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.