Thursday, December 20, 2012

Greetings from Kuala Lumpur

Hello Family,

It has been the most hectic week ever.  I am so tired right now, I have no idea what to even write to you.  hmmmm

Before I forget, we want to Skype next Wednesday at 10:00AM Kuala Lumpur Time.  This translates to your Christmas Day evening, although it will be the morning of the 26th for us.  We will have one hour to skype.  my name is david.aj.robinson on skype.  The password is the same as my other ones... so check and make sure we are skype friends.

Since last time, I have left Sarawak.  It was kind of a sad goodbye trying to see everyone off, and trying to pack again.  I cannot stand packing.  After Elder Hodder dropped me off at the Airport in Miri, that was the first time that I haven't been with a companion since I entered the MTC.  I had a very nice flight into KLIA.  THe only problem was that my new companion told me he would be waiting for me at the airport.  After almost an hour of waiting, I decided to go use some of my change and call Elder Matheson back in Miri.  I got a hold of him, and he told me that right as I boarded the flight, my new companion called telling me to take the Train downtown.... so it was a good thinhg I called.  THe airport is about 35 minutes outside of Kuala Lumpur Sentral, so I had a decent ride ahead of me.  As I was sitting, some artsy guy comes and sits nexts to me and asks. "how much longer do you have?"  He knew about our church, and actually had a friend who went on a mission in New Zealand.  THis guy was from Norway, but grew up in Australia, and had spent his college days in Copenhagen.  He was a journalist for BBC WOrld News, and now travels the world taking pictures for BBC.  We talked a lot, and he thought the mission was a very cool idea (I had to explain it wasn't just a 2 year trip).  It was probably the first time I have talked to a white person that wasn't a missionary in a LONG time.  He took a picture of me, and went on his way.  
My Companion is Elder TRotter, and he is out of control!  I don't even know how else to describe him.  He is really funny, and sometimes a little too funny.  He is a big wrestler from spokane washington.  He was state champion wrestler, and got scholarship offers at all the ivy leagues and stanford, but chose to go to BYU.  He is into guitar and has recorded a couple songs.  Again, he is out of control.  Some of the things he says kill me.  It is kind of hard to explain.  hahaha.  For teh most part, he is very hard working, and very forward.  In fact, he talks so much that I have figured this transfer is going to be a good time for me to learn how to listen.  He is always talking or singing.  he reminds me a lot of Elder Mayo.  

Because our Area is so new, we don't even have our apartment yet.  We have been living in the other elders 500 Sq. foot apartment... with 4 people.  you literally open the door and bump into my little spot on the floor.  I haven't slept on a real bed for a week.  And I am still living out of my suitcase.  THankfully, I think we are moving in today!  We have been traveling an hour to Klang every day.  We spend so much time on transportation, it is a little crazy.  Our new apartment is supposed to be pretty nice though!  Oh by the way, I LOVE KL!!!!!!  It is SO COOL.  I absolutely love it.  All the elders here keep saying to me that they have never seen an elder so excited to be called to KL area.  I love it. The investigators that we have met usually work in the city, so they like to have us meet them there.  THe other day, we had an appointment in KL City Center, and the investigator spoke great english, owned a cold storage (popular Expat store) and gave us free drinks.  Afterwards, since it was friday, we went to Pasar Malam (night market) (EVery Jumaat , which is the Islamic day of worship, there is Pasar Malam... even in Miri) and we got some awesome food for really cheap.  I have seen the Petronas Towers (i figured Eric would ask if I had seen that yet), and they are very cool at night.  THe city in general is just very cool.  It is in a large valley surrounded by mountains (not very tall ones), but is still very green and rainy.  It is just soo cool.  We are close enough that we can take the KTM from Klang to KL.  
There is a train called the KTM, and the trax-like thing is called teh LRT.  
Klang is also awesome.  It has a really cool Little INdia, with ton of delicious smells and fancy little shops.  It is a lot poorer i think in Klang.  

We have been so busy with setting things up for our new Area, that we haven't done a lot of missionary work yet.  We didn't have a cell phone even, so we had to go set that up.  The Subang Jaya Branch, that we are joined on to, had a great Christmas party the other day, with TURKEY (which is suuuupper expensive over here), and even had a white santa claus!  It is completely different over here in West Malaysia.  Literally everything is different.  Our very first night here, a member took us to dinner that cost over 100RM and I had the best steamboat ever.  So good.  THe members here love the missionaries, we are very lucky.  Also, most of the missionaries here have never served in East, so they have NO IDEA that they are spoiled beyond reason getting this type of treatment.  THe branch put on the CHristmas party..... in east, that is OUR JOB!!  Very different.....  We also had a 'birthday part' for one of the subang jaya members and they invited us, and they are half indian and half filipino, so the food there was SO good.  I think  I can get used to the food here :)

If we weren't hectic enough as is, we had ZOne conference this week in Singapore!!!!!!  I always love going to Singapore.  We flew down from Kuala Lumpur on Monday morning, and had all day on monday to do whatever we wanted.  I got to see Elder Crum there.  We had so much fun.  Elder Crum and I went to the Lego Exhibit that is being featured at the Marina Bay Sands-- very cool.  It was awesome just catching up with him.  We went all over town.  We went to orchard, and they have the whole thing lit up with christmas lights.  It reminded me of Paris last year.  THere were street performers of all sorts all over the place, and lots of free and yummy street food.  It doesn't feel like Christmas in Malaysia.... but the moment you go to Singapore, you know it is Christmas time.  It is kind of cool, because there is a ton of secular Christmas stuff.... but there are also scriptures posted on the big malls, and the big hotels.  Lots of church christmas music playing in the airport, the city, the subway.  Very nice feel.  Sister Mains also put on a very nice Christmas Zone Conference for us.  She said that we have to be extra nice to our families when we call next week..... heheh.   We then went to Little India in Singapore and got awesome banana leaf and curry.  I also got a very tastey mango lhasi.  yum....

I only got one package in singapore from you guys.  The one with all the candy in it.  Nothing with the iron man shirt, or the electronic dictionary :(  are you sure it made its way to Singapore?

We then took a 5 hour bus ride from Singapore to KL last night, and ended up staying in the other elders apartment in downtown KL.  I have no more clean clothes, and no apartment to go to.  I AM SO TIRED.  we didn't even get back to KL until 3AM.  ugh.  Oh well.  that is why this email is more of just a list of things that happened.  

Oh, and there has been a lot of trouble with the missionaries lately.  We are not supposed to write anything in our emails, because the government may be screening them.  THere was an incident last night in Pinang, and at the border in Singapore last week.  Can't really say a lot about what happened, but it's got us all on our toes.  We may have emergency transfers.

k by

Hope you guys are having a fun Christmas time, bai
Elder RObinson

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