A Happy Birthday

 Thank you to everyone who wished me a "Happy Birthday".  I did have a great birthday surprise cake from one of my Malaysian "sons", Jeffery.  It was a wonderful day and a a great way to celebrate at the home of a young family who are new members.  We taught them about the blessings of the temple.  

I do have a blessed life!

Not Really Halloween

 October 31st we spent a few hours and went to visit the so called "Pink Mosque" in Putra Jaya which is the government seat for Malaysia just outside Kuala Lumpur.  It is a large city which looks like Washington DC without the traffic (at least when we were there).  The government has spent billions of dollars to make this place as western as they could.  All the ministers of government are here, the buildings were designed mostly by foreigners, including the mosque which was designed by a German, the streets are wide and smooth, there is little or no trash to be seen, no street vendors.  In other words, it really doesn't look like anywhere else in Malaysia.

 Although it was Halloween, this is not my costume.  It is a robe that women are required to wear to go inside the mosque.  Heads, arms and legs must be covered.  It was made of very soft but heavy material and was not easy to wear in the heat, but it was worth it for the experience.  The mosque is beautiful inside and out and I learned so much about their worship.

The cute lady below is Azizah.  She is a nurse but volunteers out at the mosque to answer questions and tell people about the mosque.  She met us inside the mosque and began talking and we were obviously interested in what she was telling us she just kept talking and talking.  I loved it!  I did learn much about muslims that I did not know before.

Ed did not have to wear the robe, but he was still so hot inside the mosque.  I just enjoyed listening to the guides and learning.  We even learned how they bury their dead.  I had always wondered how their face could be toward Mecca.  They are buried on their side so the face of the deceased is really facing toward Mecca. Friday afternoon they were expecting over 6,000 people there for prayers.

We really are doing missionary work, not just flying around the country visiting tourist spots.  We had set up a meeting with someone but they had to go to Sibu at the last minute so we had time and the senior couple we stayed with wanted to show us some of the area.  This is what we chose.  We had a meeting later in the evening with the Family History Center Director and then we were going to go see the Petronas Towers lit up at night, but the meeting went longer than we had expected so we didn't get there.  We keep saying, "another time" thinking we will always be back to these places, but the time is going by so quickly I'm afraid we will miss an opportunity to see or experience something wonderful.  (Like, I really want to go to the place where visitors get to help bath the elephants)

We feel like we are having success with the work we are doing.  It is slow, but many things that are worthwhile are.  We will wait to see the results later or....we may not see the results at all.

Well, it is past midnight and we have a long day of training and planning tomorrow in Ipoh so I better get to bed.  Happy Halloween!

Goodbye Elder Wiberg

We have had a rough week saying goodbye to one of our District Leaders and a great missionary, Elder Jason Reid Wiberg.  The above photo is Elder Wiberg on the plane returning to Kuching from our Missionary Conference in Singapore Friday morning, August 23, 2013.  At about 9PM that night he was hit by a car and did not survive his injuries.  The impact was such that Elder Wiberg never regained consciousness and was declared dead on Sunday evening after much effort on the part of the medical staff, many prayers and much fasting on the part of the missionaries, members, Church leader and Elder Wiberg's family in Utah.

We are comforted by the words sent from Elder Wiberg's father, that his son has received a transfer to work on the other side of the veil teaching the gospel of Jesus Christ that he loved so much. 

On Sunday night a baby boy was born in Kuching to a cute member family in the Stampin Branch of the Kuching District.  The parents named their baby Jason Wiberg Anak Sani.  The baby came home from the hospital last Friday and mother and baby are doing well.

Two other deaths happened in our District this week also.  It has been a week of reflection on the blessings of the Plan of Salvation prepared by Our Father In Heaven and the Atonement of Jesus Christ which gives all of us the gift of resurrection.  It has brought a renewed understanding of the importance of Family History work; finding our ancestors and providing important saving ordinances for them in the temples so our families will be together forever.  Family History is missionary work on both sides of the veil.  We are so blessed to be involved in helping the Malaysian people find the Spirit of Elijah and "turn their hearts to their fathers" as Malachi taught us.

(PS In case you are wondering about the casual attire of Elder Wiberg on the plane, we have been advised as missionaries to dress casually while traveling in and out of Malaysia.  There were 45 missionaries on this flight into Kuching.  Additionally, there were many cases of the new Book of Mormon in Malay on this flight.  The flight staff had no idea of the precious treasures that were on that plane, both in the seats and in the cargo hold.) 

 

Happy Anniversary Ramadhan Style

Happy 29th Honey!

July 14th marked 29 years for Ed and I.  We talked about what we wanted to do for our anniversary over several weeks.  Realizing that the actual day fell on a Sunday we decided to celebrate on Saturday night the day before.  But then a party was scheduled by the Stampin Branch to say goodbye to the first missionary to serve from that Branch. We were needed there and wanted to celebrate with them so we decided Monday the 15th would be just fine.

Sunday was a busy day.  We began the day by speaking in Sacrament Meeting in Bahasa Malay on Family History which always takes a lot of effort for us.  After the meeting block we  did a training for the Branch Council on the organization of Family History in the Branch and using Family History as a retention and activation tool.  We were done about 2:30pm and headed back into town to prepare for our 4pm meeting about the Tyler Castleton boy band from the US, Beyond 5.  We are very involved in organizing the concert in Kuching.  Then there was another send off meal for the missionary at 5pm.  At 6pm there was a District Music Program meeting and at 7:30pm our temple class was cancelled for a last minute District wide leadership meeting called by the newest member of the Mission Presidency who lives in Kuching.  That went until 9:30pm and then we collapsed.
Well, not really....it was just a long day, but before it ended the missionaries asked us if we would help them out on Monday night with a less active family.  It was one of those times when you just  looked at each other and said "by the way, Happy Anniversary".

Monday morning came and we worked all day and we prepared Family Home Evening treats (two kinds of watermelon) and a fun activity.  It was a great Family Home Evening and they loved having us there. The dad was sick and stayed on the far side of the room but participated, we had a great lesson on the Good Samaritan and then played a fun game called "Don't Eat Pete".  We then shared the watermelon and the sweet family shared their Milo with us (a chocolate drink used by just about everybody here) and it was all done on the floor with one battery operated lantern and a candle.

 We laughed and laughed and it was great.  How could we not have been there?

Tuesday was music class and I love teaching my students so I would not miss that.

Oh yes.....and one of our other native missionaries (Elder Stewan) stepped on a nail while walking through a puddle after a rainstorm this week so I got to play nurse with him too!  (We made it feel better with another Magnum bar)

 Wednesday we had to take care of a sick Sister (Sister Simon) until 9pm at night.

Thursday was a service project at a member's house all day and we had planned on making a meal for the sweet  Branch President and his 7 children.  We had our cute sick Sister missionary with us again for the day (Elder Moulder did the service and I stayed at the apartment with the Sister) so she helped me cook.  (She loved wearing my Texas Girl apron)

 When we delivered the food the family was so excited to see a native Sister missionary.  This Branch is outside of Kuching a little bit and the Branch has not had Sister missionaries assigned to it and there have not been that many native Sisters as missionaries so they were very impressed and excited to meet her.  It was a tender time.  This family lives in very humble circumstances but this dad and mom made sacrifices to take his family to the temple and have all his children sealed to them.  A picture of them at the Manila temple is proudly displayed in their humble home.  I would not have wanted to miss that moment either!

Friday night was the night!  We were able to fit in a dinner at the Hilton Hotel downtown.  We went early because we had to pick up missionaries at the airport at 12:15AM so we wanted to eat and get a couple of hours of sleep before heading to the airport (we are old you know) since we knew we would be up until about 2pm getting them back to their apartments and then back home.  So we went about 5pm just as the buffet opened.  We had planned on going to the Hilton because their buffet was really good the last time we went.  They had wonderful salmon (which I was looking forward to) and lots of chicken dishes and a great salad bar which we don't get most places.  We were excited.

What we didn't realize was that we are in the middle of Ramadhan!  It is a month of fasting during daylight hours and most of the restaurant was reserved for after sundown.  In addition to that there was a huge buffet also outside in the patio dining.  However, there was no salmon to be found.  Everything was beef, chicken or lamb......lots of lamb for Ramadan.  I have never seen so many different ways to fix lamb and all the different sauces that go with it.   The shish kabob was particularly good.

Beautiful rack of lamb on a bed of savory rice with all kinds of good things in it.  The wait staff got a kick out of me walking around taking photos of everything.  Good thing we were there early enough that it was all fresh and not picked over.  The chef came out and began carving this lamb for us just after the photo.  He was very proud.

This is one of the several stations outside on the patio.  Tandoori is really from India but is prepared here as well.  It is chicken prepared with yogurt and spices and baked in a special oven.  The little round balls are dough that are flattened out and grilled and made into a pita bread that the chicken is served inside of with lots of other yummy ingredients.  It was one of my favorite things.

Who wouldn't love a shish kabab made my this fun, smiling young man!  

 

This is how the kabab is served at the table by the smiling young man...^_^

Beautiful desserts with a beautiful display.  Desserts in Malaysia are not as sweet as we are used to from the USA.

 So....we finally had our anniversary meal together and enjoyed about an hour and a half of remembering.  It was lovely.

Goodnight!

Magnum Meltdown

As the missionaries move around and transfer in and out of Kuching there is a need to rent apartments.  The mission is trying to have all the apartments fully furnished so there was some furniture and appliances that needed to be disposed of including a refrigerator that is about a year old.  We have two refrigerators in the senior apartments because they are quite small and the one owned by the Church was older and had a leak so I always had to keep a towel or rug under the front.  So it was suggested that perhaps the newer frig would be a good trade for us.  We agreed and the Elders hauled the newer frig up and I cleaned it and plugged it in to make sure it was fully functional after sitting empty in the heat for almost 3 months. 

It cleaned up well and got cold enough that I was satisfied it would work.  All the food was transferred and the old frig was given away.   That was Thursday, July 18th. 

This is what happened on Saturday.....all the Magnum Ice Cream bars are flattened because the frig lost power due to a faulty wire at the plug.  It is fixed now, but about 30+ Magnum bars were sacrificed. 

The missionaries who live upstairs and depend on these treats were very disappointed but we restocked quickly so it was a temporary disappointment. Such trials . . . ^_^

Looking for a Magnum

This is Elder Stewan (Steven) who is a local missionary from West Malaysia.  He is very fun and he is the one who helped us discover the problem with the cord.  He is happy now to know that there will always be Magnum bars for him. 

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.

We've Been Busy

So sorry that I haven't been able to Blog for a while.  I think I have found a way around the problem so I thought I would record what we have been doing for the past two months!  The photo above was taken in the little airport of Ipoh, West Malaysia.  Elder Moulder and I had been there (In Ipoh, not the airport) for two days helping with a Family History Open House and were on our way back to Singapore to catch a flight back to Kuching.  This man and his bride and their wedding party were scheduled on the same plane to continue their wedding festivities in Singapore.  It was so fun to see all the elaborate costumes the men and women were wearing for the wedding.  I asked if I could take his picture and he replied only if I was in the picture with him so one of his cousins took this shot.  I spoke more with his bride than with him but everyone seemed to be having a wonderful time.  It was fun to watch. 

 

His bride (who is completing a PhD in Engineering) enjoyed posing for me and showing me the henna tattoos (which took only 2 hours to complete) and telling me about her wedding attire.  It must have weighed at least 50 pounds so she moved about very carefully and she had people to help her at every move.  They were delightful and it made the waiting time go by very fast.

So....this is just one of the fun things that we have been doing as we began traveling in May.  Bit by bit I will catch up but right now we have another baptism to attend so we need to be off. I am happy that I have found a way around the problem and will be able to get back to my weekly updates.  I've been afraid I would forget too much since this is the way I journal my life!