And it came to pass. . .

What a week we have had.  The highlight has been Ben's kidney stone.  On Monday the 21st he was in such terrible pain that we decided to head to the hospital.  We got there bright and early, about 5:30 am.  We were able to meet with a doctor, who we think was Indian, who was working the night shift and I think he was anxious to be done.  But he was kind and set us up to have a scan done.  We went and had the scan done by a very nice, speaks English very well technician.  We think he was Indian.  Then we met again with another doctor who said he would have to wait for the scans to come to him before he could read them and decide what to do.  They sent us home and said to come back the next day after they read the scans and they would know what better needs to be done.  Ben was still having pain, but not quite so bad.  He didn't get much rest again Monday night.  On Tuesday when we were back in the hospital they said the scan showed that the kidney function which should have been between 50-150 was over 200 so they would need to do a CT scan.  So they set us up for that.  All this time Ben is experiencing terrible pain.  After the CT scan we had to wait for the doctor to read it.  This doctor was a specialist and wouldn't be back to our hospital for about an hour and then he had to see patients which were in front of us before he could see Ben.  Well Ben could hardly do anything by this time because of the pain.  They ordered a shot for him which really knocked him completely out.  At least he was sleeping and not in pain.  When we met with the doctor he said he thought the best thing to do was to get it blasted.  We told him we would have to wait until the next day to do that as we needed to have it pre-approved by our insurance (or so we thought).  Well they sent us home with pain medication which seemed to really help because Ben was able to sleep all night and be pain free.  When we went back on Wednesday morning we met with the actual doctor who would be doing the blasting.  He is a kidney specialist, again from India.  He looked at the scans and the CT and gave us two options: 1.  Blast it or 2.  He would treat it with some medicine which would hopefully open up the urether and let the stone pass.  We asked which he would recommend and he said #2.  Give it some time and see if it will pass on it's own.  So we chose door #2 and they sent us home with some medicine to dilate the urether and more pain pills.  The doctor said if the pain gets so sever that the pain medication doesn't help, to return to the hospital and they will blast it immediately.  So far Ben has been doing quite well on this regime.  He has only had one small episode of pain which the pain pills quickly zapped.  But, he still hasn't passed the stone.  It's just a waiting game.  You wouldn't believe how many remedies are out there.  Everyone we talk to has some "sure way" to get rid of kidney stones.  we may end up trying them all before this is over.
On May 17 we went to the Island of Gaya for a closing ceremony for some humanitarian aid LDS Charities had given the school after they had a fire.  LDS Charities gave them some books, paper, binders, school supplies, etc.  We had the ceremony so the could thank LDS Charities officially.  Here are some pictures:

Riding the boat to Gaya.  Front left clockwise:  Pres. Francis president of KK1 branch, Rosalina (with the KK school board), Sis. Kate RS Pres. KK2, Sis. Audrey RS Pres. KK1, and Elder O'Driscoll.

Stage with LDS Charities Banner prominently displayed.

Ben speaking.

Student receiving some of the supplies.  LtoR  student, Che Rose Bakar, Principal, Ben, and President Ling, district president.

Some of the girl students.  Boys are on the other side.  I felt bad for them because it was hot and they had to sit there for about 2 hours.  I don't know how the girls stand it all covered up like this.

We had a nice lunch after.  LtoR  Elder O'Driscoll, Elder Howell, Sis. Audrey, Sis. Kate and Pres. Faustos.
It was a nice day and gave the church some good publicity.  There were three newspapers there to cover the ceremony.

I thought you might like to see one of the favorite flavors of ice cream here.  Yes, it is corn ice cream with kernels of corn in it.  They love their corn here.  They have stands that will sell you a "Cup of Corn" like in a sno-cone cup and sometimes they will add berries or something to it.
Everyone have a great day.  Hopefully, this too shall pass and we can give a clean report next time.  Love to all.  E/S Read

Thank Goodness

We had a really nice trip to Sibu last week for our Senior Conference.  It is always fun to get together with the other "old folk" out here.  We had a nice surprise too.  One of the new senior couples is an old high school classmate of Ben's.  It is Bob Brady and he and his wife Mary are serving in the city of Mukah and arrived here about three weeks ago.  It was so fun for Ben to see an old classmate.  Thank Goodness for old friends and new ones too.

We had a great time at Senior conference and really enjoyed hearing from our Mission President, Pres. Clark.  He and his wife will be leaving June 30.  We will miss them. The new President is President Manes and we will be serving with him for the majority of our time here.

After Sibu we flew over to Kuching to take care of some welfare/humanitarian business.  Here we met with Francis Johen who is with Cheshire Homes from the UK who we partner with to provide wheelchairs.  He took us on a tour of the city.  Kuching in Malay means "cat"  and they have lots of cat statues throughout the city.  The even have a cat museum.  It is a very nice city.

This is a picture of Francis Johen.  When he was a young man of about 15 or 16 he was very athletic.  One day he started to run a high fever.  After a few days he had lost the feeling in both his legs and it left him paralyzed from the waist down.  He had know place to go so he ended up living at the Cheshire home for 4 years.  They took excellent care of him.  Now he uses crutches/wheelchair.  But he kept up his education and went on to become a lawyer and now is a very high ranking lawyer with the government.  It is a very inspirational story of never giving up and over coming what life may throw your way.  He also is now giving back to Cheshire homes by serving on their board.  Thank Goodness for people who continue to serve and give back no matter what life hands them.

Francis Johen is in the front and some of the others who work at the Cheshire home.

Sorry.  Just lie down sideways to look at it.  This is a picture of the new Kuching church house which was just dedicated the first of the month.  It is really a pretty building and they are so happy to have an actual church house to meet in.

We also had some meetings with the person, Patrick Panai, who is helping us with some water projects in the "interior".  It was a very successful trip and we really enjoyed it, but it did put me behind with other things going on.

When we got back from our trip our AC was broken.  We were able to make do by staying in the rooms that also have AC.  Two techs came and fixed it for us on Friday.  Thank Goodness!  Then on Friday afternoon our clothes washer broke.  I really had a lot of laundry because of our trip.  I felt guilty complaining about the washer being broken when 75% of our branch members probably still do all their laundry by hand.  Anyway, a repairman came and was able to make a temporary fix until he orders in the parts to fix it permanently.  Thank Goodness!

Thursday night Ben awoke about midnight in excruciating pain and vomitting.  He had a kidney stone again.  I asked if he wanted me to try and drive him to the hospital.  I think he was more terrified of me having to drive than he was of the kidney stone.  I gave him some Tylenol and after awhile the pain eased up.  On Friday he said he was sore but not in terrible pain anymore.  Again Friday night he awoke in terrible pain and again I gave him some tylenol.  Again it took the edge off so he was able to get a couple of hours sleep. On Saturday we went to a friendly pharmacist we know here and she gave him some pain medication to take and advised him to see a doctor if it didn't clear up.  Whatever she gave him really did the trick, it killed all the pain and he has been doing fine all Saturday night and all day Sunday.  Thank Goodness.  Just pray that it stays away.

We are continuing with our teaching of new converts.  They are all marvelous people and they teach us much more than we teach them.  It is so wonderful to see the light in their eyes because they now know the truth.  Thank Goodness for the gospel.

I wanted to mention a book I just finished reading that was left here by the other missionaries.  Heads up to all you book club people too.  It is a wonderfully written book that I just thoroughly loved.  It is called "Corrag" and is written by Susan Fletcher.  It is based on a true story.  Give it a read and let me know what you think of it.

Also, Kathy made me the most wonderful video for mother's day.  I just sobbed and sobbed it was so touching and so good.  If you get a chance you can pull it up on YouTube.  I guess you'll have to ask Kathy how to do that as I'm tech illiterate.

Thank Goodness for all of you!  I wish we could hear from more of you but I know your lives are busy just like ours.  I do appreciate those of you who have dropped a line or left a message.  It really helps.  Sometimes I still get really really homesick.  I love you all      Sis Read

Give me the Power

Last Monday the power went off about 3:30 am.  We know because we woke up and it was really really warm.  It didn't come on again until about 11:30 am.  Something big blew up is all I know and it was quite a widespread area that was without power.  It really made it hard to do any work with the computers not working.  And it was still very warm.  The next day while we were working the power went out about 2:00 pm.    About 3:00 a really nice wind came up so I opened all the windows to get the breeze blowing through and at least stir the air.  It helped a lot.  The temperature didn't lower, but it still felt better.  It's funny here.  When a rainstorm blows in, as it does almost every afternoon, you would think it would make it cooker, but it doesn't.  You open the windows hoping to get the cooler air, but the air temperature hasn't changed.  I miss the cool rain.  Anyway, while we were waiting for the power to come back on and all the windows were open and the wind was blowing through, we heard a really big BANG.  The wind had blown the door shut in our bedroom.  I'm sure you have all had the same experience.  I went to open the bedroom door and it was locked.  Not to worry, we had an envelope marked "Keys to bedroom doors".  Got the keys out of the envelope and tried everyone of them.  None worked.  We tried everything we could think of.  We even called the building supervisor but he told us they don't keep keys to the doors in individual apartments.  So we ended up having to calling a locksmith.  He was here within a half hour and had the door open.  He charged us Rm50 (about $15). After he left we found a key which was in the bedroom which would open the door.  That key is now in the envelope marked "Keys to bedroom doors".

Last week we ha a baptismal service.  Six people were baptized.  That was so awesome! There was a mother, Welista, and her two sons Prichard (11) and Eric (9).  There was also an 8 year old boy from the branch, Sylvester; the boyfriend of a girl in the branch, Jeko (18); and another young married lady named Senciea.

Here are some pictures:

This picture shows Jeko and Sylvester.  Jeko is 2nd from left and Sylvester is in front of him.  Jeko's girlfriend is standing by him.  Jeko's girlfriend comes from a family of about 8 children, including a new baby. They live in very humble circumstances that would make the Chicago projects look good.  The baptizer, Bro. Charles,back right, is the brother of the two twin sisters who left on their mission a few days ago.

Another picture of Jeko, Sylvester and Charles.  I thought Ben had taken more pictures, but I guess not.

One day we were picking up the Elders at their apartment and another car pulled up.  There was an older white lady inside.  We noticed because seeing an older white lady is not too common here. (I guess that's why I get lots of stares.)  She got out of the car and was using a cane.  When she almost got to where we were she tripped and fell and went down hard.  Ben and I and the driver of the car rushed to pick her up.  She kept saying she was ok, just embarrassed.  For some reason her glasses were really foggy so she couldn't see all that well.  After we helped her up she looked at me and said, "Well good afternoon Sis. Read.  I'm Sis. Greenwood."  Imagine, another sister falling right at our feet.  She was from Australia and she keeps an apartment in KK.  She loves KK and hopes to spend more time here in the future.  She usually comes and spends all of the month of December.  The branches know her well.  A really delightful lady.  Said she will soon be 80.  She always gives all her left over food to the Elders before she leaves so they were glad to get to know her too.  By the way, Natalie, she told us the Canberra is pronounced Can BRA.  Maybe you already know this.

On Thursday we leave for a Zone conference in Sibu.  We will spend the day and a night in Sibu and then we are flying to Kuching.  We are going to be meeting with some humanitarian partners in Kuching, one is a guy who helps us with the water projects and the other is a guy who helps us with the wheelchair projects.  We thought it would be nice to meet and visit with them since we were flying that way anyway.  We will return Saturday night.

We got our first official mail delivered to our apartment on Tuesday.  It was from Jason, Julie and girls.  Thank you so much.  It was so fun to get some mail.  E and A, thank you so much for the pictures.  I have put them on my refrigerator.

We are still enjoying the work and staying busy with humanitarian and welfare as well as all the teaching the branches have for us.  We hope all is well with you all too.  Love and miss each and everyone!
E/S Read

Who Am I Really

Before we left I bought an Asian looking jacket in a light lilac with the frog type closures at the DI.  My mom and I thought it was pretty and good for going to an Asian country.  The first time I wore it to church a sister said to me "You look like Imelda Marcos."  Now I don't know if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  I just said I don't have enough shoes to be Imelda.  Well I wore the same jacket yesterday and a different sister  came up to me and said "You look like Imelda Marcos."  Now I'm thinking that isn't good.  Didn't they string her up or something: Anyway, I like the jacket and I'll still wear it and see how many more people tell me I look like Imelda Marcos.  We went to the hospital to visit a sister who had to have surgery on her legs.  One of the sister's visiting her said to me (wait for it)  "You look like Nancy Reagan".  Again I'm not sure how to take this. Hopefully they were thinking of Nancy in her younger days not as she is now at 90+.  Don't get me wrong, I think Nancy is a nice looking lady but I don't want people thinking I'm quite 90 yet.  Then another sister came into the room and she said to me (wait for it) "You look like Goldie Hawn".  Now really?  Goldie Hawn?  I said "Goldie has blonde hair".  She said "Well your's is kinda gold".  OK.  If you think so.  So I'm not sure who I am, Imelda, Nancy or Goldie.  What's your votes?  Do I look like any of the three?

On Wednesday we sent the Haraun twins off to their missions to London and London South.  They are such tiny little things.  I hope England doesn't chew them up and spit them out.  They have very little materially in this world.  But their testimonies and spirits soar.  They also have a brother serving in the Utah Salt Lake City South mission.  Three missionaries for this one poor little family.  It really makes you humble when you see how little they have but how much they want to share the gospel.

The Haraun twins Elsie (or Laura) their friend Jen and Laura (or Elsie) at the airport just before they left for England.

We had to go out to Palau Gaya Island on Friday to make arrangements for the closing ceremony for the humanitarian/welfare help the church gave the school there.  I thought it would be a small island type school. It's quite LARGE.  They have over 700 students, mostly like jr. high age.  The school is built right in the water and is supported on beams in the water.  We took the Elders with us to act as interpreters.

Ben and Elder Glad (back) and Elder Reid (front) on our speedboat to the island school.

Off we go.  Wish us luck.  It took us awhile to find a boat to take us because we're not familiar with the area.  We finally found this boat that would take all four of us out and back for Rm50 (about $4.25 a piece).

Some of the poor homes that have been built right in the water on stilts.

Just a very small part of the school.  There are several buildings all connected.  The gazebo like building on the right is the boat dock.

With the principal of the school and some of the supplies the church has furnished.

The part of the school that burned, and has now been rebuilt, is about from where the girls are walking and going to the left.

The walkway to the school rooms and other buildings.
The actual closing ceremony is scheduled for May 17.  I will send more pictures when that happens.
Please let us hear from you.  We really enjoy getting mail/emails anything.  You're all great.
E/S Read

Cooking Lessons

On Saturday the branch YW asked me to help them make cookies.  They actually asked about two weeks ago.  I was excited to help them.  They are a good bunch of girls and have a great YW President.  I thought we would be doing it at the church, but I found out the oven at the church doesn't work.  I invited them to come to our apartment and we could make the cookies here.  They all thought that would be great.  But on Friday night the YW Pres called and said that they couldn't come to our apartment because some of the girls had school and it would be hard for them to find our apartment on their own.  She suggested we go back to making them at the church and she could bring her own small, as in wouldn't hold a pie plate, toaster oven.  I told her we would meet at the church and we could make no-bake cookies.  They seemed a little puzzled about no-bake cookies, but I told them it would work out ok.  We were supposed to start at 11:00 but not everyone got there until about 11:30.  The girls had a good time making the cookies.  We made the chocolate oatmeal peanut butter type.  They had never had them before but they really really liked them. They laughed when I told them that my daughter Amber calls them "Gorilla Poops".  They seemed to understand that ok. While the cookies were setting up we also made rice krispie treats.  It is hard to find the right kind of marshmallows here in KK, but I finally found them along with a small box of rice krispies.  They really really liked the rice krispie treats too.  Here are some pictures of the cookie making girls:

 They each took turns adding a different ingredient.

Cooking the Chocolate, sugar, milk and butter on the stove

The finished products:  Rice Krispies and Chocolate no-bake cookies.  YUMMY!  LtoR:  Sis. Read, Sis. Maylin (YW Pres.), Betty, Minna, Vivianna, Ching, Laura and Elsie.  (Laura and Elsie are leaving on missions on Wednesday.  One is going to London and one is going to London South)  We all had a great time and if they ever get the oven fixed we can have more cooking classes.
I had another Kitchen Klutzy moment last week.  I was making some bread.  I think the bread here is too expensive and comes in little loaves, so I decided to make my own.  The first time I made it it turned out ok. Last week I made another batch.  Some of the YSA from the ward wanted to swim so I put the bread into bake and then went down to watch them swim for about 25-30 minutes, about the time the bread was supposed to be done.  When I came in the apartment I thought it kinda smells like baking bread, only a little different.  When I opened the oven, I saw what was wrong.  I had turned the oven to broil instead of bake.  The bread was black on the top.  I let it cook a few more minutes at the right temperature and then took it out.  It tasted great as long as you didn't eat the black top.  But hey, I'm not going to waste bread so we just cut off the top and ate it anyway.  It was still good and I'm still learning.

This is Angel.  She is 10 and cute as a bug.

Here are some pictures of a family we are teaching the follow-up discussions to.  They are a brother and sister, Crystel and Darian.  They live with their auntie Josie who is Philipino (everyone says auntie here).  Crystel is 17 and Darian is 16. They were baptized in December. They also have a little sister Angel who is ten.  I thought you might like to see  a picture of some members we are teaching:

                                                   This is Angel, Crystel and Darian.

Have a great day everyone and Keep Those Cards and Letters Coming In Boys and Girls.  Love ya all!

Another week has come and gone here in KK.  The Meehan's,Welfare specialists from Hong Kong, were with us until Wednesday.  They were so patient and kind with us and we certainly learned a lot from their training.  Now let's just hope we can remember it and get going on why we are here in the first place -- to do humanitarian and welfare service.  Ben is hoping to close on one of the open projects still on our calendar.  The project involved a school on the island of Gaya that burned down.  The church helped them with supplies, equipment, etc.  Now that the school is up and running again, we need to have the closing ceremony with people from the school, dignitaries, members of the branch and the media there.  We want them to know that the church has been there to help them.  It is one of the ways we can help bring the church out of obscurity here.  Hopefully we can set that up for this week or next at the latest.

While the Meehan's were here we took a couple of sight-seeing trips.  We went to a place just out of KK called Mari-Mari, think Polynesian Cultural Center only a LOT smaller.  The Smith's, media specialists, also joined us on this trip.  It was very interesting and we had a great time there.  Here are some pictures:

Ben and I got married in the traditional marriage room, complete with hats and crowns.

Me, looking fierce, with our guide good ol what's his name.

One of the long houses had a floor, see where the natives are standing, that was almost like a trampoline.  They could get that floor really bouncing and then they would take a giant leap and try to reach this:

which would have a "treasure" hanging from it from the village chief.  If they were able to reach it, they were lucky.

Some guests of Mari-Mari who didn't pay.

The next day the Meehan's wanted to see Kinabalu so we headed up the mountain.  It is such an awesome mountain.  Some highlights from our trip:

This is a picture of a rare Raffelsia (sp?).  It only blooms for 5-7 days, it doesn't smell very nice and then it is dead and gone.  We were lucky to see this one.  Some of them will get to be 5' across.  This one was only about 2'.  We saw a couple of more later in the day.  (What do you think Dawn?)

This is Jackie, an orangatan (sp?)  She is wearing her finest plastic shawl.  She is not in a cage.  Sis. Meehan had her picture taken with Jackie.  She kept a respectable distance from Jackie.  Bro. Meehan wanted his picture taken with Jackie too.  He put out his hand and Jackie grabbed it and dug in her nails and was baring her huge teeth.  We all thought Elder Meehan would be toast but Jackie let go and we skeedaddled from Jackie's home.

We had conference here in East Malaysia this weekend.  We get it two weeks later because it needs to be translated into Malay and then sent on DVD's to the branches.  Because it is such a long way for some of the members to come, it is an all day gathering.  The conference starts at 10:00 or it's supposed to start at 10 but there always seems to be problems with getting it set up right.  The first day we couldn't get the Malay translation to come through, so English was the only choice. Luckily, there weren't many there on Saturday and those who were could understand a little English.  After the first session is over we take and hour break and eat a pot luck lunch, then it's back for the second session from 1:00 to 3:00.  Then there is another break for about an hour and then it is time for the priesthood session.  Sunday, we do it all over again, however there are a lot more people there.  Most people have to work on Saturday.  I really enjoyed the conference.  There was a lot of good advice if we'll just listen.

Well, that's probably enough of a blog for today.  I will be adding more later.  Please let us hear from you too.  It's always nice to hear what is going on in your lives.  Love to all
E/S Read

Meet and Eat

We have had an interesting three days.  We got to MEET Elder and Sister Meehan who came down from Hong Kong to give us training.  They are the Asia Area Welfare specialists.  They really know it all.  We have spent the last three days learning all we can from them.  The only problem is trying now to remember all they have taught us.  They are going to be here for another two days.  This is a picture of Elder and Sister Meehan:

Elder Meehan is a petroleum engineer and works for the third largest company in the world  He has been all over the world.  We went to a restaurant in downtown KK and he helped us order.  It was so nice to EAT with someone who knows what is going on and isn't afraid to order food food.  This is the fish we go to MEET:

He is Mr. Red Snapper and just a few minutes before being served to us he was swimming around in a fish tank and we chose him to be our meal for the night.  Then we got to EAT Mr. Snapper after he was skillfully prepared.  I usually don't like to meet my food before I eat it.  It's best not to have a relationship with your food before eating it.

These are prawns who we also got to Meet before we got to EAT them.  They were delicious.

These are pictures of the dancers who performed native dances for us at the restaurant:

Yes, that is Elder Meehan in with the performers.  He was taking so many pictures that they invited him to come on stage and dance with them.

Here are all the happy Meet and Eat people at the end of our meal and time at the restaurant.  The restaurant was down on the water front and we sat outdoors.  It was very nice and the food was great.  We didn't even get sick after eating it.

Kitchen Klutzes:
We have a small but adequate kitchen.  However, there aren't many power outlets in it.  I am constantly having to unplug this appliance to plug in that appliance and then run and get the right adapter.  Some of their plugs are three pronged and some are only two so I'm never sure what is right.  In addition to getting it plugged in right you have to make sure that the little switch on the outlet is also pushed the right way or you still won't have power.  Today I was making a cake.  The mixer plug was not working so I ran to the bedroom to get the adapter and then I plugged in the mixer but it still wasn't working.  I had forgotten to push the little switch on the outlet the right way.  Well I pushed it and the mixer which was just sitting in the cake bowl with all the ingredients just took off and I had cake batter spraying everywhere.  I sure do miss my bosch!  The funny thing was that earlier in the morning I had made smoothies for breakfast and couldn't seem to get the blender off the base.  (we bought a really cheap blender)  Ben came and tried and he got it off all right but he unscrewed the bottom of the blender base from the blender cup and all the smoothie went all over the counter.  We haven't had much luck today in the kitchen.

Tomorrow is Easter so Happy Easter to you all.  Ben has to give a talk in Sacrament tomorrow about the atonement.  He got a text message on Thursday saying he was going to be the speaker and to prepare to talk on the atonement.  They didn't ask, just told him.  He'll do fine.

We are going to go with the Meehan's to Kinabalu National Park on Monday.  I think that will be fun.  There is so much to see up there, with many different trails to hike.

I have also been pretty sad this week.  My dear uncle Clair passed away on Wednesday.  He died of cancer in his throat.  It hit really sudden and he only was able to live a couple of weeks from the time he got the diagnoses.  He was my mom's younger brother and only sibling.  He was a wonderful man and I'll miss him.

Write us when you get a chance.  We love you all.
Ben and Margaret