The Ballad of Butterworth Week Four
This week absolutely flew by! As usual, it was full of super awesome opportunities, some crazy stories, and lots of tender mercies. This month is haze season here in Malaysia. Basically, Indonesia (which is mostly a farming country) is burning all of their crops now, and the smoke blows over to Malaysia. I thought that it was mostly an over exaggeration, but it is actually so bad. It is so smoky all the time, it is even hard to see the tops of buildings. But, other than that, Butterworth is still Butterworth.
This week, we had a zone conference in Kuala Lumpur. We left early Wednesday morning, drove to Penang island, and then flew to KL. We stayed with a set of Elders that serve in Puchong, a subsection of KL. KL was so cool, it felt a lot like Singapore! It is a walking part of the mission, and mostly English speaking, because most of the people that live there are very educated. We had some training with Sister Rowley about how to sew on buttons, how to handle stress, eat healthily, and stuff like that. Then, we went to the Puchong Elder's house. It was so fun haha, we fit four beds into a little room and had a "family" prayer together, it was a fun little snuggle fest!
The next day (Thursday), we had lots of training from the Zone Leaders, from the Rowleys, and Elder Pack and I also led a training on cell phone use. It was really fun! We do device audits twice a week to make sure that our companions are using technology correctly, and Elder Pack and I role played what to do if he found a Taylor Swift song on my phone. It was really fun!
After that, we flew back to Penang, took a car back to Butterworth, and got back to work here. We are teaching a man named Teh who is preparing to be baptized on September 8th. He is so amazing, he understands the Book of Mormon so well and he was pretty much already living the Word of Wisdom before we even taught it to him, which is impressive, because most Chinese people love to smoke and drink and drink tea. Moong Kau is also doing really well...he is out of the hospital, and even though he was scared about coming to church (he said our church is right in the middle of where everyone sells drugs), he came to church on Sunday and said he didn't feel tempted at all to buy! Woo hoo!
Sunday was super fun! I played the piano twice, gave a twenty minute talk about enduring to the end, and then talk Gospel Principles with Elder Pack. I love the members of the branch so much. I especially love a man named President Ananda (he is the Elders Quorum President)...he has been teaching me some Tamil. Yepui iru kinga means "how are you doing", in case you were interested.
President Rowley told us something really interesting at zone conference. He said he is in the process of trying to apply for 2-year working visas for missionaries. That would be good because we wouldn't have to leave the country every 90 days and then get a new visitors pass, but it would mean that you would only be able to serve in one part of the mission for two years. So, if I got a West Malaysia visa, I would only stay in West Malaysia (Butterworth, KL, JB), and Singapore missionaries would stay in Singapore, and Sarawak missionaries would stay in Sarawak (Sibu, Miri, Bintulu, Kuching). Does that make sense? It would be good for us to have visas, but I kinda hope we don't get visas. I would love to experience all three sections of the mission (West Malaysia, East Malaysia, and Singapore), because they are all so different!
By the time I email you guys next week, I will know where I will be for the next transfer. From my interview with President Rowley (and Elder Pack's), it sounds like we will both be in Butterworth for the next transfer, which is super exciting! It still could change though, so I will keep you posted. I love you all so so much! I miss you like crazy, and I pray that everything is going well in your lives. You mean so much to me, and I am so grateful to be part of this amazing family. I so look forward to hearing from you guys, and to seeing you all in a short two years.
I love you so much!
Best,
Elder Weatherford
(P.S. most people here can't say Weatherford, so I am either called Elder Weather or Elder Ford, it changes from day to day :P)
This week, we had a zone conference in Kuala Lumpur. We left early Wednesday morning, drove to Penang island, and then flew to KL. We stayed with a set of Elders that serve in Puchong, a subsection of KL. KL was so cool, it felt a lot like Singapore! It is a walking part of the mission, and mostly English speaking, because most of the people that live there are very educated. We had some training with Sister Rowley about how to sew on buttons, how to handle stress, eat healthily, and stuff like that. Then, we went to the Puchong Elder's house. It was so fun haha, we fit four beds into a little room and had a "family" prayer together, it was a fun little snuggle fest!
The next day (Thursday), we had lots of training from the Zone Leaders, from the Rowleys, and Elder Pack and I also led a training on cell phone use. It was really fun! We do device audits twice a week to make sure that our companions are using technology correctly, and Elder Pack and I role played what to do if he found a Taylor Swift song on my phone. It was really fun!
After that, we flew back to Penang, took a car back to Butterworth, and got back to work here. We are teaching a man named Teh who is preparing to be baptized on September 8th. He is so amazing, he understands the Book of Mormon so well and he was pretty much already living the Word of Wisdom before we even taught it to him, which is impressive, because most Chinese people love to smoke and drink and drink tea. Moong Kau is also doing really well...he is out of the hospital, and even though he was scared about coming to church (he said our church is right in the middle of where everyone sells drugs), he came to church on Sunday and said he didn't feel tempted at all to buy! Woo hoo!
Sunday was super fun! I played the piano twice, gave a twenty minute talk about enduring to the end, and then talk Gospel Principles with Elder Pack. I love the members of the branch so much. I especially love a man named President Ananda (he is the Elders Quorum President)...he has been teaching me some Tamil. Yepui iru kinga means "how are you doing", in case you were interested.
President Rowley told us something really interesting at zone conference. He said he is in the process of trying to apply for 2-year working visas for missionaries. That would be good because we wouldn't have to leave the country every 90 days and then get a new visitors pass, but it would mean that you would only be able to serve in one part of the mission for two years. So, if I got a West Malaysia visa, I would only stay in West Malaysia (Butterworth, KL, JB), and Singapore missionaries would stay in Singapore, and Sarawak missionaries would stay in Sarawak (Sibu, Miri, Bintulu, Kuching). Does that make sense? It would be good for us to have visas, but I kinda hope we don't get visas. I would love to experience all three sections of the mission (West Malaysia, East Malaysia, and Singapore), because they are all so different!
By the time I email you guys next week, I will know where I will be for the next transfer. From my interview with President Rowley (and Elder Pack's), it sounds like we will both be in Butterworth for the next transfer, which is super exciting! It still could change though, so I will keep you posted. I love you all so so much! I miss you like crazy, and I pray that everything is going well in your lives. You mean so much to me, and I am so grateful to be part of this amazing family. I so look forward to hearing from you guys, and to seeing you all in a short two years.
I love you so much!
Best,
Elder Weatherford
(P.S. most people here can't say Weatherford, so I am either called Elder Weather or Elder Ford, it changes from day to day :P)
The Ballad of Butterworth Week Four Spiritual Experiences
Hello everyone!
Yesterday, Elder Pack and I had the opportunity to go out and visit some less-active members of our branch. We do this a lot on Sundays, and I love it so much! We went and visited one man whose name is Paramasivam. He hasn't been to church in a few years, so we thought we would stop by. We found out that his wife recently died, and his moto was broken, so he has been stuck at home and has been really lonely. He had been praying a lot to have somebody visit him, and then he said that shortly after he prayed we came by. It was such a cool experience, I felt so lucky to be able to be part of God's answer to his prayers. It made me think a lot of the quote "God does listen, but it is generally through another person that he answers our prayers." It is so cool how God uses imperfect people to help Him in His work.
Also, Moong Kau's moto broke on Sunday morning, and so he said that he was not planning on attending church. But, he ended up being able to get it fixed, and he came into town for church, and he said that he didn't even feel tempted to buy any drugs while he was in town. It was such a cool miracle; I was butchering a song on the piano, and then I looked over, and Moong Kau was sitting there with a smile on his face. I was so happy to see that he was able to make it to church.
I love you all so much! I hope that you have been able to see the spiritual experiences in your lives, and I hope you know how much I love you. Missions are such a crazy experience...they are full of stress and discouragement, but the little miracles that are dispersed throughout the days make everything so worth it. I am so grateful for all of you supporting me on my mission and listening to my rambling on every Monday.
You guys are the best!
Best,
Elder Joshie Ford
Pictures
1. The plane we took to KL. It was really sketchy...at one point, ice was coming out of the air conditioning. But, we made it safely haha. No need to worry, mom :)
2. Elder Pack and I in our reflective vests. We wear these when we bike so that the cars can see us...I just think we look so funny.
3. I tried to take a picture to capture the haze, but it didn't really turn out. Oh well.
4. Elder Pack biking home with our groceries...we may or may not have bought a lot of peanut butter. Now we can call our area Peanut Butterworth haha.
5. Ais kacang, a really good desert that has shaved ice, strawberry syrup, corn, beans, and a big scoop of ice cream on top.
6. Zone conference in Kaula Lumpur
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