Tuesday, April 30, 2013

April 28, 2013

We went out to eat at an Indian place and there, you eat with your fingers. It was quite interesting. They have a small sink in the room to wash your hands when you're done. Elder Steven is from Malaysia, but has a parent from India, so he looks Indian




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We have rain almost daily and 2 pictures are a street that floods over in just a minute or two and a drain that can't work because so much comes down at once.
 


We went to City Square, a huge, modern mall next to Singapore. It is about 45 minutes from where we live. The picture is at the top of the mall, looking down the different levels. We met Ser Lee at this mall, a Chinese sister that we are teaching. She was baptized in Dec. and wants to serve a mission this coming December. She is very  strong and dedicated
 
 
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Saturday, April 27, 2013

Life here in Malaysia

The first 3, which you can't really tell very well, is the hard rain storms that we get daily. The other pictures are foods. The first ones are the "durian" fruit, the prickly stuff with a yellow mashy fruit inside. It is really bad. Elder Chan and Elder Berger are loving it. We also took pictures of our grocery store, with the fresh fish, prawns, and crabs. The most famous drink out here is Milo, a chocolate drink with water




 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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I'm Big

Here are a few pictures to show how little the people are in Malaysia. We bought a green glass scale for the bathroom and I can hardly stand on it. The bed, the dresser, the refrigerator and the mirrors are all much lower, but we get use to it
 
 
 
 
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Monday, April 22, 2013

Letter Home

April 21, 2013

Today was our first official day of church meetings. Our day started off with an early 8am meeting with a newly called Area Seventy, Elder Woo. He was just called at General Conference and is still serving as a counselor in the Singapore Mission Presidency. Next I sat around while Elder Schollenberger (sounds funny) had a meeting with the Branch Presidency and Elder Woo. Now it is finally time to start our 3 hour block. We are scheduled to be 2 of the 3 speakers. Now the fun part comes. As we are sitting there the General Authority (GA) comes down and tells Elder Schollenberger he doesn't have to speak, the GA will take his spot. After the sacrament is over the first speaker gets up and starts to speak in English. We have three languages in our branch, English, Malay or bahasa, and Chinese. They stop the program and get one of the missionaries to interpret. So now she speaks a sentence the elder interprets it into bahasa. We have no Chinese elders so the Chinese are out of luck unless they can speak bahasa or English. So now her 10 min talk takes 20 min. The Branch Pres. now gets off the stand and comes to me and asks if its ok if I speak another time. (YEAH!!!). Of course I politely say of course. Elder Woo is last speaker.
Next is Sunday School. Someone hands a book to an Australian couple and says would you teach the English group. He did a great job by the way.
For Relief Society I decided to be brave and go with the basha group but they have no teacher so we combine. The Relief Society Pres. is going to teach. She has had her call for 2 weeks. She and her one counselor are trying to speak in English, Chinese and bahasa. Needless to say only a few points of the Lorenzo Snow lesson were given.
After the 3 hour block we get to attend a Branch council meeting. It was very interesting. They are trying to plan a branch activity and wanted to know what kinds of things they could do. The Branch Pres. has only been called for about a month and is not sure what to do. He has a good heart so all will go well.
This is only one of the branches we are over. The other branch is in Masai. They only have one language there, bahasa! We haven't been to see them yet.
Also in 2 weeks is District (Stake) Conference. They have no District President so I think we are in charge...... oh my!
Pray hard for us. I think we will need a lot of inspiration.

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Some New Food

The sweet Chinese mom to the two kids we teach english to, came over at lunchtime and brought us "sushi" that she had made for us.  This was to say thank you for teaching her children.  She speaks very little english, but told us the container was mayonaise to dip the sushi in.  It was a delicious first attempt at Sushi.  You can see the "before" and "after" photos that we really liked it.



 
 
 
 
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Happy 39th Anniversary!

The Elders gave us a card and a chocolate cake for our anniversary. 

 
 
 
 
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Romley Burgers

You choose between ayam (chicken), lembu (beef), deer, rabbit or ostrich meat.  Then this young kid cooks the patty and grills the buns, then adds hot sauces, cucumber, cabbage, thousand island sauce, chili sauce and then wraps your patty in a cooked egg.
It was delicious, but you definetely needed heartburn pills later.


 
 
 
 
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