Great Week

This week has been a busy one for us even though we did not travel outside Kuching.  Elder Moulder spent a lot of time driving people around in our truck to help get bicycles repaired, etc.  It is a great help to the missionaries to have senior couples with vehicles and time to help.  Elder Moulder is happy to do it.  When he is helping missionaries I usually stay in the apartment and work on things here. 

We celebrated our first July 4th out of the USA but on July 4th I was driving through a market area and saw this so I had to take a picture.

If you look closely at the photo above on the left side of the top of the awning you will see a sign that reads "USA Sweet Corn".  I have seen this little stand often and wondered where his corn actually comes from but I decided that it must be from USA seeds that the corn is grown. The Malaysians sell sweet corn as a treat here and it is very good corn.  Large kernals and very sweet.  The first time I tried it I ordered a small size.  They have the corn in a steamer pot and the scoop it from steamer into a small pan and then they add butter to it and mix it up.  But they add a huge amount of butter which liquefies and fills half the cup with melted butter.  I have also been told they serve it with mayonnaise too.  I think next time I will just get the corn.

We have just completed a month long celebration of Gawai here in Kuching.  Actually it is the whole State of Sarawak that celebrates.  It is a relatively new cultural tradition only starting in 1962.  Malaysian's will celebrate for any reason, but Gawai is basically a harvest celebration which begins after the rice is harvested.  Families will return to their home villages to celebrate.  It is a time when the entire family gets together.  Just like other holidays, there are a few days at the beginning of the holiday where no one is the city.  The Sunday after Gawai began we arrived at Church and the Branch President was so relieved to see Elder Moulder.  He was in a panic because there were no other men at Church and it was 5 minutes before meeting time.  He had no idea how he was going to conduct the meeting and prepare the sacrament all by himself.  Fortunately right after we arrived two missionaries came to help also.  But, the usually three hour meeting block was cut to one hour only since the few people who did show up left to go join their families. 

The end of Gawai was celebrated by one of the Branches last Friday night.  It was fun to watch the young kids dance some of the traditional dances and then to watch on of the prominent members of the Branch perform a sword dance where he finds the fruit on the tree and brings it in the basket to the village.  The "fruit" was bags of cookies, crackers and chips for the kids at the end of the activity.

 Primary children dancing.

 Others performed as well.  The above photo is of Brother Goria who is about to leave on a mission.  he is the first missionary to leave from the Stampin Branch.  The members are going to miss him but everyone is so proud of him.  His family is very poor and he will depend on donations from members to help him fund his mission.  He has been called to serve in the Singapore Mission so he will be here in East Malaysia but probably not in Kuching.  The unique thing about Goria is he does not speak English much so when he attends District and Zone Meetings he will have to have a translator!  I suspect he will learn English along the way.  When he returns he will be a great support to the Branch here.  We all loved hearing him play his guitar and sing at the activity.

 The Young Women and some of the Young Men sang "Come Thou Font" as part of the activity.  It was so cute.  They asked me to play for them and as of Tuesday night I thought it was just two Young Women but when they went up to sing suddenly there were a lot more of them and most did not know the song.  It was fun to try to keep them on key and play the tune while doing a little of the accompaniment. They are so sweet.


Brother Changai was so good doing this wonderful dance.

 When he pulled out his sword I thought, "I'm not sure that would be allowed in a church building in the United States...."



At the end of the activity the children swarmed the tree to grab as much "fruit" as thy each could.  When was fun was to watch those who had grabbed more than one thing, go around and share with others who had nothing. Not all the kids did that, but most did. 

 But just like the United States, the Relief Society women did the clean up while the rest of us enjoyed the program.

 I had heard about the popular dance the "Poco Poco" (pronounced "poh-cho poh-cho").  I just started laughing when I saw that it was the same line dance has been done for years in the USA at every youth dance in the Church.  Everyone joined in and just like in the USA there were people running into others when they turned the wrong way or forgot to turn, etc.  It was fun and everyone loved it!

 

President Ramba (front with white shirt and tie) and his Elders Quorum President, Brother Kambel who brought his very nice basket for the activity.  Elder Stewan (pronounced "Steven") who is from Kuala Lampur but serving in Kuching right now and his companion, Elder Robins are in the background.  Elder Stewan is always goofing off but he is such a great missionary.  He is almost finished with his mission and we will miss him.  He is a great example as a native member.

 

We have a beautiful building in Kuching and Saturday night we had two women baptized in the font there.  Above is Sister Rosselya who has overcome some challenges to finally get baptized.  She was so happy.  Sister Ballentyne on the left and Sister Bishop on the right are equally happy.

 

But sometimes there are those who would rather have a different experience.  Sister Sadil is one of them.  Saturday morning we had a river baptism.  It is the second such baptism we have attended at this place along one of the rivers in the area. 

 Friday afternoon about 4:00pm the rain started and it was a very heavy rain for about 6 hours so we were not surprised to find the river running fast when we arrived.  What was surprising was how cold the water was for them as they went in.

 This is the view of the little picnic pavilion at the river where we had our baptismal meeting with speakers and songs and prayers.  Then we had the baptism and then finished the meeting and had a great picnic complete with wonderful chicken prepared over a fire (see the smoke on the left).  Everyone brought something to contribute and it was a wonderful feast both physically and spiritually.

 Before the baptism I got this photo of three young women from the Matong Branch who came to speak and support Sister Sadil.  The young many behind Sister Sadil in the white is Bryan who is being baptized next Saturday.  He is an amazing young man who is giving up a lot to bring himself to this point.  He will make a wonderful contribution to this little Branch.

 

 Elder Trotter, Elder Johnson (from The Woodlands, Texas) and Sister Sadil before she was baptized.  They walked across this concrete stone bridge to get to the other side to a nice little pool area.



Elder Trotter was surprised at how cold the water was.

All in all it was a very lovely week.