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

More pics

in the caves, there are workers that collect the birds nest, or the bats nests (why they do is a long story) we found an abandoned workers' camp. also jsut happened to be at a place where amazing pillars of light hit the ground.
me lookin like golem
jon paul with spoons
me sittin on a log
the main cavern at niah caves, so ridiculously big
a cave outside the main cave system, also huge
one of two pillars of light. they looked like swords, and the hole in the ceiling was at least 100 feet up
pres and sister mains. blurry because a senior missionary took it...
a vine we swung on, and it was a good one. in that picture my feet are probly about 7 feet off the ground. classic tarzan vine

Pics

Not many pictures this week, but whatevs

A cool basket that E Tadius is weaving
We got new chairs and we used the elevator to bring them up
Misel, child of recent convert Mary. he's great

Lots to talk about!

Yo!
This past week was super fun in Miri! WE went to the Niah Caves, which were AMAZING. pictures to follow. ya and of course it was awesome to see E Trotter again. The Conference was also pretty good haha. It felt really small cuz there were only two zones there. I think like less than 20 missionaries, plus the seniors. We did get to walk around the city a little bit. It's a lot bigger than Tawau and its a lot nicer too. speaking of that, Malaysia in general is indeed a stinky place. not like everywhere is stinky, but there are defintely spots that are always stinky, and there is definitely the random wave of stink in any given place. tawau is not a busy, bustling place.

Elder T and I basically only speak Malay. I occasionally throw in some englsih if the english word makes more sense. but ya he is not godd at speaking, even though he understands a lot. Its like physcially difficult for him to speak english haha. English is spoken from the back of the mouth/throat, and malay (and most other languages for that matter) are spoken more towards the front of the mouth. the "s" sound is really hard for him to make, also a lot of other common sounds in the english language haha. But ya i pretty much feel comfortable talking to anyone. I'm to the point where i just have to ask for words that i dont understand, rather than phrases or sentences. Despite the absolute simplicity of this language, i know I will never understand all of it. just like every other language, you have to grow up using it, go to school and speak it with other kids. I'm convinced nobody could learn American english unless they went to school in america haha. Elder Tadius hit his year mark in June or July. so about 10 months left.

I finally got my camera back in Miri!!!! it totally works and i've missed it. I forgot how nice a camera it is. but ya now i'll be snapping pics again

So the caves we went to were way bigger than i thought they would be, and we went adventuring big time. We found a couple little tiny caves that were off the boardwalk path. one turned into a crawl only tunnel where only one person could fit through at a time. it led to essentially a straight drop off shaft that opened up over a large cavern. probly about 400 feet drop... for real. pretty freaky but way cool. that flashlight i brought is way nice, and you can take off the focuser and just have like a candle. it was super bright in the dark caves and put everyone else's to shame for sure haha.

not much else to say. the pictures will hopefully speak for themselves haha. one of our new investigators was able to come to church for the first time yesterday, so that was way awesome.

Love
Elder Giblette