So, we drove to the airport and picked him up. He is in that phase between driven servant of the Lord and "I don't even know what to do with myself." We are very happy to see him, however.
My Blog List
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Zac is home
So, we drove to the airport and picked him up. He is in that phase between driven servant of the Lord and "I don't even know what to do with myself." We are very happy to see him, however.
Zac's itinerary
June 13, 2011
Dear Parents,
Your missionary will be released from his mission on Wednesday, July 27th. The Church travel office has made flight arrangements for your missionary to travel home on this date. Please review the itinerary shown below and make sure the name of your missionary is spelled correctly and that we are flying your missionary into the airport that is closest to your home. If you have any questions about this itinerary or would like us to make any changes, please contact us at the mission office at xxx xxxx-xxxx or call the Church travel office at xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Flight number and times may change by the time your missionary travels. A current view of your missionary’s flight plans is available on the website: www.checkmytrip.com . The website will ask for the reservation number which is located on this itinerary on the line above the flight information and below the missionary’s name. It is also recommended that you contact the airlines the day of travel to find out if any changes have occurred on the flights your missionary is scheduled to be on.
We appreciate you taking the time to review this itinerary and letting us know immediately of any changes we need to make.
Sincerely,
Sister Garrett
Singapore Mission Secretary
_____________________________________________
From: Sara McBride
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 1:20 AM
To: Singapore Mission; xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx
Subject: Return Travel Itinerary For HILL/ZACHARY ROYDEN - 27Jul - 2PS2G4
ELECTRONIC TICKET ISSUED, ONLY YOUR PASSPORT WILL BE NEEDED TO CHECK-IN.
CONFIRMATION AND TICKET NUMBERS BELOW:
CHURCH TRAVEL CWT DATE 10JUNE11
50 EAST NORTH TEMPLE ST AGENT VH/SL BOOKING REF 2PS2G4
SALT LAKE CITY UT 84150
TELEPHONE: xxx xxx-xxxx HILL/ZACHARY ROYDEN 157393-R
FAX : xxx-xxx-xxxx
MISSIONARY TRAVEL
SINGAPORE MISSION
SERVICE DATE FROM TO DEPART ARRIVE
_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _______ ______
DELTA AIR LINES 27JUL SINGAPORE TOKYO 550A 215P
DL 280 WEDNESDAY CHANGI NARITA
K ECONOMY TERMINAL 1 TERMINAL 1
NON SMOKING BREAKFAST NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 7:25 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A330-200
SEAT 40B NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
DELTA AIR LINES 27JUL TOKYO LOS ANGELES CA 335P 955A
DL 284 WEDNESDAY NARITA INTL
K ECONOMY TERMINAL 1 TERMINAL 5
NON SMOKING DINNER NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 10:20 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A330-300
SEAT 39B NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
DELTA AIR LINES 27JUL LOS ANGELES CA LAS VEGAS NV 1200N 111P
DL 4464 WEDNESDAY INTL MCCARRAN INTL
K ECONOMY TERMINAL 5 TERMINAL 1
NON SMOKING NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 1:11 DURATION
FLIGHT OPERATED BY SKYWEST DBA DELTA CONN
AIRCRAFT OWNER: OO SKYWEST AIRLINES
AIRCRAFT: CANADAIR REGIONAL JET 900
SEAT 15C NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
RESERVATION NUMBER(S) DL/GSIUPJ
HILL/ZACHARY ROYDEN 157393-R
ETKT:DL/006 8640562298
-----------------------------------------------
SARA M - EXT 25146
.
(SL)MISSION PRESIDENT TERRENCE ANDREW CLARK
PH xxx xx-xxxx-xxxx OFFICE xxx xx-xxxx-xxxx HOME
* NOTICE * STATE OR FEDERAL PHOTO I.D. REQUIRED AT AIRPORT.
BECAUSE CHECK-IN TIMES AROUND THE WORLD MAY VARY BASED
ON THE INDIVIDUAL AIRPORT AND DAY-TO-DAY SECURITY ISSUES
PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY FOR YOUR FLIGHTS.
IF YOU NEED FURTHER INFORMATION REGARDING AIRPORT SECURITY,
PLEASE CONTACT THE AIRPORT DIRECTLY.
MISSIONARY TRAVEL (xxx) xxx-xxxx OR (xxx) xxx-xxxx
EMPLOYEE TRAVEL (xxx) xxx-xxxx OR (xxx) xxx-xxxx
GENERAL AUTHORITY TRAVEL (xxx)xxx-xxxx OR (xxx)xxx-xxxx
Dear Parents,
Your missionary will be released from his mission on Wednesday, July 27th. The Church travel office has made flight arrangements for your missionary to travel home on this date. Please review the itinerary shown below and make sure the name of your missionary is spelled correctly and that we are flying your missionary into the airport that is closest to your home. If you have any questions about this itinerary or would like us to make any changes, please contact us at the mission office at xxx xxxx-xxxx or call the Church travel office at xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Flight number and times may change by the time your missionary travels. A current view of your missionary’s flight plans is available on the website: www.checkmytrip.com . The website will ask for the reservation number which is located on this itinerary on the line above the flight information and below the missionary’s name. It is also recommended that you contact the airlines the day of travel to find out if any changes have occurred on the flights your missionary is scheduled to be on.
We appreciate you taking the time to review this itinerary and letting us know immediately of any changes we need to make.
Sincerely,
Sister Garrett
Singapore Mission Secretary
_____________________________________________
From: Sara McBride
Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2011 1:20 AM
To: Singapore Mission; xxxxxxxx@xxxx.xxx
Subject: Return Travel Itinerary For HILL/ZACHARY ROYDEN - 27Jul - 2PS2G4
ELECTRONIC TICKET ISSUED, ONLY YOUR PASSPORT WILL BE NEEDED TO CHECK-IN.
CONFIRMATION AND TICKET NUMBERS BELOW:
CHURCH TRAVEL CWT DATE 10JUNE11
50 EAST NORTH TEMPLE ST AGENT VH/SL BOOKING REF 2PS2G4
SALT LAKE CITY UT 84150
TELEPHONE: xxx xxx-xxxx HILL/ZACHARY ROYDEN 157393-R
FAX : xxx-xxx-xxxx
MISSIONARY TRAVEL
SINGAPORE MISSION
SERVICE DATE FROM TO DEPART ARRIVE
_____________________ _____ ______________ ______________ _______ ______
DELTA AIR LINES 27JUL SINGAPORE TOKYO 550A 215P
DL 280 WEDNESDAY CHANGI NARITA
K ECONOMY TERMINAL 1 TERMINAL 1
NON SMOKING BREAKFAST NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 7:25 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A330-200
SEAT 40B NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
DELTA AIR LINES 27JUL TOKYO LOS ANGELES CA 335P 955A
DL 284 WEDNESDAY NARITA INTL
K ECONOMY TERMINAL 1 TERMINAL 5
NON SMOKING DINNER NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 10:20 DURATION
AIRCRAFT: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A330-300
SEAT 39B NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
DELTA AIR LINES 27JUL LOS ANGELES CA LAS VEGAS NV 1200N 111P
DL 4464 WEDNESDAY INTL MCCARRAN INTL
K ECONOMY TERMINAL 5 TERMINAL 1
NON SMOKING NON STOP
RESERVATION CONFIRMED 1:11 DURATION
FLIGHT OPERATED BY SKYWEST DBA DELTA CONN
AIRCRAFT OWNER: OO SKYWEST AIRLINES
AIRCRAFT: CANADAIR REGIONAL JET 900
SEAT 15C NO SMOKING CONFIRMED
RESERVATION NUMBER(S) DL/GSIUPJ
HILL/ZACHARY ROYDEN 157393-R
ETKT:DL/006 8640562298
-----------------------------------------------
SARA M - EXT 25146
.
(SL)MISSION PRESIDENT TERRENCE ANDREW CLARK
PH xxx xx-xxxx-xxxx OFFICE xxx xx-xxxx-xxxx HOME
* NOTICE * STATE OR FEDERAL PHOTO I.D. REQUIRED AT AIRPORT.
BECAUSE CHECK-IN TIMES AROUND THE WORLD MAY VARY BASED
ON THE INDIVIDUAL AIRPORT AND DAY-TO-DAY SECURITY ISSUES
PLEASE ARRIVE EARLY FOR YOUR FLIGHTS.
IF YOU NEED FURTHER INFORMATION REGARDING AIRPORT SECURITY,
PLEASE CONTACT THE AIRPORT DIRECTLY.
MISSIONARY TRAVEL (xxx) xxx-xxxx OR (xxx) xxx-xxxx
EMPLOYEE TRAVEL (xxx) xxx-xxxx OR (xxx) xxx-xxxx
GENERAL AUTHORITY TRAVEL (xxx)xxx-xxxx OR (xxx)xxx-xxxx
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Elder Hill
We sent Elder Hill off yesterday on the airplane for Singapore. He will have a few days there before he heads home across the big water. We will miss him here in Bintulu. He is a fine young man and a great Elder and missionary. He did some very good things here as he taught and baptized the folks here in East Malaysia. Their lives will never be the same because of him. We have enjoyed working with him very much. You can be very proud of him and his work and sacrifice in being here. What a blessing he has been to us, the folks here, you as his family, and to his Father in Heaven whose work he has been diligently doing. We wish him the best in life. I am sure he will be successful in all he does. He learned some good things on the mission which I am sure he will share.
Sincerely, Sister Orien
Thank you very much sister Orien, We are looking very much to seeing Zac on Wednesday. Thank you very much for looking after him while he served the Lord.
Bro & Sis Hill
Bro. Hill,
You got the photo already? Email is amazing!
Elder Hill and I made some great memories when we took a big time tumble on the gliding walk way in Singapore when he was on his way to Bintulu. You can ask him about it. It was hilarious but could have been disastrous.
Elder Hill is a real gentleman. I love that about him. You did good in raising him. I hope we meet up in the future.
Sister Orien
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
last letter
hey mom
so yeah this week was pretty good. things are going well. rabong and lenny got baptized sunday morning which was pretty sweet. we were afraid it wasnt going to happen because saturday night he suddenly wasn't sure if he could get work off or not. and then sunday morning it was time for the baptism to start and he wasnt there, nor was he answering his phone. so that was pretty intense. but he came and got baptized and now that family is complete in membership of the church. it feels pretty good to see. unfortunately i will see them get baptized only and then leave, but i guess what can you do. i already had my last sunday at church. this upcoming sunday i fly into singapore, where i'll wait a few days until i go home.
luckily things look good for the baptism this saturday. already got interviewed and is really good. her name is catherine. she is a daughter of a member who is around 20 years old but until now never wanted to go to church. i dont know exactly what happened, but now she seems really good. her husband is working far away so we havent met him yet. hopefully sometime in the future they'll be able to teach the husband too. but that's the last of my work here. we've been going around getting some refferals, so there are some people that look like they could be baptized in the future. some people that seem really good. too bad i wont be around for most of their teaching.
there's this one family we contacted this week. they are relatives of a member. themother of the family is the member's sister in law. she is really concerned about her children making poor choices and that they have smoking and drinking problems at relatively young ages. so we went to the house for the second time two days ago, and one of the sons she is particularly concerned about was there. we seemed to have a good lesson with him about who jesus christ was and why it is important for us to follow him. whenever we asked questions, the kid (who is around 18) would pause for quite a long time and then answer. it really seemed like he was thinking introspectively and giving good thought to what we were saying, so it was nice. they also said this sunday they would go to church, so we'll see how that goes. i hope the best for them.
there are other families too, but we've only met them once, so not much to talk about.
anyways, no worries about the recipes. i have the email of the members who wanted recipes. i guess i can go home and see what we have and email them something later. well, not much else to say. this time next week i'll be on my way home. i guess i'll let you know what's been going on then. love you mom. take care.
love, zac
so yeah this week was pretty good. things are going well. rabong and lenny got baptized sunday morning which was pretty sweet. we were afraid it wasnt going to happen because saturday night he suddenly wasn't sure if he could get work off or not. and then sunday morning it was time for the baptism to start and he wasnt there, nor was he answering his phone. so that was pretty intense. but he came and got baptized and now that family is complete in membership of the church. it feels pretty good to see. unfortunately i will see them get baptized only and then leave, but i guess what can you do. i already had my last sunday at church. this upcoming sunday i fly into singapore, where i'll wait a few days until i go home.
luckily things look good for the baptism this saturday. already got interviewed and is really good. her name is catherine. she is a daughter of a member who is around 20 years old but until now never wanted to go to church. i dont know exactly what happened, but now she seems really good. her husband is working far away so we havent met him yet. hopefully sometime in the future they'll be able to teach the husband too. but that's the last of my work here. we've been going around getting some refferals, so there are some people that look like they could be baptized in the future. some people that seem really good. too bad i wont be around for most of their teaching.
there's this one family we contacted this week. they are relatives of a member. themother of the family is the member's sister in law. she is really concerned about her children making poor choices and that they have smoking and drinking problems at relatively young ages. so we went to the house for the second time two days ago, and one of the sons she is particularly concerned about was there. we seemed to have a good lesson with him about who jesus christ was and why it is important for us to follow him. whenever we asked questions, the kid (who is around 18) would pause for quite a long time and then answer. it really seemed like he was thinking introspectively and giving good thought to what we were saying, so it was nice. they also said this sunday they would go to church, so we'll see how that goes. i hope the best for them.
there are other families too, but we've only met them once, so not much to talk about.
anyways, no worries about the recipes. i have the email of the members who wanted recipes. i guess i can go home and see what we have and email them something later. well, not much else to say. this time next week i'll be on my way home. i guess i'll let you know what's been going on then. love you mom. take care.
love, zac
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
spelunking
hey dad
thanks for the pics. i'm so sorry i forgot to wish you a happy birthday last week.. so happy birthday! hope you had a good one. how'd you celebrate it?
anyways, this week was pretty cool. jenny kenny and ronaldo got baptized. it was pretty stressful, but way awesome. i'll just explain their story and show you pics of them when i get home. i dont mean to be trunky or anything, but emailing is no good. anyways, rabong and lenny are looking good to be baptized this sunday. and a girl we are teaching, catherine who is the 20 y/o daughter of a member should be baptized next week. that looks like that will be all for me. our pool is looking a little low. we've been doing some contacting. not too much success, but things are still looking good. hopefully within the next little bit we'll be able to meet some good people.
so today was pretty fun. we visited some pretty big caves here in sarawak called niah caves. if you want to learn more about the caves, visit wikipedia. anyways, our zone just looked around and climbed to the top of every peak we could and found little caves and climbed through bat poop. it was pretty good. got some good pictures, but i think i'll also show those to you when i get home.
well, sorry. dont have much more to say. things are fun and going well. talk to you next week. love you dad.
love, zac
hey mom.
i kind of gave an update on things to dad, so if you want to know about the area, yo ucan read the email i sent to him. pretty little news. anyways, i had a few questions..
did bishop childs mention a subject he wanted me to give a talk on?
also, can you send a few american recipes from home? i dont know exactly what, but some members have been asking for some recipes. something with chicken and that has fairly simple ingredients. also if you have any recipes for dessert? maybe a cake like thing.. brownies or something. if you could send those recipes that would be sweet.
so speaking of recipes from malaysia, i've been talking to a member family who will hopefully give me a few different recipes. curry, rendang, and maybe fried rice. could be delicious. we'll see.
news about investigators: jenny kenny ronaldo baptized. rabong lenny for baptism this week.
anyways, out of time, talk to you next week. have a good week. love you mom.
love, zac
thanks for the pics. i'm so sorry i forgot to wish you a happy birthday last week.. so happy birthday! hope you had a good one. how'd you celebrate it?
anyways, this week was pretty cool. jenny kenny and ronaldo got baptized. it was pretty stressful, but way awesome. i'll just explain their story and show you pics of them when i get home. i dont mean to be trunky or anything, but emailing is no good. anyways, rabong and lenny are looking good to be baptized this sunday. and a girl we are teaching, catherine who is the 20 y/o daughter of a member should be baptized next week. that looks like that will be all for me. our pool is looking a little low. we've been doing some contacting. not too much success, but things are still looking good. hopefully within the next little bit we'll be able to meet some good people.
so today was pretty fun. we visited some pretty big caves here in sarawak called niah caves. if you want to learn more about the caves, visit wikipedia. anyways, our zone just looked around and climbed to the top of every peak we could and found little caves and climbed through bat poop. it was pretty good. got some good pictures, but i think i'll also show those to you when i get home.
well, sorry. dont have much more to say. things are fun and going well. talk to you next week. love you dad.
love, zac
hey mom.
i kind of gave an update on things to dad, so if you want to know about the area, yo ucan read the email i sent to him. pretty little news. anyways, i had a few questions..
did bishop childs mention a subject he wanted me to give a talk on?
also, can you send a few american recipes from home? i dont know exactly what, but some members have been asking for some recipes. something with chicken and that has fairly simple ingredients. also if you have any recipes for dessert? maybe a cake like thing.. brownies or something. if you could send those recipes that would be sweet.
so speaking of recipes from malaysia, i've been talking to a member family who will hopefully give me a few different recipes. curry, rendang, and maybe fried rice. could be delicious. we'll see.
news about investigators: jenny kenny ronaldo baptized. rabong lenny for baptism this week.
anyways, out of time, talk to you next week. have a good week. love you mom.
love, zac
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
a chat with mom
tuesday, july 05, 2011
7:48 PM
quilting queen 7:48 PM
hey
49:03
is that you zac?
49:27
It's Mom
49:59
I forgot to write you
zac 7:50 PM
hey mom
50:55
no problem
51:01
how's it going?
quilting queen 7:51 PM
it's great
51:24
we had a fun 4th of July
zac 7:51 PM
that's cool
quilting queen 7:51 PM
I was going to send pics
zac 7:51 PM
52:02
i spent mine without seeing another american
quilting queen 7:52 PM
Jake and fam and nano and fam were here
52:23
we barbecued
zac 7:52 PM
was it delicious?
quilting queen 7:52 PM
the babies are getting big
52:53
Izzy is almost walking
53:02
The food was GREAT
53:17
dda cooked his dutch oven potatoes
53:25
dad
54:16
I discovered I had forgotten to put yeast in the rolls when I went to take the dough out of the bread machine
zac 7:54 PM
oh no!
quilting queen 7:54 PM
that was lame
54:49
so I had to go buy rolls
zac 7:55 PM
aw man
quilting queen 7:55 PM
we had teriyaki chicken
55:43
we barbecued corn on the cob too
zac 7:55 PM
i hope there's a meal like that coming my way when i get back
55:52
quilting queen 7:55 PM
of course
zac 7:56 PM
haha
quilting queen 7:56 PM
do you have your itinerary?
56:41
I want to be able to go to the airport
zac 7:57 PM
well, the ofice sent it to dad i believe
quilting queen 7:57 PM
Izzy's birthday party is on the 31ts
zac 7:57 PM
i get into vegas around 1pm or so
57:36
on 27 july
quilting queen 7:58 PM
you can go to Izzy's b-day party
58:26
I wonder if you'll be speaking at church?
zac 7:58 PM
maybe
quilting queen 7:59 PM
lol
zac 7:59 PM
i hope they'll let me know more than a day before hand
quilting queen 7:59 PM
you should be prepared just in case
zac 7:59 PM
well i do have a very long flight home
quilting queen 7:59 PM
dad can ask the Bishop
zac 7:59 PM
i dont know what else ill do besides study the gospel
quilting queen 7:59 PM
that will give you a wek LOL
59:58
week
zac 8:00 PM
haha
00:06
thanks
00:13
maybe i can just not speak
00:15
eh?
quilting queen 8:00 PM
I doubt that will happen
01:12
I guess the John Mills and The Anderson boy both spoke on the same Sunday
zac 8:01 PM
kenyon?
quilting queen 8:01 PM
john coming home and Kenyon going out
01:58
lol
02:03
I missed it
02:12
I was on the way to Georgia
zac 8:02 PM
oh too bad
quilting queen 8:02 PM
yeah
zac 8:02 PM
but i guess you had fun too yeah?
quilting queen 8:02 PM
I got to see Jared though
zac 8:02 PM
do you know when taylin is coming home
02:41
?
quilting queen 8:03 PM
I don't know
zac 8:03 PM
oh well
03:14
how is jared doing?
quilting queen 8:03 PM
He's busy
zac 8:03 PM
with what?
quilting queen 8:03 PM
they are doing ok though
03:45
they bought a house
03:55
It's pretty nice
zac 8:03 PM
where are they living now?
quilting queen 8:04 PM
Eagle Mountain
04:36
They just move closer to the mountains than they did
zac 8:05 PM
maybe i'll be able to visit him while i'm up at byu
quilting queen 8:05 PM
same general area
05:30
I'm sure you will
zac 8:05 PM
what does he do for work?
quilting queen 8:05 PM
it takes about 45 min to get to his house though
06:05
he still works at the boys ranch
06:35
he bought a motorcycle
zac 8:06 PM
wow
06:43
hardcore
quilting queen 8:06 PM
yeah
06:50
lol
zac 8:07 PM
maybe i'll buy one too when i get financially stable
07:14
then he and i can make a bike gang
quilting queen 8:07 PM
we played a lot of games
07:52
they like to play games
07:59
LOL!
08:24
I can't see the two of you being a bike gang
zac 8:08 PM
you dont think i'm hard core enough?
quilting queen 8:08 PM
LOL!
09:18
I've never seen you ride anything but a bicycle
zac 8:09 PM
but i sure looked tough on that bibyble
quilting queen 8:09 PM
you ride a mean bicycle though
zac 8:09 PM
bicycle*
quilting queen 8:09 PM
lol
zac 8:09 PM
yeah thanks for the encouragement mom
10:04
i know i'll feel better when io talk to you
quilting queen 8:10 PM
I couldn't believe how fast you could go
zac 8:10 PM
these little chicken legs of mine are tough
quilting queen 8:10 PM
did you smoke your comps?
10:49
lol
zac 8:10 PM
well, for most of my mission
11:04
but when i was in johor, my bike got stolen
quilting queen 8:11 PM
yeah
11:25
that's too bad
zac 8:11 PM
so when i came to bintulu i had to inherit a dying elders bicycle
quilting queen 8:11 PM
you didn't get soft did you?
11:38
lol
zac 8:11 PM
which was basically pulled out of the trash can
quilting queen 8:11 PM
LOL
zac 8:12 PM
the bike frame is like 3 inches too smal so i look like a clown
quilting queen 8:12 PM
LOL
zac 8:12 PM
and everything is falling apart
quilting queen 8:12 PM
does it still go?
zac 8:12 PM
i'm just praying it will last me for 3 more weeks
12:43
it still goes
quilting queen 8:12 PM
lol
zac 8:12 PM
but only at like 2 mph
13:11
but it's all good
13:15
i dont mind really
quilting queen 8:13 PM
you have a good one here
zac 8:13 PM
i just take life at a nice relaxed pace
14:04
i'm pretty stressed for school tho
quilting queen 8:14 PM
I understand but don't stress
zac 8:14 PM
and then the prophet is telling me to get married
14:44
sheesh
quilting queen 8:15 PM
lol
15:28
he didn't say right away
zac 8:15 PM
yeah i know
15:44
i was just kidding
quilting queen 8:16 PM
although..... when those girls catch sight of you they might not be able to keep their hands off you
16:44
lol
zac 8:16 PM
well, you have to remember i have fast little legs
quilting queen 8:17 PM
LOL!!!!
zac 8:17 PM
hey i have a question
quilting queen 8:17 PM
ok
zac 8:17 PM
after dad graduated with his bachelor's degree, did he go straight into graduate school?
quilting queen 8:17 PM
pretty much
17:59
I think he took a semester off
zac 8:18 PM
haha
18:17
i think i want to get a master's in engineering
quilting queen 8:18 PM
dad says he didn't take any time off
18:39
that's great!
zac 8:18 PM
did he get both his bachelor's and master's from byu?
quilting queen 8:18 PM
hopefully you can remember the math
19:03
yes
zac 8:19 PM
well i have a month to prepare
quilting queen 8:19 PM
he had to change majors though
zac 8:19 PM
i'm confident
19:21
oh
quilting queen 8:19 PM
they wouldn't let him get both on the same major
zac 8:19 PM
i see
quilting queen 8:20 PM
you have to change schools
zac 8:20 PM
i just look at other schools and they seem pretty expensive
20:20
haha
quilting queen 8:20 PM
I don't know if it is still the same though
20:43
you can look into it when you get home
zac 8:21 PM
i imagine it is still like that
21:32
how did dad pay for school?
quilting queen 8:21 PM
loans
22:03
he couldn't get grants for his masters degree
zac 8:22 PM
i see
quilting queen 8:22 PM
you can get scholarships though
zac 8:22 PM
i hope so
23:09
i hope to not have to get into too much debt for my undergraduate degree
23:24
i'm hoping to be able to work at the mtc
quilting queen 8:23 PM
you should be able to get the fasfa for your undergraduate degree
24:08
fasfa
24:15
fafsa
24:17
lol
zac 8:24 PM
well, i filled out the fafsa aplication
quilting queen 8:24 PM
I'm having a brain fart
24:40
good
zac 8:24 PM
but for my age right now i am still technically dependant on you and dad
25:09
and since i am the only dependant, they wouldnt give any aid
25:42
i qualified for a loan for my first semester back, which i have to take to go to school
25:57
since byu doesnt offer scholarships to transfer students
26:12
so hopefully next semester i'll be able to try to get some scholarships
26:28
and maybe in a few years get government aid
quilting queen 8:26 PM
yeah
zac 8:27 PM
every p day my mind just thinks and thinks about school
27:03
it's crazy
quilting queen 8:27 PM
how are your investigators?
zac 8:27 PM
doing ok
quilting queen 8:28 PM
are you going to be able to have any baptisms before you go home?
zac 8:28 PM
well, i hope so
28:58
but you can't always predict some things..
29:07
we have 7 people that could be baptized before i go home
29:23
as long as they get their act together and just get baptized!
quilting queen 8:29 PM
that's cool
29:34
hopefully it will happen
zac 8:29 PM
we've got two people on date for my last saturday in malaysia
30:29
and maybe two for this week if the guy can get off work and come to church this sunday to be confirmed
quilting queen 8:30 PM
that's cool
zac 8:30 PM
and possibly 3 next week
30:54
but it's all just possibilities
quilting queen 8:31 PM
yeah
zac 8:31 PM
we'll try as hard as we can
quilting queen 8:31 PM
it's hot here
zac 8:31 PM
yeah?
quilting queen 8:31 PM
but relatively dry
31:51
it's a little humid
zac 8:31 PM
i imagine it is very dry
quilting queen 8:32 PM
there have been clouds and therewere thunder showers on the East side of town on Sunday night
zac 8:32 PM
woah
quilting queen 8:32 PM
it will feel dry to you though
32:46
lol
zac 8:33 PM
i hope my skin doesnt just all fall off
quilting queen 8:33 PM
there are clouds today and when I left work it was spitting a little
33:29
you can use lotion
zac 8:34 PM
yesterday we got poured on
34:07
for a few hours
quilting queen 8:34 PM
I wish we would
zac 8:34 PM
i dont think vegas could handle it
quilting queen 8:34 PM
Adrienne says she gets poured on a lot
34:53
I remember rain every afternoon and she says it stil does
35:20
I don't think we could either
35:32
there would be flooding everywhere
zac 8:35 PM
i remember riding my bike
36:00
and the whole way to school, the road was just a big river
quilting queen 8:36 PM
yeah
zac 8:36 PM
and it didnt even rain that much
36:37
so what's the temperature looking like?
quilting queen 8:36 PM
I remember going to Aunt Betty's one night and having the road be a big river
37:00
it was really stressful
37:19
today it's cooler
37:37
only 91 to 95 today
zac 8:37 PM
not too bad
quilting queen 8:37 PM
I'm sure it will get a lot warmere though
38:26
it was up to 110 last week
zac 8:38 PM
aw man
38:40
i'm heading into the furnace
quilting queen 8:38 PM
a cold front came through
38:53
lol
zac 8:38 PM
ah
quilting queen 8:39 PM
not like a cold front for Nyssa though
zac 8:39 PM
yeah haha
39:31
i'm so glad i didnt get
called to hoth
quilting queen 8:39 PM
she's not going to be able to handle the heat anymore
40:07
good thing she comes home in November
zac 8:40 PM
hot places are way better
40:26
i think i will die in utha
40:28
utah
quilting queen 8:41 PM
lol
41:17
you just have to dress warmer
zac 8:42 PM
i dont even own a coat
quilting queen 8:42 PM
you'll have to get one
42:52
Nyssa did
zac 8:42 PM
quilting queen 8:43 PM
you'll need to get one up there though
zac 8:43 PM
can you believe my two year mark was last week?
quilting queen 8:43 PM
yeah
43:53
we noted that
44:17
people at church are asking when you are coming home
zac 8:44 PM
haha
44:56
27 july
quilting queen 8:46 PM
that's what we told them
zac 8:46 PM
most of the people from my mtc group are flying straight to salt lake
46:16
from japan
quilting queen 8:46 PM
they live in Utah?
zac 8:46 PM
yeah there were only four out of 16 not from utah
quilting queen 8:46 PM
wow
zac 8:46 PM
one is wyoming, one is idaho, one ohio and then me
quilting queen 8:46 PM
why are they flying from Japan?
zac 8:47 PM
our flight from singapore takes us through japan
47:17
so we all fly together to japan
47:30
and then get on separate planes to cross the pacific
quilting queen 8:47 PM
and then you fly here
zac 8:47 PM
yep
quilting queen 8:48 PM
I'll bet the guys from Idaho and Wyoming had never heard of Singapore
zac 8:48 PM
probably not
48:36
haha
48:51
i think it's crazy that i never served once in singapore
quilting queen 8:49 PM
yeah
zac 8:49 PM
almost all my mission was in one malaysian state
49:16
sarawak!
49:29
and then 2.5 months in johor
49:34
but hey cool news
49:42
the branch in johor is splitting
quilting queen 8:49 PM
I guess that was where you were supposed to go
49:52
COOL!
51:02
how is the ward in Sarawak/
51:06
?
zac 8:51 PM
well, it's doing ok
51:20
a lot fo youth
quilting queen 8:51 PM
well... that's good
zac 8:51 PM
mostly teenage girls
quilting queen 8:52 PM
OHHHHHHHH
52:03
lol
zac 8:53 PM
so the future as of now is a little bleak
53:12
we need to get good young men
53:15
to be future leaders
53:23
and the husbands of these girls
quilting queen 8:53 PM
yeah
53:33
that's too bad
zac 8:53 PM
i dont know what that ohh was about, but rest assured i'm marrying an american
quilting queen 8:54 PM
that wasn't what I meant
zac 8:54 PM
sorry if i'm defensive
quilting queen 8:54 PM
that's ok
zac 8:54 PM
all the ibans here tell me to marry an iban
54:51
lol
quilting queen 8:54 PM
lol
zac 8:55 PM
bintulu is a good place tho
55:18
lots of freindly members
quilting queen 8:55 PM
the oh was more like I see
55:43
it 's too bad that it's so far away
56:23
you probably won't ever be able to go back unless you make a lot of money for the trip
56:56
That would be cool if we could visit with you
zac 8:58 PM
yeah that would be awesome
58:20
maybe someday if i get rich
quilting queen 8:58 PM
as long as I didn't see any big bugs or spiders
58:57
Adrienne has already had a run in with a big wolf spider
zac 8:59 PM
oh no
59:39
if you came here, you prbably wouldnt see anything
59:44
that happens when you live here
quilting queen 8:59 PM
that's one reason why I hated living there
00:29
lol
00:53
the bugs don't like tourists huh?
zac 9:01 PM
well, they are a little shy
01:07
maybe it's the white skin
quilting queen 9:01 PM
lol
zac 9:02 PM
i have no idea how much a plane ticket would cost to get here
quilting queen 9:02 PM
probably a lot
03:20
I should research it
zac 9:03 PM
i hear
04:13
that there is like an internship thing at byu
04:31
for return missionaries to go back to the country they served in
04:44
to teach people about how to get a job
quilting queen 9:05 PM
that's cool
zac 9:05 PM
the only thing is you have to pay for airfare
05:15
yourself
05:24
it would be cool, but i dont know if i could do it
quilting queen 9:05 PM
yeah
06:34
I need to get your room ready
06:53
take out the baby stuff
06:56
lol
zac 9:08 PM
there's baby stuff in my room?
quilting queen 9:09 PM
Nyssa made your desk up as a changing table and there are toys in there
09:29
she hung up a Noah's Ark wallhanging
zac 9:09 PM
well, i dont mind sleeping on the couch
quilting queen 9:09 PM
your bed is still there
09:59
and your stuffin the closet
zac 9:10 PM
i'll only be there a few weeks
10:23
so no need to move a lot of stuff around
quilting queen 9:10 PM
the bookcase with games was in yourv room but we took it out
11:02
I won't be moving much stuff
zac 9:11 PM
i still cant believe my mssion is almost over
11:33
it seems so soon
quilting queen 9:11 PM
yeah
11:55
it sure went fast
zac 9:12 PM
i feel a little nervous to continue with life
12:47
i feel really comfortable with missionary work now
quilting queen 9:13 PM
yeah
13:23
all missionaries feel like that
zac 9:14 PM
how do you guys feel now that all your kids are moved out?
quilting queen 9:14 PM
lonely
zac 9:14 PM
aww
quilting queen 9:15 PM
I'd rather have a few people around
zac 9:15 PM
yeah
15:34
but jake and nano still live close by
quilting queen 9:15 PM
they are busy and don't come over a lot
16:27
I do babysit Sara on Mondays and Fridays
16:38
it's pretty fun
zac 9:16 PM
that's good
16:47
how is she doing?
quilting queen 9:16 PM
she's doing great
17:04
she's so cute
17:18
I was going to send a pic
17:52
I took pics of the 3 girls in their July 4th dresses
18:07
they are all pretty cute
zac 9:18 PM
aww
quilting queen 9:18 PM
Sara looks like Nano and Izzy looks like Jake
18:36
lol
19:04
Izzy has HUGE blue eyes
zac 9:19 PM
lol
19:49
i wonder if they'll look different later
quilting queen 9:19 PM
maybe
zac 9:20 PM
i feel like kids look more like the dads early on
quilting queen 9:20 PM
kids change a lot
20:11
look at you?
20:13
lol
zac 9:20 PM
yeah nobdy thinks i look like either of you
quilting queen 9:21 PM
lol
21:06
you look like dad
zac 9:21 PM
do i?
21:39
i havent seen a picture of him when he was younger for a long time
quilting queen 9:21 PM
actually you look Reed
21:45
lol
22:07
not as much as Jake though
22:40
dad looks a lot like grandma Naida
zac 9:22 PM
well i didnt know reed was this handsome before
22:48
quilting queen 9:22 PM
LOL!!!!!
zac 9:23 PM
i wonder if girls in america will think im handsome
quilting queen 9:23 PM
so what are your plans for today?
24:11
Desiree sure did
zac 9:24 PM
did she huh?
24:47
haha
25:05
well, we'll see what she thinks after she's seen what malaysia has done to me
quilting queen 9:25 PM
yeah
25:08
lol
25:31
what has it done to you?
zac 9:26 PM
well malaysia is a rough place
26:11
it just thrashes things
26:23
like my face
quilting queen 9:26 PM
yeah
zac 9:26 PM
anyways, today hopefully we'll have two people interviewed for baptism
26:52
wee
quilting queen 9:27 PM
I thought today was P day
zac 9:27 PM
it is
quilting queen 9:28 PM
you interview people on P day?
zac 9:30 PM
we go out at night on pday
30:13
6:30
quilting queen 9:30 PM
oh
31:09
what are you doing before?
zac 9:32 PM
we are just relaxing today basically
32:09
buying groceries
32:12
emailing you guys
quilting queen 9:32 PM
lol
32:25
yeah
zac 9:32 PM
maybe next week we'll go explore some caves
quilting queen 9:32 PM
REALLY!
zac 9:32 PM
i'l get some pics
32:49
but mom i gotta go
32:52
i love you lots
32:58
talk to you next week
quilting queen 9:32 PM
love you too
33:01
ok
zac 9:33 PM
have a good week
quilting queen 9:33 PM
bye
zac 9:33 PM
bye
quilting queen 9:33 PM
you too
7:48 PM
quilting queen 7:48 PM
hey
49:03
is that you zac?
49:27
It's Mom
49:59
I forgot to write you
zac 7:50 PM
hey mom
50:55
no problem
51:01
how's it going?
quilting queen 7:51 PM
it's great
51:24
we had a fun 4th of July
zac 7:51 PM
that's cool
quilting queen 7:51 PM
I was going to send pics
zac 7:51 PM
52:02
i spent mine without seeing another american
quilting queen 7:52 PM
Jake and fam and nano and fam were here
52:23
we barbecued
zac 7:52 PM
was it delicious?
quilting queen 7:52 PM
the babies are getting big
52:53
Izzy is almost walking
53:02
The food was GREAT
53:17
dda cooked his dutch oven potatoes
53:25
dad
54:16
I discovered I had forgotten to put yeast in the rolls when I went to take the dough out of the bread machine
zac 7:54 PM
oh no!
quilting queen 7:54 PM
that was lame
54:49
so I had to go buy rolls
zac 7:55 PM
aw man
quilting queen 7:55 PM
we had teriyaki chicken
55:43
we barbecued corn on the cob too
zac 7:55 PM
i hope there's a meal like that coming my way when i get back
55:52
quilting queen 7:55 PM
of course
zac 7:56 PM
haha
quilting queen 7:56 PM
do you have your itinerary?
56:41
I want to be able to go to the airport
zac 7:57 PM
well, the ofice sent it to dad i believe
quilting queen 7:57 PM
Izzy's birthday party is on the 31ts
zac 7:57 PM
i get into vegas around 1pm or so
57:36
on 27 july
quilting queen 7:58 PM
you can go to Izzy's b-day party
58:26
I wonder if you'll be speaking at church?
zac 7:58 PM
maybe
quilting queen 7:59 PM
lol
zac 7:59 PM
i hope they'll let me know more than a day before hand
quilting queen 7:59 PM
you should be prepared just in case
zac 7:59 PM
well i do have a very long flight home
quilting queen 7:59 PM
dad can ask the Bishop
zac 7:59 PM
i dont know what else ill do besides study the gospel
quilting queen 7:59 PM
that will give you a wek LOL
59:58
week
zac 8:00 PM
haha
00:06
thanks
00:13
maybe i can just not speak
00:15
eh?
quilting queen 8:00 PM
I doubt that will happen
01:12
I guess the John Mills and The Anderson boy both spoke on the same Sunday
zac 8:01 PM
kenyon?
quilting queen 8:01 PM
john coming home and Kenyon going out
01:58
lol
02:03
I missed it
02:12
I was on the way to Georgia
zac 8:02 PM
oh too bad
quilting queen 8:02 PM
yeah
zac 8:02 PM
but i guess you had fun too yeah?
quilting queen 8:02 PM
I got to see Jared though
zac 8:02 PM
do you know when taylin is coming home
02:41
?
quilting queen 8:03 PM
I don't know
zac 8:03 PM
oh well
03:14
how is jared doing?
quilting queen 8:03 PM
He's busy
zac 8:03 PM
with what?
quilting queen 8:03 PM
they are doing ok though
03:45
they bought a house
03:55
It's pretty nice
zac 8:03 PM
where are they living now?
quilting queen 8:04 PM
Eagle Mountain
04:36
They just move closer to the mountains than they did
zac 8:05 PM
maybe i'll be able to visit him while i'm up at byu
quilting queen 8:05 PM
same general area
05:30
I'm sure you will
zac 8:05 PM
what does he do for work?
quilting queen 8:05 PM
it takes about 45 min to get to his house though
06:05
he still works at the boys ranch
06:35
he bought a motorcycle
zac 8:06 PM
wow
06:43
hardcore
quilting queen 8:06 PM
yeah
06:50
lol
zac 8:07 PM
maybe i'll buy one too when i get financially stable
07:14
then he and i can make a bike gang
quilting queen 8:07 PM
we played a lot of games
07:52
they like to play games
07:59
LOL!
08:24
I can't see the two of you being a bike gang
zac 8:08 PM
you dont think i'm hard core enough?
quilting queen 8:08 PM
LOL!
09:18
I've never seen you ride anything but a bicycle
zac 8:09 PM
but i sure looked tough on that bibyble
quilting queen 8:09 PM
you ride a mean bicycle though
zac 8:09 PM
bicycle*
quilting queen 8:09 PM
lol
zac 8:09 PM
yeah thanks for the encouragement mom
10:04
i know i'll feel better when io talk to you
quilting queen 8:10 PM
I couldn't believe how fast you could go
zac 8:10 PM
these little chicken legs of mine are tough
quilting queen 8:10 PM
did you smoke your comps?
10:49
lol
zac 8:10 PM
well, for most of my mission
11:04
but when i was in johor, my bike got stolen
quilting queen 8:11 PM
yeah
11:25
that's too bad
zac 8:11 PM
so when i came to bintulu i had to inherit a dying elders bicycle
quilting queen 8:11 PM
you didn't get soft did you?
11:38
lol
zac 8:11 PM
which was basically pulled out of the trash can
quilting queen 8:11 PM
LOL
zac 8:12 PM
the bike frame is like 3 inches too smal so i look like a clown
quilting queen 8:12 PM
LOL
zac 8:12 PM
and everything is falling apart
quilting queen 8:12 PM
does it still go?
zac 8:12 PM
i'm just praying it will last me for 3 more weeks
12:43
it still goes
quilting queen 8:12 PM
lol
zac 8:12 PM
but only at like 2 mph
13:11
but it's all good
13:15
i dont mind really
quilting queen 8:13 PM
you have a good one here
zac 8:13 PM
i just take life at a nice relaxed pace
14:04
i'm pretty stressed for school tho
quilting queen 8:14 PM
I understand but don't stress
zac 8:14 PM
and then the prophet is telling me to get married
14:44
sheesh
quilting queen 8:15 PM
lol
15:28
he didn't say right away
zac 8:15 PM
yeah i know
15:44
i was just kidding
quilting queen 8:16 PM
although..... when those girls catch sight of you they might not be able to keep their hands off you
16:44
lol
zac 8:16 PM
well, you have to remember i have fast little legs
quilting queen 8:17 PM
LOL!!!!
zac 8:17 PM
hey i have a question
quilting queen 8:17 PM
ok
zac 8:17 PM
after dad graduated with his bachelor's degree, did he go straight into graduate school?
quilting queen 8:17 PM
pretty much
17:59
I think he took a semester off
zac 8:18 PM
haha
18:17
i think i want to get a master's in engineering
quilting queen 8:18 PM
dad says he didn't take any time off
18:39
that's great!
zac 8:18 PM
did he get both his bachelor's and master's from byu?
quilting queen 8:18 PM
hopefully you can remember the math
19:03
yes
zac 8:19 PM
well i have a month to prepare
quilting queen 8:19 PM
he had to change majors though
zac 8:19 PM
i'm confident
19:21
oh
quilting queen 8:19 PM
they wouldn't let him get both on the same major
zac 8:19 PM
i see
quilting queen 8:20 PM
you have to change schools
zac 8:20 PM
i just look at other schools and they seem pretty expensive
20:20
haha
quilting queen 8:20 PM
I don't know if it is still the same though
20:43
you can look into it when you get home
zac 8:21 PM
i imagine it is still like that
21:32
how did dad pay for school?
quilting queen 8:21 PM
loans
22:03
he couldn't get grants for his masters degree
zac 8:22 PM
i see
quilting queen 8:22 PM
you can get scholarships though
zac 8:22 PM
i hope so
23:09
i hope to not have to get into too much debt for my undergraduate degree
23:24
i'm hoping to be able to work at the mtc
quilting queen 8:23 PM
you should be able to get the fasfa for your undergraduate degree
24:08
fasfa
24:15
fafsa
24:17
lol
zac 8:24 PM
well, i filled out the fafsa aplication
quilting queen 8:24 PM
I'm having a brain fart
24:40
good
zac 8:24 PM
but for my age right now i am still technically dependant on you and dad
25:09
and since i am the only dependant, they wouldnt give any aid
25:42
i qualified for a loan for my first semester back, which i have to take to go to school
25:57
since byu doesnt offer scholarships to transfer students
26:12
so hopefully next semester i'll be able to try to get some scholarships
26:28
and maybe in a few years get government aid
quilting queen 8:26 PM
yeah
zac 8:27 PM
every p day my mind just thinks and thinks about school
27:03
it's crazy
quilting queen 8:27 PM
how are your investigators?
zac 8:27 PM
doing ok
quilting queen 8:28 PM
are you going to be able to have any baptisms before you go home?
zac 8:28 PM
well, i hope so
28:58
but you can't always predict some things..
29:07
we have 7 people that could be baptized before i go home
29:23
as long as they get their act together and just get baptized!
quilting queen 8:29 PM
that's cool
29:34
hopefully it will happen
zac 8:29 PM
we've got two people on date for my last saturday in malaysia
30:29
and maybe two for this week if the guy can get off work and come to church this sunday to be confirmed
quilting queen 8:30 PM
that's cool
zac 8:30 PM
and possibly 3 next week
30:54
but it's all just possibilities
quilting queen 8:31 PM
yeah
zac 8:31 PM
we'll try as hard as we can
quilting queen 8:31 PM
it's hot here
zac 8:31 PM
yeah?
quilting queen 8:31 PM
but relatively dry
31:51
it's a little humid
zac 8:31 PM
i imagine it is very dry
quilting queen 8:32 PM
there have been clouds and therewere thunder showers on the East side of town on Sunday night
zac 8:32 PM
woah
quilting queen 8:32 PM
it will feel dry to you though
32:46
lol
zac 8:33 PM
i hope my skin doesnt just all fall off
quilting queen 8:33 PM
there are clouds today and when I left work it was spitting a little
33:29
you can use lotion
zac 8:34 PM
yesterday we got poured on
34:07
for a few hours
quilting queen 8:34 PM
I wish we would
zac 8:34 PM
i dont think vegas could handle it
quilting queen 8:34 PM
Adrienne says she gets poured on a lot
34:53
I remember rain every afternoon and she says it stil does
35:20
I don't think we could either
35:32
there would be flooding everywhere
zac 8:35 PM
i remember riding my bike
36:00
and the whole way to school, the road was just a big river
quilting queen 8:36 PM
yeah
zac 8:36 PM
and it didnt even rain that much
36:37
so what's the temperature looking like?
quilting queen 8:36 PM
I remember going to Aunt Betty's one night and having the road be a big river
37:00
it was really stressful
37:19
today it's cooler
37:37
only 91 to 95 today
zac 8:37 PM
not too bad
quilting queen 8:37 PM
I'm sure it will get a lot warmere though
38:26
it was up to 110 last week
zac 8:38 PM
aw man
38:40
i'm heading into the furnace
quilting queen 8:38 PM
a cold front came through
38:53
lol
zac 8:38 PM
ah
quilting queen 8:39 PM
not like a cold front for Nyssa though
zac 8:39 PM
yeah haha
39:31
i'm so glad i didnt get
called to hoth
quilting queen 8:39 PM
she's not going to be able to handle the heat anymore
40:07
good thing she comes home in November
zac 8:40 PM
hot places are way better
40:26
i think i will die in utha
40:28
utah
quilting queen 8:41 PM
lol
41:17
you just have to dress warmer
zac 8:42 PM
i dont even own a coat
quilting queen 8:42 PM
you'll have to get one
42:52
Nyssa did
zac 8:42 PM
quilting queen 8:43 PM
you'll need to get one up there though
zac 8:43 PM
can you believe my two year mark was last week?
quilting queen 8:43 PM
yeah
43:53
we noted that
44:17
people at church are asking when you are coming home
zac 8:44 PM
haha
44:56
27 july
quilting queen 8:46 PM
that's what we told them
zac 8:46 PM
most of the people from my mtc group are flying straight to salt lake
46:16
from japan
quilting queen 8:46 PM
they live in Utah?
zac 8:46 PM
yeah there were only four out of 16 not from utah
quilting queen 8:46 PM
wow
zac 8:46 PM
one is wyoming, one is idaho, one ohio and then me
quilting queen 8:46 PM
why are they flying from Japan?
zac 8:47 PM
our flight from singapore takes us through japan
47:17
so we all fly together to japan
47:30
and then get on separate planes to cross the pacific
quilting queen 8:47 PM
and then you fly here
zac 8:47 PM
yep
quilting queen 8:48 PM
I'll bet the guys from Idaho and Wyoming had never heard of Singapore
zac 8:48 PM
probably not
48:36
haha
48:51
i think it's crazy that i never served once in singapore
quilting queen 8:49 PM
yeah
zac 8:49 PM
almost all my mission was in one malaysian state
49:16
sarawak!
49:29
and then 2.5 months in johor
49:34
but hey cool news
49:42
the branch in johor is splitting
quilting queen 8:49 PM
I guess that was where you were supposed to go
49:52
COOL!
51:02
how is the ward in Sarawak/
51:06
?
zac 8:51 PM
well, it's doing ok
51:20
a lot fo youth
quilting queen 8:51 PM
well... that's good
zac 8:51 PM
mostly teenage girls
quilting queen 8:52 PM
OHHHHHHHH
52:03
lol
zac 8:53 PM
so the future as of now is a little bleak
53:12
we need to get good young men
53:15
to be future leaders
53:23
and the husbands of these girls
quilting queen 8:53 PM
yeah
53:33
that's too bad
zac 8:53 PM
i dont know what that ohh was about, but rest assured i'm marrying an american
quilting queen 8:54 PM
that wasn't what I meant
zac 8:54 PM
sorry if i'm defensive
quilting queen 8:54 PM
that's ok
zac 8:54 PM
all the ibans here tell me to marry an iban
54:51
lol
quilting queen 8:54 PM
lol
zac 8:55 PM
bintulu is a good place tho
55:18
lots of freindly members
quilting queen 8:55 PM
the oh was more like I see
55:43
it 's too bad that it's so far away
56:23
you probably won't ever be able to go back unless you make a lot of money for the trip
56:56
That would be cool if we could visit with you
zac 8:58 PM
yeah that would be awesome
58:20
maybe someday if i get rich
quilting queen 8:58 PM
as long as I didn't see any big bugs or spiders
58:57
Adrienne has already had a run in with a big wolf spider
zac 8:59 PM
oh no
59:39
if you came here, you prbably wouldnt see anything
59:44
that happens when you live here
quilting queen 8:59 PM
that's one reason why I hated living there
00:29
lol
00:53
the bugs don't like tourists huh?
zac 9:01 PM
well, they are a little shy
01:07
maybe it's the white skin
quilting queen 9:01 PM
lol
zac 9:02 PM
i have no idea how much a plane ticket would cost to get here
quilting queen 9:02 PM
probably a lot
03:20
I should research it
zac 9:03 PM
i hear
04:13
that there is like an internship thing at byu
04:31
for return missionaries to go back to the country they served in
04:44
to teach people about how to get a job
quilting queen 9:05 PM
that's cool
zac 9:05 PM
the only thing is you have to pay for airfare
05:15
yourself
05:24
it would be cool, but i dont know if i could do it
quilting queen 9:05 PM
yeah
06:34
I need to get your room ready
06:53
take out the baby stuff
06:56
lol
zac 9:08 PM
there's baby stuff in my room?
quilting queen 9:09 PM
Nyssa made your desk up as a changing table and there are toys in there
09:29
she hung up a Noah's Ark wallhanging
zac 9:09 PM
well, i dont mind sleeping on the couch
quilting queen 9:09 PM
your bed is still there
09:59
and your stuffin the closet
zac 9:10 PM
i'll only be there a few weeks
10:23
so no need to move a lot of stuff around
quilting queen 9:10 PM
the bookcase with games was in yourv room but we took it out
11:02
I won't be moving much stuff
zac 9:11 PM
i still cant believe my mssion is almost over
11:33
it seems so soon
quilting queen 9:11 PM
yeah
11:55
it sure went fast
zac 9:12 PM
i feel a little nervous to continue with life
12:47
i feel really comfortable with missionary work now
quilting queen 9:13 PM
yeah
13:23
all missionaries feel like that
zac 9:14 PM
how do you guys feel now that all your kids are moved out?
quilting queen 9:14 PM
lonely
zac 9:14 PM
aww
quilting queen 9:15 PM
I'd rather have a few people around
zac 9:15 PM
yeah
15:34
but jake and nano still live close by
quilting queen 9:15 PM
they are busy and don't come over a lot
16:27
I do babysit Sara on Mondays and Fridays
16:38
it's pretty fun
zac 9:16 PM
that's good
16:47
how is she doing?
quilting queen 9:16 PM
she's doing great
17:04
she's so cute
17:18
I was going to send a pic
17:52
I took pics of the 3 girls in their July 4th dresses
18:07
they are all pretty cute
zac 9:18 PM
aww
quilting queen 9:18 PM
Sara looks like Nano and Izzy looks like Jake
18:36
lol
19:04
Izzy has HUGE blue eyes
zac 9:19 PM
lol
19:49
i wonder if they'll look different later
quilting queen 9:19 PM
maybe
zac 9:20 PM
i feel like kids look more like the dads early on
quilting queen 9:20 PM
kids change a lot
20:11
look at you?
20:13
lol
zac 9:20 PM
yeah nobdy thinks i look like either of you
quilting queen 9:21 PM
lol
21:06
you look like dad
zac 9:21 PM
do i?
21:39
i havent seen a picture of him when he was younger for a long time
quilting queen 9:21 PM
actually you look Reed
21:45
lol
22:07
not as much as Jake though
22:40
dad looks a lot like grandma Naida
zac 9:22 PM
well i didnt know reed was this handsome before
22:48
quilting queen 9:22 PM
LOL!!!!!
zac 9:23 PM
i wonder if girls in america will think im handsome
quilting queen 9:23 PM
so what are your plans for today?
24:11
Desiree sure did
zac 9:24 PM
did she huh?
24:47
haha
25:05
well, we'll see what she thinks after she's seen what malaysia has done to me
quilting queen 9:25 PM
yeah
25:08
lol
25:31
what has it done to you?
zac 9:26 PM
well malaysia is a rough place
26:11
it just thrashes things
26:23
like my face
quilting queen 9:26 PM
yeah
zac 9:26 PM
anyways, today hopefully we'll have two people interviewed for baptism
26:52
wee
quilting queen 9:27 PM
I thought today was P day
zac 9:27 PM
it is
quilting queen 9:28 PM
you interview people on P day?
zac 9:30 PM
we go out at night on pday
30:13
6:30
quilting queen 9:30 PM
oh
31:09
what are you doing before?
zac 9:32 PM
we are just relaxing today basically
32:09
buying groceries
32:12
emailing you guys
quilting queen 9:32 PM
lol
32:25
yeah
zac 9:32 PM
maybe next week we'll go explore some caves
quilting queen 9:32 PM
REALLY!
zac 9:32 PM
i'l get some pics
32:49
but mom i gotta go
32:52
i love you lots
32:58
talk to you next week
quilting queen 9:32 PM
love you too
33:01
ok
zac 9:33 PM
have a good week
quilting queen 9:33 PM
bye
zac 9:33 PM
bye
quilting queen 9:33 PM
you too
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
A Journey to the Jungle
hey mom.
it's cool that you got home safely. well, as for me, my week has been going ok. we've been having some problems with our investigators which are not yet resolved. so, i dont really wish to address it. makes me stressed out. needless to say, no baptisms this week. i'll let you know if any progress is made.
roy is still doing well. we're working with him to stop smoking. he said he won't be smoking any today, so we're hopeful. he also has been coming to church and is looking good with his progress.
we also rode forever away to visit a member who lives out in the jungle. he works in an oil palm plantation. we didnt know where he lived, so we just rode out in the direction it was and kept calling him trying to figure out where his place was. his response every time was "it's much further. so after our journey lasted 1.5 hrs, we figured we mustve gone too far. our phone didnt have any service at that point. was it stupid of us to keep going that far? yes. but.. it was an epic journey. a journey so epic, it depleted all the water in our bodies. luckily, we happened to pass a construction site out in the middle of no where, near to which there was a makeshift store that happened to sell water. so we sat in the shade and drank some water, completely soaked by our sweat and prettty tired (my bike is a piece of junk by the way) and miraculously the member we were trying to visit found us at the store. he said he was scared for us and went to look for us. when he saw the store he said he figured we were there getting water, so he came and found us. he was able to show us where he lived, which was another 40 minute bike ride in the opposite direction. we met with his daughter who is around 20 y/o or so and somehow never got baptized because her heart wasnt "open" yet. when we went there, she was really good and also came to church, so hopefully we can unify that family. the day was so hot that my skin got burned pretty bad. and then on the way home, it started to rain so we got soaked. pretty crazy day, but things seemed to go ok.
well, that's all i have to say about my week. hopefully next week goes better. we'll see. anyways, take care. have fun. talk to you next week.
love,
zac
it's cool that you got home safely. well, as for me, my week has been going ok. we've been having some problems with our investigators which are not yet resolved. so, i dont really wish to address it. makes me stressed out. needless to say, no baptisms this week. i'll let you know if any progress is made.
roy is still doing well. we're working with him to stop smoking. he said he won't be smoking any today, so we're hopeful. he also has been coming to church and is looking good with his progress.
we also rode forever away to visit a member who lives out in the jungle. he works in an oil palm plantation. we didnt know where he lived, so we just rode out in the direction it was and kept calling him trying to figure out where his place was. his response every time was "it's much further. so after our journey lasted 1.5 hrs, we figured we mustve gone too far. our phone didnt have any service at that point. was it stupid of us to keep going that far? yes. but.. it was an epic journey. a journey so epic, it depleted all the water in our bodies. luckily, we happened to pass a construction site out in the middle of no where, near to which there was a makeshift store that happened to sell water. so we sat in the shade and drank some water, completely soaked by our sweat and prettty tired (my bike is a piece of junk by the way) and miraculously the member we were trying to visit found us at the store. he said he was scared for us and went to look for us. when he saw the store he said he figured we were there getting water, so he came and found us. he was able to show us where he lived, which was another 40 minute bike ride in the opposite direction. we met with his daughter who is around 20 y/o or so and somehow never got baptized because her heart wasnt "open" yet. when we went there, she was really good and also came to church, so hopefully we can unify that family. the day was so hot that my skin got burned pretty bad. and then on the way home, it started to rain so we got soaked. pretty crazy day, but things seemed to go ok.
well, that's all i have to say about my week. hopefully next week goes better. we'll see. anyways, take care. have fun. talk to you next week.
love,
zac
Sunday, June 12, 2011
it's official
June 13, 2011
Dear Parents,
Your missionary will be released from his mission on Wednesday, July 27th. The Church travel office has made flight arrangements for your missionary to travel home on this date. Please review the itinerary shown below and make sure the name of your missionary is spelled correctly and that we are flying your missionary into the airport that is closest to your home. If you have any questions about this itinerary or would like us to make any changes, please contact us at the mission office at xxx-xxx-xxxx or call the Church travel office at xxx-xxx-xxxx .
Flight number and times may change by the time your missionary travels. A current view of your missionary’s flight plans is available on the website: www.checkmytrip.com . The website will ask for the reservation number which is located on this itinerary on the line above the flight information and below the missionary’s name. It is also recommended that you contact the airlines the day of travel to find out if any changes have occurred on the flights your missionary is scheduled to be on.
We appreciate you taking the time to review this itinerary and letting us know immediately of any changes we need to make.
Sincerely,
Sister Garrett
Singapore Mission Secretary
Dear Parents,
Your missionary will be released from his mission on Wednesday, July 27th. The Church travel office has made flight arrangements for your missionary to travel home on this date. Please review the itinerary shown below and make sure the name of your missionary is spelled correctly and that we are flying your missionary into the airport that is closest to your home. If you have any questions about this itinerary or would like us to make any changes, please contact us at the mission office at xxx-xxx-xxxx or call the Church travel office at xxx-xxx-xxxx .
Flight number and times may change by the time your missionary travels. A current view of your missionary’s flight plans is available on the website: www.checkmytrip.com . The website will ask for the reservation number which is located on this itinerary on the line above the flight information and below the missionary’s name. It is also recommended that you contact the airlines the day of travel to find out if any changes have occurred on the flights your missionary is scheduled to be on.
We appreciate you taking the time to review this itinerary and letting us know immediately of any changes we need to make.
Sincerely,
Sister Garrett
Singapore Mission Secretary
Thursday, June 2, 2011
pix, again!
hey mom.
i just sent dad a bunch of pictures. right now i'm sitting next to the coolest member in sungai plan, wong. he wants to know if you eaten already? what's the news? well, since pictures are like a 1000 words, i hope what i sent to dad is enough for the week, because i spent too much time looking at pictures and now everyone else in my zone is leaving me, so i gotta go. i'm sorry :'(. anyways, gota run. the week was fun. ate a ton because of gawai, but didnt have any investigators at church because everyone went back to kampung. take care mom. love you and dad. talk to you next week!!!
love, elder hill
1. the pic of rabong's family when we made them enchiladas.
2. me and the neighborhood goat
3. me and my iban girlfriend. selamat hari gawai!
4. my plate after dinner at rabong's house
5. all of us at dinner
6. me making tortillas
7. more tortillas
1. me and a member with fish strip mustaches
2. me cooking the enchilidas
3. cheese!
4. more enchiladas
5. rabong's cute little girl. all iban kids sleep in those funny hangy things
6. me and the coolest dude ever, wong. and of course the lady we call "mak"
7. me and mak again along with another lady that i dont know, because she's from the other branch. but we ate at her house anyway because it was gawai! yay
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
hey
holy moley i can't believe richard is home already. congrats richard.
i guess i'll try to shoot him off an email and see how.
anyways, my week has been going well. i've got a good amount of pictures to send even, but the elder in our zone that has the memory card reader is in another part of bintulu today, so we didnt get to meet up with him. woops. i guess there's always next week. we got some good pictures from making dinner for some of our investigators. we made enchiladas. pretty delicious too. our investigators seemed to have fun, and we even had a pretty good turn out at church, even with the rain. well, the members didnt show up really, but our investigators did. i'm pretty sure i've told you about the people we're working with already. rabong's family and jeffery's family. they are both doing well, and hopefully next month can be baptized. unfortunately, next week is a holiday called gawai, the iban harvest festival, so everyone pretty much is going back to kampung, or their home town basically, which is pretty tough for missionary work. we'll see how it goes. but the work keeps going.
i dont know, i dont really have much else to say. life is good and going well. anyways, love you guys. talk to you next week.
love, zac
- Show quoted text -
i guess i'll try to shoot him off an email and see how.
anyways, my week has been going well. i've got a good amount of pictures to send even, but the elder in our zone that has the memory card reader is in another part of bintulu today, so we didnt get to meet up with him. woops. i guess there's always next week. we got some good pictures from making dinner for some of our investigators. we made enchiladas. pretty delicious too. our investigators seemed to have fun, and we even had a pretty good turn out at church, even with the rain. well, the members didnt show up really, but our investigators did. i'm pretty sure i've told you about the people we're working with already. rabong's family and jeffery's family. they are both doing well, and hopefully next month can be baptized. unfortunately, next week is a holiday called gawai, the iban harvest festival, so everyone pretty much is going back to kampung, or their home town basically, which is pretty tough for missionary work. we'll see how it goes. but the work keeps going.
i dont know, i dont really have much else to say. life is good and going well. anyways, love you guys. talk to you next week.
love, zac
- Show quoted text -
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
love you
hey mom. yeah i got pictures of sara. pretty crazy how much she looks like nate. poor thing. hopefully she grows out of it. heehee. anyways, hopefully everything keeps going well. i'm glad you guys are having a cold front. i hope it lasts until i get home. not to be trunky or anything. speaking of the word trunky, i never heard it before the mission, but now that i'm out, it seems everyone else has heard it. dad used it in an email to me. maybe i was sleeping under a rock. anyways...
the area is doing really well,. i'm so pumped for missionary work. we just had an awesome zone conference in miri. that was fun. got to see the town a bit. this last sunday, we had rabong and lenny, kenny and jenny come to church. (i sent some pics to dad) they seemed to enjoy it and they seem really good as investigators. they invited us over for dinner tonight and we are cooking for them on saturday. rabong also volunteered to help me teach a dance for the branch party in june. pretty sweet. we have lots of fun when we go over there, and it's seems like they are making good progress. hopefully we'll put them on date for baptism tonight and maybe next month they will be baptized.
we found another family through referral. the man is named jeffery. i think i talked about him last time. they didnt come to church this sunday because they were visiting a relative in the hospital, but they seem way good. the man really wants his family to learn about the churhc, and he told us this sunday he will definitely bring his family to church.
on monday we went around looking for some less actives with the senior couple. that was pretty fun. hopefully we will get some new investigators out of it and bring some less actives back too. that's where the album came from that i forwarded to you guys, entitled 'teaching in hock peng.'
we've got a few other straggling investigators here and there. i'll tell you more about them when they progress more. i'm having a blast here in bintulu, even tho it's pretty darn hot all the time. the people here are awesome. the food is delicious. and we're teaching a lot of people about jesus christ, so that's enough for me. anyways, i think i'm gonna make a move. talk to you guys later. have a good week.
love, zac
1. former kuching zone members, reunited again at miri zone conference!
2. me and my mtc companion, finishing our missions together in the bintulu zone
3. more of my family tree. elder jefferies my uncle, elder mccormies my brother, elder ang my nephew, and me. now all of us except mccormies live in the same house in bintulu
4. the former johor elders. we were hard core.
5. me in kuching back in the day admiring a well cared for orchard
6. a really cute girl from the branch and her mom
1. we found a cotton candy stand! wee!
2. i guess as part of the process of purifying palm oil, they have to have the huge smoke stacks with even bigger flames shooting out of the top.
3. the fire lights up the night sky!
4. the miri chapel
5. me working hard during language study, courtesy of elder ang
6. us celebrating the departure of one of the branch's youth for malaysia's national service. don't worry, she'll be back in 3 months
7. ritchie (a recent convert of the previous elders) and rabong and kenny, his sons in law. we finally got them to come to church last week!
Friday, May 13, 2011
more pix
1. me thomas and peterson in from of the "more singapore city" section
2. across one of those sound bowl thingies. we intercepted a conversation between two chinese women, and the reception was crystal clear!
3. me and the plaque for america
4. andrew's baptism my first week in bintulu! he's a stud, and the guy baptizing him, wong, is also a stud.
5. who said you couldn't build the roof first?
6. those poor cats have no idea what they're in for. life in malaysia is rough.
mor pics
1. me cutting my own birthday cake (courtesy of a woman we just call "mom")
2. my impressive story telling skills captivates my audience
3. so much pizza, only one short lunch hour (my birthday lunch)
4. "Excuse me, miss. There seems to be a mistake. I believe I ordered the 'large'. Hello!"
5. the beautiful ocean of bintulu. i've never lived so close to the ocean in me life!
6. the murky pond filled with giant catfish in our back yard. maybe someday we'll feast..
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
à la recherche du temps skypé
hey dad this is zac
i should be skyping you guys around 6pm on mother's day your time. give or take some time. not exactly sure on the schedule. if for some reason i never skype you and you still want to get ahold of me, you could shoot an email or try calling at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. if i typed in the international codes wrong, i apologize. the actual number is xxxxxxxxxx, and you can figure out the internation codes from there., take care, have fun at work and talk to you on sunday.
love, zac
hey mom. thanks so much for the easter package. it was awesome. although.. unfortunately it didnt last me very long. i am still just as big of a candy fiend as i was when i left. but yeah, can you beliebe i'm 21? how fast time flies. thanks for the birthday wishes and money. you're the best mom.
anyways, bintulu is pretty sweet. i love being in sarawak so much. it's pretty crazy because everyone here is iban. i guess it took a 2 month stint in west malaysia to help me appreciate the east. we've been having fun this week just trying to meet the members and get some new investigators. the area was pretty rough when i got there. they had had a good amount of success before i came, but they kind of rode the wave of success until there was nothing left, and that's kind of the point we were at on my first day. but things are looking up quite a bit after the first week. we have some good new investigators. the area is all just kampung houses, or basically old rotting wooden houses. the roads are mud and rock soup, which makes travel interesting. the area has had missionaries living close by, so it seems like there are a lot of people who are kind of closed off, but we've been finding some good new people too. i'm having so much fun. this is exactly what i loved about sarawak. i feel like at this point of my mission, my ability to communicate has never been better, so i'm having lots of fun joking around and getting to know the members and investigators. the only thing i feels sad about is only having 3 more months to be in such an awesome area. people seem to like me for the most part. one of my favorite things about ibans is how ridiculously easy it is to make them laugh.
so for investigators, there is a dude named rabong, his wife, the wife's sister, and the wife's sister's husband. so two couples living in one house. they seem pretty good. the women's parents are baptized already, so it makes things easy. last lesson, we talked to them about their beliefs and got to know them. they seem pretty open and accepting of what we taught.
there is another house with two more couples that have member relatives. they live pretty far, so they've had lots of excuses not to come to church, but we're working with them still. the desire seems to be there, we just need to work to build it into action and progression.
there's also this family that we met. there's a 27 year old dude named loui. he's nice enough and seems good, but we learned last night, he is a little crazy. he told us about how he has healing powers and spirits enter his body to help people and all kinds of strange stuff. his brother is really good. wants to learn, promised to go to church, has been keeping commitments and genuinely wants to join.. but he's going back to kampung in a few weeks, to a place where the church has not gone yet. so we're going to load him up on church materials and lessons, and hope and pray the day will come when he can join the church. we're just hoping that if we get loui coming to church, we can sort out all of this "spirit" business.
there's a recent convert, andrew, whose baptism i was here for. andrew's family has not yet taken an interest. we committed a cousin to go to church, and we're still hoping to be able to spark interest in his mom and siblings.
on top of that, nothing much else. trying to get referrals from the members, so hopefuly that goes well. the members here are way cool. there's some in a different branch even that are making me food for my birthday. i'm excited. next week we'll be going to miri for a zone conference, so that should be way awesome. i've never served there, just visited, and i love it. maybe sometime in the future for a pday we'll be able to go to a place called niah caves. you should look it up on wikipedia. it's a cool place. hopefully i'll make it before i go home.
so.. i believe i have skype confirmed with the senior couple here. i believe i should be able to skype you around 6pm your time on mother's day. it will be 9am my time on monday. if i calculated the time difference wrong, i apologize. i'm excited to talk to you guys. anyways, that's all i have for the week. i love it here in bintulu. so much fun. talk to you on mother's day!
love, zac
i should be skyping you guys around 6pm on mother's day your time. give or take some time. not exactly sure on the schedule. if for some reason i never skype you and you still want to get ahold of me, you could shoot an email or try calling at xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx. if i typed in the international codes wrong, i apologize. the actual number is xxxxxxxxxx, and you can figure out the internation codes from there., take care, have fun at work and talk to you on sunday.
love, zac
hey mom. thanks so much for the easter package. it was awesome. although.. unfortunately it didnt last me very long. i am still just as big of a candy fiend as i was when i left. but yeah, can you beliebe i'm 21? how fast time flies. thanks for the birthday wishes and money. you're the best mom.
anyways, bintulu is pretty sweet. i love being in sarawak so much. it's pretty crazy because everyone here is iban. i guess it took a 2 month stint in west malaysia to help me appreciate the east. we've been having fun this week just trying to meet the members and get some new investigators. the area was pretty rough when i got there. they had had a good amount of success before i came, but they kind of rode the wave of success until there was nothing left, and that's kind of the point we were at on my first day. but things are looking up quite a bit after the first week. we have some good new investigators. the area is all just kampung houses, or basically old rotting wooden houses. the roads are mud and rock soup, which makes travel interesting. the area has had missionaries living close by, so it seems like there are a lot of people who are kind of closed off, but we've been finding some good new people too. i'm having so much fun. this is exactly what i loved about sarawak. i feel like at this point of my mission, my ability to communicate has never been better, so i'm having lots of fun joking around and getting to know the members and investigators. the only thing i feels sad about is only having 3 more months to be in such an awesome area. people seem to like me for the most part. one of my favorite things about ibans is how ridiculously easy it is to make them laugh.
so for investigators, there is a dude named rabong, his wife, the wife's sister, and the wife's sister's husband. so two couples living in one house. they seem pretty good. the women's parents are baptized already, so it makes things easy. last lesson, we talked to them about their beliefs and got to know them. they seem pretty open and accepting of what we taught.
there is another house with two more couples that have member relatives. they live pretty far, so they've had lots of excuses not to come to church, but we're working with them still. the desire seems to be there, we just need to work to build it into action and progression.
there's also this family that we met. there's a 27 year old dude named loui. he's nice enough and seems good, but we learned last night, he is a little crazy. he told us about how he has healing powers and spirits enter his body to help people and all kinds of strange stuff. his brother is really good. wants to learn, promised to go to church, has been keeping commitments and genuinely wants to join.. but he's going back to kampung in a few weeks, to a place where the church has not gone yet. so we're going to load him up on church materials and lessons, and hope and pray the day will come when he can join the church. we're just hoping that if we get loui coming to church, we can sort out all of this "spirit" business.
there's a recent convert, andrew, whose baptism i was here for. andrew's family has not yet taken an interest. we committed a cousin to go to church, and we're still hoping to be able to spark interest in his mom and siblings.
on top of that, nothing much else. trying to get referrals from the members, so hopefuly that goes well. the members here are way cool. there's some in a different branch even that are making me food for my birthday. i'm excited. next week we'll be going to miri for a zone conference, so that should be way awesome. i've never served there, just visited, and i love it. maybe sometime in the future for a pday we'll be able to go to a place called niah caves. you should look it up on wikipedia. it's a cool place. hopefully i'll make it before i go home.
so.. i believe i have skype confirmed with the senior couple here. i believe i should be able to skype you around 6pm your time on mother's day. it will be 9am my time on monday. if i calculated the time difference wrong, i apologize. i'm excited to talk to you guys. anyways, that's all i have for the week. i love it here in bintulu. so much fun. talk to you on mother's day!
love, zac
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
back to borneo
hey dad. thanks so much for the help, and thanks for the info. anyways, like i told mom, i have some news. i got transferred. pretty crazy, huh? i was only in johor for 2.5 months. so short. how long was your shortest area? longest? well, now i'm back in sarawak where i belong, in a city called bintulu. it's a pretty tiny place. pretty junky by most poeple's standards, but i think it's heaven. i love it here, and i love the people. we met some investigators yesterday. one is a 22 year old dude who's getting baptized this week. he's really solid. he was just bearing his testimony to his family who have been reluctant to learn. we just had some fun together. and then as we were leaving, the floor caved in a bit. woops. i guess it was our fault for bringing 4 white people. white people are pretty heavy. so we'll go back tomorrow or so to help then fix it. my companion is from the same mtc group as my last companion, so he's pretty new, but he's a cool kid. i like him a lot. i think we're going to have fun together. he seems like a hard worker, so hopefully we can get a lot accomplished in the next few months. it's crazy. in bintulu there are 5 elders from my same mtc group. it was like an mtc reunion when i got here. pretty sweet. i'm excited to be in this zone.
also like i told mom, since i changed areas and senior couples, i'm not sure if my current senior couple has skype or what, so i'll talk to them this week and get back to you next week to see how we'll be able to communicate for mother's day. the senior couple here seem really nice, so that's another cool thing about bintulu. anyways, that's all i have for now. thanks again for all the help. talk to you next week dad.
love, zac
hey mom.
things are going great. anyways, so on saturday, the mission president told us that all the johor elders had to come in on sunday for a meeting with the church history representatives. right after church we left. while i was in the office, i was able to get the package and card you sent. right on easter too. it was a miracle. the meeting with the church history dudes was pretty cool. there was a big fireside where everyone could ask any questions they had about church history. so the crazy part about the trip is that right before, i found out i was getting transferred. i had a night to pack, and then i left. i spent a few days hanging out in singapore with my friend, elder thomas, who was serving there. we met up with a member who is from las vegas and works in singapore. when we got to the place, i recognized him, and later found out he is the son of bishop larsen from meadows 3rd ward. pretty crazy huh? small world. anyways, he took us up to the top of the place where he works, which is really tall. we got some pics. from up there, you could see malaysia and indonesia. so that was fun. on tuesday i finally got on the plane and went to my new area, bintulu. i'm back in sarawak! i just got here yesterday, so i havent done much. but i'm way excited to be here. i'm surrounded by ibans, and i love it. the people i've met so far are awesome. it should be a fun 3 more months.
anyways, about skype. since i just got transferred, i dont know if i'll be able to skype anymore. i'll have to talk with the senior couple, and i'll get back to you next week. in the mean time, could you please send me times when you would be available to talk to me? then next week after i figure things out, i'll be able to look at my own schedule, make a decision and let you know what is going on. it may be possible to talk over gmail as well, so i guess you can consider that too. i'll make sure with the senior couple.
but yeah, bintulu is awesome. i feel like i'm back home, and i'm excited for the future. we are going to be busy. anyways, i gotta run. talk to you more next week mom. good luck.
love, zac
also like i told mom, since i changed areas and senior couples, i'm not sure if my current senior couple has skype or what, so i'll talk to them this week and get back to you next week to see how we'll be able to communicate for mother's day. the senior couple here seem really nice, so that's another cool thing about bintulu. anyways, that's all i have for now. thanks again for all the help. talk to you next week dad.
love, zac
hey mom.
things are going great. anyways, so on saturday, the mission president told us that all the johor elders had to come in on sunday for a meeting with the church history representatives. right after church we left. while i was in the office, i was able to get the package and card you sent. right on easter too. it was a miracle. the meeting with the church history dudes was pretty cool. there was a big fireside where everyone could ask any questions they had about church history. so the crazy part about the trip is that right before, i found out i was getting transferred. i had a night to pack, and then i left. i spent a few days hanging out in singapore with my friend, elder thomas, who was serving there. we met up with a member who is from las vegas and works in singapore. when we got to the place, i recognized him, and later found out he is the son of bishop larsen from meadows 3rd ward. pretty crazy huh? small world. anyways, he took us up to the top of the place where he works, which is really tall. we got some pics. from up there, you could see malaysia and indonesia. so that was fun. on tuesday i finally got on the plane and went to my new area, bintulu. i'm back in sarawak! i just got here yesterday, so i havent done much. but i'm way excited to be here. i'm surrounded by ibans, and i love it. the people i've met so far are awesome. it should be a fun 3 more months.
anyways, about skype. since i just got transferred, i dont know if i'll be able to skype anymore. i'll have to talk with the senior couple, and i'll get back to you next week. in the mean time, could you please send me times when you would be available to talk to me? then next week after i figure things out, i'll be able to look at my own schedule, make a decision and let you know what is going on. it may be possible to talk over gmail as well, so i guess you can consider that too. i'll make sure with the senior couple.
but yeah, bintulu is awesome. i feel like i'm back home, and i'm excited for the future. we are going to be busy. anyways, i gotta run. talk to you more next week mom. good luck.
love, zac
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
not much by the way of news
hey mom
thanks for sharing that story with me. it's pretty cool what can be done with faith and the priesthood. hopefully it will be able to help that family to become happier and accept the gospel.
i'm also pretty excited to see elder bednar. this will be the second apostle we've had since i've been here. what an opportunity. also, a man in the asia area presidency came a few months ago to visit the missionaries here, elder carl pratt, and he spoke in conference. it's pretty crazy to see people you've met speaking in conference. makes me appreciate it a little more.
so we finally got to watch conference here last week. it was good. unfortunately the turn out here was pretty small. the new members don't realize what an opportunity it is to listen to the prophet. but we had an investigating family come. it was pretty cool. amin and lisa, the one guy on the moto who contacted us. he's doing well and they still seem excited about the gospel. with amin's work, he can only come to church every other work, but he seems to be doing the best he can. we're excited for him. hopefully sometime in may he can be baptized.
the area here is doing ok. we've still got some people who have good potential but arent really progressing, so that's a little frustrating. we've been doing some contacting lately and meeting lots of new people. it's fun. not much by the way of news. anyways, i gotta run. talk to you next week mom.
love, zac
ps, as far as i know now, i'll skype you on mother's day your time. not sure the exact time, but i'll confirm next week.
thanks for sharing that story with me. it's pretty cool what can be done with faith and the priesthood. hopefully it will be able to help that family to become happier and accept the gospel.
i'm also pretty excited to see elder bednar. this will be the second apostle we've had since i've been here. what an opportunity. also, a man in the asia area presidency came a few months ago to visit the missionaries here, elder carl pratt, and he spoke in conference. it's pretty crazy to see people you've met speaking in conference. makes me appreciate it a little more.
so we finally got to watch conference here last week. it was good. unfortunately the turn out here was pretty small. the new members don't realize what an opportunity it is to listen to the prophet. but we had an investigating family come. it was pretty cool. amin and lisa, the one guy on the moto who contacted us. he's doing well and they still seem excited about the gospel. with amin's work, he can only come to church every other work, but he seems to be doing the best he can. we're excited for him. hopefully sometime in may he can be baptized.
the area here is doing ok. we've still got some people who have good potential but arent really progressing, so that's a little frustrating. we've been doing some contacting lately and meeting lots of new people. it's fun. not much by the way of news. anyways, i gotta run. talk to you next week mom.
love, zac
ps, as far as i know now, i'll skype you on mother's day your time. not sure the exact time, but i'll confirm next week.
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Elder Bednar is coming to Kuala Lampur
hey dad
thanks so much for helping me out with housing and the fafsa application. you are the best!
it's good to hear that things are going well over there. family getting together and all of that. pretty jealous. how is school going? any naughty students? any plans for labor day? i cant believe how fast the summer is coming.
so we have some pretty sweet news here. well, firstly elder bednar is coming to kuala lumpur, and my mission president has arranged for all the elders in west malaysia to go see him. he'll give a training and we'll be able to meet him and have dinner with him. that will happen 23 may, so all of us missionaries in west malaysia are pretty excited about that. can't wait.
also, on chrsitmas, our mission president gave the elders the option of using skype to talk to their families back home, and i believe it will be available for mother's day as well. anyways, the senior couple has offered to let us use their computer to access skype to talk to you guys if that were possible for you guys. i really don't understand much about how skype works, but if you do and would like to use that to talk to me on mother's day, can. if not, the old fashioned phone call will do.
so we just back yesterday from being in kuala lumpur for a missionary leadership training. i got to go since i am a trainer. that was pretty fun to spend the day with the mission president and some other missionaries. i also got to see that one missionary i'll be rooming with which was pretty sweet. we all had fun together, and got to go check out a little bit of kl before going back. we've been trying to get to know the members in the new area we just picked up, so that's been fun. members are the best. hopefully we'll get some referrals coming in. our chinese family that we've been working with said they will be coming to church on sunday, so we're excited. they seem pretty prepared. everyone in jb is still really busy and lots of the time work on sunday, so it's been a bit of a struggle to meet with people, but we're still going. after a meeting with the mission president you always feel more pumped to go out there and get work done, so this week should be good. i feel pretty pumped.
we're also hoping that our iban guy can get work off this sunday for church. his boss got pretty mad at him. he also had been having money problems since his brother lost his job, but is living with them. so we had a good lesson on how the lord will provide for us as we follow the commandments. we committed him to pray. so we met with him again a few days later, and he had a pretty cool experience about how he was really stressed, he had been praying and just felt better. and then he had some ideas pop into his head and he talked about how he was able to fix his financial problem. he didnt really tell us what the problem is. when it comes to finances it seems people get pretty embarrassed to be having problems, and as a missionary i dont want to dig too deeply into it. but what was cool is the experience seemed to add to his testimony. so he seems to be doing really well.
anyways, thanks again dad for all the help you've given me and for the support. thanks for the emails. i appreciate all you do for me. i gotta run so i'll talk to you next week. until then, take care.
love, zac
hey mom
yeah our investigators are doing all right. still a struggle to meet people. we had some training about being more effective at following up with people, so hopefullyy this week we'll be able to follow up more effectively and be able to help our investigators progress more. the cool part about a mission is that you never stop learning.
but yeah, its pretty cool that i'll be rooming with some elders from my mission. they're pretty cool and i'm excited. we've been friends from the mtc. haha. anyways, yeah i also think itd be pretty cool to teach at the mtc. i feel like it be a good job for while i'm in school, but i'll have to wait to see when i get back. i can't believe i'm signing up for school and all this. it like forces me to think about going home, but i dont want to think about it. time is going by way too fast. i'll be really sad to leave malaysia. it's so far, i dont know when i'll be able to come back. sad. but i just gotta enjoy the time i have here. johor bahru is a lot different from sarawak, but i've been enjoying it. we've got some really cool memebers and ive been making some good friends. i love spending time with these people. i wrote most of my news i nthe letter to dad, so hopefully you can get most of it from there.
sorry it's so short. that's for emailing and thanks for thinking about me. i love you mom. talk to you next week.
thanks so much for helping me out with housing and the fafsa application. you are the best!
it's good to hear that things are going well over there. family getting together and all of that. pretty jealous. how is school going? any naughty students? any plans for labor day? i cant believe how fast the summer is coming.
so we have some pretty sweet news here. well, firstly elder bednar is coming to kuala lumpur, and my mission president has arranged for all the elders in west malaysia to go see him. he'll give a training and we'll be able to meet him and have dinner with him. that will happen 23 may, so all of us missionaries in west malaysia are pretty excited about that. can't wait.
also, on chrsitmas, our mission president gave the elders the option of using skype to talk to their families back home, and i believe it will be available for mother's day as well. anyways, the senior couple has offered to let us use their computer to access skype to talk to you guys if that were possible for you guys. i really don't understand much about how skype works, but if you do and would like to use that to talk to me on mother's day, can. if not, the old fashioned phone call will do.
so we just back yesterday from being in kuala lumpur for a missionary leadership training. i got to go since i am a trainer. that was pretty fun to spend the day with the mission president and some other missionaries. i also got to see that one missionary i'll be rooming with which was pretty sweet. we all had fun together, and got to go check out a little bit of kl before going back. we've been trying to get to know the members in the new area we just picked up, so that's been fun. members are the best. hopefully we'll get some referrals coming in. our chinese family that we've been working with said they will be coming to church on sunday, so we're excited. they seem pretty prepared. everyone in jb is still really busy and lots of the time work on sunday, so it's been a bit of a struggle to meet with people, but we're still going. after a meeting with the mission president you always feel more pumped to go out there and get work done, so this week should be good. i feel pretty pumped.
we're also hoping that our iban guy can get work off this sunday for church. his boss got pretty mad at him. he also had been having money problems since his brother lost his job, but is living with them. so we had a good lesson on how the lord will provide for us as we follow the commandments. we committed him to pray. so we met with him again a few days later, and he had a pretty cool experience about how he was really stressed, he had been praying and just felt better. and then he had some ideas pop into his head and he talked about how he was able to fix his financial problem. he didnt really tell us what the problem is. when it comes to finances it seems people get pretty embarrassed to be having problems, and as a missionary i dont want to dig too deeply into it. but what was cool is the experience seemed to add to his testimony. so he seems to be doing really well.
anyways, thanks again dad for all the help you've given me and for the support. thanks for the emails. i appreciate all you do for me. i gotta run so i'll talk to you next week. until then, take care.
love, zac
hey mom
yeah our investigators are doing all right. still a struggle to meet people. we had some training about being more effective at following up with people, so hopefullyy this week we'll be able to follow up more effectively and be able to help our investigators progress more. the cool part about a mission is that you never stop learning.
but yeah, its pretty cool that i'll be rooming with some elders from my mission. they're pretty cool and i'm excited. we've been friends from the mtc. haha. anyways, yeah i also think itd be pretty cool to teach at the mtc. i feel like it be a good job for while i'm in school, but i'll have to wait to see when i get back. i can't believe i'm signing up for school and all this. it like forces me to think about going home, but i dont want to think about it. time is going by way too fast. i'll be really sad to leave malaysia. it's so far, i dont know when i'll be able to come back. sad. but i just gotta enjoy the time i have here. johor bahru is a lot different from sarawak, but i've been enjoying it. we've got some really cool memebers and ive been making some good friends. i love spending time with these people. i wrote most of my news i nthe letter to dad, so hopefully you can get most of it from there.
sorry it's so short. that's for emailing and thanks for thinking about me. i love you mom. talk to you next week.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
so our area just doubled in size
hey mom.
sorry i dont have much time. i have been way busy trying to get things figured out about school. it gives me a headache, but hopefully this fall i'll be attending byu.
anyways, since we are so far away and in such a different time zone, we wont be watching conference for at least another two weeks.
things here have been going pretty crazy. when i got transferred to johor, my comp and i were the third companionship. we were put there in anticipation of a branch split. the split is looking more distant, and so a companionship is being taken out of johor. my comp and i are staying in johor, but we're taking the area of the elders who are leaving. so our area just doubled in size and we are inheriting their investigators. it's pretty crazy, and i hope everything goes well. we'll continue to work hard.
we're still struggling with getting our people to progress even more. everyone that we had is doing about the same as last week. we'll meet amin and lisa tomorrow in hopes that we'll be able to get things worked out with his work schedule and get him to church regularly. our chinese family is doing well, and we've recently been picking up some chinese investigators here and there, which is cool. besides that, not much is going on in the area so far. next week i'll be going to kuala lumpur for some training. that should be pretty fun.
anyways, that's all for me. hope you have a good week mom. talk to you next week.
love, zac
sorry i dont have much time. i have been way busy trying to get things figured out about school. it gives me a headache, but hopefully this fall i'll be attending byu.
anyways, since we are so far away and in such a different time zone, we wont be watching conference for at least another two weeks.
things here have been going pretty crazy. when i got transferred to johor, my comp and i were the third companionship. we were put there in anticipation of a branch split. the split is looking more distant, and so a companionship is being taken out of johor. my comp and i are staying in johor, but we're taking the area of the elders who are leaving. so our area just doubled in size and we are inheriting their investigators. it's pretty crazy, and i hope everything goes well. we'll continue to work hard.
we're still struggling with getting our people to progress even more. everyone that we had is doing about the same as last week. we'll meet amin and lisa tomorrow in hopes that we'll be able to get things worked out with his work schedule and get him to church regularly. our chinese family is doing well, and we've recently been picking up some chinese investigators here and there, which is cool. besides that, not much is going on in the area so far. next week i'll be going to kuala lumpur for some training. that should be pretty fun.
anyways, that's all for me. hope you have a good week mom. talk to you next week.
love, zac
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
so it seems like this family is really prepared
hey dad.
well thanks for the advice. i'm sure things will all work out.
so anything good happen this week? any news? my week has been pretty good so far. we met with amin's brother. he hasn't really been christian before, and he doesn't know anything about christianity. so we were teaching him about god and jesus christ and helping him to understand why it is important to believe in them. he seems pretty good, especially since amin is such good support for him. so we're really hopeful that all of them will be at chruch this sunday. as we were about to leave after our appointment, amin's brother said he still doesnt understand much about christianity, but he asked us to come over more frequently because he feels frequent visits will help him to understand. after so many people dropping us lately, it is really nice to hear.
we also had some pretty cool contacting experiences. we were waiting for the bus for like an hour. part way through the wait, a lady came and sat down next to me with her kids. she had three kids that she was watching all on her own, and lots of groceries. i heard her speaking iban to her kids, so i started talking to her. she was going to the same place we were heading to, so we helped her with her groceries and kids on the bus, and also helped her to get to her house. so was really grateful, and invited us back. hopefully we'll be able to meet her and her husband tonight.
right after we met that lady, we went to go to an appointment, but we accidentally waited in the wrong spot for like 40 mintutes. while we were waiting, this chinese guy came out and started to talk with us a little bit. he said he wasn't christian yet, but his wife was. we had a pretty good conversation and set up an appointment with him. we met him yesterday, and his family is awesome. what we didnt know the first day, is that this family didn't like the church they were currently attending because they had people speaking in tongues, and it made them feel uncomfortable. the wife said she had been looking for the true chruch for a while. so we taught them about baptism and the apostasy. the lady seemed to really accept the message. she said she was glad that we came to answer her question. so hopefully later this week we'll be able to meet them again. they seemed pretty excited to try church as well. hopefully they come and have a good experience. so after the lesson, they fed us and then gave us a ride home as well. right before we got out of the car, they told us they had seen last week on our bicycles, and the wife said she felt like we were messagers from god. so it seems like this family is really prepared to hear the gospel. the branch leadership is all chinese, so i think they'll be excited that we found a chinese family. we'll see how it goes next week.
anyways, i can't really think of anything else that happened. things are going well, and we're excited for our area. also, i don't know if i told you, but my release date from the mission is july 27th. anyways, gotta run. talk to you guys later. have a good week.
love, zac
well thanks for the advice. i'm sure things will all work out.
so anything good happen this week? any news? my week has been pretty good so far. we met with amin's brother. he hasn't really been christian before, and he doesn't know anything about christianity. so we were teaching him about god and jesus christ and helping him to understand why it is important to believe in them. he seems pretty good, especially since amin is such good support for him. so we're really hopeful that all of them will be at chruch this sunday. as we were about to leave after our appointment, amin's brother said he still doesnt understand much about christianity, but he asked us to come over more frequently because he feels frequent visits will help him to understand. after so many people dropping us lately, it is really nice to hear.
we also had some pretty cool contacting experiences. we were waiting for the bus for like an hour. part way through the wait, a lady came and sat down next to me with her kids. she had three kids that she was watching all on her own, and lots of groceries. i heard her speaking iban to her kids, so i started talking to her. she was going to the same place we were heading to, so we helped her with her groceries and kids on the bus, and also helped her to get to her house. so was really grateful, and invited us back. hopefully we'll be able to meet her and her husband tonight.
right after we met that lady, we went to go to an appointment, but we accidentally waited in the wrong spot for like 40 mintutes. while we were waiting, this chinese guy came out and started to talk with us a little bit. he said he wasn't christian yet, but his wife was. we had a pretty good conversation and set up an appointment with him. we met him yesterday, and his family is awesome. what we didnt know the first day, is that this family didn't like the church they were currently attending because they had people speaking in tongues, and it made them feel uncomfortable. the wife said she had been looking for the true chruch for a while. so we taught them about baptism and the apostasy. the lady seemed to really accept the message. she said she was glad that we came to answer her question. so hopefully later this week we'll be able to meet them again. they seemed pretty excited to try church as well. hopefully they come and have a good experience. so after the lesson, they fed us and then gave us a ride home as well. right before we got out of the car, they told us they had seen last week on our bicycles, and the wife said she felt like we were messagers from god. so it seems like this family is really prepared to hear the gospel. the branch leadership is all chinese, so i think they'll be excited that we found a chinese family. we'll see how it goes next week.
anyways, i can't really think of anything else that happened. things are going well, and we're excited for our area. also, i don't know if i told you, but my release date from the mission is july 27th. anyways, gotta run. talk to you guys later. have a good week.
love, zac
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
we have been working extra hard
life as a missionary is going really well. i'm having a lot of fun. my companion and i have been struggling a little bit lately, so we have been working extra hard, and have been contacting a lot. the other day was so hot and for the first time in quite a while i got sunburned. it's funny being a white person in an asian country that so rarely has white people come. i sometimes forget how strange i must look to people here. but on that hot day, my comp and i were taking a brake sitting under some shade and we had quite a few people stop to see if we needed help. they thought we were lost. so we explained what we were doing, got a few phone numbers. hopefully something will come out of it.
i feel like i've been learning lots of good lessons out here as well. to get things done you just gotta get out and get to work. also, i've been learning even more to rely on the lord. we've had a pretty tough month, so we decided to fast a few times to help our area. no huge miracles occurred, but i definitely feel that the people who are suddenly progressing we found and helped through our fasting.
i don't really have much else to write, so i guess i'll just go. have a good day dad. hope everything is going well with school and at home. talk to you next week.
love, zac
hey mom.
well, i guess it's ok that you dont have much going on over in las vegas. i also don't have much going on. but we had a prety good week this wek, and we're hoping for an even better week this upcoming week.
so we've spent the last month knocking doors and trying to find people without much success. anyways, we recently fasted this last week, and some things started happening in our area, which is pretty sweet. we invited some people to be baptized, and they committed to a date for next month. one is a random chinese dude we contacted into on the street. we were walking kind of aimlessly. i always try to give my trainee an opportunity to lead the companionship so he was walking and i was following. we passed this dude. as soon as he saw us, he said he didn't need to talk to us, because he was already christian. well, this area has tons of muslims, which we can't teach, so we're always excited to run into people who are already christian. so we talked with him for a bit and gave him a pamphlet. the next day, he texted us and asked what the book of mormon was and if we coud give him one. so we did, and he came to church. he seems pretty excited to be baptized, because he never has before. and while we walk with him to go places, he always asks if people are christians, and if they want us to teach them. so he seems genuinely excited. he has some quirks, but over all a nice guy. i may hvae already talked about this guy. his name is mark.
also, like 3 weeks ago we were knocking a flat with no success. on our way out of the flat, we saw this dude on a motorcycle. he came up and talked to us. he asked if we were christian. we said we were, and then he said he also was and wanted us to teach him. so we had an awesoem first lesson with him, and then 3 weeks went by and we couldn't get into contact with him. we called ad no one would answer and eventually his wife answered seemed really angry and hung up on us. i thought that was the end of that. but one nght the other day, all our appointments fell through and we had nothing to do. so we had the idea to try this guy again. his name is amin, by the way. he happened to be home and he let us in. we had an awesome lesson with him and he promised to come to church. then last sunday, he actually came, and he really enjoyed it. he seems really excited. so although we don't have many people that we are teaching, we've got some people that seem really good. amin and his wife also really seem to want to be baptized. they really liked the idea of being able to help their ancestors accept the gospel through temple work.
as always, we've got plenty of other people we're trying to teach, but we're not sure how it's going to go. lots of busy people in johor can't meet regularly.
but just last night we had a talent show for the branch, which was pretty fun. some people in the ward sang and played instruments and various things. we missionaries also sang. we took an indonesian song and we rewrote the words from the prospective of a missionary trying to teach people. it was pretty fun and i think the people from the branch enjoyed it. we did pretty poorly and probably would have been laughed at pretty bad in america, but luckily we're in malaysia and people thought it was good. it's good to see the branch come together and try to get to know the people a little more.
anyways, besides that, nothing. just kicking along still. having fun. take care mom and talk to you next week.
i feel like i've been learning lots of good lessons out here as well. to get things done you just gotta get out and get to work. also, i've been learning even more to rely on the lord. we've had a pretty tough month, so we decided to fast a few times to help our area. no huge miracles occurred, but i definitely feel that the people who are suddenly progressing we found and helped through our fasting.
i don't really have much else to write, so i guess i'll just go. have a good day dad. hope everything is going well with school and at home. talk to you next week.
love, zac
hey mom.
well, i guess it's ok that you dont have much going on over in las vegas. i also don't have much going on. but we had a prety good week this wek, and we're hoping for an even better week this upcoming week.
so we've spent the last month knocking doors and trying to find people without much success. anyways, we recently fasted this last week, and some things started happening in our area, which is pretty sweet. we invited some people to be baptized, and they committed to a date for next month. one is a random chinese dude we contacted into on the street. we were walking kind of aimlessly. i always try to give my trainee an opportunity to lead the companionship so he was walking and i was following. we passed this dude. as soon as he saw us, he said he didn't need to talk to us, because he was already christian. well, this area has tons of muslims, which we can't teach, so we're always excited to run into people who are already christian. so we talked with him for a bit and gave him a pamphlet. the next day, he texted us and asked what the book of mormon was and if we coud give him one. so we did, and he came to church. he seems pretty excited to be baptized, because he never has before. and while we walk with him to go places, he always asks if people are christians, and if they want us to teach them. so he seems genuinely excited. he has some quirks, but over all a nice guy. i may hvae already talked about this guy. his name is mark.
also, like 3 weeks ago we were knocking a flat with no success. on our way out of the flat, we saw this dude on a motorcycle. he came up and talked to us. he asked if we were christian. we said we were, and then he said he also was and wanted us to teach him. so we had an awesoem first lesson with him, and then 3 weeks went by and we couldn't get into contact with him. we called ad no one would answer and eventually his wife answered seemed really angry and hung up on us. i thought that was the end of that. but one nght the other day, all our appointments fell through and we had nothing to do. so we had the idea to try this guy again. his name is amin, by the way. he happened to be home and he let us in. we had an awesome lesson with him and he promised to come to church. then last sunday, he actually came, and he really enjoyed it. he seems really excited. so although we don't have many people that we are teaching, we've got some people that seem really good. amin and his wife also really seem to want to be baptized. they really liked the idea of being able to help their ancestors accept the gospel through temple work.
as always, we've got plenty of other people we're trying to teach, but we're not sure how it's going to go. lots of busy people in johor can't meet regularly.
but just last night we had a talent show for the branch, which was pretty fun. some people in the ward sang and played instruments and various things. we missionaries also sang. we took an indonesian song and we rewrote the words from the prospective of a missionary trying to teach people. it was pretty fun and i think the people from the branch enjoyed it. we did pretty poorly and probably would have been laughed at pretty bad in america, but luckily we're in malaysia and people thought it was good. it's good to see the branch come together and try to get to know the people a little more.
anyways, besides that, nothing. just kicking along still. having fun. take care mom and talk to you next week.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!
hey mom.
sorry i forgot to wish you happy birthday last week mom. i'm a horrible son. but happy birthday. you're the best.
but yeah i heard about the crazy earthquake in japan. lots of people here are talking about it, and it's all over the newspapers. nothing happened here though. malaysia is nice and safe from natural disasters. yay malaysia. so about the pics, right after i sent that email one of the elders in my district let me borrow ihs card reader, so i was able to send the pics. the fish were cleaning our feet. it tickled like crazy. i couldn't stop laughing for like 5 minutes. it was pretty fun. kl was cool, but i'm glad to be back here in johor. life is normal again. we've been getting lots of rain lately. we've been struggling a lot with our investigators. the one family we had that was doing well is currently missing and out of contact, so that is a tough situation. hopefully we'll be able to get ahold on that situation sometime. we found this new guy named mark. he's chinese and he seems pretty good so far. he came to church and seemed to like it. we walked with him to a park one day to teach him and he kept talking to people to see if they wanted to learn from us, or if they wanted to go to our church. it was pretty weird but cool at the same time. the guy definitely has some big quirks. i'm not sure what to think of him completely, but i'm sure we'll be able to help his life improve. all of the other people we've been teaching have eaither dropped us or have been difficult to meet so we haven't met them for a second time. it's been a tough week.
actually, do you remember when i told you about that dude on his moto that asked us if we were christian and if we would teach him? well we finally taught him again. it seemed really good too. he kept saying he wanted to learn more about joseph smith and he wanted to know if it was true. he promised to come to church, so we'll see on sunday. we're pretty excited for him, but i've been disappointed enough times already that i'm really trying not to get my hopes up. elder browne is doing really well. we're having fun together. things will get better. hopefully i'll have a better email next week. hope you have a good week too mom. gotta go. love you.
love zac
sorry i forgot to wish you happy birthday last week mom. i'm a horrible son. but happy birthday. you're the best.
but yeah i heard about the crazy earthquake in japan. lots of people here are talking about it, and it's all over the newspapers. nothing happened here though. malaysia is nice and safe from natural disasters. yay malaysia. so about the pics, right after i sent that email one of the elders in my district let me borrow ihs card reader, so i was able to send the pics. the fish were cleaning our feet. it tickled like crazy. i couldn't stop laughing for like 5 minutes. it was pretty fun. kl was cool, but i'm glad to be back here in johor. life is normal again. we've been getting lots of rain lately. we've been struggling a lot with our investigators. the one family we had that was doing well is currently missing and out of contact, so that is a tough situation. hopefully we'll be able to get ahold on that situation sometime. we found this new guy named mark. he's chinese and he seems pretty good so far. he came to church and seemed to like it. we walked with him to a park one day to teach him and he kept talking to people to see if they wanted to learn from us, or if they wanted to go to our church. it was pretty weird but cool at the same time. the guy definitely has some big quirks. i'm not sure what to think of him completely, but i'm sure we'll be able to help his life improve. all of the other people we've been teaching have eaither dropped us or have been difficult to meet so we haven't met them for a second time. it's been a tough week.
actually, do you remember when i told you about that dude on his moto that asked us if we were christian and if we would teach him? well we finally taught him again. it seemed really good too. he kept saying he wanted to learn more about joseph smith and he wanted to know if it was true. he promised to come to church, so we'll see on sunday. we're pretty excited for him, but i've been disappointed enough times already that i'm really trying not to get my hopes up. elder browne is doing really well. we're having fun together. things will get better. hopefully i'll have a better email next week. hope you have a good week too mom. gotta go. love you.
love zac
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