Week #31....Jungle hunting for people who want to change their lives! It's a dream job! Really!

-Last p-day ate steamboat for an Elder's birthday

-Steamboat is food that you cook on your own in a boiling pot of soup. It is all you can eat and really popular and good here. 

-Tomorrow I will finish memorizing the Chinese missionary (about 40 pages) dictionary we will see if it helps. Working with members to find out how to use the words. 

-Ball Handling still going every morning. Been doing a lot of Gabe's old drills. Getting other missionaries up in the morning to hit my arms when I dribble to make it hard and toss stuff at me while dribbling and then I have to catch it and throw it back while still doing a double cross between the legs or whatever move I am working on. 

-They have a lot of fun hitting my arms, trying to knock me off balance and throwing stuff around for me to catch. And I get a good workout in so it works out well. 

Some good recent convert stuff:

-Auntie Mui who we baptized a month ago got some anti stuff from another church through her best friends but she stood up for her belief. As a missionary you get no better feeling, than when your recent convert stands up for your belief. Can't even describe it..

-Ivan Chong who was my recent convert in the mission is doing great and fulfilling his calling as gospel principles teacher even though he was just recently baptized. When you see people you help actually move from talking to doing, again some of the greatest feelings.

When people you convert to the gospel, live the gospel and defend their testimonies, ahh there is no better feeling. I wish you could all feel that joy. 

-----

Elder Funk was here from the Asia presidency this week and gave a wonderful talk at our sacrament meeting. He spoke in conference about a year ago. 

-Smoking is a huge problem here in Malaysia. It is a terrible addiction and it is the only thing holding many of our investigators back from being baptized. 

One of the biggest things I am learning on my mission is how to "Be Quick, but Don't Hurry" -John Wooden --- how to show love to people but at the same time we are on a schedule and have appointments and can't spend a lot of time in a single place. 

I'll end with something I was thinking about this week. Circumstances. They don't determine us. We have agency. We have power. If you don't like where you are at, its up to you to change it. Don't get into the trap of thinking that your circumstances control you. Make it work. Make it change. Make it happen. 

Love to all,

Elder Pierce

评长老