so puchong was a bit dangerous, it's true. it got pretty sketch basically all day every day everywhere we went.....haha. we tried to be troopers but when it didn't change they took us out. so now we are in the zone leaders area, they moved to ours, and we live in the heart of kuala lumpur. dead serious. we live in a high sky rise apartment, with a panorama view of the petronas towers, and my life just become even more sweet. it is unreal. I cried my last sunday in puchong. we were there very short but I seriously loooooooooved it. and mostly I absolutely adored every member in the branch. it was an insane branch, all native malaysians (no white expats like my branch now is made up of!) so that was fun, its rare in the KL area. no ex pats. all natives. very strong members, chinese, know what they are doing. work really hard. and have the most pure hearts out of anyone you have ever met. dead serious. which is saying a lot because I just came from east malaysia. the members were incredible and I cried because I had to leave them. sister carol picked us up monday morning and drove us all the way to our new place in KL and helped us move in. and I cried a bit more. so pathetic! only three weeks and I have so much love for them.
but now here we are in kuala lumpur. the first day we walked into our beautiful apartment, I took my shoes off, and within five minutes of being barefoot, my feet were completely black. dirty dishes, socks and random articles of clothing lying all over the apartment....no trash cans, trash bags, just trash "piles". it was disgusting and me and gopi about freaked out. they didn't even have cleaning supplies. so we went to go buy all that stuff and spent the entire night trying to clean the place. it looks like a beautiful mod city apartment now, exactly how it should be...
it has been wild even though we have only been here two days now. yesterday was our first all day exploring...that went. awesome. we went knocking, (because I was a bit too intimidated at the whole street contacting idea on our first day...) and our knocking experience ended up being the coolest thing ever. once again, the mosque was blaring it's prayer right next to us, only this time the man had the most beautiful and eery voice you've ever heard. it was entrancing. and we knocked basically all hindu flats. now, these aren't just like ish hindus. these guys are devout devout hindus. at one house I started laughing uncontrollably because I saw a golden calf statue in the wind. I go, "hey gopi look, there is where the brazen calf went to!" and then we laughed again for very long time. it was epic. what was even more epic, was, kid you not, 10 flats where we spoke to them, told them we were missionaries blah blah, and they said "oh, you are jesus people" we go, "yes, we are messengers for jesus christ." and they go, "oh. I have no need for jesus christ." and then slam the door in our face. now, normally door slams make me laugh really hard. I mean, like people seriously feel it necessary to slam a door in two young white american girls faces who are trying to teach about church! but yesterday was killing me. the fact that they all said different variations of "no, I don't want jesus christ." was surprisingly hard for me to handle. I got a bit emotional in my head at the end of the day. all I could do was bare testimony to them that christ was their saviour, and when they understand that they would feel differently. I got a bit mad and rude with one particular man, which I felt bad about. but he was saying awful things about MY saviour. you know? it was a bit hard to take. but a growing experience.
also I had a really cool conversation with an old man from Iraq that lives in our apartment building. he gets into the elevator, I say hello how are you. ask where he's from. he says Iraq. I say oh very nice. he asks where I am from, I say america. he says oh very nice too. he then asks, do you want to go to Iraq? and I go, I would love to go and see your country. he kindof smiles this really sweet smile and doesn't say anything. and then I ask if he wants to go to america. he says, you have a beautiful country, I would love to go as well. and then we kindof like smile at each other, and I go, yea, perhaps one day we will. and then nothing more was said. but it was a very sweet pleasant experience between two extraordinarily different people. it was actually really amazing. who would have thought?
also a funny little tidbit, I tried to contact this old chinese uncle that was walking past me on the street all sweet and old man like. he had this way sweet jade ring on and so I compliment him on it. he takes it off and goes, "here, its yours now!" and despite everything I tried to do, he absolutely would not let me give it back. I tried to tell him that he was very sweet and christlike, which he did not like. he is buddhist but apparently an expert on christianity. he told me that eve was in hell, noah was an evil man because he didn't try to warn anyone but his family about the flood, and, because I was american, I was also evil because all americans have slaves and kill the "red indians" hahahaha. try as I might, I just got reamed into by this cute old chinese uncle. his name is foo suan thye and he will forever be remembered in my heart. he was rad.
I could continue with the countless other random random experiences that seem to just be common living in KL, but I'll save some for next week. we had to start over again, the elders had basically no investigators, just like in puchong. so start from scratch. we try our hardest to get our message out there, and hopefully just like in puchong we will meet some waaaay incredible people and start to see things move here. I'm excited. although I'm praying this really is my last area, I do not want to have to whitewash for the third time. two is enough.
oh! and here is the new address, for all of you who want to know:
Lisa Jensen
Block B 13-02
Suria Jelatek Residence
No. 7 Jalan Jelatek
54200 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
I love you all! so much. thanks for everything.
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