Hey-lah! Ah, Tyson, I can't believe that you are already home! It seems like yesterday you were opening up your mission call! Mom, you need to show him the video of me opening mine. I hope that all is well at home and that you all had a very joyful reunion. I can't wait to return, and speaking of that, I just passed my 6 month mark! What? Sudah (Already)? How does this happen? Aiyo..... (I-oh).... It's an Asian sound, I know. And I realized that I started doing the head swerve/bobble like Indians, so....I do it unconsciously, and let's just say I'll be different when I get back.... Oh, yeah, I almost forgot, Yoges was taught before I got here, so I got lucky having his baptism the week after I arrived.
So, here is the gist of the past week lah!
First off....
HAPPY BIRTHDAY KAMRYN!!!!
I hope you have a good one! I miss you a ton!
Okay, so here's the order: Investigators, my Medan Trip (to Sumatra, Indonesia) and my stay in the Airport, General Conference, and the sad news.
I wasn't able to meet with a lot of people this week, but here we go.
M: He's doing a little better. He's that old single man who got ripped off 120,000 Ringgit, if you remember. So, we go in to teach him at a member's house, Sister P's. So we ride up on our bikes and he's like "Heavenly Father, right?" And we had just taught him about prayer and so we were like, "Yeah, that's right." So we go in and we start teaching him, and he turns to my comp., Elder Snyder, and says, "So, I need your help, Heavenly Father." So, OBVIOUSLY, he thought that instead of our title being Elders that it was Heavenly Fathers! Haha we had a good laugh about that after we left. He was also praying to the Virgin Mary, and he asked, "Would she get mad if I started praying only to God?" We laughed and said that she prayed to God also, and she wants him to pray to God. So, we cleared up prayer with him, and he can pray anywhere, anytime, and he doesn't need a picture of God to pray to Him., so he is doing better. He actually came to one of the sessions of Conference, but he couldn't visit any others.... :/
Mr. Y: He owns a bread shop. We somehow ended up talking about the Second Coming and the wicked being burned when Christ comes again. And we talked more about the Book of Mormon. He's really good, and we're going to commit him to baptism soon.
J and B: They don't want us to ask them to commit to anything. We still are teaching them, but they said "We'll just 'surprise' you at church!" We're a little sad, but that's Blackjack Joe's personality. So, we hope that he will keep coming and that they will eventually want to convert. They really like us and they love talking to us, but they just wanted to be honest. I prefer honesty, actually. It's good to clear up sad things like that beforehand, so they don't reject us the day right before their baptism. I've heard of stories like that happening. Really sad.
So, that's all I met with this week, due to all-day General Conference and my two-day trip to Medan.
Medan: Okay, so I get on a bus at 8 PM where I have a four hour bus ride to the KL Airport. So, I go and check in, get like 4 hours of sleep, and then found out that my plane changed gates, so I found that. I went through security, and they don't allow water on planes (I always forget. So, I tried for like ten minutes to open my carry-on, because the lock jammed. I finally open it, dump out the water, and I was literally the last person on the plane. I was safe by like 5 minutes, no joke. So, I land in Medan, watch terrible Indonesian soap operas for 6 hours in a non-conditioned airport--I had to pay 100 Ringgit for a visa that filled up a full page of my passport. So now I have three terrible, useless stamps. Odds are I will need to get a new one before I return home. Then, I pay 75,000 Rupiah for the airport's "service", and then I get on my flight and pray that I am safe and on the right flight. By the way, don't worry, 50 Ringgit in Indonesia is like 250,000 Rupiah. They just add useless zeroes. A soda was like 5,000 Rupiah. I have pics :) So, I return to KL and I am praying that they'll let me through immigration. It said I entered/exited Medan the same day, which looks bad on a Passport, plus the three full pages. The man takes it, says, "Why are you here in Malaysia? Vacation?" I said, "I do volunteer and service work." He nodded, and gave me the 90 day stamp! A miracle from On High! I was ready sing the "Song of Redeeming Love" I almost starting kneeling down praying the Airport, I was so grateful! Then, after that, I struggled to find my bus, took a 4 hour bus ride back to Ipoh, arrived at about Midnight, and went home. So I was running on like 5 hours of sleep. Lots of fun lah!
Okay, so, basically, General Conference was the best thing ever! I loved it! Elder Perry, followed by President Monson, followed by Elder Holland! All of the talks were great, especially those three, and right in a row, no less! I love how Elder Holland takes small, seemingly non-"important" miracles, and blows it up! It was fantastic and I loved every second of Conference! You're so right, Mom, it went by way too fast!
So, the sad news. You may have noticed that Nantha's name wasn't up there. Here's what happened. Nantha had cancer, and we didn't know about it. He was feeling sick, and on Monday evening (Google translate this part, it's a little gross) dia bermula untuk muntah darah. So, his family took him to the hospital and he passed away there. Then he was cremated, according to his family's tradition. So it was really sad because we love him and miss him, and we saw him two days before his death. But, now, he's learning in the Spirit world, and we have the opportunity to teach his family, so we're going to let them adjust and then help them in any way possible, even if they don't want to hear the Gospel yet.
So, that was my week! Really, really good apart from the death of Nantha, but he's in a better place. I makes me really grateful for the Plan of Salvation, and I know that my testimony is getting stronger every day. I can feel it! And my Malay getting better, although I'm in a mostly English area. I was translating Conference in my head, and for language study, I translated The Testaments, and Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration. So all is well, Tyson, I'm glad you're back home safe, Happy Birthday Kamryn, and I love and miss all of you!
Jumpa satu hari nanti,
Elder Joshua H. Griffin
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