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.