Week 17 Selamat Hari Kemerdekaan!!!

Oh man, it has been a pretty awesome week that is ending up badly. So Elder Egbert lost his support card last month and so we've been rationing my money for the two of us. Sooooo the food this past week has been peanut butter, bread, and eggs!!!!! With some help from the other missionaries when we went out to eat. Worst diet ever, it is tearing me up now. Never eating peanut butter again.
 

So yesterday was Malaysian Independence Day!!!!! Satu Malaysia Boleh! It is great that in Malay, merdeka means liberty. America still got influence here! This past week has been wonderful! Just been trying to do a lot of service for members and really make a strong connection between the two of us, especially because in the KL Zone, we don't have lessons without a member present! Not one!!!! Makes it SUPER difficult, but we are coping with working around members' schedules. We were finally able to get in touch with Alvire and her family again (thank goodness) and went and visited them with President Tolman! On our way over there, we were walking through this suuuuuper sketchy Tamil neighborhood, this guy from Pakistan was telling us how he's been mugged a bunch of times around here and was pleading with us to go another way to Alvire's house. We were able to say a quick prayer, and guess who showed up! Pres. Tolman, who was lost as well. He gave us a lift and we had a wonderful lesson! Friday was exchanges with Elder Mikovits, the funniest Elder ever, and we went and taught a Nigerian who is here for school. In his Law program, which is three years, he has to write over a 500 page book. School is awful in Malaysia. But later had a kebab, which is the most delicious wrap ever made, maybe better than Mexican (sorry Elder George).
 

Saturday was so awesome. So we went to an orphanage in an Indian neighborhood and sang and played with the kids for a little bit. Those kids are the best and just amazing. We played for like an hour there and we had so much fun. It is really sad how most of the kids were just abandoned by their parents. Brought me to tears. Then that night, Elder Egbert and I went for a hunt for Shiloh, a member who we didnt see for awhile because he has been sick. His family is back in Sri Lanka and doesnt want to move back to Malaysia, he has a newborn son that he was barely able to visit. We talked with him for awhile and he showed us his mission pictures when he was in the Singapore mission. The last missionaries to visit his home was a year ago and was the missionary killed last year in an automobile accident. eerieeeeeeeee! So Sunday came along, and Alvire and her family and also Samuel came to church!!! such a blessing and they had a wonderful time! Went to an Indian funeral that night, which was cool to see the traditions over here.
 

GREAT WEEK!!! love it here. So grateful to be here. The highlight of my week has to be when Alvire was bearing her testimony to President Tolman, she said that Elder Egbert and I looked like angels on the side of the road praying when she stopped us and asked us to pray at her home. I started to tear up. I have never felt more love for somebody outside my family in my life. My goal is honestly to get her boys on a mission and get her baptized. She is absolutely the best.

Love the work, and love the people. It is about them, and nobody else. This place is amazing and I truly am living in paradise.
 

Love you all!!!! pray for the families of the missionaries who passed away in Taiwan this past week.
 

Elder Holmes
 

Elder Mikovits Quote of the Week: As waiting for the train to head to Kepong, there was a huge crowd of people standing in a mass waiting for the train. He shouts at the top of his lungs, "I AM STANDING!" He got the weirdest looks, I've never laughed so hard.

Games with the kids at the orphanage