From the 14th Floor

This is different---living in the 14th floor condo up on a hill. We can see the city, the South China Sea, the jungle, and Malaysia's highest peak, Mt. Kinabalu. Our first night here we had a power outage after a lightening storm. Glad we were home and didn't have to walk up or down the flights of steps.

Saturday evening we attended a baptism and party for an elder who goes home next week and we met a lot of members. Someone let out the word that I play the piano so I was asked to play. Using the piano bench was a balancing act as all the legs were wobbly. There are a few in this branch who play the piano so I will not be IT like I was in the Bintulu 2nd Branch. I am happy to share my 'talent' but I don't want them to rely on me if there are others who can play.

This branch is quite different from Bintulu. The people here are from the following ethnic groups: Chinese, Malay, Rungus, Murud, Kadazan, Dusun, and Kadazandusun, Filipino and maybe others. Only one branch in the whole city. Many speak English but meetings are conducted in Malay. However, they have interpreters for English and Chinese. It was nice to understand the sacrament meeting talks. I met a woman my age, Sister Helen, who lost her husband last spring. She has 9 children and 19 grandchildren so we had lots to talk about. She will be going to the temple in less than 2 weeks for the first time. Several of her children are going with her.

We are going to try to do without renting a car here in Kota Kinabalu where they are more expensive. So far we have been using 'teksi' which isn't too costly. It saves Bill the stress of driving in city traffic, trying to find a location with my directions, and then trying to find a place to park. We have a good map of the city and are becoming familiar with it. We have had some setting up to do here with getting phone and internet, changing our bank and shopping to get a few things for our home.

Wow, it is Friday already and I see that this has not been published so I will do it now. Guess those photos will have to be on the next one.

Kota Kinabalu here we Kome

We spent most of last week in Kota Kinabalu finding a place to live. Most of what we looked at were condos and we saw some beautiful ones and some very shabby ones. One in particular was really nice---so nice that we felt that we would be embarrassed to have President and Sister Clark visit us there in that fancy place. We even had the price down to our budget because the landlord knew we are Christian missionaries helping the people of Malaysia. So we 'settled' on something different, closer to the church, and even less in price---only 2600 ringget a month. (That works out to be about 836 US dollars.) It is a condo, on the 14th floor, 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, and all we need. It will be interesting to live in a condo and especially for me, it will be strange to live on the 14th floor.

The air has cleared of smoke after 3 days of rain. When we got off our plane in Bintulu on Friday afternoon it was pouring. They just handed us an umbrella as we got off the plane and we walked through the downpour to the terminal. Of course, we were wet by the time we got inside but we dry off quickly.

Somehow this didn't get published to our blog last week---we must have gotten busy so I will do it now. Photos later.

We told our branch members yesterday that we were being transferred. Not a few of us shed some tears. One of my piano students, Joe, sang a song to us("I'll Miss You") after our temple prep class last night. It was very sweet, especially coming from Joe.

Our branch is growing stronger all the time. There were 95 people at sacrament meeting yesterday. Our elders are working hard with members who have not been out for a while as well as with their investigators. We make visits in the evenings with them so they can translate for us. We find that many of them understand English to hear it spoken but they are hesitant to speak it. Some will if they really want to tell us something. Somehow we make ourselves understood and we understand them as we speak heart to heart, spirit to spirit.

DOG DAYS OF SUMMER

Even the people who live here are saying it is hot. Funny, we just think it feels hot all the time---no different for us. We also have quite a bit of smoke in the air still. We did have a shower last week but it didn't help much.

Wednesday evening we went up to the branch to go on visits with the elders and as we approached the kampong there was smoke billowing out of the area. I thought there must have been a house fire which would tear through the whole kampong since they are all built from wood and there is no fire-fighting service for them. It turns out they were 'smoking' out the mosquitoes. (They have a lot of standing water in the kampongs.) It seems there is quite a bit of chikungunya which is a mosquito-borne virus. It is similar to dengue fever with fever, rash, headache, etc. but with the added benefit of aching joints that can persist for years and even become disabling. Oh, Great! Just what we need is another ache. We actually haven't seen more than a few mosquitoes the whole time we've been here because there is usually a light breeze off the South China Sea that takes care of such. We do see insects here and they are huge! There is a fly-type insect that is as large as a small bird, huge grasshoppers, and other crawling things. I saw my first jumping spider the other day---killed him fast.

So with the smoke and the heat we are staying in more than normal. That is OK because we are organizing this upcoming transfer to Kota Kinabalu in Sabah. We have learned that President Clark is moving another senior couple in here to replace us. That makes us feel better about leaving our branch to know they will have another couple here. They still need quite a bit of help with leadership. Sister Alexandra doesn't like to have a RS presidency meeting unless I can be there. She does just fine but wants me there.

Bill here:
We just looked over LL and Christine's blog. It sure was fun to see the Billy Video's. Also was neat to see pics of all the kids. Also saw our place in the background. That's fun too..makes me miss home and the tractor and .....oh OK enough about that. Stay focused Bill.
Yep we are moving to KK...Kota Kinabalu in the north end of Borneo in the state of Sabah. It is very much a tourist destination. The waters are beautiful...just like the Caribbean. Lots of tourist and many Sea Kampongs..that is where they build their plywood shacks on stilts over the water. We will undoubtedly be visiting many members in those places very soon.

RESIDENTS OF AN ORPHANAGE
HELPED BY LDSC

STAFF AND RESIDENTS OF THE ORPHANGE

It is hard for us to think about leaving the members here. We are so connected with them in such a short time. We want them to succeed so bad. It is hard to leave but then we will do the same thing where we are going.

PLAYGROUND SET DONATED BY LDSC

We have a closing this week for the Salvation army orphanage, We donated a playground set and a first aid station.These kids have been abandoned by their parents. One little boy was rescued from the garbage dumps. We also finished up the Wheelchairs for Bintulua and Kuching and Miri.

We have been working all week on putting together a vision project and also a water project. These are major initiatives and take allot of paper work and communication with Hong Kong and Slat Lake and the specialist in other states in America. So it is allot of coordinating and emailing. We spend enormous amounts of time at the desk.

Tuesday we leave for KK to check out some apartments to rent. Hopefully we will decide on one and a moving date this next week. So all of you that are anxiously awaiting our new address so you can send all those packages we are almost ready!! :)

THE BARB AND JANET OF HUMANA SCHOOLS....
ANY RESEMBLANCE IS PURELY ACCIDENTAL

Short post this time. Sorry but we are just busy with stuff that probably would not be too interesting right now. Soon we will have more interesting stuff to write about.

Summertime and the livin' is easy

JIMMY AND MIMI AND DAUGHTER

This is one of the strong families of our unit. His name is Jimmie and hers is Mini. Alaina is the daughter and the son not shown is Baxter. They have been married 6 years, he is 24 and she is 25. He is a taxi driver like his dad. He and she hold the branch together.

Another week has gone by and life in Bintulu is still good. We celebrated Sabrina's birthday last week and Curtis' birthday this week. We are definitely in the dry season here---no rain for several weeks other than enough to smear the dust on the windshield. And it is dusty here. How can that be in a jungle climate? This must be the season for burning to clear land because that is also happening. So we have smoke and dust and red sun rises. Every few days I have to hose off the tile around our house so the dirt isn't tracked inside.

WHEELCHAIR HANDOVER TO A ROTARY CLUB IN MIRI

Last Wednesday we drove to Miri---200 km north of Bintulu. We have driven there before but on an older and more traveled road which was torturous because of bumps, curves, and pot holes. It took about 3 + hours to drive. So this time we found out about a newer road along the coast and we took that. It is newer, smoother, and much less traffic. There were long straight stretches for passing the occasional palm oil truck or slow car. However, we were warned to not drive it at night and if we had to drive it at night to not stop for anything because it is remote and highway robbers use it to advantage.

SISTER PETTY, BILL, ELLEN, SISTER LIM

SISTER PETTY AND SISTER LIM

In Miri we had another handover of wheel chairs to a Rotary Club. They had a nice luncheon, wheel chair recipients and the press. Bill does a nice presentation, we listen to speeches, eat lunch, shake a lot of hands, and meet people. One of the recipients was a severely physically and mentally handicapped 17 year old boy whose mother has cared for him all his life as well as his 5 younger brothers. This was his first wheel chair---his mother has carried him prior to this time.

Last week we had zone conference here. Our zone is North Sarawak and includes Bintulu and Miri to the north. The missionaries from Miri came down on buses last Wednesday evening and we got home (from Miri) in time to meet the bus of the 2 sister missionaries who stay with us. They are so fun. One was from Bountiful, Utah; Sister Petty, and she was in the MTC when we were. She was there much longer than we were---2 months. The other sister is from Kuching, a cute little Chinese girl, the only member in her family, Sister Lim. We had a good zone conference with our new Mission President and Sister Clark. They arrived here the first of July and hit the ground running. The first thing, while they still had jet lag, was a blitz tour of the whole mission and soon after that they started their zone conferences with East Malaysia.

The heat continues to be high as well as the humidity. We just visited a market where we picked up a black melon, a papaya, and a bunch of bananas. Fruit for the week? It won't last that long. We eat a lot of fruit.

Bill Here:

We got a parking ticket for parking in a no parking zone. How did anyone including the police know it was no parking...it is not marked one way or the other. Of course one can be parked 3 deep...yep not just double parked, that's old stuff...but tripple parked and not get a ticket. But park in a place they don't want you to they will let you know by giving a ticket. Ok. No prob just pay the thing right? Well first of all you have to find the police station...no it is not just the one you see all the time and no it is not the next one they send you to, it is the next one and they don't want the money yet...no you can't mail it to them ...yep ...you got it ...come back next week and maybe they will have a "line"....but you call first. Oh well it is Malaysia.

Oh here is a pic for you. Where are the stairs going?  This is on the way into the men's stalls at our church. We thought Lynn would like this one. Just build around it. Maybe some day they will use the stairs again.

We are home all week!! Yea. We will get caught up and stuff orgainzed. Hopefully soon we can start putting together some water and vision iniatives. We are still gathering info and may need to do some more travel yet.

ONE OF THE BENEFICIARIES OF A WHEEL CHAIR WAS A 

6 YEAR OLD LAD WHOSE PARENTS HAD CARRIED HIM

ALL HIS LIFE.  WHAT A RELIEF

FOR ALL OF THEM!