We had a great 4th of July barbeque with our elders and investigators and branch members.  Here is Elder McCarthy, from New Zealand, wearing his USA socks for the celebration.  Our picnic started out with 4 people invited and we ended up with 30 to 40 people, bringing the traditional 4th of July foods like whole prawns, spicy chicken wings, fish balls, lots of rice, and, of course, smores.  Only these smores were made from marshmallows, cadbury chocolate squares between vanilla cookies.  There is no graham crackers, out here, so vanilla cookies had to do.
Not quite the same, but it was fun.

 Here is our barbeque pit in our apartment complex.  In the front of the barbeque are the spicy chicken wings and at the back of the barbeque pit are the chicken brats and chicken hot dogs.  It's also difficult to find anything made out of beef.  Sam, our recently converted member, was the grill master and had a great time lighting the grill with these charcoal pieces that you purchase.  The charcoal is like the charcoal stick that you sketch with, very light weight and easy to light.  Laying in the charcoals, are aluminum foil wrapped purple sweet potatoes.  They were really yummy.

 This round dish was the highlight of the party.  It's Linda's macaroni salad.  It was delicious and everyone wanted to recipe.  Pasta is not a big item out here in Malaysia.  We watched many of the members take a very small amount of macaroni salad on their plates, taste it and then return for seconds.  Elder Earl, our Zone Leader, returned five times for large helpings.  He said it was the only thing, beside the watermelon, that was like a 4th of July picnic.

 Here is our wonderful Sam, keeping watch over his grill.  Of course, right behind him is my sweetheart, making sure that Sam was doing things correctly.  Along side of Sam is Jaden, our recently baptized 9 year old.  We were amazed how only the elders and Linda and I sweat profusely.  All the other Asians don't seem to sweat out here.  It was about 90 degrees at 8 pm, just like any other night, but the humidity is high and the sweat runs down the back of your neck through the entire night.  At least we didn't have any mosquitoes.  They were smart enough to go somewhere cooler.

 Many of our members, from the Johor Bahru branch, came out to our little gathering.  Sis. Lily is on the far right.  She was just baptized a few weeks ago.  Next to her is Sis. Bernie.  Sam is married to Sis. Bernie and they are both doing a fabulous job in the branch.  In blue to Sis. Jessie and across the table is her husband, Bro. Res Tan.  In orange is our sweet R.S. President, Sis. Amy Kurup.  We love Sis. Amy.  Kneeling down, next to a small barbeque to heat up our marshmallows, is Bro. Weaweh from Nigeria.  He is a great addition to our branch and teaches in the Elder's Quorum. 

A parting shot of our swimming pool, next to the barbeque pit.  This shot is looking over toward our apartment on the 1st floor.  Our apartment is right behind the orange life preserver, hanging on the palm tree trunk.  We don't go in and out of our outside entrance to our apartment very much anymore, since our elders live upstairs from us, on the fifth floor.  Now, they just need to come down on the elevator and visit us daily.  Since we are the only members around here with computers, the elders are over quite often.  Many are going home soon, so they get college stuff ready and check plane flights.