and there were bed bugs everywhere!

hey dad.

how's it going? this week was a little different than usual, but it shed some light on a mystery that has been plaguing me for 2 months. i noticed when i got to kuching that i always had bites and that i was fairly itchy. i thought it was just that kuching had lots of mosquitoes, because i remember getting bitten all the time when i was in kuching last time. anyways, i was reporting with the guy i replaced (because he is now assistant to the president) and we were just talking about various things. he told me that nobody had washed the sheets when i got here or anything, which i thought was a common courtesy among missionaries. he also said that he was pretty itchy when he was here in kuching and told me that the problem was the bed. so i go to take off the sheets so i could was them, and there were bed bugs everywhere! holy moly that was a nasty experience. so i spent quite a while chasing down and killing bed bugs and then making sure my sheets and stuff got all washed. so that put a damper on my week.

but lots of good stuff happened. we had 3 baptisms this week from mulin's family. they are the best. and more baptisms coming up. we do need to keep getting new people, so this week will probably be more finding. it's tough to jugle in finding time with all the appointments, so sometimes it's an easy trap to fall into to just get a group of people, teach them all til they get baptized and then not have any investigators left. that's not a position we want to be in. our area is really big, so we're excited for what it holds for us.

anyways, i also got a new companion. elder simon who is from hawaii. he just came yesterday, so dont know him too well yet, but he seems like a good guy. things are fun here. but living in a house with only one other elder is always a little tough, no matter who the elder is. i've been missing 4 elder houses for 10 months now.

we also had a pretty crazy experience with a lady at the barber shop. my last companion wanted a hair cut before he went home. so i was sitting there while he was getting his hair cut, and then this lady that worked there sat next to me. we had talked to her a little bit about the church, and she remembered so she came and started asking me a few questions, like how the work was coming and other such thigns. it somehow came up that wheelwright was going home and that somehow led into us teaching the lady the first lesson. she's kind of crazy and really likes to talk, but she did say she'll come to church and sounded like she really meant it. we'll see how that goes tho. she kind of reminded me of the one indonesian recent convert i have in sibu jaya, so i'm hoping it also ends in a baptism.

anyways, sorry you've been sick. glad things are going better. good luck at breaking quinton out of his shell and good luck with the school year. christmas isn't too far away. anyways, i gotta go. i'll talk to you later.

hey mom.

yeah it was really fun to see the people of sibu jaya. i'm hoping to be able to go there at least one more time before i go home. we are going to have conferences every month back in sibu. only for one day, so hopefully one of those times i'll be able to find a way to sneak to sibu jaya. i also think the progress in malaysia is awesome. i thought when i went out i might not baptize anyone. but i have been extremely blessed.

thanks for the package mom. i really didnt mean to make you feel guilty. i tried to make a joke. i understand that it is expensive and can definitely go without a package. you dont even need to put any money in my account. but i really am grateful for the things you guys have done for me already. you guys are the best and i hope you know that i love you.

anyways, we had a pretty interesting week. firstly, baptism! we baptized mulin and his wife and one of the sons. the are so awesome. they really love to have us over and learn. i forgot my camera cord this week so i'll have to send pictures next week. i really love this family. one of the sons will get baptized this upcoming week because he had relapsed on a word of wisdom problem. but the son is also doing really well now and we are so excited for that family.

we also had some more lessons with puras and her family (the lady who thinks bukit is a girls name) they are doing really well. puras before had just seemed to be kind of going along with things, but this last lesson as we were discussing church and baptism with her, she really opened up, and said that she believes this church is true because she feels really good at church. she also talked about how she just felt different after having taken the sacrament. so she has a daughter who is 13 and a son who is 30 or so that are also learning and are on date for baptism next month. they are pretty good.

then we also have the family of a member that we are teaching. it's his mom and siblings. they seem really good. the mom and two of the sisters were at church on sunday and seem really good. they have really good support because two of the children in the family are already members, and the son in law is the second counsellor in the branch presidency. fellowshipping is the best. anyways, so i'm confident that those 3 will be baptized soon, but this last lesson, we were finally able to coax the father to come out of his room and meet us. it was at the very end, so we didnt really teach him anything, but he seemed very friendly with us, and said we could come back to teach. so we're going to work on him and see if we can't get the entire rest of the family baptized together. they are really friendly.

we also have a man named annua. he's been to church twice and seems really good. he's fairly religious. yesterday we talked with him about baptism, and he seems pretty excited about that. unfortunately the rest of his family is near impossible to meet with, so we'll keep trying with the rest of the family, but help annua to progress. he'll be a good member.

anyways, that was my week as teaching goes. but in other news, i killed my companion! which means i was his last companion. he is on his way to america right now. pretty nuts. so my new companion is elder simon. he's pretty cool. he's from hawaii. he came just yesterday, so not much news there, but things ae looking like they will go well. we're excited for the future.

i guess that's all i have for now. thanks for being awesome and by the way that cake looks delicious. anyways, talk to you next week.

love, zac