Selamat Dahun Baru

Selamat Dahun Baru -- Happy New Year Everyone.  We hope the new year 2013 will bring you all much joy and happiness and all your dreams come true.  2013 will bring us Home, so I at least am looking forward to that.  But, I am also looking forward to all the adventures yet to be had here in Borneo.  We weren't too crazy with our New Year's celebration.  All missionaries have to be in their apartments by 10 pm, so we weren't going to be out until midnight.  The KK2 branch did have a New Year's Eve party.  It started at 9 pm and went until 1 am.  I heard everyone had a good time.  Our celebration was a real snorer, literally.  Ben snoring and me listening.  I'm sure I snore too sometimes, but Ben is the real champion.

New Food -- every Tuesday we have district meeting with the elders and sisters in our apartment.  I usually fix them some lunch.  After all, they are missionaries and someone's sons and daughters and they do work extremely hard.  And I love them all tons.  On Tuesday, Elder Tadius, who is a Malay native, brought us a dish to try.  It was lizard.  One of the members had killed this huge lizard, at least 6' long, and given Elder Tadius and Elder Gottfredson half of the lizard.  They cut it into pieces and then boiled it and then fried it in a soy type of sauce.  I can now say that I have also eaten lizard.  It was rather tough and of course it tasted like chicken.  Elders Tadius and Gottfredson also took the lizard skin and are drying it.  Elder Gottfredson wants to make a wallet out of the skin.

The KK1 Branch had a New Year's Day party at the beach.  The branch president, President Ng, told me "You bring cake."  So I made chocolate mint brownies.

LtoR:  Sis. Nielsen, Pres. Ng and his wife Susan.  The brownies are in the blue plan, second from left.  I also made a macaroni salad, third from left.

Here is a picture of some of the items on the grill.  The item in the middle with the arms is indeed a squid and those are his eyes looking at you.  I DID NOT try the squid.  I have had squid and octopus before and do not like it at all.  I'm also not sure what some of the other items on the grill are.  On the left is chicken wings, that's the only other thing I recognize.

This little boy from the branch shimmied up the coconut tree and was able to bring the coconut down.  Some of the older boys and elders tried to climb and get it, but they were unsuccessful.

Some of the branch members at the beach New Year's Day party.

Here is a picture of some of our favorite fruits:

The red hairy like things on the left are ramatan and the purple things on the right are mangosteen.  Both very delicious.

Here is what they look like when you peel off the outer layer.  Both white inside.  The ramatan has a large seed inside while the mangosteen has some small seeds in some of the sections.  I really love the mangosteen the best.  They call it the queen of the fruit.  It is not always mangosteen season, so when it is mangosteen season, we buy a lot.

Again, we want to wish everyone Selamat Dahun Baru/Happy New Year.  We love and miss everyone so much.  Please send us emails and let us know how and what you and your families are up to.  The first thing we do every morning to check our emails to see if anyone remembers us and to see if we made the obit page.  Love to all E/S Read