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
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