Good Day All -- We are hoping you are enjoying your February and had a great Valentine's day.  We want to thank the Roy 30th Ward for sending us the Valentine from the ward.  It was so great to read all your comments.  It was so fun and we enjoyed it so much.  Thanks also to Mom, Summer, Whitney and Kathy for your mailed valentines and all the others who sent on-line valentines.  They're not too big on Valentine's day here but they do celebrate a little.  They are still doing the Chinese New Year:

A pole in the middle of a round-about that was really decorated with a lot of very pretty red lanterns.

If you look close, that is two people dressed as a lion doing the lion dance on top of those green poles.  It is amazing they can both dance together on those poles.  It was pretty amazing.  Such coordination!!

This is little Christine.  She had her own lion costume and was doing a lion dance for us.  Her mother invited us over for a Chinese New Year luncheon and Christine had to show us her costume.  She is so cute and she is so good with English.  Her mother, Lisa, is Philipina and her dad is Chinese.  Lisa says she doesn't speak Chinese and her husband doesn't speak Malay so I'm not sure how they ever manage to communicate with each other.

It was Elder Glad's last day in KK on Wednesday and it was also Elder Parker's birthday so we all got together for a luncheon.  Elder Parker found a restaurant in KK that serves --- MEXICAN FOOD!  Well, they specialize in burritos, but hey that's Mexican isn't it?  They are called the Chiwawa Cafe.  They make a kinda sorta Cafe Rio type burrito /salad.  You can choose the size of tortilla you want, small 6" up to a big 24". I chose the little 6" one which was plenty big enough for me, but the others all chose larger.  You could choose the type of meat you wanted, the type of rice, the type of beans, and the vegetables you wanted.  It was actually pretty good.  But hey, I haven't tasted true Mexican in so long that if they served Arabian Camel and called it a burrito, I would probably believe it and eat it.  Oh BYW, the latest new food I have tried is Chicken Butt.  Did you know chickens have really tiny butts so you have to eat a few butts to make a dent in your appetite, no ifs, ands or butts about it (groan --- sorry --- couldn't resist).  I really only ate a half a butt.

Here we are eating at the Chiwawa cafe.  The owner, Kyle,  is an orang putih (white guy) from Chicago.  We asked how did a white guy from Chicago come to own a cafe in KK.  He smiled and said "My wife" and pointed to a cute Malaysian gal who was helping.  This is all the seating they had -- all outside and we took every seat.  Kyle was excited to have all of us come and he even gave Elder Parker his meal free because it was his birthday.  And the Chiwawa Cafe on Thursday nights has a burrito eating contest where you can be the winner if you an eat a 4# burrito and 2 shots of tequilla the fastest.  Wouldn't want to have the winner for a companion.

This is Jen Simon.  She has been waiting for her mission call for a very very long time.  Everytime she would send in her papers, HK would send them back and say she needed to do one more thing, one more thing.  We finally got everything in and it took about 6 weeks for her to get her call.  This is Jen with her call.  She opened it and she is going to the SINGAPORE mission.  Yep!  Right here.  She was excited and the other missionaries, especially the sisters, were beyond thrilled.  They each hope they will get to be her trainer.  She goes to the missionary training center in the Philipines on June 7 and then will enter the mission field on June 20.  She kept telling me all day today, Sis. Read, I am so excited.  I can't believe it.  Sis. Read, I am so excited I can't believe it.  Sis. Read I think I am having a happy dream.  Sis. Read can it be really true?  I just love Jen.  She has already followed the full time missionaries for about a year now so she is very familiar with missionary work.  She will be one fantastic missionary.  She will make #7 missionary for the two KK branches.

These are some photos of the YSA's District Valentine Party.  Only one other person came from outside of KK, but the YSA had a great time.  There were about 50 in total.  It was supposed to be a dance, and they did do some dancing, but they mostly played some games and of course ate.  I made 12 dozen cookies.  Quite a few, more than enough don't you think.  But hey, these are YSA's and they do like cookies, so there were no left overs.  The top two pictures are the limbo.  The bottom is a game called "Honey"/"Darling".  It was funny.  Would take too long to try to explain but I'm sure you will want to play it at your next family reunion.

We had a tragedy in our branches this week.  A few weeks ago I told you about the birth of the two little twin girls, one named Evy and one named Dora.  They were born premature and were oh so tiny.  On Wednesday the twins got to come home from the hospital.  On Friday morning at about 3 am little Evy had trouble breathing so her daddy rushed her to the hospital, but she had died.  She was still so tiny.  She looked just like a little porcelain doll when we visited the funeral home.  They had a service for her today after Church.  It was the first time her mother, Senley, had been to the funeral home to see Evy.  It was so hard to watch that poor little mother.  She is having such a hard time.  Evy's daddy has had to carry most of the load and I feel bad for him.  Such a good family.  Last June they had saved their money and were able to take all their family to the Manilla temple for the first time and they were all sealed together as a family.  What a blessing that is now to this precious family.  I had a hard time too.  Everyone kept saying "Don't cry Sis. Read.  It will be ok."  "Don't cry Sis. Read" but I just couldn't help it.  I don't handle the deaths of little children well.  Pray for Bro. Gary and Sis. Senley and their children.  I think they are going to need lots of prayers to help them through this tragedy in their life.

Have a great week everyone.  We love you all and miss you all and think of you all and pray for you all every day.  Please send more emails.  E/S Read