Joshua's Song of Singapore: Week 23: Butterworth, Malaysia

The Ballad of Butterworth

Good morning! How are you all doing? I am so happy to be able to email you all (I say that every week but it is true every week!)!

This week was really good, but it felt really busy. We are leaving for Singapore this morning and then we get back on Thursday night, and so we have been busy with trying to prepare everything we need for Singapore as well as continue with the missionary work here in Butterworth.

On Monday, Elder Anglin and I went to the "Penang Bird Park," which was actually so cool. It was full of all kinds of cool birds and snakes and other crazy animals that could only really exist in such a tropical climate as Malaysia. At one point, we were walking down the sidewalk when a massive bird just started running towards us and flapping his wings. It was really scary, but then he stopped and we backed away and he left us alone haha. I sure do love Malaysia :)

The rest of the week was pretty normal; we met with lots of the people that we are teaching, and we met with some of the members of our branch. We got dinner with a really nice man who lives around 30 minutes outside of town who was so sweet! On Sunday, we were able to meet with Jason (the boyfriend of the branch president's daughter) again and help him prepare more for baptism. We moved his baptismal date to January 1, so we are hoping that he will get baptized on New Year's!

The Petersons (the senior couple) had been living in Singapore for a couple months, and they got back this week, so it was fun to meet with them and see them again. They will probably be here for another 3 months or so, and then they may have to go back to Singapore.

The weather here is so crazy! The sky will be completely blue, and then 10 minutes after it will be all black clouds and then 5 minutes after it will be raining so heavy! I would say 4-5 days this week Elder Anglin and I got home COMPLETELY drenched...it felt like I jumped into a swimming pool and then got out. It is fun though, I really like the rain!

I love you all so much! I hope that you have a fantastic week and that you will be able to feel my love from Butterworth, Malaysia. I am having a great time, and I am loving this crazy little town. I love you all SO SO MUCH! The two years are already going by so quickly!

Answers to Questions

Our zone Conferences are split into 3 groups. First is West Malaysia (me!), and then when we leave East Malaysia comes in, and then after that Singapore goes to Johor Baru (JB) for their zone Conference.

Wow, that is so cool that the transfer board reminded you of your good old days. That sounds really similar to ours...President Rowley has a board with all of our information, and then he sends out an edited one just with our pictures and where we are serving. I will try to find one to show you.

1. We generally go to an Internet Cafe to do our emailing (Asia has lots of gaming centers with nice computers, we just go to one of those. It is RM2 per hour of use, so not too had.

2. We have not had a general authority visit our mission, but I wouldn't be surprised if we had one soon. Malaysia is really close to having a stake, and Singapore is pretty close to having a temple (I would imagine), so we will see! In a few months our jew mission president will come and tour the mission, which will be fun!

3. Mandarin is coming along really well...I have gotten to the point where I can understand what someone is saying 97 percent of the time. Once in a while there is still a tough accent or a weird word, but for the most part fantastic! I also can read the Book of Mormon and only need to look up 2-3 characters per chapter. The Lord really has blessed me. Malay is a different story...my Malay is still very elementary (how are you, where are you going, I am 19 years old, etc.) but I hope it will improve.

Also, Butterworth is such an exciting place to serve! It is one of the smaller branches in the ward, and we are really trying to get a new branch president, but there aren't a lot of people to choose from. The last Mission President made one of the Elders branch president and left him in the area for 8 transfers (12 months!) I would guess that I will either leave Butterworth in January, or maybe be here for a lot longer!

Spiritual Experiences

This week, we had the opportunity to fast with one of the people we were teaching to help him be able to find a new driver for his company so that he can start to come to church. I really do love fasting, but with biking and working so much some times I feel really hungry and tired throughout the day when I am fasting. But, the person we were fasting with (Benson) was so awesome! In the day, he asked how we were doing and we said we were really good but a little hungry, and then he said "Me too, but we can definitely get through it" and then did some cute emojis. It was just so cool to me to see how even though he just learned about fasting, he was able to help us out (people who have been fasting for years). It just goes to show that we can learn so much from everyone, no matter where we are and no matter where they are.

I love you all so much!