Dicederakan

Hello America,

Its been a slow but awesome week. I guess i'l start out with the juicy, toe surgery details...
So i went in on Friday for a procedure i thought i have had in the past, where they numb my toe and then cut away some skin and remove the part of the nail that is causing the problem. BUT. this time he said that he was gonna do a more permanent fix and go to the root of the toenail. So it was really kind of funny cuz they made a big deal of it. I had to change into the classic operation robes and go to the back area where all the operating rooms are, then i had to lie on a table in a freezing OR with only a thin blanket for an hour while the doctor finished up an operation for another person. So he finally came in and the operation went smoothly. He ended up cutting far enough so he could reach the source of the toenail, and cut out about a 1/4 of my right big toenail. he says that it will not grow back, and that the skin will just grow over where the nail used to be. I got stitches fro where he cut the skin, and actually i have not yet seen my toe, as it has been wrapped in thick bandages since the operation. it was just kind of funny to me cuz i thought i would just have a quick ten minute procedure in a normal patient room, but it turned into a 3 hour ordeal haha. So tomorrow i go back to the hospital to change my dressings, and i will get a chance to see it then. it has healed quite nicley and i only have pain if i try to bend my toe, which pulls on the stitches. so i am able to walk, but my doctor said i should try not to put any unnecessary pressure on it. So thats that.

it was i guess good timing though cuz last Tuesday E Loke crashed his bike due to some guys who thought it would be funny to drive super close to him and then scream in his ear... luckily his crash wasnt very serious, but he fell pretty hard on his right knee, and it has the gnarliest bruise haha. so this has been a very cacat week haha.

But despite that we were able to meet a few new people from some very fast and efficient door knocking haha. Also on Thurs we had mission tour and Elder Gong of the General 70 came and had a conference with Kuching/Sibu zone. He was way awesome, and he like met us each personally and it was crazy cuz when he shook our hands he would straight into our eyes (souls) as our district leaders gave a brief biography about us. really kind and genuinely loving man. very powerful when he spoke. other than that we have unfortunately been stuck in the house, only leaving when we have to.

Today we get transfer news and we are dying with anticipation haha. E Loke and I have been pretty sure that we will be seperated, but some recent developments may say otherwise. anyways i guess its missionary stuff haha.

To answer your question mom, yes i write an email letter to Pres Mains each week. our zone leaders do just that haha. They lead the zone and give training once a month. they go on exchanges with the District Leaders. i dont know, macam macam sahaja

This just in. I will be training in Samarahan. So i will go to Singapore this week again haha to pick him up. i think they way they do it now is we wont find out until we get there or something. pretty cool though!

not much else to share though haha. they will be adding a couple companionships to Kuching. E Loke is going to be Zone Leader in Sibu zone. a very young zone leader, so thats exciting.

ok, have fun translating the little bits of malay, google translate does an ok job haha

Love you,

Elder Giblette

heading into surgery...

aftermath. not much pain though :)

Pictures

spraying my bike again. a nice mature black this time.

meetin up wit the guys in Singapore. the tall guy in the middle is super goofy and from canada

Elder Loke's Godmother who took us out to an awesome dinner

Elder Mayo n me (looks JUST like Kellen i swear) he has a beautiful singing voice

Singapore zoo!

drivin in the outback

the tree E Loke painted for family history in Kuching

The senior couple (Neislons) that are going back home in a couple weeks. they threw a super nice going away party for them

Back to the ol grind

well this week was a bit disappointing despite the awesome zone conf in Singapore. We came back to find that all the appointments we had hoped to set didnt end up happening haha, and also one of the new families we found already no longer wants to meet... She explained that she talked to her bro-in-law who was a member, but has recently married into Islam (an unfortunate story in and of itself) and said she was not ready to "try out a religion with new ordinances" We had just stopped by her place to say hi and confirm our appointment, but instead we talked for about 20 mins trying to convince her to let us come back and explain about all the new things she heard about.. But alas, she is one of the rare people we meet who firmly tell us they do not want to meet any longer. Agency is tough sometimes haha... Hopefully this week we will be able to meet with the other families and help them progress towards better lives with their Savior. Also, tonight we will be meeting with a part-member family. A member brought her non-member husband to church the last two weeks, and they are enthusiastic about having us over! so we are definitely excited about that.

SO AWESOME to hear about all the missionary work YOU guys are doing! Just pray for those you have in mind, and know that helping them feel the Spirit is the most important thing :)

So in Singapore this week Loke and I were pampered quite nicely haha. So his mother and father both served in this mission back in the 80s, and his mom has a few best-friend-former-companions living in singapore. One of them is officially Loke's Godmother, and she really wanted to bring us out for dinner. So we went to a place called Nando's, which is a South African chicken grill. SO DELICIOUS! possibly the nicest meal ive ever had hahah, definitely the best in my mission. so the real pampering came when she took us to the grocery store and told us to take anything and everything haha. of course we were each a bit shy, and after taking a few items, we thought we were done, but she literally started putting things into our basket cuz she said we hadnt taken enough...! haha so we each got like $50 of groceries, mostly snacks haha cuz we had to travel back with em. Then she gave each of us Ungpau. Ungpau is a chinese tradition of giving an offering of money during Chinese New Year. She gave me SD $50!!! hahaha so sweet. Loke got much more but I was surprised to get any at all haha. Shes very wealthy and is a Singaporean, but has lived in Shanghai for the last 17 years. But she is super nice, NOT cuz of the copious amount of money she spent on us though hahah.

NO mom did not inform me of the baptism you guys had! haha in the future if either of you think the other has already told me about something, assume the opposite, and just tell me haha. who was baptized? do you guys have two sets of missionaries now?

Pretty average zone conf, themed on Repentance and using the Book of Mormon. The Malay version should be arriving in April or May, and Pres Mains told us about the ordering process, explaining why there was a recent delay. So when they print various versions of the BofM, they just set each language on a schedule, say every 3 months, instead of printing on demand. So we were supposed to be printing in December, but there was a problem and then we had to wait till March. So Pres Mains told us that usually there are orders of 4000 copies, but Pres mains insisted on 10,000 copies! also telling us of the initiative to hand out one copy of the BofM each day. saying that if this happens, 10,000 copies should last about one year. haha idk where they are going to keep all those books! but the prospect of having them within a months time is certainly exciting! E Tyler told we that you can get for some app on iPhone, and that a member had it. He, E Tyler, read it and said it was much much easier to understand than the current Indonesian version we use now. I cant wait!

not much else to share this week, hopefully next week I will have good things to report! There are transfers next week, but there are also some problems with Americans in Sabah, and they may end up sending all the natives into Sabah, so it is looking like I will stay in Kuching and train! we'll see next week though!

Love you all!

Elder Giblette

Pictures

us chillin at a chinese temple.

pull-up bar. yup i actually exercise. sorry dad this is probly the most "normal" smile i have haha. normal smiles are boring, but i'll make sure to take one this week in Singapore haha

some fish.

riding back at night, pitch black

service activity folding donated clothes at a blind center

fried dough.

Miracles Week!

Hello,

So as the subject bar tells, this has been a week with many miracles! We were set back a little though because one of my toenails is getting ingrown again... dont worry though its all being taken care of. i visited a specialist clinic and he got some antibiotics goin. he said the infection needs to be reduced/taken care of before he can do the surgery of cutting away the nail. i have actually been quite pleased and surprised at the rate of recovery. on thurs my toe was wuite swollen but now it is barley swollen at all. So i will have to wait till after Singapore to go back to the clinic to get the procedure done. I assure you that I am taking care of it with all due diligence haha.

So the beginning of the week was wuite slow and nothing was really happening, then on thurs a man we knocked into about 3 weeks ago called us and invited us over to "come and pray" for his family. we were of course quite excited at the chance to meet with him again, and we had a really good lesson with them. We met his wife, and they also have three young children. they are probly the two nicest people I have ever met. Very strong in the Anglican beliefs, with family members and his father being priests. but we shared the Restoration and they are wiling to continue meeting with us. Family #1; Richard and Suzanna. While knocking on doors we saw a group of about 6 young guys (in their 20s, usually the hardest contacting situation ) we were both ready to just walk past them, but i felt that we should overcome our experience with contacting such a demographic..in the end one of them said we could come to his house on Sun, which we did. We met his sweet wife and they have SIX kids! we had an awesome lesson with them as well. Family #2; Culin and Lina. We have also been trying to get a return appointment with another couple who have several children. He kind of has a varying work schedule and it has been tough to keep appts. but on Sun after meeting Culin and Lina, we were checking some sweet 3D pictures a chinese man was selling, when John, our investigator walked up to us and said hello! we were by the market which is close to his house, and he just happened to be shopping at the time we were there, looking at 3D pictures hahaha! so we set another appt for this Tueseday which I think we will be able to keep. Family #3; John and Natalya. ALSO, we always see a small Nigerian boy kicking a soccer ball around the our apartment complex, so one day we decided to ask him where he lives and if we could meet his parents. WE did and they are an awesome Nigerian couple. Patrick, the father, is getting his PHD in computer science and also lecturing as part of his scholarship. We had our fist lesson with them last night and they are super smart and faithful and awesome with two kids! Family #4; Patrick and Joy.

So basically this week i have gone from never really teaching a family to having 4 pretty solid families to teach! It has been a super week and many time we feel that we dont really even have to do much. Just as long as we are out of our house haha, the Lord just puts people in front of us. Often times we joke because we will usually come home and not even have sweat on our brows hahaha.

A really funny story as well: we were walking out to lunch when a tenant of our aprt complex drove in, but he stopped as he passed us. He told us to follw him to his parking spot cuz he wanted to talk to us. I had met this guy before and I knew he was a Muslim, we'll call him Rob, so I kind of braced from another scolding haha. But it was the exact opposite! He said that before when he lived in Canada, two of his tenants were missionaries! He said he knew who we were and what we were doing, and he continued to insist on bringing us around to several Christian houses he knew of in the complex. one house was the Nigerian family, who we had JUST talked to, so that was funny and awkward. (keep in mind that Rob has the funniest accent i have ever heard; Canadian, Bangladeshian, and Scottish... I swear) one house nobody was home, and then another house he started knocking on the door, and then he just opened the door haha. there were about 7 Iban girls inside, who were of course very confused but then, knowing that Rob was a bit crazy, settled down haha. We contacted them and apologized for Rob's disturbance haha. They said they understood and a couple of them seemed mildly interested in our message. So we were ready to go eat when Rob came out of his house holding his 5 month old baby. He said that we wanted us to come in, but since his wife was busy, he could not entertain us. But he told us that his baby cries a lot at night and that he felt like there were bad spirit causing the crying. He said that he knew we were men of God and he wanted us to "pray for his baby." Loke said it was ok, even though Rob is Muslim, but he insisted I do it haha. So i gave a prayer for the baby and the family. He thanked us and also gave us each can of Sprite! So for the first time and probly the last time, we got some referrals from a Muslim man hahah! very funny and unique experience

E Loke and I are just having a blast, especially now that our investigator pool is really growing. Our sarcasm has gotten to the point where we cant really talk to each other seriously haha


So in response to your "concerns" dad, I guess I can take a chance to share what my mission has done to ME so far.. Despite all the good things I have done for people around me, I can honestly say that I have been the most affected. My desire and skills in studying the scriptures are at their peak. I look forward each day to having an hour to myself to study. I feel the Spirit more in my everyday life than I ever have before. I know with an absolute surety that this church is true and that the Book of Mormon was translated by Joseph Smith, and is a true record of the people described therein. And by knowing this book is true, I know that Joseph Smith was called to be the Prophet of the Restoration. Reading the Doctrines of Salvation books has increased my knowledge about how to gain salvation, and more importantly the seriousness of what I need to do and keep doing until I leave this earth. The Plan of Salvation makes so much sense, intellectually and spiritually that anyone who understands it is crazy to not believe it! I really feel that whatever little I knew about the Gospel before has been multiplied many times over, and that I am really rooted in the Gospel now. I dont really see ANYthing that could shake my faith, and I am excited to later become "that awesome member the missionaries love" I guess more than anything I know my role as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and that being such a member is NOT a small thing. I thank Heavenly Father everyday for the time I have now to be His missionary.

In other news, E Loke and I are really looking forward to Zone Conf in Singapore. almost all the missionaries are going to the zoo for a zone activity. So i will get another chance to go there! hopefully it wont rain like last time! Its always fun to meet up with other elders. unfortunately I wont be seeing Tyler or Trotter or Tadius, as they are in the other Conf.

Cool to hear about the big addition to MN mission. we will be getting a big shipment at the end of March. I've heard about 20 are coming. so the mission will be packed until May when about 20 go home. Probly not a significant increase in sister cuz the sisters' areas are kind of limited. They have to stay in the bigger cities cuz its pretty dangerous to have to white girls walking arould Malaysia haha. Kuching zone has four sisters.

So the mini war in Sabah is a pretty big deal. of course we are only able to learn what people tell us. The center of the conflict is very close to Tawau, only about 2 hrs away. I imagine the elders in Tawau are being effected, cuz Tawau is the portal for the Malaysian troops to get into that area. WE are not really sure about all the details though. Pretty much what you told me we already knew. Philippino rebels or something like that. Loke in the meantime has been laughing at his country due to the slowness and ineffectiveness of the military/police forces. I think about 15 malaysians have been killed. its all over the news though. this is pretty much the first conflict that has ever been in malaysia though. Everyone always asks, "have you heard anything about the war?" (the funny part is that they call it a war....) Pres Mains hasnt told us anything, and it will only affect the elders in sabah, and there probly only the Tawau elders.

Also, last week we went bowling and i crushed my high scores, one after another; 173, 183, 193, then 224!!!! ya im pretty much a pro haha. we are gonna go again today :)

thats i think truly ALL the news i can write about haha. I love you all. take pictures of the snow for me before its all gone!!!

Elder Giblette

Ignorance

Pretty average week this week. ups n downs as usual i suppose. Franklin and Chen dropped us unfortunately. they talked to their parents about being baptized, and of course their parents said no, and not to meet with us anymore... I think later in their life they will meet the elders again and they will be far from the influence of their families. We have planted a big seed so i guess that was our duty with them. In exchange for them we have found a large number of new potential people. finding extra success in knocking doors. I think it really helps having a native with me. actually no im SURE it helps haha. even though he's chinese, and Chinese here generally dont speak Malay, it helps for people to see someone from Malaysia with the white guy. Niga continues to come to church. this past week we taught him how to fast and we all fasted for him to be able to keep from smoking. we actually talked about giving him a blessing mom, so i guess it was inspired haha! thats about it for missionary work this week.
Our work is slowly growing and Im confident that as our companionship grows better so will our progress in Samarahan. there is a Malaysian idiom that must have been inspired by the Spirit haha: little by little, after a long time becomes a hill. (it works better in Malay haha) but the same principle as line upon line, precept upon precept.

funny story though from knocking doors. So whenever we knock doors, we are always looking at the house to see what race the people are (looking to see if they are Muslim or not) of course we just walk past the definite Muslim houses. so we knocked on one door, and a guy came out, almost jovially, "Hello Brother! What can I do for you?" we explained that who we were and he immediately went into "offense" mode haha. explaing that it was against Malaysian rule to knock on peoples' doors, no matter what theyre religion. Saying we should just go to the church of we want to talk to people haha. "Beware, you cannot come into a respective area like this and disturb our privacy" haha so he spoke pretty good Englsih actually, but had some faults. the best part was that he was only talking to me, not E Loke, the native. probly assuming that Loke knew what he was doing, and that he could intimidate the foreigner. So he ended by saying that if he saw us again knocking doors, he would call the police. so i just grinned and said ok, really trying hard no to laugh haha. so we just went to the next street and kept knocking. THEN two days later he drove past us while we were knocking, and he kind of pointed at us with that "tisk tisk" kind of face. so we jsut started walking out, and he just passed us without saying anything. THEN this morning haha we were walking through the neighborhood to get to the bus stop, and he drove by and stopped, asking, "brother, where are you going? are you knocking on doors again?" haha so i said, "yes, but not in this area. now we are walking to the bus stop" he then continued to give us esentially the same lecture as last time, but this time adding, "you are ruining the harmony of this place. we do not need you. go back to America if you want to talk!" haha so we paid less attention nd kind of started walking away as he was finishing up. Again, he made sure not to speak to E Loke. So the funny thing about all this is that it is perfectly ok for us to knock on peoples' doors. I think he is just put off by Americans or Christians. But E Loke says if we run into him again, E Loke is going "to scold him" haha and tell him that HE is the one disturbing us now haha. i hope we run into him again. jsut to see what happens haha. and who knows, maybe we end up in jail haha. (fingers crossed)


So that story was longer than i anticipated haha. oh well. a funny story that is possibly not over haha. Next week we will go to Singapore. the week of the 22 we have transfers again, and a new shipment of missionaries. about 20 ive heard. not an abnormal amount, but the mission will be packed until the big group of 19 goes home in May. Super exciting and cool to heazr about the huge influx of new missionaries. I definitely agree with E Oaks in saying that it also puts a bigger responsibility on members worldwide. truly member referrals are what make the church grow the fastest.

last week i did not beat my high score, but i got 164, close. E Loke enjoyed bowling so much we are goin again today haha. so hopefully i can beat my high score. its fun to play in proselyting clothes haha. I have to say I dont feel sorry for you at the prospect of another big snowstorm. i would kill somebody for snow. maybe. cold is good. year round same temperature is BORING. luckily i wont have to miss another winter!

welp. thats about it for this week.

i love you all! take pictures of the snow for me!

Elder Giblette


Pizza Hut!

Birthday meals!!

priesthood fireside

shared birthday cake. Bro Senen also birthday on Feb 26th!!!

Elder Loke is the BEST

Hello everyone,
This week has been fantastic! E Loke was just the companion i needed after having a lazy comp, then a crazy comp haha. We get along very well, sarcasm all day everyday. WE even have a similar taste in music, and I've discovered that the music people like is a good indicator of their personality and how well i can get along with them.

So E Loke is from Kuala Lumpur (KL) and he is like a normal person haha. basically KL and a couple other cities are like "above" malaysia standard. He had a car, had friends, a girlfriend, stuff that normal people have haha. not that i liked E Tadius any less, but its cool to have a Malaysian comp that is affluent in society, and has definite plans to go study at BYU Hawaii. This Sunday he cooked chicken curry, but he did it basically "stew-style" and it was so good. and quite simple. so i should be able to cook some curry and other malaysian dishes when i come home.

The work this week has been a bit slow. the guy, Niga, who was supposed to be baptised smoked this past week so we could not baptize him. he has basically been lying to us about his smoking, but i think it was mostly cuz he didnt want to disappoint us, not just so he could get baptized. but luckily he confessed during his interview. so we will continue working with him and I think we will try to have stop smoking a whole month before his baptism. WE also had a good couple of lessons with Franklin and Chen, and they are doing very well. both smart, and they both know that an answer about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon will come from reading and praying. they are on date to be baptized on April 21. we are very excited about them as they are basically our only investigators besides Niga. a lot of door knocking and no fruits, but that ok. we followed one of our members to his home teaching families. it was his first time doing it and he was very nervous. but he was completely natural at it and he said he felt really good about visiting these three less-active families. even though they didnt come to church this week, we reassured him that his visiting was a big deal.
This week we plan on trying to visit a lot of members and finding some less actives. we are going to try to shift our focus to members in an attempt to get referrals. i think because of my time in Sitiawan, i basically just gave up on asking fro referrals, cuz they're werent really any members to ask haha. So there we just sucked it up and knocked doors all day. Here there are plenty of doors to knock, but there are also plenty of members who have friends and family. so I will be learning how to better work with members with E Loke. He's about 6 months into his mission, but he was trained very well and our teaching styles melded quite easily. even from the first lesson we taught together, it was very natural. So yes, all aspects of my new companionship are better than my last one haha.
the grass really is greener on the other side.

So today we are gonna go bowling again, so maybe i can top my high score again. i think tomorrow (my birthday) E Loke and i will enjoy a nice Pizza Hut lunch, so thatll be fun. Also probly go shopping for some new pants, possibly a souvenir. then enjoy a nice FHE with our branch president. many pictures to come. i actually dont think i have a picture of E Reid, let alone one with both of us. Already have a bounteous supply with E Loke cuz last week he bought a superrrrr nice camera, and we have been taking sweet pictures all week haha. also it has like high-speed video capabilities, so we have been having ALOT of fun with that.

So i have some time finally to tell you a bit about Kuching/Samarahan now haha. so Kuching is the capitol city of Sarawak, and is a pretty nice, developed, rich city. basically Kuching is where all the Iban people (and any other "village living" people) who have dreams, motivations, or aspirations of a better life come. So we are usually able to find much more educated people compared to other areas of Sarawak. Samarahan is in a different division of Sarawak, about 40 mins from the downtown of Kuching. On google maps I actually dont think we are near to the area which is designated as "Samarahan," so its a bit tricky to find on google maps. Samarahan is very spread out, and in its infant stages of development. basically a suburban area, but empty haha. there are basically three spots in our area that have shops, restaurants, and housing. so most of our efforts are concentrated on these few spots. Our members are spread out, and most live in kampung (village) areas. We are moving away form these areas cuz they have poor people who cant get themselves to church... its still rainy season. doesnt rain very hard, but usually every day we'll get at least a couple hours or rain. its really just annoying cuz itll be sunny one hour, and then itll be on/off rainy for a few hours. but not a big eal, just normal weather problems haha. as hot as always in beautiful Malaysia haha. We work mostly with Iban people, who make up the majority of native Sarawakians. but there is also a decent amount of Bidayuh people. who are also native Borneo people. they are generally much more educated and faithful as Christians. tougher to baptize, but much better in terms of "quality" members.

I thank you for your loving thoughts and I assure you that I am doing welll. I just sincerely hope that E Reid can kind of figure things out. It doesnt look like he'll be going home. He has since apologized, and I think he is a bit more stable. hopefully nobody gets punched haha. this can kind of count as "that big trial" that you wanted me to have dad. i didnt get lost in the jungle or thrown in jail, but something equally challenging i guess haha. I am very sorry to hear about the Eaves, and of course times like these give us a chance to turn back to the Lord, and to remember that He is in control. They will be in my prayers :)

SOOO exciting about all the missionaries! i cant believe Kari is going to FINLAND!!! thats basically exactly where i wanted to go back when i wanted to choose my mission haha. at least in the MTC, Finnish is considered the most difficult language to learn. So she will have challenges ahead of her, but of course they will be fun and exciting challenges!

I love you all and I am excited to have my LAST birthday as a missionary haha.

Elder Giblette

Pictchas

just bein a goon i guess

same eyes!

elder Loke trting to be cool, me puttin on my "fed-up" face hahah (face unintentional)


takin a poo in the field! just kidding

elder Loke and I being awesome

Love One Another

ok. big week this week. plus this keyboards space bar is crappy so if there are words without spaces, forgive me.

My new comp is E Loke. He is from KL (Kuala Lumpur). he is chinese and speaks perfect English, mandarin, malay, cantonese, and hokian. all the languages you need to succeed in malaysia haha. Hes super cool and has been in the mission almost 6 months. very smart, funny, way good companion already. much different experience from tadius, who was only malay.

so in other news, the work was hindered due to transfers and getting punched, but this upcoming week should have Niga baptized and other people progressing towards baptism. If i havent told you about Niga let me know.

crazy story about that cruise ship haha. money refunded?

So cool to hear about all the missionaries from Burnsville ward! i cant wait for them to possibly email me haha. i have seen that my release date if Feb 6 of next year, but it is definitely subject to change. i dont really know though. i am excited for my package :) i think zone conference will be in the middle of March.

our branch here is good, few members, but a good percentage that have been to the temple.

sorry for the short email, but this week has mostly been filled with drama haha. just know im doing well and that the workis slowlygettin better.

I love you all!
Elder Giblette

a slice of MN in Malaysia, and a slice of Chinese New Year cake...aka a piece of rubber