> Hello Family,
>
> It sure has felt like a looooooonnnngggg week.
>
> First off, church yesterday was kind of disappointing.  The previous week, we had a ton of people come to the new Klang group.  The problem is, we have direct orders from the Asia Area Presidency that we have to combine with our mother branch on the first sunday of every month.  So yesterday, when we met in Petaling Jaya, we literally could not get ONE person, from the 19 we brought last week, to come to church.  We had our investigator Beh come, but none of the others.  It's just too far for them to travel, especially when it starts at 9:00AM.  So, church was disappointing in that regard, but it was nice being able to focus on one person, and get something out of church (as opposed to running around with our heads chopped off, which is how it normally feels).  It was also Branch conference, so we got to hear a lot of great talks from the District Presidency.  one of the speakers came up to us afterwards, and invited us to come to his office next monday for Pday.... oh, his office is in the Petronas Towers above the Bridge.  The Towers are by invitation only.  Literally.
>
> We also have been dealing with another large struggle: Chinese New Year.  Literally the entire world stops for the Chinese New Year.  For the past month, we've been hearing "Oh, I'm sorry, I'm just too busy with Chinese New Year coming up"..... you're not even chinese.... Anyways, the actual holiday is next Sunday.  They were considering canceling church, but decided it would be better to just have Sacrament Meeting only.  I don't think anyone will be there.  We've had a lot of investigators (chinese, and non-chinese alike) too busy with the Chinese New Year season to meet with us this week.  I guess this is their version of the Christmas season here.  You hear Chinese New Year music everywhere, and everyone is busy shopping, cooking, and getting caught up in whatever else they need to do.
>
> We had a surge of new investigators when things first got rolling, but as we are finding out, it's going to be a lot tougher than we initially thought.  Since there wasn't any missionary work before us, we have to literally start from scratch.  We have been spending soo much time contacting.  We've tried flats, terrace houses, apartmenst, everything.  It's just hard.  Especially because this week was abnormally hot.  We still were able to find a few people that weren't busy with the new year, I just don't know if it's the right kind of people yet.  Our goal is to do everything we can to find another family.  It's just hard.
>
> I don't want to be all negative this email, but there was one other disappointment.  In Malay, the phrase "kami ada hal" might be the worst of them all.  It literally translates to "we have a thing".  It is the universal excuse here.  It's hard when, as missionaries, we literally spend everyday trying to find people.  We spend everyday studying, finding, teaching, working, all in hopes of bringing people closer to Christ.  For us, getting people to church is, in a way, a confirmation of our work the previous week.  When after all you do, all that is keeping them back is a "hal" we get kind of frustrated.  a "hal"?, really?  I was thinking yesterday of all the "hal" that I have let stop me from getting the real benefit.  Elder Trotter and I were talking about the Savior, and how He put in the ultimate effort for all of us.  He literally gave everything He had so that we could take part of it, and become something more.  Even after all of that, sometimes we think we have a "hal".  I think about all the things that do "easily beset me", and realize that it's just a bunch of hal.  When we wake up, and see the big picture, these "hal" seem so insignificant compared to the things that are available to us.  no more hals.
>
> ok, for some better news.  Sister Sophie, a super member in Klang, knew we were having a tough time, so she has taken it upon herself to go above and beyond her normal above and beyond.  She makes us dinners and drops it off at our house.  She also took us out to breakfast last pday for Dim Sum and Bah Kut Teh (which is the chinese breakfast equivalent to Schwein Haxe).  And then, on Saturday, after several appointments fell through, she called and took us to get burgers from the "best place in KL to get burgers"  It made my day (as you can see in the picture I sent home).  And they were really good.
>
> We are kind of spoiled by the few members we have.  Again, the only way we can really repay them is to work harder.  That's what we plan on doing.
>
> Oh, the other day, we were told that there was a less active member, who lived in the Klang area.  We were super surprised, and decided we would go find him.  We were given his address, and looked on the map... thought it wasn't too far away, and decided to go to it.  THe neighborhood was called Kampong Jawa, which appeared to be a reasonable bike ride.  After an hour, we got there, (this is when it was boiling hot) and a group of malay men felt some pity for us and bought us some drinks.  We asked if they new were these flats were, and they said, "oh yeah, but you still have a long way to go!"  -____- So we kept going.  We ride for another hour (getting lost a bunch of times) and end up in the middle of no where in Shah Alam!  Shah Alam is the super Muslim part of the valley, like where all the Islamic regulatory stuff is, and everyone was giving us weird looks.  We finally get to these flats, go up to the room, knock on the door.  A couple of Nigerians answered the door, and had no idea who our member was.  We were super discouraged, after traveling so far, all for nothing.  We were on the 9th floor of the flats, and looked out over Shah Alam for a minute.  After a while, we decided to go back to our bikes.  As we were unlocking our bikes, we heard, "brothers!  Brothers!"  We looked up, and saw another Nigerian shouting to us from his car across the street.  We then said, "I am a member of the church of Jesus Christ!"  He ran out of his car up towards us.  He was so happy to see us.  No, he was NOT the man we were looking for.  It turns out, he was baptized in Puchong. a while ago, but then got moved out to Shah Alam, which is way too far away to go to church in the puchong area.  We told him about the new building in Klang, and he was so excited.  He told us that he had the Book of Mormon in English and Igboh, and still read.  We're going to meet him again tomorrow (kind of not excited for the bike ride... but atleast we know where we're going!).  It's crazy how, again, the window of time for us to cross paths with hims was EXTREMELY small.  We walked out of the flats at the same time that he happened to be driving by.  This happens way too much for it to be chance.
>
> I'm actually writing this email in Puchong.  We went to the Zone Leaders area to go bowling with them.  I ended up dominating all of them. ^__^  who knew I was such the bowler??
>
> Eric, good job at swimming.  Hope you do well at state.  I know you're probably sick of swimming at this point, but I'm dying to get into a pool!!!
>
> I have not gotten a package yet.  Although, I got a cord in the mail from Dad?  I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it.  I think the package slip will come today (hopefully).
>
> We're still doign well here.  I just can't wait for chinese new year to be over.  Hopefully we get some ang pao, and let into some good parties.  Some of the members are having a party in Subang Jaya, so we might bring beh over to it.
>
> Ok, goodbye

> Elder RObinso