Elder Przybyla is too busy writing reports to down load pictures for you tonight, so that will have to wait.

Our language is coming along.  I told Elder Prybyla the other day, "Remember when we first got here and I said our goal today is tell 3 people thank you--terima kashi?" That was the beginning.

Now we are reading some scriptures and commenting on them.  We are working on our testimonies more. We have both done that in Church.  But we are getting better.

We can sing the songs because we can read the language, but now we are trying to understand what they are saying.

We can exit a meeting and say--It's was nice meeting you. Or see you later.

It's getting fun. We are pretty good on prayers. And have given those in meetings.

We were at church all day today.  First because Elder Priz is on the District High Counsel we have to go to all the Branch Conferences. Today was the last one of those.  And then we are assigned to two branches. So we went to one of those branches and stayed for all three meetings.  Three meetings and you don't know what they are talking about.
About 3 pm today we got a phone call from one of the other branch presidents Pres. Mobile, who we have been working with on employment, and he asked to see us tonight.
So after Branch meeting, Elder Priz went to District counsel meeting. While he was in the meeting, District President turned to Elder Priz and said he was concerned about Pres. Mobile's son who is addicted to video games and would Elder Priz talk to him.  The funny things is we are not assigned to that branch and district president had no idea we were going to see him tonight.  Why didn't he turn to the other Senior couple that is assigned to that branch that was right there and assign him to do it?

Strange things, anyway we had a great meeting with the family.  When we were done with the parents, we said and now can we talk to Cereal (spelling??).  Dad gave a fantastic lesson on why it's more important to study hard now and get good grades than to play video games. Pres Mobile said yes that's what he does a lot.  When dad was done, the parents thanked us a lot for talking to their son, and son said he would start studying hard. It was a great experience.


We have heard some news that the Area President here is putting 2 self-reliance centers in Malaysia, but not in Kuching. It shocked us and even the Mission President didn't know anything about this.

So, that left us not knowing  exactly what to do. After much prayer, we decided to go to the District President  and ask to have a District employment specialist called.  That person could be trained by us.  He needs to speak English and Malay, and help people here fill out the forms to get better training and understand the government programs..  He could read and understand the forms and programs better than we can and we would have our own little Self Reliance Center.  District Pres is for the idea.

We were in a Mall the other day and we ordered a pizza. When the pizza was ready, I went up to the counter to pick it up and the girl, Jean, read my badge.  She said I have to go to church. I said ok, and she said no you don't understand I have to go to church. I said ok.  And she repeated it, I haven't gone to church for a year since I moved here from the Philippines and I need to go to church. I asked her if she was Christian and she said yes.  She was  getting louder as we talked.  I invited Elder Priz to come over and get the Elders on the phone.  She talked to them and gave them her phone number.  This was on Wednesday.  Today is Sunday, she has had the first discussion and has gotten a baptism date.

We talked to another girl in another mall and we gave her a Kitab Mormon.  She also has a date for the first discussion with her family this week.

We have given the Elders two more referrals but haven't heard back from them yet. This is a really fun part of the mission.


We had a lot of influences in getting another young man baptized this Saturday.  This was one of the saddest situations we have run into.  The elders took us to meet with him about his job situation.  His room was 6ft by 4ft. room; enough to sleep on the floor. and that was it.  I guess the bathroom was down the hall somewhere. It was box built in the middle of the hallway upstairs in an old building.
He was working from 6pm to 6am. He is earning 400RM a month which is about $130 US.  He has read the Kitab Mormon about 3 times and wants to get baptized.  He said he was from an island off Singapore. He has worked in another city in Malaysia for 4 years. He says he is getting an IC card which means citizenship in Malaysia. etc. and his home town was working on a visa for him.

After we left we did some research and found out none of that was true.  Foreigners never get IC cards here.   They have to have a Malaysia company get the work visa for them, etc. If he is not legally in this country they cannot baptize him..  Elder Przybyla told the Elders we needed to see his passport.  When the Elders went to talk to his boss, it was good news.  The young man is not from Singapore, but Indonesia.  Indonesia and Malaysia don't get along very well, but the boss said he applied for a visa for Reily, and showed the Elders the receipt. When you get a visa for another person, essentially you own him, which means the boss is totally responsible for him and everything he does, etc.  He is kind of like slave labor. They don't have to pay Reily minimum wage, but the boss asked why the elders wanted to see this stuff and they told him because they wanted to Baptize him.  They owner said he was interested too.  Reily got baptized yesterday, but he still does slave labor under a three year contract.

 This is the jungle at Bako National Park. There are many trails to hike.  We started out on one and found it went straight up the mountain, so we reversed directions on that trail for a different choice. We found one that was fairly flat and took it. They don't groom things like they do in the States.  There is a path, but you are still climbing over roots and rocks and branches

or through crevices. Could hear birds but didn't see any. They are at the top of the canopy. We came upon a group of Germans with a guide. Elder Przybyla decided to pass them so he stepped off the trail "one step" and he was attacked by a plant that threw all its branches around him. The branches were covered with thorns that drug into his flesh. The guides screamed for him to stand still and don't move. The more you move the more  they tighten.  The guides then picked them off one by one. He was a bloody mess. Moral: stay on the straight and narrow path.

There is a lot of wildlife there to see but you have to be there at special times of day to see them. But we saw this one kind of monkey called the Long-tailed Macaque. It has the big grey beard.

 A Wild Boar, and yes, that is the ocean in the back ground. We drove to the ticket office of the park, about 1 1/2 hrs from our apartment. Then you buy a boat ticket to take you to the Park. Then when you get there you have to wade though the ocean to the shore.

  This is a pretty big snake up in a tree over our heads.  They called it a Racer. I don't know what they eat, but he looks pretty healthy.

  The male monkey is up in the tree dropping this fruit down to the others. I don't know what kind of fruit it is. I watched one approach a lady and try  to get her back pack.  There was a little struggle and then the monkey walked away.
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  If ugly can be cute, then this baby is really cute.

It was hot this day. When you are out all day it's almost unbearable. In Kuching now it rains somewhere in the city every day. When it rains it floods the streets, but it does get cooler on rainy days. I prefer the rain. It usually rains really hard for a short while and then clears up.  Today it's raining all day. I bet there's a flood out there. We are finally getting  major repairs done in our apartment today, so we have been home bound for several hours.









This is the jelly fish that got left when the tide receded. It's the biggest one I've ever seen..

These are Kampung communities. They are almost always built along a river because they fish for a living. I don't quite understand the Kampungs yet. People here in the city are always going back to the Kampung for weeks at a time-sometimes longer. To visit family is one reason, but they stay so long. Haven't figured this whole cultural thing out yet.

More Kampung homes. This type of behavior is hard on the church, because leaders and members just take off and leave and go to the Kampung for weeks at a time. The branches loose  consistency. Some members just give up city life and move back there and then they are lost to the records of the Church and no one can find them.

This is the Sarawak River. You take a boat up the river to the mouth at the Ocean. That's where the Bako Park is located.

When you  fly into Kuching you can see the river winding all over the land. And you can see the Kampungs everywhere along the river.

I saw a sign that warned there were alligators in the river.

 On the way to Bako Park we stopped at these caves.  This is more or less just a Buddha's Shine. You don't go through the caves, but you can walk up these steps and there is Buddha sitting on the rock and there is a spring coming out of the rock. Don't know if it's natural or not.

Water under the cave.

 

Inside the cave. Unusual rock formations.

Must have been carved by water at some ancient time.

Wind Caves with bats all around us.

These are different caves, call Wind Caves. they gave us one tiny little light and sent into the pitch blackness.  They don't do much infrastructure like I said before. You are pretty much on your own.  In the blackness you can hear bats all around you.

The common Swiftlet also lives in here. This is the bird that they make the bird nest soup with. The bird uses its saliva to hold the leaves and other materials together. They separate the leaves and twigs out and save the saliva.  Who knew this was good to eat??? Some one very hungry, I think.

This is the family I wrote about earlier.  We had dinner on the floor while chasing 5 cats away from the food.  The food was ok, we ate it. This is Elder Scott. She needs a job very badly, so we are working on that for her.

This is my desk, study table, makeup table, craft table, discussion table.  Everything is within arm's length. You can see my desk is a lot smaller that Elder Przybyla's, but his came with the apartment and we bought mine. That is the church bought mine.

I just wrote about Christopher and his family and the bus story.  His children sat still the whole discussion and never moved. Elder Wayment on the right has since been transferred.

When the Ward watches General Conference they stay for the two hours between and have a pot luck.  I took Shepherd's pie and it was scarfed. One Elder said the cheese was so good!!

One of the Chinese temples in Kuching. We have been meaning to go see it so one day while we were working we stopped in. It's very lovely.

 Inside the Chinese temple.  Remember there are many many Chinese living in Kuching. They are the wealthy people here.

This is at the 1-Azam program building I keep talking about that trains women in cooking and sewing.  This is Nassie; she's a member and has been though the program and is here sewing to make money until they give her her sewing machine. When the government parts with the money. She's one of our stars!!

 The man in green and his wife next to him run 1-Azam, Col. Wong. The Man in red is very famous. He is called the "Wandering Saint from Singapore".  He is a doctor and has been living with the poor in China helping them.  He gave a talk at the Methodist Church this evening and we were invited to go. It was wonderful. the Choir gave a Good Friday program and then he spoke.

This is our trip to Bako Nati'l Park.  This is a picture of how they fish in this ocean cove area. We are in a boat on the way to the Park. 

The Missionaries were challenged to think out of the box to come up with ways to get more contacts. So they decided to have a booth at the malls about Family History. Once we get them interested in Family History we hope they will ask about the church. We are still determining the successfulness of the program.

Drove down to the Indonesian border to a famous shopping market held on Saturdays. It's at least 1/2 mile long on both sides of the street. Bought a skirt and some honey. Now we are not sure if we should eat the honey or not.  I'm sure it's not pasteurized.

Here's my Honey.  In the bottle that is!!
They get it out of the top of trees.

More of the market.  We got there late, most of the people have left.

I guess he is my best friend from the market??

These are sago worms.  People were buying them by the bag fulls. They love to eat them raw or salted.

Disgusting!! Nope not trying them.

  Another Chinese Temple.

Went to the Sarawak Cultural Village.  Everyone needs to go here.  They have homes of all the different tribes of  people that live here.  And show some of their handy crafts. etc.

They grow pepper here.  This is how they grind the pepper.

Don't know what this it for

This a Bidayuh home. They did have a Japanese head hanging in there.  They were head hunters until the end of World War II.

Doing their beautiful weaving projects.

Cooking some of their famous foods.

This is a long house.  If they were living here it would be divided into family sections.

  The single women sleep upstairs.

 This is the home of one of the poorest tribes,They are nomads and still roam around the country side.

 My  favorite: the Orange Ulu. They build their home very high up on poles.

  Their handy crafts and weapons, etc.

  They do dances of all the different tribes.

I am up there dancing. Next to the yellow shirt in the middle.

Bako National Park. I am standing next to a jelly fish that is about a yard long.