MERRY CHRISTMAS,

SHEPHERDS AT THE CHRISTMAS PARTY

Merry Christmas to each of you who are following our blog.  We like that here in Malaysia the celebration of the Savior's birth continues after the 25th.  Today in Church we were greeted many times with "Merry Christmas".  That is as it should be.  

     We stayed home in KK this week and that is nice to be able to do that.  We had our FHE on Monday night and only one sister came but we watched the First Presidencies Christmas Devotional together and ate scones and black currant jam.  I spent some time baking our favorite Woodlawn Ginger Cakes, fudge, and some sugar cookies that I decorated with red or green jello.  

     On Tuesday we went to our district meeting.  We don't get to go to that very often because of our travels but this one was especially nice because Elder and Sister Douglas and their daughter, Diana, who is visiting for 3 weeks from Canada, prepared a really  nice Christmas dinner---roast chicken and dressing, and the works.  They had even baked rolls and square pumpkin pies (no pie pans here) in their toaster oven.  I took a green salad and some of the fudge.  Those elders sure tucked into that meal as they usually do.  Sister Douglas likes to cook American-type foods for them.  When we got home from the district meeting the electricity was off which is not unusual but this time they couldn't get the generator going for our building (it is enough to run the fan and the fridge until the power comes back on).  So we climbed the stairs---14 floors, 22 steps each floor---to get home.  I'm glad we were not carrying bags of groceries.  That was our exercise for that day!

SISTER CHRISTINE, MARY AND ELLEN
MAKING SOME CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS

On Wednesday evening we met with many members at the church to decorate and practice for the branch Christmas party on the evening of the 24th.  Each auxiliary was to prepare something for the program and the RS was doing a fashion show.  We had so much fun.   Some of those quiet and shy sisters could really strut their stuff.  (I haven't giggled so much since I did dueling irons with Charlotte Barnes for the Castle Rock Ward RS birthday celebration just before we left for our mission.) 

     Then on Thursday was the actual branch party.  The program included just about everyone in the branch at one point or another.  The Primary children sang 'Jingle Bells' and other Christmas songs.  The Young Men danced, the Young Women sang, then they danced together.  The Elders Quorum danced the Christmas Macarena!  How funny to see past branch presidents doing that one.  Then the RS did the fashion show and we ended with the missionaries doing the 'nativity'.  Bill and I were shepherds.  That is Sister Douglas behind me and her daughter, Diana, as angels.  Mary Ann Teo was the MC (wearing the green shirt) and we recruited a young couple to be Mary and Joseph.  The young elders were narrator and wise men.  

A CHRISTMAS EVE PARTY AT THE BRANCH

WE WERE SHEPHERDS

ELDERS QUORUM DANCING
THE CHRISTMAS MACARENA

THE PRIMARY CHILDREN SINGING

After the program we had a potluck dinner served outside which is good and bad. The 

gOod part is easy clean up. The bad part is we couldn't see what we had on our plates.  

Of course, the food was chopped chicken and rice. Each brought her favorite way to fix 

chopped chicken. I took a cabbage salad and they didn't know what it was but they ate it

all. At one time I saw a bug take a nosedive in my plate of food. I just flicked him in the 

bushes. And I disposed of the chicken bones in the same bush. Hope the neighborhood

cat had a nice dinner. The members love to be together and have fun.

We had a quiet Christmas morning; just the two of us.

And then we pushed the furniture back and set out plates of goodies and the doorbell rang. They arrived in small groups of about 10 and it took me a while to realize that our district president was shuttling people from a pick-up point up the hill to our apartment. I had been kind of worried about how they would get here as most didn't know where we live and the bus stop is at the bottom of a long steep hill. They figured it all out. We wereso happy to see so many people. In this picture they are playing the 'Animal Game' and laughing so loud I thought our neighbors might complain.

WE HAD OVER 50 AT OUR OPEN HOUSE

CHRISTMAS DAY

THE TWO WINNERS OF THE

ANIMAL GAME

And they loved the food. I had ordered little cinnamon rolls and an apple pie kind of thing (they call it a slice) and a fruit cake from the bakery at the Hyatt here in KK. That 

along with my cookies and dishes of candy and they were happy. They don't normally eat

sweets but they certainly enjoyed them. Another thing they really liked was looking out our windows---since we are so high up they can really see for a distance. Then after all had

gone home---shuttle and bus---2 little Philippino sisters, Alice and Kiko, insisted on helping me clean up. Sister Alice carries a 8 month old baby in a front carrier everywhere she

goes and her sister Kiko is always with her. They are so sweet. They missed the shuttle

and had to walk to the bus stop. That was one of the few times we wished we had a car.

BAPTISM THE DAY AFTER

CHRISTMAS

Bill writing now. . .

I am sitting here writing this blog listening to songs about turkey and mistletoe. One could 
not ask for a better Christmas than what we had here in Malaysia. We so enjoyed 
ourselves being with the branch members. We had an open house for all that wanted and could come at our apartment. We thought that most would not come because there was nota bus stop near our place. Most do not have cars and it is a sacrifice for them to take the 
bus such a long distance and of course the cost. However, we were pleasantly surprised, we had over 50 in our little abode. They were so happy and fun. We played the animal 
game and they all had a ball, laughing and joking. Many of them enjoyed the "National 
Geographic" magazines we bought while we have been here. They just poured over the 
mags and loved all the pictures. They are so easy to be with and are just so happy to be together and enjoy each other. One doesn't ask what you got for Christmas here. It is not 
part of the picture at all. Their celebration is all about being happy with each other and 
helping out and eating and talking and just having a good time and thinking of Christ and 
talking of Christ and his message.

It was so refreshing to not see any pressure or stress regarding the Holidays. When you 
try to describe to them the stress of the holidays at home they just can't comprehend it at 
all. It is just so foreign to them.

Needless to say we have learned again from those who we serve and again the Lord has 
blessed our lives with new information and perspectives.

Remember the taxi driver Ellen talked about in the last post? Here he is.He is a very good 
source of everything you wanted to know about KK and didn't know you needed to know. 
He is always on time to pick us up and is car is kept very clean. He came to our open 
house and sat on the floor where most sat and played the game also. He delivered to our apartment the goodies we got from the bakery without charging us. He just said, "Merry
Christmas".

BROTHER GARY AND WIFE WITH 2 OF THEIR 4 CHILDREN

I went on a teaching appointment with one of the Elders last week. We traveled a very long way at night. We had to change taxis because we were leaving the first taxi's area. I had 
no idea where we were at all. But we ended up at a very poor home...actually a shack... about what we would consider less than most of our garages. Here is this poor family and they are so excited about the gospel. It make so much sense to them. They are anxious to join and probably will in the next few weeks. Why is it that the poor and humble
understand spiritual things so quickly? It was the same when Christ taught. The poor and meek understood Him and believed him and were healed?

This is one of their 4 children. Born into poverty. I wondered as I sat there listening to the
lessons being taught in Malay, "What will her life be like?" My thoughts were not about her temporal welfare because that seems obvious but about will she be as happy as her 
parents are about the gospel of Jesus Christ? Will she find ways to be of service? And is it possible for me to be as happy as she will be and is?


We leave for Singapore on Tuesday for our third visa run. We will celebrate the New 
Years Day there. It is our chance to have a small taste of civilization for a few days before we come back to hit it hard again. We will be traveling 2 to sometimes 3 weeks a month 
from now until we come home.


We so appreciate all those that sent us greetings and especially for our kids that called. 
We love and miss you all. We sure hope you are having a wonderful Christmas holiday.

Happy Birthday to Preston and Sadie!

BILL,  ELLEN, SISTERCHRISTINE

DINNER AT ROTATING BUILDING IN BACKGOUND

Happy Birthday to Preston and Sadie!  I remember  when you were born like it was yesterday.  Preston was right on time for us to welcome before we left for a scheduled trip to North Dakota to see Matt and Heidi before their baby came.  So when we were picked up from the airport by Matt, he told us Sadie had been born earlier that day. Good timing, Bill and Ellen. Now they are 4 years old and the delight of their parents lives.  And ours, too.

This week we took our scheduled trip to Lahad Datu to get contracts signed for the clean water project with Humana schools.  We flew there on Tuesday morning, checked into our usual hotel, and met with Ismael, the contractor who is doing the work.  The next day Ismael and Nestor, the school superintendent, met with us to go out to several of the schools---the ones that will be done first.  

We were back in LD by about 3 PM and couldn't think of any reason to stay until Friday as planned so caught an earlier flight back to KK.  Thanks to Kate, our 'travel agent' who knows us and that our plans change, we didn't have to pay extra for making a flight change.  And the hotel sees us every month and would like that to continue so didn't make any fuss about us not staying 2 more nights.  

This is school holiday here in Malaysia.  They finish class work about the end of November and some have exams into the first 2 weeks of December but now they are finished until the first week of January.  We are taking advantage of that holiday by 'using' Sister Mary Ann (who is a private tutor) to take us to meet some of the members who have not been out to church because of some kind of misunderstanding years ago.  So far---so good.   Hopefully, with some patience and attentive listening we can see some hearts soften and members returning to activity.  

So, I will tell you about 'Teksi' Chong.  He is a 55 year old Chinese gentleman who we like to use as our taxi driver.  He is a little fellow---probably weighs about 100 pounds---with a squeaky voice and he knows EVERYTHING about Kota Kinabalu.  He always has a story for us about something that is going on here in town or in the world.  (I think he must have some time to read the newspapers.)  And he loves cars.  He is always pointing out a car that we should buy.  We remind him that if we buy a car we won't need his services but that doesn't seem to matter to him.  When he picks us up, he asks us  "Where do you want to go today?" and then "Any place else?" and then he puts our errands/stops in order so we don't have to back track.  When we went out on the 30th of the month to pay some bills, he told us not to do that at the end of the month because everyone goes then and we would have to wait in a long que.  When we go to a particular market that is out of the way, [it has Western Family, and Krustez products and Gold Medal flour :) ]  he tells us he has some shopping to do there, too, and waits for us because he knows it would be hard to get another teksi to go out there to pick us up.  His Chinese/English is pretty good but occasionally he gets stumped for a word.  He has never married ("I don't have enough money") and is the youngest of 9 children.  He lives with his 93 year old mother and takes care of her and she cooks his dinner for him every evening.  He loves his taxi.  He washes it frequently and keeps it very clean inside.  He is very protective of it when driving---which is good for us---and tells us he treats it like he would a wife.  Today on the way to church he was telling us all about Tiger Woods and his misbehavior and how when people get money they think they can do anything they want.  I told him that we have a book of scriptures that talks about that very thing---that when people are blessed and get prosperous they forget about where those blessings come from and begin to do evil things.  Guess I'll have to get a Book of Mormon for him; in Chinese.

 We passed out invitations to our Christmas Day open house at church today.   The members seem quite interested in coming.  I hope they can find us.  I wrote our address and directions on the back.  I would draw a map but I don't think many of them know about maps. I'm starting to do some holiday baking in preparation for the open house.  I think if I do one thing every day between now and then I should be OK.  It isn't going to be a big elaborate party---just cookies and punch but it will be a nice gathering.  


A week latter.......

STUFFING CHOPPED CHICKEN INTO BAMBOO TO COOK

CHICKEN JUST BUTCHERED

Just returned from Sadir and Begu Kampungs near Kuching. We were there to kickoff the water projects in those three kampungs. A bank is participating with donation of funds in two of the kampungs. The kick off ceremony mistakingly excluded LDSC as financial sponsors.  Another little challenge to work out with the NGO before we move ahead very far.

KICKOFF MEETING BANNER

LDSC LOGO AT BOTTOM

BANK PRESENTING MOCK CHECK FOR PROJECT TO ROTARY

KAMPUNG FARMER WITH HIS

BASKET ON HIS BACK

KAMPUNG FAMILY

THERE ARE TWO KIDS AND

MOM AND DAD ON THE BIKE

AND THEIR BASKET

VISIT WITH SISTERS KATE AND CHRISTINE TO 
SISTER LISA (CENTER) AND FAMILY

Kate is the sister on the left. She has made most all of our travel arrangements and when I don't use her I get it messed up. She has become a good friend. The two boys belong to the sister in the middle, Liza. She is Fillapino. Very very nice and very strong in the gospel. She and her two boys walk about 1 mile to the bus stop to catch a bus to church. The bus ride to church is about 40 minutes there and 2 plus hours home. She loves her church family. All her family is in the Philippines and she has no idea if her mom is still alive. She can't make contact with her any more.  She did go there to renew her passport a few years ago but did not have enough funds to take a bus ride to see her mother and now has not seen her for 15 years. The sister on the right is Christine. Her husband left her and took a mistress when she joined the church. He will not divorce her so she can re-marry because he is Catholic. He gives her no money. She has enough money to buy some rice once in awhile and that is about it.

ANOTHER VISIT

DISTRICT PRES LING AND HIS WIFE ON THE LEFT. 
TWINS J.R. AND R.J.  

The building is a shop that makes cabinets. Can't say much about this situation except to say that they work all the time for a pittance and have no legal way of changing their situation.

KUCHING FROM OUR HOTEL

THIS IS ON THE SOUTH END OF EAST MALAYSIA

PLEASANT TIMES IN BORNEO

ELLEN NEAR THE POST OFFICE IN KK

We are enjoying a very pleasant winter here however it does not feel much like Christmas at all. We have a little fake tree up and some music playing but it is a real stretch for us to feel Christmas yet. But we will keep trying.

You know you have been serving a mission in Borneo for almost 9 months when:

1. You can't see out the front window of a taxi:

2. When the two choices at the local restaurant are "chopped chicken and rice" and "chopped chicken and rice."

3. When someone on the phone says,"Bill is it?"

4. When someone on the phone says," hello?" and you say hello and they say hello and you say hello and so on.

5  When driving on the left side feels right and you see a movie from America showing cars on the right side and it freaks you out and you say they are the wrong side.

6. When it is 85 degrees every day, day in day out.

7. When the days are always 12 hours long, and the sun is up around 6 am and down around 6 pm or so everyday.

8. When there is no daylight savings time.

9. When you are a foot or two taller  than anybody else every where you go you are not tall really.

10. When you see monkeys so often that it is no big deal any more.

11. When you can go swimming any day of the year.

12. When the manager of the apartment complex shows you pictures of a 30 foot python that was swimming in your pool one night.

13.When everything in the culture that used to shock you doesn't.

14. When you are surprised to see a river with clear water and not brown.

15.When you see an alligator swimming in front of your dining table at a local restaurant.

16. When you realize that you will be shocked to sit on pews instead of plastic chairs in church again.

17. When the young men in the branch volunteer to do the dishes after the branch's dinner.

18. When you realize you are use to a different pace and enjoy it.

19. When you remember you are on the frontier edge of the church's growth and these members are truly pioneers, the founding fathers and mothers of the church here that will be the future leaders.

20. When you remember you will not be able to divide prices by thirds when you get home to realize the true cost .

Here is a link to a song called GoD and DoG. It was played at our zone conference by our mission President. I really liked it and thought you might also.  http://www.GoDandDoG.org/index.html

We leave for Lahad Datu  on Tuesday for 4 days to organize the 18 water projects there and get them started. We will get contracts and agreements signed and all the details worked out so it goes smoothly. The next week we head for Kuching to do the same, also Bintulu. Then Christmas week here. The last week of the year we will be in Singapore for our visa run.

Ellen here.  It is interesting to see Bill's perspective on things here in Malaysia.  Today, I spent 2 hours entering family names into new.familysearch.org for a sister who is going to the temple in Manila, Philippines, next week.  She is going with her husband and four children for the first time.  She has been working on her genealogy---4 generations---for some time and I helped her enter the names in preparation for their trip.  She is from a kampung up north near Kudat where her family had lived for generations.  There were no written records kept so most of the information she had was from the memory of elderly family members.  What is interesting is that she was even able to get 4 generations.  That is back over 150 years!

We had a great zone conference last week.  It was nice to be able to be there as we missed the last one while we were traveling.  Of the 4 senior couples here in Sabah we will be the only ones here after February---one couple just went home and the other 2 will go home by the end of February.  Are any of you couples ready to turn in your papers to serve a mission, yet?    You would love it!

Thanksgiving in Kota Kinabalu

THANKSGIVING DINNER IN OUR APARTMENT 

WITH THE YOUNG ELDERS AND SISTER DOUGLAS

    Thanksgiving is a North American holiday but in talking to people here, they like the idea and are implementing it in small ways.  A gentleman we talked to in Kuching who is Anglican, was speaking in his church on gratitude last Sunday because 'it is such a good idea to set aside a time to be thankful' he told me.  We have so many things to be thankful for and our family and friends are right up there at the top of that list.  We are also very thankful to be here in East Malaysia AND serving a humanitarian mission.
      So today we had our district meeting this week at our place and I fixed a Thanksgiving dinner for the 8 of us---4 elders and 2 senior couples. I had quite the adventures fixing it.  First of all, it is hard to find a good turkey here.  Oh, they have them but they have been sitting in the freezer for a while and they are very expensive (like about 50 US dollars for a 10 lb. turkey).  And secondly, my oven is too small to get a turkey in it.  So we had chicken.  I also fixed dressing, cranberry sauce (from a can), mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, dinner rolls, apple pie and pumpkin pie.
      I am so out of practice with baking.  I used Christine's great crescent roll recipe because I knew they would be good.  So I was mixing up the rolls and had 3/4 of the flour mixed in and the dough was so stiff and 'dead' (you who make your own bread will know what I mean by that) and I still had a cup of flour to get mixed in.  So I went back to the recipe and checked all the ingredients.  Oops.  I had left out 2 eggs.  I sure didn't want to throw it out and start over so I just flattened out the dough and broke an egg on top and started mixing.  What a mess!  But I kept at it and then added the other egg and kept kneading.  Pretty soon it felt right.  They must have been OK because they disappeared fast at the dinner table.

KAMPONG SADIR WITH BAMBOO FLOOR

IN THE COMMUNITY AREA

ELLEN WALKING DOWN THE PATH AT THE KAMPUNG

KAMPONG MEETING

 Last week was another adventure.  We flew to Kuching, down on the southern tip of East Malaysia, which is the capitol of Sarawak.  We have been there several times and met with all four Rotary Clubs there in that fine city.  Our first day there we were taken by members of a Rotary Club and men who work for the Ministry of Health to visit some villages out in the jungle.  We drove south towards the Indonesian border to visit 2 different kampungs who have clean water problems.  Their current water systems are old and inadequate.  Both kampungs have been added in to our major water project.  We knew we would be doing them as well as the other sites when we submitted the project earlier this month so it was just a formality going to the villages.  At one of the kampungs we were told that most of the people are related to each other (there are about 575 of them in 80 houses) and they had lived in that place for about 600 years. They are members of the Bidayuh ethnic group and that means "walking by foot path" in their language.   At both kampungs I got a GPS reading and we were 1 degree north of the equator.  We were welcomed with speeches and food and treated very respectfully.

THEY ALWAYS WANT SPEECHES

KAMPUNG SADIR

ENTRANCE/EXIT TO THE KAMPUNG

  Another day we went to visit the Sarawak General Hospital which is a teaching hospital for Sarawak.  We met with the head nurse who is called the Matron and found that they have some needs as well.  They deliver over 100 babies EVERY DAY!! It is a very busy place serving a large area.
     We met a new senior couple in Kuching.  They are the Reidt's and have only been there a few weeks.  He went out to the kampungs with us and will be helping us by coordinating some church member help with working on the water systems.  We are grateful for their willingness to do that.  It saves us a lot of travel and the church some $$.
     Last Sunday I spoke in sacrament meeting on Family History and Temple Work.  That is something I really miss doing while we are here on our mission.  However, I have recently been able to help a sister get some family names ready for her to take when she goes to the Manila temple in a few weeks with her family to be sealed.

KATE (STANDING) INTRODUCED US TO THESE 3 WOMEN FROM 

PROVO, UTAH, VACATIONING IN KK

     At church we met 3 women who were visiting from America; Provo, Utah, specifically.  They are single women who take a trip together every year.  Some of their trips have been to help with humanitarian projects for various agencies so they were interested in what we are doing.  We also had FHE with them last night and had more chance to talk.  FHE was at a great seafood restaurant here in KK.  We enjoyed the food and the cultural program that went with it.  (Tough mission)

We spend much of our time in the sky and this is the common scene out the window. We can maneuver most airports here blindfolded. I think with a little help we could fly the plane to where we need to go.

VIEW FROM THE WINDOW OF THE PLANE

Our water project is now in Salt Lake to be approved by Presiding Bishop Burton. That will be Tuesday your time. So we are very hopeful that it will go through as we have spent a very large part of our mission working on this and getting the bugs worked out and preparing all parts of it. However we are obedient and if it is not approved we will move on. It has gone through 9 levels at this point and this is the final level.
If it is approved we will be on the road...or sky... to the three cities that the projects are located in to get papers signed and make arrangements for everything to move ahead. Part of this will be kick off ceremonies they like to have and the rest will be interviewing people to select the correct site monitors who will report to us each week on each of the projects. We then will be traveling each month to each location to monitor and work out problems. So we will be very busy. I am very hopeful we can get it done before next September when we go home. Next month is our half way point,,,,, it is so hard to believe that.

We celebrated our 42nd here on Borneo. We thought we would go somewhere for our celebration and then thought that is what we are doing all the time!! Well maybe we will go out to dinner? No we are doing that all the time too! SO I hired our local travel agent and dear member of the church to bring in a suprise dinner and flowers for Ellen. Afterwards we went to a church meeting!! Yep we are on a mission.

OUR 43RD WEDDING ANNIVERSARY

SUNSET IN BINTULU

...................till we meet again...................

 

Interesting things

GOING UP THE TRAIL OUT OF DATA KAKUS

I have heard from our son that there are followers of our blog who get concerned if we go too long without a posting.  So I will try to do better.  I certainly have interesting things to write about---it is just a matter of finding the time to do it.
So---
Questions we are asked ALL THE TIME
     How old are you?
     How much is your rent?
     How big is your apartment?
     Do you cook your own food?
     Do you clean your own house?
     How much did -----cost?

Why are we so private in USA?  I don't mind answering any of those questions and yet we wouldn't think of asking some of them.

When we were visiting the Humana schools in eastern Sabah a few weeks ago several of the schools we visited were on the huge Melangking plantations.  We had met the manager a few weeks before visiting again with Dave and Lena Frandsen and he (Mr. Chee) had insisted that we stay in their guest house and he wanted to provide a river trip for us.  That he did and you heard all about it.  He also wanted to take us to tour one of the palm oil mills and I didn't write about that.  So I will try to remember what we saw and relay it to you.  I do know that there is very high security at the mills so I hope I don't give away any trade secrets.

OIL PALMS

GETTING AROUND ON THE

OIL PALM PLANTATION

INSIDE THE MILL WHERE THE OIL 

IS PROCESSED

 It all starts with planting an oil palm tree which is about 1 to 2 feet tall when planted.  They grow on terraced hillsides that have been bulldozed to make a level spot for the trees to grow.  They are fertilized and coddled for about 15 years at which time they start to produce fruit which looks like a basketball size clump of red-brown berries or nuts about the size of a walnut.  The fruit is up in the crotch of the tree about 25 feet from the ground and is harvested by hand.  A worker uses a sharp blade on a long pole to cut through the 2 inch stalk and the fruit falls to the ground.  The next worker comes along with a 4 foot long sharp metal spike which he uses to pick up the fruit and tosses it onto a small sled or wagon.  Often the wagon is pulled by water buffalo.  These are hauled to the end of the row or to a collection point and put by hand, onto a larger trailer usually pulled by a small tractor (John Deere, Massy Ferguson) and taken to the mill.  Because a few or many of the little 'berries' fall off when the fruit falls to the ground at the base of the tree, there are women who follow along with large bags (usually a washed out fertilizer bag) to pick up the loose berries.  They don't waste any.  Often we could see where a tractor turned a corner sharply and lost a part of the load.  There we would see the women and children picking up the berries.

OIL PALM MILL---BERRIES BEING CLEANED

So at the mill the fruit is weighed and dumped into a collection car which is a railroad car on tracks that go right into the mill.  These cars dump the fruit into a steam chamber and it is steamed to loosed the berries from the fibrous part of the fruit.  I don't know all the steps but soon the berries are clean and shiny and look beautiful.  The oil is squeezed out and refined several times and shipped off in tanker trucks to the port to be shipped around the world.  Most of the oil is for eating but they are working on making bio-diesel fuel as well.  The fibrous part of the fruit is not wasted.  It is either composted and used to fertilize or it is burned to generate the steam and run the mill.  All very efficient.
The palm oil trees begin producing after about 3 years.  They must pick the fruit every 15 days and it produces fruit for 20 to 25 years.  Quite the oil 'machine'. Things grow fast here.  (I have been told that some of the people use the berries for food---they boil them and eat them.  They would be very satisfying and high calorie which is something they need.)  The plantations are huge.  They have replaced both the rubber and the cocoa plantations almost entirely with the oil palms.  From the sky the plantations go on and on for miles.

We are working with some of our branch members who were recently baptized.  We teach the follow-up lessons or the new member lessons.  There are 5 of them about the following subjects:

• Priesthood and auxiliaries
• Missionary work
• Eternal marriage
• Temples and family history 
• Service.  

J

JOHNNY AND ERVINA AND FAMILY

DAVID LIEW AND DAVID CHONG

It is difficult for us to go to the homes of the members---no car, no translator---so we frequently meet at the church after the block and other meetings and use David Liew or David Chong to translate.  We are teaching Johnny and Ervina who are a young  (26 or so) couple with a little boy.  He is a truck driver and she stays at home (they live with Johnny's father and family) to care for their son who is 3 or 4 years old.   We are also teaching Patricia Voo who is 22 years old and goes to school away from home.  She is home on the weekends but leaves to go back to school on Sunday evenings.  We are having a hard time meeting with her. She was just made the counselor in RS and conducted her first meeting last Sunday.  She did a great job.  We also teach Erna Junaidy who is 17 and was baptized last March.  We haven't seen her for weeks nor has anyone else.  Rumor says she has moved away but until it can be confirmed she is in our teaching pool.

We gave away a Book of Mormon to a neighbor here in our building.  He came over last Sunday evening for a few minutes and spent over 3 hours asking questions.  He seems sincerely interested but has a little problem that I can't write about here.  He came again last night and had more questions and we gave him a reading assignment.  I don't know if anything will come of this but we are planting seeds.  Nice gentleman.

Bill's turn.
I wish we could give all the details on some of these things we tell you about. We are excited to go see another school in the interior. That is what they call the jungle here. We want  to get a few more small projects going before the budget for 2009 ends this December. There are so many to help. I just submitted the water project today. It will be up for the Area's presidency approval this next week and then off to Salt Lake for the Presiding Bishopric's approval. We expect it will be approved from everything we hear. That project will serve 6800 people and more as the population grows. There are 21 different locations covering the length of East Malaysia. That is about the same distance as from Seattle to about St George Utah. We will be traveling to some those sites each month. We will also be working with a local opthamologist and one of the local Rotariesto get the vision project underway. That is a fairly large project encompassing several thousand US dollars of equipment and eye glasses. These will be used too care for the poor and needy in the interior,(jungles) that would not otherwise ever see such help.

ELIZABETH FROM DATA KAKUS 

ON THE WAY UP THE JUNGLE PATH TO THE DAM

VIEW OF KK FROM THE WATER

These eyeglass frames are valued at over $100,000 and are graciously donated by VSP, a large company based out of California.  The story behind this donation is heartwarming and is quickly generating press in Utah.  In a nutshell, the president of VSP (who is not LDS) was very impressed with the Collie family and learned that they were members of the LDS Church.  He decided to make a donation to support our vision projects and to honor this family.  (The Collie family has a son, Austin, who played football at BYU and now plays in the NFL.)  The Collie family had no idea that this donation was being made in their honor or any of the reasons behind it.  They have since been notified.    

   

Hornbills and snakes and elephants, Oh My!

HUMANA STUDENTS SINGING FOR US

A LARGE GROUP OF PYGMY ELEPHANTS 

ALONG THE KINABATANGAN RIVER

CHECKING OUT THE RAIN WATER COLLECTION SET-UP

BEHIND ONE OF THE HUMANA SCHOOLS ON THE 

MELANGKING OIL PALM PLANTATION

THOSE ELEPHANTS WERE VERY ENTERTAINING TO WATCH

To those of you who follow this blog regularly, I apologize for the lack of entries.  We have just been so busy.  We are currently back in Lahad Datu and this time with Dave and Lena Frandsen, the clean water specialists assigned to us to help us put this project together.  Nice choice--we have known Dave and Lena for over 30 years and it is partly because of their friendship that we are serving a humanitarian mission.

THE ALPHA MALE OF A FAMILY OF

CURLY TAIL MACAQUES

HOMES OF PLANTATION WORKERS

PROBOSCIS MONKEY

So for the title of this entry:  yes, in the last few days we have seen all three of those creatures and more in our travels.  One of the managers invited us to spend a night on one of the oil palm plantations AND take a boat ride up the Kinabatangan river AND tour one of the oil mills to see just how they do it.  All very interesting.  On the evening boat ride we came across a herd of pygmy elephants grazing alongside the river.  There were probably about 30 or more of them, mostly moms and babies.  We just beached the nose of the boat and watched them for quite a while and took a lot of photos.  Pretty exciting as it is quite unusual to see so many and many river tours don't see any. What is so cool about all these animals is that they are not in the zoo.These are all wild animals!!

We also have visited about 18 different schools that are in need of water---some have no water and others are using unclean water.  Most of the schools are 45 to 90 minutes apart over rough timber roads.  Most of the time I am glad we are in a 4 X 4 truck, like when the bridge is gone and we just drive across the river.  Good thing it is not yet the wet season.

At many of the schools the children and teachers had prepared a little program for us; either singing or recitation or just counting (in unison) to 100 in English.  In one school they recited multiplication tables in English.  Some students even danced for us.  Many of the teachers had refreshments for us which was very welcome.  All are very gracious and grateful to be getting some help.  Dave and Bill and Ismael, our engineer/contractor, have spent hours together making plans for this project.

Last week we rented a car and driver, our favorite taxi driver, Chong, and went to visit a children's home up near Mt, Kinabalu.  It is the Don Bosco Children's home run by the Catholic church.  It was founded in 1954 by Brother Ben, a lay brother from the Netherlands, when there was no more than a trail into the area.  He literally carried on his back the supplies to build the home and then built it.    He is 79 years old now and still running things.  He makes the 2-hour-one-way-trip to Kota Kinabalu twice a week for supplies.  There are about 80 children from age 5 to 19 who live at the home.  Most have some family in the area but that family are not able to care for the children.  They do have some needs so we are putting together a project to help them.  It was pleasant to be up at the school and learn about Brother Ben and his story.  He was originally sent to Malaysia to teach the people farming in the temperate climate they have at that elevation.  They have to terrace the hillsides in order to grow all kinds of vegetables.  He showed me a grapevine but said no grapes had ever reached maturity on it because there were too many little eyes that saw those grapes and picked them green to eat.  I'll try to get Bill to add a photo of Brother Ben.  he is a well-loved grandpa.

BROTHER BEN

Bro Ben is a book ready to be written. He has literally dedicated 50+ years to these children and this village. He has been there since the beginning of time for this community. The children just love him so much.
Today we attended sacrament meeting in the home of some members here in Lahad Datu.  There is no branch here and no missionaries; not even an official group.  It is basically one family who live here but they have not had any meetings for over four years.  One thinks he has the Aaronic priesthood but isn't sure.  With Frandsens there were 9 of us and assorted children.  We had permission from the mission president to have the sacrament so we did and then a testimony meeting.  Pretty cool "...where two or more are gathered in my name, there am I also."

This is the first time they have had the sacrament in 5 years. They are very anxious to have authorized meetings. We are so fortunate to have had a little part in the beginning of the church in this area. This all came about because the Lord prompted us to ask a few questions of the district presidency in KK and the we got permission from the Mission President to have the sacrament.

We will fly back to Kota Kinabalu in the morning and get all our clothes washed and packed to take off for BINTULU on Wednesday.  We are going back to Data Kakus to check out their water situation and they will be added to our water project.  I hope we will have some time to see some of our friends there.

Bill here,
Boy did we cover the miles!! I am not sure but probably 2000km or about 1,200 miles in the jungles of the interior of Borneo. We saw 17 schools some for the 2 or 3rd time for us. We will be doing about 19 schools. We will provide water and toilet facilities for 2400 Humana children that right now have no water at school and they use the jungle for a toilet and also do the teachers.Along with these children being helped we will a also be doing a project in the jungles outside of Bintulu where the Datae  Kakus village of 2000 will get water and two villages outside of Kuching of 1500 will get water for the first time. So a total of about 6000 people of Borneo who live in the interior jungles will have a better life thanks to LDSC. We are so thrilled to be a part of this great work.
I was so touched by the programs we were presented with at the schools. It is so hard to hold back the tears. These kids are living 3 hours back in the jungles and have so very little and live in such primitive conditions. And when they perform they are so passionate about what they do. I just love these kids. I have so much fun visiting with them. I think I could live back there and teach them. It is hard for me to leave them.

We can share our pictures and our thoughts and try to describe our feelings but I don't think it is possible to share with anyone what this experience really feels like. We love our mission and we are just so thankful that we are able to be here. We feel it is going so fast...7 months done already. Many are already asking if we will go again. We are so busy with what we are doing we just haven't the time to think much about that, however ......I will leave it there.
We leave for Bintulu this week and in a week or two we will be in Kuching again.

Thanks so much to all of you that leave us a note once in awhile. We love to hear about your lives.

Bill & Ellen