move on with the next phase of my life too. It's just kind of how things go, right? And I'm definitely grateful that just because I get released as a missionary doesn't mean that my missionary work is done! It's one of the great privileges of our lives to get to share the gospel with other people. The Lord always blesses us far more than our investment of time or energy ever warrants. I'm grateful for facebook too! Even going home doesn't mean that I'll have to lose contact with the people back here.
Well, as far as the work, I think we finally found the miracle investigator that we've been looking for for so long. We met this awesome kid from Sabah the other day and had our first sit down lesson with him. He's really great, accepted everything and actually asked us three times to take him to church on Sunday. he's staying with another guy who is really interested in learning too. Both have already kept their commitment to read from the Book of Mormon and it's looking like things are going to work out just great. It's awesome to see one more time how the Lord does his own work. We definitely didn't do anything to warrant getting such an awesome investigator, but sometimes Heavenly Father just gives you a referral and things work out just the way that they should.
In the ongoing chronicles of trying to get all the exotic foods I can before I go home, last week I had stingray! It was actually really delicious, not at all a fishy taste and a great meal. So I think that was the end of my food adventures down here as I don't know any places here in JB where I can finish off my exotic food wish list. I only had two items remaining, "biawak" and "ular sawa" (you can look those up in google translator if you really want to know what they are :D), but I guess I'll just have to save those for another adventure.
We're going up to KL for one more meeting tomorrow, and then it will be off to Singapore on Monday for exit interviews and our final dinner with President Clark. Tuesday morning we get on the plane and we're off to America (I can't believe you knew about my flight plans two months ago! I'm glad you didn't mention it to me at that point actually :D).
In the end, I already miss Malaysia, but I've had an awesome mission (more than I ever earned). I'm so grateful that I've been able to be part of the Lord's work in building up the kingdom in some small way out here. It's been the greatest privilege of my life to be a full-time missionary! I love this gospel and I've loved sharing it with other people. Thanks so much for all of your support back home. I couldn't have made it without all of you!
I love you all so much! See you in a week!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
Ulat
Halo Keluargaku,
I have my flight plans! Wild, huh? The rest of the elders actually got theirs a while ago, so I started to worry if something was wrong when I didn't get mine until just last week. But now it's officially confirmed. I'll be arriving home in Salt Lake City at 2:40 PM on Tuesday, August 16. Not too far away, huh? In fact, this is the second to last e-mail I'll be sending home from the mission field. I'll be leaving Singapore early Tuesday morning and flying to Tokyo, then from Tokyo I go to Los Angeles and from Los Angeles head up to Salt Lake. It's wild that things are all winding down, but I've had a great time out here and we have definitely stayed very busy getting everyone oriented in the new area before I head back.
I finally completed one of my biggest crazy mission food goals. This last week we met up with one of the members of the branch and ate "ulat." Do you remember that part in the Lion King when Timon and Pumba eat those big grubs from the tree stumps. Yup, these are something like that. I think in English they are called something like "sego worms," but to describe them they're basically these big fat white grub looking things with this soft rubbery skin. They contract their whole bodies to move, and look thoroughly disgusting! We totally ate them! I found out not to long ago that you can buy them at an Iban outdoor market here in JB and we finally managed to do it this last week. An Iban member taught us how to cook them (which basically just involved frying them up with some onions) and we all enjoyed a nice snack at his house. The biggest surprise of all? They actaully taste good! Really! You pick them up by their little head/jaw parts and bite off the head. Their skin has a really rubbery texture and, as our member always tells us, the inside has a liquid that is "like milk!" So, that was a lot of fun, and no one ended up getting at all sick. A win/win, right? :D (I have pictures, but didn't bring my cable to send them, so I'll just have to show you when I get home).
We're having a lot of fun getting the area together and ready for my departure. We're working with lots of good potentials and the work shows some great signs for the future.I love it so much here. It will be hard to leave, but I'm looking forward to everything ahead too!
I love you all so much! I'll see you at 2:40 on August 16!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
I have my flight plans! Wild, huh? The rest of the elders actually got theirs a while ago, so I started to worry if something was wrong when I didn't get mine until just last week. But now it's officially confirmed. I'll be arriving home in Salt Lake City at 2:40 PM on Tuesday, August 16. Not too far away, huh? In fact, this is the second to last e-mail I'll be sending home from the mission field. I'll be leaving Singapore early Tuesday morning and flying to Tokyo, then from Tokyo I go to Los Angeles and from Los Angeles head up to Salt Lake. It's wild that things are all winding down, but I've had a great time out here and we have definitely stayed very busy getting everyone oriented in the new area before I head back.
I finally completed one of my biggest crazy mission food goals. This last week we met up with one of the members of the branch and ate "ulat." Do you remember that part in the Lion King when Timon and Pumba eat those big grubs from the tree stumps. Yup, these are something like that. I think in English they are called something like "sego worms," but to describe them they're basically these big fat white grub looking things with this soft rubbery skin. They contract their whole bodies to move, and look thoroughly disgusting! We totally ate them! I found out not to long ago that you can buy them at an Iban outdoor market here in JB and we finally managed to do it this last week. An Iban member taught us how to cook them (which basically just involved frying them up with some onions) and we all enjoyed a nice snack at his house. The biggest surprise of all? They actaully taste good! Really! You pick them up by their little head/jaw parts and bite off the head. Their skin has a really rubbery texture and, as our member always tells us, the inside has a liquid that is "like milk!" So, that was a lot of fun, and no one ended up getting at all sick. A win/win, right? :D (I have pictures, but didn't bring my cable to send them, so I'll just have to show you when I get home).
We're having a lot of fun getting the area together and ready for my departure. We're working with lots of good potentials and the work shows some great signs for the future.I love it so much here. It will be hard to leave, but I'm looking forward to everything ahead too!
I love you all so much! I'll see you at 2:40 on August 16!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
New Companions...Again!
Halo Keluargaku,
Well, in the ongoing chronicles of "Elder Blissett Can't Manage to Hang on to a Companion," I'm getting *two* new companions this week! That's right, this last Saturday we found out that not only was my companion Elder Christensen getting transferred, but actually everyone in my district except for me is moving out, one back to America, and two to Sarawak. Crazy, huh? I'm actually really excited though. The new elders in the house should be really fun and it will be a great way to finish off. I guess they're giving the newly split branches a fresh start with a whole new set of elders. The transfer was actually sparked by the huge influx of elders we're getting today though (19 new missionaries! that breaks the previous record of 16 for the largest group to come in at once), and so we'll also have the joy of having two brand new elders in the house and two elders who have been out just a little over a year to train them. It should be a blast in short. So I'll be in a threesome. My new companion Elder Gallinger is kind of the designated trainer for the new guy we'll be with, and Elder Goering (one of my favorite elders) is coming down here to train too. So, kind of a complicated transfer, but it basically means that everything down here is different now and kind of my new job is to get everyone oriented and off to a good start before I head back!
So, that was definitely the biggest news of the week. We're heading into Singapore today to pick up the new guys. There will be so many elders headed into Singapore that they actually won't have room for everyone to sleep though, so the rumor is that they're going to put us up at a nice hotel near to the church. So it should be a lot of fun. A good chance to see everyone that I haven't seen for a while and some nice classic training to go along with it.
Well, I can tell that the e-mail up to now must be pretty confusing to read, but I've actually just found out about all of this in the last couple of days and haven't really sorted everything out yet either. It's alright though, we're just going to figure it out as we go along and have a good time doing it! :D
As far as the work goes, we actually had a pretty good week last week and have found a lot of good potentials that I'm excited to start working with. It's kind of crazy right now with all the changes going on, but I think we'll be able to get some good people on baptismal date before I leave, so I'm really looking forward to that. There's nothing better than being involved in the work of the Lord.
It's going to be a whirlwind last couple of weeks, but that's really good. It means I'll stay busy. There's a lot left to do here!
In the end I'm working hard, I'm loving my mission and I can't wait to help these new elders get a good start too.
I love you all so much! I'm so glad to hear that everything is going well at home. Thanks for all your support
I love you!
Elder Blissett
Well, in the ongoing chronicles of "Elder Blissett Can't Manage to Hang on to a Companion," I'm getting *two* new companions this week! That's right, this last Saturday we found out that not only was my companion Elder Christensen getting transferred, but actually everyone in my district except for me is moving out, one back to America, and two to Sarawak. Crazy, huh? I'm actually really excited though. The new elders in the house should be really fun and it will be a great way to finish off. I guess they're giving the newly split branches a fresh start with a whole new set of elders. The transfer was actually sparked by the huge influx of elders we're getting today though (19 new missionaries! that breaks the previous record of 16 for the largest group to come in at once), and so we'll also have the joy of having two brand new elders in the house and two elders who have been out just a little over a year to train them. It should be a blast in short. So I'll be in a threesome. My new companion Elder Gallinger is kind of the designated trainer for the new guy we'll be with, and Elder Goering (one of my favorite elders) is coming down here to train too. So, kind of a complicated transfer, but it basically means that everything down here is different now and kind of my new job is to get everyone oriented and off to a good start before I head back!
So, that was definitely the biggest news of the week. We're heading into Singapore today to pick up the new guys. There will be so many elders headed into Singapore that they actually won't have room for everyone to sleep though, so the rumor is that they're going to put us up at a nice hotel near to the church. So it should be a lot of fun. A good chance to see everyone that I haven't seen for a while and some nice classic training to go along with it.
Well, I can tell that the e-mail up to now must be pretty confusing to read, but I've actually just found out about all of this in the last couple of days and haven't really sorted everything out yet either. It's alright though, we're just going to figure it out as we go along and have a good time doing it! :D
As far as the work goes, we actually had a pretty good week last week and have found a lot of good potentials that I'm excited to start working with. It's kind of crazy right now with all the changes going on, but I think we'll be able to get some good people on baptismal date before I leave, so I'm really looking forward to that. There's nothing better than being involved in the work of the Lord.
It's going to be a whirlwind last couple of weeks, but that's really good. It means I'll stay busy. There's a lot left to do here!
In the end I'm working hard, I'm loving my mission and I can't wait to help these new elders get a good start too.
I love you all so much! I'm so glad to hear that everything is going well at home. Thanks for all your support
I love you!
Elder Blissett
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