Week 33

I need to keep coming up with different email subjects, or it attaches it to the first time I wrote "This week" or "the week" or the like. Anyway... One event that happened this week was Christmas! It was a good one, too. However, the vast majority of Chinese people here are much more excited for Chinese New Year than they were for Christmas. On Christmas day itself, we started with a Secret Santa, where we each gave one non-companion missionary in our house a gift. The person who gave to me, Elder Scott, who I've been living with nearly my entire mission. He sent me on a treasure hunt with six different clues, but I finally reached it and found the gift. For lunch on that day, we had some paos that had been sitting out for a few hours, then we visited five different houses! It was fun, but probably the #2 most biking day of my mission thus far. Unfortunately, it seems like the work kind of imploded this week. So many cancelled appointments. :( It's okay, because next week is going to be awesome! Grand experiences of the week: *Teaching a less active, and then going with the member who came with us to a tiger temple and a long house very briefly. When we got to the longhouse, random Ibans with good English asked if they could get our picture with them. Soon, it pretty much became a line, and we were standing on a wedding podium thing to be used the next day with assorted Ibans who wanted their picture with us. Fun! *Christmas carolling! We had no success, but it was fun spreading some Chrismas cheer. *While waiting for other elders briefly, I started contacting a massage chair seller. It ended up being a really good deal, because I talked about the gospel while sitting in a massage chair. Awesome! *I talked to the first two white people outside the church in Malaysia this week. The first was some Jehovah's Witness missionaries from Finland we found caroling, and then later some expats from Miri who we saw at "Food Fair" this week. *Institute at the Beuses- the senior couple wants to start a weekly activity for YSA, and last night it involved pizza and a spiritual movie. It was the third feast we had at their house this week, so it was extra awesome. *Making a badminton court with our branch president in the church parking lot! It was fun. This upcoming week should be way good! It's new year's soon, and we have badminton, pot-luck, and Singapore on the calendar pretty quick. In personal study, I've studied a lot about prayer recently, and found a lot of good reasons why it's important to pray as often as possible. When we pray, we bring our will into line with God's will, and we're generally pretty righteous and motivated to do good after a conversation with Heavenly Father. If we go too long between prayers, though, that's when we sometimes forget our desire to be better. The moral of the story is, pray always and do not faint! I love you all! Have a very happy New Year! Love, Elder Earl