keluarga!!

I am so very happy today. ha. it has been such a good week. so many good things have been happening in KK! I love this place. I might not want to leave. I am thinking you'll probably have to come out here to pick me up so you can drag me home. 

so there is a term "malu" that describes a lot of the people here. it's like, it's kindof like shy. they are shy. if you ask them questions, they look down and won't answer and they are just oh so very malu. well, it's pretty funny. and different, since I'm about as loud as is possible sometimes, but the other day we were teaching this cute girl we contacted. and I kid you not, she hid behind the door when we came inside for the first 15 minutes. wouldn't say anything, she'd just peek her head out every so often. finally with much coaxing from my part, she sat down. and just stared with these big eyes at us. hahaha. and then when we would ask her a question, she'd pick up the pamphlet she was holding, and put it in front of her face. she couldn't even answer! and she was 23!! I am afraid I am becoming malu. I get embarrassed easily now. haha. all part of the process I guess, but it's funny. the culture is basically polar opposite of what we are used to.

here is my missionary moment: so since I have been here we have been working really hard at trying to reactivate inactive members. it's a mission wide goal. soooo, we have put a LOT of time and effort into serving a few families and talking with them and trying to get them back to church. it has been broken promises every sunday until, you guessed it, THIS SUNDAY!! there were FOUR families there!!!!! and this is where it gets really pathetic and you can tell I'm officially a missionary now, when they each walked in I had HUGE crocodile tears in my eyes. I was sooooooooo happy. that is the funny thing about being a missionary. when seemingly little things like that happen, the joy is indescribable. I was so happy.

we had a baptism this sunday too:) his name is Lazaias. he's a little punk, and he is always telling me how bad my malay is. bless his heart. but his baptism was scheduled for 7 am on sunday, so sister hite and I filled the font and cleaned everything up the saturday night right before we went home for the night. everything was ready to go! until we get a call at 6 in the morning, of someone saying that there was a flood in the church and we needed to go figure it out. AH! so we panicked and teared through the house getting ready, managed to get on a bus and ran to the church, only to discover the puddle was wimpy. it took like 5 minutes to mop it up. and there was a sigh of relief. until we went to check on the font. and it was empty. yep, empty. it was about 645 at that point, the baptism was supposed to be starting in 15 minutes, and the font was empty. so we scrambled and scrambled and prayed and scrambled and as a miracle to our prayers, the font was full 20 minutes later. I kid you not, it takes about an hour to fill up the font usually. so, we were able to do the baptism basically on time and it was another incredible experience. I love baptism days. it's something so cool about them walking into the water, being dunked, and when they come out of the water they are a completely new person. completely clean. the former things have been washed away. isn't that unreal? I have been so stupid and never stopped to really think about that before. but now I do and it's so amazing. 

we have had so much hujan lately!!! rain! it's been wild! thunder and lightening and nonstop rain for about 3 days. and it's been cooler! it has been sooooo nice. I decided I officially want to live somewhere it rains a lot. only problem, that's when the bugs come out. and we counted last night and I have 23 bug bits on my legs and arms. :) haha. it's all part of the deal. I still love the rain. 

sister hite and I are getting along very well. I am very grateful for her. we laugh a lot. she has a huge laugh haha and mine is even bigger so it's great fun. we were talking the other night and I mentioned how I was so grateful I finally could say with 100% honesty that I didn't wish I was home anymore. I love malaysia and my mission. so then we started chatting and I mentioned it was just kindof tough for the first few weeks and she was like WHAT!!!!! I thought you were fine!!! you never acted like you were struggling!!!!! so then we got a good laugh. it's difficult trying to switch over to a different culture and doing different things. and the language adoi! the language thing is hard. but finally I'm able to understand most of what people say to me. this past week my malay has been pretty rough but it's because in my head I've kindof like stopped trying to translate everything first and then speak. I think I'm in the process of switching over, now I usually just open my mouth and malay comes out. the same when people are speaking, instead of translating everything they are saying I just listen and know the words in malay. I may have made it sound like I'm super pandai now....I am not! I still am very rusty. but I feel like it's coming. I'm finally seeing some differences in the speaking and understanding and for that I am so grateful. I love malay. it's like this annoyingly adorable poppy sounding language when they speak and then when they sing in malay it's just unbelievably gorgeous. I love malay. I love malaysia! 

the only struggle thus far, a lot of people I contact turn out to be bad. I'll be talking with a male, doesn't matter the age, and they'll be responding very well as I'm teaching them about joseph smith. they'll say they want to know more and that they'll pray about it and they let me get a return appointment. then they'll text or call a few hours later and say "sister jensen! I read the book and I want to meet! can we tonight!!?" so then I'll get super amped, set up a time, and then they'll drop the bomb. "okay but can it just be us two? we can get some food and talk?" uuuuuuugggggghhhhh. that has happened a few times this week and it's always a pretty big bummer. we're really working on finding people right now, and we are constantly trying to meet up with referrals and a few times a week we go knocking for like 7 hours a day. it's rough! it's interesting though and at times very very fun. we meet a lot of interestingly creepy funny sweet scary people every day. I love being a missionary. did I mention that? I just wish we were finding more of the people the Lord needs us to find. we're working hard though and doing the best we can. I pray like I've never prayed before here. and I know as long as I'm doing what I need to and I'm going out and trying to work the Lord will lead us where we need to be. I do know that's true. so now it's just the waiting game. 

last thing, I wanted to share a scripture I found after we got yelled at by someone who was ripping our church apart. it was pretty rough, and I felt pretty bad. I never knew how protective I could feel of Joseph Smith until someone started yelling lies about him. it pierced my soul! I wanted to cry! nobody talks bad about joseph smith to me. but anyway. so that happened, and the next day I was reading in the book of mormon and I read a verse I had found in the mtc and liked, but it really meant something to me at that moment. 2 Nephi 7:7-8. I wrote 'rhino skin' in the margin. I have to set my face like a flint. when people say bad things to me, my face is like a flint! people can say what they want! because like it says in verse 8, 'let us stand together' I know the Lord is standing with me. I know that sounds cheesy, and I am full aware of how missionary sounding I am now, but I wouldn't say it if I didn't know it was true. the Lord is standing with me. we are standing together. so it doesn't matter what people say. I love that. I think any of us can apply that in our lives. it doesn't matter what people say, if we hold our face like a stone, and have faith that we're standing with the Lord, it doesn't matter. 

okay I am out of time I feel. always so fast. did this week seem fast? it did to me. I am going to KL tomorrow (I get to see sis norton again YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) we have some training. we will be back on friday night. fun fun! 
I love you all so very much. thanks for being my rock. 

p.s. this happens every p day. someone next to me will be singing really loud to a song and they are totally off tune. does this happen in america? I'm beginning to think it's typical in malaysia. but I cant remember home....it's very hard not to die laughing! I actually do. and then I feel bad. haha. anyway. sayang semua kamu!