Subang Jaya!!

I don't know if I can possibly write a letter long enough to summarize this week.

HELLO WONDERFUL FAMILY! This week has been extremely busy and very wonderful in many ways, so here we go.

Tuesday Kong and I transferred to Subang Jaya together, which made the flight so much more fun. We flew into KL Sentral to meet the other missionaries. Elder Moore is a great guy from the foreign country of Bountiful Utah. He's served as an English Elder in Singapore and other places for 9 months so far. After that, the rest of the day was basically waiting around for other missionaries (Peiwai from my group is here!).  We contacted a French lady who speaks Spanish Teaching English in Thailand! At the Mall one day we met a White Aussie Buddhist! What the Heck?! The cultural hodge-podge here is amazing.

The biggest thing I can talk about though is that we have so many more contacting opportunities. We've been giving almost 2 Books of Mormon

out every day just at Bus Stops. 14 million people is sure enough for the Lord to prepare many to receive the Gospel.

We have a couple investigators from the previous Elders as well. Toby is from Nigeria, and during our first lesson he reported having dreams (much like Lehi). Arman is from Pakistan, and has a baptismal date for April 6th. Also Harry is from Mainland China. We met with him and his girlfriend, Suzy, last Saturday.

We have setup appointments with the others this week.

The Members here are fantastic as well. Last Saturday we left before studies to help President Kroskop move from one house to another, and to meet him and his family from Houston Texas. They paid us in cookies. We met with Isaac, the Sunday School Teacher, last Friday, he's from Ghana.  The picture of Elder Moore in the Train Station is with him. I feel really bad for Elder Moore though because he allergic to nuts, and therefore Curry.

Church was great as well. We had a fireside afterward that the previous Elders had volunteered us for, where Elder Moore had everyone stand up, place their hands on their hearts, and look at a light. He then said they could say they'd been uplifted, their hearts had been touched, and they had seen the light.

It has been a truly wonderful week though, where I have learned much about the true meaning of diligence.

Love you all! We went a little early because we are going to Batu Caves today for P-Day!! 

Love, Elder Christensen

My Last Week in Miri

Dear Wonderful Family At Home

I am so happy to write to you about this, my last week in Miri.
I'm flying to the great land of West Malaysia in K.L. tomorrow, to speak the foreign English Language with an English Elder (Elder Moore) and I'm really sad to leave. Apparently many people don't even SPEAK malay until they come to some certain areas in East, such as Miri.
Anyway, this last week has been fantastic, and bitter-sweet. Bitter because we had to drop many of our investigators, including the Penans and James. The Penans we dropped because it is just not their time. Not only do they not really understand us, but after they returned from Kampung they've been extremely busy. We have been praying for them though. James stopped coming to church because his wife doesn't want them to go to different churches. He did say that he would take us to dinner or lunch sometime so that the missionaries could explain our purpose and hopefully convince her to just change her church as well!
Other then that this week has been full with great experiences. There was this one day when we came home to a broken doorknob on our apartment (Kong and Chan were inside). Accordingly the friendly Muslim custodian came and bashed it with a hammer until it opened, then biked to the store and bought a shiny new one. But the next day we came home to find that I had accidently left the new door key inside the appartment. We spent an hour trying to figure out how to break in, until we finally had to climb a ladder to the back balcony and lift up the sliding glass door to get in (it unlocked when we did that). Fun times.
Andrew's family wasn't able to meet yesterday when we had planned, they were too busy being drunk and singing karaoke.
BUT! We found another new investigator in Kampung Pasir. His name was Andrewson, and we randomly ran into him when he was fixing a chicken coop. He knew who we were, and had been taking lessons from the Elders before! He could read, had transport, and had excellent malay. We taught him yesterday, and he told us he was just wanting to know what church was correct. When he took the B.O.M. he asked if he could read it with his family (wife and two daughters). It's hard to leave after something like that.
We also met with Bro. Hitam again this week. He said he was feeling healthy again, and he came to church again with his family! It was so amazing to see him there! Elder Wilson (traveling 70) said in the last Zone Conference that when you see a less active take the sacrament, you should see it with the same joy as a Baptism. I definitely did.
Saturday we had a really fun luncheon at the Senior Couples house where we heard the transfer news via the Zone Leaders, and that night Elder Griffin and I celebrated with the 32 Ringgit Monster Chicken King Burger at Pasar Malam (which we split). We took a video with Elder Kong's Camera's Miniature effect, and it's currently loading. I'm only sending that and the picture with Bro. Hitam because you should get a memory card this week! Get Excited!
I LOVE YOU ALL!
-Elder Christensen
Some images of Kuala Lumpur added by Mom  He said it's basically like moving from Bluffdale to New York City

So just so you know, the temple was Taoist and not Buddhist.

Hello Family! I am so grateful to be able to email and thank you for your wonderful love and support! This last week has been probably one of the most formative of my mission, so let me tell you about it!

Monday was fun, as we went to that temple, and that night we had a family night with Sis. Katrina. Our lesson was on the Parable of the Wicked Servant (forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors) and we had them act it out while we read it! It was really fun and the food was wonderful as usual. Unfortunately, that didn't count for a key indicator as it waswith active members, but that's not important. What was important is that Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday had all zeros as well. Every Plan seemed to fall through and nobody could meet or wasn't home. It was getting very bad. This last Sunday we had decided that Friday we were going to fast for Bro. Day, but we expanded that into a full day of prayer and fasting for all of our investigators and less actives, as they are all facing problems that we cannot solve directly. We spent half the day just taking turns praying and studying in our appartment, and the other half we went contacting with the Chinese Elders in Taman Bulatan (Garden of Circle). We had barely been there when we received an amazing contact with an open college professor who was jogging there! That night we met with the Penans for the first time since we had returned! The next day we met with Bro, Day for the first time that week and 3 less active families, on top of finding a family of 8 to teach in Kampung Api! The dad's name was Andrew, and they all spoke some English on top of some excellent Malay. Sunday we managed to get Bro. Giraji the Sacrament again and Dividson followed us to that appointment. You can imagine everything I could say about thankfulness. The interesting thing is that I have only one strong Spiritual revelaiton from that day of fasting, and it was that the only thing that could change was Me. I had to change. My mindset and attitude changed.

Cool Stories: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE! We used the picture of me and Annie on her Baptism Day to make Bro. Day cry, because he was saying that he felt wicked and couldn't change.

Sunday we got a call from Sister Anderson saying that they had been fasting all day and asked us to make them dinner and bring it to that night's correlation meeting, as they wouldn't be able to return home. We whipped up some Mi Goreng and Apples and Butterfingers and rushed the Church. I swear I could hear the William Tell theme playing!

Love you all!

-Elder Christensen

Hello Wonderful People!

It is so good to be able to write to you this week, it's been interesting and full of stuff so here we go!

So we had a cool experience finding a less active who lives smack dab in the middle of a Muslim Neighborhood. Her name was Sister Sayu, and though she's rejoined the S.I.B. chuch she was willing to listen to us. Speaking of Less Actives, our branch is officially starting their home teaching program! Right now we're getting them the updated addresses and numbers so they can have home teachers come! Pres. Atos is truly amazing.

We finally met the Penans again! They are safe and happy so thank you for your prayers. Christopher and Davidson came with us and the lesson was fantastic. We have some active members on their street who are willing to take them to church, which will be fantastic.

We did also have some hard things as usual. Our phone broke on Saturday so we had to get a new one, and the petals on my bike were so worn that we bought new ones as well. They're purple. Bro. Day is still having problems so please keep praying for him.

The highlight of the week though was definitely the Chinese New Year Party! It was the most stressed over and well planned party, and it was awesome. I was in charge of a team in the Eating Competition (I ate like 4 oranges and a 3rd of a Pamello in like 2 minutes) and we WON! It was so cool. Anyway, it's Hot in Malaysia right now. Very much so.

We also had a great lesson with Bro. Hitam this week, the Risers (our new Senior Couple) do this thing where they drive us around for part of one day each week. They accompanied us and Elder Riser is amazing. He's a man that's served 4 missions (including his first like us) and he's now the 2nd Councillor in the District Presidency. Bro. Hitam has been feeling sick, so it's good to get him more friends in the branch.

This Sunday we were able to bring Bro. Geraji the sacrament since he can't leave his house. It was an amazingly spiritual experience, and we hope to have members bringing it for him every week.

James didn't come to church this week, and we couldn't call to ask why because our phone broke!

We got haircuts this morning, and the lady who cut my hair said she wants to marry and love a white guy that looks like me.

We're going to a Buddhist Temple today! I love you all so much! 

Sis. Bickmore was feeling sick this week (actually all the sisters were, last week as well), but she got emergency transfered to Singapore. Sister Anderson now has a new companion, Sister Tai from Kuala Lampur! She speaks like 4 languages and she's a very fun person, a true match for Sister Anderson.

I just ordered name tags in English, Iban, and Chinese!-Elder Christensen

From Elder Griffin's letter:

Elder Christensen and I have decided to set apart a day of fasting and prayer, specifically going somewhere secluded where we can pray and speak to Heavenly Father. We hope that we will both receive a lot of revelation, especially on how we can help with transport and with Brother Day. The issue with transport, by the way, is that Miri City cut ALL the buses that are in our area, so now 20 or so people cannot come to Church. Seeing as many of them live in Kampungs, they have no vehicles. 

A list of Kampungs in our area (this is basically our entire area);

Kampung Api (Village of Fire)

Kampung Damai (Village of Peace)

Kampung Krokop (Village of Krokop)

Kampung Pasir (Village of Sand)