Racing around Maylasia

Dear Family,

It's been yet another crazy hectic week with little sleep.  

Last Monday it was quite rainy, so we just decided to roam around downtown a bit, took some cool pictures and saw some of the touristy places (not sure how long we're going to stay in Sing since I've already seen it so much).  After that, we met up with the chinese Elders and ate all you can eat Dim Sum at a nice place at Dhoby Ghaut.  

After reporting with President Mains on Tuesday, we literally sprinted to the airport.  We made both our flights, thankfully, and landed in Miri.  It was a great time to be with all of the Elders there.  I followed Elder Bodhaine and Elder Tan, two of my favs in the mission.  Elder Bodhaine is into cooking, so we literally didn't eat any meals out while I was there... (I cannot remember the last time we didn't eat out... except for sundays... I'm going to be sad when I come home and we can't eat out for every meal D: )  We had a couple of interesting experiences.  This is the 3rd time I've gone on exchanges with the ZLs in Miri, and each time we've visited the same member (who in my opinion never showed any progress or action to come back)  When I heard we were going to see them again, I kind of rolled my eyes.  I was pleasantly surprised to find out that she has been coming back to church, and as we spoke with her, she had actually had been reading the Book of Mormon and that she could recount what she was reading.  impressive.  I guess everyone really can change after all, and I'm glad the zone leaders saw something in her that I was missing.  We had another experience where a man let us into his home... and we could tell something was fishy... because he was too friendly, smiling too big.... long story short, we find out he's a pastor from another church (he waited 30 min before telling us that) and then started warning us against reading the book of Mormon.  We finally said we had to leave, and that we respected his opinion, and then he asked if we could have a closing prayer.  we all agreed that'd be fine, so he started praying.  Mid prayer he put his hands on the other two elders heads ( I didn't see it, my eyes were closed) but I heard him say their names and he shouted that the evil spirit from the book of mormon would go "OUT!!", I was so annoyed at this point, then I felt a hand on my head and immediately slapped it off.  I asked him to not touch me, and then he tried to touch my head again, so I continued to dodge/smack his hand.  He gave up, and closed the prayer.  He told me afterwards that I didn't need to worry, that I wasn't bad, it was just the evil spirit inside of me... We got out of there quickly.  It's one thing to pray for each other, but I was really disappointed that he would try to do something disrespectful like that as a preacher.  Other than that, we had a good time in Miri.

The senior couple dropped us off at the airport, and we flew to Labuan.  Labuan is a little island off the coast of east malaysia, where our layover was only supposed to be 45 minutes.  When we landed, we heard there was something wrong with the plane, so our flight was pushed back atleast another 4 hours.  They gave us spending money and told us to come back to the airport later... so we went out and explored the town/island a little bit before catching our flight back over.  It seemed like the whole island was completely muslim- I didn't see any chinese.  THey were just starting the Labuan International Sea Challenge, so there was a lot going on for that.  I hired a taxi to drive us around to all the spots, and he kind of ripped us off, but he took us to all the cool places and I don't htink we would have been able to see all we did any other way.  We finally got on our flight from Labuan to Kota Kinabalu.

When we arrived in KK, we went straight to the Zone Leaders house, where we were told to grab some bikes and meet them at Keramat.  I was super excited to see people from my old area, so although it was getting late, we hopped on our bikes and rode as fast as we could over there.  I got to see a 17 year old we worked with/bring back to activation.  He is doing so well.  It was fun to surprise his family, and to see how they were doing.  The senior couple tells me he is doing so well, and that he wants to learn everything.  He's a smart one, too.  He was recently in Klang with his mom, and showed me a picture of him with the Elders there.  I was shocked that he went to church there!  He said, "I told you I wasn't going to miss church anymore"  soooo cool.  I hear all the members there took care of him.  We then went upstairs and saw another family.  This family just sent off their first missionary, who was the branch mission leader when I was in KK.  I was able to show his family pictures of him from Singapore when he was set apart.  Great to see people again.

I forgot how beautiful KK is.  I'm so excited for you to see it.  After that night, we did our training with the ZLs, and then I followed another companionship way far away to their place in 1Borneo, supposedly the biggest mall in the whole island.  I rode forever on a bad bike... haha.  Good experience.  The senior couple, The Allens, said to tell them when we're coming again so they can make/buy treats.  She thanked me for sharing the V chocolates with them!  We'll have to bring them some.   On our way back to the Town the next day, an elder riding in front of me fell of his bike on the coastal highway right as we were going to the airport... we made our flight, and he's ok.  We had a long layover in KL, where we ran into a senior couple serving in Sri Lanka.  ONe of the missionaries in our mission was from the branch they're serving in.  It was good to see how excited this couple was, and energetic, about the growth of the church in Asia.  We landed in Singapore around 1:00AM, and it was SO busy... I don't understand. 

Sunday was really good.  Sheila came back from the Philippines and came to church yesterady.  I'm glad she did, and the sunday school lesson was on the Word of Wisdom... which, of course, we hadn't taught yet.  It went well, and I'm excited to see how she progresses.  

While writing this email, I've been on hold with Malaysia Airlines, listening to strange malaysian elevator music.  President Mains changed up the schedule a bit with New Missionary Training in two weeks, so now we're trying to figure our how we're going to do our exchanges.  We still have to go to JB, Kuching, Penang, and KL... I honestly have no idea how it's going to work..... oh well.  I'm really hungry writing this letter.  And clearly I have run out of things to say.

OK bai
Elder Robinson




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