Kind of weird.  This fish jumps up on a stick out of the water and sits there!!??

'

What a great find!!! These are chocolate chips!
So far it's the only way I have found them packaged.  Everything feels so precious to me, when I only find small quantities and they cost so much.  Yes, I bought 2 of them. 

These are the two kids getting baptized.

Sister Rosianna is the mother of the little boy
getting baptized.

If you click on the pictures they get bigger.

This is part of downtown Kuching.  Went down there to see The Department of Education.

Kuching means Cat City.  This is one of statues of cats.

Brother and Sister Stiben's house. A wonderful family with 3 daughters. He is out of work and his wife sells vegetables and maybe makes $10
a day.  They have no electricity.  One of the daughters is a nurse,but cannot get a job because
of her religion. The other one is qualified to go to college.  He asked for us to come back a second time (they are less active) and it was dark out and no lights. Yes, we navigated those boards in the dark. We sat around on the floor in candle light.
That is Bro Stiben  and Elder Strathearn beside me..

Another picture of Brother Stiben's home.

The  Church building.  We attend and  oversee 2 Branches that meet here.  It was built as a Stake Center, but no Stake yet.  They are working so hard to get enough  active Priesthood to have a Stake. Pres Mains told us that's what he wants. The most beautiful Stake Center I have ever seen in or out of the USA

  This was our Career Class. It was the best thing I have done so far.  We saw the youth just light up when they learned to communicate their talents and strengths.  We now have another 6-7 others who want to come, We will have to start another class.  Hebot!!  That means awesome.

Short member is Bro Sani and Brother Palima. We had visited them in their home just before this. After we left that night, it rained and their house were flooded about 3 am in morning.

Bro Sani is baptizing his 8 year old son
and Bro Palima is baptizing a teenage niece.

Just made my first cookies.  They turned out great in spite of not being sure about measuring and doing some guessing.  We had to test out our oven so we could get rid of the box.  President and Sister Mains are coming by tonight to see the apartment because it's new and they have never seen it. They may want to get an apartment here for the Elders.  Not just an apartment inspection. They usually don't do that for Seniors.

Last night was haybot!  That means awesome.  Not sure I spelled it right, but that's how you say it.
Elder Strathearn and Elder Packer told us to visit a family in their home.

 Merayke (they) have a very humble home.  They live in a building where you just go down the walkway and there is just one door after another. It's hard to explain, but very humble. In very poor condition, etc.  We went in and their wall is cover with family pictures,  So the first thing I did was pull out the little book Mandi made  of our family pictures. They loved it.  I put it away.  As soon as the wife come in, the husband asked if she could see the pictures.

The Elders had to translate everything for us.  This  is Brother Sani and Sister Rosianna.  They go by their first names.  We explained why were there and then asked about their jobs.

Bro Sani builds houses and he seems to always be busy.  Sister Rosianna just had a new baby, but she weaves scarfs and little jackets.  She can make about 20/month for about 20RM and she sells them to a middle man for 100RM. Not a bad profit, but we are wondering how we can cut out the middleman?????

Oh yes when we went in we sat on the floor and are given drinks and cookies.  You dip your cookie in the orange water.

The Elders asked me if I was shocked about their home.  I said not at all.  What I saw was a loving family, living the gospel, and working together,  Their son turns 8 and gets baptized on Saturday.  It's true I really wasn't shocked.  Yes its very humble.  Very talented lady.

I told you about the vocational school we went to day before yesterday. Well, yesterday we drove to downtown Kuching  (saw the cat statues- will put pictures on later). We went to find the department of government over all vocational schools.  We went straight to the building with our GPS. The man we wanted to talk to was at lunch, so went to a near by McDonald's and had lunch too.  He was a wonderful man to talk too. His English was hard for him, but we understood him.

There are 58 vocational schools in Sarawak (that's this area).  They cost to go to them, but this would fit PEF loans.   They have schools for Hospitality, Car Mechanics, airplane mechanics, etc.  But again there is limited space. That's the problem.  They know they have to have skilled laborers in order for their country to progress, but they lack the school spaces to educate them.

We go back on Monday to talk to his boss, if they call us with an appointment.

Pictures

 This is looking out our living room window.
You are looking at huge huge strip mall. We go there all the time--so close we could walk.
This has a lot of dollar stores, food stands,
we bought our appliances there, bought some used furniture there, etc. McDonald's is on one end.

This is the picture out of our office window. I think they are apartments out there. Some mountains in the back.

This is taken from the living room area looking at the front door and into the kitchen. Notice the tile floor.  It's so tiring to walk on all time. 

In the strip mall they have night markets on the weekends. I bought a great purse there, but is mostly food that I don't recognize by sight or smell.

This is not in our apartment.  Probably a department store. Elder Przybyla took it somewhere. I have run into a couple of them.

This is in a mall. We are taking a picture of the name of the store.  If you can't read it. It says Amy's Collections.

Zone conference lunch I wrote about at Porkies.

The two Missionaries that took on the eating challenge.

Could it get any bigger????

Come on Elder, you can do it!!!

This Elder ate it all

Grocery Store

Sister's Apartment. With the huge swimming pool that they can't use.

Apartment Again:

You won't believe this, but it's all in black and gray.  All the counter tops are just like what I have at home: black with flecks in it.  Tile on the floor is grey.  They have a little lime green and red around, so I accented with those colors.  It's very fun to decorate on a dollar store budget and yes, it can be done.

Also: our bed is so hard we can hardly sleep on it.  So we have been looking for a foam since
we've been here. Deciding that we would never find one, we found a thickish mattress cover.  The girl in the store said that was the last one and they won't be carrying them anymore.  She said it was a king size and I told Elder Przybyla this was as good as it was going to get.  So we bought it and took it home.  It's a queen size.  So being creative, we turned it sideways on the bed and it works.  Feet may stick over but who cares.  Necessity is the mother of invention!!!!

This Thursday. Pres Mains is in town.  We have to pickup the Sisters at the airport and then we have a meeting with a member about a job later.

Weather: well so far it's much nicer than I expected.  When it's overcast, like it is most of the time so far, it's really not too hot.  Not cool, but just not so hot. I hate it when the sun comes out.

Sister Boyter says the hot season is coming.

It has only down-poured once since we've been here; but when it does, it floods in a matter of minutes.

Our air conditioning in the house is fantastic.  We have three of them and usually only have one of them on.

It gets light out at 7am every morning and dark at 7pm every evening.  The sun never changes all year long. That is kind of hard to get used to.  You expect it to change with the seasons, but it doesn't. I always know what time it is in the morning.

The views from every window in our apartment are beautiful.

The only thing I don't like about our apartment are the tile floors. That's how they build every house, but it's so hard to walk on and stand on when you are cooking etc. But they are beautiful.

Tuesday is Zone conference day.  After the meeting we all went to lunch together at a place called Porkies.  They have a hamburger probably about 10-11 inches long and 7 inches tall. If you can eat it all in 20 minutes it's free.  Two Elders tried it.  One didn't make it because he vomited. Then other one made it.  It was the biggest thing ever.  The hamburgers at this place are made out of pork. It was quite good.


We got up in zone conference and told them what our calling is and now we've had a call from one of the set of Elders that needs us to talk to someone in this Branch.  We have an appointment with him tomorrow.

Today, we decided to go this Vocational school that we have seen before, but we couldn't remember where it was.  Dad said don't worry, I know the Lord will lead us there.  And he did.   The gentleman we met was exactly the person we needed to talk to about getting people trained as skilled laborers.   He was really pleased when he found out we didn't want to take these people back to America to be hired, but we are leaving them here to improve their country.  We are best friends now. He said he would love to come to a meeting a speak to the youth. He also wants to be baptized he just doesn't know it yet!

Drove a set of Sisters to the airport today, and have to pick them up tomorrow.

Had the zone leaders over for diner tonight. They live very close to us.  I found some hamburger at the store and Prego Spaghetti sauce.  So I had spaghetti, french bread, and salad and dessert.  The very excited to have American food. The one Elder said he hadn't had a salad in forever.  It tasted good to me too.

I found some chocolate chips at the store.  They were in a little bottle about 2 inches high and 1 inch around.  I bought 2 bottles.  Think I will make chocolte chip cookies when I get a minute.

Just heard from our head quarters in Hong Kong. Malaysia hasn't been cleared legally to do the PEF loans here yet and they aren't sure when that will be coming.  We can still do other parts of the self-reliance program.  So we will continue the research they need and still help members get better jobs.

Going to bed.

Selamat malam      Good evening

Left our house in Orem on 10th of  Feb. at 4:00 pm
Arrived in Singapore at noon on the 12th of Feb.

There was no one at customs so we walked right out. No one asked about luggage or what was it them,  So the medicine all got there just fine.

We were met by the Mission President and Wife. Yes, He picked us up and spent 24 hrs with us.

He drove us through Singapore and went to the Stake Center/Mission headquarters.
Very large building which houses two chapels, High council room, and one part
serves as the Mission Headquarters. There were two Senior couples working there full time

They showed us all around the building and then took us to the High Council room and gave us some instructions

Then we drove to the Mission Home. Sister Mains made dinner. We had a little devotional and prayer and we finally got to go to bed. Their house is very nice. It's like an apartment in a complex but it's very large. 3 bedrooms, huge living room, kitchen with an oven, laundry room.  Just because of property values its probably worth about 3 million dollars.

On the way to the mission home, we drove by to pick up some groceries. The store is called Cold Storage.  Amy, you won't believe this, but it had any thing and everything you could want.  From Campbell's soup, to Taco mixes, to real hamburger, etc. even cheese! Thought I had died and went to heaven.

Next morning, Pres Mains, cooked breakfast for us.  Waffles with fruit and whipped cream, sausage, and eggs

Then we had orientation for about 3 hrs: Do and Don'ts. And expectations.

We were driven to the airport, told goodby and were on our way to Kuching. The food on this plane was delicious. Flight was about an hour.  Elder and Sister Boyter met us. They drive a truck.

Airport weighed our luggage in Singapore for this flight and they charge by total weight.  That was about 300 dollars. Hope the Church pays part or all of that???

The first thing we did was drive to our new apartment and drop stuff off.

Then we went and rented car from some member.  It is the same car the Boyters drove when they got here.  Our new car in on a ship somewhere. (Maybe that's like the check is in the mail). Driving is kind of crazy; they cut across three lines if they want to turn.  So your dad fits right in!!! They do drive on the left side and the steering wheel is on the right side.

Went and bought some sheets for our bed. And then went out to dinner with the other two couples. We paid for dinner for all they did for us.  One couple is here to teach family history and the other couple is here for Seminary and Institute.

Dad is now quite used to driving on left side, but I can't remember to get in the car on the other side.

The other Senior couple here brought us some food and put it in the refrigerator, etc.  We have been living on that for three day.  Unfortunately or fortunately the MacDonald is within walking distance.

But the last time we were there, a cute girl working there asked dad about his mission badge. Dad told her who we are and why we are here and she said "I need to know more about that!" She asked for our card. Which we don't have yet. So she wrote her name and phone number for us.  So we are going to call her on Monday and maybe take her to lunch and ask if she wants to meet the Elders. We can teach if we want to, but Mission President says it is good that they hear the lessons in their own language.  

We were suppose to be given a Mission Credit card when we got to Singapore but that isn't ready yet.
Everything seems to be slow in coming.  Patience is the word. Our apartment is brand new; no has ever lived in it before.  So there is partially nothing here.  So there is a list of things the Mission will pay for, like a toaster, etc.  Since we don't have the Church credit card yet we have to pay for all things and then get reimbursed.  Will talk about the apartment later on.

Thursday:  we picked up the Branch President's son, Jasper, about 23 yrs old. He took us all over town:
1. To get a cell phone. We only got one since we are always together to save money.
2. Went to get internet signed up.  Can't tell you what kind it is but now we have it.
3. Went and bought a printer.
4. Had to go buy minutes for phone and something about internet- I guess they are connected some how.
5. We got home late and no phone or internet working!!!!!.
6. Bests of all we got a GPS--WE ARE NOW FREE TO GO WHERE WE WANT!!

We found our way back the next morning to where we bought minutes and they got it turned on.. This is what I mean by everything in Manana. That's why it took so long to hear from us.

Friday: we picked up Jasper's father, the Branch President. We went shopping for all the stuff the apartment needs. He asked if we wanted to go Spring Mall ( that's where we bought the sheets) and I
said no we want a cheaper place. There at least 2 big malls here.  Even saw a Mac cosmetic store!
There is one very huge building that is only electronics. So far, I'm seeing you can buy anything you want.

We found a dollar store ( it's accurately less than a dollar but that's what I call it)  That got us spoons and spatulas, graters, measuring cups, garbage cans, etc etc.

Then he took us to a nicer store and bought an oven, toaster, mixer, sort of crock pot, and food processor.

There was really nothing here in the apartment.  But it is so nice.  We love the location!!

Saturday:  found our way to Giant ( like a Carrfor) Bought mostly stuff for the apartment again: extension cords.  There are no outlets in either of the bathrooms!!  Stepping stool so I can reach the cabinets in the kitchen.  Also there are no drawers in the bedroom, so need baskets to put our underwear, socks and stuff in. I'm still trying to organized and find places for everything.

Had a blip in things that night!

Got home and no electricity!! Checked with the building office.  They were closed.  Call Elder Boyter who is over apartments.  People came and people came but couldn't figure out the problem. Some would say it's something in the apartment and others would something else.

 Its now been most of the day without air conditioning in the apartment on the 14th floor. Getting uncomfortable, opened all the windows and now it's getting dark and I hear a mosquito.  The first and only one I've heard so far and no bites yet!!!

An electrician finally came and found a wire in the box outside the apartment that had caught fire, but for some reason the fire went out.  He fixed the wire and we were back in lights.  This whole event literally took hours.

We have been here a week.  We have a washing machine, but no dryer.  But the drain for the washing machine is not working.  Supposedly, Elder Boyter knew this before we came and the building people was suppose to be fixing from the apartment underneath us, but still doesn't work..running out of G's.
Just another blip that needs patience.

Getting settled in Malaysia

I wrote many pages on here the other day and for some reason they didn't post.  Typing takes me a long time, but here I go again and hope it works.  Britt isn't here to help me!

We left our house on the 10th of Feb  at 4pm and got to Singapore on the 12th at noon. Of course crossed the international date line, so you figure how long that took.  But the long flight went very well for me this time. I was able to sleep some.

Mission President and his wife, Elder and Sister Mains, meet us at the airport.  Dave, I told him I won a $20 bet  with you.  Ha Ha.  They spent 24 hours with us showing us around the stake building, which also houses the Mission Offices.  Had dinner at their house and then they put us to bed. President cooked us breakfast the next morning,3 hours of orientation, driven to the airport, told good by, and sent to Kuching.

As we were landing, I definitely felt this is where we are suppose to be. We already love the people, they are so helpful and friendly.

 Our first day the Branch President's son spend the day helping us :
1. Get a cell phone. Decided to only get one since we are always together.
2. Get the internet
3. Get a GPS  --- the greatest thing we have done so far!!!
4. Get a Scanner  and printer.

Our second day the Branch President spend half a day with us:
1. Buying stuff for our apartment
2. Buying an oven, mixer, pots, pans, etc.

The other Senior Couples are showing us around town. We save every site on our GPS and we are now pretty free to go anywhere we want. If we get lost we can always get back home.

A little about our Apartment:

It's in a high-rise apt building.  We are on the 14th floor. But because the Chinese don't like the number 4 they call our floor 13A and because there is no number 4 floor the one above is called 13B. Aren't we so lucky to live on the 13th floor.  Guess when in Rome (oops!) Malaysia live like the Malaysians.

The apartment has total security around it. There is a 24 hour guard  at the front gate. Then you have a key pass to open the bottom door We have two doors into our apartment and both doors have two locks on them.  Wow!

The apartment is absolutely beautiful.  Very modern.  It only had a table, couch, bed, and desk in it.
So we have had to go shopping to find everything.  We are finally getting there.  Only a few thing left. Our  bedroom has his and her closets, but  no drawers anywhere. We have to get creative on where to put underwear, socks, etc. I think I will pause now so I can get some pictures to put on.

Love ya all

Leaving for Singapore Feb 10 2014

Just about ready to leave for the airport with 5 check on bags, 2 carry on suitcases and 2 carry on hand bags.  Wow!

Next post will be from Singapore or Malaysia.

My Granddaughter, Evie, designed new badges and thought these would be better for us to wear.  I think I agree.  These  explain who we really are!!!

5 days and counting down!!

Hoping on some magic scale that my suitcases will hold all I want and still not weight 50lbs.

What do think????  Just take stuff out I know.

Today we went to the temple.  We were asked to be the witness couple.  Another great experience,
The new film is great.

Sunday we spent the day with a Seventy, Elder Sitati and his wife, from  Kenya. He spoke to us for three hours.  What a wise man.

Monday, we went to the Church Office Building.

Went through amazing security procedures and up to the third floor.

 We spent the whole day there with different speakers that work with the  PEF/Self-Reliance Program.  This program is administered directly under by the First Presidency.  I'm sure the staff working on this new form of the program spent many hours on their knees and going back to the drawing board many times until the First Presidency would say, yes, that's what the Lord has in mind.

I know these men have been inspired by the Lord.

We could feel the spirit of the Lord as they taught us the program and our responsibilities to go out and help the people lift themselves out of poverty and into spiritual and temporal self-reliance.

We are so excited to go and service the Lord in this capacity.

They are hurting for Senior Couples to say yes to go these international parts of the world that need our help.  Many couples say no, for whatever reason. I am not judging them.  You need to be in good health and adventuresome to do this. They would love for you to volunteer.

 Our extensive travel has prepared us for this.  We love people everywhere and their cultures.

We now have 5 days to finish packing and then we fly out on the 10th of February.

.

This is a picture of our district at the MTC.

Back row: Elder Bateman (one of our teachers), Elder Przybyla, Me, Elder Cook., Elder Beste, and Elder Zundell (our other teacher.)

Front row: Sister Sawyer, Sister Cook, and Sister Beste

We named our district  The Warriors

The Cooks are staying at home and serving a Mission in their Stake.

The Beste's are going to Nebraska.

Sister Sawyer is going to the Philippines.

One day in our district meeting we took Marich candy for everyone. Oops! That delayed the lessons for a while, but everyone enjoyed it, even our teachers.

The last day I gave all the Sisters a covered notebook that I had stamped as a going away gift.

On the last general session meeting one of the young Sister Leaders sang the song "I go where you want me to go dear Lord."

It may not be on the mountain height
Or over the stormy seas
It may not be at the battle's front
My Lord will have need of me
But if by a still small voice He calls
To paths that I do not know
I'll answer dear Lord with my hand in thine
I"ll go where you want me to go
I'll go where you want  me to go dear Lord
Over mountain or plain or sea
I'll say what you want me to say dear Lord
I'll be what you want me to be.

Until then, I was always composed and felt I was in control.  I have sung this song a million times, but now I am in that situation. Nothings has moved me to tears as much as this song has. And now I am saying I am willing to walk paths I do not know, but only when my hand in is thine. I want to say the things he wants me to say and I want to be what he wants me to be. I have the desire do this. So now I walk by faith. And I pray I will not disappoint him.

This is a picture of the January 27, 2014 group of Senior Missionaries entering the MTC . Sister Sawyer was not present for the picture taking. She is also called to serve in the PEF program serving in the Philippines.  We may get to see her again if we are called to Hong Kong for Training.

We spent most of our  time learning how to Invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and his Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.

 Each day would start at 8am with a general session of all of us.

Then we would divide up into districts.  Our district was Bro and Sis Cook, Bro and Sis Beste,(who was Uncle Mike's companion when he was in Japan), Us, and Sister Sawyer.

 In these sessions we were taught how to make lesson plans and then we would practice giving the lesson to people who volunteer to come to the MTC and pretend to be investigators, or sometimes they were real investigators, but we didn't know which was which.

We did this for two days  and on the next day we pretended to visit less active members of the church. We would spend time getting to know them and then extending an invitation to come to church.

Missionaries are using a Guide to help Missionary Service called " Preach My Gospel".
It is a inspired tool and guide.