A kind of 'White Christmas' in Malaysia

Hey Everybody!

December 24th in the morning, you can picture: Two Elders riding their bikes in the blazing hot and humid sun. There is not a drop of snow on the ground and the only precipitation is the sweat coming off my face. But there is a familiar tune being sung by the Elders as they ride to the church to fill up the font...  "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...."  Yes, the looks on some peoples faces were priceless and yes we were belting the song out.  Oh and yes, we got ourselves a baptism!  It was a white Christmas here in the middle of Sarawak, Malaysia on the island of Borneo, and it was a very Merry Christmas. 

 

It has been such a humbling and amazing experience seeing these families that we have taught come so far. When we doubted them they showed us differently, when they and we needed miracles we saw them, when the challenges came they overcame them, and when it was all said an done, they had become the families and the people they wanted to become. More importantly, they have become the families and people God wants. From the first day I met them to where they are now, I am completely humbled and amazed, and I give all glory to God for the blessings showered upon them as well as us.

On another note, here are some of the highlights that happened additionally within this awesome week:

My comp and I got to bake all the baking in ingredients and stuff that I have gotten from packages from home. (Shout out to Mom and Jaydra for hitting me up with the cookie stuff!) So we headed to the senior couples house to bake in their oven because we don't have one. If I were to say so, they were pretty dang good. We had like a 50-60% success rate, which is pretty good for me haha!

 

Christmas day here was great and nuts at the same time. I will just say that every day around Christmas is nuts. I went to all three branches Christmas parties and ate food. SO MUCH FOOD. The culture here for Christmas is called "open house" which basically means walk in anywhere you are invited and eat. EAT. That is all we did is was painful. We went to so many houses and we just ate, and kept eating....I have never been so full in my life, but it was so great haha. 

I'll finish up with this, Skyping the Fam back home was way fun! It was good to see everyone's faces and hear everyone! I was pretty jealous everyone was in sweatshirts and it was snowing outside but whatever, I'll hit that up when I get home haha. For now I just get my SWEET missionary tan on!

Love everyone and thanks for all the support and Christmas wishes! Happy New Year!
(Senior Couple, Bro Bodell is Santa ; Parker narrating Christmas Nativity in Malay)

 

 Elder Thompson

2015 Draper, Utah Missionary Letters thru Dec20-2015

Jungle Investigating

Family and Friends here comes a warm "nama berita" and a "selamat hari Christmas!"

In reference to the title of this email, that is what we missionaries do here in Sibu while proselyting...

This week we decided to go explore across the river next to the city because technically it is our area but we have never ventured out there. We hopped on a ferry and headed out there and this place was untouched, and it was beautiful. It was straight jungle with random houses places everywhere that had awesome land ownership. The people were way nice and even better yet, we honestly, really had to think about where we were going and the turns we were making for fear of getting way lost in the middle of the Sarawakian jungle haha! It was way fun and we plan on making more trips out there soon! 

 

 

As far as the work goes here, we got a new Elder in the house, his name is Elder Rabing. He is an Iban native and he came in because the mission had emergency transfers. So many people left the mission to go home this last week! This week was also full of interviews for our investigators that are going to be baptized next week. It was really cool and really humbling at the same time to see them at the point they are now from the point they have come since we started teaching them! And last but definitely not least, and definitely not uncommon, bike problems.... So that means walking on foot...A LOT...and far. BUT, this presents a whole other opportunity to talk to people and find people! We were walking and we walked up on our 2nd Counselor in our branch (who I have never met or even heard of he was that less-active) and we talked to him and got his number! If it weren't for all the anger caused before about my bike, we would not have been walking, and we would not have found Janggu, our lost 2nd Counselor! God works in mysterious ways.

   

OK, here is the highlight of the week. It may as well be the highlight of the mission so far, but this P-Day was EPIC! We went back to "kampung." That is what all the natives say when they go on vacation back to their places of birth and just hang out for a week. We went to Mukah and we hung out with one of our current members families at their house for the day. It was soooo sick. I mean, these guys are straight Iban, living in the middle of the jungle, living of the land, and their mode of transportation? Long boat. Oh yes. It was the sickest day ever. It is a good thing I have been picking up on the Iban tribal language because they love to hear a white man from America speak Iban to them and understand them also haha! Anyways, it was a way fun day full of walking through flooded roads and jungle, eating a whole lot of food, riding in long boats, hunting and gathering in the jungle, and just being IBAN. 

 

 

 

That's the email this week folks, a lot more to come next week and I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! 

Elder Thompson 

2015 Draper, Utah Missionary Letters thru Dec20-2015

Thank You All !

Hello everyone once again!

I want to start out with saying thank for all the birthday wishes from everyone! I am humbled and thankful for all friends and family, you guys are the best!  I feel the love from the bottom of my heart!  ('Yong,' in the Chinese Branch, also brought me a cake for my B-day!) :

 

I'll get into this past week:  We had a mini-zone conference from our mission president and his wife. The theme was Christmas of course, but it happened to be on the same day as my birthday. We got training from the President and his wife and we had a great Christmas dinner that was so delicious. After all was said an done we had a night program that was focus really on Christmas so it was cool to get into the Christmas spirit!   After the training I got the best birthday present of all...a SWEET storm to ride home in... Oh yeah. It started pouring out of nowhere as it does here constantly, and soon enough we were on our way home. I for one, kind of enjoy riding my bike in huge rain storms, I think it is way fun! Anyways we show up at our house SOAKED, I mean drenched. (This is actually a usual weekly occurrence...) So that was my missionary birthday present and I loved it, haha.

 

One last story and not too long. We are teaching one of our investigators toward baptism and we want his wife to be in on it too.  She has been busy with the kids and the a new-born a lot of the times we have taught, but we want her and her husband to be baptized together because we think that is the best thing to do.  So after our lesson a couple nights ago, we decided to pop the question about baptism to her, and without even hesitating she answers, "KE!" , which is "want" in Iban.  It was so sweet and I had to laugh a little too! She said it like it was really obvious...FAMILIES MAN! Love them.

That seems to be the email for this week, not too much but enough to call it a mission and an adventure! As Christmas rolls around here the work just means more to a missionary....and you daydream about rolling in snow because you can't in Malaysia....they don't know what snow is!
Love you all and thanks again for all the wishes and support!

Elder Thompson 

2015 Draper, Utah Missionary Letters thru Dec13-2015

Sibu, BMX Style

Yes by reading the title you might be confused but I will just get right into the story:

So we were out in Permai, which is a very beautiful town outside of the city of Sibu, Sarawak. Permai is known for a park that has some adventurous stuff to do.  I had two Elders with me who were on exchanges with me so they had never been out to that part of the city.  I decided to show them some of the highlights of Permai. We had just finished a lesson and it was getting dark, but we headed to the park to, "do something fun," is what I said...   So we headed to a part of the park that had some raised tracks through the jungle that are made for walking, but we bike on them anyways.   It has been flooding like crazy here in Sibu, which is normal so we went through some water to get to it.  These raised tracks are like the closest thing I can get to mountain biking so we ride them as much as possible. They are fun, except when it is dark and flooding, and dry ground turns into swamp... 

Before we started riding them there was a moment of hesitation, as there always is with missionaries, and adventures, and the rather stupid side of me took over.   I said "I love a nice adventure," and headed on my way.    I was speeding through the track and looked back to see where the other guys were and they weren't there, or they were a little behind and going slow.   So I stayed turned around to see if they were alright, meanwhile losing my balance.    The second I turned around I knew I was done, and down went the front tire, off the track.   Needless to say I threw a pretty sweet front flip... my back landing into 1 ft. of swampy water.   The rest of night went pretty well and we finally got on after all was said and done, but yeah, that was disgusting, and hilarious....     

On a normal note, the work here is going fantastic! As I mentioned before the flooding here is ridiculous but the people just live with it. In America the news would be all over it and there would be disaster relief people everywhere, but here it is just way of life.  I have a pretty fun time trudging through rain storms and huge puddles that some cars don't dare to go through. So that's a daily occurrence. 

I'll end with this. I have many 'Moms' here is Sibu within our branch.  It has been mentioned to me that it is hard for missionary moms back home to take care and constantly not worry over their Elder. Well of course that would only make sense! Well I am here to say for one, Mom, you don't need to worry because the 'Moms' here take care of me as if I were their own. It is truly amazing and I am in good hands so don't worry!  No one can replace you, but they can be a substitute while I am away for awhile! I am confident that is the case with all other missionaries world wide also. They get mad at me for being lazy with where my legs are while we sit or manners on how to eat, Haha! They also serve me, forever more than I could ever serve them, and that's just the way of a Mother I guess.
(Parker appropriately noted several Draper Moms that sent care packages and Décor, which often doesn't make it to him, but a big Thanks with proof in pictures):

 

Well, that seems good for this week, but, until next week!

Elder Thompson

P.S. Oh yeah...Happy Birthday Lauren!!! I love you! When the freak did you grow up so fast?!

2015 Draper, Utah Missionary Letters thru Dec6-2015

Thanks is Giving

Hello again Family and Friends!

This week was a great week in in Sibu, Sarawak, East Malaysia, preaching the good word on this adventure called a mission!

I will start with a story on this one:   So, lately we have been having a lot of success with our Plan of Salvation lessons. Why? Because when it comes to "Kebankitan" or the Resurrection, we get to talk about our bodies being perfect. 

We mention that all our limbs will be restored if we have lost anything....so you can see where this is going for those who know me, haha.  I calmly ask if they can notice anything wrong with my body...they can't tell. Then I ask them to look at my feet, and I ask them, "What's wrong everyone?"  Off comes the sock, and swarming in comes the little Iban children to get a closer look! 

  



Then they all say, 'well what the heck, Elder, one foot doesn't have some toes?!', Haha!   Then we say, "Here is an example of something that will happen during the Resurrection," the point seems to get to them every time! 

This last week was Thanksgiving, and we were all a little worried because they don't celebrate Thanksgiving here.  Good thing we have the best Senior Couple in the world, the Bodells! They came in with a full feast and even had the pie too, Apple Pie, yes, Apple freaking Pie!  So yeah, I ate most

of everything claiming that I was storing up for the winter...so that was awesome.  

  

One of nights we came out of our investigators home and found that my bike tire was flat. It was pretty late at night so we really couldn't call on anyone to come help us so off we went walking! This happens a lot actually, but instead of being mad I actually quite enjoy it.  Walking presents an opportunity to see some things not usually seen or talk to your companion more, so that's what we did! Great night. 

 

One of the other nights we were at our members house and we were talking about Iban culture and history. I expressed my desire to have an Iban Sword eventually, and she remembered she owned a sword. This is not just a normal sword, this was actually a Kayan native sword that has been passed down through generations. The sword was used by the father's grandpa during WWll to kill invading enemies, which would explain why none of the family wanted to be close to it or even touch it.  It was way cool to hold it and talk about it knowing what it has been through...literally, haha. They believe it has some witch-doctor curse on it so that made it even cooler. Anyways that experience was way funny and cool at the same time! 

 

Last but not least we had a Youth Activity on Saturday and we headed to a YMCA camp in the mountains...more like hills...away from the city. We ate some good food, hung out with the youth, and got to see some cool sights. It was a great way to finish off the week!

I  believe that is all for now, some of the pictures will give visuals of these stories and some other small things that happened! Thanks for all the support everyone!

Elder Thompson

2015 Draper, Utah Missionary Letters thru Nov29-2015

Thanksgiving At home in USA: