Happy Chinese New Years!
January 31, 2014 is the first day of the Chinese New Year and we had such an amazing time.  This is the year of the horse.  You see horse statues and horse images on TV and in every mall and everywhere.  This is a picture of two horses in a jewelry store.  You see red lanterns and red decorations and red everywhere during the month of January here in Malaysia.

 Every food store has pallets and pallets of oranges in colorful red boxes.  It is the biggest thing that is given away as a gift to others during the Chinese New Year celebration.  Every time we went to our local store, you would see so many people with 10, 20 and 30 boxes of oranges on large flatbed carts, checking them out and loading them in their cars.  In the front of our apartment complex, a familiar site is a tangerine or orange tree that many stores sell for people to put in their homes.  Linda and I are standing by a tangerine tree at the entrance of the Molek Pine Apartments.

 Another gift that is given to people are all types of little cookies and pastries.  We had so many small containers of these cookies given to us.  Each time we collected two or three of them, we would take them with us to our District Meeting with the elders and handed them out there.  The brown pastries are pineapple filled and the green cookies, in front, are green pea cookies.  I don't particularly like the pineapple ones, but the green pea cookies melt in your mouth and then you chew the little pea on top.  Very sweet and very addicting.

 This is my favorite picture.  All Chinese New Year clothing is red, including all bras and ladies underwear.  I just had to stop and take a picture of this.  Linda was embarrassed and I got many Malaysians looking at me while I took the pictures.  The belief is if a single sister wears red underclothing, this would increase her chances of finding a future husband and her possibilities to get married in 2014 are greatly improved.  I tried to get Linda to buy some, but she already is tied down to her spouse for quite a long time.

 Here is another display of kids clothing for the Chinese New Year.  Bright red and pink colors and then lots of brightly colored flowers that adorn their homes at their entrances and along side of their altars.  Another huge belief is the importance of the number 8.  It is a lucky number.  On all elevators, there is no number 4 though. That number seems to be unlucky.  The word for number 4 sounds like the word for "death", so it is not used.  Instead, there is floor 3 and then 3A and then floor 5.  Interesting!

 Just a block from our apartment building is a Chinese temple.  We drive by it almost everyday.
It is beautifully adorned with all kinds of lanterns and banners and at night, there are special colored lights that hang down from the surrounding trees and looks like they are raining.  As the light comes down to the end of the light stick, it changes colors and is really intriguing to watch.  You can barely see the statue of a sitting Buddah right behind the yellow banner.  The yellow banner is not usually there, but this day, it is acting as an awning.

 Another symbol of the Chinese New Year is the bamboo shoots.  These little vases are found in almost every store, so I had to buy one for our home.  There are three levels of the bamboo in the vase.  A larger circle of bamboo on the bottom, then another level in the middle and the highest level at the top.  It symbolizes prosperity in a person's career and the every upward progress that can be yours through the year.  I just loved the shoots of bamboo growing out on all sides of the 3 stacks.  You just add some water in the vase and watch it grow.

 We were invited over to my 1st Counselor's home, Bro. Hong Min Tan, for a traditional Chinese New Year meal together.  Linda took the picture and I'm sitting in with our 4 Chinese elders.  Everyone eats from the center pot of food, which included squid (not bad), cuttlefish, scallops, and crab.  Also, in the chicken juice were lotus root (tasteless), with steamed lettuce, tomatoes and mushrooms.  I didn't like the quail eggs in pig feet meat with livers and hearts.  It is always fun to try new foods and have such a great experience with our JB Branch members.

 The fireworks were something else.  I have seen fireworks for all my life, but nothing like this.  They began at 12 midnight on Jan. 30th and went nonstop for 57 minutes.  The first 9 minutes were continuous "sky lit up" fireworks.  It was a sound you can't describe.  The rest of the hour were huge bangs and pops and we didn't get to bed until after 1 AM.  Things finally calmed down a bit and we could fall asleep.  This picture was an 8 foot strip of firecrackers, that you light at the bottom and the sound will scare away the evil spirits in a persons home.  It was loud enough to scare anything away.

Every store sells these Chines New Year pre-package gifts.  They flew off the shelves and cost around 330 ringgit ($110 USD). The color red chases away the evil spirits, just like the firecrackers, so, of course, everything is wrapped in red, with red clothing, red lanterns, red decorations and red foods.  The oranges and tangerines are given to bring a person luck through the year.  Therefore, we have a fridge full of oranges.  Our Chinese kids, that we teach, have given us oranges (two oranges symbolize two pieces of gold).  Our members give us bags of oranges and now, we are stocked with vitamin C for some time.  We have loved being a part of all these amazing traditions and experiences of our first Chinese New Year.  Next year is the year of the goat and Chinese New Year is on Feb. 19 for the Lunar New Year of 2015.

 We had the delightful privilege to help teach a sweet couple at our apartment the other day.  This is what Elder Loke drew on our small whiteboard for the lesson.  The couple, at the bottom, could not get over the gulf of sin and death without the Savior, who took upon Himself our sins through the Atonement and offers to all His children the resurrection.  Through this life, each of us must follow the "doctrine of Christ", which is the 5 steps until we can reach our Father in Heaven through the gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was a fun lesson and Linda and I contributed much, since it was in English this time.

 As we took our newest elder to the local "bisikal" kedai (shop) in Masai, the owners have numerous shrines inside and outside of his store.
One of our missionaries asked if I could take some pictures of these.  In this one, you can see a bowl of oranges and apples to offer up to this figure in the middle.  Also, some bright pink cake, 3 small cups of tea and the darker gray bowl in front of the figure is for burning incense.
As you travel about Malayia and in the city of Johor Bahru, there are many of these shrines.

 The shine on the above picture sits on top of this second shrine.  There is no figure sitting inside this portion, but you can see similar items to offer up to this deity.  Apples on the left, some pink cake in the middle, a bowl of oranges on the right, 5 small cups of tea and this time, 5 cans of F & N orange drink (similar to Fanta orange).  In the center, with two lite candles on either side, is a bowl of incense sticks that will be lit later.

 Outside of the bicycle shop is another smaller Chinese shrine that faces the business.  Again, you can see the pink cakes in a red bowl, 3 cups of tea and a F & N orange soda can.  The incense golden bowl sits in the back.  It looks like a small Bogota on a stand.
The owner of this bicycle shop is the kindest man.  The missionaries have already bought 7 brand new bicycles from him and he always gives the missionaries a great deal. 

 Here is the full picture of the shrine that sits outside the bicycle shop.  You can see the row of bicycles lined up to see.  The missionaries usually get a brand new bike, with 10 gears, nice brakes, mudflaps, lights and reflectors and sometimes a new set of metal pedals, for about 600 ringgit.  That comes to $200 in America.  Quite a deal.  He also will sell our missionaries a new sturdy helmet, which costs about 45 ringgit.
Again, 1/3 of that, in US dollars, is $15.  When we leave the bisikal kedai, our elders are set to go out.

 After being in Malaysia for 10 months, I finally gave in to the constant urge to plant some flowers and keep up a nice yard.  I couldn't help myself, so on our last P-day, Linda and I went up to Masai and found an outdoor flower shop that sold similar flowers that we use back in Payson during our summers.  The green/black strip in the forefront of the picture is indoor/outdoor green carpeting, which has molded over and it keeps the grass and weeds from growing.  Here I planted a yellow marigold, some morning glory, some red zinnia's and some other yellow flowering plant on the end.

 On the other side of the gate is another flowering orange marigold plant and right in the middle of the purple plant and the marigold, I bought a red hibiscus plant.  The red hibiscus is the state flower of Malaysia and you see them everywhere.  It took me over 2 hours to dig, with a small hand shovel, the 7 holes.  The soil here is very heavy red clay, mixed with lots of stones and rocks.  I was so proud to have a huge blister on my hand when I was done and it took forever to dig down deep enough to plant each flower.

 Here is my beautiful, prize red hibiscus.  You really can't get the full impact of it unless you are here in person.  This one flower is larger than my entire hand.  The hibiscus plant is loaded with lots of these blooms, ready to open.  I'm not sure how well these 7 plants will do, but they have some good soil (that I added) and they get constant watering from the rain and the temperature is constant.  It sounds like the right combination to have them continually growing if I just "dead head" them.  We will have to see.

 This is the right side of our little back patio area.  When you go through our gate and step across a few bricks, there is a two head shower for those going into the pool.  From our sliding glass doors, we usually get quite the eye full of people standing in front of our apartment, showering before getting into the pool.  We've even seen some using the shower, early in the mornings, as a real shower.  Good thing they keep some articles of clothing on while soaping up.

 I'm particularly proud of the stone work going from the wooden lattice flooring in front of our gate and leading to our white patio.  For the past 10 months, we only had those circle and hexagon shaped stones in front of the gate and you had to step on them to get across.  Every time someone came over to our apartment, with some pull luggage, it caught on the separated stone circles.
So, we decided to get some larger stones.  Each one is 1 foot wide and 3 feet long and quite heavy.  We put 8 of them down and it now makes a nice path for those entering our patio.

Here is my final picture of the whole back patio area.  It's not much, but I still can look out our glass door and admire the beautiful colors.  My goal is to get the morning glory to grow up the fencing and add some beautiful blue to the whole area.  We already have a trailing dieffenbachia running along the top edge of our cement and I'm trying to train it so it goes up the fencing also.
Now you have an idea what I do with my P-day.
Linda is on the computer doing her family history, the elders are all out playing basketball or ultimate frizbee and I'm playing in my tiny yard.  It's all I have, so I'll enjoy it.

Here is our Zone Conference picture with Elder and Sister Larry Y. Wilson of the Seventy.  We are in the second row with chairs and on Linda's right is Elder & Sister Taylor, the office couple.  They are so fun and they do all the finances and cars and tons more for all missionaries.  Next to me is the newest senior couple, the Thatcher's.  Next to the Thatcher's is Pres. & Sister Mains and next to them is Elder Wilson and his wife.  After Elder Wilson is the Weicher's, who are public affairs missionaries and the final couple, on the end of the row, is the Jensen's, who will finish their mission today and go home on a plane tomorrow morning at 5:30 AM.  Directly above the Jensen's is an older brother and his wife, the McCallister's.  They are also new, like the Thatcher's.  Sister McCallister, standing in white, is President Main's blood sister.  That is neat to have your own sister serving in the same mission as you.  This picture is only one half of our mission.  This is the Singapore Zones and all the West Malaysia Zones.  There is a similar picture, taken the next day, with all the East Malaysia Zones.  We usually stay for one extra day in Singapore, so we can see all the missionaries that have been in Johor Bahru in the past.  We had Elder Smith, Elder Chan, Elder Tan, Elder Gaultier and now Elder Coleman went to East Malaysia.  Today, January 17th, we get a brand new "greenie" to serve with Elder Jackson in Masai.  We can't wait to meet him.

 On Friday and Saturday, Jan. 10th and 11th, after we just got back from Singapore's Zone Conference, we flew up to Kuala Lumpur for a District Presidency Training.  Our flight, from the Senai, Johor Bahru Airport, left at 12:40 PM.  We took a taxi and went through all the procedures to get to our Malaysian Airlines flight.  We took off, got up to 31,000 feet, I had enough time to eat one small pack of peanuts and drink my orange juice, and then we descended right away.  The whole flight took about 30 to 40 minutes.  It was great.

 We then took another taxi to the city of Kuala Lumpur.  It was a rainy, overcast day and here is the famous landmark, the twin towers in the capital city.  We didn't realize that the airport was about an hour away from the city and our Hilton Hotel.  It cost us only 45 ringgit to go from our house to the Senai airport.  It cost almost 200 ringgit for the trip from the KL airport to the hotel.  After that, I had to find an ATM to get us back home with enough money. 

 In the lower lobby of the hotel, which was 35 stories high, there was this statue for the Chinese New Year.  This is the year of the horse.  The Chinese New Year is January 31, Feb. 1 and 2.  It is so big here that we were given the direction from Hong Kong to only hold Sacrament Meeting on Feb. 2nd.  We then took the escalators, to the left of the picture, up one more floor to the check-in desk area of the hotel.  I'm amazed that we took taxis, plane flights, booked hotel rooms and we do it all over again tomorrow to get back home to Johor Bahru.  Fun times.

 Behind this sculpture is the check in for the hotel.  We had prepaid for our room and didn't have any problems getting into the hotel.  We were impressed as we walked up to the desk.  One of the young ladies behind the counter handed each of us a warm chocolate chip cookie while we signed in.  The cookie was delicious.
We were given room 14 on the 22nd floor and got in the elevator to find our room.

 When we got in our room, the first thing I noticed was a small circle on top of the ceiling, with the word "kiblat" on it and a black arrow.  I looked up what the word was in "bahasa" and it means "the way someone kneels to pray" if you are of the Muslim faith.  I'm assuming it points to the east.  The wonderful, faithful Muslim people have been very good to us and take their religion very seriously, as do we.

 The room was spacious and had an interesting lighting system, with a built in TV in front of the large queen size bed.  Our first goal, after unpacking both suitcases, was to find somewhere to eat lunch and get comfortable.  We went back down the elevator and then went down two more flights of escalators to a lower level.  There was a Subway Sandwich place, which we visited first and had some good subs.  Then we went across the way and found an entire grocery store in the lower level of the hotel.  We bought some "Raisinettes", which I haven't had in some time, and a few other treats to take back up to the room.

 The very weirdest part of the hotel room was the bathroom.  As you sit on the bed watching TV, you can also see through the glass into the bathroom toilet, shower and sink.  Linda had to use the bathroom right away and told me to turn around.  Finally, we found a switch inside the bathroom that lowered a shade down the window so you couldn't see into the bathroom.  Here, I'm waving from in front of the bathroom sink, with the shower directly behind me and you can see Linda's reflection in the back of the mirror of the bathroom sink, while she takes the picture.

The training from 3 General Authorities was fantastic.  We met for 5 hours and discussed how we now have 21 stakes in Asia, from Mongolia to India, from Hong Kong to Taiwan and all through Thailand down to Indonesia.  Within 3 to 5 years, the church plans on adding 31 more stakes to this Asia Area, with 2 more in Malaysia.  One will be here in Kuala Lumpur and one in East Malaysia in Kuching.  Amazing growth.  Our goal is to eventually have another temple closer to the good people of Malaysia and Singapore.  They now travel to the Philippines or Hong Kong for a temple trip of over 3 hours by plane.  We got back on another Malaysia Airline flight and this time, I got Linda's peanuts, my pack of peanuts and the kind stewardess gave me an additional pack.  I got a small cup of apple juice and began eating my peanuts.  Suddenly, the captain gets on the intercom and announces that we are descending again and will arrive shortly.  I was shoveling peanuts in my mouth left and right.  I looked like a chipmunk, but I wasn't giving up those 3 packs of peanuts.  I swallowed just in time as the plane hit the ground and landed.  We came out of the airport, and a kind lady got us another taxi and we were home by 6:30 PM.  What a busy week of travel.  Now I somewhat know what Pres. and Sister Mains must go through.  They do this all the time, from West to East Malaysia and other places in the Asia Area for various meetings.  I think our next plane flying will be in Sept, when we take another group of saints to the temple again.  That's OK with me.

After complaining to Sister Mains, our mission president's wife, about how our elders leave their apartments so dirty and gross when moving on to a new area, we got the lovely assignment to teach the elders and sisters in Zone Conference.  There were going to be 4 stations for the elders to move through, each one helping clean the Stake Center in Singapore and, at the same time, help them learn skills of cleaning their own apartments when they move.
We got the wonderful assignment of the bathroom.

Linda and I had 4 rotations of elders and sisters and had 3 bathrooms on the fourth floor of the Stake Center.  One bathroom for men, one for the ladies and one bathroom was the family bathroom to change babies in.  Linda talked with the elders and sisters at the opening of each 20 minute session, while I took the assignment of making a huge mess in each restroom.  Then we concluded our sessions with a race to see which group could clean their bathroom the fastest and the best.

The poured chocolate pudding powder in each of the toilets and used shaving cream on the mirrors, along with my own solution of mango jello water to the yellow look around the toilets and urinals.  A really nice touch.  We took the word "bathroom" and made the following acronym:  B - beautiful sink and mirror, A- awesome shower, T - tidy toilets, H - hairless floors (in order to have a) R- really,
O - outstanding, O - odor free, M - Mains approved bathroom.

By the time we got to the 4th session of teaching this to our elders and sisters, I ran out of shaving cream.  I began using some of the cleaning products to spray up on the mirrors and mess up the sinks.  Linda and I took two rolls of toilet paper and pulled off one square at a time and put it all in a plastic sack.  Then I went into each bathroom and threw toilet paper all over the floors, sprinkled the pudding powder in toilets,
messed up the mirror and sinks and sprayed yellow jello water all over the place.  I had lots of fun.

Here is the first group of elders and sisters getting our presentation.  This is the Singapore North Zone and they had a larger amount of sisters in this first group.  We broke them up into 3 groups, for our 3 bathrooms, and only used the few elders to clean up the men's restroom by themselves.  Surprisingly, the elders did the cleaner job on their bathroom.  The winners would get first grabs at the Kit-Kat bars for their reward.  These "international" Kit-Kat bars don't taste anything like the real thing, so I didn't have much trouble giving them away instead of eating them during Linda's presentation.

Here is Elder Smith, in the back of the picture, with Elder Beckstrand in the black shirt showing off his "gigi" (teeth) and one of our favorite missionaries, Elder Olivares in pink, making a rather disgusting face after tackling the sinks.
We give Elder Olivares a hard time, because my wife and I had to clean his apartment, after leaving the Masai area.  He left his can of shaving cream in one spot so long it rusted and there was enough hair left on the floor and in the shower that you could have made a wig.

Here is another one of our groups, sitting down the long narrow hallway leading to the restrooms.  Right in the front left of the picture, in the black shirt with yellow borders, is one of our favorite kids, Elder Sheranian.  He was moved to the Kuala Lumpur area a few weeks ago as District Leader.  He was a great worker and companions to Elder Olivares.  We sure get close to some of these great missionaries.

This is one of the smaller group of sisters cleaning the family restroom.  When we started our presentation, we thought we better make sure that the bathrooms were ready to go and I walked into this one and the smell just about killed me.  For the past few days, all the babies diapers were sitting in a garbage can and the lid was not on tightly.  I had to remove the bag and get it outside as soon as possible and then hope the room would air out before we started.  It was really bad.

This final picture is our kitchen in the Singapore Stake Center.  Notice the large circular windows that are all around the four sides of the building.  When you look at the outside of the building, it looks very similar to a temple.  It could easily be converted over into a temple for future use.  It has 4 stories to it and is quite a beautiful building.  The 2nd and 4th floors have full size chapels in them, with podiums and everything.  This was one of the other stations for cleaning presentations that Elder & Sister Martin put on.
The other two stations were cleaning all the chairs in the building and cleaning off the black marks on the huge dividers in the cultural halls.

 I stuck a bunch of random pictures in again for this week.  We took two of our missionaries out to buy new bikes, with our new car.  I was a bit nervous about putting bikes in the back, so we purchased a large blue tarp and laid it down.  Then we placed one bike on its side and laid the other bike on top of it, making sure we didn't damage any spokes on the wheels.  Finally, we stuck the two elders under the bikes.  The closest elder is Elder Fabiano and the furthest one is his companion, Elder Wadsworth.  Great kids and wonderful missionaries.  They are both in our JB Chinese Branch.

 Here we have the first baptism of 2014.  Elder Coleman, far left, baptized Sister Erika.  Along side of Sister Erika is her uncle, President Joe.  And the right is Elder Coleman's companion, Elder Cook.  Pres. Joe and his mom were the first to get baptized, then through his example and being called into the branch presidency, he brought in his sister, her husband and now his niece.  He is on fire.

 We were called on evening and asked if the elders could come over since they cooked dinner for us.  It was fun.  Here is a picture of their dining room table after preparing the meal.  We had some Chinese chicken soup, some kind of rice dish with meat and eggs in it and a large bowl of mashed potatoes.  They were so proud and the food was rather good.  After the meal, we went over to their apartment to pick up some of our wash, since we were using their washing machine cause our machine broke.  After seeing their table, we were a bit worried for the next day after our food digested.

 Another classic missionary apartment picture.  Here our elders are drying their socks by ironing them.  We are lucky to have a dryer in our apartment, but they just hang their clothes out to dry on racks.  If they want to speed things up, they simply iron the clothes.  You really can't tell if they scorch the socks, since they are already dark in color.

 The missionaries convinced me to go and purchase a "sarung".  The Indonesian and Malay men and women wear these quite a bit.  The men's colors are in blues and browns and are usually checkered.  The women's sarungs are very colorful and beautiful with birds and flowers and all kinds of pictures on them.  I couldn't get Linda to show off her sarung.  The elders showed me 3 different ways to wrap the sarung around my waist.  There is the simple way of pulling it tight and then rolling it down, with nothing fancy showing.

This second way shown in the picture highlights the darker strip in the front and a third way places the darker strip in back of two other folds in the front.  I haven't mastered that one yet.  The sarung is very comfortable, stays up and is easy to move in and gives you a thrill when a breeze blows up from the bottom.  The material is one large tube sewed together that you step into and then wrap it various ways around you.  When I asked how to use the restroom, they looked at me funny and said you just pull it up.  There are no zippers in it.  Takes some getting use to.

 Linda thought I should add this picture to our collection.  We went over to a Chinese family for a lovely supper and the mom made these Santa Claus cupcakes.  They are made of strawberries and whipped cream.  She loves to bake and is always making something for us, trying to thank us for teaching her two kids.  I was very proud of the 13 year old boy we teach, Fong Yee.  He got a score of 62 on his final exam in English.  Last time he got a 42 and 40 is failing.  His dad was even prouder.

 This is our wonderful branch president, President John, holding his little daughter in his lap with his wife, Sister Alan in the background.  It was President John's birthday and we went out and bought him a cake.  We didn't bother looking at it and when he opened it, he thanked us and then pointed out that it said, "Happy Birthday, Pres. Jhon"  We were horrified and he just laughed.  Pres. John turned 37 and has been a member for 3 years and the branch president for 2 of those 3 years.  He is a great minister among his people and they all just love him.  He is a very humble man with great potential here in Malaysia.

This final picture is three of our JB elders showing off their white flour mustaches.  Elder Wadsworth on the left, Elder Loke in the middle and Elder Lee on the right.  Elder Fabiano is in the kitchen, making pizza dough and these three made great faces putting on the flour for mustaches.  I forgot to tell you that one of the other items that came over to our house when the elders brought us dinner was homemade pizza from Elder Fabiano.  This picture was taken at our monthly "linger longer" after church.  Linda made a loaf of cranberry/orange bread, which everyone ate right up and the elders just stayed and stayed, making pizzas for everyone who wanted some.
Today (Jan. 5, 2014) we shipped off Elder Lee to the border.  He is going to serve the other 19 months of his mission in Holland.  He is from Singapore and stayed here while visa and other paperwork was approved.  He is going to be a great missionary.  He speaks excellent English, Chinese, and Dutch.  Go figure!