A Wonderful Week

Selamat malam saudara and saudari -- We are still hanging out in Borneo, Sabah, Kota Kinabalu.  I don't know if you have read anything in the news about what is going on over here in Sabah, but rest assured, we are ok.  There seems to be some big trouble between the Sultan of Sulu from the Phillipines and the government of Malaysia.  It hasn't affected us here in KK and the government does seem to have the situation under control so hopefully they will have everything wrapped up and taken care of in the next few days/weeks.  You can probably read more about what is happening if you go to a national news site like MSNBC and then click on the the World link and then Asia.  I think there will be more information there.

On Wednesday we were able to go with the Sister Missionaries to teach a wonderful family.  Bro. Sidin (Se dean) and his wife and two children are investigators and they have a baptismal date coming up in the next couple of weeks.  They are such a special family.  Here is a picture of the sisters teaching the family:

The mother, Angela, was unable to be at this lesson as she was working.  The sisters showed the video about the life of the Savior.  It really touched their hearts and you could feel the spirit in their home.  We are so happy they asked us to be a part of this lesson.  We really enjoy going with the elders/sisters.  They are so amazing to watch as they teach.  I learn so much from these young people.

LtoR:  Bro. Sidin, Sis. Jacklyn (member fellowshipper), Hinie, Marda and Sis. Nielson.

Sis. Jacky and her brother Jeff are converts of about a year and they are from the Phillipines.  They have introduced the church to many of their friends.  On Thursday it was Jeff's 25th birthday and they invited us to come over for a party with other friends and members.  Of course, you can't have a Phillipine party without this:

The Pig of the Day!  They took a big meat cleaver and started hacking away at the poor pig.  They really like to eat the skin. I have no desire to try the skin but Ben did this time.  I don't think he will try it again.  He says it is very tough and hard to eat.  Being cooked with the skin on does keep the meat inside very moist though.

This is Sis. Jacky and her mother.  Her mother and father just arrived on Feb. 27.  They live in Watsonville, CA.  Jacky thinks her mother may stay here in KK with her as she is having some issues with memory.  Jacky and Jeff's goal is to get to the US.  They seem to be having a hard time getting there.

We had a "Fellowship Night" for KK2 on Saturday.  They usually have a lesson and then play a game.  They are a lot of fun and the members really seem to enjoy them.  This is Sis. Faralia giving the lesson (sorry it is blurry)

She is a doll!  She is a YSA and one of my piano students.  She must have done a good job with her lesson as everyone was participating and enjoying it.  Elder Read and I just smiled when it seemed to be appropriate and nodded our heads when that seemed appropriate too.  In other words, we didn't understand what she was saying.  After the lesson we played a circle game in which everyone, young and old, white or brown could participate.

The person in the middle tries to get an empty chair when the others in the circle have to change places with someone else when the person in the middle says something like "everyone wearing blue has to change places."  It really was a lot of fun, but again, we needed an interpreter to sit by us and tell us what was being said.  I ended up in the middle a few times due to translation problems.  One time I said "Everyone with brown eyes, trade places."  I thought that was a good one.  But do you know, Malaysians think their eyes are black, not brown.  No one moved.  Not fair.  They're brown eyes I swear.

Saturday was Elder Read's and Elder Scheutz' birthday.  We also had an investigator getting baptized after the fellowship night and his name was Jackson and it was his birthday too.  So I brought two cakes to fellowship night for the birthday boys:

                                                         Elder Read and Bro. Jackson
Elder Read is holding the blueberry cheesecake and Bro. Jackson is holding the chocolate cake.  The members Do Love Cake!!  I cut both cakes in very small pieces but they were completely gone in less than 5 minutes.  I had Sis. Josie make the cakes.  She is the famous cake baker in the branches.  The chocolate cake is usually 4 times bigger and calls for thirty eggs.  I asked her to just make a smaller version.  They were both delicious!!!

After the Fellowship Night we had the baptism for Bro. Jackso.

 This is Bro. Jackson on the left.  His friend, Jusmani (Juice Money) baptized him.  Jusmani has only been a member himself for about two or three weeks.  What a special treat for him to be able to baptize his friend.

Elder Parker, Bro. Jackson, Bro. Jusmani and Elder Putnam.

Our trip to the hospital this month involved Elder Griffin who was showing signs of pneumonia.  Elder Griffin has had pneumonia twice before so he knew he was getting it again.  We took him to the hospital to get treatment.  The doctor there told him he didn't think it was pneumonia.  He told him it was "tuberculosis or maybe something else."  He gave him prescriptions for pneumonia though and Elder Griffin is now doing better.  We all have to have TB tests before we come on our mission, so we're pretty sure it's not TB.

We had three babies blessed this morning.  Sis. Roslyn's baby, Emily,  I sent you a picture of before.  Also blessed was baby Dora, whose twin sister Evy died about a month ago.  And also we blessed Sis. Kiko and Bro. Bryan's baby:

They named her Bella.  She is about a month old now.  Kiko was lucky in that she married Bryan who is also a member of the church.  That is very very rare here in Malaysia.  They plan on going to the temple next year.

Well, bright and early in the morning, 6:00 am, we are leaving for Singapore.  It is senior conference time again.  This is our next to last conference and so we are taking an extra day and doing a little sight seeing around Singapore.  We are looking forward to the conference.  It is so nice to be with other oldsters.

We love and miss you all more than last week.  We would love to hear from you about what is going on in your life.  Please email us.  Love to All   E/S Read