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