hello family, time for a little update from your favorite person in Malaysia, (that's a broad claim to make, but I'll stand by it)
the other day sister Petty and i were thinking of things that would never be the same after Malaysia. I will never scoff at chicken with bones again. (last night i even ate a fried fishhead, eyes and all!) i miss crosswalks a lot, and will never take them for granted. also umbrellas. before the mish, i never thought about them, they are just not very common in Utah. but here, man or woman, rain or shine, everyone carries an umbrella. and yes, family, i have become an umbrella carrier. it is kind of nice whenever it starts to rain (it rains at least once a day) to just pop it open and have a little bubble of transportable dryness. even in the sun, it is really nice to carry around. i scoffed at people with umbrellas in the sun, -until i tried it, and it is nice.
anything else? oh, here they eat with a spoon in their right hand and a fork in their left hand. when i first got here i thought it was a little primitive, but really it is ingenious. for one thing, you never have to put down your fork and pick of a knife, because you can just cut with the edge of your spoon, and for another, (Kim would love this) every bite is a perfect bite. you arrange the food on your spoon with your fork, a little of this, a little of that, perfect bite every time. who would've thought Malaysia would come up with a better way.
so, missionary work. its good. really good. everything seems to be coming together. for the past few weeks it was pretty hard, we had no one good, no one was coming to church. and then, last week, five people at church. i seriously don't know why it changed so fast, we found these people by coincidence, and they were super good. for instance, we went to see some people with a member, but they weren't home. so David, who goes out with missionaries a lot, said the elders were teaching this other lady before, we could go visit her, because she apparently has an awesome view of the city. so we went to see her, and she was awesome! it was a Friday, and even though we had never taught her before, she came to church, loved it, said it really touched her heart. our first meeting with her was so good, she had good questions, and she started crying when she gave the closing prayer. i was blown away. who knows why the elders stopped teaching her, but she is definitely ready now.
we are teaching this other guy, his name is rioh, and he is from the Philippines. i might have told you about him already, i met him while sister petty was in Singapore, i was at sister Alice's house, and he just passed by and started asking us about church. he is so funny. he is a model for a living; he is sort of an unlikely candidate for an investigator, but he has a lot of questions and is really open, he said he will read and pray (he actually said if he wanted to he could read the book of Mormon in one day) but i think if he got a testimony of the book of Mormon, he would be unstoppable. maybe right now he is just curious, but he could be really good.
we have other people that are really good too, but there is no time to talk about them. things are going great, i feel like the time is just slipping away..
oh yeah, PS, i hardly even notice the tag, it didn't take very long. now the most annoying thing is when people read your name as you pass them on the street, oh well..
the gospel is true, the people here are great. (haha, I'm such a missionary, and i don't even care. i have plenty of time to normal up once i am home)
your favorite,
sister 'I've eaten chicken feet' Harrison
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Friday, May 21, 2010
A Day late, but not a Dollar short.
hi family!
i know, the email is very late this week, the last few days have been pretty crazy. sister petty went to Singapore. there were no girl members who don't work during the day, so i hung out for three days at sister Alice's house, she has three little boys, 6, 4, and one. so i hung out with her during the day, and when the members my age got off of work, we did a little missionary work and then slept back at our house. its weird how it worked out, visa runs are good if you are the one going, but if you are the one staying, you don't get a lot done. it felt really good for sister petty to get back and start missionary work back up. I thought it would be nice, to have a little break, hang out at her house, just have time to study and relax a little bit. but i didn't like it, i felt uneasy like there was something i had to get done all the time. sound like a missionary? so three days of that was plenty for me. but because i was there i met Alice's neighbor, rioh. he's cool and an elder who was here before gave him a book of Mormon, but he has never learned. he just happened to walk by their door, and started asking them questions about the book of Mormon. we are meeting him tonight, i hope he is good.
but it feels really good to be back to normal. sister petty came back from Singapore with all this enthusiasm and ideas and so we have a renewed effort to do really well. sometimes i think i don't work as hard as i could and should, so I'm going to change that right now. and guess what? we are now going to start wearing our tags full time. and let me tell you, it feels so weird. i have only worn it from the house to the email place so far, and it was weird. i feel like a brand new missionary. (also i sort of feel like part of the FBI, taking kk by storm with our tags and our bags and our skirts.) is this how most missionaries feel? so I'm really feeling the tag right now, but i'm sure I'll get so used to it that i don't even think about it.
what else? Malay feels good, my hair is growing out of the slight butchering it received (don't tell sister Goodwin i said that) about the skirts, I'll send you a letter with more of a run down, but don't worry too much, just if you happen to come across what i am looking for, then you can send it to me. i am also looking for new sandals, and maybe could you send me some money for them? ten or twenty dollars would go really far here, and then i could get some that would really last, so just let me know what you think of that.
anywho, i think that is all for today, i love it out here, and i have a feeling things are just going to get better. i love you all, so much, so so much!
love, sister 'who's wearing the tag now' Harrison
i know, the email is very late this week, the last few days have been pretty crazy. sister petty went to Singapore. there were no girl members who don't work during the day, so i hung out for three days at sister Alice's house, she has three little boys, 6, 4, and one. so i hung out with her during the day, and when the members my age got off of work, we did a little missionary work and then slept back at our house. its weird how it worked out, visa runs are good if you are the one going, but if you are the one staying, you don't get a lot done. it felt really good for sister petty to get back and start missionary work back up. I thought it would be nice, to have a little break, hang out at her house, just have time to study and relax a little bit. but i didn't like it, i felt uneasy like there was something i had to get done all the time. sound like a missionary? so three days of that was plenty for me. but because i was there i met Alice's neighbor, rioh. he's cool and an elder who was here before gave him a book of Mormon, but he has never learned. he just happened to walk by their door, and started asking them questions about the book of Mormon. we are meeting him tonight, i hope he is good.
but it feels really good to be back to normal. sister petty came back from Singapore with all this enthusiasm and ideas and so we have a renewed effort to do really well. sometimes i think i don't work as hard as i could and should, so I'm going to change that right now. and guess what? we are now going to start wearing our tags full time. and let me tell you, it feels so weird. i have only worn it from the house to the email place so far, and it was weird. i feel like a brand new missionary. (also i sort of feel like part of the FBI, taking kk by storm with our tags and our bags and our skirts.) is this how most missionaries feel? so I'm really feeling the tag right now, but i'm sure I'll get so used to it that i don't even think about it.
what else? Malay feels good, my hair is growing out of the slight butchering it received (don't tell sister Goodwin i said that) about the skirts, I'll send you a letter with more of a run down, but don't worry too much, just if you happen to come across what i am looking for, then you can send it to me. i am also looking for new sandals, and maybe could you send me some money for them? ten or twenty dollars would go really far here, and then i could get some that would really last, so just let me know what you think of that.
anywho, i think that is all for today, i love it out here, and i have a feeling things are just going to get better. i love you all, so much, so so much!
love, sister 'who's wearing the tag now' Harrison
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Whoa, I just talked to you guys !!
hi family,
it was really cool to talk to everyone i did on mother's day, (well, technically it was Monday for me..) it is weird to think that you are halfway around the world, and that it was night time there. and it was weird, because everyone sounds the same, just my same, good old family back home, it was really cool.
yesterday, for some reason, was such a good day. at the start of the day we had some extra time before our appointment, even though it isn't the funnest thing to do, we decided to go knocking. sometimes (sorry, tangent here) i am so sad that we can't teach Muslims. there are some really nice ones out there. once i even talked to one who had read some of the book of Mormon, had really good questions about prophets and everything, but we couldn't do anything, it was so sad, he wanted to learn so bad. here in Malaysia, they say they have religious freedom for everyone except the Muslims. if you marry a Muslim, you have to join. what an oppressive religion. and someone was telling me if you want to go high up in your field or do anything with the government, you have to convert. you just can't go anywhere if you aren't a Muslim. hooray for America. anywho, we were knocking on doors, and found a really cool lady who says she and her husband want to learn, and is friends with someone we are teaching right now. that was just the beginning of a really good day. we had some great lessons, and found some more great people. it was like things finally started to come together. we even talked to this lady who has a lot of friends who want to learn, and she even called us this morning to confirm that we are coming over tomorrow. i have never heard of an investigator calling to confirm an appointment, awesome.
so really quick, do you want to hear something funny? so this lady, she is SDA, seventh day adventist. the funny thing about Malaysia is that they number the days of the week, and day one (hari satu) is monday. so the kicker? all these seventh day adventists are going to church on the sixth day, hari enam, and everyone else worships on the seventh day.
things are going well, me and sister petty are getting along great and time is screaming by. also, i have had very strange dreams lately, the best of which entailed me training my pet hawk, it was a very cool dream. i love you family, and hope everything goes well, you are the best!
sister 'boleh bah kalau kau' harrison
ps i have one last story that i forgot to tell.
anywho, whenever we walk down the street, people always yell out to us. sometimes its 'orang putih' which means white person, sometimes it is good morning (at all hours of the day) frequently it is i love you (i can't count the number of men who have professed there love to me, i wonder if they say it to the elders, too..) so we were walking down the street and someone yelled out hello, ususally i would say hello back and keep on walking, but before i could, he followed with 'is it me your looking for? i can see it in your eyes' it was so funny, i could see Marc with his hand on the window singing it.. that is definitely the best thing anyone has ever yelled/sung to me.
it was really cool to talk to everyone i did on mother's day, (well, technically it was Monday for me..) it is weird to think that you are halfway around the world, and that it was night time there. and it was weird, because everyone sounds the same, just my same, good old family back home, it was really cool.
yesterday, for some reason, was such a good day. at the start of the day we had some extra time before our appointment, even though it isn't the funnest thing to do, we decided to go knocking. sometimes (sorry, tangent here) i am so sad that we can't teach Muslims. there are some really nice ones out there. once i even talked to one who had read some of the book of Mormon, had really good questions about prophets and everything, but we couldn't do anything, it was so sad, he wanted to learn so bad. here in Malaysia, they say they have religious freedom for everyone except the Muslims. if you marry a Muslim, you have to join. what an oppressive religion. and someone was telling me if you want to go high up in your field or do anything with the government, you have to convert. you just can't go anywhere if you aren't a Muslim. hooray for America. anywho, we were knocking on doors, and found a really cool lady who says she and her husband want to learn, and is friends with someone we are teaching right now. that was just the beginning of a really good day. we had some great lessons, and found some more great people. it was like things finally started to come together. we even talked to this lady who has a lot of friends who want to learn, and she even called us this morning to confirm that we are coming over tomorrow. i have never heard of an investigator calling to confirm an appointment, awesome.
so really quick, do you want to hear something funny? so this lady, she is SDA, seventh day adventist. the funny thing about Malaysia is that they number the days of the week, and day one (hari satu) is monday. so the kicker? all these seventh day adventists are going to church on the sixth day, hari enam, and everyone else worships on the seventh day.
things are going well, me and sister petty are getting along great and time is screaming by. also, i have had very strange dreams lately, the best of which entailed me training my pet hawk, it was a very cool dream. i love you family, and hope everything goes well, you are the best!
sister 'boleh bah kalau kau' harrison
ps i have one last story that i forgot to tell.
anywho, whenever we walk down the street, people always yell out to us. sometimes its 'orang putih' which means white person, sometimes it is good morning (at all hours of the day) frequently it is i love you (i can't count the number of men who have professed there love to me, i wonder if they say it to the elders, too..) so we were walking down the street and someone yelled out hello, ususally i would say hello back and keep on walking, but before i could, he followed with 'is it me your looking for? i can see it in your eyes' it was so funny, i could see Marc with his hand on the window singing it.. that is definitely the best thing anyone has ever yelled/sung to me.
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Mother's Day - Hurray !!
hi family, lama tidak nampak!
yesterday marked six months into my mission, which i cannot believe. and i have almost been with sister petty for a month now, can you believe that? we are getting along really well, she is really cool. but she doesn't have that much longer left, either. I'm not sure if i will be transferred before she gets sent home or not, but it is looking like i will stay here. which means i will have killed off two companions in a row, and which means i will stay in KK for quite a while, which i am totally fine with. sister petty goes home in august, and three other sisters go home then too. right now there are only ten sisters, and going down from ten to six is quite a bit. so hopefully we will get some more sisters before that happens. six sisters is only three companionships, crazy.
anywho, the work here is good. i feel like we have turned a corner. before everything wasn't working out, and we couldn't even scrap together new investigators, from our own efforts and from the branch. it was super frustrating because before, it seemed new investigators would just come to us, from all sorts of places. but yesterday, we found some really cool people, and got nine new investigators in one day! so i will admit one was a family with seven kids, but even still, they seemed pretty cool. so i feel like things will start happening. and we are having a baptism this Saturday, farini is awesome, so i really can't complain, because even when we didn't have that many investigators, we were teaching perhaps the most golden person I've ever met, so it all works out.
sister Harrison
yesterday marked six months into my mission, which i cannot believe. and i have almost been with sister petty for a month now, can you believe that? we are getting along really well, she is really cool. but she doesn't have that much longer left, either. I'm not sure if i will be transferred before she gets sent home or not, but it is looking like i will stay here. which means i will have killed off two companions in a row, and which means i will stay in KK for quite a while, which i am totally fine with. sister petty goes home in august, and three other sisters go home then too. right now there are only ten sisters, and going down from ten to six is quite a bit. so hopefully we will get some more sisters before that happens. six sisters is only three companionships, crazy.
anywho, the work here is good. i feel like we have turned a corner. before everything wasn't working out, and we couldn't even scrap together new investigators, from our own efforts and from the branch. it was super frustrating because before, it seemed new investigators would just come to us, from all sorts of places. but yesterday, we found some really cool people, and got nine new investigators in one day! so i will admit one was a family with seven kids, but even still, they seemed pretty cool. so i feel like things will start happening. and we are having a baptism this Saturday, farini is awesome, so i really can't complain, because even when we didn't have that many investigators, we were teaching perhaps the most golden person I've ever met, so it all works out.
sister Harrison
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
