Miracles and Tender Mercies in Miri

Editor's note:  I have been begging Elder Madsen to send some pictures to enlighten and entertain his three faithful blog readers.  Below is the picture that he sent.  I believe he has an excellent future as a textbook author.

Miri, Sawarak

Mom


     Okay, you got some pictures!! We have been contacting all this week, 
so I just took random pictures and videos of the area to send to
 you guys!

      This week has been very crazy and very busy, but we have been working 
miracles in Miri!! Every single day this week we knocked on doors and got absolutely no one to teach!! I was honestly a little worried, but we were not going to give up
 hope.   On Friday, we were by some apartment complexes when a random 
lady stopped us and started telling me that she had been baptized several
 years earlier in Sibu.  She said that she was visiting her kids in Miri, but
 that she was lost and didn’t have a phone to call her son. We helped her find her son and after she introduced us to her son and his family, we started
 to teach them! It's not going so great right now because the son said his 
church wouldn’t let him attend other churches.  (He first told me he was “RC", which I thought meant he was Catholic, but he told me he wasn’t Catholic. He kept saying Gereja Ibu, which means “Mother Church”, so I’m not sure what church he belongs to.)
 Also, it is hard to communicate with him because he cannot 
speak Malay very well--only Iban.  Luckily, I’ve been practicing my 
Iban, so for the most part, I could communicate with him.  We are still teaching his family, so we’ll see how it goes.

     That same night, a lady who I had given The Book of Mormon to a month ago called me.  At the time we gave it to her she kind of blew us off; but, 
out of the blue, she called on Friday night and asked us to come over.   We went to visit her on Saturday.   She 
started crying about her marriage problems--again talking in Iban, so I couldn’t
 understand all of it--but, anyway, she said she was really sad because her husband had been hitting her and she wanted to become closer to God again! We
 taught her about the Atonement and how the Atonement can change her!  But then the
 next morning, which was Sunday, she didn’t come to church because she was too tired!!  
At least we are still teaching her!

     Then on Sunday night, we had several 
referrals that we wanted to contact, but it was pouring down rain.   We decided to go ahead and go out anyway.  We had quite a lot of referrals so I thought that at least one of them would let us in, but in a matter of 30 minutes, all
 or them had said no!!  It was only 7:30 pm and it was still pouring down rain,
 so we found cover underneath a tree and prayed to find out what we
 should do and where we should go. After we prayed, we decided to walk 
around and try to meet people who have crosses on their doors. (It’s a
 Malaysian thing, you can tell the religion of someone just by looking
 at their door.)  After an hour, we hadn’t found anyone, but then I had a
 feeling to knock on this one particular door.  When we did, a lady 
answered.  After telling her we were from a Christian
 church and that we had a message to share with her about Jesus Christ,
 she just kind of laughed and said to come on in. As I sat down, I 
asked her if she was Christian and she laughed again and said mungkin, "maybe", so I was really a little more than confused.  She had us sit down while she made us some hot mile (like hot chocolate) and from the kitchen she said, "You
 text me earlier, Elder Madsen." Now I was really, really confused.  I thought maybe she was a lost referral that I had texted a long time 
ago. I asked her if she had met my white friends before.   She pointed
 above me and I looked up and there were fifteen pictures of her with different
 sets of missionaries!! She had been baptized a long time ago!!!  She told us 
how she missed going to church and that she was so happy that she had met us.  So now we are also teaching her 
family!!!  This week has been just crazy!  To finish off the week, I made 
tacos last night!  Best week ever!


     Earlier in the week,
 we were contacting in this village and we locked our bikes to a tree.  Two hours later, these kids drove by on their scooter and said in Malay, "Hey, stupid white guys, thanks for the
 helmets!"   They obviously didn’t know that I spoke Malay.  My greenie asked me what the guy said and I just told him that I thought it would be a good idea if we went to check on our
 bikes.  Sure enough, they had stolen our helmets and they were all
 sitting there watching us to see how we would react. We acted like nothing
 was wrong, got on our bikes and rode away. The next day, I saw one of the
 same kids and in Malay I shouted, "Hey come here!"  The kid’s eyes got really huge 
and he said, “NO!”  I asked him where my helmet was.  He looked really
 guilty, but he told me that he had no idea what I was talking about. I just 
dropped it and walked away.

 
    I’m a little worried about my new companion though.  He has been very quiet this week.  I think he was traumatized by the crazy Muslim guy who tried to hit us with his car
.  That little incident may have sent him over the edge!!

     Okay mom, I love you 
and miss you so, so, so much!!! Already 10 months down!!


Elder Madsen