Chinese New Year! Feeling more Comfortable

Part of the explanation for the subject title refers to me feeling a bit more in control in the new area that Elder Gould and I entered 11 days ago. 

This week was great, and we saw success as we met with two new investigators (kind of a miracle for both of them since the way we found their number was through old contacts on our phone labeled as potential investigators and they hadn't been contacted for over a year). We also saw success as we started, essentially for the first time in my whole mission, tracting (for those who don't know: that is contacting people by knocking on door after door). We were overjoyed by the success and some of the miracles we saw there. We will continue to do this activity, as well as try to implement some other new ideas as Elder Gould and I both figure out what activities are the most effective in this area.

In other news, as you may have heard if you read emails from other missionaries in Asia areas, or areas influenced by Asian culture, this week was Chinese New Year! Although I did not see the fireworks Friday night, I certainly heard them and they went on for a long while. Also, if you have ever wondered why they make fireworks that are illegal if people can't even buy them, I am pretty sure the reason they are made is because all of the illegal fireworks get sent over to Asia :). The climate is a lot more wet though, so I guess they have less to worry about.

Elder Gould and I both had the idea that it might be more fruitful to contact people during Chinese New Year because a lot of people are at home (as stated by mission rules in the white handbook). Many people who work in big cities return to their home town for Chinese New Year, and since our area is a small area, we saw an influx of people. As we contacted people at their homes, we got a lot more mandarin oranges from people than we did phone numbers, but that is ok. We did have some success though and I like how contacting at homes gets us to a set of people who we might not otherwise find. Cultural fact: people love to give out little red envelopes to people that have a little money in it, even to complete strangers. Only those who are unmarried get red envelopes, and the expectation is that when you get married, you start to hand them out to others. We checked with mission leaders and it is ok for us to take them because it might be impolite not too.

Also, you probably didn't hear, but maybe you did, the worldwide missionary schedule is being changed fairly drastically. Really simply put, it gives missionaries a lot more flexibility for when they want to do things, and gives missionaries a bit more time to do missionary work. We are excited for these changes because the quietest time of the day for us is not the morning, but rather the afternoon.

Finally, before I forget, I need to officially announce that I have tried Durian. It happened at an investigators house so it was high pressure, but everything went ok. Durian is a dangerous, spiky looking fruit that smells bad and tastes kind of gross. The people over here love it though. I ate it without gagging, and although I would not eat it out of enjoyment, it is not too bad.

Actually, I forgot something: I was asked to give a talk on Saturday night for the next Sunday. It was all in Chinese and I was able to fill up 15 minutes without too much trouble... so that was a good experience.

My spiritual thought comes from the book of Enos. Enos reflected on the words of his father about Eternal life, and his soul hungered for an answer. Then, he prayed to God in all supplication, and after a long time, he received an answer to his prayer. This can be the same for all of us, so long as we ask in faith, are patient with God's timing and do our best to prepare ourselves to accept the answer, we will get answers to our prayers.

Pics: eating awesome food with awesome members.

blurry pic, but a ton of motorcycles that I thought was interesting.

Sitiawan: A Bigger House and Smaller Branch

Well, This week brought a lot of change, and for those of you who did not read my last email, that change came as a result of transferring to a new area. Sitiawan, my new home, was about a four hour bus ride from Kuala Lumpur, and is even smaller and less busy than my last area. We are a two-elder District, and we are about a two hour bus ride from the next closest set of missionaries. We have a huge house, and it is very messy right now, and we will soon clean it up after we finish emailing. There is so much to write about and not much time to write. I will try to be simple and organized in my comments.

Sitiawan has been known in the past for its disobedient missionaries, and for the difficulty of the area. That is why Elder Gould (my new companion) and I included the statement of "Turn this area around" on our Transfer Vision. The Branch here is small, but the members are great, and they have helped us to get places and to visit other members and less actives. Although it is hard to contact people because the area is not too busy, we are still hopeful and looking for areas where we can make things happen. Another challenge (more of a personal challenge) for me is that this is definitely a chinese area, as opposed the the English area that I served in for the last four and a half months. Church is held in Chinese, and many members and residents only speak Chinese: I feel very motivated to work hard to improve my Language skills.

One cool event/thing that we were able to go to this week was a morning market (after getting permission from our mission president) that is literally like a 5 minute walk from our house. I have already said that these markets (night and morning) are really what I imagined Asia would be like. There are tons of people, exotic fruits, tents, and different kinds of meats. Shirtless Chinese men throw fish around and scale them right in front of you, and other kinds of meat hang down all around you... a pretty unique experience. While we were walking around, we stopped and talked to a lady about English class... she asked us for more information and then she bought us a big green fruit (I am not sure what it is but it tasted pretty good). Elder Gould and I spent some time standing on a corner where all the cars pull in and out of this morning market with a sign for our free English class. We had a ton of people come up and ask us for more information... so we are excited for this next Thursday and Friday. 

Other news, I got a bike, and we simply cannot find a map of our area because it is that small. If anyone is wondering what it is like to be a two person District Leader: it basically consists of doing normal missionary work, and then having District meeting on Tuesday (I am sure it will be amazing tomorrow). I also need to lean on Elder Gould because he spent a week in this area 5 weeks ago (long story) so he knows where things are.

Elder Gould is great, and he is a really hard worker. I am excited for what we can accomplish together, and I am really grateful for his motivation and effort. Also, he is an All-American swimmer from Tennessee.

Well, the Church is true, and I want to bear my testimony on the power of the spirit as a comforter. As a missionary, I realize that I do a lot of things poorly, despite my best efforts. It can be easy to feel out of your depth and unqualified. While those circumstances may be true, God can send the Holy Ghost to lift you, encourage you, and help you to get on the path to get better. Having the spirit with us is one of the best feelings in the world.

Thanks for reading.

Elder Allen 

Mary's note about the pictures: 1. His previous district: Kuala Lumpur West. 2. His new companion is on the right.  I'm guessing this is a young woman from the branch since they are standing outside a church building and she doesn't seem to be wearing name tag. September 1997 is Nathans birth month so they are all about the same age.

Transfers! The Six Month Mark

This week marked the six month mark of me being on my mission. It was accompanied by the burning of a tie (not mine, I found a stained one in our apartment), but it was also accompanied by reflection on how I have done so far in my mission, who I have become, and the goals that I want to set. These six months have been great, and I have learned a lot...and I am definitely not the missionary I hope to become... not yet at least. I am excited to improve my skills, and to learn how to make decisions that reflect my best effort.

Elder Rogers and I have seen a lot of success in our area since we first came out. This last transfer in particular was especially successful - with each of us improving in missionary skills, and finding and teaching more people. We are still working on getting our investigators on the path to baptism, and eventually to the temple, but we are thrilled with the success we have seen at the base of accomplishing these goals (namely finding people and teaching them). This transfer brings some change though, and I will be going to a town called Setiawan as a District Leader. It is north of where I am now in East Malaysia, and President Simmons told me this morning that it has not had missionaries in it for the past 5 weeks. There is only one other member in the district (my companion, Elder Gould, who came out at the same time as me) so it may get a little lonely - only seeing other missionaries once every six weeks or so. Because there have been no missionaries, we probably will not have any investigators when we get there (kind of like Klang when we first arrived). I will almost undoubtedly speak more Chinese because this is an actual Chinese area (stay tuned to see if church services will be in Mandarin).

I am excited to go there, and I am really glad that Elder Gould has been in that area before - so we won't be completely blind. I am a little sad to be leaving Klang though. This week, we had a really cool miracle where we contacted a man (with his 11 year old son) on Friday, and then met them and saw them at church. We were contacting on Saturday when this potential Investigator called us, and told us that he was at the church. All of our other appointments so far that day, and canceled, but we had one in 45 min. We raced to the church in 20 minutes and had a lesson with him. We were worried we would be late to our next appointment, but we received a text from that person telling us to come a half hour later :). The next day, we met with this man and his son at church, and the members were super impressed with them. We are really excited for those two, and it was great to see the branch get excited and welcome them in.

I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve, and I love the feelings that I get as I help others to come unto Christ. I am excited to serve in a different area, and I know that the Lord helps everyone as they serve, regardless of where they are called. The Church is true.

Elder Allen

Mary's note: It's exciting to learn about a new area.  Sitiawan is a 3 hour car ride north and still on the coast.  Here's what I learned from wikipedia:

Folklore mentions Sitiawan as Kampung Sungai Gajah Mati. It became a thriving settlement for industrious migrants from Foochow (Chinese: Fuzhou). They were mostly from the district of Kutien in Fuzhou, China.

According to legend, Kampung Sungai Gajah Mati (literally: "Dead Elephant River Village") was the place where two large elephants drowned after one of them, overladen with tin ore, got stuck in the mud of the Dinding River at low tide. Efforts to save the elephant were in vain and eventually, everyone gave up and left. However, the second elephant refused to budge and hung on to its friend, resulting in them drowning together in the rising tide. Thus the setia kawan (loyal friend) name was derived.

In the late 19th century, tin, together with rubber sheets, formed the main commodities of commerce. They were often carried by elephants and loaded onto waiting steamships destined for Penang. In the 1870s, when an outbreak of smallpox struck the settlement, and in line with the Chinese belief of naming a place to enhance its feng-shui, the locals chose to name the locality Setia Kawan—the "loyal friend" -- to harmonise with nature and appease the dead elephants. The name eventually became shortened to Sitiawan.

In September 1903, the settlement got a boost with the arrival of more than 360 Christian Foochows desperate to escape the violence against the Qings Dynasty.The Chinese Christians were attacked by the Boxer party also known as Yihetuan in Chinese 义和团 and the Qing Dynasty government support the cause causing mess in Fujian in 1901 also known as Boxer Rebellion. They were led by two Chinese pastors and settled down in what is today known as Kampung Koh. Most of these immigrants worked in rubber plantations in Sitiawan. The Foochows also built four wells, two in the 1930s and another two in the 1950s. These heritage wells still exist but are no longer used.

More Lessons, but Great Quality

First off, I would like to apologize for not taking any pictures this week. Needless to say, we biked around the wonderful city of Klang, and met many people from different areas of the world. I know that every mission says that they are a big "melting pot," and it is probably true to a certain extent. My area of Malaysia is definitely less of a melting pot than Kuala Lumpur (the capitol) but it probably gets more people from other areas in South East Asia. It is rare that I see another white person during the week, but sometimes we do see some in the malls. One minority that we do have here though is people from Myanmar. These people are super humble, super nice, and most of them are Christian and open to learning more. The only problem is that most of them are refugees, and do not have the legal documents to be baptized. We ran into this problem this week, where we found a super solid boy who was reading the Book of Mormon, and who was eager to learn, but we found out that he is from Myanmar and does not have the documents to be here. It is sad, and I pray that one day he will have the opportunity to learn the gospel.

This week we taught twelve lessons, a slight decline from our last week's count of 16. We are still really excited, because we are teaching mores lessons than we were a few months ago, and, from what it sounds like, more lessons than our area has normally had in the past. That being said, we are struggling in getting members to be present to our lessons. This problem has multiple factors, some of which include less than perfect planning on our part, the sheer lack of available members (we normally have about 20 people (including children) attend church), and the fluidity of our appointments (a lot of our lessons are set up the day before). We are working on improving two of those three problems this week, with better planning, and getting our investigators' appointments on a schedule so that we can call members more in advance.

We had a good lesson this week with one of our investigators named Wai Feng. His cousins recently joined the church and they are active in our branch. Wai Feng has been investigating the church for past little while, and has been really consistent in coming to church. He is 11 years old, and he has a good understanding of a lot of the gospel, being helped largely by his cousin's family who bring him to church. This week, we taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his parents sat in on our lesson while we taught him. Normally, we teach in English, but since his parents can only speak Chinese, we taught this lesson mostly in Chinese, and it was a great chance for me to practice speaking! More importantly though, it was a great opportunity to teach and testify about the blessings that come as we live the Gospel, and follow Christ. I feel like we taught very simply (it helps when you do it in another language) and that he understands the how we can use the Gospel to get better. To top this all off, we finished our lesson by getting lunch with his family. I had Malay food (for the first time) and when I initially looked at the options, I thought that they all looked gross. But, it was really good, and I would highly recommend it. The down side of this experience though, is that while we were teaching Wai Feng, my bike light was stolen. I normally take it off every time I leave my bike, but I forgot this time... and I paid for it. 

I would like to bear my testimony on the importance of diligence. Diligence is something that will bring many blessings, and it easily relates (at least in my mind) to our Heavenly Father's eternal plan for us. This is a plan that includes us becoming better, and I know that when we do our best, even when we make mistakes, so long as we keep trying, that we will be blessed, and that we will become better. There is no better feeling than feeling the spirit after you have been trying to do what is right, even when you fail. Heavenly Father will always be there to help us and to make us strong. 

Christmas and the New Year

Well, this week's email will have to do for the last two weeks because I was skyping home one week ago from today. We (Elder Rogers and I) decided to do our Skype home on Monday morning because that was the best time for us and our families within the restraints that come from being in a country that his 15 hours ahead. It was great to see my family, and it was definitely strange to see how normal everything looks at home. Malaysia has started to become fairly normal for me, and it is crazy to look at the inside of my home again :).

The week preceding Christmas was fairly normal, and we had a decent amount of lessons, along with a lot of "potential investigators" (people who we contact and they say that they want to learn more). The mall (we only have one real mall that is available to us in Klang) was really packed, and there were a ton of people shopping on Christmas Eve, and on Christmas day. Some people who we stop and talk to are like "I don't celebrate Christmas," which is surprising because I know that if I didn't celebrate Christmas, I wouldn't want to go to an area that was that busy. Regardless, we had a lot of success contacting people on that week preceding Christmas.

Christmas day was a pretty low-key thing for us in Klang. We woke up and opened Christmas presents, and then went to Church. Our Church service included us watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and then a lunch with our branch. It was definitely not a traditional-styled Christmas dinner, and I had noodles, rice, and some chicken nuggets as part of my Christmas-day feast. The rest of our zone went to a Member's house at the capitol of Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur) and had dinner together. We were not invited because we live too far away :). Therefore, we spent the rest of our day teaching people at a couple of our appointments, and then hanging out on Christmas night.

This week we had a ton of appointments (we taught more lessons this week than we ever have), and ended up with 16 lessons that came through). Our New Years Day celebration was also pretty low key this week, and the only real celebrations that were done were performed by other people - lots of fireworks at midnight. I hear that the real celebration comes during Chinese New Year. That being said, I am sure that our celebrations will be no -where near as fantastic as those had by my friends in Taiwan and Hong Kong. We are all ready starting to see the "push back" from investigators/contacts in general: people telling us that they are too busy to meet because of Chinese New Year.

The scriptures are true, and they can bring a lot of power into our lives. One neat aspect of the scriptures is the ability that they have to bring the spirit into our lives. Preach My Gospel states something similar to the effect of "we can learn what the spirit feels like when we read the scriptures." I know that this is true, and I know that as we learn to listen, and keep the spirit in our lives by reading the scriptures, singing hymns, saying prayers, and other activities, we will be more happy, confident, and hopeful in our lives. The Savior truly is the greatest gift of the Christmas season, and one of the fruits of that is hope.

Sincerely,

Elder Allen