Well, lots of random things this week, one of the first and foremost is that we were pleasantly surprised to hear a little bit of ruckus by our door during studies the other day, the quiet sound of paper sliding under the door, and feet beating a quick retreat to find out that, surprise, our power got cut! Yipee...
So, I'm still not entirely sure what happened. There's a guy here in Malaysia who handles all the church finances, so we faxed him our power bill weeks ago, but for some reason he just didn't pay for it. I... don't really know why. We called him the other day and he said he would pay it right then, but it was a national holiday in Singapore so it wouldn't get through until later. OK. Well, we called him yesterday again and it turns out due to a miscommunication he thought we were just going to pay for it. Well... Today the power it still out, so we don't know what's going on. On the brightside we slept out on the porch area of our apartment since we don't have any aircon or fans, which turned out to be a little like camping! As nice as it is to cool your apartment with fresh air though, we're pretty excited to be getting our power back, although we still don't know when exactly that will be.
We discovered new wildlife this week (it seems like I've been sending a bunch of wildlife e-mails lately). Anyway, this week Elder Whittaker and I started watching some fish in a nearby water channel thing, only to be shocked to see one fish jump out of the water and land on the beach. That was unusual, but you can only imagine our surprise when said fish started paddling along the beach with his flippers, and then quickly dart down a hole in the sand. Turns out as we kept watching we found about a dozen of these "mudfish" paddling their way across the beach and darting down holes. They've got to be some of the weirdest animals I've ever seen, although I'm actually pretty sure I've seen them on Discovery Channel or something. They're just some kind of crazy fish that for some reason can survive out of the water for a little bit, and has developed a way to use it's little flippers to almost kind of walk. Ridiculous. I'd love to get more information on them if you can find any though!
Things are getting a little more stable with our investigators. We have one looking pretty solid to be baptized in the early part of September, and two more who should be going on date sometime this week (they're actually that guy we randomly re-met I talked about last week and his wife. They've been to church twice already and are looking pretty solid). So, we're feeling prety encouraged. Still just working hard everyday.
Well, that's pretty much it for the week in Tawau! Elder Whittaker told me that he thinks for everyday, you should be able to say that today is better than yesterday, but not as good as tomorrow, and I'm thinking that's a pretty good way to get by in life. Seems pretty applicable here!
The gospel is true. It's what makes everything we do as missionaries worthwhile. I know I'd be lost without the church and I'm so happy to get a chance to do my part in sharing that with others. It's so good to get two years of your life totally focused everyday on doing better to help more people. Not many more noble goals.
Love you so much!
Elder Blissett
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Lost in Tawau
Halo Keluargaku,
This week turned out pretty well actually despite any setbacks we ran into, one of which quite notably happened on the day President Clark arrived here. So, he actually only ended up meeting with us for a few hours, but the plan was that we would have an appointment set-up, we would do a pre-check before the appointment and then go teach, and afterwards do a review together. Well, due to a lack of really progressing investigators we didn't really have many people we could schedule for the time that he wanted to come here. To add on to the problems one of the few people we were able to schedule backed out on us the day before we needed her. Garbage! Luckily we were able to contact another awesome lady on the bus though and set her up right in the nick of time to bring president.
Well, everything seemed to be kind of coming together until we went out to find this lady's house. I was actually pretty sure I knew from her directions exactly where her house was. Long story short, I didn't. So, after about half a dozen phone calls to her, 50 ringgit in taxis, directions from anyone we could find, and almost an hour of hiking through the wonderful neighborhoods of Tawau, we finally got to this lady's house and had a pretty nice lesson with her. We'd already wasted enough time we didn't really get a chance to do the after lesson review before we had to rush them all off to the airport, but all in all, we survived. We're lucky that President Clark both has a great attitude and is in excellent physical condition or else we really could have been in trouble. What a mess...
The good news is we found an awesome new investigator this last week named T ***. He's a race called "orang menado," which means he comes from a pretty good sized island in Indonesia called Sulawesi, but he's been here in Sabah for a few years already. Anyway, I actually contacted this guy about a month ago, but sort of overlooked him in my list of potential investigators. Well, here we are weeks later teaching a lesson at a home near his house, when he suddenly shows up and sits in on the lesson. He asked us if we'd be willing to come down to his house afterwards where he told us that he'd actually been looking for us since he met me the first time, but his phone didn't have any credit so he couldn't give us a call. Awesome. Anyway, it turns out he's super eager to learn and even came to church the day after we met him, which is awesome. We're really excited about him and it looks like things are going to go really well.
Elder Whittaker and I found a 5 to 6 foot monitor lizard on the road this week! Awesome! We actually managed to chase him against a fence so we were able to get close enough to get some really awesome pictures of him (and stay safe :D ). Ayoh, I might just have to send the pictures next week though, the internet here might be a little too slow to manage it. Anyway, they're awesome! If you look on wikipedia I'm sure you can find some good pictures.
Anyway, that's the week from Tawau. I love you all so much. The church is true. Thanks so much for all your support!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
This week turned out pretty well actually despite any setbacks we ran into, one of which quite notably happened on the day President Clark arrived here. So, he actually only ended up meeting with us for a few hours, but the plan was that we would have an appointment set-up, we would do a pre-check before the appointment and then go teach, and afterwards do a review together. Well, due to a lack of really progressing investigators we didn't really have many people we could schedule for the time that he wanted to come here. To add on to the problems one of the few people we were able to schedule backed out on us the day before we needed her. Garbage! Luckily we were able to contact another awesome lady on the bus though and set her up right in the nick of time to bring president.
Well, everything seemed to be kind of coming together until we went out to find this lady's house. I was actually pretty sure I knew from her directions exactly where her house was. Long story short, I didn't. So, after about half a dozen phone calls to her, 50 ringgit in taxis, directions from anyone we could find, and almost an hour of hiking through the wonderful neighborhoods of Tawau, we finally got to this lady's house and had a pretty nice lesson with her. We'd already wasted enough time we didn't really get a chance to do the after lesson review before we had to rush them all off to the airport, but all in all, we survived. We're lucky that President Clark both has a great attitude and is in excellent physical condition or else we really could have been in trouble. What a mess...
The good news is we found an awesome new investigator this last week named T ***. He's a race called "orang menado," which means he comes from a pretty good sized island in Indonesia called Sulawesi, but he's been here in Sabah for a few years already. Anyway, I actually contacted this guy about a month ago, but sort of overlooked him in my list of potential investigators. Well, here we are weeks later teaching a lesson at a home near his house, when he suddenly shows up and sits in on the lesson. He asked us if we'd be willing to come down to his house afterwards where he told us that he'd actually been looking for us since he met me the first time, but his phone didn't have any credit so he couldn't give us a call. Awesome. Anyway, it turns out he's super eager to learn and even came to church the day after we met him, which is awesome. We're really excited about him and it looks like things are going to go really well.
Elder Whittaker and I found a 5 to 6 foot monitor lizard on the road this week! Awesome! We actually managed to chase him against a fence so we were able to get close enough to get some really awesome pictures of him (and stay safe :D ). Ayoh, I might just have to send the pictures next week though, the internet here might be a little too slow to manage it. Anyway, they're awesome! If you look on wikipedia I'm sure you can find some good pictures.
Anyway, that's the week from Tawau. I love you all so much. The church is true. Thanks so much for all your support!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Unfailing Promises
Halo Keluargaku,
This week was pretty good! Just working on figuring out how this whole missionary thing works. It's funny, you'd think after being out here for almost a year I would have mastered the process, but almost everyday I'm still learning something new. Just the other day I was studying lesson 1 during personal study, that's right, the first lesson, the one I teach every single day, and I was just realizing there's still so many places I can improve with it! There's just so much progress that can always be made, but I think that's a little bit of what makes it exciting. I
t's funny that you've mentioned that alarm sales job a few times recently. It turns out that Elder Whittaker was actually a pretty successful alarm salesman the summer before he came out on his mission, so, he's got all kinds of awesome people skills we've been working on applying to the kampungs of Malaysia. Some things work and some things don't, but it's super fun to have a companion with lots of good ideas. There's lots of obstacles to overcome here in Tawau, but it's not fun if there isn't any kind of challenge, right?
So the Mission President is actually coming down to our area this Friday. President decided to change our Zone Conference schedule to only one time every three months (instead of every six weeks) and during the off time he wants to come and visit every single area in the mission. Crazy! So, it means we're going to have some company here in Tawau this week. President actually wants to follow us to a lesson. A little bit intimidating, but it should be a good experience. President is always really nice and helpful.
The work is moving forward. We're improving everyday, and it's been amazing to see the Lord do his work in this part of the vineyard. I know more than ever that this gospel is true, but most of all I've come to realize that knowing that for yourself is a profoundly personal experience. No one can really persuade you that the church is true, no one can force you to know, no one can know for you, your testimony is totally 100% your own responsibility. It's all about how willing you are to try, and to act. That's all it really depends on, our exercise of faith. The Lord's promises are unfailing so we can know absolutely that anyone who really wants to know for themselves the truth, it's available for them if they'll just be willing to act. That's been a fun realization to come to.
I love you all so much. Thanks for all your support, it's meant the world to me. We're working hard and the field is white!
Love you so much!
Elder Blissett
This week was pretty good! Just working on figuring out how this whole missionary thing works. It's funny, you'd think after being out here for almost a year I would have mastered the process, but almost everyday I'm still learning something new. Just the other day I was studying lesson 1 during personal study, that's right, the first lesson, the one I teach every single day, and I was just realizing there's still so many places I can improve with it! There's just so much progress that can always be made, but I think that's a little bit of what makes it exciting. I
t's funny that you've mentioned that alarm sales job a few times recently. It turns out that Elder Whittaker was actually a pretty successful alarm salesman the summer before he came out on his mission, so, he's got all kinds of awesome people skills we've been working on applying to the kampungs of Malaysia. Some things work and some things don't, but it's super fun to have a companion with lots of good ideas. There's lots of obstacles to overcome here in Tawau, but it's not fun if there isn't any kind of challenge, right?
So the Mission President is actually coming down to our area this Friday. President decided to change our Zone Conference schedule to only one time every three months (instead of every six weeks) and during the off time he wants to come and visit every single area in the mission. Crazy! So, it means we're going to have some company here in Tawau this week. President actually wants to follow us to a lesson. A little bit intimidating, but it should be a good experience. President is always really nice and helpful.
The work is moving forward. We're improving everyday, and it's been amazing to see the Lord do his work in this part of the vineyard. I know more than ever that this gospel is true, but most of all I've come to realize that knowing that for yourself is a profoundly personal experience. No one can really persuade you that the church is true, no one can force you to know, no one can know for you, your testimony is totally 100% your own responsibility. It's all about how willing you are to try, and to act. That's all it really depends on, our exercise of faith. The Lord's promises are unfailing so we can know absolutely that anyone who really wants to know for themselves the truth, it's available for them if they'll just be willing to act. That's been a fun realization to come to.
I love you all so much. Thanks for all your support, it's meant the world to me. We're working hard and the field is white!
Love you so much!
Elder Blissett
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Pictures
Durian...yum!
Water Kampung, which is kind of like a village of houses built on stilts up out over the ocean. *That* is a really cool place.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
Progress
Halo Keluargaku,
The first week with my new companion (my "son" as we say in the mission) has been totally awesome. He's a great elder and I think in these last few days we've been working harder than ever and are really starting to see a lot of progress in the area. So, I'm super excited and I think he is too.
I have a huge announcement! I finally ate the first durian I liked :D! Ta-da! It's kind of a major rite of passage in the mission to finally like durian, so I feel like this is a big step forward. Poor Elder Whittaker though, I think there is a lot of culture shock in the first couple of weeks and I haven't taken a lot of mercy on him. He's been really good though, a total trooper and he's adjusting fast. He even managed to get down some of the durian without losing his composure.
The work is going awesome! This last week we were able to put two new solid-looking investigators on baptismal date, so we're starting to think before long at all we're going to start seeing more baptisms come out of this area. We're both feeling really motivated. It's been awesome to see Elder Whittaker come into the field with that MTC fire and I think things are going to start turning around fast here. We're still seeing miracles happen in the work here all the time which is a huge blessing and a great motivator to keep at it.
This last week we were contacting near to our apartment, just getting ready to get home when I stopped one more person before we turned in. He turned out to be Christian and actually was willing to meet us the next day, so, when the time came we headed out to go find him. He actually wouldn't give us his phone number, but his house turned out not to be too difficult to find which turned out to be a huge blessing in itself. So, we sat down with him, one friend, and his wife and had an absolutely awesome lesson. His wife espcially was looking very eager to learn more which was super great, until we found out that she and her husband were going to "camp" that very day and would be gone for at least three months. The other friend would be leaving in a few days more. Garbage! But, hoping to get something out of it, we asked if they had any friends we could meet. The first two said no, but the third told us we could come back around 4 and he'd take us to go meet a friend. So, we went pretty far away to go tracting, ate, and, I'll admit, by the time 4 came around I'd totally forgotten we were supposed to go meet our new friend. Well, we ended up (not really by coincidence I think) deciding to go visit an investigator who lived close by this guy and ran right into him sitting on his front porch. We turned out not to be too late so he still took us out to meet his friend (who lived in the far away area we'd just come from :D). Well, in short it turns out this almost-forgotten referral turns out to be awesome, and we actually even put him on date to be baptized the very first time we sat down with him, something I've never done before. So, the Lord is in this work and he's watching out for us. Good to know we're not alone.
Anyway, these kinds of things are happening all the time. We're going to succeed here in Tawau and I feel so blessed to get to be a part of it!
Love you all so much!
Elder Blissett
The first week with my new companion (my "son" as we say in the mission) has been totally awesome. He's a great elder and I think in these last few days we've been working harder than ever and are really starting to see a lot of progress in the area. So, I'm super excited and I think he is too.
I have a huge announcement! I finally ate the first durian I liked :D! Ta-da! It's kind of a major rite of passage in the mission to finally like durian, so I feel like this is a big step forward. Poor Elder Whittaker though, I think there is a lot of culture shock in the first couple of weeks and I haven't taken a lot of mercy on him. He's been really good though, a total trooper and he's adjusting fast. He even managed to get down some of the durian without losing his composure.
The work is going awesome! This last week we were able to put two new solid-looking investigators on baptismal date, so we're starting to think before long at all we're going to start seeing more baptisms come out of this area. We're both feeling really motivated. It's been awesome to see Elder Whittaker come into the field with that MTC fire and I think things are going to start turning around fast here. We're still seeing miracles happen in the work here all the time which is a huge blessing and a great motivator to keep at it.
This last week we were contacting near to our apartment, just getting ready to get home when I stopped one more person before we turned in. He turned out to be Christian and actually was willing to meet us the next day, so, when the time came we headed out to go find him. He actually wouldn't give us his phone number, but his house turned out not to be too difficult to find which turned out to be a huge blessing in itself. So, we sat down with him, one friend, and his wife and had an absolutely awesome lesson. His wife espcially was looking very eager to learn more which was super great, until we found out that she and her husband were going to "camp" that very day and would be gone for at least three months. The other friend would be leaving in a few days more. Garbage! But, hoping to get something out of it, we asked if they had any friends we could meet. The first two said no, but the third told us we could come back around 4 and he'd take us to go meet a friend. So, we went pretty far away to go tracting, ate, and, I'll admit, by the time 4 came around I'd totally forgotten we were supposed to go meet our new friend. Well, we ended up (not really by coincidence I think) deciding to go visit an investigator who lived close by this guy and ran right into him sitting on his front porch. We turned out not to be too late so he still took us out to meet his friend (who lived in the far away area we'd just come from :D). Well, in short it turns out this almost-forgotten referral turns out to be awesome, and we actually even put him on date to be baptized the very first time we sat down with him, something I've never done before. So, the Lord is in this work and he's watching out for us. Good to know we're not alone.
Anyway, these kinds of things are happening all the time. We're going to succeed here in Tawau and I feel so blessed to get to be a part of it!
Love you all so much!
Elder Blissett
Wednesday, July 14, 2010
Training
Hey mom! So sorry I didn't get to e-mail you yesterday. I had a really crazy day coming into Singapore, but yes, you're right, I have a new companion. I'm actually training, which is way super awesome! So, last week I was junior companion, this week I'm taking over the area with a missionary fresh from America! His name is Elder Whitticker, and he is very tall and built like a football player. I think he's going to terrify some people in Sabah, but we're going to get along really well!
I have to run to training now, but I love you so much! I'm super excited to train, I think it's gonna be awesome.
OK, I'm doing good!
Love,
Kevin
I have to run to training now, but I love you so much! I'm super excited to train, I think it's gonna be awesome.
OK, I'm doing good!
Love,
Kevin
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
An Average Week
This week was... well, pretty average actually. Tawau is getting to be such a roller coaster that it's actually getting hard to say how things are going! We're looking really up one second, really down the other, and then really up again the next. That's a little bit how the whole mission has been so far, but things seemed to have been magnified a little bit. What's not changing though is that Elder Stewart and I are both trying to work as hard as we can, and, regardless of how the teaching pool looks, I think we've been able to keep in pretty high spirits. So, hopefully things will get a little more stable, but even if they don't we'll just do our best and count on the Lord to make up the difference.
My Malay is coming along! It's funny, I think I spent a lot of the first part of my mission concerned that I was never going to learn the language, and now that I've gotten here things seem to be just moving along on their own without me really having to worry about it much at all. So, good news I guess!
I think I've been getting a little bit more used to the food here, or at least Elder Stewart and I are finding better places to eat. It was tough to go from Ipoh (known for having some of the best food in the mission) to Tawau (which is not). But, looking brighter everyday, right?
There's a chapter in Preach My Gospel called Christlike Attributes, that covers 9 attributes of Christ we should strive to develop as missionaries. It's super good, and interesting to realize that striving to become like Christ is really kind of just a road map to how to be truly happy. Isn't is funny to think it's that simple, but that's really kind of all that matters in life. The world puts emphasis on so many things that seem to matter so much right now, when really, in the end we'll just be taking ourselves and our families to the Celestial Kingdom. It's a nice wake up call.
OK, I love you all so much! I'm doing well. Still happy. Pray for the work to move forward here in Tawau, we could definitely use a little extra help.
Love you so much! Talk to you soon!
Elder Blissett
My Malay is coming along! It's funny, I think I spent a lot of the first part of my mission concerned that I was never going to learn the language, and now that I've gotten here things seem to be just moving along on their own without me really having to worry about it much at all. So, good news I guess!
I think I've been getting a little bit more used to the food here, or at least Elder Stewart and I are finding better places to eat. It was tough to go from Ipoh (known for having some of the best food in the mission) to Tawau (which is not). But, looking brighter everyday, right?
There's a chapter in Preach My Gospel called Christlike Attributes, that covers 9 attributes of Christ we should strive to develop as missionaries. It's super good, and interesting to realize that striving to become like Christ is really kind of just a road map to how to be truly happy. Isn't is funny to think it's that simple, but that's really kind of all that matters in life. The world puts emphasis on so many things that seem to matter so much right now, when really, in the end we'll just be taking ourselves and our families to the Celestial Kingdom. It's a nice wake up call.
OK, I love you all so much! I'm doing well. Still happy. Pray for the work to move forward here in Tawau, we could definitely use a little extra help.
Love you so much! Talk to you soon!
Elder Blissett
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