Week 16

Ni hao, everybody! This week has been a good one. It was exciting hearing about transfers last week. Both my MTC buddies are now in East Malaysia. I talked to Elder Frey on the phone, and he is now companions with the one of the Elders I knew at the MTC. Small world. They are staying a bit longer in Singapore for the Piano Guys concert. Lucky them! Piano Guys are randomly very popular here. I heard their CD was the #1 selling CD in Singapore last year, and they have posters in the main bookstore of Malaysia called Popular. Anyway, we had some good experiences teaching this week. Our first lesson was us going up to the cool Tamils we met who speak Chinese and we just started teaching. One of them prayed for her first time, and it was awesome. During the lesson, a random guy came up to us and asked if we were the Joseph Smith church, so that was kind of weird. A few days before that, a random lady out of the blue asked Elder Chong "You're from Japan, right?" He said no, and then she said "okay, missionaries". Elder Chong asked excitedly, "You know missionaries?" and she, looking at him like that was the dumbest question ever, said "Of course I do!" and then she just walked away. It was really strange. We also made progress with our two investigators who are super prepared. They both have work issues, but one of them texted us to tell us that we were right, she shouldn't work on Sunday. Hopefully she comes next week! The other one has asked his boss and been denied, but in the middle of the lesson he said "I believe in Joseph Smith, I believe in the Book of Mormon, I believe in all of it!". It was really good. We also had a super cool person in the branch decide he would serve, just as one finally left this week to serve in our mission as he waits for his visa. There is yet another soon-to-leave missionary who is going to Taiwan. Our branch is super cool. We also got to go twice to the home for disabled people to unload 300 wheelchairs the church donated, which was really great. Saturday was a very interesting day for me. It was Malaysia's national day, it was Elder Chong's 1 year mark, and it was the biggest rainstorm I've seen so far. We ate a slightly nicer meal for his year mark, and we braved the rain which, unfortunately, soaked many copies of the Book of Mormon. :( Overall, it was a good week, and I'm excited for another. Next week is transfers for all the non-Chinese missionaries, and lots of new people are coming, so there will be changes for sure all around. Have an amazing week! Love, Elder Earl