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.