Nama Berita!

So, I am in Miri. hahahaha. can you believe that? Wild.
The first day here, I got my bike and put on my old helmet, and we biked an hour out to our area. Very typical, it poured the whole day. So, our first appointment we showed up soaking wet:) The next day when I got back on the bike, I yelped in pain because my butt hurt SO BAD!!!! hahahaha. so bad. I checked last night, and it's official, I have two huge bruises that start right underneath my butt bone and extend to my thighs. Probably too much information, but it looks like Sister Rinet beat me with a stick!! It's better now though, my butt is used to it. And I actually adore having a bike. I started practicing driving without any hands, and I'm up to 15 seconds without them:) not bad, eh? 
So the other day we were visiting some less active members at night, they live right by the river in a little wood stilt house. So I parked my bike, and it was dark, and I wanted to walk a little bit down the pathway to get a better view of the river, when I took a wrong step and...whoops! Stepped off the walkway, straight into the mud/river and my leg sunk to about my knees. hahaha! Thankfully I didn't fall all the way in, so no worries. The first thing that came out of my mouth was, "aku jatuh!!" haha. Which you wouldn't get, but if you were a missionary here you would. On the Joseph Smith Restoration movie in malay there's a part were Joseph's little brother slips and falls into the mud and he says that in a really funny way. haha. Sister Rinet was doubled over laughing. And then we told the members, and they laughed. And then we laughed all the way home. WILD!
Miri is a lot different than KK. You hear the call to prayer every day, it's like it's from loudspeakers or broadcasted from the ground or something. It's always so loud. It's eerily beautiful though. It rains a lot here, and there are a lot more bugs too. A rat crawled over my foot the other night, dead serious, and there was a snake on the side of the road two nights ago. Black magic is alive and thriving here, although I've never seen it. But so far 5 people have asked us about it, or shared experiences where they did it and now they're being followed by three dark spirits. And there are haunted roads apparently, that we can't drive down at night. Haha. It's very different! But kindof fun.
The missionary stuff was in complete disarray when I first got here, but we have been trying really hard to straighten it all back out. We have put 6 people on date since I got here, so less than a week. Not bad, right? We're trying hard to be diligent. Some days are easier than others.  Just trying to find the rhythm. But Sister Rinet is rad. She is teaching me Iban so I can speak to the people here better. The people love it, some random white girl that is speaking to them in Iban...haha. It's a work in process. My malay still isn't great, so by the end of this I might be able to speak crappy malay and crappy iban. Not too bad.
One more very funny story. The other night, Sister Rinet was making brownies. I was filling out the areabook. When all the sudden, our little carbon monoxide beeper goes off. Beeping like crazy. So I start freaking out. Carbon monoxide is not something to mess around with! You die! Or lose limbs! And have to hang out in a hyperbaric chamber!! So anyway, I'm like freaking out. Sister Rinet says its just broken and to not pay attention. Of course, I don't listen to her (great companion, right? oops!) So I keep trying to figure whats going on. I walk outside with the sensor, and it goes off. So I relax. I walk back inside, and it starts going off again. Oh no!! I didn't know what to do. So I opened all the windows and called my ZL that lives next door. Elder Gottfredsen. The goober face. He, as calm as a cucumber, just asks me if it's out of batteries. I say no! it's not! and I explain everything to him. What does he say? "Oh, really? Well, I don't know. Maybe it's just broken?" So then I freak out some more and tell him I don't want to lose limbs and blah blah blah, and then I hear another elder in the back, Elder Forsythe (he's from St. George! we know his grandparents!) say, "oh don't worry about it unless the beeping doesn't stop." and I yell, "IT HASN"T STOPPED THIS WHOLE TIME!!!!!" so then I keep freaking out. Elder Gott is just frozen. Who even knows what he was thinking about. But then another elder, Elder Moody from Vegas, gets on the phone and goes, "sister jensen. are you sure you're holding the carbon monoxide machine or just the smoke detector?" So I look, and, you guessed it......just the smoke detector. APOO! hahaha. neeeeeeedless to say, I felt like an idiot. And Sister Rinet got to say I told you so. What did I learn? Listen to your companion. Save you from humiliation. :)
Anyway, I'm about out of time and I have one more email to send. I love you so much! Thanks for all you do.
Oh! and the mail here is a real problem. Just send everything to Singapore please. If you're fast, it'll get there before two weeks when they come down for Zone Conference. And no, I only got a letter from Christina in KK :( still waiting on everyone elses:( hopefully it will get here eventually.
love you love you!

Transfer Day!

So, I think you may have heard, I got transferred! I'm leaving KK in three hours! I found out Saturday morning, and the funny thing is, Friday I had the biggest sad heart on earth. I was just so bummed! I kept looking around me and I kept getting these overwhelming feelings of depression because I kept thinking, "one day, I won't be here anymore." I was so sad! So that day I made sure that every opportunity for me to bare my testimony, I did it as strong as I could. When I hugged Sister Roslin, I held her a few seconds longer than normal. It was a weird mood and I kept doing all these things subconsciously and then I felt dumb when I was laying in bed that night. But then, next morning first thing, found out I was moving. Funny! I have ESPN or something.

My new area is Miri, Sarawak. My new companion is Sister Rinet, she is Malaysian. She's Iban. And in Miri, everyone is Iban! So it is going to be so fun! I'm going to need to hurry and pick up Iban though so I can understand our lessons and everything. Pray for me! I was barely getting the swing of speaking malay! I am so excited to serve with Sister Rinet. And so excited to go to Miri. Oh! And I have a bike! hahahaha. Funny, right? I'm totally going to be riding a bike. Be prepared next week with horror stories:)

I have a little time so I want to tell you about Crystel and Dariens baptism. I don't remember how much I shared about Crystel and Darien, but they're sister Josies niece and nephews almost. Angel's older brother and sister. When I first got here, and we were teaching Angel, Crystel was extraordinarily uninterested with us when we would try to talk to her, and Darien would run into his room and not come out. They both said they didn't want church. Well, flash forward five months, and they started coming out and talking more. They started following in on Angels lessons. Finally, we started teaching them and put them on baptismal date. They came to church, they read the Book of Mormon, they kept all of their commitments. Their understanding of the gospel and the things they have learned is UNREAL. They just get it. They ask so many questions that I have to sit and think about. Their whole demeanor has changed. Josie said at home they treat her completely different. And on their baptism day, their real mom that I've met a few times but she lives far away, she called me, crying, thanking me for teaching her kids the gospel. Now, their mom isn't a member yet. But she was so emotional and grateful that all her kids now had the gospel in her lives. I was trying so hard to not bawl right there at church. But then the baptism started, they were both baptized, after they both bore such sweet sweet testimonies. I made it all the way home before I started to cry. Again, it's hard to convey exactly how that felt. How missionary work feels. I've heard people say we only care about baptisms. And it's true, we do care about baptisms! Baptism is the beginning on their journey! It's important! But it's about baptisms of the people. Crystel and Darien literally are like my own brother and sister. There is this indescribable love that develops between the people you teach, and when they are baptized it is the happiest moment of your life. Their baptismal day was one of the greatest days on my mission.

I was talking to Wongy the other night about what would have happened if we wouldn't have come on a mission. Seriously, where would I be? My stomach literally sank with that thought. What if I wouldn't have come??? Holy schmoley. What would I be. This is the biggest blessing of my life to be able to be serving. And I really mean that. It is so hard sometimes, a lot of times it is so hard! I feel like I get my hair pulled and my chest smooshed and all these things because of the stress that you feel, but at the same time, I have never felt love like this in my life. I've never felt Christ literally carrying me until now. I've never felt my heart so engorged with love. It is amazing.

I have no funny stories, just a really cute story from Angel. So last night, I had to say goodbye to her. Now legitemately, she is like my little sister. I sometimes feel like I came here so I could be with her. She's my angel. Anyway. There was lots of people at Josies house last night eating and saying goodbye and everything, lots of members (referrals too!!) so it was really busy and I kept getting pulled every which way. But Angel walks in, grabs my hand, and says I have to follow her because she has something to show me. So she pulls me over to the side, tells me to close my eyes and kneel down, so I do, kindof scared......when all the sudden, I feel these hands on my hand and a big fat wet kiss on my cheek. Haha! It was adorable. I still haven't accepted the fact that I'm leaving her.

Oh! Actually, I have a funny story. Really fast. I ate fermented cake the other day. Cake that was very sneaky, because it looked beautiful. But if you ate it, it tasted like sparkling cake. And the bottom had an inch of mold. :) And you had to eat it:) And Wongy couldn't contain her laughter because it was so nasty. So, of course, I couldn't contain my laughter either. It was fun explaining that one! It only got better when the next time we went to teach there, he poured out some vitamin C tablets onto a plate and asked me if I would give the prayer over the vitamins:) I hesitated at first, is it kosher to pray over medicine? But I looked at Wongy and she gave me a nod, so I gave thanks for the Vitamin C and we each popped a tablet in our mouth. I will admit, I enjoyed the vitamin C better than the cake.

I love my life!

I hope all of you are happy and safe and healthy. Are you?

Love you all.

Oh, don't send mail to KK anymore. Can send here:

 

253 Bukit Timah Road, Floor 4
Singapore 259690
Singapore

 

Or wait for me to send my address that will go to Miri.

Thanks so much!

Hello again

this week was wild!!! a whirlwind of crazy things.
I will share a little experience with "faith finding" in one of our areas the other day. So this area is called Sugud, and it's basically as kampung-y as it gets in KK. We went out there for a referral, and discovered there were a lot of Christians with cars. (Can get themselves to church!) So we spent a long time at this set of house/room things contacting. Even got a few phone numbers and return appointments. We were at the point where we were almost going to be late for our next appointment so we were trying to hurry back to get a bus. We walked past this garden with a man working in it, so naturally we say hello. He comes over to chat, talks about his garden, we ask a few questions, and since it's Saturday, we give him our card and invite him to church the next morning. Not thinking too much of that, as we were only talking to him about five minutes. So we got his number and left. The next morning, sunday, we decide to call him and invite him one more time to church. It's about 7:30 AM at this point. we call him, and he goes, "oh yeah, I'm already in KK. I'm on the bus to the church." WHOA! We were so surprised! So we quickly get our things together and run out to go meet him. He stayed for all of church, and as I sat next to him in Sacrament and Sunday School he had about a thousand very good questions. Before he left for Priesthood, I gave him a copy of the Book of Mormon with a very brief explanation so he could use it in class. He took it, went to Priesthood, and after he disappeared. The brother's that were with him said he asked a ton of questions in priesthood too and was very involved in the lesson. Very cool, right? So we called him after church since he disappeared, and set a return appointment for this past monday. So we go to his house, and two very cool things happened, one very powerful and spiritual, and one funny. I'll start with the funny. He lives in this very humble house, and he brought us out some cake and water. The cake looked beautiful and cut, and the water was in dirty little plastic cups. So we drank the water, and the time for the cake came. Disgusting. Stale. Probably a few weeks old. So we both just choke it down and quickly start the lesson before he makes us take another bit. But little did we know, before we left, he was going to make us eat another piece!! And it was on the second time around that we discovered this beautifully old cake had MOLD on the bottom!!!! Like, a lot of mold. So I closed my eyes and swallowed it. Sister Wong tucked it away in her purse:) It was very nasty and funny and sweet, all at the same time. But anyway, the really cool part was when we were talking to him about his experience at church. He said that after we had talked to him on saturday, he went to bed thinking about us and church. He said he woke straight up at 5 the next morning, and felt a very very strong drive that he needed to go to that church. So he got up, and went. He said at church he had never felt like that before. He said he felt "senang hati" which means like easy. Peaceful. He said he talked to a lot of people and had fun and learned a lot. Basically, he liked church. But the best part came that night. He had a dream. I have come to realize that Malaysians are dreamers. They get a lot of signs and answers from dreams. So he, of course, had a dream. And in that dream, he said Jesus Christ came to him in his garden and handed him the Book of Mormon. He didn't say anything to him, no words were shared, but Christ handed him the Book of Mormon. He woke up, and he started to read it. The lesson we shared about the Restoration, and about Christ, and he had sooooo many questions. He asked everything. He committed to baptism on the very first lesson:) And he teared up multiple times when sharing the feelings and experiences he had in just two days. Basically, our faith finding led us to someone who needed the gospel. We are meeting with him again tomorrow, and we are so grateful and so happy that we met him. You know? That wasn't random. We were led there. I know that is true. That is one of the incredible blessings that I have learned/received on my mission. If we live worthy of the Spirit, if we have faith, if we work hard, we are taken to people and places that either need us or we need them. Maybe both
Sister Wong and I have been tearing it up. Having a lot of fun and working even harder. Talking to EVERYONE. That is a lot of fun. Getting the word out.
We have a very busy week ahead of us so I'm excited for that too:)
Hope all is well with everyone at home that I love!

busy days

Okay hello! 
So this week was so so busy! I say that a lot I think. Sister Wong and I are tearing it up. It has been a lot of fun to have her, a new person with new ideas and a new energy makes for a nice new start. You know? It has been great. We have talked a lot about our "vision" for KK, and that helps with the day to day goals. We have been trying a lot on finding people lately, even though we've also been getting a lot of referrals, and have just gotten SOOOO busy!
I also feel like the day Sister Wong came my language jumped about fifty steps higher. I hardly ever don't understand what people are saying. Even when Kesan, the Indian speak to me in malay (he speaks sooooooooo fast you don't even want to blink because you're afraid you'll miss a word!) I still understand, when a few weeks ago I swear I didn't understand a thing! It has been amazing. I have been praying a lot for strength lately too, as well as reading in the Doctrine and Covenants. I feel like a lot of D&C is talking to missionaries, or could be applied to missionaries, and its always about being obedient and faithful and the Lord will help us be strong. Like that. I think about that a lot. I've focused a lot on trying to be obedient with exactness. Not that before I was ever intentionally disobedient, but sometimes the little tiny rules you forget or get a little lax on. So I read the white handbook again and am starting over trying to make sure I follow even the tiny ones. That makes a big difference as well. So trying to be more obedient, trying to be more faithful that the Lord will be with me. I feel the difference. I feel the angels round about me bearing me up whenever I try to speak to people. I'm not scared anymore. And really, why should I be? 
I am bummed I missed conference! We still have one or two weeks more until we get to here it, and I'm not sure if I'll get to listen in english. Probably malay. Also can:)
My favorite story from this week was actually last night. Sister Wong and I had a very busy busy day. More appointments than I thought was possible because we have to take so much bus time out of our schedule. So we were busy. We go to our first appointment which was really fun with Veronica, she participated a lot more than usual and that was great. Our next was with a referral named Tata. He was clear back in KK, very far. That appoinment didn't take too long, but our next was cleeeaaarrrrrrr in Penampang at a members house. Sister Jemimi who I adore. She called the day before and said "sister! you must come to my house and teach my sister!!!!!!" So we were so excited to teach her, but we were short on time so we were running like crazy people. We finally get to her house when she calls and says "oh I'm so sorry! come to my kedai!" So then we run all the way to her kedai. When we get there, she goes, "oh I'm so sorry! my sister is in Renau!" basically two hours away. We were bummed! But Jemimi didn't want us to leave empty handed, so after she stuffed us full of food, she calls about five of her friends to come over and "sambayang" haha. So we contacted all of them, a few of them even being interested. The sweetest one is named Angelie. She walks in and goes, "my grandparents are pure mormon:)" hahaha. So we were kinda like, huh? So we start talking to her and she is really really sweet. Basically she says that her parents abandoned her but she was raised by her grandparents and they were Mormon and they prayed a lot and were very nice so she wants to learn. She even brought up baptism herself! So we have an appointment tomorrow and we're gonna go see what we could do:) We still had one appointment after Jemimi's that we didn't think we were gonna make, but she ran out of her kedai, borrowed the Pakistani mans car from next door, and drove us to our appointment. Haha. It was a fairly typical day, maybe as you just read that it doesn't even sound that exciting. But as a missionary, it was one of the greatest days ever. We planned really hard, studied really hard, prayed really hard, we weren't sure we were gonna get to everything and we got to everything and more, there were people who were interested, investigators that were progressing, and recent converts who were excited about the gospel. It was bliss:)
Today we went to the Sabah museum which was really cool. If I have time I'll include some photos.
Sorry this week I forgot to keep notes of funny little stories that happen. I'll do that this week so next time you get a story that'll be interesting and make you laugh:)
OH! but on a lighter note, we saw a spider the size of a plate walking on the road the other day. It looked like a crab. I was terrified I just stood there and squealed. Very productive, huh? 
I love you all so much!