Well, this has been one heck of a week. 2 flat tires, one lost bike light, and a myriad of other occurrences.

Here we go.

First some stuff that happened. Last Monday night we had a family night at a less active's house, a certain Sister Daugn who is a very sweet old lady that the only reason she can't come to church is that her family won't take her. The Beus's were able to come, along with Brother Kong and his wife, and we had a great time sharing scriptures and testimonies. Sister Daugn, in her testimony, stated that even though her kids aren't following her, she knows what she is doing is right and that is enough for her. It was extremely touching, and "she is a very special soul". - Elder Beus

Tuesday was District meeting, and Lawren from branch 1 asked to follow us. It turned kind of rough though, because after lunch at McDonalds he wanted to print some pictures. On the way home from that, it started raining, and combined with his bike being very heavy and slow, it took almost an hour to get home. We still were able to get to teach Acui that night though, and also go to Seminary afterwords at the Beus's house.

Wednesday and Thursday were a real treat, as we had the Main's and A.P.'s come to visit! We had weekly planning as well, but it was real nice to have another interview with president. It's only the 2nd I've had on my mission so far. It really was a pleasure and an honor, and the next chapter in P.M.G. we will be studying this month is Chapter 4. We taught Acui and Friends both nights.

Friday we were able to go out to Permai and meet with that one random kid whose name we didn't know! His name is Skolony, and he is a very bright and educated young man. He even speaks some english, and is very good at reading the Book of Mormon. He does lack in transport easily to church though. Then we had another surprise when we found out that Sister Floria, a less active also without transport, is actually his cousin! Afterwards we were able to meet with Ingang. She is still doing well, though she informed us that she will be taking up a job that will make it almost impossible for the next couple months to meet with her, but that afterwards she should have transport to church. 

Saturday we spent some time just calling all the members in our area as requested to do so by President Balley, to tell them all to come to church although Gawai was still going on. Apparently the last day for May was the big day of Gawai. We also met Acui that night as well.

Saturday only 20 people showed up for Fast and Testimony meeting. 5 of them were our investigators. We taught them a lesson at the church afterwards, reviewing the four major commandments that we need to follow from the Baptismal Interview questions.

We were going to do their Inverviews on Tuesday this week, then that afternoon this happened.

After coming home to finish our studies, we called people to find that all of our appointments had fallen through. It also started raining out of nowhere, so we waited for almost an hour more until it died down somewhat again. We decided to go out contacting around Acui's neighborhood, so we went walking around there. We didn't have much happen, though we did contact a nice Chinese mathematics instructor. When we were walking by there house, they pulled up in the car of their friend, a Muslim named Abdullah of all things, who had apparently brought all of them to a kampung for a Gawai party. Kenyang was barely sober, while Dundong was barely concious. Acui was there calling them to repentance, saying that she had warned them. Apparently this 'friend' just showed up and told them all to come. Lena and Senia were fine. Acui is the only one that should still be interviewed this week though.

That night was hard. I had to really see what we had been doing and how good their comprehension was. It was difficult to experience that, but as I was praying I felt the Spirit open my perspective to an Eternal view. I realized that if they were baptised in this week or in a couple it didn't really matter too much. I also realized that it could be an extremely valuable experience to really see what repentance was like for them, especially as they had yet to really do so. The last thing that I also realized was that it is probably much better for them to be baptised after Gawai, so they have time to grow a testimony for a year before it.

I learned a lot more what it actually means to have faith in God's timing and wisdom.

-Elder Christensen

Hello wonderful people!

Transfer weeks are always memorable for a plethora of reasons. This one was no different.

We spent several days this week just going around to members to say good bye to Elder Parker. With his naturally friendly personality, he had made many friends, so we had many bittersweet experiences. Apparently Acui still calls him up every so-often now that he's gone.

Anyway though, Elder Sutherland is an amazing missionary from the great country of Provo Utah. He's been out almost 15 months now, and so far we have hit it off very well. We are actually very similar in the ways we think, so it's going swimmingly.

Elder Sutherland flew in Thursday night at 10 pm, while Elder Parker bused to Bintulu at 10 am. So for basically the entire day I followed Elders Baranov and Misa. We went out to a pretty Kampung-y area called Sentosa and had a blast. We also met with a returned missionary from Kota Kinabalu (in Sabah) named Michael Song who apparently still goes around doing missionary work, having served in our mission. He was there visiting some family. He was a really cool guy though, and also came to church with us on Sunday.

Speaking of Church, Acui and friends continue to progress fantastically. We went to our usual 9:30 branch council meeting, and when we were already in President Balley's office, Elder Bues came up to say that Acui and friends had already arrived. Sacrament was the most reverent it's ever been. We  had three confirmations that day, all member child baptisms from the night before.

That night before we had come to help get ready for those baptisms, but got dragged into Branch 1's Gawai party. It was fun, but not to brag or anything, but our's was better. Food was good as always though.

Sunday night we also met with Acui and Friends and taught Baptism as part of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They'll be baptised in two weeks, so we were asking them how the felt about their testimonies and if the church was true, and Lena replied "Of Course it's true Elders, why wouldn't it be?" They are so amazing it almost kills me.

What also was cool is that Elder Baranov and Elder Sutherland were both Elder Bester's trainers, who moved into the other house when Elder Wilson moved. Big ol' family reunion.

And that's really it for the week. Weird.

Anyway, I am very excited with my new calling as District Leader, and the more I think about it the more ready I feel. I know I can do a lot of good while I'm here. The Lord is with me and the work keeps moving forward!

-Elder Christensen

Patiently waiting for Transfer news is killing me.

Hello beautiful family! This week has been very exciting and stressful and wonderful and whatever else I guess you could call it!!

Calling you was absolutely wonderful last Monday! I love you so much! 

It feels weird to write for this week, as it seems like not much has happened, but so much has at the same time.

I'll just start with some highlights, basically being meeting with Acui and her friends every day this week! They are so great. This week they have completely stopped smoking, and we have been teaching them to read. They usually call us if we are late and ask when we'll show up, until we actually do.  It has been a miracle to see how far they have progressed. They're on date for about 3 weeks from now.  Ela has been doing much better, and Madeline has been slowly warming up.  Ingang is still trying to find a way to church, but we actually taught her husband Pasir last night.

 She still has a strong testimony. We also were referred to some new investigators that Elder Wilson and Hobbs had been teaching, a man named Jerry and his family who live in Ingang's kampung. He was referred to us because he He is much more well off (two cars) and currently apparently is lacking in a view of why we are meeting with him. Other then that he is an very friendly guy. When we met him with Wilson and Hobbs, he expressed that part of his reasoning for wanting to stay in the R.C. church was that he feels that Jesus has blessed him so much already, and he doesn't want to switch for his family's sake. Our hope for him is to help him understand the potential his family has.

Speaking of Wilson and Hobbs, we went on Splits this last Friday, which meant Wilson and Parker stayed at our house while I went with Hobbs. We had a great time, including a lesson preparing one of their Investigators for baptism this next week. Elder Baer, a Chinese Elder and M.T.C. companion of Elder Fletcher from Miri, was also there and he was so kind as to impart of his Li Chi juice before I even asked for it.

Ela and Madelin are slowly warming back up to each other, thank you so much for the prayers.

The other most exciting thing was the PraGawai party this last Saturday at the church. It got a higher attendance than our Sacrament meeting the next day! It was incredibly fun, but we basically spent the entire day at the church decorating and getting ready….A lot of crazy Gawai stuff, including Karaoke, the Poco-Poco, and the Ngajat.

 I have been impressed over and over again this week of the importance of personal conversion. You cannot convert anyone else if you do not have a personal, lasting testimony of the Gospel yourself. THE GOSPEL IS TRUE! 

Transfer new is still coming...

-Elder Christensen

P.S. TRANSFER NEWS!

I am staying, and becoming District Leader. Elder Parker is becoming a Zone Leader in Bintulu.

I love you all so much!

Mom Note:

It was so precious to be able to see Elder Coy on skype! We spent a precious hour talking with him. Some grandparents thought he looked thin, some thought he had filled out and matured, so I guess he's somewhere in the middle and doing great! :).  We enjoyed hearing about his typical day, the strange foods he eats(bread is bought as a dough and it is fried), and we loved hearing about how much he loves the work.  He used the words of Joseph Smith and said "Mom, don't worry about me, I am well enough off!"  We were able to join in family prayer over skype and said a tearful goodbye, (at least on the Mom's part :)). 

Here's the letter we received afterward.  

I love you so much!

I know we just called, but I wanted to take this chance to briefly update on this week.

Last monday we walked to the church with Acui, Lena, her husband Kenyang, her brother Dundong, her daughter Senia, and their friend (a younger kid) Rolland and had a wonderful family night with them. We watched Finding Faith in Christ and played badminton, and Brother Kong even came. We have met with them several times this week, teaching them the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation among other things. They are very eager to learn and are now on date for a little less than a month. They also came to Church and had a series of awesome experiences, including the most reverent Sacrament Meeting we have had since I have been here, and hitting it off extremely well with the members in Sunday School. It was awesome.

We met with Ela this week as well. She was having some struggles in her life, some personal, and others including a tooth ache, bringing her children up righteously, and inviting her husband to learn of the gospel. We were inspired to ask if she would want a priesthood blessing. She didn't know what what was, but after a brief explanation she did want it. Parker anointed and I gave the blessing. It was simple and beautiful. Afterwards though she testified that it was exactly what she needed. She said she had had a private, personal prayer the day before, and the blessing was an answer to it. She also felt a peace and a strength, as also something seemed to leave her body.

Madeline has apparently been struggling. She hasn't been answering our phone calls, and she was never home when we tried to meet with her. She apparently was very attached to Elder Capener, the elder before me, and seemed to change after he left. She did come to church, but only for about 30 minutes.

Ingang is doing great. We have yet to settle a baptismal date, but we have hopes to do so this week. Her daughters seem to be increasingly busy and harder to meet with. We did have a cool experience in Permai though. We met a more educated teenager which had met missionaries before. He spoke some English, and we eventually met some of his family in his house with him and shared a Book of Mormon. We don't yet actually know his name though, because he had met Parker before and Parker didn't remember.

It was so great talking to you! Love you so much!

-Elder Christensen