Goings on in India, Johor Bahru, and Willow Spring

Jacob is serving in what is most likely his last area (We just got the letter from Salt Lake telling us of his flight plans!). He's serving in Kakinada, but some of his assignments have him back in Rajahmundry and Hyderabad every couple weeks or so. He's been able to visit some of his converts and members of his previous branches. I've included a few snippets from some of his latest emails.

7/22/2008
Now, as for my news, i met with the branch president from Hyderabad 3rd branch, he was here giving a training to the seminary and institute teachers in raj and k-town. He confirmed that 3 of my investigators were baptised right after i left, which i had been wondering about, that they are active, and that the sister of one of my converts there, who we almost baptised, is going to be baptized next week, so that made me way happy. And they are solid converts too. We baptized a guy named Raj Kumar, the guy who was going to germany, his wife wanted a bit more time, but is now baptized, she's a very nice lady, a bit timid and shy, and then the other two were also a couple, Ahdi and Jyothi, they have a very hyperactive 3 year old son. We had a baptism this sunday, a great young man named Mahesh, he's awesome. Great testimony. Kakinada is such a sweet place. We went to the beach today and watched fishermen pull in their nets. saw some cool stuff. I picked up some neat shells, found a sand dollar, and saw some dead eels on the beach, later we saw a bunch of guys pulling in a net full of small fishes, shrimp, stingrays, eels puffer fish (that were puffed up) and a sea snake. the guy grabbed the snake by the tail and flung it back in the sea.

7/29/2008
Anyway, my companion is Elder Ashworth, he's actually one of my batchmates, and we're having a good time, we're both kinda sick right now, he had a fever last night, and i've had a bad cold, as you can see by the photo. I had a lungi that i used as a big hankerchief during companionship study. It was not an effective companionship study as we both were feeling cruddy. But we proselyted and had a good day anyhow.

7/29/2008 cont.
sorry, this computer wouldnt let me send photos, maybe next time. you havent missed too much, its not like you havent seen me stick things up my nose before.

8/5/2008
I'm emailing from Rajahmundry today, i went to visit a lot of my converts, including Dinesh, who i baptized almost exactly a year ago, and i took a picture with him in front of the "Moroni Model School" Pretty sweet huh!



This is on the steps of the St. Thomas Shrine. What missionaries could/would resist getting a picture here? We're just glad they kept their merriment to big grins.

Shiloh is serving in Johor Bahru, Malaysia. His companion was raised in Malaysia, and so Shiloh's been able to have some one on one with learning languages. The first thing his companion asked him was "Do you like to learn languages"? It's a good thing Shiloh said yes, because he was told "Good, we will learn malay, mandarin, iban, and more".

7/15/2008

It is so odd here. No one ever questions that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ appeared to Joseph Smith. Everyone accepts that right from the beginning. The hardest thing is helping them understand that it is the only true religion. Everyone here believes their own religion...and everyone elses. Thats where faith, prayer, and the spirit comes in.

7/29/2008

I got a Chinese family to translate my name into mandarin. It is not a direct translation but the sounds of my name resemble chinese words. I will send the characters in my letter. Si low Dian Sjut = little child flower believe. While not especially manly or rugged, I maintain that it is better than my companions "Goat Savior."

Something that I had not heretofore realized, is that Bahasa Malay is essentially a dead language. We also do not have any materials in Malay. The Books of Mormon we deliver are in Indonesian. Do to this, many missionaries pick up on both. We run into so many different people here. We teach a substantial amount of each of these peoples, Chinese, Vietnemese, Indian, Nepalese, Nigerian, Indonesian and Iban. All Malayu people are Muslim. All of the pakistani and iranian immagrants are muslim. Having said that the Malayu people are muslim, there are a few other tribes that are native malays but have different culture. The Iban and Kadazan headhunter tribes of sabah and sarawak are predominately Christian, however they look just like the muslims. This makes it difficult to find them. When we bus contact and everyone appears to be Malayu, we ask, Bangsa Apa? or what is your race, which is not rude here. Otherwise, it is difficult for someone as unexperienced as myself to distinguish them. They do speak a different language but it is very similar to bahasa. The difficulty with the iban language is that it is also dead and they write it however they want as far as spelling. Church in bahasa is Gereja. in iban, depending on how they feel, it can be Gereja, Gerija, Girije, or many other variants.

8/12/2008

Thanks for the package and jerky is always welcome so long as it is beef...not fish. You can get anything made out of fish here. While there is the Nuggetize campaign in America, here rather than nuggets, everything is a ball. fish balls, beef, chicken, vegetable balls. I havent eaten them yet because I specifically avoid them. Nuggets just seem more humane than balls. Nuggets have substantial dignity, balls are just embarrassing.

I'm thinking that if you have to eat your food with your fingers, it would be much less of a mess to eat a "ball" of food. I think of the countless hours spent teaching (and then reminding) my sons to use a fork, and then they're sent to countries where a fork isn't even used.

8/12/2008 cont.

We had the first baptism in JB for two months, Juen anda akbar. Elder Etable baptized him and I will confer upon him the gift of the Ros Kudos, Holy Ghost, this Sunday. He is an Iban, descended from Head hunters in Sarawak.

A tradition in the church here in the south is the "Rose Prom", or so we thought. When Caitlin was at a Youth Committee meeting with our new stake, she brought up the prom, and got blank stares in return. So, she explained that the prom was held after seminary graduation, and is usually the only formal dance during the year for the youth. She and our ward were promptly assigned the decorations. They turned out beautifully, and a silly, wacky time was had by all.

Shiloh had requested individual pictures of the girls, pictures that they approved of. So, that meant going out and taking new pictures, because all previous pictures didn't meet with their approval. We got some individual shots that they liked, but I'm just including one with the three of them.

The summer's just about over. The girls have just one more week before school starts on August 25. Caitlin and Becca have been running cross country at the school since the beginning of the month. Yep, 6:30 every morning. They usually crash for a big nap around 11:00.

The pond is really low, probably lower than last year. But, Jaimee was able to convince her sisters to swim with her a few times. They took the boat out into the middle, so there's never any feet in the gooey mud. They haven't been out since Shayne found a dead possom floating....