Wednesday, October 24, 2012

allloha

Hello Fam,

Wow- I completely forgot you guys were going to Hawai'i until I opened the emails this morning!  It sounds like a lot of fun.  From your description, I'm assuming you're on the big island?  How is the hotel?  I'm a little depressed that you guys are eating delicious breakfasts every day, because I have had oatmeal for the past month...........  haha.  Is Dad sun burnt yet?  Oh, and I would like an Ironman shirt!  Even if I don't have it for two years...... oh well.  Make sure you take lots of pictures-- I've forgotten what Hawai'i looks like!  Actually, I want to see if it looks like Malaysia at all.  Normally I would be really jealous that you guys were at a beach vacation, but I'm ten minutes from the beach (not that I have ever seen it) and it is always around 90 degrees and humid here!  The other day during companionship study, I drew a picture of snowflakes and other winter things to try and make myself feel cold.  Didn't work.  Oh well.  And then I listened to the Hodders tell me about how nice their place in Canada is during the winter! AHHH.  They said I could stay there when I come to Canada.  They supposedly have a really nice spread.

what else.

OH.  I forgot to mention.  President Mains went to the Asia Area conference in Hong Kong some time ago, and they mentioned an interesting statistic.  There are 330ish missions in the entire world.  I think there are 15ish in Asia.  Yet, 2/3 of the World's population is covered by our 15ish missions.......  I couldn't believe it, but then if you think about it, it kind of makes sense.  That's crazy.  President Mains then went on to say we have been given a special trust to be missionaries in Asia, to help in the pioneering of the work here.  It is kind of scary to think about that.  As he said this, I remembered my Chinese classes back at BYU.  I really want to continue studying Chinese so when the time comes, I can be ready to offer my help in the giant work that that is going to be.  I def plan on serving more missions later.  The Senior Couples here have retired, and they say they're just going to keep going on missions till they die.  wow.  

what else.

Not that much has happened since I emailed you from Singapore.  OH.  We were able to watch general conference yesterday.... in Malay.  It was hard to understand, especially because the translator spoke at 293854724938576 miles per hour-- even the natives didn't understand much of what they said sometimes.  We only watched the Saturday sessions, and will watch the rest next Sunday.  I really enjoyed M. Russel Ballard's talk about the bees working together, I thought it was especially good for the members here.  As of now, there aren't many hands, and there are even fewer hands that are willing to work!  It was also cool because we got 5 investigators to church to watch conference.  Elder Russel M. Nelson's talk about missionary work was really good for them, because he spoke directly to investigators.  One of our investigators, Dangkan, understood that he was speaking to him, and that made him very interested.  Hopefully this week we can review what was taught yesterday.  Sister Martin (senior couple from australia) made her date loaf, and it was so delicious.  It tasted just like the cake we use for toffee pudding.  she also said it was easy to make, and that Malaysia has the best selection of dates!  When you come, we'll have to try and get some!  

what else. 

The rainy season is in full force.  Every night, there is lightening everywhere.  Last night, it was literally like there was a strobe light as we were riding out bikes home.  SPEAKING OF BIKES.  I have had two flats so far.  The first time, we were kind of in the middle of no where so we had Elder Hodder drive us to the shop and had them fix it.  3 inch, sharp metal thing.  Then right before Singapore I somehow managed to run over another 3 inch rusty nail that went through my tire completely.  We tried to patch it up with some make-shift stuff... and it is still leaking, so I have to buy another tire today.  Next package, you guys might want to send a mini repair kit or something.  The roads have so much junk in them, and it gets dark early, so our tires are very vulnerable.  Just my luck, huh eric.  

Oh, and I didn't have a good meal in Singapore!!!  My companion and I had to stay in the AP's apartment, while Elder Bodhaine/putnam/mayo/etc got to stay in a hotel.  Well, day one of Singapore we got separated, and our phones didn't work in Singapore (from now on they will) so we couldn't meet up.  My companion didn't want to spend any money in Singapore, and neither did the other elder who came with us, so we ended up eating Carl's Junior :/  we then had to listen to the rest of the guys talk about how good the food was that they had.  The other guys spent almost 50 Sing on food while I ended up eating a mediocre burger..... NOT HAPPENING AGAIN.  So I ended up not spending hardly anything in Singapore.  I did spend 36 Sing to get into the Night Safari, so worth it.  

We spent all morning today scrubbing, cleaning, etc the house.  The landlord doesn't want to renew the contract in November because of how disgusting the house was when the previous elders left it.  We're trying to change that.  It looks really good.  I shouldn't say the we ALL helped clean, because there were definitely some people who didn't see the importance of it!!!!!!  There were some voices raised :) (don't worry, I haven't changed)

Oh, we are all desperate for some sweets here.  THere are famous amos stores here, which is strange, but each cookie is 5 RM, and they are small cookies!  But they have cookie crumbs, 1 kilo of it, for 6RM.  THey literally scrape the bottom of pans, and fill bags, and sell them.  We buy them.  So at night we eat our bag of cookie crumbs.  Pitiful, right?

Ok, I'm going to try and attach some pictures now!  

bai


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