up to date on my mission so far

hey mom

you asked if i was liking my new area better. did it seem like i dislike my area? sorry if i made it sound like that. i am having a lot of fun here in johor. i really like it. the work has been tough, but i am still having a good time. this last week was a little rough too, just because we went finding a lot, got lots of return appointments, and then when we went back, the people were'nt there or they didnt want. people in johor work all day and have almost no time to meet with us. so those are a few of our challenges. but we do have some good people that we are meeting with.

we contacted into a family of indian people (dot, not feather). it was the first time of my whole mission i've ever taught indian people. in sarawak, there are hardly any. but here, there are quite a few. anyways, most are hindu and just reject us at the door, but we found some that are already christian. they seem pretty good, although they have some interesting religious beliefs. we knocked into them once and they let us in right away and cooked us some food. then they invited us back after a pretty good lesson with them, and said they were going to cook some more food! we're going to see them again tonight, so hopefully all goes well with them. we're really hopeful. they are all really nice.

we didnt get a chance to meet that guy on a motorcycle again, because he is super busy. he works in singapore and commutes every day. anyways, we should see him again tomorrow. he called us and made the appointment, so he seems genuinely interested in meeting with us again. we're excited to meet with him.

but unfortunately, our branch is considered part of the singapore stake. stake conference is this sunday and will be held in singapore. no church meeting will be held here in johor bahru. most of the members and none of our investigators have passports even, so it looks like the attendance from johor will be minimal. it's pretty tough to go into a week knowing none of the people will be making it to church, but we have a few people committed for next week!

we're also teaching a catholic man named joanas and his family. he's really good. asks lots of good questions and seems to understand well. we met him just yesterday and had a good lesson that seemed to help him get over his concerns. he felt like if he went to our church even once, that would mean he had to throw his old church away and he wasnt prepared to do that. so we told him that we wanted him to come to church in order to make his decision and receive revelation from the spirit. so for the first time he gave a solid comitment to come to church (next week, of course)

that was pretty much what happened last week. still working hard and trying to find new people. but just last night we had an awesome experience. well, a few days ago we were kncking a flat. we passed a door that looked like no one was home. i was being kind of lazy and didnt knock on the door. but i felt like i really should knock anyway, even though it looked like no one was home. i looked and saw my comp was walking way down the hall and i just left to see what my comp was doing. after about 5 minutes, we were talking to some other guy in the same hall. i looked over and saw a lady walk out of the door i felt i should knock 5 minutes early. i felt pretty bad about not having knocked it. but i know the lord provides. because yesterday, we had plans through the whole night. somehow, the plans got moved to the next night because the people we wanted to see were busy. so we were left with our back up plans, which all fell through as well. i thought of that one door i shouldve knocked, and we went back. the husband had just come back from work, so the whole family was home. they invited us in and we had a lesson. they also happened to be iban, which was really awesome since i spent all my mission working with ibans.

so we taught the man a little bit about joseph smith. he seemed to be excited that he could understand us and what we taught him made sense. i guess some jehova's witnesses had come and tried to teach him, and what they said made no sense to him. also, he made a comment about home he wanted to go to church, but couldnt. i asked him about what that meant, and he didnt answer, just kept trying to change the subject. it sounded like to me tho that for some reason the church he used to go to doesnt want him to come or something like that. anyways, he said he was looking for a church that was "good" to take his family to. so that was really exciting for us to hear. they invited us back for saturday, and we'll let you know how it pans out next week.

anyways, that's all i have for this week. oh yeah, also, i got accepted into byu. so that's pretty cool. but i'm glad to hear everything is going well at home. tel jake congrats for me. i love you and we'll talk next week.

love, zac

hey dad.

it's zac. thanks for sending me an email. i'm sorry i haven't had pictures for a long time. i just found out that the computers i'm on can send pictures, but i forgot my camera cord, so i promise i'll send some next week. that should get you up to date on my mission so far. anyways, i sent all my experiences for the week to mom, so i'll just copy what i wrote to her here for your benefit. i'm not neglecting you, i just happened to open her letter and reply first.

[long and interesting description of weeks events edited because they were posted ^]
zac