This blog has random pictures that we've taken over the past few weeks.  This lovely toilet is found in our neighborhood McDonald's.  There is no toilet paper used here, you just have a hose to clean off your posterior end.  In malls and other places, they are called "squatters" and there is no actual toilet seat to sit on.  You just squat down over a hole and use the sprayer to clean yourself off with.  I, for one, have not tried this procedure yet.  I prefer the traditional "toilet paper" approach.  In malls, they have two stalls with squatters in them and two stalls with traditional toilets to sit on, but no toilet paper, just the spray hose.  I haven't figured out how to not get my pants all wet in case I miss and aim the wrong direction while cleaning up.  I'm just glad we have a regular toilet in our apartment.  I just have to hold it till I get home.

 A few weeks ago, we had our Talent Night in the Masai Branch.  I showed Elder Meister, who has now gone home to Australia, how the "little person" worked and he loved the idea.  Elder Meister is the missionary with the cute little red tie on and I'm the hands, behind him.  We started out by fixing a bowl of cereal and used the idea of how a missionary gets ready in the morning for his day.  Linda is off to the side and handed me the bowl and box of cereal.  I poured it into the bowl, added some milk and then began spoon feeding Elder Meister the cereal.  I usually missed his mouth.  We also did some exercises.

After I fed him the cereal, it was time for a shaving.  I put the shaving cream in my hand and then got it all over his face.  We took the real blades out of the razor we used or I probably would have killed the poor kid.  All the members laughed their heads off and we had a very fun evening together.  They got to see the funnier side of both of us.  After we were done, Elder Meister informed me that he was trying not to eat the cereal because he had started his fast for that Saturday evening into the next sabbath day.  Now I know why he wouldn't open his mouth.

 You have to look carefully at this picture.  Right along side of the handle is the size of grasshoppers that are here in Malaysia.  I'm sure they are eaten by somebody, but they are the actual size of your entire hand.  The elders were trying to get into the front of the chapel and this big guy was just sitting on the handle and not allowing them to enter.  They kept swatting at it, but he wouldn't move.  They sure grow their insects big around here.

 This is the picture of our two sweet kids that were baptized this past week.  Their names are Winnie and Wesley.  Presley is the one in the middle and he was going to baptize his younger brother and sister.  When we arrived for the baptism, we were told that Wesley will not be 8 until Oct., so he had to wait a few weeks.  Then Presley baptized Winnie, but forgot to put his foot infront of her legs.  He tried to get all her hair under the water and forgot about her legs that had drifted up.  He therefore pushed Winnie down even deeper to get her completely under. She almost panicked, but came out alive.

 This is the traditional "flats" that people live in here in Malaysia.  All the TV shows that we watched back home explained to us how terrible "black mold" is to be around and that you have to tear your entire house apart and replace things if you have that black mold.  Well, here in Malaysia, everything has black mold all over it.  With the humidity and constant warm temperatures, black mold grows everywhere.
This is the flats where Presley and Winnie and Wesley live.  It is really quite disgusting to see and equally disgusting to be around and touch.  All the shop lots were people make their food and buy their goods, has black mold on them.  It really is everywhere, even on the roof of our apartment building and on all the walls of shops and stairs and malls and everywhere.

 This is our newest elder in the field, Elder Jackson, from Lehi, Utah.  He is the one with his arms up looking all tough.  His trainer has been here just 6 weeks, Elder Sheranian.  We love these two kids.  They are fun to be around and we go on splits together.  Again, you can see the black mold right above Elder Sheranian's head, on the overhanging roof.  We have seen it on every building that is one year or older here.  It doesn't take very long for the stuff to begin showing up on the outside of a building and then it grows and grows and spreads and spreads.  I think the bad part is when you go into a home and see it inside their rooms from too much moisture inside a house. 

 Here is just another shot of the wonderful "black mold" that grows on the outside of an apartment building.  There are two types of homes here in Malaysia.  People that live in "flats", like this one, and people that live in row homes or above shop lots.  Most of the people we visit in Masai live in flats and most of the people in the Johor Bahru branch area live in row homes.  I think that is why most of the row homes are painted various odd colors inside and outside.  There must be something in the paint that curbs the effects of the black mold or, at least, hides it.  Many homes are painted in bright greens, yellows, pinks and blues.  Our own apartment is all beige inside, with bright white 10 foot ceilings.  We are fortunate not to have any black mold inside our apartment, but some of the outside walls are already growing the stuff.

Last Friday, President John called us and asked if he and his family could come over and have a swim.  We were delighted to have some company over to our apartment.  Usually, we go to everyone else's place and they always have food and drink for us.  This time, we thought we would have the president and his wife, Sister Alan over and feed them and their 4 daughters.  This picture shows 3 of his cute little girls.  His oldest daughter would not go into the water.  She is 15 and would never be seen in public with a swim suit on.  We so love President John and Sister Alan.  They are so faithful and dedicated to the work.  They both are ministering to people almost daily and have such a wonderful personality.  Pres. John works as a bus driver in Singapore and speaks pretty good English.  Sister Alan does not and is somewhat hard to communicate with.  We sure love them.

 This is just a random picture of the jungle foliage that exists here in Malaysia.  I call this a "fan" tree.  It is just like the regular palm trees that grow everywhere, but this one grows straight out instead of having the various leaves or branches growing around in a circle, like a palm tree does.  We have seen two of these unique looking trees.  There is one right along side of Brother Gema's home.  It is the landmark so I know I got to the correct address and then park in front of their metal gate.  I just love the way these fan trees blow in the breeze.  They look so neat.  All through the country of Malaysia, there is jungle.  You drive and see some cities and towns and in between those, there is miles and miles of heavy jungle.  It is quite beautiful to see when we drive up north of Johor Bahru.  There are trees imported from Africa that look like giant umbrellas and all sorts of palm trees and beautiful green foliage everywhere.  There is not much in way of colors though.  Mostly just green with few flowering plants.

This final picture, for this week, is a dinner appointment we went over to last Sunday.  Elder McGown and Elder Tan invited us to go with them to a Chinese home.  The lady in the purple is a "golden" investigator, already asking to be baptized.  The lady in orange is her sister from Taiwan, who lives a block from the Taiwan Temple.  Then, the lady in black, by the name of Grace, is Catholic and seemed like the most interested one, but nothing came of it.  Linda and I sat at their table for 3 straight hours, from 4 PM to 7 PM, listening to everyone speak in Chinese.  It was awful.  The elders did a bit of interpreting, but we were bored to death and couldn't understand a single thing.  They would say something and then laugh and we would smile and look stupid (which I'm good at) and then they would continue on and we just sat and sat and sat.  It has taken us 7 months now, trying to get down some Malay and now we go to an appointment and listen to Chinese for 3 hours.  We did not enjoy it, but were glad someone wanted to hear the gospel at another time.  This time, we don't plan on going with them.  We really were along because the elders cannot go into a home with single sisters, which all of them were.  One thing we have learned, here on this mission, is even though we got a call to speak English, it is not true that you don't have to learn any language.  You would be constantly discouraged since you can't speak Malay or Chinese and they don't understand you.  Every Sunday, through 3 hours, you sit and don't get one thing.  You can't get things in a store or talk on the phone or communicate with anyone.  It has been interesting and challenging. We appreciate the elders, that interpret for us, but we feel we are a burden to them, since they have to constantly stop and tell us what people are saying.  That is why Linda and I keep trying to learn Malay, at least.  Our new challenge is to only say all our prayers, out loud and to ourselves, in Malay.  It has been quite interesting and we try not laughing at each other when we don't know what to say.  We still wait patiently for "the gift of tongues" to kick in.  For me, it will probably come in the next life.

 This is what we made up for the "Rancangan Penyalamatan" (Plan of Salvation) for our temple class that we teach in the Masai Branch.  We have 6 members going to the Manila Temple in the first week of December and we were assigned to teach the class.  These cardboard pictures are laid out on our white tile floor in our living room, so you could see the entire plan.  I'm standing on a chair to take the picture.

 The first part of the plan is Kehidupan Prafana or Pre-Earth Life.  Then the word strip, to the right, says The Fall and Creation.  The big green circle is Earth Life.  The word "bumi" is earth.  Notice that I drew Southeast Asia for the world, with Australia on the bottom.  I pointed out exactly where we were on this drawing and all the participants laughed.  It is interesting to note that Johor Bahru, where we live right now, is the very most southern tip of mainland Asia.  Malaysia is connected to Thailand and everything below and around us are islands not connected directly to Asia.  Very interesting.

After Earth Life, the word strip is "physical death".  Then the purple circle is Dunia Roh or "Spirit World".  Roh is the word for spirit.  The Holy Ghost is "Roh Kudus".  The next word strip says, The Resurrection and Judgement.   All of those in our class can understand English fairly well, except Brother Jimmy.  He doesn't speak English or understand English.  We had on of our elders sit next to him and interpret while we taught.  Brother Jimmy's English is as good as our "bahasa", so you can imagine how much he understands.

 After that, we read from 1 Corinthians, where it talks about the Celestial Kingdom compared to the sun and the Terrestrial Kingdom compared to the moon and you can't see the Telestial Kingdom, which the scriptures compare that kingdom to the stars.  You have to go back up to the whole Plan of Salvation to see the stars.  The class went well and now, next week, we are teaching about the temple recommend questions.
Everyone is quite concerned that they won't pass the "test questions" with the mission president.
We told them it is not like passing a test, but they don't believe us.

 We were again very privileged to participate in another baptism in our JB District.  This time, it was held in the JB Branch building.  On the far left is our wonderful Elder Meister, who baptized Brother Alex and his wife, Sister Melati.  Along side of Elder Meister is Elder Kavapalu.  He is our newest addition to the elders in our area.  He is from Australia, just like Elder Meister, but he is Tongan.  You can see the little short one of the group is Babe.  She fits right into the size of our Malaysian's.  At least I'm the size of our two elders.

I was one of  the witnesses for the baptism of Brother Alex and Sister Melati.  They were so nervous going under the water.  Brother Alex is an amazing young man, just turning 20 years old today.  His wife is very quiet and shy and you can barely hear her when she speaks.  They both wanted Elder Meister to baptize them before he left his mission and returned home to Australia.  He leaves us on Wednesday of this week and we will miss him greatly.

 This is Hairy Jefferson anak Gema, Brother Gema's oldest son.  He is 17 and such a trouble maker.  He is just that difficult age when everything is funny and he laughs and mocks everyone.  He says dumb comments right in the middle of a very spiritual lesson and he is driving his mom and dad crazy.  He stays out all night playing video games with his friends and then comes home at 8 AM and sleeps all day, skipping school.  I told Brother Gema and Sister Eta to lock him out and have him sleep outside.
They did it and he hasn't been out late since.

 Even though Hairy drives one crazy, he still is a very loving kid.  If he would just sit still long enough and listen to the lessons, he would feel the things of the Spirit and not think everything is always funny.  He went to Youth Conference and really loved it.  He leaned against me, during one of our lessons, and whispered in my ear, "I want to go to heaven".
That's when he melts your heart and you just want to hug him and tell him how much Heavenly Father loves him.  Seventeen is a hard age.  My wife is referred to as "nenek" which means grandmother and I'm called Elder Datuk, which is grandfather.  Hairy leans against me and says, "Datuk". They sure are a wonderful loving people here.  Brother Gema's health is doing better, our branches are growing and little by little the church progresses.

I have no idea why I'm pointing at my sweetheart.  This was while we waited for Brother Alex and Sister Melati to get changed and come back into the chapel.  The baptismal font is in the back of the picture, right behind the brown folding dividers.  Hairy took this picture of us.  The sister in red, behind Linda, is another investigator that came out for the 3 hour block and then stayed for the baptismal service.  Maybe she's the next one to enter the kingdom.
We love the work and love to see the change the gospel brings into people's live, no matter where in the world they may live, even Malaysia.

 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.