THE WORK IS TRUE!

So much has happened, I'll probably not cover it all, but it's all okay! HERE WE GO!

Last Monday we had a very fun family night at Acui's house. Ella, Madeline, Bro. Kong, and Elder Bester and Elder Hobbs all attended, as well as Kenyang's family and Dundong! It was a great night, and we reenacted Lehi's Dream as a giant group. I also finally got a video of Hai Su Ka, it's coming home on the memory card.

Tuesday the Beus's invited us all over to their house for farewell lunch and District Meeting. The District here has seen some big changes this transfer, with our beloved Zone Leader Elder Baranov going to K.K., Elder Broadhead (Chinese Elder) going to Singapore for his last 6 weeks, and they took two Elders out of Branch 1, Elder Berger and Elder Jensen. A massive group had gone home, so they had to shut down some areas until next transfer, when we are getting 16 new missionaries!

They fed us Chili and Potatoes with REAL CHEESE afterwards!

That night we had a cool miracle. We had found out the Madeline's Husband had an off day on Tuesdays, so we were able to actually teach a lesson with him fully present! He is an awesome, clean cut Chinese man. We still don't understand how the previous Elders never taught him. He's awesome, and as Elder Sutherland was a boss with his Plan of Salvation example, Ting Su Lung was very attentive and asked many good questions. Although he works on Sunday, we feel he has a ton of potential.

Wednesday we got some new potential Investigators out in Seruan Jaya, not too far from Ingang's house. We really have only met with Nyabong, the father, and his 6 year old son Ronny. Nyabong works as a Security Guard at Lakeside Restaurant in the local city park. We had contacted them before, and that day we taught them the first half of the Restoration. They're great, and we plan to meet them again this week.

Thursday we saw off Elder Baranov, it's sad to see our half-Chinese Russian Ancestry Californian go, but the day was still fun as Elder Sutherland and I went out to Secolony's house to help his older brother-in-law build an extension on his house! It went very well, although it was basically just about 4 hours of back-breaking labor. I testify to the power of morning exercise when utilized correctly.

Elder Sutherland's tire had mysteriously gone flat while we were doing that, so we walked to some local shop-lots and ate at a Ramadan Bazaar while it was getting fixed. Best food I've had since Miri! (That last sentence might be a lie).

That night we got to do another lesson with Acui and friends, they told us about a accident that had happened that morning with two people that died in a moto-crash. The spirit's gentle voice told us to use the experience to teach about Temples, and we did so. It was a beautiful lesson, and they seemed to understand it very well.

Friday we did weekly planning and went to a Branch Missionary Council meeting, but I got a flat tire on the way there. Brother Jubang apparently opened his own Ramly Berger stand, so it was all worth it though. We had to walk home.

Saturday and Sunday were DISTRICT CONFERENCE! We had a couple sessions we were needed to attend, but it was awesome. Basically we were able to see all of the members from Sibu Jaya and Mukah come. It was the most people I've seen in a chapel since Utah, and it was awesome. President and Sister Mains also came, and it was great.

Also, Last night we had a lesson with the Mukah Elders following us, they are staying here until Zone Council this Tuesday. They taught a lesson while we verified with Dundong how ready he was to be baptized, and he should be baptized this Saturday! He is so awesome, and his conversion story has been filled with miracles and trials, but he's passed them all.

One other cool Miracle was that of Elder Kwok. He's a returned missionary that served here in 2010 that came back for the week of District Conference. It was so awesome that he was able to show us where many less actives lived, and hung out a lot. It was really fun to have him around.

THE WORK IS TRUE!

-Elder Christensen

Whew.

This letter seems like it's really just a part two of last week's, but here we go!

Hello Family! I love you so much but this work is starting to give you a run for it's money! Missionary work is like, the coolest. (I still love you more though, don't worry Seth).

Anyway, Wednesday on the way back from Singapore we had some crazy experiences happen. For some reason, after we all got to Kutching on our transit flights, we were all on 3 different flights from there to Sibu. Elders Bester, Sutherland, and I were all alone on the first one, and everyone else came later. We arrived there maybe 5 o' clock in the afternoon, to find everthing we were looking for EXCEPT Elder Bester's luggage. We filed the report and went home to end up waiting for a couple hours for his companion, Elder Hobbs to show up. He also got sick while he was there.

After that was all resolved we had a lesson at Madeline's house, the first since she's been back from Kampung. We stood on her porch for a while debating for a while because she has never had Elders that followed the male-present rule before we came, so we talked through the door until Bro. Kong and Manas showed up! We then proceeded to have a great lesson with her and Chong, until her husband came in from work! It's only the second time I have met him, but it was great. He's a very nice and clean-cut guy, great father, just never had much interest in the church. We were able to associate with him a lot, shared some scriptures, and arranged to maybe play badminton with him and Chong on his day off (tomorrow!).

Thursday was basically weekly planning and our lesson at Jerry's house. They all have been reading still and we were able to share 3rd Nephi 11 with them, and connected it to scripture reading by explaining how the Nephites recognized the Savior when he came because they had searched the Prophesies of his coming. It was very spiritual and they seemed to enjoy it. Also, we found out that the last flight from Sibu the day before had been canceled so all the other Elders had been put in some 5 star hotel overnight. Lucky Ducks, all of them!

Friday we found a less active that we haven't known the address for for a while, they're names being Anthony and Rinya. It was great to find them at home, they live not too far from the church and have two crazy young boys under 6 years old. They're pretty wild, but it's nothing new having lived in our family.

We also met Kenyang's family, as Acui wasn't home. The lesson was answering some questions they had, but the last part with Dundong helping Senia pray with his stuttering voice was one of the most precious memories of my life.

Saturday, English class went really well. We tried to focus on teaching more phrases than individual words, and used another I'm a Mormon to teach it.

That night though, we were going back through our neighborhood to visit Kampung Bahagia and Brother Janggu, when we saw two men fighting in the road to Acui's house. The long and short of it was that APPARENTLY Saturday was the last day of Gawai, and Kenyang had gotten drunk at work. Walking home, his mouth had been shooting off some awful falsehoods, and although Dundong is one of the quietest and kindest people I have ever met, he is incredibly ripped and ended up injuring Kenyang's arm when Kenjang tried to hit him. We were most definitely in the right place at the right time, though we really didn't do anything but be there. It wasn't really that bad, and we were able to just talk with them all for a while.

After that, Sunday night we got to teach them the Parable of the servant that won't forgive his fellow servant, and taught forgiveness. They understood it almost perfectly

which was a miracle by itself, and by the grace of God the issue has already been resolved. Dundong will be baptised in about 2 weeks, while Kenyang and Lena and Senia will wait a little longer.

Thank you so much for the mountain of letters and goodies I picked up at Zone Conference! I can't say how much pleasure it is to hear people say that my family must love me whenever they see them! (I have been sharing, don't worry).

The Savior's atoning power is SO REAL! I love it so much!

-Elder Christensen

Hey, sorry there's no pictures this week, but I'm emailing you from Changi Airport, greatest airport in the world!

Anyway, this last week has been very great, very uplifting, and overall awesome. 

Just some updates on people.

When we met with Ingang, it was a relatively short visit as she had to leave soon to work. It was a good chance though to get to know her husband, Pasil, better, and thank him again for saving our bicycles (see following story). We talked to him about the World Cup, which is huge here (President Mains specifically said yesterday not to watch it, so we'll stop).

Acui is doing great. Kenyang and his family are now working toward a baptisimal date of July 12th, and Acui is helping a ton to make that happen. She's on testmonial fire right now, and she's so excited to help her friends it's almost ridiculous.

Last Monday we had a family night at Bro. Gaadong's house, almost 40 minutes by car from our house. Elder and Sister Beus took me, Elder Sutherland, Elder Bester, and Elder Hobbs all in the back seat of his car out there, as all of us had been invited.

It's also been kind of crazy with Madeline. The long and short of it was that when she was at kampung for Gawai, she had taken Sister Ela's kids and her own daughters to a Bomo (witch doctor) when they all got sick. Sister Ela was not happy and left early, which was why she was able to get to Acui's baptism. Now Sister Madeline's entire family is sick, and her husband might have Dengue Fever. After Church this last Sunday, she asked us for a Priesthood Blessing for her and also her oldest daughter. It was a very spiritual experience, and it mostly just mentioned giving her strength and health for her role as a mother.

Also, I had the pleasure of going on Splits twice this week. Wednesday was with Elders Baranov and Misa, our beloved Zone Leaders. Elder Misa and I had a crazy Miracle happen as we were going to our area. Here's the story:

So we were out in Kampung Seruan Jaya, Ingang's Kampung, and had met several people around town. We walked and talked and had a overly plesant time. As we were walking over the road on the side of a hill, Elder Misa turned to me and said, "Hey, isn't that the tree where our bikes were locked?" We ran down to find nothing but a cut bike lock hanging on the tree, To Elder Misa's benefit, the first thing he said was to pray. We bowed our heads and asked for guidance, then started to mobilize the kampung. We went searching for a while and ran into Sister Floria's kids, who said another prayer with us.

As we were searching near the local Futsol court, one of Sister Floria's kids ran up to tell us that they found one of the bicycles. We ran down the hill to see Pasil standing there with Trek, my fixie. We asked where he found it and he led us back to his house where the other one was. He said that as soon as he had heard that the bikes were stolen, he had went up the local hill next to the kampung where, apparently, the 'kampung mafia' always takes stolen material until the heat blows over.

To be continued, I need to switch computers..The Coolest part of that story was before, when we had gone to visit Ingang. Her youngest daughter had just gotten out of the Hospital from an astma(?), and we asked if she would want a priesthood blessing. She agreed, and also asked for one for herself. Hers said that she, if she endured her current hardships, would be baptised in Jesus's true church one day, and would also be successful in helping her husband start to build an interest in the gospel so that he would join her there. I believe the events later that day were in direct answer to that prayer.

 

ANYWAY, I was also able to go on splits with Elder Berger in their area, which went really well. We spent a lot of the day preparing their new appartment for being moved into, and also visited some cool less actives. The best part though is that anything I've mentioned before has been completely resolved, through the power and grace of God. There were a lot of cool experiences with that being resolved this week.

 

Then, we left for Zone Conference early Monday morning, and are about to fly back to Sibu. I'll write more about the Spiritual parts in my written letter, but I did get a mountain of letters from you guys and a package! Thank you so much, I love you! The topic for Zone Conference was teaching and living Repentance, and there were a lot of awesome Spiritual experiences there. The saddest part is that Elder Wayment goes home next week, but in his dying testimony he told a joke about a monk reading the pure, unadulturated Bible in Heaven and later St. Peter finds him crying because it said 'celebrate', not 'celebate'. It won't be the same without that guy. We did end it last night with an Epic Scriptural Rap Battle that we had to write our selves in 30 minutes, and it was awesome. I got videos of those.

 

I love you so much! It's crazy to me to ponder the significance of 'knowing' the Gospel is true, because I KNOW it is! It is the greatest source of Joy and the greatest gift to mankind, especially the wonderful gift of Repentance. That's why we're told over and over again to preach nothing but Repentance to this people in D&C.

 

I love you! -Elder Christensen