Have I Done Any Good in the World Today?

..are we too busy in the thick of thin things....

We have not traveled this week so we have had some opportunities to visit people in our branch and also we were able to have friends to our FHE again.

FISHERWOMAN NEAR KOTA BELUD

RAISED STRUCTURES FOR STORING RICE

FISHERWOMAN NEAR KOTA BELUD

ELLEN AND KATE NEAR KOTA BELUD

We visited a rural farming area Saturday. These people are very poor. This woman is fishing in a flood control ditch for little fish about 2 inches long. Where they grow rice.  This is in the area of Kota Belud.  We also spent some time out on the beach and ended the day watching the sun set and the moon rise at just about the same time.

KOTA KINABALU BRANCH

17 JANUARY 2010

This is the photo of most of our branch in front of our chapel.  (By the way, there is a nice photo of our chapel on google earth.) That is our district president sitting in front with the kids.  

IAN AND JUNEFFER

Monday evening we invited a nice young family to join us for Family Home Evening.  They are Ian and Juneffer and their children Whitney, Billary, and Hyrum (baby).  She is the RS president and he is first counselor to our branch president.  They are so young.  Ian is only 22 years old.  They have very strong testimonies of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Sorry about my reflection in the window---I was trying to get the kids to look at the camera.

  

SIS AUDREY AND SONS

Sis Audrey shared her conversion story with us. She said that while she was in college she was looking for something more than her church offered. One night she had prayed fervently that the Lord would show her the light. Within a few days the missionaries knocked on her door. Within a few weeks she was seriously considering baptism. She was concerned about how her parents felt about the church. The missionaries quoted a scripture to her from the D&C that gave her comfort regarding her family and she joined the church and has been active ever since. After our visit in which we cleared up a misunderstanding she is now considering asking her husband for permission to have their oldest son baptized.

We really like to visit the members of the branch.  That is such a good way to get to know them.  We can only go if there is another member to go with us because we don't know where people live and the taxi driver wouldn't be able to find them.  

Speaking of taxi drivers, we had a really interesting experience last week with ours.  We took our regular taxi to visit a sister who lives quite a distance from town.  We told Chong that we would be about an hour and so he decided to just wait for us while we visited.  So we arrived at Sister Lisa's home, took off our shoes and went in.  Chong followed us, took off his shoes and came in and sat down.  We had to tell him that we were going to be talking about some private things.  "Oh, OK.  I'll wait outside."  We really chuckled about that.  He is quite unsophisticated.  

Elder and Sister Douglas, the other senior couple here in Kota Kinabalu, are getting ready to go home in a few weeks and are handing over some of their responsibilities to us.  We will not be able to 'fill their shoes' because of our other responsibilities with humanitarian work but we will try to take up the slack.  We will miss them as will the branch members.
  

LOUNGE SINGER AT A SUNSET BAR

Funny story:  We recently heard a 'lounge singer' singing tunes from our younger days and he was pretty good with a good voice range.  He accompanied himself with guitar and harmonica.  But I just had to giggle when he sang a Neil Diamond song, "Sweet Carorine".  He just couldn't get those 'l' sounds.  He took some requests and also sang "Micherre" and "The Sroup John B" for Bill.  

Today I discovered a keyboard boxed up in the church library so I 'checked' it out.  I haven't had a way to practice since we have been here in KK but I continue to play for RS and also for baptisms.  It was nice to be able to practice a little.  Now maybe I won't make so many mistakes.

We will spend next week in Mukah. We fly to Miri and then fly a small 18 seater up into the jungle mountain area. It is only accessible by boat or air. We hope to find a way to better establish our presence there. We have a small group that meets regularly and is growing rapidly. But when they found a place to rent and they found out they were Christian the offer was withdrawn. So we hope to involve the group there in a nice humanitarian project so the community will see what we stand for.

Thanks so much for your nice notes. We look forward to getting those.

KUCHING KICK-OFF

HUMANA STUDENTS GETTING FRESH CLEAN WATER

HUMANA CLASS ROOM

A WARM WELCOME AND DANCE

AT ONE OF THE HUMANA SCHOOLS

  Well, I see that it has been some time since I posted.  We have had to make our blog private recently.  There is quite a little stir here in Malaysia over the use of the word 'Allah' which some Muslims claim exclusive rights to use.  Because of that there are some who are feeling threatened by Christians here in Malaysia.  We are keeping our heads down, under the radar.

A NEW HUAMANA TOILET

(WHY DO WE HAVE SO MANY 

PHOTOS OF 

TOILETS?)

 We have been traveling for two weeks to various places overseeing our water projects.  We spent my 62nd birthday in one of my favorite places, Lahad Datu.  It isn't really so bad; maybe I am getting used to it.  We love visiting the Humana schools over there and the first 4 have their clean water projects nearly complete.  Just a few things the contractor has to do and they will be done.  Then they will start 4 more.  We also spent 2 days in Sandakan, up on the Sulu Sea.  We visited more Humana schools that had potential need for clean water.  Some had REAL need and some needed new faucets so they could turn their water OFF.   I think that on our second day of driving for hours on rough roads we both felt tired of seeing palm oil plantations.  And we just couldn't make our driver, Pepe, who is also a Humana school supervisor for that area,  understand that we wanted to help schools that don't have water or sanitation.  To give you an idea of how far apart the schools are, it took us from 9 AM to 4 PM to visit 3 schools.   Ususally when we are going to be gone all day like that we take food from town for lunch---food that we know is cleanly prepared like KFC.  But Pepe assured us that we could eat at the plantation canteen where he eats when he is in the area.  Big mistake!  The place was not clean and either was the cook.  We both ate it and washed it down with a Coke which is all they had.  And Bill is just now feeling better.   After 3 days I started him on antibiotics.  Nothing else was working and we had to keep going.  

CURRENT TOILET 

ELLEN AT A TEA HOUSE AT THE HOME

OF AGNES KEITH IN SANDAKAN

    Sandakan is an interesting place to visit.  It is a small town on the northwest coast of the tip of the island.  For those of you who have a map of Sabah, it is the 'dog's eye' (Sabah is shaped like a dog's head).  It was the home of the British Forest Conservator until about 1953.  It was occupied and then destroyed by the Japanese during WWII.  Sandakan was the home of Agnes Newton Keith, the author of "Land Below the Wind" which I enjoyed reading several months ago.  She and husband and young son were POWs of the Japanese.  There is a big war memorial to the Australian POW's who died on a death march from there.  We were able to visit Agnes Keith's home and had 'high tea' at a English Tea house nearby. 

MORMON HELPING HANDS AT BEGU

 

SADIR

   This last Friday we flew to Kuching on the south end of East Malaysia for a clean water project 'kick-off'.  This is to provide new pipe and better intake for 2 kampungs that are both snugged up to the Indonesian border in the mountains.  It is so beautiful up there.  Both projects  will help about 1,200 people and the people who live in the kampungs will do the work themselves with supervision from the department of health.  We are partnering with a Rotary Club in Kuching.  

CUTTING THE RIBBON WITH YB ROLAND & ROTARY& BANK

    About a month ago, after we had the project approved and on it's way, we met with the LDS leaders of the 3 branches and district there and they wanted to help with the project.  There is certainly a need for that as the materials have to be transported from the end of the road to the water source which is up the mountain about 2 miles for one kampung and about 1.5 miles for the other.  So Saturday morning when we got there with our 'Helping Hands' vests there were almost 60 members waiting to go help.  We had the vans ready so off we went.  It is about one hour to drive there and the last half is over very rough one lane tracks.  Some of the vans couldn't make it without unloading the passengers because the road was so steep.  We were very grateful that the track was dry.  We are in the rainy season and it rains every afternoon or evening. 

BEING WELCOMED TO THE KAMPUNG

 

TRADITIONAL DANCE WELCOMING US INTO THE KAMPUNG
THEY ESCORTED US ABOUT 50 YARDS 
DANCING ON EITHER SIDE OF US

At each kampung we were welcomed with their gracious and gentle ways.  They like speeches so that is always a part of these affairs.  And they fed us.  That was very unexpected but indicates their gratitude for the help we are giving them.  Then the LDS went to work.  Those huge rolls of HVC pipe dissappeared up the trail being carried by 6 or 7 people.  Then at the other kampung the pipe was in lengths but up the trail and across the creeks it went.  The gratitude was so evident on their faces.  These are Bidayuh (which means 'walking by foot path') people who are quite poor.  They have small farms in the mountains and sell their surplus for cash.  They grow rice but not in paddies like we know but have a variety they can grow on the hillsides.   The people are quite small but very strong.  The Rotary Club in Kuching who we are partnering with on this project provided food for the people who are working on the water project. (If they aren't working on their farms, they don't have food to eat.)   They brought boxes of noodles (ramen-type) and biscuits for them.  You will probably see those boxes in the photos.  

MORMON HELPING HANDS 
MOVING THE PIPE UP INTO THE JUNGLE TO THE DAM

TWO MILES FROM THE KAMPUNG

We are not involved in very glamorous work as you can see. However it is very rewarding. We are bringing the gospel closer the the Malaysian people in small schools and villages one at a time. It is sometimes hard  to remember how this will all turn out after many years of this kind of work but we have faith that it will. We are in the trenches. We get tired sometimes and even a little sick. But we are keeping our eye on the ball and remembering that all of our kids already did this and if they can in much harder situations we can and must too. Thanks kids you started a good tradition for our whole family. 

Some day perhaps long after we are gone when our grand children are talking to their children they will be able to say when they hear of the announcement of a temple in Malaysia  that is where your great grandpa and grandma served back at the turn of the century. 

We understand that recently it has been determined that the number of senior couples are down by 40%. I am sure that the economy is a large part of that.

Well we love it and are very busy and know that we are on tip of the plough and are happy to be there even though we feel like lone rangers. This Tuesday will be the first district meeting we will attend in over a month or so. 

We miss you and so look forward to your notes.

Love

Bill & Ellen

Happy New Year

NEW YEAR'S FIREWORKS IN SINGAPORE

    

NEW HOTELS FOR THE CASINO

WHAT'S ON TOP?A SHIP??

WE HAVE 8 MONTHS TO FIND OUT

 Happy New Year.  We were able to be in Singapore for New Year's Eve and Day.  We were able to stay up until midnight which we have not done for years but we wanted to see the fireworks display they had planned to welcome in the new year.  It was pretty fantastic and so many people were out there with us.  Kinda fun. We were there to renew our visas which we have to do every 90 days.  It is always fun to visit the city and civilization but always nice to return home even if we always have a little culture shock returning to East Malaysia.  Last week was also our 'hump' which means our mission is half way over.  It is going so fast.  We so enjoyed the smell of these trees. We were so lucky to be able to go to SIngapore during the holidays. I am sure the hotel paid big bucks for this tree and about 5 others like it that must have come a long ways to be here in the tropics. I have to say that for me it was the best part of the trip  to smell these trees.

ELLEN BY A REAL CHRISTMAS TREE

BOY DID IT SMELL GOOD TO US!!!!

WOMAN SCAVENGING
IN LITTLE INDIA

DOUBLE DECKER BUS TOUR

A CITY OF MANY TREES

MAJOR STORES

FUN PLACE TO SHOP

     This week we have been able to make some visits to member's homes or work places.  One is Sister Margaret who we visit at one of her massage businesses.  She has a very strong testimony and at one time came to church but does not attend any more for various reasons.  We are working with her to try to resolve some of her issues.  Another person we visited is Sister Juliet and her family.  We visit them with the district president who drives us.  She is a strong member and attends meetings regularly but her husband is not a member.  His name is Aw Yong and he is Chinese.  He is very interested in the church but has a tobacco habit that he wants to overcome but needs help.  We gave his name to the elders to work with as they have a 'stop smoking' program that seems to work and they can also teach him in his own language rather than through an interpreter like we do.    


     We started off this week with a long list of jobs we had to do and most of them are checked off.  That is often what we do---make a list and go to work on it.  One of the things we needed to do was make a visit to the blind school and we did that yesterday.  This time when we visited the children were there.      
The school is built in a 'U' shape with offices, classrooms, and dorms and the center is an open area which is covered so they can play protected from sun and rain.


       There was one poor little girl, about 9 years old, who was new this term which started this week, and she was crying for her mother.  She had never been away from home or without her mom.  She is a day student so goes home every afternoon.  I just wanted to give her a hug and reassurance but she doesn't know me or English. That would not have helped. She had one-on-one attention from a staff person.  
    
     In the open area was a music class of about 12 students in which the students were playing angklung, a native string instrument which is played by shaking it to cause a vibration and produce a tone. It is made of 2 or 3 bamboo tubes of specific pitch set in a bamboo frame.  It is used in sets to play music for entertainment similar to playing handbells.  The teacher was also sight impaired so was holding the sheet music about 3 inches from his nose to read it.  It was very interesting to watch. 

STUDENTS AT THE NATIONAL BLIND SCHOOL

IN THEIR MUSIC CLASS

PLAYING TRADITIONAL INSTRUMENTS

In another corner were two students who were using braillers to write answers to the test a teacher was giving them.  They were about 8 or 9 years old and they were fast.  This school is for primary school age children and they will go to a regular school when they are old enough.  We are helping them by providing additional braillers, supplies to teach basket weaving, and lockers for the dorms.  This is one of our small projects or what we call a local initiative.

STUDENTS USING BRAILLERS

These students are learning to use braillers and 'read' what they have written to see if it is correct. We are going to purchase about 10 more braillers for the school. They are very expensive, about 2300 ringetts or about 800 usd each. They are so happy. They will not have to wait to use one and waste so much time of their day. This school has produced Doctors, Lawyers and teachers!! The kids really excel in this school so we are glad to help them excel even more.

We head for Miri tomorrow for a mission conference with the area president. The Wednesday we are back over at Lahad Datu for more work on the water project there and we will celebrate Ellen's Bday there. The next week it is to Sandakan to investigate another water project for 2010. Then the next week to Kuching to help the members of the three branches there start the water project for 2 kampongs there.


We miss all of you and cherish your notes.


We got a lot of Christmas mail this week. We loved it!!!
Thanks so much to all of you that went to the extra effort to include us in your mailings.