I don't know if you can quite get the full effect from pictures, but suffice it to say my shoes were not doing well.
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Shoes HeHeHeHe LOL HaHa
I don't know if you can quite get the full effect from pictures, but suffice it to say my shoes were not doing well.
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Hari Raya
Halo Keluargaku,
Selamat Hari Raya! Yes, that's right, this last weekend was Hari Raya time here in Tawau, which turned out to be pretty fun. You could just tell a lot of people were really excited about it, and Saturday night we were even invited over to go eat at a Hari Raya party a nice Malay man was holding. It was quite delicious, and good times were had by all. It turns out Hari Raya actually lasts for an entire month (a surprise to me!), but most of the celebrating happens in the first three days, so things are starting to get back to normal.
So tomorrow we're headed to KK for Zone Conference immediately followed by district conference which should be absolutely awesome. Ironically one of the things I'm looking forward to the most is eating some delicious McDonalds. I never thought I'd say something like that, but you'd be surprised how much you start to miss fries, a burger and a soda. Even McDonalds is like heaven after a while. But, the training is always the best part, so it should turn out to be a really great weekend.
We spent a lot of time knocking this last week which is something we haven't had to do a lot of in a while. It's good for you every once in a while though and our teaching pool was running a little low so we got out there and covered some ground. It's funny, the things that you once hated doing so much (and believe me, no missionary likes to knock. At least no missionary I've ever met) get so much better when you get out there and just do it. Even knocking isn't that bad, and it sure makes building up a habit of journal writing or any good habit a lot easier. So, we're learning some new contacting skills and seeing more success everytime we get out. Tawau has been a real crucible, but it's been the best experience of my mission. I'll really miss it when I have to go.
So, we're doing well way out here on the edge of the world. Elder Whittaker's Malay is getting awesome and it't been really fun to get to teach together more and more. We're a good companionship.
So, things are going well. I'm loving the scriptures more than ever. I've been skimming through a lot of the old testament and just studying some good foundational stuff and absolutely loving it. The Pearl of Great Price is the best. It's amazing how much more we know because of our modern prophets. Guidance from a living prophet is the best thing about the church. When we follow the prophet we'll never go astray.
I love you all so much! I love this church. It's so good to just have a pure source of truth to be able to go to everyday. My mission has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. Missionary work is the best!
Love you all! Talk to you soon!
Elder Blissett
Selamat Hari Raya! Yes, that's right, this last weekend was Hari Raya time here in Tawau, which turned out to be pretty fun. You could just tell a lot of people were really excited about it, and Saturday night we were even invited over to go eat at a Hari Raya party a nice Malay man was holding. It was quite delicious, and good times were had by all. It turns out Hari Raya actually lasts for an entire month (a surprise to me!), but most of the celebrating happens in the first three days, so things are starting to get back to normal.
So tomorrow we're headed to KK for Zone Conference immediately followed by district conference which should be absolutely awesome. Ironically one of the things I'm looking forward to the most is eating some delicious McDonalds. I never thought I'd say something like that, but you'd be surprised how much you start to miss fries, a burger and a soda. Even McDonalds is like heaven after a while. But, the training is always the best part, so it should turn out to be a really great weekend.
We spent a lot of time knocking this last week which is something we haven't had to do a lot of in a while. It's good for you every once in a while though and our teaching pool was running a little low so we got out there and covered some ground. It's funny, the things that you once hated doing so much (and believe me, no missionary likes to knock. At least no missionary I've ever met) get so much better when you get out there and just do it. Even knocking isn't that bad, and it sure makes building up a habit of journal writing or any good habit a lot easier. So, we're learning some new contacting skills and seeing more success everytime we get out. Tawau has been a real crucible, but it's been the best experience of my mission. I'll really miss it when I have to go.
So, we're doing well way out here on the edge of the world. Elder Whittaker's Malay is getting awesome and it't been really fun to get to teach together more and more. We're a good companionship.
So, things are going well. I'm loving the scriptures more than ever. I've been skimming through a lot of the old testament and just studying some good foundational stuff and absolutely loving it. The Pearl of Great Price is the best. It's amazing how much more we know because of our modern prophets. Guidance from a living prophet is the best thing about the church. When we follow the prophet we'll never go astray.
I love you all so much! I love this church. It's so good to just have a pure source of truth to be able to go to everyday. My mission has been one of the greatest blessings of my life. Missionary work is the best!
Love you all! Talk to you soon!
Elder Blissett
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Blessings Follow Obedience
Halo Keluargaku,
Interesting that you asked about my shoes after the mud actually. The mud really hasn't had any effect on them, however a year of hard missionary labor definitely has. The tops and most of the soles are actually ok (if not a little bit thinner than when I got started), but for some reason the heels have gotten absolutely dominated and although they still look ok for everyone else to see, the bottoms of them are like... I don't know, kind of crumbling away. My shoes learned a new trick! If there's any kind of moisture on the ground they've somehow developed a system of sucking it up through the heel of my sock to get just the heel of my sock wet. Neat, huh? :D The good news is I actually still have an almost brand new pair of shoes waiting for me in Singapore. When I got transferred to Malaysia I just took one pair of shoes because of weight and space, so the second pair are actually waiting all nice and cosy in my suitcase in Singapore with only two months of light use. So, I just have to get to them! I was going to grab them during this huge missionary meeting, but they told us we couldn't take anything out of storage, so I'll just grab them next time I go to Singapore (so no need to send any new shoes!). So, just have to make sure I take care of these for a little while longer. It's actually kind of fun to be wearing out a pair of shoes though, makes you feel like you're working hard!
This week in Tawau was actually really great! Actually, in terms of numbers I think it was easily our best week ever as a companionship and this week has potential to be even better. So that's really exciting! We have at least one person who is looking really solid for baptism in early october (we'd do it sooner, but she's actually in West Malaysia getting married right now! What can you do...), so there's a few other possibilities who are looking really good. So, exciting to say the least. Ironically, it's been such a blessing to have kind of a slower time on my mission, it's taught me so much about patience and humility and preparation, not to mention doing wonders for teaching and contacting skills, but I'm about ready to start seeing people get baptized too. So, glad to see we probably won't have to wait that long. Pray for our investigators!
We have district conference and zone conference coming up together in about two weeks, which means we'll be spending about four days in Kota Kinabalu which should be really fun. KK is the capital of Sabah and is actually a really beautiful city. I think a lot of the most famous beaches in Malaysia (and some of the only really pretty ones) are there, so it attracts a pretty good number of tourists, but is mostly just a nice, good sized city. I never realized quite how much of a city person I was until I came out on my mission, but, I have to admit, I miss seeing cities even the size of Provo and definitely miss good ol' SLC.
Our Zone Leaders informed us of (what I think) is a pretty significant mission policy change again this week. There's been a lot of those lately. This one might not be as significant to you as it was for me, but I thought it was cool. Most missions in the world (as far as I know) have what's called the mission standard of excellence, which is kind of like a standard for key indicators each area in the mission should be striving to achieve (this many member presents, this many new investigators, this many baptisms). It's not a quota, but it's kind of just a goal to let you know what's kind of expected of you. Anyway, this last week the Zone Leaders informed us that because almost every area in our mission is so different from the others, instead of a mission standard of excellence, President decided that every area in the mission should have their own individual expectations as determined by the Zone Leaders. So, it's a big step forward. Our new expectations feel a lot more achievable and motivating, not to mention helping me feel a little bit better about the work we've done here so far. It's tough to set a standard expectation when each area of the mission not only kind of has a culture of its own, but also an entirely different style of doing missionary work. So, we're happy about it!
Other than that, it's school holidays right now because Hari Raya is coming up this week! Hari Raya is a pretty big holiday here, that, as far as I understand it, marks the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan (spelling?), which is a month of fasting. That means that for all of the last month, none of the muslims here in Tawau have been eating or drinking during daylight hours. Not an easy task when you're in the oppressive Malaysian heat all day and can't get a drink of water. So, you can imagine, Hari Raya is supposed to be a huge party with a mighty good helping of eating. So we're looking forward to it, should be fun!
For some reason this last week I've been really impressed with just how much the Lord blesses us for even the smallest obediences to the commandments. I'm not sure what reminded me of that, but it's been a really powerful idea for me. Heavenly Father loves us so much, that even though we constantly fall short and make mistakes and lose our perspective, any time we manage to do any little thing that's right, he blesses us so enormously. I think one good scriptural example is Laman and Lemuel. Laman and Lemuel did almost nothing but complain and cause problems for their family for pretty much their entire lives as far as the scriptures show, and yet the Lord still blessed them immensely for what must have been pretty minor obediences. First off, He let them live, giving them breath from moment to moment. Then He gave them an awesome family who continually strove to bring them back on the straight and narrow. Then He let them go to the promised land and receive lands there. Then, at the end of the story, it was Laman and Lemuel's seed that ended up surviving by the end of the Book of Mormon, even longer than righteous Nephi's. That's a lot of pretty huge blessings for people who don't seem to have much desire to do what's right! It's the same in our lives I think. Sure we're lazy and judgmental and selfish, but we do go to church and say our prayers and pay our tithing and the Lord gives us incredible blessings for it. For me, just being on a mission is a bigger blessing than I think I ever merited, and it's that's just the beginning of all the things I've received. The Lord really does love us, and any time it's hard to keep a commandment, I think for me it's recently become incredibly important just to remember that the Lord always gives us far more in return than we ever give up.
So, the work is going well. Malaysia is still awesome, and I don't think there's anywhere in the mission I'd rather be than Tawau right now. It's one awesome area. We're loving it and doing our best to help move the kingdom forward.
I love you all so much. I love this work and I love this church. I know it's true and I'm so grateful to have the chance to come out here and share it with others full-time. The church is true!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Interesting that you asked about my shoes after the mud actually. The mud really hasn't had any effect on them, however a year of hard missionary labor definitely has. The tops and most of the soles are actually ok (if not a little bit thinner than when I got started), but for some reason the heels have gotten absolutely dominated and although they still look ok for everyone else to see, the bottoms of them are like... I don't know, kind of crumbling away. My shoes learned a new trick! If there's any kind of moisture on the ground they've somehow developed a system of sucking it up through the heel of my sock to get just the heel of my sock wet. Neat, huh? :D The good news is I actually still have an almost brand new pair of shoes waiting for me in Singapore. When I got transferred to Malaysia I just took one pair of shoes because of weight and space, so the second pair are actually waiting all nice and cosy in my suitcase in Singapore with only two months of light use. So, I just have to get to them! I was going to grab them during this huge missionary meeting, but they told us we couldn't take anything out of storage, so I'll just grab them next time I go to Singapore (so no need to send any new shoes!). So, just have to make sure I take care of these for a little while longer. It's actually kind of fun to be wearing out a pair of shoes though, makes you feel like you're working hard!
This week in Tawau was actually really great! Actually, in terms of numbers I think it was easily our best week ever as a companionship and this week has potential to be even better. So that's really exciting! We have at least one person who is looking really solid for baptism in early october (we'd do it sooner, but she's actually in West Malaysia getting married right now! What can you do...), so there's a few other possibilities who are looking really good. So, exciting to say the least. Ironically, it's been such a blessing to have kind of a slower time on my mission, it's taught me so much about patience and humility and preparation, not to mention doing wonders for teaching and contacting skills, but I'm about ready to start seeing people get baptized too. So, glad to see we probably won't have to wait that long. Pray for our investigators!
We have district conference and zone conference coming up together in about two weeks, which means we'll be spending about four days in Kota Kinabalu which should be really fun. KK is the capital of Sabah and is actually a really beautiful city. I think a lot of the most famous beaches in Malaysia (and some of the only really pretty ones) are there, so it attracts a pretty good number of tourists, but is mostly just a nice, good sized city. I never realized quite how much of a city person I was until I came out on my mission, but, I have to admit, I miss seeing cities even the size of Provo and definitely miss good ol' SLC.
Our Zone Leaders informed us of (what I think) is a pretty significant mission policy change again this week. There's been a lot of those lately. This one might not be as significant to you as it was for me, but I thought it was cool. Most missions in the world (as far as I know) have what's called the mission standard of excellence, which is kind of like a standard for key indicators each area in the mission should be striving to achieve (this many member presents, this many new investigators, this many baptisms). It's not a quota, but it's kind of just a goal to let you know what's kind of expected of you. Anyway, this last week the Zone Leaders informed us that because almost every area in our mission is so different from the others, instead of a mission standard of excellence, President decided that every area in the mission should have their own individual expectations as determined by the Zone Leaders. So, it's a big step forward. Our new expectations feel a lot more achievable and motivating, not to mention helping me feel a little bit better about the work we've done here so far. It's tough to set a standard expectation when each area of the mission not only kind of has a culture of its own, but also an entirely different style of doing missionary work. So, we're happy about it!
Other than that, it's school holidays right now because Hari Raya is coming up this week! Hari Raya is a pretty big holiday here, that, as far as I understand it, marks the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan (spelling?), which is a month of fasting. That means that for all of the last month, none of the muslims here in Tawau have been eating or drinking during daylight hours. Not an easy task when you're in the oppressive Malaysian heat all day and can't get a drink of water. So, you can imagine, Hari Raya is supposed to be a huge party with a mighty good helping of eating. So we're looking forward to it, should be fun!
For some reason this last week I've been really impressed with just how much the Lord blesses us for even the smallest obediences to the commandments. I'm not sure what reminded me of that, but it's been a really powerful idea for me. Heavenly Father loves us so much, that even though we constantly fall short and make mistakes and lose our perspective, any time we manage to do any little thing that's right, he blesses us so enormously. I think one good scriptural example is Laman and Lemuel. Laman and Lemuel did almost nothing but complain and cause problems for their family for pretty much their entire lives as far as the scriptures show, and yet the Lord still blessed them immensely for what must have been pretty minor obediences. First off, He let them live, giving them breath from moment to moment. Then He gave them an awesome family who continually strove to bring them back on the straight and narrow. Then He let them go to the promised land and receive lands there. Then, at the end of the story, it was Laman and Lemuel's seed that ended up surviving by the end of the Book of Mormon, even longer than righteous Nephi's. That's a lot of pretty huge blessings for people who don't seem to have much desire to do what's right! It's the same in our lives I think. Sure we're lazy and judgmental and selfish, but we do go to church and say our prayers and pay our tithing and the Lord gives us incredible blessings for it. For me, just being on a mission is a bigger blessing than I think I ever merited, and it's that's just the beginning of all the things I've received. The Lord really does love us, and any time it's hard to keep a commandment, I think for me it's recently become incredibly important just to remember that the Lord always gives us far more in return than we ever give up.
So, the work is going well. Malaysia is still awesome, and I don't think there's anywhere in the mission I'd rather be than Tawau right now. It's one awesome area. We're loving it and doing our best to help move the kingdom forward.
I love you all so much. I love this work and I love this church. I know it's true and I'm so grateful to have the chance to come out here and share it with others full-time. The church is true!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Hump Day!
Halo Keluargaku,
I can't believe it's been a year either. Actually, I still technicallyhave one day left, but the more I think about it the crazier the idea gets. I can't believe that it was a full year ago that I stepped out of the car and into the MTC, or that in one more year I'll be stepping off the plane and into Salt Lake! What a crazy thought! But, I think it keeps me motivated too. It's a little sad to think I only have a year left, but I think I can work twice as hard in this second year asthe first and everything will work out just fine. Just crazy, but pretty fun too.
The rain is always so nice. I love to see the storms rolling in here in Malaysia. The thunder and lightening can be pretty amazing, and it always feels so cozy if you can manage to be somewhere safe during the storms. This last week we actually had some pretty major flooding all over different parts of Tawau. Church attendance was a little low because of it (lots of members seem to enjoy living next to rivers. If it was me, no thanks!), but overall the rain turns out to be pretty fun. In the road in front of our house the drains where normally all rain the drains down to were actually working in reverse and spewing water out to flood the whole road. The was actually a piece of the sidewalk with water bursting out of it like a small fountain. Pretty crazy, but lots of fun.
It actually ended up holding another surprise for us just yesterday too. All the flooding had subsided and I actually kind of forgot it even happened at all. So, we're taking a "shortcut" to get to member's house when we come to a really small stream. More like a trickle. Less than a foot wide, a tiny little thing. So, anyway, I step out to take a small hop onto the opposite bank, land nicely and, surprise, am immediately sucked into the ground up to my knees. It turns out the sturdy looking bank was actually a 2-3 foot deposit of soft, freshly flooded mud. So, after finding a board to help me get out (I couldn't step anywhere near me without sinking into more mud, so I required a little additional assistance), a friendly nearby man helped me get my shoes and socks and legs and pants sprayed off so I could get back on the bus to go home and get cleaned up. It was a mess. There was another guy who saw what happened with one of the biggest smiles I've seen on a Malaysian. He just couldn't stop laughing, and who can blame him. It's not everyday you see an orang putih (white guy) crossing through your back yard and getting stuck up to his knees in mud. They just kept asking, "kenapa kamu limpas sini? Ada jalan sana." (why didyou cross through here? There's a road over there). So, that was fun. A good story, right? :D
Other than that, things are going pretty average. The new training we got from President was awesome, and I think already the quality of our lessons is going way up. And, something else happened! One of the fairly recent converts here has randomly given us 8 referrals in the last week. It was so crazy, but such a blessing. Everything is better if you can get a referral, so hopefully we'll be able to baptize several of these! Awesome.
Other than that, still just working hard, learning everyday and loving it. Missionary work is the best. Once you get a taste for it you just find you don't ever want to stop.
Love you all so much! Elder Whittaker's doing good! We're loving it out here.
Love you!
Elder Blissett
I can't believe it's been a year either. Actually, I still technicallyhave one day left, but the more I think about it the crazier the idea gets. I can't believe that it was a full year ago that I stepped out of the car and into the MTC, or that in one more year I'll be stepping off the plane and into Salt Lake! What a crazy thought! But, I think it keeps me motivated too. It's a little sad to think I only have a year left, but I think I can work twice as hard in this second year asthe first and everything will work out just fine. Just crazy, but pretty fun too.
The rain is always so nice. I love to see the storms rolling in here in Malaysia. The thunder and lightening can be pretty amazing, and it always feels so cozy if you can manage to be somewhere safe during the storms. This last week we actually had some pretty major flooding all over different parts of Tawau. Church attendance was a little low because of it (lots of members seem to enjoy living next to rivers. If it was me, no thanks!), but overall the rain turns out to be pretty fun. In the road in front of our house the drains where normally all rain the drains down to were actually working in reverse and spewing water out to flood the whole road. The was actually a piece of the sidewalk with water bursting out of it like a small fountain. Pretty crazy, but lots of fun.
It actually ended up holding another surprise for us just yesterday too. All the flooding had subsided and I actually kind of forgot it even happened at all. So, we're taking a "shortcut" to get to member's house when we come to a really small stream. More like a trickle. Less than a foot wide, a tiny little thing. So, anyway, I step out to take a small hop onto the opposite bank, land nicely and, surprise, am immediately sucked into the ground up to my knees. It turns out the sturdy looking bank was actually a 2-3 foot deposit of soft, freshly flooded mud. So, after finding a board to help me get out (I couldn't step anywhere near me without sinking into more mud, so I required a little additional assistance), a friendly nearby man helped me get my shoes and socks and legs and pants sprayed off so I could get back on the bus to go home and get cleaned up. It was a mess. There was another guy who saw what happened with one of the biggest smiles I've seen on a Malaysian. He just couldn't stop laughing, and who can blame him. It's not everyday you see an orang putih (white guy) crossing through your back yard and getting stuck up to his knees in mud. They just kept asking, "kenapa kamu limpas sini? Ada jalan sana." (why didyou cross through here? There's a road over there). So, that was fun. A good story, right? :D
Other than that, things are going pretty average. The new training we got from President was awesome, and I think already the quality of our lessons is going way up. And, something else happened! One of the fairly recent converts here has randomly given us 8 referrals in the last week. It was so crazy, but such a blessing. Everything is better if you can get a referral, so hopefully we'll be able to baptize several of these! Awesome.
Other than that, still just working hard, learning everyday and loving it. Missionary work is the best. Once you get a taste for it you just find you don't ever want to stop.
Love you all so much! Elder Whittaker's doing good! We're loving it out here.
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Friday, August 27, 2010
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Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Training in Singapore
Halo Keluargaku,
So, here I am in Singapore for the first (and probably only) all mission conference ever! I can't remember if I mentioned this was going to happen, but the entire mission (all 80 missionaries of us. Malaysia is totally empty of missionaries) is in Singapore right now for four days doing a brand new training from the first presidency called the "simplified curriculum."
So, totally awesome! It's perfect too right before the mission split to get to see everyone for one huge last hurrah! So, we're just hanging out, doing tons of training and kind of enjoying each others company for one of our last runs to Singapore. With the new visas, they should be getting rarer and rarer. The new training is interesting. Nothing really earth shattering, but just kind of eight teaching principles that we're supposed to focus on a lot more that hopefully will make a pretty good difference in the results we see.
Hey, I have some other random great news I heard the other day. They're officially teaching Malay at the MTC! Hooray! We're finally getting a little bit of acknowledgment. Apparently we're still looking at about three years before we get a Book of Mormon, but this is definitely a huge step forward. The Singapore mission is moving up in the world! So, to meet with our new transfer schedule (we're going to get on a twelve week transfer cycle apparently), they're changing the language program to only six weeks, aaand they've separated us from the Indonesian missionaries. Good deal.
I got to go around on kind of exchanges with Elder Skanchy (our new AP) the other night. He actually went to East High and lives up by Steiner, so it was pretty fun to get to remember home a little bit with him. I actually met Elder Wheelright too the other day during training, who is the Prout's grandson. So, lots of random connections to home this last week.
Tawau is doing well. We had to miss church there this week to fly to Singapore which was a *huge* bummer (it's funny, before my mission I never would have guessed how important it would be to have missionaries at church), but during training here we're getting a lot of new ideas that I think are really going to help out. We've just got so much potential, and I think the longer I'm there the better things will get. Apparently President is very committed to trying to keep us in our areas 6-8 months now though so I should have plenty of time to get everything figured out.
It's funny though, as slow as things get I absolutely love Tawau. It's just a fun area with great members, and everyday is kind of an adventure out there. So, I'm doing well too.
I'm hitting my year mark next year. I don't know if I have any shirts or anything I can afford to burn, but, we'll have to find some kind of way of commemorating it. (Fire is definitely not a huge danger though. Any building of size in Malaysia is built almost completely out of cement. They're working on getting more fire alarms out into the missionary apartments, but, honestly I don't know if we could light our apartment on fire if we wanted! Maybe the couches!) I can't believe how fast it's gone, but, shockingly enough, as much as I miss home I find myself kind of wishing this second half will go a little slower. I'm just finally starting to love the work, and the thought that would end too quickly kills me!
But, I'm doing great and loving the work. The church is so true and such a huge blessing to have in our lives. There's just nothing else like it in all the world. It's a truly inspired organization from the very bottom to the very top, and I love being a part of it. It's a miracle that they assign the responsibility for taking the lead on the missionary efforts to nineteen year old kids, but the bigger miracle is exactly how well it works. I promise we perform above our natural abilities, and it's so good to know that whoever looks like they're in charge, the Lord is always the one behind the scenes making everything work. It's awesome to be here during a time of so much change, but every time a big one comes it just becomes so much more obvious how inspired President Clark is in leading our mission. Good to know we're in the Lord's hands.
I love you all so much. Thanks so much for your support, and it's always so good to hear you're all doing well too!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
So, here I am in Singapore for the first (and probably only) all mission conference ever! I can't remember if I mentioned this was going to happen, but the entire mission (all 80 missionaries of us. Malaysia is totally empty of missionaries) is in Singapore right now for four days doing a brand new training from the first presidency called the "simplified curriculum."
So, totally awesome! It's perfect too right before the mission split to get to see everyone for one huge last hurrah! So, we're just hanging out, doing tons of training and kind of enjoying each others company for one of our last runs to Singapore. With the new visas, they should be getting rarer and rarer. The new training is interesting. Nothing really earth shattering, but just kind of eight teaching principles that we're supposed to focus on a lot more that hopefully will make a pretty good difference in the results we see.
Hey, I have some other random great news I heard the other day. They're officially teaching Malay at the MTC! Hooray! We're finally getting a little bit of acknowledgment. Apparently we're still looking at about three years before we get a Book of Mormon, but this is definitely a huge step forward. The Singapore mission is moving up in the world! So, to meet with our new transfer schedule (we're going to get on a twelve week transfer cycle apparently), they're changing the language program to only six weeks, aaand they've separated us from the Indonesian missionaries. Good deal.
I got to go around on kind of exchanges with Elder Skanchy (our new AP) the other night. He actually went to East High and lives up by Steiner, so it was pretty fun to get to remember home a little bit with him. I actually met Elder Wheelright too the other day during training, who is the Prout's grandson. So, lots of random connections to home this last week.
Tawau is doing well. We had to miss church there this week to fly to Singapore which was a *huge* bummer (it's funny, before my mission I never would have guessed how important it would be to have missionaries at church), but during training here we're getting a lot of new ideas that I think are really going to help out. We've just got so much potential, and I think the longer I'm there the better things will get. Apparently President is very committed to trying to keep us in our areas 6-8 months now though so I should have plenty of time to get everything figured out.
It's funny though, as slow as things get I absolutely love Tawau. It's just a fun area with great members, and everyday is kind of an adventure out there. So, I'm doing well too.
I'm hitting my year mark next year. I don't know if I have any shirts or anything I can afford to burn, but, we'll have to find some kind of way of commemorating it. (Fire is definitely not a huge danger though. Any building of size in Malaysia is built almost completely out of cement. They're working on getting more fire alarms out into the missionary apartments, but, honestly I don't know if we could light our apartment on fire if we wanted! Maybe the couches!) I can't believe how fast it's gone, but, shockingly enough, as much as I miss home I find myself kind of wishing this second half will go a little slower. I'm just finally starting to love the work, and the thought that would end too quickly kills me!
But, I'm doing great and loving the work. The church is so true and such a huge blessing to have in our lives. There's just nothing else like it in all the world. It's a truly inspired organization from the very bottom to the very top, and I love being a part of it. It's a miracle that they assign the responsibility for taking the lead on the missionary efforts to nineteen year old kids, but the bigger miracle is exactly how well it works. I promise we perform above our natural abilities, and it's so good to know that whoever looks like they're in charge, the Lord is always the one behind the scenes making everything work. It's awesome to be here during a time of so much change, but every time a big one comes it just becomes so much more obvious how inspired President Clark is in leading our mission. Good to know we're in the Lord's hands.
I love you all so much. Thanks so much for your support, and it's always so good to hear you're all doing well too!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Coming up on the year mark
Halo Keluargaku,
Thanks for all the information on the mudskippers. That sounds like exactly what they are! In fact I remembered after reading that article we even saw them flipping and rolling around trying to stay wet. Just such a crazy animal...
Well, I've been a little bit sick again, which is bad, but not bad enough to keep us from getting out and working which is good. It feels like I've been sick more than normal on my mission. Maybe it's just that I notice it a lot more now though when it affects so much of your daily activities.
Other than that the week has been pretty good though. I did get your package, thank you so much! We're just about to run go watch the movies you sent and I'm really, really excited for it. The candy is awesome too though! I don't know if you really remember or noticed, but the starbursts you sent are actually sour and sweet kinds. Well, as soon as I opened up the bag I grabbed one of the green ones (a sour one) and popped it in my mouth only to be completely overcome with sourness. Seriously, I almost couldn't keep it in my mouth. So I called to Elder Whittaker and said, "Elder, you have to try one of these. These are the most sour thing I've ever tasted." Elder Whittaker, after trying one just kind of looked at me and said "Elder, you've been in Malaysia for too long." Malaysians don't really do sweet or sour, so I guess after living here for almost a year I've started to lose some of my tolerance. Anyway, that was a lot of fun, and now I've started to get a little bit more used to them.
The work is still going pretty well. I'd keep your more updated on our investigators, but things change so much from week to week that it's almost impossible to keep up. But, things are going well, ****, a Filipino lady here and someone who's kind of starting to be a long term investigator is on baptismal date and really is just super ready for the church. She loves the church magazines, and I think she understands more than some of the members here how important and awesome it is to get to go to the temple and be sealed to your family forever. So, hopefully before long she'll be baptized. Her husband has been a bit of struggle to meet with, but we've even been able to make some progress with him in the last week.
So, things are going well. We're working hard and enjoying it, and I think that's really about all you can ask for as a missionary. I love this work. I know the church is true and the more we dive into it, the more obvious that becomes.
I love you so much! Thank you so much for all your support. I really can feel it all the way down here in Malaysia, especially when times are tough. I'm coming up on my year mark, isn't that crazy? I think two weeks left to go. Crazy...
Love you so much!
Elder Blissett
Thanks for all the information on the mudskippers. That sounds like exactly what they are! In fact I remembered after reading that article we even saw them flipping and rolling around trying to stay wet. Just such a crazy animal...
Well, I've been a little bit sick again, which is bad, but not bad enough to keep us from getting out and working which is good. It feels like I've been sick more than normal on my mission. Maybe it's just that I notice it a lot more now though when it affects so much of your daily activities.
Other than that the week has been pretty good though. I did get your package, thank you so much! We're just about to run go watch the movies you sent and I'm really, really excited for it. The candy is awesome too though! I don't know if you really remember or noticed, but the starbursts you sent are actually sour and sweet kinds. Well, as soon as I opened up the bag I grabbed one of the green ones (a sour one) and popped it in my mouth only to be completely overcome with sourness. Seriously, I almost couldn't keep it in my mouth. So I called to Elder Whittaker and said, "Elder, you have to try one of these. These are the most sour thing I've ever tasted." Elder Whittaker, after trying one just kind of looked at me and said "Elder, you've been in Malaysia for too long." Malaysians don't really do sweet or sour, so I guess after living here for almost a year I've started to lose some of my tolerance. Anyway, that was a lot of fun, and now I've started to get a little bit more used to them.
The work is still going pretty well. I'd keep your more updated on our investigators, but things change so much from week to week that it's almost impossible to keep up. But, things are going well, ****, a Filipino lady here and someone who's kind of starting to be a long term investigator is on baptismal date and really is just super ready for the church. She loves the church magazines, and I think she understands more than some of the members here how important and awesome it is to get to go to the temple and be sealed to your family forever. So, hopefully before long she'll be baptized. Her husband has been a bit of struggle to meet with, but we've even been able to make some progress with him in the last week.
So, things are going well. We're working hard and enjoying it, and I think that's really about all you can ask for as a missionary. I love this work. I know the church is true and the more we dive into it, the more obvious that becomes.
I love you so much! Thank you so much for all your support. I really can feel it all the way down here in Malaysia, especially when times are tough. I'm coming up on my year mark, isn't that crazy? I think two weeks left to go. Crazy...
Love you so much!
Elder Blissett
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