Halo Keluargaku,
Well, this last week actually was a good one. We had a great conference in KL, I got to get to work with Elder Christiansen, and we're shaping up to having a good week this week. The zone leaders are down here on exchanges today and tomorrow too, which is always a lot of fun and very helpful.
Well, as far as news go, I think this week was pretty standard. We had a good time buying Elder Christiansen and new bike, I think this week we knocked into more drunken Ibans than I've met my entire mission, but other than that it was pretty normal. It's still the season for Hari Gawai and I guess that might be the reason for all the drunken Ibans. The actually holiday is only for a day or two, but the celebrations extend for about a month. We heard a concert going on in between some shops the other day so we went over to see what was going on. Well, lo and behold there was an open court filled with about a dozen Ibans doing the poco-poco (pronounced "pocho pocho." It's the traditional Iban line dance. Who knew that anybody had a traditional line dance? Anyway, you should try and find videos of it on youtube.) One of the organizers of the event almost immediately ran up to us and invited us to sit down and take pictures and everything, so we asked him what was going on. He explained that they were doing traditional dances to celebrate their Hari Gawai. I asked him, "Wasn't that over a week ago" to which he unabashedly replied something like "Yes, but we're still celebrating." Someone mentioned the other day that if you have enough "Last" Gawai parties you can get parties stretched out for a pretty long time. I kind of like the month long holidays though! It's a little bit like the Christmas Season in America.
Well, this week we've just been finding some more potential investigators. Unfortunately it looks like our Chinese family is not doing super well. The wife has told us a couple of times that she's having a really hard time accepting the Book of Mormon. We kind of halfway think that she was antied, but she's still friendly so we're not really sure. Anyway, her husband is still in Indonesia so we're just hoping he's having a lot better experience than her. We're still hopeful though!
It's been nice to work another week in JB. I think you really just come to love whatever you put a lot of work into, it seems almost inevitable. That's a great thing for missionary work though because you really come to love every area. It doesn't really matter where you serve, but just how you do it!
Well, things are going well. We're still working like crazy and seeing the Lord's hand in the work. We're just looking for a miracle in finding somebody who has all three of the necessary attributes of an investigator: Interest, Transportation, and work off on Sunday. It's a rare combination out here!
I love you all so much though. I'm having a great time out here and enjoying my mission more than ever. The work is still the same joyful stuff. I grow more grateful for the church and the Book of Mormon and especially the Savior with every passing day. Being a missionary is the best, and I wouldn't have traded it for anything I could have been doing back at home!
I love you all. Thanks for everything!
Love,
Elder Blissett
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
"I'm Not Home..."
Halo Keluargaku,
Well, this week was another pretty standard week out here in JB. No visits from general authorities or other famous people but lots of knocking and teaching. So it was standard, but pretty good!
One of the highlights was a lesson we had with a Chinese family early in the week. I think I told you about meeting them before. They're the family I told you had been praying for some comfort just before we knocked on their door. Anyway, they're still doing great and we had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon with them, the senior couple serving here and one of the branch missionaries. They're a family that's really sincerely searching for the truth (which I've found can be a really hard thing to find) and who are really committed to following whatever answers they receive, so I'm confident that they'll be getting the right answer soon. Unfortunately the husband has to go to Indonesia for business for about a month later this week, but we're still hopeful that everything is going to work out fine.
We've had some weird weather lately. Just the other day we had a day that was super overcast and very hot, but that never rained. It was really strange. Usually if you walk out of the house and it's a really hot day (which really just means it's a few degrees Celsius hotter, I think the temperature here just varies between 29 and 32 degrees, but it always feels a lot hotter!) you can almost be positive that it will rain that day. It's actually pretty predictable. So it was weird the other day to have a full day that was hot and cloudy without rain. The clouds were actually nice though, it's always better to have the clouds than the sun. The sun can be really brutal out here.
We had a fun contacting experience contacting and Indian man at his home just before he left for his job as a bus driver in Singapore. Well, we asked him if we could come back the next day and he told us a little bit reluctantly that that would be ok. So, the next day we start the fairly long bike ride in the hot sun to go out and go see him. Well, you can imagine our relief when we saw that his bus was still parked in front of his house, meaning that he hadn't left for work yet. Anyway, we walked up to the door and rang it, waited for a couple of seconds and saw just a flash of somebody walking out the front door and hearing a short of muffled gasp/shout. Well, that was strange we thought, but we figured he'd be coming back out in just a second after he grabbed the keys. Well, we waited there for a few minutes in the beating sun and... nothing happened. He didn't come back. After waiting a couple more minutes we retreated to some shade at his neighbors house and gave him a call.
"Oh hello friend, we're at your house right now and it's very hot. Do you think we can come in?"
"Oh uh, actually I'm not home right now. Ya, I'm visiting my relative"
It was at this point I realized that I was not only hearing his voice on the phone, but could actually hear him speaking inside the house. Well, after a short conversation (wherein he asked us to go visit him at his "relative's" house that was actually some distance away!), we just went on our merry way. Sometimes things don't quite work out the way you hoped they would, but at least it was funny!
Well, other than that, things are pretty much going the way they've been going here. We're still having a blast and doing our best to teach Heavenly Father's other children.
Anyway, I'm still loving it here! We're working hard and I'll be finishing up strong for sure!
I love you all so much. Thanks for everything!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Well, this week was another pretty standard week out here in JB. No visits from general authorities or other famous people but lots of knocking and teaching. So it was standard, but pretty good!
One of the highlights was a lesson we had with a Chinese family early in the week. I think I told you about meeting them before. They're the family I told you had been praying for some comfort just before we knocked on their door. Anyway, they're still doing great and we had an awesome lesson about the Book of Mormon with them, the senior couple serving here and one of the branch missionaries. They're a family that's really sincerely searching for the truth (which I've found can be a really hard thing to find) and who are really committed to following whatever answers they receive, so I'm confident that they'll be getting the right answer soon. Unfortunately the husband has to go to Indonesia for business for about a month later this week, but we're still hopeful that everything is going to work out fine.
We've had some weird weather lately. Just the other day we had a day that was super overcast and very hot, but that never rained. It was really strange. Usually if you walk out of the house and it's a really hot day (which really just means it's a few degrees Celsius hotter, I think the temperature here just varies between 29 and 32 degrees, but it always feels a lot hotter!) you can almost be positive that it will rain that day. It's actually pretty predictable. So it was weird the other day to have a full day that was hot and cloudy without rain. The clouds were actually nice though, it's always better to have the clouds than the sun. The sun can be really brutal out here.
We had a fun contacting experience contacting and Indian man at his home just before he left for his job as a bus driver in Singapore. Well, we asked him if we could come back the next day and he told us a little bit reluctantly that that would be ok. So, the next day we start the fairly long bike ride in the hot sun to go out and go see him. Well, you can imagine our relief when we saw that his bus was still parked in front of his house, meaning that he hadn't left for work yet. Anyway, we walked up to the door and rang it, waited for a couple of seconds and saw just a flash of somebody walking out the front door and hearing a short of muffled gasp/shout. Well, that was strange we thought, but we figured he'd be coming back out in just a second after he grabbed the keys. Well, we waited there for a few minutes in the beating sun and... nothing happened. He didn't come back. After waiting a couple more minutes we retreated to some shade at his neighbors house and gave him a call.
"Oh hello friend, we're at your house right now and it's very hot. Do you think we can come in?"
"Oh uh, actually I'm not home right now. Ya, I'm visiting my relative"
It was at this point I realized that I was not only hearing his voice on the phone, but could actually hear him speaking inside the house. Well, after a short conversation (wherein he asked us to go visit him at his "relative's" house that was actually some distance away!), we just went on our merry way. Sometimes things don't quite work out the way you hoped they would, but at least it was funny!
Well, other than that, things are pretty much going the way they've been going here. We're still having a blast and doing our best to teach Heavenly Father's other children.
Anyway, I'm still loving it here! We're working hard and I'll be finishing up strong for sure!
I love you all so much. Thanks for everything!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Elder Bednar's Visit
Halo Keluargaku,
Well, Elder Bednar's visit was absolutely awesome! You were right, he came here right after organizing the first Stake in Indonesia, which in and of itself would be really awesome, but the talk that he gave us was absolutely awesome too!
The meeting was with Elder Bednar, Elder Pratt (of our area presidency), President Clark and all of their wives as well as all of the missionaries from West Malaysia, Singapore and Sabah. So all and all I'd say that there was about 100 people there, which made the meeting feel pretty small and intimate. It was awesome to see how Elder Bednar taught. He's a master at the art for sure! The whole session though basically just revolved around Elder Bednar asking us questions, and then us asking him questions! He taught us all about the pattern of teaching people by the Spirit and using questions inspired by the Holy Ghost by demonstrating it by example right there in the meeting. It was awesome! Other highlights included an apostolic promise that someday in the future we'll be able to look at the church in Malaysia and see that we were "laying the foundation of a great work" and that in the future the church is going to be a *lot* bigger here. He gave some great marriage advice, saying that we should "look for a woman who will reverence her womanhood" and who understands her role in the plan of salvation, and also taught us all about how to end a mission right. And all of that on top of teaching us what he actually came to teach us about teaching by the Spirit and helping people be agents for themselves in learning. It was a spiritual feast for sure!
So that was *awesome*, but this last week we had not only that, but also a great experience with meeting a Chinese family as we were out door contacting who is absolutely awesome. Again, it was one of those times that we were really surprised to be immediately invited into the house to share our message even though it looked like they were just about to head out. Well, we shared our message and I'm not sure entirely how much of it they understood, but at the end of the lesson they told us that they'd be praying as a family not more than five minutes before we came about a health struggle their father is going through and they really felt like we'd be sent there at just that moment as an answer to their prayers and as a comfort. It was awesome, and the best part is that they came to church this last Sunday. So, we're going to keep working with them for sure. Apparently the husband is going to Indonesia for about a month this week though, so that we'll be a struggle, but we definitely have a great start on good things happening with this family.
So in short, it's been an awesome week! We've received a lot of blessings from the Lord and I think that this is only the beginning for this area. Missionary work is more fun than ever. I was comforted to hear Elder Bednar tell us at the conference that we should basically be more lost about how to do missionary work on our last day in the field than we were on the first day (emphasizing that we just can't do this work on our own), which was a big comfort because sometimes that's a lot how I feel. But it's a blast, and I'm loving it!
I'm so grateful to be a member of this church. I know that it's true now more than ever. It was so powerful to get to hear Sister Bednar bear her personal testimony that her husband really was who he claimed to be. You know that she knows him better than anyone, and it was so cool to see how powerful her witness was. I love the church and I love the chance I have to come and share it with everyone else!
Thanks so much for your support. I'm so glad to hear that everything is going so well at home! I love you all so much!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Well, Elder Bednar's visit was absolutely awesome! You were right, he came here right after organizing the first Stake in Indonesia, which in and of itself would be really awesome, but the talk that he gave us was absolutely awesome too!
The meeting was with Elder Bednar, Elder Pratt (of our area presidency), President Clark and all of their wives as well as all of the missionaries from West Malaysia, Singapore and Sabah. So all and all I'd say that there was about 100 people there, which made the meeting feel pretty small and intimate. It was awesome to see how Elder Bednar taught. He's a master at the art for sure! The whole session though basically just revolved around Elder Bednar asking us questions, and then us asking him questions! He taught us all about the pattern of teaching people by the Spirit and using questions inspired by the Holy Ghost by demonstrating it by example right there in the meeting. It was awesome! Other highlights included an apostolic promise that someday in the future we'll be able to look at the church in Malaysia and see that we were "laying the foundation of a great work" and that in the future the church is going to be a *lot* bigger here. He gave some great marriage advice, saying that we should "look for a woman who will reverence her womanhood" and who understands her role in the plan of salvation, and also taught us all about how to end a mission right. And all of that on top of teaching us what he actually came to teach us about teaching by the Spirit and helping people be agents for themselves in learning. It was a spiritual feast for sure!
So that was *awesome*, but this last week we had not only that, but also a great experience with meeting a Chinese family as we were out door contacting who is absolutely awesome. Again, it was one of those times that we were really surprised to be immediately invited into the house to share our message even though it looked like they were just about to head out. Well, we shared our message and I'm not sure entirely how much of it they understood, but at the end of the lesson they told us that they'd be praying as a family not more than five minutes before we came about a health struggle their father is going through and they really felt like we'd be sent there at just that moment as an answer to their prayers and as a comfort. It was awesome, and the best part is that they came to church this last Sunday. So, we're going to keep working with them for sure. Apparently the husband is going to Indonesia for about a month this week though, so that we'll be a struggle, but we definitely have a great start on good things happening with this family.
So in short, it's been an awesome week! We've received a lot of blessings from the Lord and I think that this is only the beginning for this area. Missionary work is more fun than ever. I was comforted to hear Elder Bednar tell us at the conference that we should basically be more lost about how to do missionary work on our last day in the field than we were on the first day (emphasizing that we just can't do this work on our own), which was a big comfort because sometimes that's a lot how I feel. But it's a blast, and I'm loving it!
I'm so grateful to be a member of this church. I know that it's true now more than ever. It was so powerful to get to hear Sister Bednar bear her personal testimony that her husband really was who he claimed to be. You know that she knows him better than anyone, and it was so cool to see how powerful her witness was. I love the church and I love the chance I have to come and share it with everyone else!
Thanks so much for your support. I'm so glad to hear that everything is going so well at home! I love you all so much!
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Sifting
Halo Keluargaku,
This week has been pretty good out here in good ol' JB. We're really looking forward to Elder Bednar's visit next week and just working hard in the mean time to spread the gospel. We had another pretty cool experience the other day randomly knocking into an 18 year old Iban girl who happens to be pretty good friends with one of the young men in the branch, so we're expecting to see her at church on Sunday with a few other possibilities. So the long and short of it is that things are gradually getting better as far as the work here goes, and that's very reassuring to see.
Today we're planning on going to an Indian place nearby the mall where we're e-mailing today. It's actually the second time that I've been there, but it's super delicious. You can order there what they call "banana leaf," which means that they serve you your rice and curry and things on a banana leaf, which, you know, would be kind of fun, but is made a million times better that the rice and curry are all you can eat and you only pay extra for the meats that you order. It's Indian food paradise! If there's only one material thing I'll miss here in Malaysia it will definitely be the foods. It's so delicious and so cheap. If I remember right there's actually a couple of Indian places in Salt Lake that aren't bad, but they're so expensive! Additionally I know that eating with your hands is pretty looked down upon in America and I'm not sure I even know how to eat curry with regular silverware. In my mind chicken was designed to be eaten with the fingers.
Elder Browne and I are still getting along pretty well. It's interesting to see how we both develop from week to week. Being around someone 24 hours a day definitely has an effect on you, and it's always kind of cool to see how your personalities kind of affect each other. We're working hard though and striving to be obedient and according to President Clark, that's the secret for happiness in a companionship, so that's turning out to be pretty true for us.
Welp, other than that, it's kind of the same old same old. This week we're still working with some of those potentials I told you about last week, but we haven't gotten any of them to church yet, so we'll see who finally makes it! Missionary work is a process of sifting as much as anything, so we're out on the lookout and expecting to hit gold soon!
I love you all so much. I'm so grateful for the chance I have to be serving out here.
Love you!
Elder Blissett
This week has been pretty good out here in good ol' JB. We're really looking forward to Elder Bednar's visit next week and just working hard in the mean time to spread the gospel. We had another pretty cool experience the other day randomly knocking into an 18 year old Iban girl who happens to be pretty good friends with one of the young men in the branch, so we're expecting to see her at church on Sunday with a few other possibilities. So the long and short of it is that things are gradually getting better as far as the work here goes, and that's very reassuring to see.
Today we're planning on going to an Indian place nearby the mall where we're e-mailing today. It's actually the second time that I've been there, but it's super delicious. You can order there what they call "banana leaf," which means that they serve you your rice and curry and things on a banana leaf, which, you know, would be kind of fun, but is made a million times better that the rice and curry are all you can eat and you only pay extra for the meats that you order. It's Indian food paradise! If there's only one material thing I'll miss here in Malaysia it will definitely be the foods. It's so delicious and so cheap. If I remember right there's actually a couple of Indian places in Salt Lake that aren't bad, but they're so expensive! Additionally I know that eating with your hands is pretty looked down upon in America and I'm not sure I even know how to eat curry with regular silverware. In my mind chicken was designed to be eaten with the fingers.
Elder Browne and I are still getting along pretty well. It's interesting to see how we both develop from week to week. Being around someone 24 hours a day definitely has an effect on you, and it's always kind of cool to see how your personalities kind of affect each other. We're working hard though and striving to be obedient and according to President Clark, that's the secret for happiness in a companionship, so that's turning out to be pretty true for us.
Welp, other than that, it's kind of the same old same old. This week we're still working with some of those potentials I told you about last week, but we haven't gotten any of them to church yet, so we'll see who finally makes it! Missionary work is a process of sifting as much as anything, so we're out on the lookout and expecting to hit gold soon!
I love you all so much. I'm so grateful for the chance I have to be serving out here.
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Little Miracles
Halo Keluargaku,
It was really awesome to talk to you guys too! It was definitely cool to see Johnny especially. I can't believe how big he's gotten and how much he can say now too. What a goof! But definitely calling home was one of the highlights of the week.I remember I wanted to tell you about a few of the cool experiences we had last week.
This last week Elder Browne and I have been doing a *lot* of knocking. Anyone who knows missionaries knows that that isn't normally a missionary's favorite thing to do, but actually this week I've really enjoyed the chance to just get out and work and see some things happen. So that was kind of a miracle in itself, but the best part is that scattered throughout our marathon of knocking we kept having these cool little experiences that kept us going. One example was the house we walked up to and were immediately invited to go in. That's a very unsettling experience to have someone just invite you to come in, but we were pretty excited about it. Well, it turns out that an really nice Iban family is staying there, but the craziest thing is that the day we were walking by the mother of the wife in the family just happened to be visiting for a week from Kuching. The really crazy part is that this mother has been having the missionaries over in Kuching for what sounds like a couple of months and absolutely loves them, so of course she was super excited to invite us in and have us visit her daughter in JB. What a little miracle! We ended up having a great contact and now we're really excited to start to teach this family.
Another example is the house we knocked on where again we were immediately invited to come in. In this family the husband has just started going to a Christian church for about three weeks. Before this he kind of followed Iban traditional worship, so he was pretty new to the experience of coming to church. Anyway, his problem was that of all the many churches that were out there, he just wasn't sure which one of them were true. He said he'd asked priests about it before and they had pretty much told him that all the churches were true and he could follow any one that he liked, but that answer wasn't really satisfying to him. Anyway, about halfway through the contact he looks again at the name of the church on the card and says something like, "You know, I've never known which church was true, but I think maybe it's this one, because this one is The Church of Jesus Christ. I think the one that is Jesus Christ's church is the right one." We thought so too!
Another experience happened when we went contacting in a relatively new place that we just found out is in our area. Well, we start knocking on houses and find a row that's a lot of Hindus. Hindus are really nice, but often they're not the most receptive so we weren't super excited about it. Well, imagine our surprise when three houses in a row come out to talk to us and agree to return appointments. We'll see how it all turns out, but we were really grateful to even have gotten that far.
So, I guess the lessons that I've learned are that the Lord really is in this work and watching out for us, that hard work really can bring forth the blessings of Heaven, and that even the most monotonous parts of missionary work can be fun too! So it's been an awesome week!
I'm loving it here more than ever. JB is a super awesome area, and we're really excited for the chance we have to work here.I love you all so much! I'm so grateful for this experience that I'm having out here.
Love you!
Elder Blissett
It was really awesome to talk to you guys too! It was definitely cool to see Johnny especially. I can't believe how big he's gotten and how much he can say now too. What a goof! But definitely calling home was one of the highlights of the week.I remember I wanted to tell you about a few of the cool experiences we had last week.
This last week Elder Browne and I have been doing a *lot* of knocking. Anyone who knows missionaries knows that that isn't normally a missionary's favorite thing to do, but actually this week I've really enjoyed the chance to just get out and work and see some things happen. So that was kind of a miracle in itself, but the best part is that scattered throughout our marathon of knocking we kept having these cool little experiences that kept us going. One example was the house we walked up to and were immediately invited to go in. That's a very unsettling experience to have someone just invite you to come in, but we were pretty excited about it. Well, it turns out that an really nice Iban family is staying there, but the craziest thing is that the day we were walking by the mother of the wife in the family just happened to be visiting for a week from Kuching. The really crazy part is that this mother has been having the missionaries over in Kuching for what sounds like a couple of months and absolutely loves them, so of course she was super excited to invite us in and have us visit her daughter in JB. What a little miracle! We ended up having a great contact and now we're really excited to start to teach this family.
Another example is the house we knocked on where again we were immediately invited to come in. In this family the husband has just started going to a Christian church for about three weeks. Before this he kind of followed Iban traditional worship, so he was pretty new to the experience of coming to church. Anyway, his problem was that of all the many churches that were out there, he just wasn't sure which one of them were true. He said he'd asked priests about it before and they had pretty much told him that all the churches were true and he could follow any one that he liked, but that answer wasn't really satisfying to him. Anyway, about halfway through the contact he looks again at the name of the church on the card and says something like, "You know, I've never known which church was true, but I think maybe it's this one, because this one is The Church of Jesus Christ. I think the one that is Jesus Christ's church is the right one." We thought so too!
Another experience happened when we went contacting in a relatively new place that we just found out is in our area. Well, we start knocking on houses and find a row that's a lot of Hindus. Hindus are really nice, but often they're not the most receptive so we weren't super excited about it. Well, imagine our surprise when three houses in a row come out to talk to us and agree to return appointments. We'll see how it all turns out, but we were really grateful to even have gotten that far.
So, I guess the lessons that I've learned are that the Lord really is in this work and watching out for us, that hard work really can bring forth the blessings of Heaven, and that even the most monotonous parts of missionary work can be fun too! So it's been an awesome week!
I'm loving it here more than ever. JB is a super awesome area, and we're really excited for the chance we have to work here.I love you all so much! I'm so grateful for this experience that I'm having out here.
Love you!
Elder Blissett
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Work Is Like Magic
Halo Keluargaku,
Well, it's been a good first week filled with lots of work here in JB. JB is a really fun branch. There are a lot of good members here and for the first time on my mission I'm finally living with 3 other elders which is a lot of fun! Elder Browne and I kind of picked up the area in a bit of a slump (we call it a tidal wave here, there will be a lot of stuff going on, and then you'll drop or baptize all the investigators in your pool and be left with nothing for a few weeks after that. We do our best to avoid them), but we've actually had a lot of fun working on getting things started. It's actually been pretty satisfying. One of the lessons I've learned on my mission is that work is like magic, if you have a problem you just work on it for long enough and the problem goes away. Well, we've definitely been doing a lot of that this week!
JB is interesting for a number of reasons. One is that it has one of the largest populations of Ibans outside of Sarawak in all of Malaysia, and the reports are true, they are a little bit different to teach and contact, so it's been a lot of fun trying to learn how to do that effectively. Another reason is that it's directly across a small stretch of ocean from Singapore, but has still managed to be a distinctly Malaysian city. It actually seems like there are more Malay speakers here than almost any of the other West Malaysian areas, which is crazy since it's across from probably the largest English speaking country in all of South-East Asia. You're definitely in a totally different country as soon as you cross over the bridge, there's no middle ground.
Elder Browne is really good. We've had a good time working hard together and getting to know each other. His Malay is great and his teaching skills are really sharp so it doesn't even feel like being companions with a relatively new Elder. That's a lot of fun! We're doing well.
Well, other than that, there's not a lot new going on! Just another day in the vineyard, right? But I'm loving my mission so much. I'm so grateful for the chance I've had to serve. I know more than ever that this really is the Lord's church restored to the Earth and I couldn't be happier to be a member of it. Being a missionary is far and away the greatest experience I've ever had in my life. Nothing else compares to it. I love this work and I love the church.I love you guys too!
Can't wait to talk to you!
Love you,
Elder Blissett
Well, it's been a good first week filled with lots of work here in JB. JB is a really fun branch. There are a lot of good members here and for the first time on my mission I'm finally living with 3 other elders which is a lot of fun! Elder Browne and I kind of picked up the area in a bit of a slump (we call it a tidal wave here, there will be a lot of stuff going on, and then you'll drop or baptize all the investigators in your pool and be left with nothing for a few weeks after that. We do our best to avoid them), but we've actually had a lot of fun working on getting things started. It's actually been pretty satisfying. One of the lessons I've learned on my mission is that work is like magic, if you have a problem you just work on it for long enough and the problem goes away. Well, we've definitely been doing a lot of that this week!
JB is interesting for a number of reasons. One is that it has one of the largest populations of Ibans outside of Sarawak in all of Malaysia, and the reports are true, they are a little bit different to teach and contact, so it's been a lot of fun trying to learn how to do that effectively. Another reason is that it's directly across a small stretch of ocean from Singapore, but has still managed to be a distinctly Malaysian city. It actually seems like there are more Malay speakers here than almost any of the other West Malaysian areas, which is crazy since it's across from probably the largest English speaking country in all of South-East Asia. You're definitely in a totally different country as soon as you cross over the bridge, there's no middle ground.
Elder Browne is really good. We've had a good time working hard together and getting to know each other. His Malay is great and his teaching skills are really sharp so it doesn't even feel like being companions with a relatively new Elder. That's a lot of fun! We're doing well.
Well, other than that, there's not a lot new going on! Just another day in the vineyard, right? But I'm loving my mission so much. I'm so grateful for the chance I've had to serve. I know more than ever that this really is the Lord's church restored to the Earth and I couldn't be happier to be a member of it. Being a missionary is far and away the greatest experience I've ever had in my life. Nothing else compares to it. I love this work and I love the church.I love you guys too!
Can't wait to talk to you!
Love you,
Elder Blissett
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