Happy Mothers Day to Me

We have been in Malaysia for 15 months now so I have celebrated Mother's Day once before but this year was a little different.  

Here in Sandakan, in addition to the well wishes of everyone you see in the hotel, 
 
on the street, 


and the traditional cutting of the cake after church meetings, 


 

I got to hold my first Malaysian snake!

After meetings we had an appointment with a part member family and taught them why we keep records of our ancestors and how to preserve them safely.  The father, Johannes Thomas is not yet a member but his wife, Julia and one of their daughters, Eby are.  They are waiting for him.  He asked a question that we hear a lot from the tribal people here:  "Where is your Church's cemetery?"
Burying your dead is a difficult problem that may be unique to this country. 

After this meeting we went to the Branch President's house for an evening meal with the missionaries and other Branch members. 

President Chin and his wife (seated on right with one of the granddaughters)and family along with the Branch Relief Society President Sister Anita (seated left) and her roommate Priah (who is Hindu).  Standing on the right is Brother Jason, a returned missionary who is the Branch Mission Leader and who is doing the Family History Consultant job even though he has not been officially called to that position.  He is awesome and has a great fire for Family History work. Missionaries in the back are Elder Madsen and Elder Hawkins.

Ironically, last week in Sibu Jaya we were treated to our first snake for dinner.  It was quite good after getting past the bones.  Even Elder Moulder liked it! 

The snake is in the square white dish at the top center of the food between watermelon.  This is the home of relatively new members in Sibu Jaya, Brother Chipping and Sister Evelyn. Missionaries are Elder Chan (left) and Elder Stowell (right).

Their daughter Pamela (in the purple shirt) is the Family History Consultant for their Branch.  The baby keeps us laughing with his antics.  He has the most fun expressions I have ever seen on a baby.  We love this family.  They have embraced the gospel and are looking forward to the temple.  They are amazing! (Missionaries are Elders Stowell, Hill, Fowler (standing in back) and Chan)

A close up of the snake. It is the meat to the right of the noodles at the tip of the fork. There are lots of little bones, but it was really very tasty!  The name of this snake is "dumb snake".  We aren't sure why, but probably because it is easily caught and eaten by the locals.

I'm so happy I got to celebrate 

Mother's Day with 

my lovely sisters in Malaysia.

We love our mission! 

Second Temple Trip to Manila

Once again we have had the privilege to accompany members to the temple in Manila.  It was a large group this trip and many spoke good enough English that we had a lot of help.  Having said that, it was still a whirlwind of organization and follow through to make sure the experience was special and filled with the Spirit. I think we succeeded.  Here is our group and some of their stories.

The first to arrive at the airport at 7:00 AM on Nov 18th was the family who lived the farthest away and had the youngest children, Brother Aret, his wife Sister Linyang and their children Youro, Joneas and Sally. They looked so excited and were very dressed up.  This family lives very humbly and this is the first time any of them have traveled.  Many firsts for them. 

 

I was so impressed with their shiny shoes.  I had to take a picture of Brother Aret's shiny shoes so they all laughed and lined up for me. 

 Shiny shoes in the place where they lives is quite a feat.....^_^

I have been very impressed with how well behaved these children are.  They were so pleasant to have as travelers and I did not have to worry about them at all .  The boys always take care of their little sister and she is never out of their sight.  She is such a sweet girl.

 Youro and Sally had a great time on the baggage carts.

 

Sister Janice from Kota Sentosa Branch.  She is so excited to go to the temple for the first time.  She is a little tiny thing and a fireball.  She has been a member just over a year. 

Brother Christopher and is wife Angelina will be sealed and Sister Angelina's daughters Helen and Maureen will be sealed to them.  Helen is a returned missionary who served in the Singapore Mission so she is excited to return to the temple but for the other three it is their first time. 

Brother Konok and Sister Florence laughed at themselves for needing wheelchairs.  They both did great and it was fun to be with them.  Brother Konok is going for the first time and will be sealed to his deceased wife and then to his living daughter who is going with her husband and they will be sealed also see James and Marjorie below).  Sister Florence has been sealed already to her deceased husband but not all of her children yet.  One more of her sons is with us to be sealed to her.  Her daughter Caroline who has previously been endowed and sealed to her is traveling with her also. 

These are dear people....always with a smile on their faces.

We didn't have everyone available for this photo but I am so happy to have had the opportunity to go with them all.  It was a glorious experience for them and us.

I love the temple.  The sky was always so interesting and I couldn't get enough pictures of the temple. This is taken from directly across the street (Temple Drive), standing on the steps of an office building (part of the Church complex there) which houses the Distribution Center and the Family History Center.

Although the trips are so wonderful I am always exhausted by the end.  The responsibility of making sure the experience, for some this once in a lifetime experience, is one that will always be remembered as a spiritual feast is a humbling one. 

I am so grateful that I have the opportunity to attend the temple frequently.  Sometimes I take that blessing for granted.  I hope I will always remember what a privilege it is.

Proud Big Brother....Prouder Grandma

Yep....it has been a long time since I have posted to my blog.  If there is anyone who keeps watching this I am very sorry I have neglected my "journal".  But early today, because of the wonderful technology we are blessed with, Elder Moulder and I had a fun Skype call with our daughter, Autumn, and our two grandsons.  I took a couple of screen shots and thought I would share.

The baby, Mal (4+ months), is growing so big and Edison (almost 3) is a good big brother.  While we were on the phone Edison said he wanted to hold Mal.  I asked if he was a good big brother and he said "yes" and he wanted to show me.  So Autumn put Mal in Edison's lap and I got this shot first.

About a second later he told his mom not to hold onto Mal....he wanted to do it all himself.  So Autumn fixed Mal in a more secure way on Edison's lap and let go.  That lasted about 15 seconds and then Edison was done holding his little brother!  But I got this photo and have Edison's cute, proud little face to gaze at from the other side of the world and smile. (Sometimes I have to wipe away a tear.)

Later in the conversation Edison showed us his Easter Ears.....I got two shots to keep from those nano seconds of stillness.

 Families are the best.  I love ours so much.

Consultants and Cookies

A good day today. 
This is Angela.  She is 19 years old. She lives in Matang a suburb of Kuching.  She went with her parents to the Manila Temple in May to be sealed to them. She loved doing baptisms in the temple during the week we were there.  She is a student at a local college.  She is planning on serving a mission after she completes this course of study in two years.  She is the only Christian in most of her classes.  She is a wonderful, strong member of the Church and a great example to those who know her and..... 
She is a Family History Consultant! 

Because she is on break from school we were able to pick her up and bring her to our apartment to use our internet so she could enter the family information into Family Tree for a family in her branch who are going to the temple with us next week.  Brother Aret and his family do not have computers.  Sister Angela does not have internet at her house but she has a computer which she uses at school.  We have WiFi so we brought her to us so she could do this work for Brother Aret and Sister Linyang.

Elder Moulder helping Angela delete a duplicate record for Sister Linyang in our apartment.  MacDonald's was the dinner of choice by Angela also as you can see.

While she was working I asked her if she was hungry and needed something to munch on.  I told her I had carrots or M & M's.  Guess which she chose.

She was very fast entering the information we had some time before the Young Single Adult Family Home Evening group began so we decided to make cookies.  Angela had never made cookies before.  Her family, like most here, does not have an oven so they do not bake things like we do, they cook everything on a stove which doesn't work well for chocolate chip cookies. 

We had a great time making the cookies and Angela even enjoyed eating them!

She took some home to her family and we took the rest to District meeting with the missionaries on Tuesday.  They appreciated Angela's cookies.

I do love missionary work!!!

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.)