carl's jr., what a wonderful place that is.

hey dad. how's it going? how's the summer break? that's cool you guys celebrated pioneer day. as usual in malaysia, pioneer day stood uncelebrated. so about the house, is it still under the water? or did they tear it down. if it's still there, could you guys see it? that sounds like craziness to me. i'm sure ibans seeing a house under water would be convinced that there were ghosts in it. speaking of grandma naida, how is she doing? how close is she to finishing her project on gunlock bill? if you could, tell her i said hi and that i love her. Also, Grandma Beesley, grandma and grandpa hill, & jared and amber. when it comes to chinese food, tho, we almost never get any. we just eat iban food if we can. and if we're in singapore, we go for carl's jr. what a wonderful place that is. you never know how much you miss certain aspects of america until you go without it. it's kind of nice to have a riceless meal with lots of meat some times.
so about moms foot, is she going to get it checked out again r anything? i hope it heals soon. that sounds horrible to just wait and let it heal on it's own. are you still a teacher for the 12-13 year olds? or are you back to being in with the adults again? you know, i guess i'm not surprized that on sundays you are teaching since throughout the week you are also teaching. teaching here in malaysia is i guess a more respected profession than in america. i found out that even tho school starts at 7.30, the gates close at 7 to make sure the kids are there on time to sing for their teachers as they enter the school. and also i've heard quite a few kids whose ambition is to become a teacher. they think it's pretty cool when i tell them my father is a teacher.
 
so let's see. this week went pretty well. i guess every week has thinks that aren't particularly awesome. but what can you do. we got a referral a little bit back from the indonesian lady. it's her aunt. the aunt has been not really progressing and kind of difficult to meet with. but we try harder when it's a referral because it's like a gift from a member. so we had taught her about the plan of salvation and the spirit world. she happens to be a widow. so we had a good lesson and when we came back, she told us she had read the joseph smith pamphlet and had prayed. then she said after she prayed, she dreamed that she saw her husband. but he didnt say anything. then she prayed a second night and had the same dream. but she still doesn't know if she will try to go to church. sometimes people are tough. it didnt help that she had consumed alcohol prior to our visit. we didn't stay long, but haven't had an opportunity to see her since. hopefully she'll figure things out. but the main people we have on date are doing well. like i wrote to mom, there's this family i sent a picture of at kfc that is finally going to get baptized. they were supposed to last week, but there was a slight issue. this week will be the week. so hopefully all goes well. anyways, i'm gonna scram. good talking to you dad. love you.
zac


hey mom, thanks for the pictures. hopefully i can get them printed out so i can show people my "hometown" it's the closest thing i have. that's one of my regrets. i didnt bring any pictures of friends, family, las vegas or anything. i had no idea people liked to look at those things. they not only didnt like the pasta, they were disgusted by it. like it was the worst thing ever. i'm still offended. haha. i think stir fry would definitely be something they should like. if you want you can try to send me the recipe, but as long as i'm in sibu jaya i doubt i be able to find much by way of spices. but hopefully that family will get baptized this week. it should be good. the mother had a horrible battle with coffee, but it looks like she finally won, so things are looking up.
 
i still can't believe you doubted that i would baptize the whole town. don't you believe in me mom? i'm kiding. i'm not going to lie, our success has surprized me as well. it's nice that we have so many people now, because pretty much everywhere we go in sibu jaya, we see our members and can stop and chat. i love them. even with all the people we have coming, there's still so many that want nothing to do with us. but hwat can you do. just keep working. i'm sorry if i dont look up to your expectations in the pics i send you. if i look tired, it's probably because i just might be. but i think the real root of the problem is a lack of photogenicity. hopefully some time i'll learn how to control this face of mine. until then, i'll look funny in my pics.
 
this week was a little tough. got dropped by some investigators that we hoped would turn out well. some families aren't progressing like we thought they would. but we did have some success. we finally got the husband of a lady baptized back in may to come to church for the first time, and he also said he would come next week. that's pretty exciting. plus the neighbor just quit smoking and should be baptized soon. last week, we also baptized masam and his family. they all quit smoking and are awesome. they are pretty much the main source of aaronic priesthood in our little branch. pretty good family. we're still working on the mother so she comes to church. we'll see how that goes. one of the other families that we've been teach is from a non christian background. they said lots of people from other religions had tried to get them to follow their church, but they never wanted to. then the man, christy, said when we walked past he just wanted to talk to us. and now look. he's one of our best investigators. he can't read, but he's pretty smart. so things are going well. we've got lots of other people, but nothing too interesting to talk about. just a few other people learning in the first stages. our branch president is doing well, and this past week has been interviewing people for callings. we're becoming more and more like a branch all the time. it's good.
 
i can't believe terran is home already. so crazy. i feel bad because i haven't really kept in contact with him. how's he doing. so now he's a big rm, huh? good for him. and it's pretty cool you guys went to saint george. i remember that time we took the drive out there. i'm sure after the long flight for me home, and drive out to utah will seem like nothing. well that's pretty much everything. i'm doing well and feeling healthy. talk to you next week. love you mom.
love, zac