October 19, 2010
Apa Khabar Semua!!!
These weeks really do just fly by. Its nuts. I think I'm going to wake up one day soon and be old, married, 4 kids and a big belly. That will be interesting :D
So!!! We finally got to watch Conference!!!! WOOOO!!!!! Lets just say watching it in another language is a completely different experience. Not hearing the apostles normal voices takes a strange power from the words, but they are still good. I'm still fairly new and the weird accents are a bit hard to get use to, but it was still an awesome experience. President Uchtdorf's talk on Pride? Wow.....talk about rad. We have watched a couple of the conferences since in English (as we have them on DVD's) and they are so inspiring. It's never been so Inspiring before. I was thinking about back home when we would have those big Conference gatherings at the Dalton's house and all i would want to do would be to play with all their awesome toys. Thankfully my parents only let me horse around so much, but now I wish I would have listened better.These words are truly from Jesus Christ to us, and we need them. Bad. Read them and listen to them again and again. You will find power. Oh yeah. The modern prophet is more important than prophets of old. WOAH!!!! Never heard that before. Talk about revolutionary. Simply amazing.
So we had conference on Saturday and Sunday, and on Monday we bussed up to Sibu for another Mission training session. 3 days this time. Woot! The training thus far has been absolutely amazing. We are going over the same stuff we did before, and while before I took notes on everything, not I am just taking notes on what the spirit tells me to write down. Its really heavy stuff. One thing I have been realizing is in my quest to constantly better myself as a missionary, that it is impossible to be a perfect Missionary. You can't convert everything, share with everyone, or baptize every investigator. Look at Jesus Christ. Even people rejected him. I KNOW that an imperfect soul as myself is no where going to be able to accomplish close to what he did in his ministry. But the Lord doesn't ask us to be perfect. He just asks us to Love him, try our best, and continually remember him. If we do those 3, we will be ok :D
One of the recent miracles in my Mission has to be with our old Iban couple, Kisang (M) and Imang (F). Kisang has come to church and all the activities since he started learning, but Imang has yet to come, since she already had a church. However, since we have been teaching them the restored Gospel, we have been able to see a difference in Kisang. He has more energy, more liveliness and a spark to his step. His wife has also begun to open up too. The other day we committed them to be baptized, but Imang was wondering "How can I be baptized if I haven't been to your church yet?" So we told her if she comes three times and follows the commandments she can be baptized with her husband. So she agreed. YES!!!! The coming Sunday was conference though, and we were a bit afraid. Sitting a bunch of Ibans with devil children in a freezing room for 2 hours twice in one day did not really seem like a good 1st church experience. However, I prayed that it would be a spiritually uplifting environment. Then came game day. I remember at one point during conference I was frustrated that people were leaving and going so often, and that very few were really listening, but I prayed that it would be ok. A peace came over my heart telling me that things would be ok. When we met them that night and asked them what they thought. Imang loved church, and acknowledged while a bit different, she loved it and wanted to come back! YESSS!!!! The power of prayer is real.
Well, just as things were starting to get a bit slow in our area, Elder Steele and I realized that we were really wasting a lot of our time on people who really didn't have a large interest in learning, or who were not keeping commitments, so we went through and cleaned out a lot of our bad investigators. This cleansing felt very good and like we are getting ready for the area to get hot with investigators. Then?!?!?! Transfer news. Elder Steele is going back to the city of his birth in Bintulu to become a Zone Leader, and I am going to stay in Kota Samarahan. I had a deep feeling that this was going to happen soon, but its sad when it does. I really have loved my time with Elder Steele, and we have our way of working and talking and working hard and having fun. I will definitely miss him as he has taught me lots. I will need all I can to help me with the challenge ahead. To replace Elder Steele, they are sending down a fairly new Missionary, Elder Gallinger. I was actually in the MTC at the same time as this man (our groups overlapped) so I have only been in the field 6 weeks longer than he has. While I have officially ended my training as of about a week ago, he is still halfway through his. I don't think this usually happens that someone as young as I am starts training (or half training) an Elder. I was a bit....unsure of my own abilities, but I have since realized that I need to trust in my Mission President (whom I love), my new companion (also love) and the Lord's Strength (love him too). Boy do I need his help. This will be a new adventure for me, as I become the senior companion and take upon myself all of the appropriate duties. Am I ready? Well.....Pres. Clark himself said "Well....no you're not, but the Lord calls us before we are ready to fill an assignment, and when we are ready to fill and assignment, he gives us a new one." Oh so true are his words. The only way that I will be able to do my job will be through the strength of the Lord and the power of the Holy Ghost. I am excited for this new horizon and can't wait to tell you more :D
Well I must get going. People to baptize. I love you all so very much, and love hearing from you. Time is flying so fast, it seems i will see you all so very soon. How odd.
Your loving son, brother, friend,
Elder Willem Kampenhout
P.S. Hey parents....did you see the guy in conference who had my middle name? :D
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