Pictures!

the daughter of one of E Ahmad's recent converts was baptized this past sunday!

My Christmas spread! E Ahmad's package just barely arrived in singapore...

The family of our branch president and a few other friends. so awesome

the worst english ever on a toy package

another elder in the zone. us at a wedding

Back to Malaysia

Well the temporary transfer held true. I am going to Kuching, Sarawak, East Malaysia. Its the capitol city of Sarawak, and ive heard it is quite large. Every missionary ive talked to says Kuching is the promised land, so I am really excited. Even though I wouldve been completely content with staying in singapore, kuching was actually the only other place I WANTED to go! 

Being in a ward here has been incredible, and i have heard that the branches in Kuching are some of the best in the mission. I hope that my lack of teaching in the past few months will not have an effect haha. 

Singapore is a tiny little island, but such a vast melting pot of people and cultures and religions. everything is clean and awesome, but in general the people are very prideful and think they're awesome. people here are in general pretty wealthy. 

Ya we still havent heard anything about the christmas call, but probly will at Zone Conference in a couple weeks. but kuching is a well developed city so i think we should be able to find a good internet place. the package has not yet arrived, but its not a big deal. it may even be easier if i get it at zone conf cuz then i can bring it back as checked luggage or something. to bring it with me at transfers would probly be literally impossible haha. hopefully i'll be able to send you guys something back for Christmas. it'll be late but what to do! 

I'm glad MN is finally getting snow. if there were two green Christmases in a row, i might not want to live there anymore... the info about movies and the Twins is great. hearing newws from news doesnt make me "trunky" or anything. i just saw an ad for wreck-it ralph, and hobbit posters are EVERYwhere. also E tyler told me what the book "life of Pi" is about. it sounds pretty good. so many of the non "big ticket" movies are coming out. so many movies missed! but thats ok haha. 

so i'll be flying to kuching on wednesday. oh ya and yes we have a cell phone per companionship, but nothing like iphone or ipad... ive heard they do that in some places in the states though.

tough to hear about all the people moving out though! thats weird that so many moving all at once. I remember being told that ali was gonna babysit, but i guess i forgot the reason haha. thats cool to go to hawaii haha, just another typical cruise trip, eh? 

christmas is celebrated pretty heavily here, even though Christianity is not that big. pretty much all the big cultural/religious holidays are celebrated equally. its pretty cool but of course no the same without cold or snow. idk how people live in the same temp all year round. but singapore does not use bikes at all. the roads have no shoulders, and we have copious amounts of public transport. thats really the one thing that singapore has dropped the ball with, cycling. but whatever. i think i'll have a bike in kuching, not sure though. 

today we are going to the modern art museum to see the LEGO exhibit. its the building that looks like a big orange peel or something. i think i sent pics of it... it should be pretty cool though.

not much happened as far as missionary work, but i hope/think that wil change in this new area :) 

sounds like everyone is doing well back home. tell kellen he dropped one point of awesomeness for not emailing me hahaha. but seriously tell him that

love 

Elder Giblette

Pictures!

pizza huts double pizza. yup, a crust inside the bounds of another crust. pretty good.. way too expensive.

unfortunately it was raining when we went to the zoo, so i have very few pictures... some good videos though haha. 

one of a big chimp at the zoo

giant $50 SINGdollar bill

sun bear at the zoo

elder schone n me

SINGAPORE!

Welp. it happened. I got transferred again. but. this time in an emergency transfer to Singapore! so the sich is that a new zealand elder had problems getting into singapore in the past, but now the mission has gotten him a work permit to enter. he was going to go about a month ago, but the work permit got delayed in the paperwork and other things. so there was a threesome in his area, and also an elder here in singapore who as just bouncing around areas, with no companion. so i came to singapore! his name is E Schone, and he will be dead in Feb. I was told this will only be a temporary transfer, as new missionaries will come in the 12th, and then the new zealander will be coming to singapore. So i will either go back to malaysia in two weeks, or theres a chance i stay in singapore cuz there is an elder in singapore now who will be going home when the newbies come. i would love to stay here cuz its way sweet, and although i dont use malay at all, everything else far outways that fact. 

church in a ward, a very strong ward at that, was so cool. we kind of just melded into the background and were bossed around by our ward mission leader. our ward (woodlands ward) has most of the power players of the stake here. many of the stake leadership[ positions are from our ward. theyre way excited about missionary work, and they do something about it too. so much fun. 

Luckily our house and area is outside the donwtown, and there arent really any mall and shopping areas to distract haha. we moved into a new house, and it is so fantastic. i took pictures but this internet cafe wont allow me to connect my devices... i'll send those as soon as i can though. we are goin to the zoo today with most of the missionaries in singapore. it's often rated the No.1 zoo in the WORLD! E schone has been there before and says it is way sweet. 

the temp stays the same all year. singapore is more humid than malaysia though, but luckily we get around on foot and air-conditioned trains and buses. haha the public transportation here is quite amazing. everything about Singapore is so cool and clean and advanced and just awesome! Elder Schone has been in Singapore for 17 months, moving around areas within singapore. thats a story that i wont tell. but he's the expert of singapore basically. he knows a lot about singapore in general, as he has visited the history museum a few times. he is really smart and we often have deep doctrinal talks or discussion about just about anything. from the legend of zelda to Christ's millennial reign.

As far as sitiawan goes, they will most likely not have Malay speaking elders there anymore after the next big transfer in two weeks. So the few members will just be folded back into the Chinese/English speaking branch. Elder Tyler is with Elder Reeves, the new zealander until the transfer in Sitiawan. It will be tough for the few members, but it is necessary for the missionaries. there just isnt enough work in that small little town for four elders.

Well im running out of time. this has been a very eventful week with transfers but its alllll goooood. 

Love Elder Giblette

Pictures

approx 7 ft tall incense. welcome to china land

shot of the apartment "complex" most of our members live in

kelvin & hazell. again. she's 2 now!

my companion and the the children of the strongest and best member here

Thanksgiving Come and Gone Without a Pause in the Action

happy thanksgiving that happened only in america this past week! haha and maybe in other places. i certainly missed out on Montana and everything else there. it was awesome for everyone to add a little to the email. i thin the best addition was Uncle Thad's hahahaah. 

there probly is a big backup in Salt Lake, but like hailey said, soon there will be many Giblettes runnin around the world. 

This week we have continued to tract out the remaining neighborhoods in town, and we're running out fast! but transfers are in two weeks and we are hoping for a change, not to say we dont like Sitiawan, but we'd just rather be somewhere else haha. the toughest part is that each week we meet people who seem to have a lot of potential, but then they just dont turn out. but what can ya do? 

a funny and disappointing story form this week. in the course of "knocking" houses, we came to one that was Christian (which is always exciting) and when only a young boy came out saying that his dad was sleeping, we told him to give his dad a pamphlet about the restoration later. he said ok and that was the end of it. later that night, while we were back home and just chillin at home, we got a call from a man who had read our pamphlet. he said that he read through, and on the back there are prompting questions such as: "what should i do now?" answering itself: "read the Book Of Mormon" so he saw our number on the bottom and, mispronouncing my name, asked for "eldin girbett" hahah. but we had a good conversation and set up an appointment for the next day. of course we were as excited as could be cuz nobody EVER calls back after taking a pamphlet. we went there the next day and to our great surprise, his son came out and said he was in Kuala Lumpur... (city about 3 hrs drive away) we asked him if he was sure haha and he said ya. so we finally got ahold of this guy, Royes, and he didnt really explain the miscommunication, but agreed to meet next week when he came back in town. so its still a developing story and we hope that we will be able to meet him. 

also this week we talked to a lady who was Christian, and had a decent conversation with her at her door. we kept trying to explain that our church is led by Jesus Christ through a living prophet (among other things) she was at first put off and thought we just wanted her to switch churches. She also kept saying that "i believe in Jesus Christ, and i dont need anything else" more or less to that effect. we eventually just ave her a pamphlet and invited her to read. she didnt really want to meet and said if she was interested, she would just come to our church. thats code for, go away i dont care about what you have to say haha. it reminded me about very important aspects of this Christ's church; we not only have the true FAITH in Jesus, but we have ALL the ORDINANCES that are required to return to Him. the classic "faith without works is dead" scenario for this woman. It's so hard to meet "christians" here because they really have no idea what christianity is, and therefore are completely shut off to anything their priest doesnt condone. anyways thats that lady's story.

unrelated to missionary work:

i have neglected to tell about all my experiences with DURIAN. aka that stinky fruit that you read so much about before i came out.  it IS as stinky and weird as everything you read mom. haha and each time you eati it is a different experience. My MTC teacher, who was known in the mission as an expert durian chooser, told us that we had to try it 3 times before we never ate it again.

Attempt #1)  and this attempt is recorded on video; hated it. the texture, the smell, the taste. all of it unbearable. all of it indescribable. the taste and texture simply revolting. almost could not swallow. durian flavored burps for the rest of the day...

Attempt#2) approx 1.5 months later; almost the same as #1, but much more bearable as to the texture. taste still quite unpleasant. we ate it right at the vendor and we asked him what is a good durian supposed to taste like, and how do you choose such a durian? he couldnt really describe it, but said that there are more or less two schools of flavor: sweeter and bitterer. we asked him if he could find a sweet one...

Attempt #3) to my great surprise, quite sweet and tasty. the odd and creamy texture added to the sensation of sweetness. i found myself sucking the "flesh" off the seed until it was clean.

I have since had other eatings and one with similar results to #2, and the other even better than #3. i am now starting to recognize which i like, but only once the durian is cut open.

General info about the durian. most are about the size of a like a small volleyball, but can be softball sized, or basketball sized. they are hard and covered in sharp, rigid spikes. a guaranteed kill shot if it falls on you. (but we've heard that this year few people have been killed by this fruit) the smell is really indescribable, except that it smells like durian. the smell is quite strong and spreads wide. there are not really a delicacy, but everyone loves them. they are only in season in like Oct-Dec, and ive also heard like June time. but now is like prime time and the chinese elders get them fairly often. the texture of the flesh is kind of like yogurt, but has like a filmy "skin" that you also eat. i think is the combination of these two things that makes it tough to stomach. it really is hard to describe and you just have to eat it to know. 

um im running out of time but we also celebrated a member's daughter's second birthday. it was awesome. we got her a sock monkey. she loved it. while we were coming back, we passed by the scene of a guy that got hit by a car while likely running a red light on his moto. he died.

i love you all and we continue to work hard here enjoying our tough times

Elder Giblette

Check Me Out!

got a dart gun a while ago, revamped the darts. result

My growing collection of sarongs

Deepavali, "Festival of Lights" Hinddu holiday.

Toilet warning at McD's

A classy new sarong I got

A classic Terrace house of Malaysia

some weird path with rocks in it. supposed to be therapeutic or something. 

anyways thats E Tyler, bein a goon

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hello!

we've had a typically tough n slow week as far as missionary work goes, but good nonetheless. we continue to tract out the few houses that are not chinese or muslim. meaning we talk to indian people who are hinddu, and they seem to think they are exempt because of that. but we always tell them our message is for all of God's children, but they still dont wanna listen haha. contacting is pretty tough here in Sitiawan. there really isnt like a "city center" or place where people are just like walking around.so we just go house to house, and the way the houses are setup make it even harder haha. they are called terrace houses, and are similar to townhomes. but the thing is the driveway in front of the house is like fenced in and has a gate to get in/out. hard to explain but i'll send a picture that will make everything clear. anyways its tough because we cant knock on the actual door, and have to resort to knocking on the metal gate with a coin, or shouting "hello." we get lucky if there is a doorbell. even luckier if it works haha. so as far as language goes. we usually say "how are you" in Malay first, but the indian people usually respond in English, so the we speak in English. usually people here can speak, but have a hard time understanding English. so its tough cuz they dont want to speak malay, which the understand, but they prefer English, cuz they THINK they understand. but we have fun. the best is when people just look at us form the doorway, and literally. say. nothing. until we just awkwardly walk away haha.

there isnt really any public transportation here, just a small bus system that we never use. most people have a car or a "moto" its called a motorcycle, but its like a scooter. hard to explain? but ya there are also way more people on bikes here than in tawau. Tawau had a good bus system so most people use that. no rick-shaws or anything of the like haha. they do not celebrate thanksgiving here, so i dont think we'll do anything for it... turkey isnt even sold here so ya. haha its not a big deal though.

Pres Mains hasnt told us anything about skyping yet, but its still a little early. probly will at zone conference. that package sounds RIDICULOUS. haha but i think i will be able to handle it. i'll just be sure to bring my big suitcase to Singapore. 

Our "apartment" firstly, its not an apartment haha. we live in a really big house. it has three levels, but the third is just a bedroom and a bathroom. its our exercise room. the second floor is where we study and sleep. we all sleep in big bedroom, and have separate study rooms. the downstairs has the kitchen, a living room, and a bedroom used for exercise. so our house is overly large, which is typical in this mission cuz i guess the church has high standards for the missionaries, and therefore we get really nice houses throughout the mission. 

we have a propane stove, Tyler and i have very similar interests, and we always talk about music and movies. we played badminton with some chinese members (know that the chinese LOVE badminton) and we played doubles and only won 2 out of like 7 games. its tough, and my wrist/forearm is still sore. i think fried rice is my favorite thing to cook in the house. we have a propane stove, so its pretty nice. ya sarongs. you like fold it, fold again, then roll it. its almost impossible to explain unless you see someone else do it. 

but E. Tylers family found a way for us to get videos to you guys! go to    www.dropbox.com    and create an account. then give me the account info and i can upload pictures and videos! it looks really easy and i am confident even mom could do it! 

I apologize to hayden for not knowing his age... but im glad he likes his beats. i cant believe hes 5'11" !!! i will be the shortest son after all... 

we keep working hard and trying our best to share the Gospel. things at home do NOT feel distant haha. they are as relevant as ever! so keep me posted. and send some pictures haha. 

Love you all

Elder Giblette

Another Week

Hello family and other people that may read (like there are any of those haha)

So this week has seen more tracting and little success, but we are just pushing along. I feel like either i dont get discouraged, or i've just become numb to the lack of "success" I always think of a quote from Preach My Gospel, which i think is from a general authority or something. "you are expected to give everything you have, and do everything you can, and then expect nothing." its that simple. i am here to serve the Lord, and thats about it. sure i might get a few baptisms here or there, but thats in fact NOT what im here for. haha this sounds like a pretty bleak outlook, but i actually am fine with it. i've found that when you dont expect anything, you arent really ever disappointed haha. Just know that i am happy with what i am doing, whether others or myself see it as success. Plus maybe if a suffer a little bit now, later i'll get transferred to a sweet area with a ton of people to teach!

yes we heard about Obama being re-elected. i dont really care cuz 1) im in Malaysia 2) i dont anything about the economy or stuff like that. probly not good but whatever. so ya the whole thing doesnt really matter to me...yet. i think its a good point that dad makes, and also this is what E tyler's mom said, that if Romney had been elected, and then made a mistake, it could easily bring negativity to the Church. but oh well, it wouldve been too easy maybe if a member of the Church, who knew how to receive revelation running the country.

A cool story from this week though! we were contacting a small apartment complex that has been tracted many times by previous elders, and on the last row of doors we knocked, we found an I:ndian man and his mother-in-law who were apparently talking about how hard life was, cuz they invited us in, and then after talking a little bit, asked if we could give them blessings. We gladly gave them both blessings of comfort and after the man, Prakash, received his he immediately said how peaceful he felt. We then had a good discussion as they asked us many questions about our church and about our core beliefs. We have not been able to meet with him again yet, but I am confidant that he will remember what he felt that night, and that he will want more.

this week we will likely start going through the neighborhoods that we have already contacted, and that will be less than fun, but oh well haha. not much else to say this week... I'll be able to send pictures later so send some pictures of hayden enjoying his Beats! and of the basement and of the new tv. and of all you guys

Love

Elder Giblette

Another week has passed

This wekk has been pretty good. we have been contacting for many hours each day, but it paid off cuz Saturday we had a full day of appointments planned. 3/5 happened too, so that was way cool. Lately we've really been playing the part of the sower, cuz like 6/10 of our new investigators are planning on moving OUT of Sitiawan before the end of the year. also a pattern that we've been running into is that our return appointments seem to only be possible to be scheduled a week or two away... but we take anything we can get haha. we have met this past week with three people who speak good English, and it has been weird, and then really great being able to speak English. Not only is english the best language for the gospel, it just happens to be my first language. even though American english is not the same as english anywhere else, its so great to not have to think of what word i want to say, but rather what i want to say, and then just being able to say it. it really would be the best situation if every missionary was able to stay in his native country, using his native tongue. yes two years is enough time to learn and become fluent, but it cannot compare to someone who has been speaking it their whole life. anyways ya its was cool to do that. we have a couple investigators now that would benefit more from going to the English/Chinese branch, so thats kind of a problem we're working on. me n E Tyler continue to work hard and try to meet new people. and we always have fun!

we met with an Anglican pastor and had a kind of good discussion with him. we tracted him out last week and met with him on saturday. he brought up many concerns that are answered by our teachings, and as he was speaking, i was getting excited to share with him all the ways the true church was sitting in front of him. examples include "many men have come here and started churches, but they never last" "the younger generation nowadays is in trouble" "many of the big churches just seem to 'buy' members" he was long winded and as he spoke, E Tyler and i were just ready to share all the restored truths we have that address all of these concerns. as we shared about authority, and the church being led by Jesus Christ though a living prophet, he just didnt really seem to understand what we were telling him... we would ask him questions about these things, and he jsut didnt answer them and kept preaching to US. it was hard to control the conversation, and he dragged on at times haha. by the end of our meeting i was more interested in playing with his very cute 2 year old grand daughter haha. but by the end we both realized that he probly wanted to meet with us to try to strengthen our faith, an teach us. it was sad to see another intelligent person putting his faith in false "christian" traditions. it was cool though cuz he gave us each a Tamil Gospel Worship CD, and also a bunch of little pamphlets promoting his church to hand out. He told us to hand them out to Indian people we met...I think he thought that we are here to help all christian churches or something... he led us in a prayer that was read form Psalms, and he had me read one out loud as he gave praises of hallelujah, and other Tamil mumblings. it was quite an experience, and i'm glad he didnt try to get me to say amen or anything.

we talked to pres mains about our struggling little Malay group, and he really didnt know that his two missionaries were conducting sacrament, and doing everything else. so he proposed that we combine sacrament with the other branch and then split off into Malay speaking classes. This week we will talk with the branch pres and i think this will be a good solution to our little group, and also answer the question of "do we send our enlgish speaking investigators to the branch we dont attend?"

I love you all and i miss you mom :)

Elder Giblette

This Week

ok

so this week has just flown by, and it ended with a fun District Conference in Penang. Penang is probly the richest part of Malaysia, maybe excluding parts of Kuala Lumpur. its way nice and ive also heard it has the best food. we werent there for long and didnt eat anywhere except what was provided at the conference... So a few weird things about Penang. there are "Ex-Patriot" members which means people that are i think from outside Malaysia, but live there. Anyways the District president is a half french, half black guy who grew up in Britain. haha so hes an interesting guy and has a sweet accent. also theres a member there from America, who has an American wife and that was REALLY weird. Seeing white people is really weird for me, but to have as member who is AMERICAN, that was just too much.haha so that was that. District Conference is like stake conference; for the church members. Branches are contained in districts; wards are in stakes. Malaysia does not have any stakes, but Singapore does have one stake. but ya district conf for the Ipoh District is the branches from Sitiawan, Ipoh, Butterworth, and Penang. Our Zone conf consists of all the missionaries from the Ipoh and KL districts. but thats for missionaries. 

Thats cool to hear about romney rising in the polls. that would be really crazy for him to win! but already we have been asked about romney and obama. not necessarily about him being mormon, but they know who he is. i konw the elders from penang have been asked about romney being mormon. Im sure where there are educated people, missionaries are being asked about it.  Also way sweet than MOM can work SKYPE on a TV! haha but thats crazy that Katie is getting married. when did that happen haha? 

So ya we have been contacting a lot this week, and have seen a little success. the thing about contacting here is that the house are not like that of America, i will take some pictures this week, but they are called terrace houses. they have a little like driveway area in front of the front door, but it is closed off by a gate... so getting to the front door is literally not an option. we get lucky if there is a doorbell outside the gate, but thats uncommon. usually we try to make noise by banging our keys on the metal gate, or by shouting "hello!" resulting in few people willing to leave their house haha. so its best if we can find a person who is outside. but anyways, this week we found three people who are willing to meet, but they have reported that they are leaving Sitiawan within a couple months... but we met one indian lady this past week, and she invited us in right away and then her daughter (grown up) came out to visit with us. the mom who invited us in was catholic, but her daughter didnt really ahve a denomination. anyways the daughter is who we talked to. she shared her life story and at the end, she was like "so now ive come back to christ and i am not sure which church i should join" we got real excited and tried to explain that, among other things, we believed that we were the answer to her prayers! ...this she did not agree with. she thought we were Jehovah's Witness, but then found out we were the mormons, and i thought she was going to kick us out haha. luckily she didnt and she asked us a lot of questions about what we believed. after about a 2 hour conversation, we had answered all her questions thoroughly, but she was still very uninterested in meeting again. she lives in KL (Kuala Lumpur) but didnt want to give us her number for her to be contacted in KL. anyways, it was eye-opening 1. to talk with an educated person who knew Gospel things 2. to talk with a Christian who is very very confused about what Christianity means. it was sad to see how confused she was about what is important and what is not. Even though she said she would pray to see if she should try to meet with missionaries, i could just tell that she hadnt really been listening to the answers we had been giving her. she let all the things she's heard before about mormons just hardened her heart. so even though we told her that we wanted her to pray about our message, and that the missionaries in KL would just ASK IF THEY COULD MEET, NOT FORCE ANYTHING. she wasnt having any of that. so we keep praying that she DOES pray and gives us a call, because we know that God will tell her to call us.

So thats one story from the week haha

so elder Tyler was in Bintulu, Sarawak before, and his Malay is as good as mine. I think sometimes he is just less confident in his language than he should be. the other two chinese elders are ok. one is finishing TODAY, so a new will be here by the end of the week. it is much different than tawau here cuz we just a malay speaking GROUP that WE are in charge of. so there are a total of like 30 members, but a good week would have 15 people for sacrament. the members are very busy and cant really help us as far as following to appointments. they have already been completely hounded for referrals haha so nothin there. its basically made up of one family and her extended family. but one of the recent converts here is unrelated, and we are currently teaching her husband. 

but ya should be a pretty normal week this week. im not sure when the conference in december will be. the way we see it is either like the first week or the third week. but not sure. so you probly want to get that package off by the second week of november. 

Love you all

Elder Giblette

Pictures

Elder Tyler's cheap bike failed cuz he used too much power and he tumbled over the top

me n some cows

the prince of egypt, but not for Muslims...

Baptism of Suzie and Hobilyanan, baptized by grampa nunong

A Joyful Week!

hello americans!

Singapore was a blast! i got to see everyone from my MTC group while there, so that was way sweet. (except for the two that went home already. but actually Elder Thee is finishing his mission in California, so thats awesome!) Ya we had late flights back and therefore had extra time to walk around in Singapore. Singapore is so cool. everything there is just so up to date in technology, its really clean, and just everything is awesome! our zone conference was really cool and its so cool to see other missionaries. probly the highlight of being there was seeing the latest and greatest in TVs. ULTRA DEFINITION. it was an 84" 2160p screen. just ridiculous. the demo was showing like shots of different cities and landscapes around the world, but it was like better than real life. so idk what kind of TV you just got, but its not quite the newest haha. speaking of which, whats the new tv like? (i feel more connected to home if im updated on such major changes) So the new way of doing visa runs will be to have quarterly zone conferences in singapore, that way less people will have to leave their companions and area for a solo visa run. our next one will be in December, and then after that the quarterly schedule will be setup. this zone conference was themed on gratitude, and it was awesome to hear about all the different ways we can be grateful, and all the different blessings that come from gratitude. 

also Singapore makes me miss home cuz it feels like being in America, or at least in a first world country again haha. Malaysia is like 2nd world. it has nice things sometimes, but everything is so cheap and has 3rd world aspects at the same time. but ya singapore is really nice

our teaching is slowly increasing, mostly here people have problems with getting work off on Sundays. which is the worst problem to have in my opinion. we try to build their to the point of them possibly finding a new job or something, but its hard to build faith if they dont come to church... so thats that. I've seen that mostly its the teenagers and young people that are most receptive. the older people are just stuck in their ways and have no space or desire for learning or accepting anything new. haha the Prince of Egypt movie had that sticker cuz it's Christian themed haha. It's kind of a touchy issue so we're advised not to even mention that religion in our emails. so suffice it to say that they cant switch religions, and we cant teach ANYthing to them. but they are really nice people and are almost always the only people who actually take 30 sec to talk to us. Christians are the not nice people. so i will take this chance to let you konw that i will actually be ending my mission now and will convert to that religion who shall not be named. 

just kidding actually i'm not :) haha they are just really nice people and Christians aren't, so sometimes it seems like the Christians are doing something wrong. and they are, which is why we're here to try to soften their hearts so later they might listen to missionaries!

Elder Tyler and i have decided to learn to write and read Jawi, which is the Arabic alphabet for Malay. its pretty sweet and tough to write. there are 37 characters and they write right to left, but its fun and interesting to learn. 

my bike is doing well, and we are pretty sure the rainy season is pretty much upon us. this past week we got rained in hard throughout the day. i'm positive in the coming months many pictures of wetness will be sent home hahaha. sometimes we delay going out cuz of the rain, but usually we just say its not going to let up and we just go out. it feels really good and riding through huge puddles is always fun. we get to be kids dressed as adults haha. no i dont wear my rain jacket of use an umbrella haha. just too cumbersome. The branch president of the chinese/english speaking branch has been a member for a while. he found the church while on a trip in i think switzerland. so its a pretty cool story. he's a pretty sharp guy and a retired navy person. that branch is all chinese, but i think everyone can speak pretty good english. the chinese elders stay busy, but they dont have many investigators. Chinese people here are tough. generally they are very prideful and i dont the envy the chinese elders haha. no we dont go on splits with them. 

kellen said he was wokring on sending pictures of the basemnt and new tv. maybe you should help him with thatmom, so it doesnt become an overly long process haha. (meaning do it for him cuz he'll probly forget) 

the weeks here are really starting to fly by and soon i will be nine months out! (Nov 1) have you gotten the package yet? it should be this week of next. Thats cool that mom and kellen went to the play. 

this next week we have district conference on an island north of me called Penang. i've heard its really nice and is quite wealthy. the district president is an englishman ive heard, which will be very weird to meet a white member from Malaysia! we will go there on Saturday and come back on Sunday

should be sending some pictures later on today :)

love you all! 

Elder Giblette

Zone Conf in Singapore

So of course all other missionaries are probly talking about conference as the highlight of their week, month, etc. and while i will share a few thoughts we had some other happenings that were better haha.

I'l go with conf first. Elder Nielson's about missionaries: way awesome to be talked up by an authority. it's always kinda weird and cool in general to hear a talk about missionary work and finally being able to say, "thats' me!" but i really liked the story he shared and all the ways missionaries can help you. I also liked the fact that it was really only addressed to non-members, and members could kind of sit back and hear about all the good stuff us missionries do. It really is amazing all the things this church does, besides having the restored truth and Gospel. Elder Ballard's about the honey bees was a classic analogy about small acts of kindness. I really liked Elder Christopherson's talk abuot being a man (given in the priesthood session) cuz it really is a big deal in today's world. He made awesome points about how men are being put on the back-burner and are largely sterotyped as dummies and "un-needed." Unfortunately I didnt get to lsten to Elder Holland's talk in english, but i could see by the looks on his face the emotion he used. We'll watch the Sunday sessions in English once we get a chance.

 

Our conf attendance was quite small. Have i not told you we are over a small group of Malay speaking people here? i swear i have. Anyways me n E Tyler are the assistant group leaders (but the group leader is less-active) meaning we ARE the group leaders. 20 people at sacrament is good for us. So total attendance for conference was 22 including us two at each session. The member that normally drives everyone to church saw conference as a break from church and went to Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, so nobody that relies on her came. but we did have a recent convert come and her investigating husband also came to both the Sunday sessions. So that was really really good. Another thing that was cool for me about conference was that after watching the priesthood session, i found myself actually excited to watch more the next day. I could honestly say i didnt want the priesthood sessions to end. It was a really great feeling to fully appreciate what i was watching: Counsel and teaching and uplifting from Prophets and apostles of God. the best kind of teaching and counsel and uplifting there is.

So this week two great things happened. While we were contacting, 3 teenage Indian girls called to us and asked for our number right away. clearly they just thought it would be funny to ask two white guys for their number, so I'm sure they were as surprised as can be when we came over and shared a little from the Restoration pamphlet and told them our number was on the back. We were surprisingly able to get a return appt and the day we went back we didnt know what to expect. turns out two of them within the last few years had converted from Hindduism to Christianity, and the other expressed interest in becoming a Christian! So we gave a short lesson about who God was and who Jesus Christ was. they are approx 18-20yrs old and pretty typical teens, but they were actually listening quite intently (between texts) and seemed to understand everything we were sharing. One had read a little from the pamphlet, and asked about the BOM. So we shared a little abuot what the book was and gave her one. Yesterday we returned and gave two Tamil copies of the BOM. as of now they seem really interested and we are excited to meet them again this upcoming week. It's always cooler to teach from contacts that WE found rather than refferals...even though investigators from contacting is nearly always fruitless.

Also this week were finally able to find the place of a guy who had the met the elders we replaced. After three seperate nights of trying to find them, we got in contact with the previous missionaries and found his place! Turns out he lives in the middle of some vegetable fields with like 6 other people. they are Indonesian, which is way better than most other kinds of people haha. Anyways they will have problems with getting work off on sundays, as well as other likely unforseeable problems, but it was awesome to finally find them! 

So today we are going to Singapore for Zone Conference. We will be there until Wednesday night. They are having zone conferences in Singapore now to avoid having one missionary from a companionship at a time go do a vise run. This way everyone in the zone will get their visas stamped at the same time. It's a pretty good idea and It's always cool to go the promised land of Singapore. where people live in the future, not in the past (like Malaysians). haha so thats that. This morning I quick emailed as we were printing off our flight plans, but no worries cuz we got a chance to email before we go to the airport in Ipoh. 

Ummm i dont know who gladys knight is, so maybe you can tell me more? also tell me more about this guy falling from space, it sounds really cool! I think i saw a commercial for it while at a members house, but i dont know anything about it of course

 

Um we do have a McD's, but its like a 20 min bike ride so we dont frequent it as we did in Tawau. There is also a KFC, Pizza Hut, and Dominos. Dominos was not in Tawau and it looks like a much better option than Pizza Hut, so thats cool. I now live in a house, which is much bigger than my condo in Tawau. three floors, 4 bathrooms, but i'll take a pic this week. no oven. I cook a lot raman noodles (here its wayyyyy better) also a lot of eggs n other foods. 

Thats all for this week! Love you all very very much!

Elder Giblette

 

Last Pics from Tawau

ya so some way big statues at a chinese temple/tourist trap

my monkey zodiac

the large family from tawau that lives in the jungle

ling-ling and her siblings the night before i left tawau

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Couldn't think of a clever subject

so hi everyone! 

i hope you enjoyed your plush american lives while watching conference this weekend. haha just kidding, but i do hope you enjoyed conference. we were able to get the saturday sessions on audio and we listened to those yesterday. they were so good! we cant wait to get the sunday sessions tonight and listen to them later. mom i also really loved elder nelsons talk about missionaries! it was so cool to hear about how awesome i am! hahaha 

so this week we have been able to meet with some of the investigators that the previous elders were meeting. their numbers were lost in an accidental throwing away of planners before we got there, so we havent been able to conact them until this past week. they arent the best investigators as they live very far away and are illegal, but its nice to have SOMEone to go meet. we also were contacted by someone who must have briefly met the elders before they left, and he told us he's living with 7 other people who may want to learn. so we are going to finally meet them this week and hopefully they will be awesome! the big problem here is that the town is so little that the bus system is basically non-existent, but people still need a way to get around. 

Also last p-day we went bowling and i bowled my best game EVER at 155! haha it was crazy. my first four frames were strike, spare, strike, spare! theres not a whole lot to do in sitiawan, but we recently heard about some caves that are relatively close to our area. so we might be able to go there!

so ya this age change is crazy! we think it will have a big increase on the number of sisters, and will have a devistating effect on BYU freshman and dating culture hahaha. but its pretty cool and we think it is in anticipation of opening some major new missions. E. Tyler thinks it wont be long before China is opened, but i dont really know. 

In other news we should be getting the Malay book of Mormon within a month or so! we have been using the Indonesian translation and while elders can understand a lot of it, many members and investigators ahve a hard time understanding because it is very in depth indonesian. im sure the Malay will also be in depth, but it will be Malay, so it should be a great benefit to the people here!

Theres a store called Tesco here, ive heard its from Australia, but its basically like walmart. its really nice and feels like america haha. thats where we do our grocery shopping :) 

so this little town is kind of funny because of all the chinese people. i cant tell you how many classic old chinese ladies riding around on bikes ive seen. im talkin like they look like 100 years old haha. or so many old chinese guys just sittin around without shirts hahah. chinese people are so funny!

sorry but i have no pictures... :( i'll take some this week!

love you all!

Elder Giblette

New Area News

So this week has been pretty tough actually. i think we set up 11 solid appointments with new people, and only 2 of them happened haha. so what we have been doing is trying to contact the people that the previous two elders were meeting, and many of their numbers got lost in the transfer. mostly because the elders left their planners there with a lot of phone numbers, but the chinese elders (thinking they were doing us a service) threw them away before we even got there. they were innocently cleaning up some garbage but unknowingly destroying any chance of contact with people... we've also been going through the area book and while we were able to talk to quite a few people, even people who met with elders in 2006, we werent really able to find anyone solid. so basically what our area boils down to is approx 20% of the population by our guesses. we have the Indians, the indonesians, and the ibans. the iban all live in cheap appartment complexes called flats, and they have all been contacted too many times already. so that leaves us with the indians, who are mostly hindu, and are difficult to contact because of language barriers. the indonesians are a small amount and are largely illegal... so while we are not sure how we are to meet new people, we press on undiscouraged.

as for that possibly iban speaking elder. no chance haha. unless he is from malaysia, he does NOT, no chance, no way speak iban hahaha. i think i remember you telling me about him though. wasnt it the elder with the fake legs? wasnt he speaking some really remote like oriental language?

ya so sitiawan is a pretty small place, smaller in size than tawau, but much nicer in most ways. its got about the same feel as far as weather goes. except it rains alot more. also we are coming up on rainy season here, so that should be fun.

well this week was another crazy week in church for this little group. we've figured the group was basically formed for this large-ish iban family who couldnt speak enough english to keep up in the chinese/english branch, so all the active members are ibans who are related to each other, except for one sister... i spoke conducted and spoke again, and did a pretty good job of filling the time that the other two speakers didnt. i stretched my talk to a little over 20 mins, which i dont think i could do in english even ahah. so i think one thing i'm supposed to learn here is how to give talks. i've found its a lot easier to speak in front of people when there are only fifteen, and only three are adults. and when you know their level of education and gospel knowledge is way lower than it should be haha. so anyways its really relaxed and its fun to conduct for this little group. also funny when the guy conducting also blesses the sacrament. then the one presiding (elder Tyler) plays the piano and then passes the sacrament. we almost have four active aaronic preisthood holders. so i also basically run the primary, and last week there were 6 crazy indian kids who are almost ready to be baptized, and this week they didnt come, but were replaced by 5 iban kids who were equally as crazy. my patience was certainly tested...kids will only color for so long.... so thats that.

me and elder tyler get along really well. we have the same taste in music, he constantly quotes movie lines (even more than our family does!) and ya we have a good time despite our challenges here. sometimes its hard to find a balance between missionary work and group leader work. also sometimes it feels impossible to fulfill my purpose as a missionary when we try to support this barely standing group, which at many times seems as though it shouldnt have been started in the first place. but we know we are supposed to be here so we dont complain.

thats cool to hear about kellen. he's been a little lazy in emailing me, but thats ok. no big deal that his emails are the ones i most look forward too... (but seriously) anyways so i wanted to ask if my mission address has been sent to ben yet...? if not please do :)

so this week i have been thinking alot about how great a blessing it has been for me to grow up in the church, and to have lived with a family so strong and such great examples in the Gospel. especially you my wonderful parents! it really has made a huge difference in my life, and i can see the contrasts being around people who are just beginning to know the gospel. only a few of the youth of the church in malaysia have grown up in the church, and it will only be a matter of time until they are what the church is built upon in malaysia. so i will take this chance to thanks you mom n dad for all the things you have put up with with me, and for being such great examples of loving, caring, and faithful members of this the true church :D

love you alls
Elder Giblette

New Area!

Allllllrighty!
well p-day finally cam and im starting to feel somewhat established in this area. whitewashing, at least in the Singapore mission (the best one), means two elders being transferred to an area at the same time. meaning that neither of them know the area at all. luckily we arent totally alone. we live in the same house as two the chinese speaking elders, so they were able to show us around this small town.
ok im wasting no time cuz i got a lot to share haha

so Elder Tadius is staying in Tawau and training. the weekend of trasfers was crazy, and long story short i didnt get back to Tawau from district conference in KK until 4AM. so i then woke up at 8AM to pack and get ready to go for my flight at 3:15PM. so i got packed and visited a few members and recent converts. mostly with one investigator that i have been teaching since April that is got baptized last saturday (right after i got transferred!!) so i flew into KL (Kuala Lumpur) and found my new comp [6:30PM], Elder Tyler who is from my same group from the MTC (awesome!) and then we embarked on an unknown adventure to Sitiawan. luckily E. Tyler had the time and foresight to call the chinese elders here and they gave some short but mostly accurate directions. so from the airport we took a train (monorail) to a central station in KL, and keep in mind i have my big suitcase and carry on and back-pack, and also my huge, falling apart bike box! so from there we took a taxi ride to a bus station. [7:30PM] the bus station ended up being the incorrect one and we had to walk to an adjacent train station (dragging the bike box) took a train to another bus station. [9:00PM] along the way an old Indian guy helped push my bike box across the ground for a considerable distance, awesome! we thought we were done for as far as catching a bus to a small town, but we were able to find one... that left at 12:30AM!!! so we waited in the bus station for about four hours cuz the bus didnt arrive until 1:30 AM... so we then took a four hour bus ride and arrived in Sitiawan. [5:30AM] we then took a really old taxi (both car and driver at least 40 years past their prime) and arrived at our house at about 6 AM...........

madness. but it was pretty fun and we ran into a bunch of strangers that helped out with luggage n telling us where to go. all in all i think i spent about about 450 ringgit in transit. which will be reimbursed. so thats the transfer.

to add to this, we are essentially the group leaders for the young Malay speaking Group here! it started in April and the elders have been running it since the group leader got a job that causes him to work on sundays. So we didnt really find out what all we were supposed to do until like Saturday afternoon haha when we met with the Chinese Branch President. we work through his authority, but we are responsible for callings, talk assignments, all that good stuff. i conducted sacrament meeting yesterday in Malay for 21 people. and both E. Tyler and I gave talks since no talks had been assigned for this week. the group is made up of more youth and children than adults. probly about 5 active adults, 7-8 teens and 7-8 kids. we are not sure why this area was whitewashed because the area as far as missionary work is doing really well, and also the responsibilities of group leader. but we dont complain and we take each challenge as they come. here the history has mostly been working with Iban people, who are natives of Borneo, and also people from India. The elders here recently found a group of Indonesian people and we are hoping they will be baptized, because they will be the greatest strength to this group. Iban people are generally not very educated and are not the kind of people that would be able to sustain a branch, and Indian people are hard to find and convert. but we are hoping to reactivate the few indian members and capitalize on these Indonesians. another problem is that the indonesians are generally illegal. so we teach but not baptize until they are legal. we have heard that the guys being taught now are way strong and are currently working on becoming legal. we havent met them yet so our main goal this week is to meet with them. of course there is always the struggle for preisthood holders, so that is another focus for our finding efforts.

Ok so two weeks ago we went fishing and it was a BLAST. we went out early and got to their jungle house at about 7:30AM. three of the little boys took us to their little pond (maybe big enough for a lake) and we fished from the shore. all we used was a long stick and a worm or bug on a hook. we caught probly like 50 little 3-4 inch fish. comparable to catching sunnies at crystal lake. but i snagged a foot long carp fish hahaha. it was way too fun and after we filled up our little bucket we just threw them back as we caught them. i would send pictures but this dumb internet cafe disabled all usb functions... so later i'll send them somehow.

um thats actually kind of it. if i forgot something you guys are dying to know, tell me haha.

love you!
Elder Giblette

Transfer!

welp it finally happened, i'm being transferred!

My new area is in Sitiwan, WEST Malaysia.
yup i'm goin to the peninsula. i dont know much about it at all, i'm white washing with an elder from my group in the MTC. from waht i can tell we are basically going to be group leaders!
um i'm about to spend a lot of money to pay for transferring my bike, but i have enough. i havent sent the package yet, which is good because if i had i probly wouldnt have enough money for today. so just be aware of that and feel free to put more money in later haha. next week hopefully i'll be telling you all about this past week of craziness.

Love,
Elder Giblette

Short but Sweet

hello all!
today for p-day we went fishing in the jungle with that awesome ten kid family (two of the boys) and it was soooooooo fun! but it messed up our p-day schedule cuz we ended up staying at their house for pretty much the whole day. so i have hardly any time to write this email. next week will include a full stroy and pictures, good ones.
invetigators are doing well and we are are teaching regularly now. i also got another shirt from the same guy who did my shorts. it really nice. this week i wil probly send the package home. also we are going to KK for district conference. excited. oh ya they arent called lava lavas here but theyre basiaclly the same thing. they are called "sarong"s and its just a tube of fabric that you wear as like a skirt. pretty outdated to wear in public, but occassionally some older muslim guys will wear them in downtown. theyre really nice to wear around the house and i'll send a couple home.

thats it :(

haha sorry

Love
Elder Giblette

Pics

Yusuf, the second to youngest child in a family from the branch here

jackfruit- thats the average size

a river behind a members house

some awesome shorts that i had custom tailored from a sarong i bought

thomas and wenny

My mission, duh

Hello all,
decided to make a new email thread instead of replying, and the result is a funny subject line, so you're welcome for that haha
also i may forget to answer some questions or address comments as i cannot see the latest email on the same screen... anyway if this is confusing you mother dont worry about it hahaha
this week has been pretty average as far as our investigators go. we had some really good lessons with one guy, Daniel, and weren't able to meet with another, Amy, after she cancelled two different days. So thats pretty normal i guess haha. It has been nice to be teaching again somewhat regularly, but we also dont have a big enough investigator pool and it is usually like teach one investigator a day average for now. but this week we visited with a lot of members and it has really been nice to visit with people who are of the same faith haha, and also to strengthen and be strengthened by them. There is an awesome family that basically live in the middle of the jungle, and they have ten kids! the oldest 15. youngest not yet one year. they are probly the strongest family in the branch, because their kids basically make up the branch primary haha. they are seriously the most well behaved kids i've ever seen, and they never fight...at all! anyways the best part of visiting with them is feeling the amazing Spirit that constantly resides in their home.
A typical day in Tawau... Well we get up at 7AM and then have studies/breakfast/lunch until about 1-2PM. thursdays we have weekly planning and usually dont leave until about 4PM. studies are personal study, companion study, and language study. Early afternoon of each day is definitely the hardest part to fill. nobody is home to contact, and everyone is still working... So usually we try to visit members or call old investigators. or also try to find new places to contact. Evenings we fill with appointments with investigators and/or recent converts. We go back home between 9:30PM and 10PM. I dont think i've ever told you that our schedule here is pushed back 30 mins than the regular schedule. yup thats us. one mission "tradition" is Big Mac Monday, which encourages elders to eat lunch at McDonalds on Mondays. but i think its been affected by the P-day change haha
As for the sending of a package home to you, what i meant was that there are two methods. the normal, which is by air, that takes a few weeks, or by boat, which is much cheaper, but approx 3-6 months to arrive... so i will definitely use the by air. i'm not sure how much it will be but I know i have enough money in my account now to cover it. also your question about christmas. dont worry about sending a package way early like in october. Just send it to arrive about Christmas time.
Speaking of that I am essentially anticipating becoming a trainer when the new missionaries arrive in the mission (Sept 18) there are 27 new people coming and basically everyone will be a trainer haha. but we've determined its not a sure thing because becoming a trainer or not will probly depend more on how long tou have been in an area than on how good a missionary you are. but these are just the ideas of elders haha. so if i become a trainer i will go to Singapore and then that means my next visa run will be in December, so i guess if my package comes in December i'll probly be able to pick it up myself.
Also my P-Day shoes are wearing out (mostly wear n tear from gym time at the MTC) and i think the best thing to do is jsut to order some more from the vans website and then ahve you guys send them to me. I've tried many time to find shoes here, but they are literally all too small hahah. i've come close but i havent been able to find a single pair of shoes i reasonably like that fit me... So i've found the same pair online that i have now in a different color that are $47. tell me what you think of this plan haha.

Well thats about all ive got to share this week. enjoy the pictures!

Love
Elder Giblette