Sibu Trip

Open House in Sibu, Sarawak, East Malaysia

Our lives have been on the fast track this week as we prepared and then participated in the Open House for the new church building and Family History Center in Sibu over the weekend.   It was our first trip out of Kuching and we had a great time meeting new people, seeing a new place and being responsible for our first opening and training gig outside of Kuching. 

We began the week with a very humble experience.  There is a young married sister in one of our Branches who just came out of the hospital and wanted a priesthood blessing of healing.  Ed was asked to participate in that with President Ramba the Branch President.  The Sisters drove with us because they knew where the couple lived and had made the arrangements.  The husband of this young woman who wanted the blessing is a construction worker and they lives together in a worker’s shack constructed at the building site basically out of available wood.  There is electricity in the shack, but it is one light bulb.  We walked across boards to reach their home and removed our shoes before stepping up onto their floor and sitting down.  There were no chairs for us to sit on.  There was no bed.  There was no kitchen.  There was no bathroom.  There was a small table with a small television and a wire hung on one wall where a few clothes were hung neatly on a couple of hangers and a little shelf above the table with some medication for her diabetes. 

 As we sat down, the first thing they did after greeting us was pull out from the table their scriptures.  We spoke briefly (well the Sister’s and Pres spoke, Elder Moulder and I basically tried to make it out) and then the blessing was given.  After the blessing there was a short discussion about faith to be healed and then we said goodbye.  They were so cute and gracious and grateful that we had come.  They walked back out to the street where we had left our car.  It was dark by this time and he wanted to make sure we walked safely so he brought a little flashlight to light our way across the boards and dirt.  We said goodbye and she hugged me tightly.  I hugged her back and she said, “Oh, you are like my mother!”  I was flattered and humbled and wondered where her mother was and what she would want me to do for her daughter.

This brought my thoughts to our own daughter, Autumn, who is pregnant and so sick.  I am very grateful for those who can care for her in our absence.  We are happy that she is expecting another baby, but we are sad that she is so incapacitated at the same time.  We wish we could be there but we know there are those who are helping her and we know this is where the Lord wants us for a little while.  We are looking forward to another little baby to join our family while we serve a mission.  We are just a little farther away this time and will miss the fun we had being grandparents to a newborn while being missionaries.  

Tuesday was District Meeting which is always a lift for us.  It was our first meeting with our new District leader, Elder O’Driscoll and we were impressed.  He shared taught us the importance of having a District Vision and we all contributed to a discussion of how to go about it and what we would want that “vision” to be.  These missionaries are amazing young men and women.  I am so grateful to be able to work with them. 

This is Elder Chan. 

One of our Elders celebrated a birthday on Tuesday so we treated everyone to Magnam bars and lunch.  It was so fun to work together in the morning at the meeting and then head out to have lunch together.  I am so impressed with Elder Chan (the one with the birthday).  He is a native Malaysian from Kuala Lumpur.  His father is a member of the Mission Presidency.  I have asked his permission to share his mission story: 

Elder Chan always knew he would serve a mission.  He wanted to very much.  He filled out his papers and sent them in but he was rejected.   Elder Chan weighed too much.  The message from Salt Lake was that they would keep his papers active for 5 months while he worked on his weight.  He would have to lose 40 pounds in that time or he would have to reapply later after losing the weight.  So Elder Chan decided to lose the weight.  He had a piece of toast for breakfast and fruit for lunch and dinner with some lean chicken in between.  He also went to the gym for 3 hours every day.  He lost the weight and received his call to serve in his own country in his own language…..just like the scriptures tell us will happen in the last days.  Elder Chan is my hero.  He is such a great example of dedication and determination that if you want something badly enough, you can make it happen.  He is such a humble man and a delight to work with.  His companion Elder Ung is the perfect companion.  They are both made of the same cloth so to speak and demonstrate how to living a Christ-like life constantly.  Both have quick smiles and genuinely care for others.  I am so grateful I know them both.

 

Wednesday was our last day before leaving for Sibu and the Open House so I once again enlisted the help of the Sisters to make bookmarks to give away in the Family History Center.  They are copies of the bookmarks made for the Kuching Open House last year and we ended up not needing them but I appreciated the Sisters helping me. 

Sister Trottier, Sister Tehrani, Sister Pinkston, Sister Rhodes

We left for Sibu Thursday morning and arrived at lunch time.  We checked into our “budget” hotel and had lunch before getting a taxi to take us to the new building.  We ended up doing training for the newly called Family History Director, Brother Christopher Ling for about 3 hours and then made arrangements for the following day as well.  A planned Open House training for the hosts by the Public Affairs people was derailed by an emergency building project organized by the District President to build a stage instead of renting one because it would save some money and give them a permanent stage.  We were amazed and impressed at the results.  The carpet was pulled up from the old building and laid out on the stage and a makeshift skirt looked great and the steps were sturdy and functional.  It was wonderful for the amazing entertainment that was performed by the local church members.  You can see just how amazing in the photos below.

Is this just the cutest little mother and baby?  She was on the same flight to Sibu with her 2 month old baby.  The baby would wake up occasionally but never make a sound.  She would just look at her mom and smile at her and then fall back asleep after 10 minutes or so.  Sweet baby girl. 

It seems that the Chinese who first came to this part of the island missed the swans from their homeland so they decided that the swan would be prominent in Sibu just like the cat is in Kuching except that there are no swans to be found in Sibu!  I had thought that maybe Sibu meant swan in Chinese or Iban but no....Sibu is named after a fruit, rambutan I was told by a taxi driver. (I will have to check that out further)

Some of the homes in Sibu are magnificent.  This is only one I could get a photo of from the taxi, but there are many rich people in Sibu who have lavish homes.  Most people here do not live like this.

Other sites in Sibu......the Colonel is everywhere.

This is part of the new building.  It is two levels. Beautiful, isn't it?

Here they are at about 9pm finishing up the stage building.  I was amazed at how fast and how well this project went.

It turned out pretty good, didn't it?

While some were building a stage, others were inside getting trained on hosting.  The young girl on the far right would not let me get her picture so the Elders started making fun of her and she rang to get help from her friends who all joined in as the Elders made fun of her for covering her face.  It didn't make any difference though.....she wouldn't let me take her photo.

Saturday morning as we left the hotel there was a wedding taking place.  I was interested in the decorating job on the car.  Then the bride and groom came out and got in the car and I just kept taking pictures.  At one point the bride noticed that I was taking pictures and pointed it out to her husband to be.  They gave me a lovely smile. 

Here are some of the members in their ceremonial outfits performing classic dances.  I was mesmerized.

Grandmother and Granddaughter performed classic style dances.  I love the sound the metal discs on their outfits make.  It is beautiful and soothing.

Grandmother

Granddaughter

More dancers

And more dancers.....

And more dancers.   These are Iban tribal costumes.

This member is quite a locally family musician on traditional instruments.  He was musically trained in China.  Some of what he played was very melodic and soothing but he really got going on this string instrument and it was very lively. 

These members played outside while people gathered before the ribbon cutting ceremony.  The sound of these bells filled the air.  They are very mellow and unique sounding.  I believe this many is one of the Branch Presidents.  The woman squatting with him is his wife.  

These blue shirts were worn by every member of the choir from Mukah, a Branch located about 3 hours from Sibu.  These members are very humble and many still live in longhouses without much in the way of modern conveniences.  They came on a bus for the Open House.  They all performed in this choir and also several dance groups.  They spent the night in the hotel and attended the Dedication before boarding the bus to return to Mukah.  They were so sweet.  Every one of them recognized the missionary name tags we wore and came up to us saying, "Hello, Sister" and wanted to shake my hand.  Many could not speak much more English than that, but I tried my Malay and they giggled at my attempts.  They stayed the night at the same hotel where were stayed and Sunday morning all greeted us the same way, so excited when we recognized them. 

The children enjoyed the balloons at the Open House

Here we are in the little room that has been converted to our Family History Center.  The computers will go along the back wall when they arrive.  We will have to make another trip back to set them up. This is a family from Kuching who drove over to attend the Open House.  The red book on the table is a record make by a member of his Wong Family heritage.  It connects him back to mainland China to around 800AD.  A second book goes back much father.  Chinese are great at keeping records.  It was an impressive thing to show the many Chinese who came to visit.  We gave away the bookmarks, pedigree sheets to start on, Family Proclamation brochures and we had Elder Moulder's family tree up on a print screen to show what can be done.  The WiFi doesn't work in our room but the computers will be hard wired and hopefully that will help getting to the internet.

We flew on this little plane back to Kuching.  It is only a 40 minute flight but we were happy to be back in our apartment and particularly back in our nice bed!  

Goodnight!