ring worm

Zachary Royden Hill
 to me

show details 8:03 PM (25 minutes ago)

hey dad. how's it going? i hope things are going well for you. how is school? not too much longer and you'll be on summer break right? lucky. things here are going well. lots of people wanting to learn. having lots of fun. learning how to speak more correctly. watching muslim healing video on the computer next to me. life is good. who could ask for more? i'm really enjoying life as a missionary. it's made me a lot more talkative. i rode a bus from sibu town to sibu jaya after district meeting and i sat next to two indonesian men. we talked for a good 30 minutes just about nothing pretty much. i just really like speaking malay so i speak it whenever i get the chance. i like to practice and try different things i've heard. i'm sad there arent too many malay speakers in the states. maybe some time i'll run across an indonesian or two. so what's the news dad?more rowdy students? did you already go to the tournament of kings? time goes by so fast it feels like, i dont even remember what's going on anymore.
 
so yeah. last week i got ring worm on my face. what a terrible thing. i was embarrassed til i realize we teach a lot of people with skin diseases and no teeth. i figure i'm just becoming one of the natives, you know. just trying to fit in. anyways, we've got memebers giving us referrals now, so that's pretty sweet. that's when the good stuff happens. we've got one lady who's given us like 5 referrals, and it seems like 3 or 4 are gonna get baptized soon. we're still working with the others, but it's too early to tell. we've been bringing our recent converts in on the lessons with us to help us teach. they still have a lot to learn, but i think it's really good for them to hear the lessons all over again. slowly by slowly they are learning the gospel. it's good. they're all becoming friends too. we had a party for gawai which was fun. lots of dancing. since we're just a group we brought everyone into town to be with the branch we are attatched to. that was pretty chaotic. we had to get an unknown amount of people 30 km away. well, ive witnessed miracles on my mission, and that was one of them. everyone who wanted, made it and even more, they had fun. they requested we throw a potluck party after gawai, but just for the people in sibu jaya so they can get to know each other better. sounds good to me. but that's up to the group leader. i'm just a lowly missionary. anyways, i'm sorry for chatting your ear off. i'll write next week. love you dad.
zac




Zachary Royden Hill
 to me

show details 7:29 PM (1 hour ago)

hey ma.
yeah i knew a.n. was there. i heard her talking. i'm sorry if she felt like i was ignoring her or something. it was pretty crazy having everyone there. sometimes i couldnt really hear what people said. but it was fun. that's crazy that all the grand kids are coming down. sounds like a lot of fun. if jared comes you'll have to kick him in the pants for never writing me. but i guess it's payback for me never writing him on his mission. what can you do. i was just a kid. anyways, why in the world are brittanie and matt going to california? how's work going for you mom? i hope you're staying healthy. it's interesting that you mention taylin. i was thinking about him  just yesterday because i looked at the date and realized it was his birthday. he's getting old. how's taylin doing?
things here in malaysia certainly are going well. we've got 4 people getting baptized- a lady and her two sons and then another lady whose son was baptized in march. it's exciting. unfortunately both of their husbands only come back for a week every few months. what can you do. so we hit another record for sibu jaya with 60 people at church. it's nuts because we fill up all the chairs we have every week. i feel like if we would just get a ton more chairs, we would fill them up. because there's always families that shouldve come that didnt. every week we get a few more chairs and we somehow fill up the amount of chairs we have exactly. we're starting to have member now, so i dont have to give all the prayers or talks anymore. it's pretty cool to see the progress of this area after just a few months. so here's something i wrote to nyss that i figure i'd cpy so you can read also. it's just some experiences that have made me realize you really never know who will accept the gospel whenyou teach. you gotta just keep teaching. >remember that lady i told you about who was crazy that was our investigator from indonesia? well, she's a member now. it was pretty sick. it's nuts to see her story unfold, just because i can see myself telling people about her when i get home. when we first met her, we were in a house teaching other people and she walked past, saw us, walked in and started talking to us. ruined our lesson. she was going on about how all churches are the same and she was impossible to talk to. so my comp and i decided we'd probably never go back to talk to her. so two weeks later, she shows up to church. since then, she's only missed one week. so we started teaching her, but she wouldnt let go of her old church and friends. we'd teach something to her, she'd talk to her friends and they'd anti her. we had her on baptism date and then it didnt happen because of her friends. so we stopped going to her house. but she kept coming to church. so when i got my new comp, i brought him over to her house and we taught again. we invited her to be baptized again and all of a sudden she wanted to. afterwards, she bore her testimony how she thought our church was false at first, but now knows it is true. after that, her friends from church found out and all started anti-ing her and gainging up on her. she talked to me about it and told me how she just prayed so God would help her not listen to them. they told her they were going to erase her name from the record of her old church. she told me she didnt care and had no desire to go to another church any more. it helps that she was baptized the same day as 3 other friends. it shows me that you never know who are gonna be the ones to get baptized and stay. when we first met her, i never thought she would be baptized. and now she's one of our best members! what a crazy world it is. also, we have this other family. the man is clement and the with is cindy. they've been coming to church but not really reading or keeping other commitments. but after church last week they said they really liked it and believed joseph smith. so we put them on date for baptism and taught them the word of wisdom. clement smoked 20 a day. we set up a plan to help him quit. his commitment didnt seem very good so we decided to call every night and check up on him. well, the next day he only smoked 2 and the day after he didnt smoke any. he's pretty good<
 
so yeah, clement and cindy are some investigators we're pretty excited about. they should be baptized next month. after a holidy called "gawai" which is coming up in a few weeks. i havent experienced a gawai yet, but from what i gather people invite you over to their house and you eat traditional iban food all day. and dance to iban songs. all day for a week or two. so that sounds like it should be fun. i'll let you know how it goes and hopefully ill get some cool pics.
 
that's cool about the sister who gave her talk. who was it? and where did she serve? it's funny she asks how i like my mission. i love it. malaysia is the best. about the flower painting, yeahi saw it. i put it with all his other paintings but i cant remember exactly where that was. it's been a long time since i did that. anyways, i'm gonna get outta here. i'll talk to you later ma. love you.
zac