Penang Malaysia 10 April 2014

It has started the rainy season now. It is raining 2 or 3 times a week and it really knows how to rain. It has been very dry and parts of Malaysia have been rationing water, not Penang. The rain has cleaned out the haze so you can see the buildings much better. This is now the view from our balcony.

Looking East from our balcony

There is a fruit here called "Durian". It is slimy,  mushy, smells bad, tastes nasty and you burp it up for 24 hours. The missionaries say that if you eat it three times you like it. Everyone has to try it but I do not understand why anyone would eat it three time to like it. There is durian flavored ice cream that is served in restaurants and when anyone orders it you can smell it all over the room.

This is durian, very expensive

Activities at home

Our home has become quite an activity center. President Mains asked us to have the singles FHE at our home instead of the church which has been very fun. We wanted to have a Temple Preparation class and have it in our home. That has been wonderful, we have 3 families attending, they want to learn and we are getting to know them better. The missionary sisters come up and help with the 4 young children, they are such a big help and after the lesson we have something to eat and have a question and answer time, we have never bought so much pop in our life. It is a special experience for all. President Mains said we would be able to attend the Temple with Branch members twice while we are here, we hope at least some of the families will go this time. We will go to the Philippines.

Martin Danielle, Ngee Hsing, Knee Wen, Knee Yong, Martin Hillary, Gent Khai Javen, Tien Kit Addy and Gent Hoong (left to right and bottom to top)

 Our Temple Preparation class, the Yong, Lim and M. Rajoo famlies

We have correlation  meeting in our home every other week with the Branch Mission leader and the missionaries for our branch.
This week is transfers and we are loosing Sister Romney and Elder Ung. We will miss them but look forward to getting to know two more missionaries. This week for our "P" day activity all of the missionaries in the district came to our home for a good bye party. They had fun playing games, talking and eating. They are a great group of young people, such strong testimonies and good teachers. They can also eat a lot of food.
It is a pleasure to associate with them and feel of  their spirit. They truly are the elect of God sent out to work in the vineyard one last time. The missionary program of today is not only to find those the Lord has prepared but also to prepare the Lord's army for this final gathering.

Party for those being transferred 10 April 2014

Activities 12 March 2014

On our preparation days we usually go someplace with the missionaries. sometime all of the missionaries in the district go and sometimes just some of the missionaries but we try to go with them whenever they go go somewhere. They are are a great group of young people who are very dedicated and knowledgeable in the Gospel. They are very committed to sharing the Gospel and are wonderful teachers. They do enjoy their "P"
days and like to see the sites and do different things each week.
We went to the Pewter foundry and they showed us around and then we went to their "School of Hard Knocks", different than the one I have attended all my life, but we had a good time. It was very noisy.

We got to keep the bowl we made as a souvenir.

They had a money tree. It was not for sale  and it looks different than I had imagined but I have seen a money tree. The problem is, money still does not grow on trees.


















We went to the Botanical Gardens with the s Sisters but it has been so dry that there were not many flowers and the grass was brown and dead except where they had watered it.

Sister Bradfield says we do not have any rules like they do so she
was going to help

Time to cool off

Singapore Trip

We attended Couples Conference and Zone Conference in Singapore on April 1st and 2nd. Both were great conferences where we received much needed instruction on the, My Family, booklet and how we can use it in our work. We have three families we would like to get started on the program. We also learned more about the Book of Remembrance that new converts receive and how it will help them with their history. They are both great programs designed to help us with our Family History and remind us of the special events in our lives and how they made us feel.

Dinner with the Couples

It was wonderful to meet the other couples serving in the mission and learn about them and their experiences. We have two couples who are serving for 6 months, 18 months and 23 months. Senior couples are so needed and the new programs are so flexible.
Our passport stamp allows us to be in Malaysia 90 days and then we must leave the country for a few days.  We have Zone and Couples conferences about every 3 months and then we can stay in Singapore for an extra day or two at our own expense and see the country. We were not sure how to go about this so we just stayed 1 extra day. The NRT (underground mass transit system) is wonderful, we can go anywhere on it and it is very economical to use. We went to the bay area and had a great day. The botanical garden was beautiful, they have a rain forest dome and a flower dome as well as a huge garden area with "Super Trees".
They have a light show at night that was beautiful.

Inside the rain forest dome

view from the Lilly pond

super trees

Light show

famous Hotel complex

We went to a food court to get something for lunch. This is the way the food was displayed, you just tell them what you want for lunch and they get it for you.

Lunch anyone?

Life on a Mission 25 March 2014

Everyone should have one of these

I finally found the button. If I stand here and push the button I will stay off the road and my safety will not be threatened. The problem is, this is in a Mall and I can not stay here. I guess I will just hope for the best and trust the Lord as we drive over here.

Butterworth-Penang bridge

This is the bridge from Penang to Butterworth and it is over 6 miles long. If we take the wrong turn there is no way to turn around.  We have to get on the bridge, drive, across, turn around, pay the toll and drive back across to get where we want to be it takes a good 20 minutes.
Sometimes life is that way, when we make a wrong turn we have certain requirements to do in order to get back where we want to be. It can be quite challenging to get back but if we follow the steps and pay the toll we can get where we want to be.
We made the wrong turn once, when we were with President Lai visiting the Seminary students. We were on our way to an appointment. We were not watching as closely as we should have been. It made us late for our appointment and that made us late for our next appointment. We had a 3 hour break which gave us a chance to catch up for our last appointment.

Sister Perkins (holding the blue quilt) and her husband are Ex-Pats, who have had a contract in Malaysia for work, has started the sisters making quilts. Seems funny in a country where it very seldom gets below 80 degrees but the members love them. Sister Joyce (green quilt) has a day care and she wanted quilts for the children to use. It gives us a chance to get to know the members better so we went over and helped her make them. This is getting to be quite common, we have helped on quite a few quilts and it helps us get to know the members

Activities is the Penang Branch 19 March 2014

Tan Family and President and Sister Mains our Mission President

The  baptism of Brother Tan Wee Ming was a great event in the Penang Branch. All of his family except
himself and their youngest son, Tan Jie Yang have been members for quite a few years. He has been very involved in branch activities for years and has been very good to help clean the building and bring his son to early morning Seminary. He has given rides to the other students and helped any way he can. His baptism was very well attended including his sisters and Sister Pah Im's Mother.They are not  members but family is very important to them.
His baptism reminded how important families are in the plan of our Heavenly Father and  why Temples and the work completed in them is so important to us. We are so grateful that we have had the opportunity to be sealed in the Temple and have the opportunity to be an "Eternal Family". I cannot imagine heaven without all of our family with us.

Brother Tan Wee Ming and his son Elder Tan

Sisters from the Penang Branch and Sister Mains

On Saturday there was a Women's Conference for the District. Sisters from Ipoh, Sitiwan and Penang attended. Sister Angus spoke and then conducted a workshop on journaling and the importance of journals. She did a very good job and everyone had a good time.There was a very nice meal and all of the participants received a matching tee shirt.

Sisters from the District

 We have been asked to have the Young Single Adults Family Home Evening in our home.We include all of the Single Adults in the branch. We have a great time and it is a good missionary tool. The Missionaries bring their investigators. There is a lesson and activity as well as treats. It is pot lock and we furnish a dish and drinks. It has given us an opportunity to get to know the members and investigators better.

President Lai is the man on the far right

President Lai is the Stake President in Singapore, he is also over the Seminary and Institute Programs in the Mission. The young  people in the church have such a hard time finding a member to marry that the need to attend a church school to find a companion.The leaders in the branch and  district do not fully understand the requirements and they go strictly by the letter of the law as they interpret it. It causes hard feeling with the members so we wanted to know what the requirements are. It was a very informative day and President Lai is a wonderful man.

Sister Lisa, Sister Romney, Sister Shoba, Sister Bradfield, Sisters SriDavi, Perkins and Michelle

Alex and Vanessa

 We have young people attend the branch quite often who are backpacking around 

Asia and stop on Sunday for church. Alex and Vanessa have been working on a Cruise Ship for about 5 years. They have been married for a year and completed their contracts so they decided to tour Asia before settling down. Alex is from England, not a member and Vanessa is from Orem.

Our work 21 March 2014

We have had several assignments over the past couple of weeks. We were asked to substitute teach Seminary for two weeks. Up at 5:00am and at the church ready to teach at 5:45am so we could be finished by 6:30 so the students could be on time for school. It was a wonderful experience, teaching not getting up so early, the students were great and we to love them. They are very quiet but have a strong desire to learn about the  Book of Mormon.

Addy, Jie Yao and Danielle

We are getting to know the members. We have better luck remembering the members when we can meet with individual families. Sometimes we go to their homes to visit and sometimes they come to ours. We had the Yong family over for Sunday dinner.  We roasted a chicken and had rice only to learn that King Son doesn't like chicken but their son, Zi Heng loved the rice and now he wants to come over to our home for rice all the time. He also likes cake. Next time we will fix fish and rice.

King son, May Ling, Zi Heng and Zi Yao

Zi Heng is very cute and so polite. He tells
his  father that he "can not" do something
and on their way home he will smooth it
over by saying how sorry he is.









Brother Phillip loves to fish so we went fishing with him. We had a lot  of fun and we caught some "big" fish.
Malvinder said we needed to catch 20 fish as a goal. We caught about 30 but some were to small to keep, about 2" and some were puffer fish which are posionious. The biggest fish was caught by Malvinder, an 8" catfish and I caught a small sting ray which was a very valuable catch. The sting ray is very good eating they say.

Big fish Brother Phillip and Malvinder

 Sister Chrissy and her family took all the missionaries out for a special dinner. We went to a Korean restaurant which was very nice. You get your food at a buffet line and then take it to your table where there is a bar-b-que to cook your own food. There was chicken, beef, squid, lamb and pork marinated in different sauces as well as many different kind of fish balls, vegetables, fruits and ice cream, the missionaries favorite.

Front to back Elder Ung, Joselyn, Sister Chrissy, Joash, Elder Sutherland, Sister Bradfield and Sister Romney

It was very good but you had to be sure the meat was cooked enough. It is called a soup bowl and some places in the mission are off limits because the missionaries weren't cooking it long enough and  they were getting sick. We ate some interesting things, but very good.
 Joash is preparing to go on a mission this summer.