District Conference in Miri, Sarawak

ON THE ROAD TO MIRI

THESE LADIES ARE WEAVING BEAUTIFUL 
BASKETS TO SELL.



FRESH CHICKEN AT THE MARKET

This weekend we attended our first district conference in Miri which is a larger town about 200+ km north of Bintulu. There are 6 units in our district---3 branches in Bintulu, 1 branch in Miri, a small Chinese unit in Miri, and a small group in Brunei. Each of our branches from Btu rented a bus for the trip on Saturday (and a few drove) when they attended a priesthood meeting, an adult meeting and then spent the night at an 'inn'. Sunday they were all there for the 10 AM session. The Miri members had prepared box lunches for them to eat on their bus ride home.

DINNER WITH PRES AND SISTER SKELTON
ELDER AND SISTER MCKELLAR TO THE LEFT

President and Sister Skelton spoke and it was their last conference as they leave for their home in Manchester, England, on 2 July, the day after our new mission president from Lake Oswego, Oregon arrives. There were strong testimonies born and even though we couldn't understand all the words we felt their spirit. One of our young men, Junis, was ordained an Elder. We are pretty excited by that as we have so few Melchizedek priesthood holders in our branch. We have only one couple who have been to the temple. That is something we are going to start very soon to have people ready to go to the temple in Manila next December when they have their next holiday.
JUNIS AND HIS FAMILY...JUNIS IS IN THE BACK CENTER
WITH THE BIG SMILE.  JUST ORDAINED AN ELDER

We have had our first project approved! This is the English books for the primary school library. Part of that project is doing 'roadshows' at several of the long houses that the school serves to promote the idea with the parents so they will support their children in reading English. Our champions are Mdms. Lillian and Roseline who are English teachers at the school and our partner (NGO) is the PTA. They are pretty excited to get the books---so excited that they have been to a book dealer and chosen books already. We are going to check them out this afternoon and so now things will move pretty fast. We will have a presentation on this coming Saturday to all the teachers.
HEAD, SHOULDERS, KNEES AND TOES IN THE LONGHOUSE KINDERGARTEN 
WHERE WE READ STORIES IN ENGLISH 
 EACH MONDAY MORNING

This week our children have gathered for the Davis family reunion in Utah. I am so proud of them because I know that it isn't easy to travel or even be away from home with babies. Matt and Heidi were the only ones not able to attend this year. I am excited to see the DVD they made of their talent show where all of Jason and Christine's family stood on their hands and Anna, Cami, and Lauralee danced to Abba's 'Dancing Queen'. What fun! They are glad to have Lynn and Sabrina with them and show them some of the LDS sights in Utah. They spent some time on Temple Square etc. and plan to attend the Oquirrh Mt. Temple open house later this week.

We are planning a piano recital for our 20+ piano students in the branches here. It will be in August and will include all the students even the ones who have only had a lesson or two. They range from beginning to accomplished.

We are staying busy. Each week we have triumphs and challenges. I am learning that is what a mission is all about---using our life experiences the best we are able to meet those challenges. We love the people here. They are so strong, so sweet, so humble and wanting to learn. The children melt our hearts. You should have seen Elder Davis with 2 little boys on his lap and 2 more on the chair between us at district conference. He had the biggest smile on his face. We want to do all we can to help them grow in the gospel and have all the benefits it can give them.

Bill Here;
Yep that was pretty neat holding those kids, almost felt like holding my grandkids, maybe that's part of the reason it felt so neat. :) Oh yes the challenges we face on a regular basis. When the buses got the branches to the Inn they supposedly didn't know they had to get them over to the church. Well, they also forgot where the Inn was. So we worked that out then they wanted more money after they were hostages of the bus drivers. SO it goes. Then the buses were always late picking them up and delivering them both days. Oh not just a few minutes, like 1 to 2 hours late, so here we have all these little kids and mom's and dad's dead tired and no way to go back to the Inn. Well it all got worked out the Malay way. Patience.

ROTARY LEADERS IN MIRI

We introduced the Miri club to LDS Charities. A very nice meeting. All were professionals in the community. The lady is the President Jenny. The man to Ellen's right is a surgeon born in Egypt. He is interested in our church after listening to what we do. He wants to know more.

Busy, oh so busy. We have handover ceremonies in four different cities we will have to fly to. Then more travels into the jungle; one about 5 hours into the interior to a village without clean water. Most have not seen modern society and run around with few clothes if any. A trip to Bum Bum, about 3/4 day travel by air and then out to an island with 20,000 inhabitants and a school without clean water. Then over to Singapore and back and in the middle of that trip a stop in Kuching to see the Rotary and make some plans. Plus get the school started on the library program and visit the long house promoting English. Plus the branch now has computers and all the clerk stuff is now done only on them. Only problem is our clerk has never used a computer!! You should see him handle a mouse. It is fun to watch. Yep, we start with the very very basics. And he is suppose to do all the financial and membership stuff on it?
We love being busy and involved. We sure sleep well at night.
It continues to be very gratifying to see our branch bloom. They are all so excited about their branch. And, of course, so are we for them. Thanks for your prayers on their behalf.

We just love it that our family got together without us being there. We know they know how important that is. It is about families this life is and if you are not about families then what? You will notice the LDS Charities logo is all about families for obvious reasons. Well no more preaching.

BORNEO LIGHTENING

We had quite a storm the other night! The thunder and lightening were so very close and sooooooooo loud that it turned the electrical breaker off twice just from the vibration of the thunder. We felt we were inside of the storm with the thunder all around us. We pretended we were scared, well maybe we were a little any way, it was fun sorta. When it pours rain it comes down so hard and fast that it can create a puddle in our backyard in the matter of a few minutes that is probably 3 or 4 inches deep. They have storm trenches all around the city. They are cement and are open and about 4 feet deep. We will see how they work as the monsoons move in. As I write another Storm is starting up.

BATU 18 SCHOOL 

WHERE WE PLAN A LIBRARY PROJECT

THE CHILDREN ARE LINED UP FOR THE 

MORNING ASSEMBLY

SISTER DAVIS HARD AT WORK
DEVELOPING ONE OF
OUR PROJECTS

We have submitted our first area humanitarian project. It was seven pages long. We had to completely justify the project in every way including; beneficiaries...how selected and why and why the need, the partner organization and its strength and if they have a Champion...0ne who is excited and will see the project though.

Also of course the detailed budget, timeline, location. Most importantly however is the sustainability of the project. That is to say what will happen to the good we do when we are done and gone.

ELDER DAVIS NOT SO HARD AT WORK 

DEVELOPING THE PROJECTS

LDS Humanitarian Services is adamant that each project has a lasting change for the people. SO this part has to be very carefully approached and analyzed and provided for. We also have to help them solve their challenges their way and not the American way. That is within their way of doing things and in the way that they can maintain what ever it is we started. Well that is More than you wanted to know now wasn't it? But now you know how come we send in a 7 page document and that is just the beginning.

BATU 18 SCHOOL LIBRARY

The first for us is providing an English library for a rural school.The current library is not adequate and that is all I can say. We hope to provide 1000 books and a process in which the school will be able to motivate the kids to read English books. The key to breaking out of the poverty cycle they are in and getting additional training and higher learning is to learn English as all additional schooling is in English. We hope to provide a model program that can be then repeated throughout Malaysia. However we are just in the development stages and have yet to get approval. It will be presented to the Area authorities we hope this next Tuesday.

LDSC WHEEL CHAIRS JUST ARRIVED

We are communicating now with the water specialist, David Frandsen. Some of you remember. He and Lena are longtime friends from Poulsbo. They are the ones that encouraged us to serve and helped get us going in many ways. SO we are very happy to be working with them now officially. He has the details of the water system we visited last week in Kakus, "100 miles..."

Two hundred and fifty wheelchairs have arrived at the docks here. The Rotary club will now start the distribution process and we will have an official Handover ceremony community and governmental and Rotary officials. This is where we get a chance to help "Bring the Church out of Obscurity." This is one of the goals of our work. We will have a chance to explain our work, to let them know that there are no strings attached and that we are focused on serving everyone, especially nonmembers of our church. It is interesting to know by the way that 100% of all donations to the Humanitarian services our put right into the hands of the needy. None of it is spent on our overhead, like travel, supplies or salaries. Staffing in Slat Lake

I have been down again this time with an infected foot. I got blisters on both of my feet. One foot healed just fine and the other didn't and is still a little infected. Had to get an antibiotic and another medication for inflammation which Ellen had never heard of before but it is from the silkworm. Seems to be working.

Big news for our branch is that we have a new President. President Mudus was one of our first visits here to the members. He and his wife were so disappointed in the falling away of the members however they were amongst those falling away. They had not been out very much in the last two years. Since that conversation he has felt the need to be there and has been with his wife every Sunday since. And now he is the President. He is thinking about calling another recently activated brother as his second counselor. The new Relief Society President has as their second counselor his wife. And the first counselor is another recently activated sister. Her husband has just started coming out also. It is so exciting to see all these recently activated members serving and bearing their testimonies.

His first Sunday as President we have our attendance back up to 69 again. However some are still gone with Gawaii so we expect the attendance to go back up past that soon when all return back from Gawaii. We are excited to see the potential now with organizations being staffed that just have not been even functioning.

Ellen here now.

We are really excited about the recent changes in our branch. The members seem so happy with the changes and are excited about serving. Hope it lasts. Many of the members are planning to go to our District conference which is 210 km or 3 hours by bumpy- road-bus-ride north of here. The branch charters a bus for those who want to go. The members pay what they can and the branch budget makes up the rest. They stay overnight in a 'hotel' and the members up there feed them a couple of meals. They take some food, too. This will be an interesting experience.

We are making the drive and going up a day early so we can 'kill two birds' with the trip by taking the opportunity to do some networking for humanitarian work too. We also need to make provisions for a 'closing ceremony' for some of the wheelchairs that will wind up there.

Hari Gawaii is officially over tonight and life will be back to 'normal'. I have added 3 new piano students in the past two weeks. Some of them have had lessons before I came and one even has earned her own keyboard by playing 10 to 15 hymns in Sacrament meeting (usually they will play the intermediate hymn or some prelude music). Jerini is about 16 and plays quite well but has not had a keyboard (she doesn't know why the previous missionary took it from her, she said). Joe is 16 and aspires to be a rock star, loves classical music and especially 'Chop-in' but is too lazy to practice his lesson, won't play in Sacrament meeting (he just doesn't show up on those days he is to play) and at risk of loosing his keyboard. Contessa is 10 and really struggles but is willing. Shally is 12 and I've heard she is quite good, has her own keyboard, and will be starting lessons again this week. Sister Alexandra is our new RS president. She is about 52, Chinese, quite bright, and is motivated to play so I expect her to do well. Her husband works away from home and she has some time to work at learning piano. Daniel is 17, Joe's joined-at-the-hip friend (always together) but he will practice and is moving through the books quite quickly. I think he will do well.

It is time to get ready to go for our Sunday evening visits. It is bright sunny skies in the west and dark dark clouds in the east toward the interior. Looks like we'll get some rain tonight. When we go in the evenings we take a flashlight and umbrella. Ready for anything.

ONE HUNDRED MILES INTO THE JUNGLE

ENTRANCE TO THE VILLAGE

We have had a very interesting week here in East Malaysia. It is the first week of 'holiday' here. School is out for 2 weeks and most people have left town. Bintulu is an industrial town to which people have moved in order to work in any of the various industries. So for their holidays they return to their homes to visit the family left behind.
The Hari Gawai that we talked about last week began at midnight Sunday night. Those who did not leave to visit their birthplaces or long houses began their celebrations then.
We were invited to Brother Joseph's home Monday morning about 10:00 AM where we were treated to their traditional foods---rice, chicken curry, bee hoon noodles, and various sweets and savory snacks. From Brother Joseph's home we went to Brother Mudus' home where his wife, Sister Misyong, treated us to about the same. And then on to Pilet and Pauline, then Jalil and Kabi, and Malia. Each home we would go to the group would get larger as people joined us. And at each home we were served the same foods which are traditional. We visited and played games. When we could not eat another bite we tried to anyway so that we would not offend the hostess who had spent some time putting the feast together. About 2 PM the elders went with us to visit Nani at her family's long house not too far from Bintulu in a little town of Sebuah. (You can find that on googleearth just a little east and north of Bintulu. Photos at the site.) Again the same food. Guess they do that all week. I love curry but I don't think I will be eating any more soon.
Since so many of the branch members were gone we didn't make other visits during the week and I didn't teach any piano lessons. No one at home. We had plenty of other projects to work on. I prepared the invitations and programs for a 'hand over' ceremony we are planning for June 16th. It is handing over 250 wheel chairs to one of the Rotary clubs here in Bintulu. We also went to see the progress on a project we are working on with the Salvation Army to install playground equipment at a children's home. Nothing going on there---everyone is on holiday.
So our trip into the jungle. . . Our overnight trip turned out to be a one day trip and WHAT a trip. We left about 8 AM (after a false start at 6 AM when our transport or driver didn't show) in a Hilux which are their Toyota trucks here. It has 4 doors so there was room for the 6 of us who went with one man riding in the back. It was supposed to be about a 5 or 6 hour trip but we had a crazy driver (his truck, too) and we covered the 100 miles in less than 3 hours. About 2/3 of the distance was on what they call logging road.

You would not believe the roads we went on!! These are logging roads so we expected rough. It was a track--one lane except on some corners and at the tops of hills. Remember that people drive on the left here. Well, on this road we switched back and forth from left to right at the tops of those hills and on the corners depending on the arrow sign that we had to look really hard to find. We were fortunate that we had John El and his father (riding 'shotgun' in the back standing up) with us as guides. They are from the kampung we were going to visit and knew when to go left or right. The driver was flying. I was praying. Bill was having the time of his life. We were both thinking how much our sons would have enjoyed the trip.

BRIDGE THAT JOINES THE TWO SIDES OF THE KAMPUNG

We arrived safely at Data Kakus which is the name of the village or kampung of the Kenyah Badong people who live there. We were greeted by Elizabeth and welcomed into her home. She had tea and warm bread for us. We explained that we don't drink tea and water would be just fine (hoping their water was 'clean') but she brought out something that tasted like strawberry milk. Warm strawberry milk. Very refreshing, actually.

This picture is of Elizabeth's sister, Sami, carrying her baby. Elizabeth makes these carriers and had many hanging on her walls. Most had tiger claws as decorations. Others had coins and little bells as decorations.

 BABY CARRYING METHOD OF THE KENYAH

So the purpose for our visit was to check out their water system and see if there was something we could help them with to improve it. They use a gravity flow system from a reservoir about 2 miles up a hill. During the monsoon it washes out so they have to use the river water about 4 months of the year and they get sick using that. So several village headmen and Bill headed off up to the reservoir to check it out. I stayed with Elizabeth and she and I walked the village. We visited lots of people along the way and all were very friendly (and curious---they don't see too many white people back there and I know why) except for the pastor of their church (Anglican). I believe Elizabeth told him we were from another church and come to help them. We saw women drying rice on woven mats sitting in the shade and holding long poles to shoo the chickens away from their rice. Some of the older women have the long earlobes from wearing weighted brass earrings. I tried to get a photo of one but don't think I got the dangly lobes. We visited the school, and also saw them 'threshing' their rice. They use generators for power. They raise most of what they eat (have to buy sugar and 'strawberry milk') and seem to be very self-reliant. Their cash crop is palm oil which they sell to a broker and vegetables which they sell at the market. But they have this water problem. I hope we can help them.

A WILD BOAR TRAP

Elizabeth is quite a person. She sings and is a leader of their woman's group at their church. She takes care of medical problems, dispensing medications she gets from her sister-in-law, and has even 'taken two babies' and stitched up gaping wounds. She is 37 years old and has 4 children, went to university in Kuala Lumpur, and does beautiful handcrafts of bead work and baskets. She gave me one of the traditional beaded necklaces that she had made. Wow! As we visited, her children and others were nearby watching a Jim Carrey DVD. I even saw a few satellite dishes which they call parabolas. All are powered by generator.

This is a picture of a woman walking back from her garden. She has her tools and whatever she picked from the garden in her basket.

BACK FROM THE GARDEN

I will let Bill fill you in on the hike. He surprised himself with his endurance. Glad I stayed with Elizabeth.

Bill here. The only way I survived this hike in the Jungle is through prayer. If you can imagine hiking up a mountain in a very dense jungle inside a sauna that is what it was like. We were all soaking wet from head to toe and exhausted from the very beginning all the way through. I am quite surprised I am still alive. The problem is I know this is only the first of many as we check out different village's water systems.
This village is about 1850 people and about 250 homes. They have their own school and church. It is 95 miles back into the jungle completely away from all signs of civilization whatsoever. It was just amazing to us to visit these people. They are so happy and kind, completely isolated from the typical cares of our busy world.

 

DATA KAKUS

This is a picture of their village and as you can see they are up in the mountains. It was a bit cooler there than here in Bintulu. They have a cement road through part of the village and raised board walkways so they can get around when the water is running a foot deep everywhere. All the houses are built up on stilts and have standing water beneath them as well as assorted chickens, boards, and other stuff.
Their water system is great. It provides water for all the people 8 months of the year. When the monsoons hit the water is not able to get down the pipes as it is filled up with debris and then they bath, wash and drink out of the river. Illness soars during this time of the year. Therein lies the problem and we will try to help them.

It was another great week.