EPILOGUE

OUR LAST TIME IN SINGAPORE

We are home---back in the United States.  When we got to the Seattle airport we were very lost as we usually fly out of Portland Oregon and the airports are quite different. We claimed our bags in one place and then checked them in again only to pick  them up at another place. As we moved up the escalator wondering where to get our bags we got to the top we heard alot of screaming and there was most of our family. What a nice surprise and how wonderful to finally be with them again. We found our bags and got in our car with Jason driving and headed out into traffic of course on the improper side of the road. It was very unnerving for me as I had been driving on the 'proper' side for so long. I am still needing to concentrate when entering a parking lot, "stay right, stay right."

SEATTLE AIRPORT

SOME OF OUR FAMILY AT SEATTLE AIRPORT

We were welcomed home by all of our family. Our two daughters and their entire families from Utah came up for the week. Everyone helped get our place ready for us. They worked hard and spent their own money stocking our refer and cupboards with good food, some of which we had not seen for the last 18 months.

JOSHUA & TANNER & JADEN PLAYING

ALEX LEARNING TO DRIVE GRANDPA'S TRACTOR

We had pretty good weather and enjoyed being outside and having fun together for a few days. It was everything and every feeling we imagined it would be all the time we were gone. We missed our ward's church that next Sunday as we were on our way to a funeral. We were to speak but were preempted by the changing of the Bishop and his counselors and of course our need to go to the funeral.  It was good to be able to finally go to our ward after a couple of weeks and we were warmly received by all. We have very good friends there and missed all of them very much. The first week we were home and after our family left we were without a schedule of visiting and appointments and meetings. So we called a few of the members up and took our pictures and talked about our mission with them. We would be happy to continue doing that and are waiting for invitations.

KEITH & PATTY'S WELCOME HOME PARTY FOR US

 It has been almost 2 months now since we arrived home. I have cut the grass way more than it needed. We have slowly moved things out of the storage room into the home. We went to Aunt Evelyn's funeral the first weekend we were home and to a wedding the next weekend and helped Jason move into their new home in Vancouver the next week. We had less than two weeks to finish getting settled and we moved Ellen's mom in with us. We have spoken in our ward and gave a presentation in Longview Second ward and gave a fireside in our ward.

CASTLE ROCK FIRESIDE

We miss our mission and the wonderful people. I really feel that some of them are the lucky ones to not have so much to distract them from relationships which are what is really important anyway.  They live beyond what we would think of as a simple life. It is the most basic life anyone could imagine and then some. As a result, what they have is each other and the gospel, the most important things. Consequently they care for each other and the gospel and give their time and energy to each other and the church. We hope that as we move forward in this life that we can reduce our distractions and focus our energies on relationships and the gospel. We know from our limited experiences in this life so far that when we have been the happiest and have felt the most real joy it was from being centered on these critical elements.

SOME OF THE KK MEMBERS & MISSIONARIES SEEING US OFF

Friends in KK at the airport

Many have asked us if we will go again. Our answer is this: We plan on keeping ourselves worthy and physically able to go when the Lord calls. We want to stay focused on the essentials and reduce our distractions which is not easy. There is such a short window of opportunity for seniors to serve and we hope that we can stay in that window of time for as long as the Lord needs us.

Sunset from Tanjung Aru

I bear my testimony that the Lord Jesus Christ lives and has a plan for our true happiness. I have found that as I turn my life over to him and his direction that he does a far better job with my life than I could ever do myself. I am so thankful that we were able to serve. I am thankful that we are both healthy and worthy. We have been blessed beyond any sacrifice that we may have felt we were making at the time. Our families were also blessed and we grew closer to them and our relationship bonds are stronger because of our service in Malaysia. We love those people. We learned so much about dedication, respect, sharing and sacrifice. There is not a single experience in our lives that can or will substitute for what we have just experienced as missionaries in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

WHERE TO NEXT??

Thanks for sharing part of this time with us. Please include us in your correspondence or journals or blogs if you ever take off on a journey such as we did.

May the Lord Bless you and your families.

Love from

Bill & Ellen

Our friends in Kota Kinabalu Branch

Home again, home again, jiggity jig.

Sisters Audrey and Kate with us at the KK airport as we are leaving

ELDER DAVIS & CICIE

 It is nice to be home.  Everything looks so big to me.  My kitchen countertops are so high!  Our car is so big!  Our tap water is so cold!  All is well here.  Jason and Christine took such good care of our home.  They are preparing to move and have been very busy with that and getting their 3 oldest started in school an hour's drive away.   They were thoughtful enough to leave some yard work for us.  It will be good to do that.  We are having really nice warm weather so if that lasts the work will be done.

AT THE KOTA KINABALU AIRPORT

DAVID, PRES LING, Ellen & Bill, PRES FAUSTO AND BRO. CHUAH

FAMILY AT THE SEATTLE AIRPORT

 It does seem like a dream that we were in Malaysia just a short time ago.  It was so hard to leave our friends there.  But it is nice to be with our children and grand-children here now.  All our kids except for Matthew who was sick with pneumonia, met us at the airport in Seattle.  It was sure exciting to see them all waving and cheering.  A lot of other people around us had big grins on their faces, too.

JASON, LYNN, & DAD AT LAURALEE'S HOME

OUR RIDE HOME AS WE LEAVE SINGAPORE

FAMILY PARTY AT KEITH AND PATTY'S HOME

 The evening after we got home we received a phone call letting us know that my Aunt Evelyn had passed away.  She was 88 years old and beloved by all our family.  We were able to go to her funeral on Monday the 27th, driving all day to Idaho Falls, Idaho, to be there in time.  It was good to see all my cousins and extended family.  It was a quick trip and we were home Tuesday afternoon. 

.

PLAYING GIANT CROQUET

EATING PIZZA ALL TOGETHER

Our two daughters who live in Utah, came with their families to be with us.  What a fun reunion.  And then later in the week we were ALL together when Matt and Heidi came.  Must be what it will be like when we die and greet all our family.

AT LAURALEE'S HOME

AT KEITH AND PATTY'S HOME

WATCHING THE KIDS PLAY AT KEITH & PATTY'S HOME

We are also preparing for my almost-92-year-old mother to live with us again.  She is much more fragile and much less independent that she was 18 months ago.  I will have to have some help with her care.

Bill Here

We are home and at times we are still in culture shock. Sometimes it feels like we never left. Other times we can close our eyes and be in KK with our good friends for a minute. We have memories and stories that only we will really understand and feel and remember and unfortunately they are amongst the best. We feel that we have a much larger family now and we will be with them again some day.

Leaving Malaysia

SOUVENIRS FROM THE BRANCH

WE WERE FED NOODLES DURING THE BREAK BETWEEN MEETINGS...WRAPPED IN PLASTIC

It has been a whirlwind week of preparing to leave and preparing things for the next couple to take over smoothly.  We had our usual visits and meetings for part of the week.  I have been cleaning the apartment and packing.  We finally decided we would have to have one additional suitcase so purchased a cheap one hoping it holds together for the trip.  Thursday evening our branch had a 'farewell' party for us which was very well attended and fun.  We started with a program which was singing, dancing and testimonies.  Then lots of food and the whole thing ended with fireworks.

PARTICIPATING IN A TRADITIONAL DANCE

Dancing with the branch members

The party was also for Kelven who would leave in the morning to serve his mission even though the place was changed from London, England to Singapore because he couldn't get a visa to UK.  So he was set apart after the party and caught an early morning flight to Manila to the MTC.

Friday was our last wheelchair handover to Cheshire Homes here in KK.  The VIP was the Minister of Community Development and Consumer Affairs.  We have met her before.  She praised LDS Charities very highly and admonished others to be so generous.  News articles praised LDSC and also mentioned that we would be returning to our home in UK this next week.  We always give out a 'press release' so the press will have the facts but sometimes it just doesn't matter.

After the handover, we caught the last couple of hours of zone conference, and then a baptism that evening.  Saturday afternoon was district auxiliary training which I was involved with and district conference evening meeting and continued on today.  Our KK branch choir sang "If You Could Hie To Kolob" a capella and without even getting a pitch to begin. Elder Subandryo from Jakarta, our visiting area authority, said it sounded like angels singing.  He is very kind.

KK CHOIR PRACTICING..."If You Could Hie To Kolob" WHICH IS ONE OF BILL'S FAVORITE HYMNS

There were many members who made the long (12 to 16 hours) bus trip from Tawau and not quite so long (8 hours) trip from Sandakan.  I am grateful that we were able to fly to those places doing our work.  The members from out of town stay in hostels and are fed at the church between meetings; noodles and rice.

ELLEN'S TESTIMONY with SISTER MARY ANN TRANSLATING

BILL'S TESTIMONY

HARUN AND FAMILY and a few others

JULIET AND OCELIZA AND THEIR KIDS

SISTERS ZAFAR AND HOWARD

SISTER JULIET AND CHILDREN

So we fly tomorrow.  The reality has not yet hit us.  Perhaps somewhere over the Pacific it will occur to us that we will, in all likelihood, never see our friends in Malaysia again. At the farewell party we knew we would see our friends again on Sunday.  Today we know we will see many tomorrow at the airport before we leave. 

Bill Here: It has hit me at times. It is so hard to even think about leaving. We certainly have missed home and wanted badly to be there especially when we were needed by family or friends. But we have never really wanted it to be over. And now it is. We sit here this evening writing this blog with nothing on our calendar for us to do with the responsibilities we have had for 18 months.

ALICE...BEEN A MEMBER ONLY ONE YEAR
RS SEC AND ALWAYS THERE WITH HER THREE KIDS...ALWAYS BY BUS

OLDEST MEMBER, SISTER ERNI,
 SINGING A TRADITIONAL FAREWELL SONG TO US

We are being taken to dinner this evening by the IPP (immediate past president) of one of the Rotary clubs here that was our main contact and only contact when we first came to KK. That will really help for us to get out and have something to do tonight instead of waiting around for bed time trying not to think about leaving. We will certainly leave a part of our heart here. It is hard to describe our feelings. Our children who all served know something of what we are feeling but again they did not stay in one spot like we have. It is different. We have had the time of our life here. We have enough stories to last the rest of our lives. Every day has been a story. We have only shared a minuscule portion of our experience here and somehow none of it  really tells the whole story.

We leave this apartment that has been our home for 13 months at 9:30 am. We will fly out at noon Monday and be in Singapore around 2:30 pm. We then will spend the night there and hopefully fly out to Taipae at 1pm. However we just heard on the news that a typhoon had hit there today. Oh well we will get home eventually.

We will post again when we return to the US with pictures from that side of the world. But this is our last post from "THE LAND BELOW THE WIND."

JUMPA LAGI

LAST WEEK IN KOTA KINABALU

How can it be that the time has passed so quickly?  It seems like we just got here.  And it seems like we have been here forever!
Bill and I both spoke in Sacrament Meeting Sunday.  Kind of our farewell talk.  We tried not to preach but rather let them know how much we love them and how good they are.  They ARE good.
We will never forget their kindness, beautiful smiles, testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ, willingness to do what they can to build the Kingdom of God here in Kota Kinabalu.

CICIE, 21 YR OLD, ALWAYS WITH THE SISTER MISSIONARIES...VERY FUN GIRL

As we make visits to our friends here this week and say good-bye it is a little sad but we will see them in the next life.

SEBASTION'S FAMILY...WE OCCUPY THE
ENTIRE WIDTH OF THEIR LIVING ROOM

GARY AND HIS BROTHER'S FAMILY...WE HAVE VISITED HERE MANY TIMES

Last night we visited David Chong's family for FHE with the elders and sisters.  David's parents put on quite a spread for us---Chinese food as they are very Chinese.  I am using up my 'pantry' so took some 'homemade' macaroni and cheese as David LOVES cheese.

JACK FRUIT, YUM :Q

SIS DAVIS TRIES JUST ABOUT ANYTHING ONCE

After the lesson on 'not getting distracted from the important things' Brother Chong brought out dessert which is always fresh fruit.  We had ramubtan which is a red hairy fruit, lonset, and jackfruit.  We have seen jackfruit before but never had the opportunity to try it.  First of all, it STINKS. And it is served by breaking it open and we take a section.  It looks like the insides of 'something' and the texture is slimy and stringy.  Not that good.  I tried a piece since it is such a delicacy here.  I won't need to do that ever again in this life. It is sort of like their 'king of fruit' the durian.  We can't figure out why anyone would actually eat that when there are so many really good fruits here.

We had such a good time with them---just talking, playing ring-on-a-string, and taking photos.  Elder Leavitt fell in a mud puddle on their way from the bus stop.  Adrian got so excited playing the game and started to laugh and he laughs really funny so the rest of us were laughing too.  Before we left we took photos.  There were about 6 cameras set up---on timers---and then all the flashes go off, one at a time.  Which camera do we look at?  I'm sure we got some funny photos.

ADRIAN CENTER, DAVID Chong FAR LEFT
AND THAT IS DAVID'S LITTLE SISTER, MONICA WAVING

CAMERAS ALL ON COUNT DOWN.....FUNNY TO WATCH THEM GO OFF...ONE AFTER THE OTHER

Yesterday we started to pack up for our trip home.  It looks like we have lived here for a long time.  We are encumbered with so much stuff.  I think we will be sending a couple of boxes by slow boat.  We know that the last we sent have arrived safely so will do it again.  It only takes about 10 weeks depending on how soon the boat leaves after we take it to the post office.

A few weeks ago at church, several people asked us to sign their 'BR'.  And did we have a 'BR' for them to sign?  We didn't know what a 'BR' is so found out that it is a Book of Remembrance and many people in the branch have them.  They are for writing a short note and enclosing a photo to the owner.  So we got our 'BR' and it is making the rounds in the branch.

SOME OF THE BR'S WE HAVE TO SIGN...KIND OF LIKE SIGNING HIGH SCHOOL ANNUALS

We have district conference coming up this weekend.  I have been asked to help with the auxiliary training on Saturday afternoon so am preparing for that.  The theme is 'supporting the family'.  Anna gave me some good stuff to use.  Thanks, Anna.

Bill Here,

Quickly running out of time. The welfare work and branch  stuff keeps on spinning along and both need our attention every day. It will feel as though we are just quitting next Monday when we fly over KK on the way home. But our replacements are now being trained starting today.  at the MTC.  They will arrive 9 days after we leave so that feels very good. They will fly out of SLC heading for here the day we are speaking of our mission in church, the 26th.

Our talks on Sunday were both given without the need for kleenex. However the closing hymn was "God Be WIth You Till We Meet Again" and neither of us could sing a verse. We were looking at the congregation and they were looking at us. Needless to say there wasn't much volume in the singing.

There is a farewell party for us Thursday. They do this for all outgoing missionaries that have spent considerable time here. Do any of you remember any such thing being done in your home wards in the US? There is quite a connection here with the members and the missionaries.

We will try to post once more just before we leave.




More next week---maybe. . . .

BEACH PARTY & BIRTHDAY PARTY

ELDERS PLAYING TWISTER WITH CHARLIE bin HARUN

BROTHER HARUN'S 55TH BIRTHDAY (is that an
elder without his tie?  It was very warm!)

HARUN FAMILY AND ELDERS
We sure do love this family

A busy week for us.  We think we have our transition document finished and then we think of more to add to it.  It is becoming quite long.   Much of it is the 14 projects we have completed and people they need to know to contact.  We surely don't want to tell them 'everything' because we want them to see Malaysia through their eyes and not ours.

On Monday we were invited to FHE/a birthday party for Brother Harun at his home.  He and his wife, Kolinting, have 7 children, all adults except Caroline who is still schooling.  Two are married and all but one married son live in the home so there are 11 people living in a 3 bedroom/1 bathroom apartment.  The two elders joined us so you can imagine it was a houseful.  We had a nice lesson and then Bill and I were in charge of the game.  We had Bro. Harun open his birthday gift from us which was a game of TWISTER.  We barely had room for the mat on the floor but they had a great time playing it---4 at a time.  I had to practically stand on a bed to get the photos.

ADRIAN...PALM TREE CLIMBER

KK BRANCH ACTIVITIES ALWAYS START WITH A SPIRITUAL THOUGHT
 BILL WITH DAVID CHONG, THE TRANSLATOR

 RELAXING UNDER THE PALM TREES

LOOKING SOUTH DOWN THE COAST FROM KK

Tuesday (August 31) was Malaysia's independence day---53 years of independence from UK.  Our branch celebrated with a picnic at the beach.  It started at 9 AM with games; then we ate, visited and played in the warm water of the South China Sea.  It was a barbeque---chicken wings and hot dogs---and potluck so I took my largest soup pot full of spaghetti.  They LOVE pasta.  I let it be known that I really like sea shells and several of the young people were out there digging shells for me.  Got a few really pretty ones, too.

AUDREY, ELLEN BILL, KATE, ERVINA, KOLINTING, JOHNNY,
AND ASSORTED BABIES

YW 7-LEGGED RACE

CICIE AND ELDER DAVIS

ELLEN, HELEN LIEW, CHRISITNE, MARY LIEW

On Wednesday we had a skype call from the Larsons in North Carolina who are replacing us as the  country directors in East Malaysia.  They go into the MTC on the 13th and will arrive here in KK on the 30th, 10 days after we leave, so we are trying to answer any questions they have over the phone or with email.

KATE
ISN'T SHE CUTE?

Thursday was lunch with our good friend, Kate Chin.  She is such a good friend.  If we have questions about anything we ask Kate and she can help us.  Thursday evening we went to visit Brother Brandon and his family.  He had a very severe stroke about 3 years ago which left him in a coma for about a week and then with left side weakness.  He is about 35 years old and has 2 children.  We have been working with him to help him make connections with government or otherwise agencies to get some training so that he can support his family as he has not been able to resume his career as a painter.  We helped him connect with Cheshire Homes which has a new training facility here in KK to train people to be 1) bakers and 2) small business owners using that skill as a baker.  Brandon is going to begin their training this month.  YEAH!

ICE CREAM MAN....IT WAS AT LEAST 85 DEGREES
 AND HE WAS COLD??

TUG OF WAR...A TRADITION FOR KK
WOMEN AGAINST THE MEN

GAMES ON THE BEACH

MEMBERS WERE QUITE ASTONISHED TO SEE US NOT IN OUR MISSIONARY CLOTHING

On Friday evening we picked up the sister missionaries out at Kampung Baru (New Village) which is a quite a poor neighborhood and from there we went to visit 2 families where at each we taught FHE.  We teach them to have a song, prayer, lesson, game, closing prayer and treats.  Simple.  We didn't finish up until about 10 PM, took the sisters home and then got home almost at 11 PM, way past our curfew time.  We won't let President Clark know about that, except we know he sometimes reads our blog.

Saturday was a very busy day.  I baked bread and a chocolate cake for the afternoon RS activity which is Sister Kate's first RS activity.  She is making an effort to help the sisters feel more united and doing that by getting each sister to make an embroidered quilt block which will be joined together to make a nice tablecloth for the RS room.  She is so good.  We had a really good number of YW and sisters come and I taught them some basic embroidery stitches.  That evening we attended the baptism of Norina and Ricky.  The elders came early to fill the font and the water, as usual, came in looking like strong tea.  No worries, we are used to that.  It is no worse than rivers that people have been baptized in.

And then, today, fast and testimony meeting at which both of us shared our testimonies, as normal, only this time it is probably the last.  We have been asked to speak in Sacrament meeting next week so it isn't the last they will hear from us.  I taught the 3rd lesson in the Temple Prep Seminar and then Bill taught a combined RS and Priesthood meeting on improving communication skills.
After the block, I was supposed to help with a choir practice but got pulled into a counseling session with a mom and 17 year old daughter who are needing a little help.  I did get in on the last 5 minutes of choir practice.  Good thing we have another practice before our district meeting so I don't mess up the song too bad.  Our chorister is President Fausto (counselor to our district president) who is the cutest man.  He is from the Philippines, about 5'2", and I can't figure out why he is still single.  He has the nicest smile and he is really fun.  I know he is looking for a wife and I am on the lookout for him.  We have a good number of single young women in our branch.

I will let Bill finish this up and add the photos.

The counseling session was hard but keeps me in practice. The young lady member is seriously dating a non-Christian and if they marry she will automatically also become non-Christian according to the law. The law also states that no Christian church can legally have that sect in its congregation and if that happens the Christian leaders could be jailed. Furthermore, once that sect always and permanently so. You can then see the counseling challenge.

It is getting harder to think about leaving as the time grows so short and the finality of it all becomes so real. We have only two weeks left and we are starting to miss the branch members already. Ellen was teary eyed during her last testimony here and it rubbed off on me. It is impossible to describe how loving these great people are. We feel like they are our family and we will probably not see them again in this life time. No more as it is hard to even write about it.

We have just a few empty days left, most days we have scheduled pretty tight for us. We will use those few to pack up and take care of details.

Our branch has had about 30 baptisms so far this year and many of them still keep coming and some of them are already serving in the branch and are bringing their friends and family to join. We have to uninvite some specific people in light of what I have already mentioned above. Kind of sad.