Aduh

This week has been..... a lot of things. Good in the end though :-) Here we go.

Monday we went down to waterfront, the big tourist area of Kuching, where I spent all the money in my personal account on a sweet sword, some silk pyjamas, and some other little knick knacks. The problem now is finding a box big enough to send it home in :-). 

Also that day it started to rain (it still hasn't stopped).

That night we found the Police in front of the house where many of our members live in the kampung next to the church. They were bringing back Augustine, who apparently was innocent. He had the goods dumped on him by the real criminals, two young boy recent converts of the age of 15 and 9, who were then on the run. It was good for his mother to see him back.

Tuesday was Zone Meeting in the morning, it went pretty well. President Mains has a strong focus on Chapter 8 right now, I was able to share what Elder Sutherland shared with me about Virtue, that being that Aristotle once defined Virtue as something that fulfils its purpose (hence a virtuous pot holds water, a virtuous thought uplifts you). Afterwards, Elder and Sister Pryzbila asked us to help them transport a mattress to a new senior couple's apartment, then treated us to McDonalds. We had a lot of good conversation about political stuff, he's a really smart man.

Wednesday we woke up sick. I had a bad head cold, Elder Poppleton's neck really hurt, and it was raining really hard for a while. Apparently Ibuprofen really knocks me out, so we were in the apartment recovering (and on a rain check) until 4 in the afternoon. We continued doing the family prayers every night, and Wednesday was when we found the two culprits newly returned. They seemed okay, we still don't know their full guilt or situation. After the day's work we returned home to find that I had a weird looking rash on my legs, almost like an allergic reaction. It was gone by the morning, but we informed Sister Mains.

Thursday was an awesome weekly planning, Elder Poppleton was led to find two old area books in our office that were full of teaching records from in actives and former investigators. After Family Prayers. the rash was back, this time in a weird ring on my chest. Once again it was gone by the morning.

Friday we had no appointments confirm, so we devoted several hours to calling through the old records. We have been slowly working through them and have already found a large number of people ready to meet again, including a man named Tinit who, when he found out who we were, said he actually wanted to come back to church this next week. He called us back to confirm his own attendance. As we were doing that, the rash slowly returned on my arms them left. It was only there for a few hours.

Saturday the rash didn't show up, but we were able to follow up with two former investigators, Bro. Nayau's family and a man named Jimmy Wong (not sure on that name). They both live near waterfront. Sis. Madeline, Nayau's wife, was the only parent present, the husband left, but we were able to visit the family with Sister Rosie. They have 6 kids, the two oldest being twin boys over sixteen. Sister Rosie is a returning less active who lives near them, and it turns out that she was the one that referred that family originally! We taught specifically out of 'How To Begin Teaching', and made our missionary purpose and our combined destiny very clear. Sister Rosie bore powerful testimony of the church, speaking of her own conversion. 

Then was Brother Wong, a heritage mix of Iban and Chinese. He had only been taught a very few times before, as he was very stubborn and indoctrinated in his own church a year ago (according to his record). Now he seemed very humbled and different, and had a lot of questions. We were able to bear testimony of the restored church in response to an article he had read in the local paper spreading lies about the Prophet Joseph Smith and polygamy. He said he had never really believed the article, and was grateful we came. He has a lot of issues that will be answered when he learns the plan of salvation.

In the middle of the night I woke up rubbing my hair. I went to the bathroom to find the rash all over my neck and head (not my face), and I could feel it under parts of my hair. It didn't itch though, just felt a little numb.

Sunday morning I called Sister Mains about that, as it was again gone by morning. I asked the other Elders for a priesthood blessing at that point, and Elder Hobbs gave a beautiful blessing promising miracles for our area because of our trials and that the source of the rash would be found. 

Church itself was great, afterwards we had an awesome correlation meeting with President Changai. 

The raining had escalated to a flood in the kampung, so we walked in the flood to remind everyone to say their family prayers.

That night the rash only half returned on my legs, but during the night I had the strangest experience of actually feeling myself get more healthy. This morning, talking with Sister Mains, we said how there was a previous Elder that had a similar situation to mine (except his was worse, it didn't leave) where he had a allergic reaction to a virus he had at the time. It seem that is what happened to me, as I had that head cold the entire time. But it is already improving, and not contagious as nobody else has had it.

This week has been one of the most ridiculous and longest of my life. And miraculous at the end.

LIFE IS GOOD!

Love you all!

-Elder Christensen