i dont know why girls would be named bukit

hey mom!

i apologize for making you think i expected a package. it doesnt cost any money to pick a package up here in malaysia, but you dont have to send me anything, i promise. i really was trying to make a joke, but i guess i didnt do it well. i apologize.

i did write most of my week to dad, so i hope you also read the email i sent to him. but yeah, my investigators are still doing well. we have mulin's family who is all looking to get baptized this saturday, except for the youngest son who had an issue with the word of wisdom. hopefully he'll get baptized next week. people here have to come to church for 3 weeks before baptism, and norina was sick this sunday so she has still only been to church twice. bummer. looks like she'll be waiting til next week too. we'll see how that goes.

we just watched conference and our investigators seemed to like it. we've got a family of 3 that was all at conference, so hopefully sometime in november they will be baptized. they are the neighbors of a longtime member. the mother of this family is the one who gave me a hard time about being called bukit. i dont know why girls would be named bukit, but they also have people named masam which means sour and all different kinds of crazy names. malaysian names are crazy.

my cough has gone away again. i think i'm just getting sick because i dont eat or sleep, i just find new investigators all day. just kidding. but i'm getting much better. my back has only hurt tiny bits every once in a while on my mission, but it always goes away. plus i brought my ibu profen just in case, but i've actually only used it for fever so far. i still have lots, so all is well.

it was pretty cool. i got to go back to my old area sibu jaya and see some recent converts. i got to see one of my recent converts birthday parties, which was fun. we got fed good food. life is good. hopefully tomorrow i'll be able to see some more. i tell you what, recent converts are the best. i love seeing people's lives change with this gospel, and seeing the growth of the church. so awesome.

thanks so much for the pics of izzy. thanks for supporting me while i'm out here. i am having so much fun it's ridiculous. but i'll let you go and talk to you next week. love you mom.

love, zac

hey dad!

how's it going? it's really good to hear from you. man things are going awesome! this week has been really slow when it comes to the work actually, but still awesome. saturday and sunday we watched conference. unfortunately we only saw it in malay, so i'm still waiting for the liahona to come out to read the real talks. almost all the translators they use are return missionaries, and their levels of translating ability vary. i'm sure i wouldn't be any good at translating, but i think it'd be pretty cool to try when i got home.

so right after church on sunday we left on our way to sibu! wihch is where i'm emailing from right now. we have a conference for all the missionaries here in sarawak to learn how to follow the spirit more and to ask inspired questions. it has been a lot of fun so far, especially since i can see my friends from around the mission. we have been learning lots of awesome things. so many that i can't even remember them all. i'll have to go back and study my notes for personal study in the future so i can put the material we've been learning into my teaching. i have so much to learn, but i know that success will go up.

so we just found out about transfer news. i'm staying in kuching, but my comp is going back to america so i'm getting a new companion next week. i've met the guy only once back in february and only for like 5 seconds, so we'll see how it goes. these transfers were so crazy tho. so many unexpected things. they split one zone apart. it's pretty cool to see our mission growing. they also just opened up a new branch in a place called mukah, which will hopefully have missionaries soon. while i was getting interviewed by president, he told me of some of his mission goals, which mostly are made up of opening up new areas and creating new branches. it was pretty cool to see how excited he is about missionary work and all the progress our mission is making.

so this conference is over 4 days, so i'll go back to kuching on friday. we have training from 9am to 5 pm, and then we are free to go out and contact/ find things to do in sibu. so i took the opportunity yesterday to head to sibu jaya. it was fun. i was able to see a good amount of recent converts. i even got to go to a birthday party. they seemed pretty happy to see me, which was nice because i was stoked to see them. i hope the things i shared with them will help to keep them strong in the church and strengthen the ones who are getting a little shaky. i'm also planning on going back tomorrow to see some more people so that should be cool.

this weekend we should have some baptisms. i think only 3 out of the we had planed can. but the other 3 will hopefully be next week. mulin's fam should be baptized, but i'll let you know next email. they are still awesome. the work is going well. for some reason i am a little apprehensive to get a new companion and have to teach him the area. i'm sure i'll do fine, but there are always those nervous feelings. not like there's much i can do about it. we still have basically the same people as last week come to church, so this upcoming week we're going to really push for new investigators and really try to use what we've learned and let what we've learned become a part of us a teachers. i know this work to be true. my testimony gets stronger every day and i'm so excited to be out here. malaysia is so awesome. i wish you could see it.

so how are your students doing? are you doing anything cool for halloween? it's so close. holy moly. have you been forcing quinton to teach while you guys do your home teaching? if he wants to serve a mission, it'd be best for hime to uproot his quietness right now. i tell you, i thought i got a lot more outgoing before my mission, and then i got out here and realized i was still just super scared to talk to people. it goes away tho, and then it gets really fun to talk to people about the church. who knows, maybe i can go with you home teaching a few times after i get back. and i'd actually be able to teach something too. thanks so much for supporting me while i am out here on the mission. it really has been the biggest blessing of my life. i can't believe how much i feel like i've grown out here. but i guess that's all i have for the week. take care dad, and i'll talk to you next week.

love, zac