Sibu

I received multiple emails asking more about where I am serving now, and what it is like. I am serving in a city called Sibu (See - boo), which is a pretty small city here, but perhaps not too much smaller than other cities here in east Malaysia. I am sorry I neglected to send this information out last week. I am in the Sibu zone, and there is another district of missionaries about a half hour drive (?) away from us serving in a place called Sibu Jaya. The racial make up of my area is remarkably different than it has been on any other time of my mission. West Malaysia is full of Indians, mostly from Southern India, and is mixed with the Malay people (all Muslim) and Chinese people. East Malaysia, at least Sibu, has almost 0 Indians (I haven't seen any yet) a mix of Chinese people, and then Ibans... as well as a few Malay people. I definitely have seen less Malay people here, but that may just be because they congregate in areas that we don't go to very often. 

Surprisingly, most the people here are Christian (among both Chinese and Iban), and the Methodist church as a very strong hold over here. There are other churches that have a dominant presence here as well such as the catholic church. The Iban people here, who are the natives of Borneo and mainly speak Malay or Iban (a closely related language, with many Malay- speaking elders here learning both while on their mission), are almost all Christian. They have a strong faith, and typically, they seem to be more open to the gospel (with Malay-speaking Elders baptizing more people on average). Of the three branches that go to the Church here (and we have a big, nice church), two are Malay speaking, and one is Chinese.

Well, I am running out of time here, but I will tell you more about the Chinese branch (my branch). Our ward is made up mostly of Chinese people, as well as the Senior Couple who attends (they don't speak Chinese) and a Ukranian Couple here who speak pretty good English, but 0 Malay or Chinese. Most of our Chinese Speakers can't speak English, and our English speakers here can't speak Chinese or Malay. We have about 20 people who come to sacrament meeting, and we are working on getting our classes to work a little better here in second and third hour. We have a good group of members over here though, and they seem very nice. 

I just got here, and our teaching pool is about 0, so we will be finding a lot over the next little bit. We don't have much support from the branch seeing as we don't have many members, and those who are members are busy. 

Sister Catherine has here baptism today! I will miss being in Butterworth, where here baptism will be taking place.

Sincerely

Elder Allen

Picture of his church and information about his branch from lds.org