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