Week 12

This week has been another amazing one, and I don't know if KL can possibly be as cool as Singapore! First, we went to Marina Bay after email last week. It's the iconic place in Singapore, and we got some good pictures and got to spend time with a really cool recent convert before he left back to China. The Merlion was my favorite part of that. 

We went to FHE after with the YSA, which was fun as usual. They are all super cool. The next day we did things for our work permits, that went by smoothly, and we even made it back for district meeting, where departing missionaries shared the advice that they wish they had known earlier, including one of the APs. A bunch of them left this week, but something like 8 English speakers came this week, as well. I am no longer the least experienced missionary here! :)

We taught three investigators, none of which I've met before, and that was fun. One of them said I need to call him and he will cook for me.

The next day was also great. I went to Little India for the first time and got to eat a bunch of Indian food. A lot of the Chinese people aren't fans of Indian cuisine, so I got to eat nearly two meals, since one of the members who went with us didn't like hers.

We got another elder who was in Singapore for a couple days, and he was super cool. He stayed with us that night, so there were 7 mattresses in our one room, which is kind of odd since in our same building there is another English companionship of elders by themselves in an apartment.

Anyway, Elder Mitchell and I went out contacting for a bit by ourselves, which was fun. One very cool thing that happened is as we left the building, we saw two people coming in, which we didn't think much of. We said a prayer, and as soon as we opened our eyes, they were walking out of it past us, and we talked to them. It turns out they weren't members and were just seeing what our church was about, so that was good.

We got back and did a basketball activity with YSA and people they invited, which was actually very effective. A bunch of nonmembers came and we talked to them. And then I saw someone I knew from BYU, Damon Petersen (hopefully that's the right spelling).

Someone brought durian that night, and I finally had my first taste. I had tried many times to get things like durian juice or Durian McFlurries, but I was told my first try had to be fresh. It definitely smells not so great, I smell it all over the place. It tasted and had the texture of an enchilada, I think. I wasn't a fan.

Anyway, the next day was also a good one. We did weekly planning, which takes a very long time. I thought we accomplished a lot, though. One tradition before weekly planning is to go to a nearby pizza place first, and we ran into our Stake President there. As he left, he said "Enjoy your free meal!". It turns out he payed for all of us! What a kind man! He's super great. There were 8 missionaries, and this place isn't that cheap.

Our next day was probably the best of the week because we taught 4 lessons, which all went well. The first investigator seemed a bit uninterested when he was first met with, but in this lesson he was very interested in family history work, and then accepted things that are a bit weird for some people like the Word of Wisdom and Baptisms for the Dead immediately, no question. He also firmly believes he will get an answer to his prayers soon. The next one we watched the Joseph Smith video with, and by the end, she was practically bearing testimony to us about it. Our third lesson helped a recent convert be willing to start attending church again. Our last one was with a guy that apparently has made tons of progress, and I really like him. He agreed to start fasting.

The next day we had some very interesting lessons, but the most memorable part of the day was in between lessons. I went back down the hallway to adjust the AC when suddenly I heard a "crack" below my feet. The hallway was dark, and I couldn't really see what it was, but it looked like a toy lizard. As I was coming back, I looked more closely at it. And my worst fears were confirmed. It wasn't a toy. But it was a lizard. And it was dead. In the end, it turns out I may not have killed it, but I still feel really bad about killing a lizard. When we left the building, the Filipinos came to play there weekly game of full court basketball outside, but after seeing what Elder Frey had done to the basketball hoop, they all left, so then both of us felt badly, and it was all okay.

That night we went to a dinner appointment with some super cool people in the ward. We ate wonderful dumplings and macaroons, and I learned how to play real Mah Jong (or however you spell it).

Yesterday was also pretty dang good, though we did forget to tell two referrals who were willing to come to church what time it was at. They came to break the fast with us, though, which had some pretty dang good food.

Today was the best P-day so far, we went to Pulau Ubin, an island just off the main one, and there we mountain biked. There were four of us there, since the other two decided since it was pouring rain they didn't want to, but though we were soaked before we even got there, it wasn't crowded at all, and it was super, super fun. We walked through Mangrove Forests and saw plenty of wild boars, and had lots of good biking. And I ate another durian, which I am now a part-fan of.

I will also be leaving to KL this week!