Chinese New Year has finally ended on February 15, 2014,  It began on Jan. 30th and runs for 15 additional days after Jan. 31st.  Every night was fireworks and firecrackers.  The most amazing thing we saw was a Dragon Dance and a Lion Dance. 
We were coming over to our church building, to open it up for a brother who left his suitcases in the building, when a lori pulls up and a group of men jump out and begin playing loud music and moving this pink dragon through the street and into a Chinese restaurant.

 The precision of the men and boys moving this dragon was phenomenal.  They would run around, pushing the head and body up and down, then they would lay on the ground and make the dragon move, then they would twirl the dragon in loops, etc.  It was something to see.

 You can't see it in any of these pictures, but there is a young man who holds a round spinning ball in front of the mouth of the dragon and leads the dragon dance.  It looks like the dragon is trying to eat the ball and the head of the dragon continues to follow it perfectly, with great precision. 

 You can somewhat see the young man, holding the ball on a long metal pole to his right.  It is yellow on top, then red and green and blue at the bottom.  All the time the dragon is rotating around, the young man has to jump over the pink body of the dragon and keep his pole moving along.  It is hard to explain, but a beautiful sight to see.  The 6 to 8 young men, playing the drums, cymbals and other instruments in front of the restaurant, were so loud you had to cover your ears.  The dragon dance was quite an experience.

 On Valentine's Day, Feb. 14th, our apartment complex invited everyone to the office area where a lion dance was going to be performed.  Again, another awesome experience to see.
There were two lions, with a young man in the head portion of the lion and a smaller boy in the tail end.  The eyes blink and the mouth opens and closes while the lion dances around

 I have to mention the little lady right behind the lion, holding a red notebook with a built in camera.  She is the sweetest Muslim lady that runs the office at our Molek Pine Apartments.  We just love her so.  She speaks very good English and helps me to learn some bahasa whenever we have to pick up a parcel.  She tells us about her vacations and always asks us about our vacations to Singapore and what we did there. 
Anyway, the lion dance was suppose to begin at 10 AM, but they didn't arrive until 10:45.  We hung out with our four elders, just visiting in the cool, breezy morning by our swimming pool.

You can see more of the detail in the head of the lion.  The two large eyes blink and the mouth opens and closes.  For one part of the lion dance, there are four sets of oranges laying on the ground.  The lion dances around the oranges, picks them up with his mouth and then invites people to come close to him.  The lion then puts one orange on his mouth and flings it out into the air.  A person catches the orange and then receives good luck for his catch.  At one point in the program, the lion came right up to Linda and gave her an orange.

 As the lion walked away, the back young boy just about kicked Linda in the head.  Here is a great picture of the two lions who fight each other.  You can see, in the bottom of the picture, a red plate.  This plate had a bunch of oranges on it and the lion would hover over it and take the oranges into its mouth and then fling them at people to catch. 

 Just like the dragon dance, there were 6 to 8 people playing a very big drum, many cymbals and a flute like instrument that kept the beat.  It was very loud, just like the dragon dance.  The yellow furry lions would dance all around the pool and then back and forth around the oranges and finally move in place to jump up and eat a head of lettuce, that was hanging from the balcony.  Apparently the front person stands on the shoulders of the little guy in the back and the lion becomes very tall to snatch the lettuce up.
Very impressive performance.

 Here is our final two pictures at our recent baptism this past Saturday.  Cheah, You Yi Sam was baptized.  He is standing by his sweet wife in the blue top and his mom, next to him.  Bernie, his wife, has been a member for only a few months and Sam's mom has not joined the church, YET!  Elder Loke was privileged to baptized Sam and Elder Baer will confirm him on Sunday.  Sam is what we call a "kingdom builder".  He is so mature already in the gospel and will be a great leader in Malaysia.  The final picture is from the elder's camera.  It is our four elders in JB, Elder Loke, Elder Baer, Elder Wadsworth on the far left and Elder Fabiano next to me.  We sure love these great missionaries.  Linda and I are very honored to serve with them, here in Johor Bahru.  This is our first Chinese baptism since we arrived in the mission 11 months ago.  We finally are seeing growth in JB.  We are most grateful to our Father in Heaven for allowing us to help teach Sam and Bernie and see the growth they have made.  I hope to always be a "kingdom builder".