On Tuesday and Wednesday, the assistants came to Ipoh to go on exchanges with us. At first I was pretty nervous because I made assistant exchanges out to be a big thing in my mind, but they ended up being really fantastic! It was fun to be with Elder Peterson and Elder Delis, both of whom are in my group going home next year.
On Saturday, one of our members had a Christmas party and asked one of us to be the Santa. After a not so lucky coin flip, Elder Blackwelder was chosen to be the Santa Claus. He went around handing out candy and then we went around getting to know everyone and Inviting them to church. Sometimes I feel like being a missionary is like being a politician, it is a lot of going to parties and boozing and schmoozing haha.
On Sunday, we went to visit some of our members with President Yap and had a pretty normal day at church. We passed the sacrament, I gave a talk, the missionaries sang a musical number last minute, and we talk part of Sunday school. It is nice to be needed!
Gordan is continuing to do well! He has been to church twice and we met him this week and invited him to get baptized and he was pretty willing and had a lot of questions, which I think is good because that means he is actually considering it. We met this cool lady named May Ng who brought her family to Family Home Evening and also English Class, and we are going to visit them next week to teach them a lesson. Chinese people are pretty reluctant to letting people into their home, but hopefully we can do it! Dashwin and his Brothers and are also doing well, they still want to wait until their Brother gets home from his mission in May to get baptized, which I think is a cool idea.
At this point in my mission, the Weeks are flying by. I always thought that those last 6 months of your Mission once the Sisters have already left must be weird, and now here I am in those months. I am not totally sure where the six months will take me, and I know I have grown but there is still so much I need to figure out. Long story short, I am grateful to be a missionary in Ipoh. I am grateful to have a Heavenly Father who loves me and all of us.
I hope you all have had wonderful Weeks and have wonderful Weeks ahead. I miss you all like crazy (especially in this Christmas season) and I love you to pieces!
It was a good week, but I have been especially homesick lately. I think it is because I am still Adjusting to a new Area (Second Ward really started to feel like my home) and it is so close to Christmas. I catch myself dreaming a lot about being home and being with family or watching Snow haha. But oh well, at least we will all be together for next Christmas!
We had a funny experience with our branch Mission Leader this week. He had a meeting and told us that he feels that the nativity scene is too mainstream for him, and how he wants to reenact sacrificing Abraham and Isaac for our Christmas party. We explained that we want to have lots of non-member friends there and how we want to focus on Jesus, and he said "Well you can do what you want but unless it is Abraham and Isaac I will not be a part in it!" Somehow everything falls on the missionaries.
Overall, life is fantastic! I feel like my mission is winding down, which is a crazy feeling. I still have so much to figure out about my life. But every day I learn more about myself and think more about what I want to do with my life and I get closer to God. I still really REALLY want to live in China, I want to pick up the saxophone again, I want to go swimming, and do all the things I will regret not doing.
Pictures:
1. Me with Elder Delis and Sam, a Recent Convert.
2. Kek Lok Tong.
3. Us with Gordon and some members after English Class.
4. Us playing basketball with Brother Joseph.
5. A Picture of Santa Claus (I wonder where my Companion is?)
6. Me with Elder Peterson
7. We ate durian
8. A really good Vegetarian soup meal (you'll love This mom)
9. Me by Kek Lok Tong.
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