New Companion + Pics

hello semua

well it finally happened, elder Trotter was transferred and i got a new companion. Trotter went to Miri, Sarawak. still in Borneo, just in another state of Malaysia. speaking of that, Sarawak, the other of two states in Eastern Malaysia, Sarawak wants to basically be its own country. so usually if elders have problems moving between countries its because of sarawak. haha anyways my companion is a native! His name is Elder Tadius, and he's from KK, the big city in the state of Sabah, in Eastern Malaysia. he's really not very far from home haha. he can understand most of my enlgish, but he only likes speaking in Malay. so I guess you could say my language is gonna be pretty dang good haha. he's pretty short, and stocky too. it'll be nice to know that i can basically try to explain anything i can think of in a lesson, and know that my companion will be able to clear up any confusion.

so after a while i will probably have some of the best Malay in the mission because Western Malaysia basically doesnt speak Malay, ever, and Sarawak's Malay is only "pure" in the big city of Kuching. there is a tribe of people throughout Malaysia, from the state of Sarawak, called Ibans. they basically speak a dialect of Malay that sounds like malay, just totally unknown words haha. anyways the state i am in, Sabah, is considered to have the most pure Malay. pretty exciting.

it is to be predicted by elder Tadius and Trotter, that i will likely stay in Tawau for quite some time. there is large group coming in in August, and they both think i will be a trainer then. (it is not rare for a missionary to become trainer after 6 months in the field) anyways that still seems far off so i dont really think about it.

this transfer also means that i'm now alot more responsible for the work here in Tawau for a bit until Elder Tadius becomes more familiar with the area and the members and the investigators. it makes me way stressed out if i think about it too much, but i've definitely gained the skill of not letting myself think about EVERYthing, but rather focusing what needs to happen today, or tomorrow. later on with experience i think i'll be goos at planning farther ahead. it's also good because Malaysians themselves only plan a day or two in advance haha.

i have recently gained a testimony and experience in how quickly the Spirit can come when i am willing to love. Love everything. investigators, members, all you guys. when we genuinely love each other, and really just want to help, the Spirit comes and people can feel that. I think that's one of the most important aspects of teachings people. if we show them love, and let them know that we only want to teach them how they can improve their lives, they will be much more likely to keep commitments. if they dont feel it is important, or if they feel they are doing it for the elders, they will do it.

oh ya haha we had another baptism on saturday. her name is Paulina, i got the do the ordinance again :D with Paulina, shes about 50, (looks like 40 at oldest) she didnt really seem to understand the purpose of all our lessons, didnt seem to get the WHY. probably about three weeks before her baptism, we taught her the Restoration again, and for some reason, that time it just clicked for her, and everything after that, the commandments, whatever, was smooth sailing for her. she's really faithful and sweet. her daughter, Shelly, started learning at the same time, and lately has been less enthusiastic about meeting and learning. but i think her mom being baptized has been a great example to her and i'm pretty sure she will be baptized eventually.

always love hearing about stuff at home. i think at this point going fishing sounds like the most fun haha. hopefully you guys will get to go out a lot this summer.

Love,
Elder Giblette

haha so the one is a bunch of dudes we found that literally look like they're from the 80s right?! haha they got on the bus and it was just like one after the other these guys with this hair. i couldnt help but start laughin and i finally just asked them if their hair was real or not. one guy was like, in english, "YES! YES! YES! NO! NO! ROCK NOT DEAD!" hahahahah idk why he ever said no, why he yelled. idk know why any of them were doing what they were doing hahaha. but they ended up getting off at the same bus stop as us and we got this gnarly radical wicked picture. they told us they were going to a music studio you can like rent out and "just jam" haha so trotter and i figured they are either really good, or really bad haha

 

Paulina, who was baptized Saturday

 

ALL of the young men in the branch with Trotter

June 6th

hello all!
its been a great week! a busy week! an exhausting week! we had 21 lesson taught with a member present, as well as other lessons. but last year, for the area of Tawau, the record for member presents was 10, and we got 21!!!! so needless to say we were quite busy. its weird having p-day on wednesday because this next week is like half over already, so i end up writing about last week 1/2...? anyways the baptism for Ling-Ling went very well. i got to baptize her! it was really sweet to be able to do the ordinance, let alone in another language hahaha. but ya her mother came. and this is kinda crazy. while ling-ling's mother knew she was taking the lessons, she did not know it was leading up to baptism. and Ling-Ling was keeping that a secret from her mother. and then her mother shows up separately from Ling-Ling haha. i guess ling-ling's aunt had talked to her and gotten her to come. but Ling-Ling was all scared that her mother was gonna freak out or something, so she like talked to her mom before we started and everything was ok. her testimony is really strong and she was really ready to be baptized. also she's a lot more educated and intellectual about everything, most people dont really or arent able to connect all the lessons together hahah.

transfer news will be given this weekend so we will know whats happening. i dont want Elder Trotter to go haha because i feel like i'm just getting used to teaching with him, and getting used to missionary work in general with him, and now he might leave! but of course i'll be ready and willing to work just as hard if i get a new comp!

i might get the package before my visa run, but otherwise it will be fine waiting in Singapore. that will probly be the case because it is somewhat heavy. anyways i cant wait to get it!

i really do keep you in my prayers mommy! i dont like hearing that youre in pain either haha! but i know you're strong and this will all be cleared up. i know this is a short message but i dont really feel like i have much else to share haha. it's kinda hard because i really want to try to share my experiences with everyone in a way that they can kinda experience what i'm experiencing, but i konw that cant really be done so its whatever.

enjoy the pics haha. and tell ali to get on updating the blog haha! maybe kellen could post the pictures i send home on my facebook. you should have the info :D

Love you all!

Elder Giblette

May 31st

hello all!
sorry to have been keeping you on your seats haha! so last week with the late email, no worries, that was cleared by our zone leaders. also this week we went on splits yesterday with the APs for our p-day, so our p-day just got moved to today. i truly appreciate your concern and council though
so last week and this week have been pretty dang exciting as far as the work is concerned! we will be having a baptism for one of our investigators this saturday! her name is Ling-Ling, shes like 22 and phillipino, but born here in tawau, so her malay is really really good, and she can understand a lot of english. we're really excited for her because shes already made some big changes in her life. but she's definitely ready and its gonna be great. basically all of our current investigators are from referrals, and i can now testify to the importance of finding people through investigators and members. i really want to share about all the people we're teaching but it would literally take hours haha. i guess a summary could be that almost all our investigators are very solid, they keep their commitments, last week we had a record number of investigators at church for me and E. Trotter, 8! they enjoy reading from the scriptures. we're jsut enjoying a decent sized pool of investigators that are all very good :)
today i will go to a shop and should get some more definitive news about my camera. last week at semporna we went to that big hill i told you about. also went to a place called floating with the see through floors as hotel rooms and they also have a place with some good sized fish there. tried to look for some good souvenir shops and failed haha. it's too touristy so the shop have all this cheap crap haha. the town smaller than Tawau, and i guess semporna is more like the portal town to get to the diving city. its a cool drive out from Tawau though because you go through some palm oil plantation country and a little bit of jungle also.


ya so the only thing i wanted to add to the package list was those razors. ya im excited though.


so as far as transfer news is concerned it's startin to look like Trotter will be transferred to a zone leader postion. that'll be in two weeks when a very large chunk of elders will be going home. thats basically how the transfer cycles work here. every three months when new elders come in, is when elders get shuffled around. it's lookin like trotter and i will be able to go on a visa run at the same time, so that'll be fun. the senior couple is the Atkinsons. generally senior couples stay in one area their whole mission so they are going anywhere haha. its not that rare to have just us and the senior couple. our area is not really that big, so having more elders wouldnt really be that helpful. i guess when this was english speaking they had two sets of elders and a set of chinese speakers here in Tawau. i cant imagine that lasted long though because there just arent really enough people to support that.

as much as i dont mention it in my emails, i really do appreaciate hearing about whats goin on at home! however boring it may seem to you haha. mom i'm sorry to hear about your pains! i will keep you in my prayers! maybe this is the Lord's way of showing you you work out too much and you're too hard on you body hahaha. just kiddin mommy! i havent really taken any pictures because the senior couples im borrowing isnt very good haha. so hopefully i'll get something figured out soon.

i know i didnt answer all your questions haha but i still love you mom!

love,

Elder Giblette

May 24th

Hello!

it seems like its been forever since i emailed! but ya yesterday we went to semporna finally, and it was pretty sweet. the places we were told about were definitely over hyped but we still had a good time. i didnt see anything about diving really, but thats because the diving spots are still a little ways from the semporna city area. but we went to a little place where you could look at fish and the water is pretty dang clear.

Elder Trotter actaully renewed his the same week he picked me up so we'll probly go to Singapore at the same time. normally i'm not sure what they do. i'd probly go somewhere or stay with the senior couple for a few days. idk haha.

that scripture about the sticks is really cool. i've definitely come to know that scripture a lot better. unfortunately people just arent that educated or are not very familiar with the Bible for us to use that scripture. we really do have to teach in the simplest way possible. the mosquitos are slim to none. unless you go into the jungle, then the bugs get pretty annoying, but nothing absurd. last P-day we went on a little jungle trek in like a state park type of deal, but it stunk because we kinda went late and didnt have enough time to get to any of the places we wanted to see, so it just like an hour and a half of walking through the jungle on muddy paths. which was still pretty cool.my "bidet" situation is pretty great, i cant lie. i'm definitely used to it. to the point where i do not enjoy the rare occasion i have to use TP.

Ok this is going to sound bad but dont fret over it. my camera, while on the jungle trek, straight up stopped working. i didnt drop it, didnt get it wet. at first it said the battery was dead, but i had a full charge. i'm pretty sure its the camera, not the battery thats the problem. so the camera will just not turn on. theres a place here in tawau that might be able to help out. otherwise i actually have a warranty for the place in singapore, so if nothing turns out before i go back i should be able to figure something out in singapore. so dont worry as of now. the senior couple has an extra camera they are letting me borrow so thats nice.

i cant think of anything else! if you think have any questions or problems about the package just email me and we can wait to send it until after next week when i can email again.

love you all!
Elder Giblette

Hike and Monkey

ya so in Semporna we climbed this really tall, steep hill (using stairs) that was supposed to have a cave with skeletons in it. turns out there isnt really anything except huge rocks ontop of a tall hill haha. but it was cool cuz we found a little outcrop with a sweet view and just kinda chilled an chatted there. also have some pictures from my jungle trek. also have that monkey. there were just a bunch of monkeys hangin out in front of the restaurant we ate at. i got like within two feet of one. pretty sweeeet!

Elder Gibbs

One Month in the Field!

Hello!
got a pretty awesome story from this week! so we started teaching a girl, Riza, on Sunday who we had "met" on Saturday. I say "met" because we were at a recent converts house and she showed up but we didnt talk to her. we were at the house to fill out a baptismal record with a npw recent convert. anyway later on saturday we got a call from one of our recent converts saying that girl that we didnt talk to wanted to learn. She couldnt meet saturday night so we asked her if Riza could come to church. and she did! without even talking to us yet haha. so after church we taught her and she was very accepting of the first lesson. So we taught her again on Monday night, and she told us about a dream she had: "Friday night i dreamed that i met a girl that i had never met before, and this girl told me she was going to tanjong batu, -which is the road that leads to the church here in Tawau. Riza did not know this- so i followed this girl..." this is basically all she remembered from the dream. So that was friday night and then she saw us saturday, and then on Sunday when she went to church, she recognized the road she saw in her dream. She told us about all the feelings she ha when she first met us, and on her way to church. all very cool! shes very faithful and basically we just have to teach her all the lesson material.

thats the cool story for this week haha. so today we are flying out to Sibu, Sarawak for an "all eastern malaysia conference" we will be there from today and then coming back to Tawau saturday afternoon. itll be cool to finally meet other missionaries haha. a lot of them i will be meeting in their dying days. around june i guess the mission is gonna be "flipped upside down" because like half the zone leaders are goin home, so this will be a very young mission pretty soon. haha doesnt really mean a lot to me cuz ive been here for a month.

oh so will hopefully be buying an external hardrive this week while in sibu. probly about $100 USD so i thought id just give a heads up on that. Elder trotter recommends i have one so i dont have to worry about running out of space for pictures n stuff. so that'll be nice to have.

ya so those lizards are monitor lizards. i havent seen any really big ones yet, but trotter says he has seen like a five 1/2 footer! the biggest ive seen was like 3 feet. they usually stay in the gutters yes. they are all afraid of humans so theres no danger of attack haha. ya i bought those sandals. pretty nice for just wearing around the house. my feet are doing quite well actually! ya so the Tawau area is really really big, but we dont use the whole area because nobody has a way to get to church other than bus or taxi. rarely do they own cars. rarely. but ya semporna is actually in my area. so hopefully next week we get to go. biking, usually not THAT much. but sometimes itll be a ton of biking, and sometimes none at all. we usually bike to all our appointments, except we have like three investigators we take the bus to.

ok so for mothers day, it would be better if we could talk monday (US) tuesday for me. because trotters family cant talk sunday (US) but if sunday night works out better for you thats ok. we will just have to do separate days, which is fine. whichever day it turns out to be, it will be about 7PM US time. so im pretty sure sunday will work out better, butif everyone can talk on monday night that would be a little easier for us. i also bought a calling card so i can call ali or carson if he cant come. so i guess there isnt really a time limit, but i estimate we'll be able to talk for about 2 hours! i'm super excited!

so you should respond ASAP cuz i will be able to check my email later this week. i may even end up calling you to confirm our plans haha

ok, love you all and cant wait to talk!

Elder Giblette

May Day

hello all!

this week has been pretty great so far. although we were planning on going to semporna today the guy who wanted to take us doesnt have his phone on and we're planning to leave in like an hour and a half... hopefully itll work out cuz we have been pumped to go since last week! anyways thanks to everyone who wrote me, i cannot express how great it is to hear from anyone and everyone! 

So on saturday we are having two baptisms! these i will have actually been apart of teaching! one lady is the sister of that really short lady,  and the other is an indonesian lady that elder trotter had contacted a few weeks before i came. they are both super solid and have been coming to church for like the past 6 weeks. really excited for saturday! 

we are currently teaching a catholic lady who is pretty old but super smart. like really smart and understands how to think about things before she answers. very rarely will we teach someone who can make connections. usually the connection between the power that Jesus held and gave to his apostles, and the authority that power gives to baptize and lead the church. but this lady, her name is Maria, even understands that if the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith must be a prophet. so when we asked her to be baptized, she said she would have to think about it, and read more from the BofM, and then she could answer. this is pretty much better than her saying yes because it means she understands exactly what we are asking. so we're a little nervous for our next meeting but we are hopeful. 

i'll have to take some pictures, but i spray painted my bike last night fluorescent yellow last night haha. this because it will reduce the chances of my bike being stolen haha, also cuz it looks totally sweet now. as for the toilet paper situation, you can ask Kellen about my thoughts on that haha. i'd love to hear from Bro. Gordhammer! it is super sweet that i got called to his area. basically all the members know who they are so thats pretty cool. but ya he is definitely a good source of info about where i am in the world. Tawau definitely has more of a city feel. its not really rural, just kind of like a small city and then a lot of "suburb" area. there are alot of cars and buildings. just malaysian-ized haha. meaning everything is just poor quality haha. 

Dont bother to send any gift cards. i doubt they would work out here, and we dont eat at these places very often. havent even been to pizza hut yet. i guess its just like way to expensive and the pizza isnt that good. but we'll go there eventually. funny story about mcdonalds though this week haha. so we had been waiting in line for about 45 min (normal) and i finally had ordered and right as i payed the power went out! so i was like one of the last people to get my order. Trotter didnt even get to order haha. we thought the power would be out for just a little bit, but they dont have a backup generator so it was gonna be few hours before it got back online haha. pretty funny. even one of the nicest places in Tawau can have a power outage...

thats about all i have this week! i might be sending pictures later today, or later this week. will have some with me in them finally haha

Love you all!

Elder Giblette