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.