Here comes the bride and projects we are working on

Well the reception/wedding day finally arrived.  The bride and groom were actually married in the Manilla Temple on July 17 but they just had their reception here on Friday night.  It turned out to be a really nice evening -- nothing like a Utah reception but still very fun and nice.
Here is a picture of the hall and the centerpieces that we were working on in past pictures:

The guests arrived between 6:30 and 7:00 and were escorted to their seats by the Elders.Then the bride and groom made their appearance at 7:00 pm.  We all stood and clapped when they walked in:

This is Christopher Faustos with his bride Margelina Faustos.  They are both small people and she is a real doll.

Everyone really dressed to the nines for this event.  It was so fun to see everyone dressed so fancy.  The colors were purple and white so everyone was asked to where something along those lines.  This is a picture of Ebony and Ivory, sisters (l to r).  They looked so pretty.  I especially loved Ebony's shoes and had to get a close up of them for you all to see.  They were gorgeous.

This is a picture of us with the bride and groom

In the background is Eder.  He is such a wonderful young man.  He is in the branch presidency and has served a mission in Singapore.  When mom gets her weekly letter, there is a section in there about Eder and his brothers that she can tell you about.  The brothers are all great young men.
The bride told me that she had three different bridal gowns for the event.  She had one for the marriage in the temple in Manila, one for the reception in Manila and the above gown for the reception in KK.  She said it was all part of the wedding package.  The wedding package even includes decorations for your car.  They served several hot Malay type dishes in a buffet.  They invited 100 guests but more showed up and they were out of food by the time the last eaters, us, went through the line but we managed to get some rice.  Always plenty of rice.  They had Ebony and Ivory sing and also their mother Dorcas sang.  Then they just called people out of the audience to come sing and they weren't intimidated or embarrassed about singing at all.  Some were better than others of course but everyone was more than willing to sing.  They played a couple of games with the couple like blindfold the groom and have him guess which of several hands belongs to his wife and questions about how well they know each other.  All in all it was a very nice evening and I'm glad we were asked to help and be a part of it.

On Wednesday we also took a two hour drive almost all the way to Mount Kinabalu to visit with this man:

This is brother Ben and he single handedly runs a catholic orphanage for about 70 children.  He came to Malaysia from Holland in 1956 and started the orphanage in 1966 with three other brothers who have long since left, not sure if they left this world or just left.  LDS Charities had helped them about 2 or 3 years ago by buying them some large commercial size washers so the children would be able to wash their clothes and take care of themselves.  We made the trip up there to see if there was anything else LDSC could do to help.  He told us they were now getting help from lots of people and he couldn't think of anything we could do.  Darn.  Drove two hours to be told don't need anything now.  Oh Well.  It was worth the trip to meet Bro. Ben.  It is just him and about 4 cooks who take care of all the children.  He is a remarkable man.


 Last week we also met with the Sabah Blind Society and a group called "Inner Wheel" which is a women's arm of the Rotary club.  The blind society wanted us to build them a new group home.  Sorry, no can do.  But they might have something else we can help them with.  I hope so.  The Inner Wheel does work with poor and needy children in the outlying areas.  They just put in a new president two weeks ago and they are working now on deciding what projects they want to do during the next year, but I definitely think we will be able to partner with them and help some of the children in a number of different ways.  They will let us know after their meeting with their group to decide what they are going to focus on in the upcoming year.  Sometimes it seems like we have this money and help just waiting to be given out and we can't find anyone who wants it.  But, I AM NOT DISCOURAGED.  I will persevere and we will force our charity on the charitless.  Pray for us to find the people who can use our help.


Someone please give our sympathy to the Shelton family in our ward on the death of their daughter Heidi.

Everyone take care and say your prayers and keep the emails coming.  We love you all.