Joshua's Song of Singapore: Week 31: Ipoh, Malaysia

Illusion of Ipoh

Hello everyone! As some of you heard from Facebook (dang Facebook, ruining all of my juicy secrets), we had some surprise transfers and I got send to Ipoh! Ipoh is a really pretty town around 3 hours away from Butterworth, and it is so cool!

The week was pretty interesting! On Monday, Elder Anglin and I went to the Indian festival and it was crazy! I am going to make a separate email about it. I actually got a little bit of food poisoning Sunday night, and so my stomach was a little angry throughout the day, but it passed very quickly.

Then on Tuesday, we had a pretty regular day, and we helped Brother Titus clean up his yard. After that, he treated us to some pickled lettuce and sardine sandwiches...I was very grateful for his kindness, but it wasn't the best sandwich I've had. Then, as we were going to study Chinese, we saw that there were transfers and that I would be going to Ipoh. Singapore got rearranged plus a branch shut down, so President Rowley needed to move some people, and I was one of them. I couldn't believe it...I think a part of me wanted to stay in Butterworth for all 2 years. It was hard to leave, but I am grateful to be here in Ipoh now, with Elder Bishop from Australia. He is a pretty neat Elder, though he hasn't thrown any shrimps on the barbie yet ;)

Ipoh is a really nice place, but it hasn't had Elders in it since around 8 months ago, so the apartment is a little bit run down. But we are hoping that the aircons will get fixed this week and we should be good! So now Ipoh has us two, plus three sister missionaries (two from the United States, one from Kuching).

Anyway, Elder Anglin and I had a pretty normal week, and then we left for Ipoh Saturday morning. We took a bus, and got to Ipoh and said goodbye. On Sunday, we attended church in Ipoh like usual and the branch here is so great! There are a lot of young adults which is exciting, and (no offense to Butterworth) but the branch is a bit larger and so it just functions a little bit better. Plus, there are so many great people. There is a really nice sister named Sister Chris who gave us ice cream and sandwiches...the Lord sure does bless the missionaries!

This week, I was a little bummed about moving and saying goodbye to people and changing what I'm used to, but I have really seen God's hand through all of it. There are challenges ahead, but His arm is sufficient!

I hope that you all are doing well! I love you all so so much! Thank you for the love and support, I can't wait to hear from you all and I hope you have a great week!

Spiritual Experiences

Cramming piles and piles of clothes and books into a suitcase to move to a new city in Malaysia got me thinking: "Why is change so hard?" and the answer that I came to is that when we change, we really have no idea what is going to happen. But, when we take a leap of faith and go and change and trust that things will work out, God makes sure that everything works together for our good.

This week, I kinda wondered why I needed to be in Ipoh now, rather than get transferred in a few weeks like I thought would happen. I think that the majority of the reasons I still don't know, but I saw one cool one. There was a nice guy who just popped in to church, and sat in the back. I was bearing my testimony in church, and I told the members that I was from America. After that, the guy started talking to me and said that he was from Ipoh but that he was applying to BYU, and so he came to have an interview for his ecclesiastical endorsement. We talked for a bit, and it was cool to get to know him. God really gave me a glimpse of why I was here in Ipoh...part of it was to meet that guy.

I really do know that God has reasons for every change in our life. We may not always see them, but we can trust that everything will work out for our good. Much love!