First Week in Malaysia!

Hahaha, I love you that you and dad both gave me outlines, whether on purpose or not it's probably a good thing because I didn't make notes of what to write about this week like I usually do.

Trip: I slept the whole time. Nothing exciting there. Oh,  Sister Crandall's ankle swole up to the size of  a small mellon (the last melon!)  because she ran over it with her luguage... or maybe I did with my lugauge?... the day before. When I left her she was still hobling around. ...It was kind of really sad. 

My comp is Sister Pullicar from Idaho. Super sweet! She's basically awesome. 

Oh yeah, haha, I'm in Kuching, which is basically the westernly part of East Malaysia. No one really speaks any English, but sometimes they know a word or two. I usually just here their English when they yell "Speak, Sister MacKay!"... which is always like five people saying that in unison. Weird. Maybe I should speak a little more. Or when the kids say, "Can I call you Sister Barbie?" Which has happened a weirdly large number of times.

Weather: Hawaii X 40, not an exaggeration. Hot, but somehow way more bearable than Vegas. Maybe in my mind it's just normal to constantly have water flowing out of my skin, because I'm strangely fine with it. Many weird things. haha

Health, fine.

Language is coming. Mostly what I can understand is gospel words, so I can kind of keep up in lessons, but otherwise I'm lost. Siket-siket, lama-lama, jadi buket. Little by little. Bug bites get big. Sunday was scary, but it was a great oppurtutnity to rely on the Lord.

Eating every meal on the floor is an experience. I definitely wasn't expecting.. this. Not sure what I ws expecting. oh my goodness the techno music is stressing me out so much!! Ah! Minor freak out. I'm good. It's so cool though! The people are so nice, and they're really impressed with how much Malay I can speak for being in the country for three days.

[I asked her for her High of the week as well as her Low]
Okay, we'll do the high - I seriouslly can't focus with this music. We'll have the techno be my low. Kidding. Kind of. Umm.... The first day was really hard. We planned all day and then met with the branch pres. so I didn't really.. do much, it felt like. I fell asleep during planning, and I didn't know how to eat the yummy chicken they fed us because there were so many giant bones in it; and I couldn't understand a thing, I got my first bug bites, and I was just... didn't know what to think about everything! I also fell on the escalator in Singapore and took out some poor Asian woman, but that was funnier that sad. 

So I didn't exactly know how this was all going to go and kind of got into that mode again of, basically, if I grit my teeth, then I'll get through this. Only eighteen months. But the next day we got to teach, and ,suddenly, everything was amazing. I've learned that teaching is the highlight of everyday. Meeting the people and getting to share something that is so incredible, so true, so life changing, so eternally effecting, and I get so excited! I hope my enthusiasm shows through when I bear my testimony so they can see how important this is to me. Also, studies make every day. Without studies days are a lot harder. This morning I was going through a booklet I was given and reading what it says about stress management  As I read thought it I was hit with how differently it described handling stress than the world. Often times people turn to alcohol  exercise, video games, tv, food, whatever. And that's how we find peace in this world, that's how we cope. But the suggestions in this book were to pray, look for and record blessings, and things like that. It made me think of the scripture in.. John 14:27, I think, that says basically that God doesn't give peace in the same way as the world; it's better, it's healing, it's eternal hope. That's what I learned in my studies today. :) Ah! No time! I love you! I'll try to be more organized next week. Monday's are p-day.

[Her sister asked her some questions, so I'll include them here!]
Q: Did you get to see any of Singapore before they shipped you off to another country?
A: Noooooot really. I took the subway most places, or busses, or walked a lot, so I didn't see a lot. But our chapel is really pretty! Huge round window, freezing AC, but crazy nice. And four stories high.
Q: Does your apartment have AC? Or are you just hot all of the time?
A: AC, yes. I think so, most of the time. Sometimes, it's super hot, like when I go to bed, but by the middle of the night it's really cold. So its kind of an Antartica or Sahara Desert kind of thing. I'll take it, though. Way nice! Actually, our whole apartment is way nice: fish bowl view, wood floors, six girls, and the occasional dead lizard in the shower.