Pics!

Introducing, only in Malaysia, the all new Lexus Camry!

Painting a member's house

A fruit called "rambutan" which basically means "something that is hair" haha

Sister Tina, who is for all intents and purposes our mother here in Tawau, so awesome

two pictures featuring the squat position. a common technique to use for: bathroom, waiting for bus, waiting for...anything. yes my heels are touching the ground, no it is not as easy as it looks. Most natives here can basically sit like that indefintiely. me: maybe five minutes haha

Let us all press on

Hellllllllo!

This past week has proven to be a toughy! we have had an unprecidented number of appointments and potential appointments fall through :/ but We don't really seemed to be affected by it. at least I'm not. of course it's tough and disapointing, I just have that, as dad puts it, "ability to let things roll off my shoulder" haha. I've definitely found that that's true. With Elder Trotter, I could see him trying to carry the burdens of failed appointments and such and blame himself. But he told me a few times that he could see that it didn't affect me the way it did him, and would be reminded that he didnt need to carry all that stress on himself. Anyways we are continuing in our efforts and finding possible new avenues through working with the senior couples.

Riza was able to recieve the Holy Ghost this week and it was great. I've definietly grown in my ability to give blessings and stuff. I've lost count of the number of blessings I've given since I got out here, and each time it's easier to give. It's good that most of the members here aren't shy and understand that they can ask for blessings. I think a lot of times before I would think of blessings for big sicknesses or things of that nature, but it is not up to the giver to decide whether it is needed or not. We as preisthood holders just have to be worthy to give teh blessing, and the blessee (?) is the one who exercises their faith.

President Mains comes to Tawau tomorrow and I'm excited to meet him. He won't be here for long and will do a house inspection, give interviews and then give training to branch priesthood and auxilliary leaders. then the next morning he will continue his journey. our house was clean enough to impress the Elder Atkinson (senior) who is a clean freak hahah. so we're not worried about the house inspection.

I had read a little bit about the Batman shootings... it is so sad the world we live in, and the power that Satan can have in the hearts of confused people. I can't belive that Jenna was in the theatre! crazy. So great that she was unharmed, and I hope her friend will recover. In other news, how was the movie? too soon to ask? I think the boys will have a great time in SD, and I wish I could join them.

I love you all aso much!
Elder Giblette

2 weeks ago

hello mommy! and others

well since lat week was essentially a P-week, we were ready to get back to work. it's kinda weird, we've actually been able to contact quite a few referrals but they dont seem to want to amount to anything. but that just tells me i need to continue to work hard and expect nothing. its all about what the Lord wants. Also a lot has been happening within the branch as well. we've started having branch council, and they are really trying to organize home and visiting teaching. and i think its going to result in a lot more coordination with the senior couple and other members of the branch. i find myself being kind of impatient because i'm realizing all the things that could or should be happening, and i want them to happen right away. its definitely true what you said dad, that all the members here are still very new to the church and that they are still learning, as we all are, how things should work. in fact i think the longest member in this branch (besides kids born into the church) may be about 10 years. so still incredibly new. I also need to slow down because the senior couple and us elders are kind of identifying all these problems, and we have to remember to take it one thing at a time (or at least i have to remember that)

singapore was pretty awesome. i pretty much told you all about that in least weeks email. (haha i hate writing about the same stuff) :D um sibu was ok. i didnt end up going to the leadership training, so i only met pres mains very briefly. like this: i entered the church building, he was in the hall taking pictures, and i came in, saw him, said "hi, President!" shook his hand, he asked "are you here to teach someone or meeting up with companions elder?" "i'm just meeting my companion president :)" "sounds good, elder" and that was literally it haha. he seems like a super awesome guy and the ZLs said he basically said of himself that he didnt really know what he was doing, and that he was still getting used to malaysia. So i think it will be a while before he wants to try to change anything. which everyone pretty much expected. so he will be coming to Tawau on the 26th on his mission tour. pretty excited for that. Some of the ZLs said they missed Pres Clark during the training, and could definitely feel a difference. mission presidents are so cool. they're essentially general authorities. when i had the two chances to listen to Pres Clark it was like listening to an apostle. I'm sure Pres. Mains will be the same way and he will be awesome.

a little bit of adventure this week. we followed some members who were going to get some coconut juice and we followed this guy into the jungle, who proceeded to climb a tree, chop of a branch with a bunch of coconuts, and then he cut them open and we drank and ate straight out of the coconuts! unfortunately they weren't quite ripe yet and the water wasnt very good.. but it was still pretty cool to say i ate and drank coconut about a minute after it came off the tree. Fresh! also we messed with a monkey. he was leashed to a tree root and we were tossing fruit at him and stuff. i got him to take fruit and some nuts right out of my hand. monkeys are so weird and human like. the way they look around and react to stuff is so similar to humans. the best was when the kids would throw stuff at the monkey or poke at him with a stick. the monkey would run at them and grab the stick and use his own momentum to pull the stick away from the kids. so smart.

anyways dont have any picks from the week. oh ya i gave my camera to singapore and they said they would know if it was under warranty or not within a week. that was a week ago so i should know pretty soon. either way it will be a while till a get it back. but i'm pretty sure it'll be all taken care of.

love,
Elder G

Pictures lah

pictures for the week :D also some from past weeks from E. Tadius camera.
got a chocolate (actually from dirt) river
some jungle
a way expensive, yet sub-par burger
finally me and elder Tadius
Baptism of Riza!
A group of Philippino people we are currently teaching
the monkey a i fed, straight out of my hand

eat it up
Elder Giblette,
aka Elder Sombong (pride)
aka Elder Gaja (elephant)
aka Elder Cool Guy (a person who is known to be cool)

Hotter in the states?!

as much as i didnt think i'd say it, it sounds like the weather over there is much worse than it is here! usually I would say it's in the 80s and it's always quite humid. a hot day will probly be in the mid 90s. cool is high 70s. but i'm not really sure because they use Celsius here and i think it's usually around 30 degrees C.

this week we finally got Riza baptized, who we have been teaching for almost three months, but she moved away from bandar (downtown) and couldnt meet as often. that was about a month 1/2 ago so we were finally able to get a baptism planned out and although it was kind of sloppily put together, it happened and it was great. We had to do it after church on Sunday, so she will be confirmed next week. It was good though because we had a lot of members stay, so that was nice. Riza was the girl who had a dream about the road the church is on. she is very faithful and I hope the branch welcomes her with open arms.

We have contacted A LOT of referrals but the work is still slow. The problem in Tawau is that because the majority of the population is people from Indonesia and the Philippines, many many people are illegal immigrants. So while we got an abnormally large amount of new investigators this week, we only had two come to church... Everyone we meet is simply to scared to travel around on the buses because they dont want to be caught and sent back to the philippines. So we're still trying to find ways to get people to church.

I have seen a little bit about the Olympics from TVs at McDonalds haha, but I dont really know anything. I'm glad I'm missing the summer olympics, because the winter are wayyy better haha. has the olympics ever been in singapore?? it seems like it should. it would be a great place i think.

Also this week i learned how to play an awesome game called (has many names) "main batu" which means "play rocks" It's a lot like jacks (bouncing the back and grabbing the metal things) but you have five rocks, and you toss one in the air and grab one rock off the ground and then catch the rock you just threw. cont until all rocks are off the ground. then there many variations, but all involve some form of throwing rock in the air and grabbing the ones that are on the ground. sometime i'll take a video and then some time later haha i can send that to you. anyways its pretty tough but really fun.

welp, not much else to say haha
love you all and hope you enjoy the pictures

Elder Giblette

Great advice for everyone

Yes i did go to Singapore. schedule this week (as it is happening) Monday was a normal day of proselyting; Tuesday I left for Singapore in the morning and made three connections to get there; Wed (today) I left Singapore at 1PM and arrived in Sibu Sarawak, where i am now. Thurs-Sat in Sibu for District Leader Conference and return to Tawau Sat evening. So this week has/will be a week of very little missionary work.

I have not yet met President Mains as he was not in Singapore, but I will meet him here in Sibu. In Singapore I arrived alone and met Elder Trotter in the airport. I then went to the mission office to pick up my big package, which i will give proper praise to later. So that night we planned on walking around, seeing singapore, and going to my camera place, and eating. So we went to the camera place and they referred me to the Singapore Canon Customer Care Center, which was already closed and far away. so that was kind of stinky, but then we got some tasty food and went to go look at this really sweet hotel (i think its a hotel...) you'll easily be able to see it on google, but its like three separate buildings with what is supposed to look like a ship sitting on top. Really cool and since it was night it was all lit up. Singapore in general is simply and definitely the cleanest, most advanced, most beautiful city in the world. We will have to spend a good amount of time there when we return. Simply amazing. It's just like everything about it is perfect. every building is huge and way nice, and the people are in general beautiful also hahah. So basically the purpose of visa runs is to simply go there and get a new stamp that means your visa is renewed.

This week I also go to Sibu because there is a dicstrict leadership training and since half of the sabah zone goes and almost all the rest have vise runs they just decided to pull everyone to the training. its a hassle because even if only the district leaders go then the other elder can either bus far to the other areas in the zone or hang out with the senior couples and not really do anything. so kind of a zone activity. bad timing cuz this is kinda the week we were gonna try to make some new stuff happen in Tawau... oh well. not much we can do.

But i think things are going to slowly start getting better for us in Tawau. because this past sunday the district presidency came to Tawau and gave some great lessons. our branch called a new branch missionary (branch mission leader?) and we are going to start having branch council. E Trotter and i had very much success by only using a small pool of people/referrals and now thats kind of used up as far as new investigators is concerned. so my eyes are kind of being opened up to the fact that it is the responsibility of members as well as the elders. a memeber made a comment also on sunday that made me think a lot about our job as members, yet this was not the intent of her comment; she was saying that we as elders need to make sure that those who we baptize indeed have a strong testimony. Basically saying that it is the missionaries job to find new members and then keep them. while of course we as elders continue to teach and strengthen recent converts, it is indeed the MEMBERS job to bring theses people into the family of the church. So it made me reflect on how effort i had put in in the past. while we dont have many recent converts, there are always inactive members and things we can do to strengthen the family. I am in no means wanting to call anyone out, and if anyone, i call myself out, that there is an infinite pile of excuses to not do something, and there is one choice that we need to make. Being on the other side of missionary work is the only way i have been able to gain this perspective. that it is absolutely heartbreaking for (missionaries especially) when a person is baptized, when someone has taken the most crucial step towards salvation, has begun a new life of truth and happiness, has decided to change their life completely, and then only to fall away again due to any amount of possible neglect on the church family's part. we as members of this family are essential and truly the only way to bring others unto His flock. let us be always and forever ready to help those in need, and to help the missionaries. so this goes without saying, and i am not worried about it, but martez and that other sister are literally the ward's greatest priority. do they go to singe's ward?

So i finally got the big package! IT IS AMAZING! as of now i still havent really gone through it all, but everything i asked for and much much more is inside hahah! so many thanks from Malaysia :D from what i saw it looks like all the best stuff. for real. thank you :) I'm glad i brought my big luggage with me cuz i would not be able to fit all that stuff in a carry on. Also i presume that the two ties were from carson. amazing. these two ties are indeed a neat addition to my collection. also i had received the other package last week.

So if Pres Clark is coming close to town and he might meet gordhammer, you should make efforts to try to meet him as well! he is so cool and i think he would be happy to meet you! of course i dont want you to disturb him but if gordhammers might meet him maybe you can as well. anyways you should try at least haha, you wont regret it.

welp i hope next week i can email back with some good news about investigators in Tawau!

love you all!
Elder Giblette