Hati-hati!

I'm never sure if these are the longest or shortest weeks of my life. Either way it's great.

My companion and I have become much closer lately as we're both working to make this more than a companionship, but a friendship also. As we're working to gain this love for each other it's becoming more natural to work together and it seems that it's easier to teach in unison and have the spirit with us at all times. I love my companion!

My testimony of Joseph Smith has really grown this week and I'm so excited about it! I've never doubted that Joseph Smith was a prophet, or that he restored the church and translated the Book of Mormon, but I think it's always been in that stage of being a seed that was a little malnourished. This week one of our class substitutes gave a lesson about Joseph Smith, among other things, and showed us how we can relate to him in our own lives and in our own experiences. I had been reading from JSH and D&C a lot that week, but there was such a difference as a read from those books the next couple of days; the spirit was so strong and all I wanted to do was read more from those books!

On that Sunday we watched the Joseph Smith movie and my testimony of all that he did grew even more. That night as I was thinking I realized that, while I have never been attacked by the adversary the way JS was in the Sacred Grove, there have been many times in my life where I've had the concept of that part of the story in my life. When Joseph Smith said that the adversary seemed to be aware, at a very early point in his life, that he would be a disturber and an annoyer to his kingdom, I realized that applies to me and to all of us here. We are here to do the Lord's work and that's the last thing he wants. But the Lord knows how he will try us and He has the ultimate power and will always be the strength that we need. Just like God was able to save Joseph Smith in the grove when he prayed for help, God will save us as we pray.

This gospel is divine, and I'm so grateful that it is my life!

I was also reading in Isaiah today, trying to go over the scriptures that the angel Moroni quoted to JS, and I read chp. 11:8 where it talks about the child being able to put their hand of the poisonous animal's den and not be stung. I always figured that was another way of say that all the animals would be nice and friendly when Christ returned, but once I looked at the notes on that chapter and saw that the animal in question was a serpent, I realized that it was an analogy for how Satan will be bound when Christ comes. We know that Satan will be bound during that time because we will be so rightious that he will have no power to tempt us, we will be as little children in innocence, in faith, and because of that the serpent will have no more power to bruise our heel. It's also a fulfillment of the prophecy given to Adam and Eve in the garden when they are told that, while the serpent will have power to bruise their heel, through God we will have the ultimate power to crush his head. How cool, ya?? 

I'm lovin' it!

As for my language mistake of the week: Our investigator, Wyndy, was saying a beautiful prayer and I had the thought to tell her how wonderful it was when she closed. Now prayer, doa, and sin, dosa, are very, very similar. So when she finished the prayer I said, "Wyndy, kamu dosa-dosa adala bagus," or, "Wyndy, your sins are wonderful!" Needless to say it was a little difficult to reign everyone in from their laughing as I repeated, "tidak, tidak! Kamu DOA, bukan dosa!" Haha, it was great.

(Photos will be added on Sunday!)

Missionaries of branch 34

Us with some of the Malagasis at the temple 

On the way to the JS movie!

this one is from today, so now you now what I look like today! It's like I'm there!

Matching Skirts!

Service

Service!

We study like pro's. you can tell by how mesy our desks are!

Queso Stash - my district loves my mom for sending chips & salsa!

Tiga, dua, satu....

I've learned many things this week, I shall count the ways:

1- There may not be toilet paper in Malaysia - or toilets.

2- Many missionaries kill more rats than baptize people in these missions.

3- You can kill rats with basketballs, or so I've heard.

4- Hand sanitizer is great to dispose of the rats - very flammable. .... or so I hear.

5- You've learned adequate stress management when you can walk into your apartment and find a rat the size of a cat rolling in your clean garments and laugh about it.

....So I think there might be rats in Malaysia! Hahaha, I wasn't sure if I wanted to laugh or cry when I was hearing these stories; it was a tough decision. 

Really though, here are some things I've learned:

Last p-day was great, super great! Unitl I realized that I hadn't noticed if I'd felt the Spirit all day, and there was something wrong with that. So while thinking and praying about how I can make my p-days better, I was prompted that p-days aren't just there so I can wear big girl pants and do laundry, no. -Ummmm, backstory: So I've always tried to figure out what the difference is between those elders who come back from their mission a different and better person and go on to become even better people, and those who come home and become, well, less. But I realized that through using p-day right, I can practice being off my mission and still striving every day to always have the Spirit with me, and serve others, and to always be a missionary, no matter what kind of clothes I'm wearing.

Sister Crandall and my lessons have been going great with our investigator. It's so cool! But there have been days where I really didn't try my hardest to learn all the vocab for the lessons, or really put my whole soul into it, and on those days the Spirit isn't in the lesson. When the Spirit isn't there to teach the lesson, to teach me what to say, and to help me know what my investigator is saying, it's pointless to teach; it's just words! It really is true that if I do all I can do, the Lord will make up the rest. After one day of preparing more but not feeling the Spirit, I was studying after the lesson when I went to grab my scriptures and found them open to 2 Nephi 32. It felt like a slap in the face. Heavenly Father has told me very simply how to do what I need to do, he has given me the tools I need, but I haven't had the faith to use them. Then I opened up to D&C 100: 4-8 and, I swear, it was like God was speaking directly to me. It was so neat, and so sweet, yet, still so bitter because I should have been doing better. The scriptures really are meant for us and will speak to us!

Creeping on her suicide bed. She's convinced it's trying to kill her!

The District!

Sisters in her district

Sister Crandall & Sister MacKay!

The first French braid Sister MacKay ever did. She's very proud!

The first time French braiding her own hair; definitely bragging time! lol

Add caption

Classic "point to where we're going" photo

Two of the cutesiest companions!

Yay! We found Singapore t-shirts!

First MTC Email!

Hi! I'm finally here emailing you! I've never felt so stressed emailing in my life. I don't like being rushed! 

Things are going great! My companion is, wait for iiiiitt...... Sister Crandall from Idaho! Haha, So your prayer worked, Mom! (Kristen's doesn't count because she bragged about it). I'm trying to send pictures!

Ummmm... things. Words. Words are hard.

It was so amazing praying in Malay for the first time! I knew very little of what I was saying, and I was reading it, but I felt the Spirit so strongly as I prayed. It was amazing.

oh! hahaha, I had an elder slip me his email at a mission conference. He shook my hand and said "I really enjoyed your comments," so I was like, oh, thank you! Then he was like " No, I REALLY enjoyed your comments," and pushed the paper into my hand. So funny. Someone isn't quite committed to their mission yet.

I accidentally told my investigator that I was God yesterday. Haha, Tuan (God) and Tahun (know) are very similar, so when I tried to say "I know" it came out "I',m God!" It was a confusing moment for everyone. I then proceeded to accidentally tell my investigator that I'm her wife. Yeah, I can speak Malay. The church is true. Haha. It's incredible though, how even when my language is so incredibly broken, SO broken, ....The Spirit is still there. We teach our lesson often times with notecards to help us remeber our words, but then we ask if she understands and has questions.  She'll start this incredibly long and fast sentence where I can mayble pick out two words, but when we have brought the Holy Ghost into the lesson and truly care about the lesson and the investigator, I know what she's saying. It's... amazing. I can answer questions, forming sentences that barely make sense, but she understands. And when I leave the room I can't ever remember what I said, because I wasn't speaking my words, I speaking words from the Spirit.
I had a really cool, well several, cool experiences. Okay, more than that. TONS of cool experiences and blessings, but here's one that meant a lot to me. I think it was Thursday that we were having a branch meeting with our presidency and all their wives. I was tired, I was frustrated, and I was oh, so grumpy. It was one of those days when I just wanted to not keep all those little rules. I was being a stinker the whole night. I just wanted to scream. But at the close of the meeting, the president looked at me and asked me to play the closing hymn, "Nearer my God to Thee." As I played my heart simply melted. I realized that I was not having the kind of attitude that would allow me to have the Spirit with me and follow its promptings and that I was being hard hearted and prideful. To put it simply, I was being stupid. But Heavenly Father knows me, He knows me so well. I know that it's not a coincidence that President asked me to play the piano. That man is inspired. He was prompted to do even that small thing that not only changed my day, but my heart, my week, and taught me many things that will influence me for much longer. It doesn't need to be angels and visions to show us that Heavenly Father knows and loves us. It's the little things, but we have to have our eyes open to see them.

So we only have one language teacher. It's a blessing, because we also get an English teacher and can actually understand things; but it's also a little hard because we're not AS proficient in the language. I was having a rough time comparing myself to a few of the other missionaries in my district, as well as the Indonesians. (they're in our branch. Indonesian is VERY similar to Malay, just a few words here and there are different.) They have three language teachers and seem to know quite a bit more than we do. It was frustrating. It still can be. But as I was thinking and praying about this, I remembered a talk that sister Clark (of BYUI) gave... I think it was my first devo up there, where she talked about what we use as our mesuring stick. We can't use others as our measuring stick; we can't compare ourselves to others because it is not others who we need to please. It's the Lord Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father that need to be our measuring sticks, and we need to do our best by them. Our best won't be the same as someone elses, and that's okay, but our best will be enough for our God.

I love you!

Idaho & Nevada, ready to go!

Loving Life!

Someone is glad she brought her jeans for P-Day. (Thanks, Krissy!)

Companions! -Sister Crandall & Sister MacKay 

MTC

Temple Walk (Provo, Utah)