Adventures from Miri

"And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea." 2 Nephi 10:20

That is Jess's scripture that she chose for her missionary plaque. She's doing so good! She's in Miri, Malaysia right now and they teach the people in Malay or Iban (the indigenous tribe there). I thought I'd post my favorite stories of hers this week. The pictures are actually old and have nothing to do with the stories, but pictures make everything better right?

"The best news of this week was Jarau and Yvonne's baptism! Yay!! everything went really well, me and Sister Clark sang a song in Malay a cappella and it was really nice, we watched Finding Faith in Christ after their baptisms while waiting and everyone really liked it. They were really happy, and me and Sister Clark went home and celebrated with cute little bottles of Fanta and Cadbury chocolate we'd been holding onto it for the occasion for like 2 weeks. But it was really good, Jarau had to be baptized twice because the guy baptizing him forgot to say his name at the beginning...whoops!...and then he left his change of clothes out in the room, and Sister Clark went and took it back to him and he was like half naked standing in the door of the men's bathroom (a lot of Ibans just don't really have a problem with not being fully covered...), and their kids were running around so I broke the rules of the "white handbook" and picked them up and carried them back into the room. On Sunday they got confirmed and they were all dressed up, and Jarau had on a white shirt and tie from one of the members. They are such a great family. We’ve gone and seen them a couple times since then, and they already gave us some family referrals, he hasn't gotten paid for like 3 months and he literally told us that he's IMPATIENT to pay tithing! What the heck? Yvonne almost finished the Book of Mormon (already the D&C), and they are going strong. We have such a hard time leaving their house every time we go over. Oh, and yesterday we went and walked up and looked into their little one room house and they were all laying on the ground reading this English book together and we just couldn't disturb them so we sat watching them for a little bit, and when they didn't know one of the words they were like, "later you can ask Sistah" and it was SO cute! Also, their 3 little girls play "Sistah" after we leave, like instead of playing "school" or "house" two of them sit on the ground cross-legged like we always do in the same spot (leaning against their mattress propped up against the wall because they only have a one-room house), and pretend like they're sister missionaries."

Jess is so cute and doing so good. She makes me remember the good times of my mission and about all the happy things that happened. And even when she writes about bad things that happen I just laugh and nod my head.

Some shorter Jess stories:

"Here’s the best excuse we've gotten for not coming to church from an investigator so far, "My kidneys are heavy..." Whaaaaaat? Seriously, these people make up the weirdest excuses. We were laughing so hard about it when he told us that though."

"Yesterday we were playing UNO with a family after having read the story about Nephi in Helaman when they are standing in the fire (because it's a 15 year old boy we're teaching), and I leaned over to get something, and all the sudden the little girl in the family was like fondling my boobs! What the heck? Yeah, I was like in shock, and then Sister Clark and I started laughing so hard. She’s like 4 years old and I was like, 'I just got groped on my mission.' Wow."

Jess is so cute and I like her.