Thanksgiving, Success and Singing

hi family

dang, sometimes i feel so far away.. Asher is going to school, what? Harrison can not only walk, but talk, too, what?! I've officially been out for a year now, i hope Xena still remembers me! anyway, the holiday season is officially underway here. I've been celebrating thanksgiving this whole month of November. "celebrating thanksgiving" means that when it is my turn to pick the hymn for companionship study, i choose from the 'praise and thanksgiving' section of the hymnbook. i just discovered that section, and let me tell you, this thanksgiving season is going to be a really good one.

anyway, we have had some good things and some bad things go on here in our little kuching world. we have some baptisms coming up, and for me it is the first family that i have ever taught, so i am really really excited about it. the wife, Simbut, just recently opened up and she loves church, and is reading the book of Mormon, when before, she would just sit and listen and her husband was the one to talk to all of us. so Sulin is the husband and Simbut is the wife and David is their son, he's eight. they are really cool and will get baptized in a couple of weeks. bad things, a family we have been working with for a long time, reni and tedong, we stopped by once a couple of weeks ago and they were drunk, i might have told you about that. last Saturday we had a really good lesson with them, they really want this in their life but struggling to make the changes. so that was way good, but then on Sunday, they didn't come to church. oh well, we are seeing them tonight, i will tell you how it goes.

oh one last cool story. last week we had some time because and appointment fell through so we knocked a couple of doors in that same apartment complex. usually knocking there isn't that great, it has a lot of Chinese (in my limited knowledge of the Chinese language, i know how to say, 'we're Buddhist' -wo men pai sin-) but we knocked just two houses. one had a girl named tracy, who actually said we could come back, and when we did, she was so good. she has lots of good questions, and has talked to lots of people from lots of different churches, which is usually a good sign. then yesterday when we gave her a book of Mormon, she got out her bible and stuff, and she already had a really old book of Mormon in her house. i seriously couldn't believe it. i guess it was her dad's, who lives in bintulu, which is like nine hours away. crazy! but she is cool, and i hope good things happen with her. if she gets baptized and if reni and tedong get baptized, those are the two craziest stories of how we found them. that would be really cool.

anyway family, i love you, i hope you have a good thanksgiving season, feed my picture some corn again??

sister Harrison

PS i made up a song on my bike that turned out pretty good, I'll share it with you. it goes to the tune of "my favorite things" from sound of music. enjoy

kitabs and bug bites and biking in dresses

sunshine and tan lines and sweaty blonde tresses

visiting Ibans and making them sing,

these are a few of my favorite things

oh malaysia, when i leave you,

i will be so sad,

but if i remember my favorite things,

then i don't feel so bad.

rice, chicken curry, and endless, hot summer

can't teach the Muslims, its really a bummer

and in melayu they haven't a thing,

Malaysia Malaysia makes me want to sing

oh Malaysia, when i leave you

i will feel so sad,

but if i remember my favorite things

then i don't feel so bad