Selamat Hari Rayah!

Today marks the first day of Hari Rayah--in other words, the month of Ramadan (the month of fasting in the Islamic religion) has come to an end, and everyone's going to be throwing parties like crazy. Selamat Hari Rayah! (For those of you Bahasa speakers, I apologize if I spelled it wrong).

Well, folks, this week's been good. And crazy. And fast. And everything. Earlier this past week we had a lesson very similar to Ammon's first lesson with King Lamoni. If you recall, King Lamoni was quite impressed with the strapping young Nephite missionary before him, and so he offered Ammon his daughters as wives. 

Yeah, so we went to this house. The guy there was really nice, but he mentioned something about his daughters entertaining us and then he disappeared. We had a nice, rather awkward conversation with his daughter as we were waiting for him to return. We waited for a long time, and stretched out the conversation to an uncomfortable length. Finally we asked if we could talk to her dad, and she went to go get him...but instead came back with her younger sister. Fun stuff. We were much quicker to the draw on Round 2--this girl, who was only 14, was asked within the first five minutes of our conversation to go get her dad, because we'd like to talk to him. He finally showed up and we told him we'd be back another day.

Just another awkward experience in the lives of the Kuching Chinese elders.

In other news, I've had a chance to study more and more about the Christlike attribute of patience. I've realized that it's something that I really lack, and that it's something I really need. As I've been studying more and more about it, I've come to realize that the Lord is SO patient with all of us. All of our faults, all of our weaknesses, all of our misguided desires--He's so loving and so patient with us. Why? Because He loves us. He died for us. He gave everything for us, and He isn't going to let that sacrifice go to waste. He's going to wait on us and be patient with us as long as the laws of justice and mercy allow; He's going to be our friend in the good and the bad times. I'm truly grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ, and for the fact that He truly is so patient with me.

I love you all so very much, and hope that you have a tremendously great and grand week! Keep on keepin' on lah! :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao