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Wow, my last month is here
By Leighton | July 31, 2007
Well, it is now the 1st of August, my last full month on my mission. It is crazy. I can almost feel the time slipping through my fingers. I must admit, that it’s kinda hard not to think about it when I’m not doing anything, but when I keep busy, its easy. So my plan is just to keep busy, so that I won’t think about it too much. I really am having a good time here. I feel like I’m finally able to speak more in Iban now that I push myself to use it. The problem is that most of our people understand Malay, and so sometimes I get lazy and just use Malay, but I have been really trying to speak more Iban, to improve my speed and fluency. Many of our members and investigators are really shocked when they see me speaking in Iban. Still, it is a real struggle and I have to concentrate really hard to do it, and sometimes when I don’t know a word I just use Malay, and it feels like I’m going back to English when I go back to Malay from Iban, because I feel like I can say so much more with Malay. It is a wierd feeling. Anyways, I really love to learn languages and I really love to teach the gospel to these people. It is amazing to see the light of understanding come on in their eyes when they finally grasp a concept. And it is good to be able to understand Iban cause now I can tell if there is a problem that they are too embarrassed, afraid or shy to tell us, because I can understand what they say to eachother. Also, I can understand the talks at church now, which is really cool. But I only have 1 month left, so I am really going to push and try to learn it much better while I still have the chance.
This week I was a little sick with a fever and sore throat, and generally just tiredness. But I still kept working and going. Yesterday my friend Elder Tai was really sick with something, and so the other elders decided to let me stay with him instead of his companion so I could rest and regenerate my strength and health. It was really good. Especially since today our P-Day is very busy, because we will be helping someone move house and don’t have any time to rest today.
We had some baptisms, which was really cool. Elder Tan and I were really concerned about our Branch last week because so many of our members are going less active and/or not staying for all of church. And no one wants to do their calling! So we really studied and prayed about this, and we fasted too. In the end, we came up with some ideas that will really help the branch, first and foremost, getting the Home Teaching Program going. So we got materials, supplies, and met with the Elders Quorum President (also a Recent Convert of 1 year) and discussed with him what could be done, and volunteered our help. He got really excited about it and he made the Home Teaching Assignments that night. So now we are getting things going. We also went and met with lots of our members when we had time in between teaching investigators and encouraged them to Endure to the End, fulfill their callings, and keep the Sabbath Day Holy. It was really a week of rebuking, but it really paid off when we went to church. So many people came, and stayed the whole time! We also had 10 investigators come, and I taught the Asas-Asas Injil (Gospel Principles) class. It was really good cause there were so many people there, and everyone is more excited now. Excited to do their callings, and to help others around them. We have some more baptisms this weekend, and the weekend after that, and after that too, up until I leave. So we have a lot of work we need to do.
Hmmmm… What else to say. How about I tell you a little about the culture here? Basically, Ibans are descendants of a warrior tribal race, who have lived and hunted in the forests of Borneo for thousands of years. The have shamans and worship many different gods of the forest, mountains, spirits and such things. They are highly superstitious. They hunted heads up until about the 1970s, and thus are known as ‘head-hunters’. You still can see the skulls at some long houses. They loooove to drink their home-made alcohol, and most also smoke, which are major problems when we teach them. They are generally very friendly and very kind and hospitable. Most of the people I teach are Ibans who have moved into the flats from wherever else they were previously (usually a long house or kampung somewhere out in the jungle). We sit on the floor for every appointment, hard tile floor, although some of them do own couches. We still sit on the floor though of theirs. I have calluses on my ankles from this now, haha. They love to drink Milo (like Hot Chocolate) and eact biscuits (crackers). Many of them that are in the flats are already Christian, but many are also still Agama Iban (Traditional Iban Belief). They have many customs and traditions, but it is beginning to be lost, because of the lack of a uniform written language. Iban books (what few there are) always use different words and different spellings for most words. This is largely because the Ibans in different areas speak different dialects of Iban. There are about 9 main dialects, and many different variances. This is because of the river systems. Ibans live on the main rivers, so they speak differently throughout Sarawak and Sabah. There are also other smaller tribes scattered about, and we sometimes run into some of them. Among them are the Kayan, Kenya, Bedayu, Kadazan, and Milanau. There are many more also. Scattered among these are also some Malay Islams and some Chinese Buddhists. That is the area I work in.
Okay, that’s about it for today, I’ll try to make a list this week of things I can write next week, so stay tuned, ok?
I love all of you, and miss you all too!
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