Bringing In March

Our week was filled with information as we met with our Family Search Supervisor, Steve Tsai, who came in from Taiwan to train us.  We only had one day with him but many questions were answered and our purpose was clarified.  We feel so good about our direction now.  Steve was so fun to be with.  He is a very interesting person and we loved his visit.  Unfortunately we may never see him again unless we can figure out a way to get him back.  He is responsible for the entire Asia Area so he very busy and we feel fortunate to have had him share his vision for East Malaysia.  It is now ours as well. 

Elder Moulder and Steve Tsai our Family Search employee who requested a senior couple for East Malaysia and one of the people who we report to and is the one who gave us the budget for travel around the island.

Steve arrived on Monday night and we started learning the moment he got into the car.  We went to dinner and talked until about 9pm when he finally said he needed to go to sleep.  He had boarded a plane at 6AM and we were just chatting away.  Poor man……. He was very gracious and we picked him up the next morning and spent the entire day learning about configuring the computers in the Family History Center while also talking about travel budget, goals for the country, etc. 

Steve left on Wednesday morning and then we had one of our Sisters come to ask us to take her to the hospital.  She had been having abdominal pain for a few days and it was getting worse.  So we spent several hours in the emergency room. 

Sister Trottier and Sister Tehrani at the Normah Medical Center. 

 They did tests and told us it would be a couple of hours so we drove out to one of the companionships of Elders to get her a blessing.  While there we decided to have lunch because we were all pretty hungry but decided that the ill sister shouldn’t eat.  We went to a wonderful Indian food place and had lunch while she watched....poor thing.  (We took her to another Indian place the next day when we learned she could eat.)  Elder Moulder ordered Murtabak Corned Beef and  Roti filled with chocolate (Milo).  It was all very good.   I had a little white rice with curry sauce.

 

Like pizza the Murtabak begins as a little ball of dough that is rolled out first and then tossed to increase is size and become thinner.

The dough gets large enough to fill and then wrapped up like a square package.

Yummy!

Elder Moulder eating his Murtabak Corned Beef.

Elder Moulder with Elders Ung (from the States) and Chan (from Kuala Lampur)

We returned to the hospital and the ER doctor told us we had to come back the next day.  So that was our day on Thursday as well.  We were happy that she wasn’t getting any worse as we waited for the appointment.  After seeing the doctor the next day we got antibiotics and off we went.  Another Elder was very sick also and needed some medicine and some food so basically we were nurses for two days.  We are glad that we are here to help out.  

Saturday night was the District Young Single Adult (YSA) Valentine Party.  (A little late but they didn’t care, it was when they could get the building).  The theme was True Love and they wanted to have a Western Style dinner with BBQ pork roast, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, fruit and a heart shaped cake for dessert.  I was asked to make favors so I decided to make origami boxes and put a little candy in each.  The Sister’s were very good to help me.  They came in shifts and we had the boxes folded in no time.  After that I embellished with little quotes on love by children that I had.  They were so cute.  Some of my favorites are:  When someone loves you the way they say your name is different.  You know that your name is safe in their mouth.  Billy – age 4.  Another one:  When a person gets kissed for the first time they fall down, and they don’t get up for at least an hour.  Wendy – age 8.   And finally:  If falling in love is anything like learning how to spell, I don’t want to do it.  It takes too long.  Glenn – age 7.

The little boxes turned out cute.

Local YSA's preparing for the party.  Cute new friends.

Sister Pinkston and Sister Rhodes wore our His and Hers Texas aprons to help serve the YSA's.

Sister Nielson cooked the pork roast and made the gravy.  Look at the tea pot in the center of the picture.  It is becoming my favorite kitchen appliance.  Since we do not have hot tap water and we have to boil or filter the water, I use filtered water to fill my tea pot and plug it into the wall and turn it on (red switch at the back).  It heats the water so fast and I have plenty of hot water to do dishes with!  Very cool!  (Actually, very hot....) ^_^

The little boxes looked so small on the tables but I guess they liked them.

YSA's getting ready to party!

Magic Bite is becoming one of our regular stops too.  The kaya balls are okay but the waffles are the best!

Waffles made fresh and in the round irons and then lots of good stuff to smear on one side and the waffle is folded and it is a yummy treat!!

Sunday morning we went to visit the two Branches we had not yet been to.  We were once again able to give our testimonies in Malay.  We again heard comments of gratitude from the members that we were trying to learn their language.  We are trying and hope to be able to give much of our training presentations in Malay within a couple of months.  It is so important to these sweet people. 

Other than these few events our week was uneventful.  I have been having some trouble again with my back and sciatic nerve so I have had to stay down a bit but I am hopeful it will be a temporary set back.  There is much to do and the Lord knows my needs so I have faith that I will be able to do this assignment.