In Kuching there are six Branches and the two senior couples have divided them so that we each have three to sort of take care of. The couple who was here before us were called as Leadership and Member Support Missionaries so that was their primary assignment. We are called as Family History Support Missionaries for all of East Malaysia so our time is a little different although the other couple here are Seminary and Institute Missionaries so they travel also. So what this all means is that we attend meetings for two Branches each Sunday, rotating the Branches that meet at 9:30AM since two of them meet at 9:30AM and the third at 1:30PM.
Last week we went to the Stampin Branch at 1:30PM (which we can make most weeks because it is the only one meeting at that time) and were invited to sit in on Branch Council with the sister missionaries and the other member leaders. Due to Chinese New Year there was only one other local member leader in attendance, the Primary President. The Branch President is a cute man who is maybe mid to late 20's, is single and has only been a member for about a year. He is hilarious. We love him so much. He has tried to call counselors but they have all said "no" so he runs the Branch by himself. He is passionate when he speaks. He is a strong personality. The missionaries were all afraid of him and he was a tough one to teach.
So....We sat down and President Ramba invited Elder Moulder to say the opening prayer. Elder Moulder of course accepted and stood up and said the prayer in Malay. No sooner had we said "Amen" and President Ramba was shouting with a huge smile on his face and could not contain himself he was so surprised and happy to hear the prayer in his language! Seriously, he was so animated about it that we were all laughing and the sisters grabbed their camera's because they had never seen him react to anything like this before! He did get control and continued the meeting but throughout the meeting he would just look at us and break out into a smile and shake his head and say how happy he was that we were learning Malay and he was sure we would be fluent in 6 months! I was very uncomfortable with that deadline, but here is what it did for us......We want to learn this language more than ever. The reaction of this cute man who is trying to do everything he can to keep his covenants and serve the Lord lit a fire in us and we want very much to learn the language well enough to communicate with him. Most of the people here speak some English, including President Ramba, but to know that we are interested enough in them to learn their language was huge for him and we know it is for many others. (I had a similar reaction when I said the prayer in Malay in Relief Society but not quite as animated ^_^ ) So this began a stronger effort for us to learn 50 words each week and to coordinate other efforts to learn.
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| President Ramba playing with some of the little boys in the Stampin Branch |
Monday was laundry and cleaning and the sisters come down to use our computers for their one hour of internet time to communicate with home. (They are so grateful they can use our computers rather than going to the internet cafe and listening to bad language and loud music and other bad stuff....we are happy we have two computers they can use) We planned, washed, hung our laundry out to dry in our living room ^_^ and then we wanted to get something to eat so we went out to find a restaurant. We had thought that with the holiday we would be able to get to the Spring mall and go to by favorite Mixed Rice place, but we were so surprised that the mall was filled with shoppers and the parking lot was full! We decided to try another place and it was also closed so we tried a new area behind the church were we hadn't driven before. We had been to one place there with the missionaries on our second day in the country but we had walked so we were in new territory with the car. As we came around a corner there with most of the places closed we saw the word "Thai" and there was a woman sweeping away the residual from the firecrackers, etc. of celebrating. I think the name of the place was "Thai Expressions" or something like that. We pulled up in front and she smiled and I rolled down the window and asked if they were opened. "Yes," she said, "but we only have one server." I asked, "Can you cook food?" "Yes" she smiled and said so we parked and went inside.
As we went inside I immediately thought of the cool Japanese restaurants that have a small waiting area and a door that leads to separate private enclosures where you sit on the floor and are served. There was a desk and a bench and then I noticed a group of shoes by the front door. She invited us to sit on the bench and remove our shoes while she went to get us some ginger tea. We sat down and I began looking around and that's when I saw it......a poster advertising the prices.......for massages! We were in a massage parlor!!!! Ed quickly put is shoes back on before the cute lady came back with our tea. We apologized to her and explained that we though it was a restaurant and she laughed. We found out that she is from Chiang Mai, Thailand which was my first area on my mission to Thailand in 1974. We left and waved to her as we drove away. After that we decided to just go back to the apartment and eat peanut butter and toast or standard quicky food these days.
Monday is also the day of mission transfers. These were the first transfers since we arrived in the mission so we didn't know what to expect. As senior missionaries with a car, we help out the young missionaries whenever and however we can. We had one of our cute Sisters transferred to Singapore so she won't need her bike there but wants to keep it, several of our Elders were moved so the week of transfers we have learned is a busy one. Saying goodbye is also difficult. It is always surprising how close you can feel to some people when you have only been with them a short period of time.
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| Moulders, Sister Wilson(moved to Singapore), Sister and Elder Nielson at goodbye dinner for Sister Wilson |
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| Yummy Three Sour Fish we had at the goodby dinner. We tried a new Chinese restaurant close by the Church. It had only been opened a few days and it was very good! |
We have met several times now with Sister Maureen who is the Family History Director in the Kuching District. She is very anxious to get going with the program in this area. The Country Family History Director, Sister Loh, who lives in Kuala Lampur has really started a fire in some of these members for Family History. It is wonderful! So we spent a lot of time working up a plan for the year for her and to present to the District President and Branch Presidencies. In a place where leadership is not very deep it is always a challenge to have people show up and participate. There are some very faithful people here who shoulder the burden of carrying huge leadership roles.
Thursday the Mission President arrived to do temple recommend interviews and such. They arrived with some of the Elders who were coming to this area and there was also a Zone Leader Training for East Malaysia. In this mission there is a lot of travel paid for by the Church because of the distances. Anytime the President needs to train the missionaries are flown to a central location. The Zone Conference was for East Malaysia Zones so all the ZL's from the island met here in Kuching and then flew back to their assigned areas. In March all missionaries will have a conference in Singapore. The Seniors also have their own conference at that time so there is quite an expense to get everyone together and we do it every 3 months because of visa restrictions.
Regarding the visas. Usually a visa is given for 90 days, but some missionaries get border agents who restrict their visas to 7 days or 10 days so they have to make another trip. Of course they can not do it alone, so another missionary must be with them and it can become a problem. We have to be sure to clarify that we are volunteers, not missionaries because to the Malays a missionary is a paid position and it may be giving a job to a foreigner and not a local native. But as with everywhere, we are here at the "invitation" of the government.
Thursday evening was a Valentine's Party for the Stampin Branch. President Ramba and his clerk prepared to give out paper flowers to ward members beginning with the oldest couples and then made sure everyone had some kind of recognition and love given to them. It was hilarious to watch these two men trying to make sure they didn't forget anyone including investigators and the new Sister missionaries who arrived just that day! He had asked the missionaries to sing and it was fun to stand up with Elders, Sisters, President and Sister Mains (Mission President) and the other senior couple and sing "Love At Home" for the Branch membership (about 40+) in attendance. They loved it. I also sang for the group. I sang "Why did I choose you?" the love song I sang to Ed on our wedding day. It was fun
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| Cultural Hall with stage and round tables....imagine that! ^_^ The building has many similarities to buildings in the US but there are some differences. The missionaries love coming to this building, however because it is one of only a couple that have a drinking fountain! |
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| Members preparing the drink for the Valentine's Party. It is always a mixed punch that is served, never water at least so far in the three weeks we have been here! |
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| Table spread with pot luck dishes from the members. The tub on the left with the purple lid is filled with rice. There is another tub behind it. We have eaten purple rice and red rice and white rice. It's all good! |
Friday a Chinese member invited all the missionaries to her home for lunch. She prepared a bunch of food and it was all wonderful. She has been a member of the Church here in Kuching for 19 years. Interestingly she is like many of the Chinese members here who grew up in the schools learning English and then speaking Chinese at home so they have limited Malay language. That is one reason why there is an International Branch in the District that is conducted in English. Sister Lim is a wonderful woman and so lovely to speak with. She knows a lot and she is willing to serve where she can.
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| Sister Lim, Sister Moulder, Sister Poh - Kuching Branch |
On Saturday there was another Branch Enrichment activity. There is always food involved in every church activity it seems (just like home) so the food was prepared at home, brought and set out on a table in the kitchen and then we had a lesson. After the lesson we went back to the kitchen and one of the women demonstrated how to make donuts! They were so cute. Since they are not able to cook in the kitchen they all took some of the dough home to cook there. They asked me to take a picture of them and they posed proudly with their donuts.
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| Butter(margarine) in a bag |
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| Playing pony with the Sister Missionary while being with mom at RS Enrichment |
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| Elder Moulder went for another walk today in the sun and ended up with stripes on his already red forehead. |
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| Investigator Sister Bia with her birthday girl, Erica and other daughter Shirley |
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| Sarawak specialty a multi-layered cake. It is very good......^_^ |
Sunday at all the Branches Ed was sustained to be a member of the District High Council. It is typical that the senior Elders sit on the Council so we were not surprised.
I have been struck this week with the humility of these sweet brothers and sisters. Many can speak English well enough to tell their stories and other stories I hear from the missionaries. I watch the little children and I love how the fathers are very involved with them. I have felt a sadness for them and a humility and gratitude for having been born in a free and prosperous country and into a family with the gospel at it's center. I am so humbled by these little families who do so much in the Church and are teaching their children to love the Lord and to be obedient. Theses families are few and the parents will have great responsibility. One family who touched me at Church today in the Matang Branch is the Branch President, his wife (Primary President) and their 6 beautiful children. The little girls know the hymns perfectly and sing out in the meetings and lead the rest of the congregation (maybe 30 people). The oldest girl is about 10 and she sings with passion and enthusiasm. They are the pioneers here in this land where the Church is about where it was in the US in 1842. They are the leaders who will march across the plains (or jungle) here and establish the Church in this land. It was a tender experience for me yesterday.
I love being here. I love this work. I love Our Father In Heaven who cares about each of us dearly and wants each of us to have the blessings that He is waiting to give us while we are here on the earth. He has created it for us to experience joy and to learn that He loves us and will not leave us alone and comfortless. I am so grateful for Our Savior and His Atonement. I am humbled that He would take my sins and my weaknesses and pay the price so I can be nurtured by Him and the Holy Ghost and lifted up in my sorrows because He knows me and knows how I feel. He knows these, my brothers and sisters in Malaysia, too and I am grateful that He asked me to come here and serve them so they can perhaps know Him a little better because of my testimony and service.
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