Hello, everyone! I'll try and be less negative and actually write a somewhat fun, uplifting email this week. Sometimes I like to keep it real and show as much as I truly feel as I go through this 2-year journey. But I'm not gonna lie sometimes the quote, "No one cares, work harder" applies. Of course, all my family and friends care, all of you care and I can feel all your love and care truly. But the adversary and the people rejecting this message and the weather and the things I can't control definitely don't care is what I'm starting to realize, so work harder is the mentality or rather work harder to not care about uncontrollable things especially our bikes that seem to fall apart at every touch.
Last Monday P night and all of Tuesday was crazy because we didn't have our bikes, they were broken, so we had to walk and Grab (Uber) everywhere. Lot of finding, little success, declared our purposes in Malay, Iban, Mandarin (Elder Simonsen is fluent in Mandarin and Malay btw dude's a beast) and English and got rejected in all four languages, We majulah though. Had a ministering night which was great, a lot of this work is most of the time with Miri being pretty Muslim is we can't knock or talk to most houses or people. So this mission is definitely a "supporting the members" type of mission which is great, and the members are super awesome for sure.
Wednesday and Thursday were exchanges here in Miri with the Bintulu Elders. That was great. Really slowed down the week for me. Got to serve for the 3rd time now with my guy Elder Overly from my district in the MTC which is always awesome. His Malay has improved so much, and he keeps me calm. I'm not gonna lie, during one of our finding blocks on Wednesday I kinda crashed out (to translate out of gen Z slang it means to get mad and do something out of anger basically) and got super passive aggressive on this one Buddhist lady who kinda was yelling at us and saying stuff like, "I Buddhist forever!" And stuff like "Everyone on this road already knows you." It was rough I'm not gonna lie, Elder Overly was tapping my shoulder and everything trying to get me to stop😂 it wasn't too big of a deal because she definetly couldn't understand my tone. Later in the finding block, I overheard some music and it was "Don't bring me down," by ELO. Right at the chorus when they're saying, "Don't bring me down," such a sign from God and I just starting smiling and shaking my head, just felt like I was having a laugh with him, too.
Friday night was crazy. My back tire popped, and we had the funniest finding blocks ever. Bikes broke down so we walked them to a gas station, left them there overnight, ate McDonalds, which was clutch, and then went back Saturday morning and fixed the bikes. Saturday was cool. I genuinely can't remember a singular thing we did other than the bike problem stuff.
Sunday was a wild wild day. I placed an order for these two ties from this one lady that makes them here in Miri whose a member and when I went over to buy them, the lady that made them, her husband experienced some loss in the family so we were able to be there without us hearing about that at first and teach an unexpected lesson about resurrection and the spirit world which was so awesome and a cool little miracle to be at the right place at the right time. I thought it was going to be a quick little visit just to buy the ties, but it was great. Small and simple things for sure🙏🏼
You're definetly probably reading this and saying, "Wow only one bike problem. It's a miracle." (of course you're not lol) LO AND BEHOLD, AS SOON as we end our language study right before our prime time on Sunday, BOTH me AND Elder Simonsen's front tire just absolutely gone. Cooked. Somehow😭😭 its actually laughable at this point. We both just started dying laughing and yelling and just screaming at the sky, everyone was looking at but we didn't care. Total justifiable crash out from the both of us. We both agreed that we're just not even gonna fix the bikes before Zone Conference and do it after Zone Conference. We've been living at the bike shop anyways😭
Which brings me now to Monday morning as I'm writing this. We have tonight, Tuesday and 1/4th of Wednesday and then OFF TO SINGAPORE FOR ZONE CONFERENCE🇸🇬🇸🇬🇸🇬🎊 so unbelievably excited. Been a missionary for 3 and a half months and in the field for 2 months by the time Zone Conference starts until I actually get to Singapore for the first time as a Singapore called missionary😂😂 which is why I will always say Singapore AND Malaysia mission. Even though the official name of the mission is just the Singapore mission lol.
Quick spiritual-ish thought
We were finding last night and me and Elder Simonsen were kinda talking just feeling really disappointed about the bikes and just the last 2 weeks in general. He said this is the hardest start to a transfer in his entire mission. Mind you this is his 16th and final transfer and has been out 2 years. And I was just like wow. I was super happy he said that cause I was thinking like is this hard for him as well? How really difficult have these last 2 weeks been? Am I just soft? Am I overreacting? All that. Come Follow Me curriculum this week is about Zions Camp, and it's no coincidence the Lord is putting us through our own little Zion's Camp indeed. We were talking (not even finding at this point, pretty much every single house was Muslim, and there was a mosque nearby singing Quran verses over the megaphone, which is super cool btw) Anyways, we were talking how we were thinking that the Lord is just seeing if we'll stay obedient, if we'll still walk, put one foot in front of the other (literally because we have to walk everywhere now) still not cry against the Lord through our afflictions, do we complain? Sure, of course, but never against the Lord, we were more just confused honestly, is he testing us, molding us even more for what's ahead? We're all at different parts in our mission. Elder Barker still doesn't really have a clue what's going on (I mean that super respectfully. I was the same way, he just got here from the MTC) I'm in my last training month but feel like I've been out like 6 months lol and I've been totally greeny broken with leading the area. And Elder Simonsen is literally gonna be sitting in an algebra class at BYU driving, listening to music in a month. We're seeing no success so are we planting seeds? Probably. We are definetly being tried for sure. I'm hoping the 2nd half of the transfer is a lot better. Opening up an area is just tough. Maybe this is my last couple weeks in Miri and the Lord wants to prepare the way for future missionaries. I don't know and I never will, and once again just writing down my thoughts. Love y'all, thank y'all so much for the support. This was a really long one. I debated on putting a spiritual thought, but I have to I feel like. Anyways love y'all🙏🏼
"Behold, great and marvelous are the works of the Lord. How unsearchable are the depths of the mysteries of him; and it is impossible that man should find out all his ways. And no man knoweth of his ways save it be revealed unto him; wherefore, brethren, despise not the revelations of God." Jacob 4:8
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