Week 32 - Malaysia - Return to Sandakan‏

February 22, 2011

Hello Family!!!!

   Well, I am back in Sandakan, and man does it feel good :D While Singapore was a nice stay, and I learned a lot from the Missionaries there, I am very grateful to be back in Malaysia, specifically Sandakan. Lots of missionaries started telling me that I would be transferred to the Singapore Zone cause of all my troubles, but President Clark was VERY insistent on me going back to Sandakan. When I showed up, the Spirit confirmed that to me too. This is where I am suppose to be :D

  So coming back to Sandakan was a bit of a miracle on its own too. The office at the Embassy told me that I would most likely get my Visa on Tuesday (yesterday) but it actually came last Friday! Just four days after I ordered it. Wow.....how many times has that happened? It took weeks to get it before, and I was even living in the states! Now I am on the other side of the world, and 3 days? The Lord works in Mysterious ways.....

 But it was such a joy to be back :D

 These last couple days we have been getting some of our investigators ready for the baptism this weekend, and I have really grown to love Elder Martin and appreciate all of the Hard work he did while I was gone. I don’t know how many people do this, but Elder Martin and I were separate for 10 days, and while most of that, I was with other missionaries, Elder Martin was with members and the Senior Elder (Elder Wieland) in the area, who is also without his companion, as her mom is in Singapore at the Hospital. He has really been doing a fantastic job and really gotten our investigators ready for their baptism this weekend :D I already missed one baptism, but I am THERE for this one :D

  So some of the pictures I am sending (and will be posted on my blog) are of the crazy signs you see in Singapore, 

 

and of Elder Sugi (who was in Kuching with me before, but is now serving in Singapore). The people here sometimes don’t know how to use a western toilet, so you get some pretty interesting signs sometimes :D

Elders Kampenhout and Sugi in Singapore

Crazy dog!!

  One thing that has been of interesting note I've learned is this: Money does not make you happy. Singapore is a pretty wealthy city, but everyone there is frowning all the time. It is sometimes depressing when you see the masses as they are walking and not a single person there is smiling, and if they do, its pretty small. On the flip side, Malaysia is pretty filled with poverty, but these people have some of the greatest smiles! And they love to smile back to you and say something, many times "Peace be unto you." It is soooo true. I never saw it so white and black before. But it’s there. Remember that true happiness comes with spending time with, and loving your family, and those around. The Gospel of Jesus Christ and the churches inspired programs such as Family Home Evening and Family Prayer are ways to strengthen those ties. Make it a habit and you will SEE the benefit. Even if you are living alone, invite some friends over every Monday night, share a spiritual thought and have a little discussion or a story, and then play a game and eat treats! I can't wait to get home and do the same with you all :D

Well we have a member taking us to Pizza Hut soon (it’s amazing how far chain restaurants reach) and so I must leave you now. Take care, and keep praying for your wives and your children, so that they may be blessed.

Your loving friend, brother and son,

           Elder Willem Kampenhout

Week 31 - Singapore - Lost in Transition‏

February 16, 2011

Nee Ho Ma!

    So many of you are probably wondering why I wrote "Singapore" instead of Malaysia. Well....it's because I have not been in Malaysia since I left for the Training in Singapore last Thursday. I was actually kicked out of Malaysia, and they sent me back to Singapore, and wow....talk about a crazy experience. :D

   So...I actually kinda had a feeling something was going to happen when we (Elder Sorenson [District leader from Tawau]) were on our way out of Singapore, but I wasn't sure what. Elder Sorenson went through just fine, but when I was diverted off of my original Immigration line to the next line over, and began begin questioned by the Immigration police about my purpose, that feeling got even stronger, and next thing I know I am in the Immigration Office being questioned and forced to sit for a few hours on this couch. They eventually told me that I was denied entrance to Malaysia, and that they would send me back to Singapore. However, the next flight wasn't for another 22 hours (after waiting for 2 in the office)  so I was going to have to stay in airport terminal for that whole length of time. I was not allowed to exit, and they didn't let me use their phones to make any calls. They did allow me to sleep on the couch though!! It was a little bit warmer than the terminal, but with no blanket it was still freezing. I hardly got any sleep cause there were people in and out all the time. It was nuts. I however did manage to get in touch with the Zone Leaders in my zone and communicated with them to arrange....my return to Singapore, and to alert my companion and the Senior Couple in Sandakan that I wouldn't be returning. So I then had the lovely privilege of talking and visiting with most of the workers in the airport, and while most of them were Muslim, managed to teach one about the restoration of Joseph Smith and the Plan of Salvation!! It was really awesome. :D It was really definitely a bit different, sharing the Gospel and teaching in a 1 on 1 environment. It felt more like friends just talking and trying to help each other out. It was incredible, and now I see why Member Missionary work is so important. Having two guys in suits and ties sit down and teach and invite you to do things can seem a bit odd at times, but when one friend is sharing and asking one to do it because they love one another.....that is where magic happens. Its when it is done out of love that the miracles come forth. :D

    So after a long 24 hours in the Kota Kinabalu Airport terminal 2, and showering in the sinks, eating only a muffin, I left for Singapore. Whew!!! It sure was nice to get back to a place where people liked you. :D So i have been here ever since. I have applied for a new passport, one without the big black stamp of being at one point "rejected from Malaysia" so that in my later months as a missionary I will be able to fly between countries without bringing up questions. But I have since been able to go to the US Embassy here in Singapore, go the Singapore Police Station, and go around with the Elders here in Singapore. My new passport should arrive around Tuesday next week, after which they will quickly send me to Sandakan, but this time avoiding the KK airport. I know all those guards all too well. ;) After being there through all the shifts. But President Clark was very insistent on sending me back to Sandakan, and I guess he knows that the Lord wants me there for a purpose. I guess when I get over there I will have to do my best to make it come to pass. :D

    Serving here in Singapore for the last couple days has been really awesome, and will be a good learning experience for my life to come.  :D I need to get rolling, but the next week I will have more to report on my situation. I kinda feel like Tom Hanks in “Terminal”. But I'm doing well :D There is probably someone in Singapore I am meant to find.  :D

Your loving friend, brother, and son,

           Elder Willem Kampenhout

Malaysia - Week 30 - Getting Back‏

February 8, 2011

Hello Family!!!

    So after a few weeks full of traveling, adventures in bridge building, and overcoming floods, this week was pretty tame. :D It was kinda nice to have a somewhat "regular" week. They really do make things easier.

The city of Sandakan is starting to recover from the floods, and the streets are cleared of sand for the most part. Sometimes when there is a heavy rainstorm at night we hold our breath, but nothing big has really sprung up. Thank goodness. I have certainly found a new love for umbrellas. HAHA. In Kuching we would just have to bite our teeth and take the rain on our bikes, but here in Sandakan thanks to good public transportation they give a great chance to go all our work by bus. And it makes for good contacting! We even have a possible new investigator from a bus contact, let’s just hope she wants to talk to us because of the Gospel, and not because we are young white guys who speak Malay. :D

   So we are having a baptism this week too!!! WOOT!!! It's been a while, but we have another one coming up at the end of the month. Oh they are so awesome. The interview itself was an adventure on its own. The Branch President ( Elder Wieland) does the interviews, but doesn't speak the language, so he has to bring a translator, and our usual translator is currently in Immigration jail (he accidentally got fraud papers, but that’s a whole other story) so we brought a young man who could do the job. Well.....they had never met Joey, who is one of the shyest and slowest to respond girls in the world. But she has the biggest heart! They bore with it and a little over an hour later finished. That gave us Missionaries plenty of time to see the Man of the House (Enol) battle their pregnant cat who kept trying to find a 'different' place to have her babies other than the one Enol picked. HAHA!!! It even got to the point that he put her in the corner and moved the sofa chair in front of the entrance to try and pin her in. Well, it didn't work, but she still hasn't given birth either. Maybe she will wait until Enol goes to work.

   It was also quite interesting that after all of the flooding that happened Enol's house was relatively unharmed, as they are on top of a hug hill. But they had another problem come up! A underground water main broke right next to their house, and completely wiped out the path they use to leave. Oh NO!!!! It completely washed away all the land, and ran for about 2 days before anyone came to fix it. I guess the Lord really is trying these people here in Sandakan. There really is something special here. The hole is still there though, but now its dry so they can walk through.

   This past week was also Chinese New Year’s, and it really showed how all of the shops and businesses are run by the Chinese. On the two days of Chinese New Year’s, there were hardly any cars on the road, and nearly all the shops were closed. It was insane. Wherever you find shops and cities and places of business, that is where you will find the Chinese here :D But it has been a good Chinese New Year’s none the Less. It is now the year of the Rabbit!!! I guess I was born in the Year of the Snake (a cunning creature). Hahah. The Chinese food here is so different than that in America. It’s like real Chinese food and American Chinese food. Completely different food. But! During the Chinese New year they love to hand out Oranges wrapped in red plastic. Such good oranges here. It’s amazing! :D

   But I must get going. Got a text last night telling us that I would be going to Singapore for 3 days for a Leadership Training, and that we needed to find a place in Sandakan for Elder Martin to stay. And the Senior couple here is in Singapore on their Visa run, so they are out of the picture. We freaked out for a second, but got things figured out. :D If there is one thing I have learned, its that things will always work out :D I love you all and hope America is treating you well. Malaysia is doing amazing for me. :D I think I'm going to freeze in the summer when I come back.

Elder Kampenhout

Malaysia - Week 29 - When It Rains....It Pours..‏

February 1, 2011

Hello Everyone!!!

   Things have been pretty Topsy turvey over here in Sandakan, Malaysia. Ever since my Visa Run to Singapore, it has been raining non-stop, and a pretty crazy week out here. One of our strongest Branch members got caught by immigration and has been in jail since (even though he has legal papers). The people in the branch were pretty worried as Jason was a pretty big role in a lot of the work that has been going on here. But the biggest craziness has come from the constant rain. I don't know if any of you have been in a tropical rain storm, but it’s nothing compared to the states. You lose vision sometimes, and get soaked in seconds, and umbrellas and near useless for about 5 days straight it rained. Straight! No stopping. This led to the worst flooding ever in Sandakan. I don't know how many inches it rained in the past week, but maybe you guys can check it out! I sadly didn't get as many pictures as I wanted, but the memories will definitely last. The worst of it came Friday night, and Saturday morning the Branch President called us and told us to come to the church because it had been flooded with over 18 inches of water, and left mud and debris everywhere.

Sister Wieland: "When I went out back to get some equipment, I was shocked to see that the baptismal font was missing!" 

Sister Wieland:"After a one block radius search, we finally found it several houses away -- can you see the white "box" in-between the banana palm trees, center of the picture?  VERY fortunately for us, the owners of this home were up in the night (when the flood occurred about 4am with high tide) and saw it floating by -- they grabbed it and tied it to a tree or it would have floated out to sea as right behind it is the large drainage canal that goes to the ocean!  The designer of this home was smart - it's built on stilts unlike the church which is right on the ground floor (our church is really a former house that we rent until we can grow large enough to build our own chapel, which future building will NOT be built in the floodplain!)."

Sister Wieland: "This is our lovely chapel - no, not a new brown floor, just "slippery-as-snot" brown clay mud all over!  Oh, and the curtains, you can see the water  and mud on them, so all of them came home with me to get washed since we're the only ones who have a large automatic washing machine.  My house is covered with curtains draped to dry in every imaginable spot, because there are no dryers here of any kind."

Hmmmm, how to get it back to the chapel....

Sister Wieland: "It took nine men lifting, setting it down, lifting to get the font back where it belongs -- how it ever floated away, cannot even imagine the power of the water! That's our "church" ,the white building in the background behind the white fence."

 

 You can see for yourself the nice chocolate floors.  :D Also, the refrigerator was knocked down in the night, but worst of all, our baptismal font was gone! Flat out gone! There is a picture of where it used to be, and then were we found it! Almost 300 meters away! It would have floated all the way out to the ocean, but a kind Muslim neighbor saw it floating around and tied it down to a tree! So kind of them!!! They really are sweet people sometimes.                                                                                                                                So we called some branch members and with about 10 other men we carried the baptismal font all the way back to the church. Then we proceeded to clean the church. All day. We had to pull everything that was on the floor outside and clean it. All the chairs, the pulpit, the piano, we had to throw away countless books, magazines, pamphlets. It was quite a bit to do, but with help from a very willing and amazing group of members, it was done! We had gotten the church all clean again!!

   Our fears were soon rekindled again when the waters began to arise again. We attempted to find sand bags, but we eventually knew that there was nothing we could do, except bring what we could upstairs,  and just let the flood waters come back into the house. The waters were rising pretty fast when we left to go work on a member’s house that was in trouble. It seemed like all of our work was for naught. Water was pouring out of the bathroom drains, the kitchen and the shower drains, and the flooding ditches (about 4-5 feet deep) were overflowing and knocking on the church front door. All we could really do was pray.

    However, all worries about the church were replaced with pity and worry as we arrived to our member’s house, which was situated at the bottom of a steep hill in between two apartment complexes. The house was build on stilts in the dirt to bring it above water levels, but the rains had created a raging river that came cascading down the hill/mountain and ran right under their house. When we had got there, some of their supports had already been knocked out, and the house has shifted. The kitchen was also trashed according to Elder Martin. It was a horrifying sight to see, as this family's home was being washed away before their eyes. As quickly as we could, we took their important belongings to a neighbor’s house, that being 2 fridges, a tv, dogs, cats, various items from the house, pictures, kitchen appliances, and big tanks of gas. All of this was carried in the hammering rain whilst avoiding the rushing river that was tearing the family's house to pieces. As the river ran into the flood ditch (this one about 6 feet wide and 15 feet deep), it instantly turned into a rapid, comparable to some class 4's i have been on. Despite all of the turmoil, and tragedy that was striking their lives, they were so very grateful for the works and efforts we gave in their times of need. I still don't know what this family is going to do about their home now, but what I do know is that they will be loved and cared for by their heavenly father. This interest time of life really makes you think about what is most important in life.
    As a member took us home from a hard day’s work, driving home through the streets which had turned into rivers, we passed the church and saw the water levels had reach up above the floor level of the church, and there was no doubt that the water was pouring over the newly cleaned floor. All we could do is go home, and get into bed early in expectation of another big clean up tomorrow before church, if it even happens.

    We were awakened in the morning by a phone call from President Wieland. "Elders, the church is clean. Only the bathroom and kitchen are dirty." What?!?!? When we went to the church we saw for ourselves. Water had definitely flowed over the chapel tile floor, but has left behind no dirt or sand or anything. It was as white and spotless as it had been the day before after we had cleaned it. All we had to do was move all the chairs, pulpit and sacrament table down from the staircase. It was a miracle. The sacrament attendance that day was a little lower than usual (understandably) but everyone who was there felt the spirit of faith that was pulsating from this building. The Lord wanted his saints to hold a sacrament meeting. And it was one of the best ones ever! :D

The washed out bridge and main thoroughfare through the Kampung (village). The finished project!

 

    However, the following day the work wasn't done. We once again did a service project repairing a washed out bridge that daily brings thousands of people to and from their homes. The rickety little bridge entrance had been destroyed in the flood, and while only 1% of the population was Christian, we still went to work. What surprised me most was that the people began to unite around us, and the children began to help us build their bridge! They would run nails for us, serve as lever weights, while the mothers would make us sandwiches and Milo! (Milo is like hot chocolate) The husbands sat around like usual watching, but one man actually got down and helped us, and many thanked us as they passed by. Now the bridge is stronger than before, and I have a feeling those people will remember that act for some time. I sure will. Nothing beats good service to your fellow men, for when you serve your fellow men, you are also in the service of your God. I can't express how true this statement is.
   But!!! Things are starting to return back to normal, and Elder Martin and I are safe and healthy. :D happy :) and loving it here in Malaysia. I hope you are all doing well in your different walks of life. I'd love to hear from you. :D

Your loving friend, brother, and son,

    Elder Willem Kampenhout 

Malaysia - Week 28 - Rains and Planes‏

January 25, 2011

Anu Abarmu!!!!

         Sooo....Currently emails from the Singapore International airport. WHAT?!?!?!? Yeah. VISA RUN!!!! We can only be in Malaysia for 3 months on our Visa, and then sometimes can get a 5 month Extension. Well, the last time I was out of Malaysia was in August, so my time was up, and flew in yesterday. Flew from Sandakan to KL (2.5 hour flight) and then sat in the huge empty KL airport for a few hours and then went to Singapore (1 hour flight). Got to the Sandakan airport at 10:30 am and then didn't get to the mission office in Singapore until 7pm. Long day!!!! But we finished the day with eating out at Burger King!!! Never thought that would be a treat. A RARE treat. Oh the delicacies here in Malaysia.

        Speaking of delicacies, our last Sunday was quite an adventure. We were hoping for another good turnout, but awoke to a pouring, nasty rain storm. It was pretty bad. Way bad. We immediately hit the phones to talk to the families who were supposed to come. They didn't have umbrellas, and didn't want to risk getting their kids sick trekking 20 minutes through the mud to the car ride we had set up, oh how that saddened us. We then called another family, part member one, and the husband wasn't too keen on coming, but they weren't too far, so Elder Martin and I gear up and hiked through the jungle in the pouring rain with umbrellas for about 10 minutes and finally arrived at the house. We dressed the kids in bags and had some for the parents, but for some odd reason they were unwilling to go. Then, all of a sudden, the grandpa whom had wanted to be baptized but never made ANY efforts to work towards it stood up and said "Tunggu sekejap, aku mau pergi gereja hari ini." which means "Wait a second, I want to go to church today." WHAT?!?!?! I was completely blown away, as the little old man changed into his nice dress shirt, and white church pants, and black leather shoes. These people rarely have shoes. This man rarely even wears shoes, yet he had church shoes. Together all the kids, Maju (grandpa) and Elder Martin and I descended down the muddy hill and we all caught a bus to church. It was a miracle. Even though the people whom we had intended on grabbing from the house didn't come, another little one happened in Maju coming :D Come to find out, Maju is the father of two recently baptized mothers. Guess he has good blood.  :D

           Sandakan truly is a special place. I love the people here, and its SOOOO sad to know that 80%-85% of them are Malay, and that we are unable to share the Gospel with them. Some of them are soooo ready to accept it to, yet we can't do a thing. That would probably have to be the single hardest part of my mission, is the fact that everywhere I go, more than 50% of the people I see I can never talk to about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. These are people whom I can't help them find their true nature and purpose in life. I had never known we, as missionaries, would face such challenges, but we must endure. Someday.....we will be able to....someday.

       

           Things are still going well though, and the work is picking up in Sandakan. I miss you all, and would love to hear from you. Many haven't written in a while ;)

Your friend, brother, and son,

Elder Kampenhout