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.

 Here is Leonard anak Jimmy, our very first missionary from the Masai Branch in the Johor Bahru District.  We are so proud of Leonard.  We have worked with him and his sweet family for some time.  We went with Leonard and his family to the Manila Temple last December.  He is so excited to serve the Lord here in the Singapore Mission.  We were privileged to buy Leonard a new suit and other things to help him get started on his mission.  It will be fun to go to our Zone Conferences, for the next two times, and see Leonard at our meetings as one of our full time missionaries serving with us.

 Today ends the month long celebration of "Ramadan".  Hari Raya Aidilfitri is the day that ends the holy month of dawn to sunset fasting.  Our sweet Muslim friends, here in Malaysia, do not eat all day until about 7:30 PM and then every hawker stand and restaurant and eating establishment is packed with people eating their one evening meal.  Even the taxi's stop working during the evening so the driver's can eat after fasting for the whole day.  During Ramadan, all the stores sell colored lights and colored garland, much like our Christmas holidays.  People go around visiting their families and greet each other with the words, "Selamat Hari Raya".  (Good Celebration Day)  This "Festival of the Breaking of the Fast" is a religious holiday in Malaysia and there is no work on Monday and Tuesday of this week.  All banks and post offices and schools are closed and most shops and businesses owned by the Muslim people we be closed to celebrate Hari Raya.

 Here is another display of the things that you can purchase for the Hari Raya celebration.  All kinds of colored garland and many different types of Christmas lights decorated the malls and the homes and businesses of our Muslim friends.  It reminds us of Christmas in July.  During the month of Ramadan, the Muslim families go home to their villages that they were born in and visit family and friends, seek forgiveness from each other, visit ancestor's graves, say their prayers in mosques and eat all kinds of Malaysian delicacies.
When we go out to eat lunch anywhere during the month of July, there is only Chinese people in the restaurants.  But when sunset comes, the malls are packed with hungry Muslim families, saving their places at various tables, waiting for sunset to arrive before they order their evening meal.  It's been a really great experience to see how other people celebrate their special days in their religion.

These final two pictures are very important to Sister Schollenberger and me, but to anyone else, they are just pictures of the podium at any church building.  This one is the beautiful wood paneling that we had to replace in our foyer and all the new wiring that needed to be put in for our headsets that we use for translation purposes.
It has taken us nine months to get these things fixed and repaired in our two church branch buildings and lots of frustrating hours working with different companies.  I need to still purchase a small cabinet to put in front of this black transmitter box, and then we are done in JB.

This little black thing is the microphone that is pulled out for the priests to speak into when they say the sacrament prayers.  The cost of this very tiny microphone is 1,300 ringgit.  That comes to about $450, which is quite a lot for the members out here in Malaysia.  The company had to order it from Japan and it must have come on a very slow boat to get here.  Finally, today in our Sacrament Meeting, the brethren used this new microphone and it worked very nicely.  Now, I still have to get our Masai Branch building's kitchen repaired and the entire podium replaced.
When you step on certain places on the podium, you fall through, so the entire plywood framework needs to be redone.  Then they will re-carpet the podium and put it all back together. (We hope!)  We resurfaced the baptismal font and had it repainted.  This company replaced all the red paneling in the foyer, which was eaten through by termites and they fixed cracks in the cement walls.  Another company does all the wiring and electrical work.  And still another company fixes the air conditioning and another company sprays for bugs.  We are called almost weekly to go up to one of our branches and open the building and wait for work to be done.  I guess it comes with being the District President, or maybe, it comes with being the Senior Couple who is available anytime they need you.

 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.

 Another amazing Gawai 2014 celebration!  Here is our banana tree, connected to the lighting in the middle of our Masai chapel.  All the fun treats are hanging from the banana leaves, with balloons and pineapples, grapes, and, of course, bananas.  All the children run around the tree and get as excited as Christmas morning, waiting for the people to come up with their machette and cut off the treats and place them at the bottom of the tree.  Our Gawai party started at 5 PM and we ended around 9:30 PM.  Lots of fun.

 Right before the cutting of the treats, all the Young Women dress up in their traditional costumes from East Malasyia.  Patricia and Mia are on the far right.  They are the sweetest sisters in Bro. Rantai and Sis. Sani's family.  Then, next to my sweetheart is Fauzina, Brother Uki's granddaughter and next to Fauzina is Erneshia.  Pres. John is right in the middle of things.
The elders enter the room first and dance around the tree and then the girls, in their traditional dress, come in and dance around the tree before the cutting ceremony.

 Our elders in Masai began the program with a beautiful song, "If the Savior Stood Beside Me".
Elder Crum (who already went home today) is on the far left, then Elder Robins (our short elder), with Elder Jin playing the piano and Elder Thatcher behind him.  Elder Thatcher has been in Masai for 7 months now and is finally getting transferred this week.  Next to Elder Thatcher, holding the music is Elder Tan and then Elder Takin.  Elder Tan and Takin are native Malaysians.

Here is the classic picture of me dancing around the tree.  I'm going after President John, the Branch President, with the machette in hand, which you cannot see.  The person who is handed the machette dances around the tree a few times and cuts off one or two items and then gives the hat and the machette to another person to go up and dance around.  We ran out of battery power in the camera, so we don't have the picture of Linda dancing around the tree. She was good.

 This adorable little boy is Brother David's son.  After all the elders and the traditionally dressed girls danced around the tree, he stayed in the middle of the chapel and just kept on dancing to the beat of the music.  He was so cute and everyone kept clapping for him.  He danced around the tree about 4 or 5 more times and didn't miss a beat.  He's going to be quite the Gawai dancer when he grows up.  He's going to have all the Iban girls after him.

This is our wonderful Brother Rantai.  He started off the dancing around the tree with his traditional vest and hat and the machette attached to his waist.  Bro. Rantai and Sis. Sani are great members that live quite a distance away from the Masai church building.  They are always there each week, with their 3 daughters, Patricia, Mia and their youngest one, Angela.  Patricia joined the church first and then, through her example, she brought in the rest of her family.  They have been members for just over a year and a half now.  They are strong and dedicated Saints.
After all the dancing and singing and clapping, we all move upstairs and have the delicious food.  The food arrived before 5 PM and then it just sits in the pans until we ate around 8:30 to 9 PM.  I'm so convinced that the Lord watches over His missionaries, because we never get sick from eating the food that sits out for hours.  We had delicious lemon chicken, and pork, noodles and rice, lots of vegetables and fruits and an entire pan of prawns.  These shrimps are longer than my entire hand and you are suppose to just pick them up and eat everything.  You start with the head, including this long antenna and two little black beady eyes, then the body including the shell and legs and finally the tail.  Ibans and Malaysians eat the entire thing, since the prawn is steamed and the shell is not as hard to chew and swallow.  I had a hard time with that, because I kept focusing on the experience, in a few days, of the prawns coming out the other end and how painful that may be.  All those shells and tails that don't digest.  Where else are they suppose to go.  All in all, it was a great party with lots of people having a wonderful time together.  The Masai Branch really knows how to put on a great Gawai celebration.