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| Elder C couldn't get his photos to load at the internet cafe where he emailed from, so here is the weather he will be experiencing this upcoming week. Notice--90 degrees and rain every. single. day. Haha! |
Hello everyone!
It's been an eventful week! I finally left the MTC and set off for the Singapore mission. I left Tuesday, and arrived in Singapore on Thursday. (Wednesday, October 23, 2013, did not exist in my life thanks to the date line). I was assigned to an area in the city of Johor Bahru, the southern most city on West Malaysia and mainland Asia!
Life is great, but life is sweaty hahaha. I'm already starting to adjust and not notice the insane heat, but the sweat is always going to be a thing. That's okay, though!
So. Just to clarify. I am in the Singapore Mission, but since I will be speaking Malay, my country of labor will be Malaysia. I am in the Kota Masai area of Johor Bahru. It's hot, the food is crazy (but really good), and I bike 40 minutes or so in the 95% humidity just to get to the area where I'm supposed to work. Yeahhhhh buddy, this is what missionary work looks like!! Biking for days and days!
My trainer is named Elder Adams, from Southern California, the Thousand Oaks area. We are a bit new together but with time we're going to be a stud companionship and duo. (Generally, a new missionary is assigned to serve with an experienced missionary or trainer for 12 weeks.)
Elder Poppleton (my MTC companion) is off to Kuching, a city somewhat near Singapore on East Malaysia. We got a hug in and we'll see each other in a bit! Not too bad at all!
We have four elders in our apartment. Elder Jackson and Elder Sheranian work in the eastern part of our city, called Megah Ria. It's a good time, and we all are committing ourselves to the work!
Right now my Malay is great speaking wise, but I have got to adjust to their accent. Malay doesn't sound like an Asian language until you're out here. Wow, it's crazy!
I gave a talk in sacrament meeting at church in my first week! In Malay! haha Pretty great! I made everyone laugh when I explicitly gave them permission to laugh at me while I was talking. But I made them promise to come talk to me afterward if they did! They laughed. I talked about getting the members more involved with missionary work because that's really how the work gets going.
There are tons of m o s q u e s about, but that's what happens when you are in a very M u s l i m area! As you know, we can't talk to people of that faith, but occasionally we ask where some Christian people are.
So one of the tribes of East Malaysia is called the Iban tribe! They make up a large percentage of the baptisms because they are not M u s l i m and some are actually Christian, making them ideal candidates for learning about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or Gereja Yesus Kristus Orang Suci Zaman Akhir! Legit! They speak their own language which is slightly similar to Malay, so I will be learning that as well!
Well, I learned the Malay equivalent of YOLO. It's Malaysia boleh (Malaysia can, essentially.) Definitely ending my letters with that now.
Love you all! The work is great and just remember how important you are all to me! Email is the only means of communication (basically, I don't know much about letters). Talk to you all in a week!
Malaysia Boleh!
Elder Coleman
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