lawn mower grass, bathroom floor mushrooms

Zachary Royden Hill
 to me

show details 7:50 PM (56 minutes ago)

Hey dad. how's it going? things are going pretty well here. about me getting transferred, i have no idea. i thought it would be last transfer since i've been here for a while, so i'm gonna go ahead and think it's the next transfer, which happens mid august. i also hope the next area i have is successful, but elder lang and I have set a tough mark to live up to. we'll see how it goes. as for the people we've been working with, things have been going really well. so we went to see that lady whose daughter had the dream about us flying, and she said she really wants to go to church on sunday. also her neighbor wants to follow, even tho last week they tried telling us that they couldn't because they were busy. this week they just agreed right away. there's a teenage boy in the neighbor's family who we made friends with through another kid we know. they've both been going to church and really like it. the neighbor's son asked last time when he could be baptized, so we talked with the family about how important it is to enter the church as a family and that the rest of the family would need to go to church. i think that helped a lot for them to want to go to church. also it was pretty funny.. this week was elder lang's birthday so we threw him a party. at the party, the kid i've been referring to as the neighbor's son asked if we could watch the joseph smith restoration movie. there are a couple people who really like it and want to watch it all the time.
 
so also there's that other kid who had a dream and wanted to meet with us. this last week we had trouble meeting with him because he never brings his phone and lives a few kilometers away from sibu jaya. but he came to elder lang's birthday and we were able to set up a return appointment in person. normally we had been trying to set up an appointment through his friend, but it's much better in person.
 
that family that i talked about last week where we met the guy at a gawai party is really doing well. last sunday was district conference, and they went saturday and sunday. which is a pretty big deal. they really liked it as well. when we talked to them after church, they were all excited for church and they asked when they could be baptized. it was pretty sweet. the melayu looking guy is also doing fairly well. he said he definitely will try church, but he has a mother in law who lives with him and is a "born catholic die catholic" type of person. luckily he's methodist so we're hoping there's not too big of a problem. but i've seen in laws ruin investigators before, so i'm always a little worried. but the guy himself seems pretty open.
 
so that's pretty much all i can think of for our investigators. on friday, we held a kind of sembahyang of our own, because we were asked by our recent converts. we invited a good amount of members over and we sang and prayed and learned about the church. then we ate. it was pretty nice. everyone there seemed to have fun and seemed to get to know each other more.
 
that's hilarious about the ward party. i was surprised to hear about you joining in on the water melon eating contest. how much watermelon did you eat? i think that sounds like something fun to do here, but you never know how an iban would take that. the people of our branch seem to want to have a party, so hopefully they can get something like that set up. us missionaries are still the most experienced members the branch has, so we still have to teach a lot of how the church functions. it's a fun time and there's been a lot of improvement, but still a lot more to go. anyways, that's all i've got for now. take care dad. love you
love, zac




Zachary Royden Hill
 to me

show details 8:08 PM (42 minutes ago)

hey mom. yeah it is pretty crazy the success we've been having. i remember back when i thought i might not have any baptisms since i was going to a country of predominately muslims. who knew what would happen? i ask myself sometimes why i got to be the person to come here and have this success. i really have been blessed with being in the right place at the right time. the teaching is going really well too. we've been getting a lot of referrals from the members, which is so nice because that means our investigator already has friends in the church. since we've been baptizing a lot, we have a lot of members who can help us now. so we've been using their help a lot.  and they seem happy to do it. the area is really improving. sometimes it's tough because the majority of our members are less than 3 months baptized and there's quite a bit still learning. it'll definitely be good in the future.
 
i really dont know how they make curry. but there's a lady i know who is an awesome cook, so hopefully if i see her i'll be able to get the recipe from her and send it to you. the recipe you sent me last week has all kinds of fancy things like "italian seasoning." dont be surprised when the recipe i send back isnt so fancy- lawn mower grass, bathroom floor mushrooms. those are a must for malaysian curry. i'll see what i can do about other sorts of recipes too because that lady i talked about makes a table full of all kinds of different delicious food and i eat til i want to die. that reminds me of a kind of funny experience. now, in malaysia, it's really rude to not finish the food you have on your plate, and the people giving you the food can get easily offended if you dont eat much. around holidays is when everyone has food, so every house you go to you get stuffed and feel like you want to die. anyways, we celebrated elder lang's birthday last week. it was a bunch of investigators. so we made them "american style" burgers and other types of food. then we had cake. it came down to one piece of cake left. i asked who wanted it. everyone covered their plates and moaned because they felt they couldnt eat anymore. finally those malaysians could feel how we feel. sweet justice. anyways, i also dont have much to say.. sorry mom. so i'll talk to you next week. love you.
love, zac