On the same day that we took the tour of the bird park, we also signed up to take a tour of the city of Singapore.  We began with a boat ride up and down the Singapore River.  This is where the city of Singapore all began, with its shipping and importing and exporting of goods back in the late 1800's. 






 The city skyline is quite an awesome sight.  The skyscrapers are everywhere and just behind this scene, there are hundreds of old "shop lots" from years ago.  Steps lead right up to the side of the shop lots and people would pull their ships right up to the steps and drop off their goods.  Our tour guide told us that the only thing that Singapore can claim that they actually make is "babies".  They have no other natural resources and Singapore exists through its shipping.  It is the largest shipping capital in Southeast Asia.

 At this point on our tour, my camera ran out of battery power and I had to begin using my cell phone to take the pictures.  They still turned out just fine.  The first picture above is the world famous "Singapore Flyer"  Each of the sections holds 28 people and we never got around to getting on it and taking the ride.  They say you have to see Singapore at night on this giant ferris wheel.  The other picture above is the unique architecture all around Singapore.

 This is the famous "Merlion".  It is the symbol of Singapore and you see it on all the TV shows and logos and everywhere.  The Merlion has the head of a lion, which symbolizes the strength and courage of Singaporeans, and the body of a mermaid, because they began as a shipping port and always remember their history and roots.  It is quite a large statue that shoots water out of its mouth 24/7.  The second picture is another skyline picture of Singapore.

 This final picture of our boat tour is a famous hotel with three separate towers.  The unique part of the hotel is a giant ship that the owner built on the top of the three towers.  You can pay $25 sing dollars and go up and take a tour of the ship, which we did not do.  We are told that the ship has all kinds of gardens and trees and swimming pools and luxury resort items for those that can afford such things.  The second picture, on the right, is a wall hanging in a "gem" and precious stone factory that we visited next, after the boat tour.  They had hundreds of jade and diamond and all kinds of valuable stones that were carved by hand into amazing pictures and figurines.  Everything had a price on it, from thousands and thousands of Sing Dollars to the tiniest little figurine of little animals for only S$25.  Everything in this picture is made out of various precious stones that were carved to create the picture.

 As we ended our afternoon tour, we were taken to an Indian Temple.  It was so gorgeous and ornamented with animals and life size figures all around the various roofs of the temple.  At this point on our tour, our feet were killing us and couldn't wait to get back into the tour bus with the air conditioning and the soft seats.  The tour driver told us all sorts of interesting stories.  Just 12 years ago, the government decided to help their people have more children, so they took all singles names and placed them in a computer program.  Then they matched people up and offered them the opportunity to marry, if they chose.  If they married and had a child within the first year, they were given S$18,000 sing dollars.  Needless to say, lots of kids came into the world during this period of time.

This is a sign in all the elevators in our hotel.  We thought it was so funny to see that "durian" is not allowed in the hotel.  The durian fruit, which we tried a few months ago, tastes terrible, but many people love it.  It has a very bad smell to it and I thought it tasted and smelled like "an oil change".  Whenever we walk into the front of all the stores, during the durian season which happens to be right now, you get that strong gross smell of the fruit.  I have to actually hold my nose as I walk by.  Everyone tells us that you have to try eating durian about 3 times and then you'll like it.  One was enough for me and I'll have to get up the nerve to try number two.
The amazing part of our 6 days in Singapore happened as we went back into Malaysia.  Last time, 3 months ago, we were detained and had a very difficult time getting back into Malaysia.  This time, Linda and I fasted on Wednesday and we have prayed, over the past few weeks, that the Lord would allow us to come back through immigration, into Malaysia, "without incident".  Those were the exact words that we used in our prayers.  As we came up to the window and the taxi driver handed our passports to the sweet Muslim sister, she stamped them without ever even looking up at us and passed the passports back to the driver and we continued on to our apartment.  Heavenly Father and His Holy Son, Jesus Christ, answered our prayers with exactness and love.  We passed through the borders "without incident" and we are ever grateful for His "tender mercies".  We love serving the good people of Malaysia and know we must "trust in the Lord with all our hearts" and "He shall direct our paths".  We know this to be true.
We just got word that one of our sweet elders in Kuching (East Malaysia) was hit by a car and died. His name is Elder Wiberg from Roy, Utah.  He was hit on Friday, after flying back from Zone Conference, while riding his bike.  He broke his leg, shoulder and wrist and was in a coma.  He passed away on Sunday evening.  Everyone here is so saddened and pray for his family.  We know that he was just transferred again to another assignment on the other side of the veil. 

 As part of our visa run to Singapore, we decided to do some tours this time and enjoy of few days of relaxation.  We began by taking a tour of the Jurong Bird Park.  We went with 2 other senior couples and had a wonderful morning together.
This is a picture of the entrance to the park itself.  Through the entire path, gorgeous orchids are growing up both sides and across the trees in purples and whites and yellows.  It was so beautiful, and we didn't even enter the bird park yet.

The cost of things in Singapore are much higher than in Malaysia.  It cost us S$35 (Sing Dollars) per person to go into the park.  Sing Dollars are very close to US Dollars, where the currency in Malaysia (ringgit) is three to one.  One RM (ringgit) is about $.33 cents in American dollars.  We took all six missionaries and both of us out to eat today and it cost me RM 50, which is really only $16.50 for 8 people to eat a very large meal.
We do love living in Malaysia.

 We saw thousands of different colors and kinds of birds through the entire morning.  It was really quite fun to walk all the paths and see so many birds.  You could take pictures with these parrots, but no one wanted to spend the money to hold one of them.

 The flamingos were everywhere and had such bright colors to them.  We just sat there and watched how they walked with their knees turning backwards.  Everything is backwards here, the birds, the driving, the escalators, and the the whole country itself.  We went with Elder and Sister Allen to the park, who have been out on their mission for just one week.  We were also with Elder and Sister Crookston, who were originally assigned to India and then got transferred to the Singapore Mission. 

 This crane just sat there and we had to do a few retakes to see if it was real or not.  It never moved.  Finally, he moved his head and walked away.  At this point in the walking tour, Elder Allen was just dripping with sweat.  It was close to 95 degrees this day and I guess I'm getting use to it.  I told him he would adjust in a few weeks and this would seem normal to him.  I sweat around my collar, but everything else stays dry.  Maybe I am getting use to it.  One Sept. 1, we will begin our sixth month already.

 There was a very beautiful water fall and that only added to the 100% humidity that we were already experiencing.  This is the only picture I could sneak in of Linda.  She really hates to have her picture taken.  She kept moving to the side and I had to snap a quick picture before she moved right out of the picture frame.  She is so cute.

 Here is the beautiful "iguana bird".  Not really, but it was quite neat to see sitting on the rock.  There were other lizards in the park as we walked along the trails.  Seeing this iguana brought back memories for us when we had our own iguana years and years ago.  His name was "Gus".  We had him downstairs and fed him greens.  Later he became so frisky and he could swish his tail and cut open your arm if you weren't careful.  We eventually had to get rid of him.

 Again, the flamingos were a beautiful sight.  There were so graceful in their appearance and walking about.  The tour placards that we read along the way told us that flamingos are really pure white.  It is what they eat that turns their bodies a pink coloring.  I loved to just stand there and watch their necks as they drank up the water.  At this point in the tour, we were hurrying back to the front entrance, where we found some air conditioning.

The tour ended with a large display of parrots right next to the flamingos.  They were making quite a lot of noise as we passed by.  Elder and Sister Allen were dripping wet at this stage of the tour and couldn't wait to get back into the tour bus and have a bit of air conditioning blowing on them.  We then left for our next afternoon tour, after we went to a chicken place for some lunch.  It was a very worthwhile sightseeing tour at this bird park.

 An amazing historic time for the sweet people of Malaysia.  The Book of Mormon just arrived in August of 2013 in "bahasa Melayu" (language of Malay).  It is the greatest honor to actually be here in the country of Malaysia, in the Singapore Mission, and hold our very own copy of the Book in Mormon in Malay.  We have been using the Book of Mormon in Indonesian for many years here in Malaysia and it's a much larger book and the Iban and Malaysian people have a difficult time reading it and understanding it. 

 Just as the scriptures prophecy, that every nation, tongue and people will hear the gospel in their own language, it has come to pass in this humble country. We had the privilege of taking the first 3 copies to our bahasa speaking families and they were so excited and thrilled.  They held it to their breasts and hugged it and we all went around the room and bore testimonies of the great importance of the Book of Mormon.  I was able to share my testimony in bahasa.  What a wonderful blessing.

 

This is the picture on August 20, 2013, with the entire Singapore and West Malaysian areas, holding a copy of the Malay Book of Mormon.  We are sitting next to Pres. and Sister Mains in the front row.  All the seniors got to sit in chairs. There is also another picture similar to this one with all the elders, sister and senior couples from East Malaysia.  Their conference was on Aug. 22nd.  We are so honored and amazed to live in the day and actually be right here in Malaysia when this sacred volume came to the people and we got the opportunity to give them out and share the message of the Book of Mormon.

 On Thursday night, August 15, 2013, we were invited to 2 homes for Family Home Evening.  Notice that Monday's are not always FHE here in Malaysia.  It is whenever you can get everyone together.  Anyway,  we went to Brother Jimmy and Sister Minang's outside gathering.  Good food and lots of mosquitoes.  This picture is the 2nd home.  We visited Sister Madeline's home with her new baby girl.  The FHE was for a missionary that went home back in May, Elder Rasmussen.  He is in the orange striped shirt and his mom is standing in the background with the white pants on. 

 This is Sister Madeline's little girl.  Back in May, Sister Madeline asked me to give her a blessing, since she was sick through much of her pregnancy.  Then, in August, she delivered prematurely.  The baby was only 4 1/2 pounds and the cord was wrapped around her neck.  I gave another blessing to Sister Madeline and through her, blessed her little girl, since the baby was in ICU and no one could enter.  She came home a few weeks later and is doing fine.  Now Sister Madeline has 4 daughters. 

 THIS IS OUR FIRST BAPTISM!  I interviewed Sister Vennesa for her baptism, as District President.  She read the questions in bahasa as I read them to her in English.  She did well.  Then, I asked her who she wanted to baptize her.  She said that she prayed about it for some time and Heavenly Father told her that I was suppose to do the baptism.  I was shocked.  Senior couples very rarely get to perform any baptism while serving on a mission.  It was a great honor.

This is Sister Vennesa's family.  Her mom in the orange, her husband next to her, and little Eddie in my arms.  As a younger teenager, Sister Vennesa was kidnapped, raped and got pregnant.  All by herself, she brought Eddie into the world.  Later, she married Brother Mike and now, she is expecting another baby.  Brother Mike is taking the missionary lessons, but has a few things to overcome yet.  He is a great young man.  President Joe, the 1st Counselor in the Masai Branch Presidency, is Sister Vennesa's brother.  Sister Vennesa was the one that introduced all her family to the church and is the last one to get baptized.  What a wonderful Sabbath day!

 On Saturday evening, August 3rd, we held a Food Storage Fireside.  This is Elder and Sister Howell, who are Humanitarian Missionaries in the Singapore Mission.  They travel around the mission and give presentations on food storage.
They are from the South Jordan, Utah area and are serving for 18 months.  They have already been out for some time and will shortly end their mission.







This is the sealing machine, the mylar bags and a box of oxygen absorbers to put in the bags.  Our job was to promote the fireside and get all the necessary equipment like bowls, scissors and, of course, the treats for after the meeting.  

 We were given all the white buckets (50 of them), the sealing machine, 100 mylar bags and hundreds of oxygen absorbers, at no cost to our JB District.  The Howell's used their humanitarian funds and the church supplies everything for the members.  Now, we have to keep all this equipment somewhere in the district office or in our own apartment.  On the table are bags of rice (beras) ready to be placed in the mylar bags and sealed for the members.

 Here are some of our faithful members.  My sweetheart is upfront, then behind her is Sister Norma, the District R.S. President.  By her is Sister Julia with her daughter.  Behind Sister Norma is Brother Ng, who will be sustained tomorrow to be the 2nd Counselor in the JB Branch Presidency.  He and his wife just got back from the Hong Kong Temple, where they were sealed a few months ago.  Along side of Brother Ng is my wonderful, faithful counselor in the JB District, President Hong Min Tan.
(wearing the glasses)

 Our turnout, for the fireside at 7 PM, was about one person, Sister Norma.  Then, around 7:20 PM, we get a lot more people coming with their dry goods in bags to be sealed.  Brother Jimmy is in the white shirt with blue stripes.  He is receiving the Melchezidek Priesthood tomorrow and his wife, (in the same row) Sister Minang, are going to the Manila Temple to be sealed in December.  We hope to go with them.

Everyone gathered around the sealing machine, very interested in how it works.  We began with Sister Julia's dry goods, placing about 8 cups of rice in each mylar bag.  Then Linda placed 2 oxygen absorbers into the bag and Elder Howell began sealing them up.  When we looked at our 4 mylar bags, which we sealed last night, the oxygen absorbers take out all the oxygen in the bag and they are rock solid.  It was quite amazing.

 We were very excited to see Brother Michael, with his wife and 2 children, come out with their dry goods.  Brother Michael is an investigator, taking the lessons from the elders.  His one little boy in his arms is quite adorable and the other little guy, about 4 years old, is a real "pistol".
It was great to have some non members at our fireside.  We hope the word spreads about this machine.  We get to keep it and use it for members and non members alike, anytime they need it.

 Everybody got into the act of food storage and sealing up their dry goods.  Sister Julia brought rice and noodles, Sister Alan brought just rice, and Sister Minang brought all sorts of things.  She had some rice, then some macaroni, then some small green lentils and even some round homemade treat that looked like small wagon wheels.

This is a great picture of the line up for the sealing machine.  Sister Kuari, Brother Michael's isteri (wife), stood in line with her green bags from home filled with dry goods.  Presley, in the striped shirt, came with his sister, and brought a package of sandwich cookies.  He was so excited to seal them up, until he got to the machine and was told that only dry goods could be sealed and cookies didn't qualify as "dry goods".  He laughed and handed them out to everyone.

 Along with the sealing machine, the mylar bags and the oxygen absorbers, we had delivered to our apartment 50 white buckets and 50 lids.  The members were more excited about getting a white bucket than about sealing up food.  A white bucket like this could be used for washing dishes, or for bathing or lots of other things than sitting around your home holding some rice.  We fear that the members will take this food home and open the bags within a week and not store for long term.

 I'm there, helping Sister Julia and Sister Minang, to put some macaroni in one of the mylar bags to seal.  Sister Julia, in the green, will be called tomorrow as the new Young Women's President of the Masai Branch, and Sister Minang, in white, will be called as the new Relief Society President tomorrow in Masai.  They are both such faithful sisters in the kingdom.

 Just look how intently I am working on sealing the mylar bags.  You have to hold them, just the right way, to make a permanent seal.  If you get a wrinkle in the mylar bag, it allows air into the bag and then it doesn't seal completely.  The machine comes with this cute little foot pedal.  You get the bag in place, then step on the foot pedal, and wait for the sealing to take place.  It takes a few seconds and then you pull the bag off the machine and the members write on the outside of the bag the date and the item stored.

 Here is my beautiful bride, helping everyone get their mylar bags ready for me to seal.  Four different brethren took turns doing the sealing, so we could all have a chance to learn how and so others would learn how to run the machine when the senior couple is no longer here.  Elder Howell started to show us, then I took over, then Brother Ng wanted to try his hand at it and finally Brother Jimmy got involved.  It isn't that difficult to do.  We will probably turn the machine over to the District R.S., who will keep it very busy between the two branches.

 At one point in the evening, the sealing machine stopped working.  The Howell's told us that they could seal approximately 100 bags.  We had just finished about 8 mylar bags and the bar, that comes down to seal the bag, stopped dropping when stepping on the foot pedal.  We are all intently searching for the solution to fix it.  So I turned off the machine for a few seconds, said a quick prayer, and turned it back on again.  It started to work immediately.  Elder Howell read the directions after that, where it stated to just turn off the machine for 3 seconds and turn it back on again if it causes problems.

Here is the best picture of all.  We only sealed 8 buckets of food to store, but it is the first time in Malaysia that food storage (using mylar bags) has ever happened.  The most sacred part of the evening took place right after this picture was taken.  Everyone moved away from the buckets and then began gathering up their kids and belongings to go home.  No one touched their buckets.  The amazing faith of these Saints in Malaysia is unbelievable.  Every person who brought dry goods to store thought that they were told by their prophet to give up some food to the church and store it in these bags.  They did not know that they were going to take it home with them.  Every person, who came to our fireside, are very poor and have very little in way of food or clothing or homes or belongings.  They get by day to day and just make ends meet.  But their prophet of God, Thomas S. Monson, told them to bring food to this fireside and store it.  They obediently gave of their own food, believing that Heavenly Father will take care of them, no matter what.   What great faith and courage and love of God, to give the only food they had to the church.  The fireside was a great hit, with some non members attending and lots of participation from both branches.  But I will never forget the faith of these current day pioneers, willing to give their all for the building up of the kingdom of God.  I pray to someday be as faithful. 

 This is Yan Hao.  He is our little 5 year old boy who we teach every Tuesday and Friday.  He is a very intelligent little guy and is just like any other 5 year old.  He sits for the first few minutes of the lesson, then gets fidgety and then becomes a bit more difficult to control after the first half hour.  He gets a bit confused with the short "e" and short "i" sounds and has a problem saying the "v" sound.  Beside that, he can do all the phonics rules and reads at a first grade level.  He is full of energy and quite a cute little boy.

 This is Yan Hao and his mom.  She is a great mother, who comes everytime with Yan Hao.  She sits right beside him and makes sure he is behaving himself and doing the work.  The first time we had Yan Hao over, I used M & M's for a reward.  That was not allowed because it was too much sugar.  I then changed over to "stickers" for a reward, and Yan Hao will do just about anything to get a sticker.  He does so very well because his mom takes notes on all the phonics rules and then re-teaches him when they get home.  They live on the eleventh floor of our tower and we are on the 1st floor. 

A very funny experience happened to us last night as we were out visiting and teaching.  We had an appointment with the elders at a less active sister's home just about 5 minutes from us.  It was at 5 PM.  We arrived and introduced ourselves and then the elders gave a brief lesson and we left.  This sweet sister was baptized in Dec. 2010 and has 6 children, but her husband is not a member.  She would take a taxi to come to church, but has not attended for some time.  The odd part of the lesson was when she was asked to give the closing prayer.  She stood up, went over to a book case and got out a very tiny notebook.  Then she sat down, opened the notebook and read the prayer from her notebook.  The elders didn't know what to say and were somewhat disappointed in the whole visit.
After that, around 5:30 PM, we came back home and tried to find Brother Brian and Sister Melanie Chee's address for the GPS unit.  We used "google maps" on the computer and somewhat found the right place.  We left and were suppose to be there at 7 PM.  The computer said it would take 25 minutes.  We would have plenty of time.  As we got closer to the town of Skudai, we missed the exit.  Out here in Malaysia, they hang their freeway signs directly over the exit, with no other signs before that telling you that your coming close to the exit.  We miss exits all the time until you memorize the roads.  Now we are heading west and just kept going without the GPS or knowing where we were going.  So Elder Meister takes over and tells us to "trust him".  We were so lost and ended up near "LegoLand", a very large amusement park some 50 kilometers away from where we are suppose to be.  We called Brother Brian, who laughed when he heard where we were.  He told us to use the GPS unit and find Bukit Indah, which was in the GPS.  This crazy GPS machine will not allow us to put in addresses, for some reason.  It just says, "No match found".  So now we are heading back, after going all over the place under Elder Meister's "trusting" directions.  We were laughing so hard and now it is 7:30 PM and we still have no idea how to get there.  Finally, we come into the town of Skudai and found the Tesco store parking lot, where Brother Brian would meet us.  We finally got to their home at 8 PM, an hour late.  We ate a delicious cold Chinese meal, but it still was really good and Sister Melanie was very patient and calm, after making all these dishes and us not being there on time.  Now here comes that hilarious part.  As we finished eating and giving a brief message from the scriptures, I went out and got the GPS unit so we could enter this exact location for the future.  When I came back in everyone is talking about all sorts of things around the table while I stood off to the side.  The conversation changed over to "subways".  Sister Melanie mentioned that they now have 2 subways in the local area and that Singapore even has one.  I thought they were talking about the underground railway system called the MRT in Singapore, which is a subway.  I began talking about our experiences on the MRT and how packed it was with people and how fast it travels.  All the time, after several minutes of various body gestures on how tight we were packed in the MRT and how the train moves so fast, Elder Meister leans over to me and tells me that they are talking about Subway Sandwich Shops.  My face turned bright red and we laughed till we cried.  Sister Melanie just keep talking about the Subway stores while I was talking about the MRT Subway in Singapore.  I was totally embarrassed and Elder Meister couldn't stop laughing his head off.  Brother Brian and Sister Melanie really couldn't understand why we were laughing so much.  I don't think they got it.  All the way home, which this time took us only 20 minutes, we laughed and laughed so very hard.  I am so stupid.  After we got home, I got a call from Elder Meister, asking if they could "follow" us tomorrow to City Square.  I told him, "absolutely not".  He began laughing again and then I said, "of course you can go with us, but we are not going to Subway".  I actually thought that Malaysia had put in a few underground subway systems in this area of Skudai.  They barely have running water.  I have no idea how I got off the subject, but it was very funny.  Linda is glad to know that there are some Subway Sandwich shops around here.  The only thing is they only serve chicken and turkey meat on their sandwiches, since pig meat (ham) is not allowed in Malaysia.  We'll have to try it sometime.

These pictures are just a mix of things that have happened to us over the past few weeks.  These first 3 pictures are of a Hindu Temple, just about 2 blocks from our home.  We pass by it almost every day, so I thought I would get out and take a few pictures.

 The temple is quite large and tall.  Right behind the temple is the local water storage tower.  Our city is called Taman Molek and this tower is in the city of Taman Johor Jaya, just next to us.  The word "taman" means garden or park and it is in front of all the city names.  All street names begin with the word, "jalan" which means road or street.  There are yellow street signs on every corner, with the word, jalan, followed by two numbers.  We live on "jalan 1/27" and our branch building is on "jalan 1/28", just one block south of us. 

 Here, you can see the Hindu Temple a bit closer.  The entire structure is covered with detailed figures, each one representing a different God.  It is quite a beautiful building and stands out at night as you drive by.  This, along with the water tower, was the first two landmarks that I used to find my way back to our apartment.

 Here, Linda is talking with our new set of elders that just arrived this past Thursday.  I really think she come from an Italian background, since you can't even see her hands because they move so quickly when she talks.  These elders stayed over at our apartment until 11 PM, which is their bedtime.  We usually go to bed at 10 PM, but we had a great time visiting and getting to know them better.

 This is Elder Meister (with the glasses on) and Elder Tan.  Elder Meister was the former Assistant to the President (AP) and he chose to extend his mission by a month and finish the mission serving in our district in JB.  He is really a fun guy and has a very thick Australian accent.
Elder Tan is brand new and comes from Malaysia.  He is Chinese and speaks 2 different dialects of Chinese, along with English and Bahasa.  He is a bit shy for now, but we'll get him talking very soon.  The mission president did a "whitewash" in our area.  He moved the two elders who were here up to Masai and gave us these two, who have to learn the entire area brand new with no help.  We are very happy to have a Chinese elder with us for the JB Branch.

Every home that has a small child in it, has one of these baby bouncing swings.  There is one in each of our branch buildings and all the homes you go to.
They place the baby in the blanket and hang the blanket over the hanger, connected to two springs.
Then the mom or dad place their hand on the little one and begin bouncing them up and down.

 This is Brother Michael.  He is bouncing his little girl.  We went over to Brother Michael to give him a blessing.  He was working on his car, which was up on a lift, and a large wrench came down and hit him on his nose.  He had stitches in the side of the nose and was very sore and bleeding while we visited.
The sweet mom brought out lots of food and before the evening was over, we had 4 other families arrive with their children.  There must have been about 25 to 30 people.  Everyone comes over to see Brother Michael's nose and to make sure he is alright.  The Iban people really care about each other and make sure that everyone is taken care of and in good health.

This is a classic picture from our local grocery store.  At Brother Michael's home, we had chicken feet soup.  Linda was extra lucky to get a chicken foot, a heart, a liver and something else that came out of that chicken, in her bowl of soup.  They add tofu squares, which are gross, some large rubbery mushrooms and one or two slivers of carrot.  I take my tofu out and mix it in my rice, so I can't taste it.
These good people don't waste one thing from that bird.  You eat everything.  With our delicious meal, we had soy milk drink.  I'll have to add it to my list of drinks that I'm not particularly fond of.  I don't like the "rose" drink, cause it tastes like perfume, I don't mind the corn drink, and now this soy milk stuff.  All you do is drink the whole glass quickly right before you leave and then you don't offend anyone.  I'm getting good at it.