Today, we celebrated Malaysia's 4th of July.  It is "Malaysia Merdeka Hari" or Malaysia's Independence Day on Aug. 31st.  Today, also, is the day I was baptized into the church, 45 years ago in 1969.  Anyway, we had a huge celebration at a members home.  This is one of our elders, Elder Takin, from Malaysia.  He is stirring, by hand, the chicken wings in the marinade before they are placed on the outside fire pit.  The chicken wings were delicious.

This is our wonderful Sis. Rosita.  She is our newest member in the Masai Branch and is such a strong lady.  Off to the side of her apartment complex is a jungle area, where we invited the entire branch to come and have a meal together.  The mud was up to the sides of our shoes and we ate around a tarp covered area, but it was a great feeling to be with those we have grown to love.
Sister Rosita bore her testimony and she cried while reading the scriptures to everyone.  She is one amazing lady.

Her is one of Sis. Rosita's sons, Oatneil.  He is quite a handful and causes lots of problems at the branch.  He is with our newest elder, Elder Spurrier from Salt Lake City.  Our elders are doing a great job here in Masai, getting another 3 people ready for baptism soon.  Today, we began a new morning Sunday schedule at 9 am to 12 noon, and we had quite the turnout.  It was thrilling to see that many people out to church again.

Elder Robins is our short little elder in Masai.  He is holding up some chicken wings that are going into the marinade.  He fits perfectly here in Malaysia, being about the same size as all the Malay people.  He gave a terrific talk today at church, speaking to the members about serving faithfully in the kingdom.  It was great.  He really speaks bahasa very well.  You can barely see Sis. Schollenberger standing in the background.

Our branch president's wife is expecting her 5th child this December.  Pres. John and Sis. Alan already have 4 daughters and are really hoping for a boy this time.  Sis. Alan is one of our strongest members in the branch, going around each Sunday and picking up those who do not have transport to church.  She was cute this morning in church.  Her husband was conducting the meeting and forgot to announce the sacrament hymn.  Just out of the blue, she raises her voice and yells at him to tell everyone the hymn number.  He sat down and just shook his head.  He sure loves her.

We love our President John.  His full name is John Korea anak Bahak.  He is so faithful and does so much to keep our little branch functioning.  He only comes up to my chest, but his spiritual stature is tremendous.  He is loved by all his members and always comes up to me, each Sunday, to give me a hug and welcome Linda and me to church.  He is funny, each week, as he goes around holding all the baby boys in the branch, hoping that it will rub off on him and his wife will finally have a little boy.  They still have not found out yet from the doctor.

Right along side of our little Independence Day celebration, in the middle of our little jungle setting, there are banana trees growing all around.  It is interesting how the bananas grow upward instead of downward.  You can see each bunch growing in the tree and it looked like this bunch still needed a few more weeks before they could be picked and eaten.  The problem is who they really belong to.  Probably the one who picks them first, gets them.

This great man is our Bro. Jimmy.  We went with Bro. Jimmy and his family, last December, to the Manila Temple.  He is a great elder in the branch and his wife, Sis. Minang, is the Relief Society President.  He is a great husband, supporting his wife very well in her calling.  He is standing in front of an old abandoned car, sitting in front of their apartment complex.  The inside of the apartments are kept up very well, but the outside is just next to jungle growth and rubbage and old cars sitting around and lots of mud and debris.

We were thrilled to have Bro. Robert and Sister Sarawa come out to our little celebration.  This is one of the little boys that I was privileged to give a name and blessing to a few months back.  Sis. Sarawa is holding their son, Ivanoel.  You can see, off to side of Sis. Sarawa, that most of the people's garbage is taken outside and burned in front of the apartment complex.  It's around 85 degrees and the Malay moms still keep their babies dressed in long sleeve shirts, with hats and usually in a blanket.  I would be sweating, which I was through the entire meal.

We must have had about 40 to 50 people come out to our 4th of July (in August) celebration tonight.  It was lots of fun and lots of food.  There was chicken wings, soup and curry with rice and noodles, different fish dishes, including one that is fish brains mashed up, sweet and sour eggs in onions (I liked that one), and the drink was rose water mixed with susu (milk).  It looked like Pepto Bismol and the elders told me that it tasted like it too.  My beautiful bride made a big pan of apple crisp.  The Malay people don't eat many things that are sweet, so everyone took a little bit and then went back for more.

You can see the apartment complex in the background.  These buildings, usually 4 stories high, are nicer inside and are covered in black mold outside because of the high humidity all the time.  Linda was happy when they finally brought out some small stools to sit on.  Right behind this apartment complex, Sis. Minang had two of her cars stolen. Before we came in, I put the steering wheel lock on my car and hoped it would still be there when we got back.  It was!
We had a very nice evening, with lots of good food and good friends.

 Here is our newest "greenie" in the mission on the left with the darker hair.  His name is Elder Spurrier and he is from Salt Lake City.  He is a wonderful addition to our Masai elders.  His companion is Elder Ferguson on the right.  You can almost read his name badge.  Whenever we get a new elder in our district, Linda and I take them out to Kenny Roger's Chicken Roasters for a meal.  We love eating there.  It's our favorite American restaurant we found out here.  I always order the half chicken with barbeque sauce, 3 sides, a delicious banana muffin and mineral water.  Good food!

 Today is Elder Smith's birthday.  He is 19 years old.  It is so strange to see our elders coming out at 18 years old and just out of high school.  Elder Smith is our District Leader and does an excellent job teaching us in District Meetings.  He always gives a super spiritual message and lesson each Tuesday morning.  Elder Smith just got a new companion, Elder Moore and Elder Earl got a new companion, Elder Mitchell.  We will be taking all four of them out to Kenny Roger's in a few days.  One visit for two new elders and a birthday.  Linda made a delicious chocolate bunt cake with Duncan Hines icing.

 We bought this yellow watermelon the other day and had it for supper.  It was so sweet and juicy.  It tasted just like the red watermelon we get back home, just a different color.  I thought it was much sweeter.  This is called "kuning tembikai" or yellow watermelon, of course.  The full watermelon is not as big as the watermelons we have back home.  These are about the size of a soccer ball.  We have red and yellow watermelon at least once a week or so.  Great with any meal.

 On the 15th day of the 8th month, in the Chinese calendar, we celebrate the Mid-Autumn Festival or the Mooncake Festival.  The mom to the two kids we teach every Tuesday and Friday gave us two Mooncakes to try.  The cut open one has a "pandan" jelly filling inside.  Pandan is a green leaf used in cooking and baking here in Southeast Asia.  It makes cakes and jellies green in color and tastes similar to coconut.  I really love pandan cake.  It is "sangat sedap"!
The other uncut Mooncake was filled with a sweet potato filling.  Every store sells these Mooncakes at little stands all over the city.

The other odd food for this week is these delicious "pau" balls.  Sister Ng makes these pau balls for every branch activity we ever attend.  She brings a small grocery bag of them to sacrament meetings and any other occasion.  We reach in the bag and take a small handful and just nibble on them.  Some are made with various bean fillings or meat fillings, but Sis. Ng's plain pau balls are delicious, just by themselves.  It's just some kind of dough that is steamed over hot water and taken out to dry.  Really good stuff.

This past week was the annual Chinese "Ghost Festival".  All throughout the city of Johor Bahru, you find large piles of paper that represent a large pile of money.  The Chinese people then stand in front of the large pile of paper, offer up their prayers with incense sticks, and then they light up the pile of paper and set it on fire.  This represents these earthly people sending money and prosperity to their ancestors in the spirit world.  You can see a blue table with a pineapple and other fruits and cakes.  During the night, the ghosts are suppose to come and take the offerings.

 This a a giant stand, on the side of a road, similar to the covered tents we have back in Utah when they sell fireworks in July.  The yellow bags on the ground are bags of paper strips that they sell to be burned for their paper money ceremony.  On the table are smaller packages of incense that many Chinese people come up and purchase to take back to their homes.  As we drive around our city, we wonder who is really taking the fruits and cakes during the night.  It sounds like our silly childhood tradition of a "tooth fairy" who takes the tooth during the night and leaves some money in the morning.

 These are rows and rows of huge incense sticks that are sold to the public.  Each of these incense sticks are over 6 feet tall and about 9 inches across.  They are really big and as you drive past the stand of these, they light the top of these sticks and let them burn down to the bottom.  There was no smell from the large sticks as we came right up to them and took pictures.  The smoke is also suppose to drive away the evil spirits or ghosts and bring good fortune to those who light them.

 Almost every time we have a lightning and thunder storm, which is almost daily, the power to the traffic lights are knocked out.  This is one of the intersections to turn right onto Pasir Gudung, our local freeway to go up to the Masai Church building.  The funniest part of this huge "every man for himself" traffic jam, was a police car came up behind the motorcycle, in the left of the picture.  They were sitting right along side of us, so we were glad to see them because they should get out and direct the traffic jam.  Instead, they waited for the lori on the right to pass through the intersection, and then they proceeded through and got on the freeway.  Unbelievable!

 On Saturday night, August 16th, we were invited over to Pres. Jeff Lee's home with his wife, Sister Cheryl.  A year ago, Sis. Cheryl had a baby boy named Hyrum.  This is Hyrum's first birthday party.  There were about 40 to 50 people that came over to the party.  The party was catered with all kinds of delicious foods and desserts.  The first metal tray had rice (of course), then spaghetti, then chicken tenders, then fried chicken, then some delicious steamed vegetables.  After those containers, there was fish and some kind of potatoes and a filled vegetable pastry and lots and lots of little finger desserts.  It was "sangat sedap"!

Here is Hyrum's one year old birthday cake.  This cake was pretty good, this time.  It was covered with a whip cream icing and didn't taste too bad.  Usually, the icing out here in Malaysia tastes exactly like pure butter.  You take a bite of the icing and it has no sugar or sweetness to it.  It tastes just like butter with food coloring.  You have a hard time gagging it down, even though it looks so delicious.  All the Malay birthday parties we attend get the same kind of butter icing cake.  Can't wait for "butter cream icing" again.  I love Macey's Food Store in Spanish Fork.  They make the best butter cream icing.

 We had a great family home evening with many members and non members in the Masai Branch with Leonard and his family.  He leaves for his full time mission tomorrow and will be serving here in the Singapore Mission after returning from the Philippines MTC for two weeks.  We had an outside testimony meeting and then, of course, some great food.  Here is our wonderful branch president, Pres. John (in the green shirt).
One of my most favorite dishes, that his wife makes, is a sweet and sour chicken.  It is "sangat sedap". (very delicious!)

 This is sad picture of the garbage just tossed off to the side of one of the buildings.  We were thinking of making this one of our service projects and clean it all up.  We still have to convince our elders to help us.  In Singapore, it is very well kept up and beautiful on the entire island.  In Malaysia, it is a little different.  We saw much of the same thing when we picked up our son from Peru, when he ended his mission a number of years ago.  Every home that we have been in, here in Malaysia, is beautiful and well kept up.  The sweet people are so proud of their homes and it is always a treat to visit our members in both our branches.  Just sometimes, you come across scenes like this.  It is difficult for a housing complex of hundreds of people to try to control the outside of the building. 

 This is a classic picture of me trying to continue my quest for greater patience.  We purchased a small cabinet for the JB Branch.  It will sit up on the podium and will hold hymn books inside of it and the headphone receiver will sit on the top.
We could have purchased it for 89 ringgit, all assembled.  I chose to get it for 75 ringgit and build it myself.  Just like a box from Ikea, back in Utah, you open the box, get out all the pieces and read the directions that have no words, just pictures and arrows.  I'm trying to look at the tiny pictures with my magnifying glass and kept my cool after two hours of working on it.

 We love our missionaries.  This is the third time Linda and I visited the Johor Zoo.  The place is pretty lame and most of the cages have nothing in them.  When you see an animal, it looks underfed and we all sweated like crazy.  On the far left is Elder McCarthy from New Zealand (I don't understand much of what he says with his accent), then Elder Takin (a native Malaysian).  In the middle is our short but cute elder, Elder Robins, then Elder Ferguson and Elder Smith on the end.  The two Zone Leaders could not attend with us due to a teaching appointment.  These are the greatest kids ever.

My final picture, this week, is the normal lines at the Jusco Food store.  You usually have to wait in line for 45 minutes to an hour before you get checked out.  You would think they would get more checkers, but it has never happened yet.  It gives us a chance to visit with people.  We usually go to Tesco Food store with the missionaries each week on our P-day (Monday).  Then, when we are done with driving them around and getting the majority of our groceries, we go to Jusco, where they have great meats and a wonderful supply of fresh fruits and vegetables.  For the three and half weeks without a car, as it was getting repaired, we went to Jusco because they have taxi's right outside the front entrance.  You just pull up your grocery cart and load things in the trunk of the taxi and get back home to our apartment.  If you look right in the middle of the picture, you will see a Chinese lady in bright yellow.  She tried to "butt" in line, but the Malay gentleman in the white shirt in the front of the picture, let her have it.  After some arguing, she got into another line.