3.20.2012

apa khabar ibu and ayah dan adik lelaki?! hopefully I remember to get all the info in today, but more importantly next week as it may conatin vital info haha.

Anyways, firstly thanks for the package! simply amazing! everyone loved the yoyos and they're always suprised to get anything, let alone a yoyo(even though i explicitly said not too hahah) and some candy. they love you so much haha!I just sent a bunch of letters yesterday so hopefully you get it tomorrow? ya about the Malay basics, as soon as i sealed the envelope I thought about a bunch more practical stuff haha. like yes is "ya" (like German- ask Kellen) and no is "tidak" or "bukan" but bukan has a little more specific uses.

As always I love the Dear Elders. I loved the note Sis. Stratman sent. I hope you read it. Awesome. She basically just told me how much she loved and appreciated me and told me some of her favorite scriptures and mission experiences. but I wanted to ask you for the Stratman's home address :D Oh ya and I don't know how I spaced this, but I think like the thrid week I was here the Greenhaughls sent me a package with a journal and candy in it! So sweet. I sent them a letter but next time you talk to Kumi be sure to thank her for me.

 We CANNOT wiat to leave! So many other districts we've become friends with have left in the past few weeks, and we're kind of "alone" here now. Elder Thee in my district is friends with a missionary who got reassigned to Fresno, Cal to wait for his visa. anyways he has been in the field for about a month and he jsut came back to the MTC last night and is going to leave for Samoa (original calling) on Thursday. He was telling us about how much better the field is haha! we seriously can't wait.

Thank you for everything! will have banyak information next week!!!!

Elder Giblette

3.13.2012

Oh my sweet mother! I truly love your efforts in trying to use Malay words haha. I dont know about "sulung" I'm guessing you found that to be "elder", but we actually haven't learned a word for that and I'm pretty sure that we just stay with "elder" haha. sulung probly refers to a physically older person haha. the word for dictionary is kamus, but yes i did receive it I think last tuesday, right after I emailed you and said I hadn't received it haha. So hopefully you haven't been too worried about it this past week. It's the Collins one and it comes highly recommended! so good pick! I love how small it is and compared to other kamus we have it is much clearer. I guess you could call me "anak", but that's technically the term for children in general. Maybe go with putera (whcih means prince, or Holy Son) hahaha no don't use that...that's what we use to refer to Jesus Christ as His Son haha. I guess I would be your anak-lelaki (Child which a boy) if you haven't figured it out yet, Ibu means mother, and Ayah means dad (Bapa is more like father). So we pray to "Bapa kami di Syurga" (Father our in Heaven) I think that's one of the coolest parts of speaking, praying. I feel pretty confident that I'll basically be a fluant prayer when I leave the MTC! and as always i'm constantly amazed at my speaking abilities thus far. Truly there is no other place, no other purpose, and no other way in which someone could learn a language this fast. Our ratio of Gospel vocab to normal vocab is probly around 90 to 10 haha. In lessons, we are quite comfortable, but in normal everday speaking, we seem to have to look up words every other sentence. Most of that you can really only learn over there anyway our cikgu (teachers) say. Also i don't know what "anak muda Pahlawan" is supposed to mean haha.

We ahve not yet received our travel plans, but maybe this week! I almost don't want to get them yet because a missionary's focus inevidibly (spell check that) goes down the toilet once travel plans are received haha. Buty of course I can't wait to get out of the "Spiritual Prison" (just came up with that one) We are pretty sure our total flight/travel/layover will be in the realm of 24 HOURS! AYAH! Elder Reid in my district's dad works in the missionary travel department and the story seems to be that we will go to L.A. and then  go straight to Hong Kong, and then to Singapore, but nobody knows for sure! We're pretty sure we will leave the 2nd, but nothing for sure until we get travel plans.

 haha the time change hit us pretty hard actually. everyone could tell that they lost an hour of precious precious sleep. I think I have gained somewhere in the house of 10 lbs. but I'm not sure cause I didn'y exactly know my weight coming in, and the scale in the gym seem pretty unreliable to me. I am definitely tired of the food haha and certainly ready for what sounds like amazing food in Malaysia.

Welp, I'm outta time! I love you all so much and mom I LOVE the Dear Elders each day. FYI: Saturday at midday is the last time we get mail each weekend, so the weekend DearElders come Mondaty night. Keep em comin haha, I know I'll miss em. Dad, always grateful to read about the outside world haha and love reading your words of wisdom!

Banyak Kasih!

Elder Giblette

3.6.2012

Halo keluarge saya! Saya harap kamu semua hidup baik sekerang! (difficult to say what i was trying to say haha) I've come to find that the hardest part of Malay is that rarely do things we say and the ways we say them in English mean the same thing in Malay. As for the Malay you have used so far mom, about 50/50 haha. I sent a letter yesterday that says this, but when you said "saya cinta awal" (or something liek that) you were saying that you love me with a romantic kind of love hahaha! the word you should use for love is "syang". and the word you can always use for "you" is "kamu".
So i took a video on Sunday (actually a couple) and sent my card with the letter I sent yesterday. Hopefully it doesnt get crushed in the mail haha. i have another card, but it's only a half gig... so just send it back quickly. the letter has further info about that. I wanted to share something awesome I learned about thevery first chapter of the BofM this week. Just in the first 12 verses, we can see a pattern for how the Book of Mormon will be. v. 1: families v.3: keeping a journal v.4: Prophets v.5: Prayer v.6: prophesy v.8: visions v.9: Jesus Christ v.10: Apostles v.11: Scripture and v.12: the Spirit. I think it is so cool how much we learn about how the Lord works from the FIRST 12 verses! Also we learned a lot about the parallel of prophets' experiences throughout the BofM, including Joseph Smith. Both Lehi and Joseph Smith: have a question they cannot find the answer to, they both pray and receive an answer in the form of a vision, they both are charged with important work to do, and they are both harshly ridiculed for what they teach and testify of.
I'm pretty sure I ahve said this about three times already, but Elder Holland spoke to us last week and it was AMAZING. Also the British singer Alex Boye spoke to us on Sunday, but that's for another time haha. Elder Holland, among many other things, said that he "could not care less about whether we ever receive the book of Lehi because the start to the BofM we do have is already so amazing" and he went on to say "It's hard to imagine a better beginning to such an incredible book" The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God. There is simply no other book in the word that can compare to it. It has a completely unique ability to cause us to feel the Spirit and to gain answers to our problems. I am out of time, but I will write a letter this week and hopefully remember to write about this haha.
Elder Giblette
Oh ya i got my pants fixed, i have not gotten the big dictionary, but I am doing okay :)

2.28.2012

Your birthday sounds so awesome! also i sent a long letter yesterday that explains the sunday routine, i talk my teachers, etc. so look forward to that. (it's in English haha)

As far as anything I need, I think I'm good...ya good for now. I dont have many emails this week so i have like 25 mins for this email :D also looking forawrd to the dictionary, hopefully I'll get it today. also got all my birthday stuff

I am seriously learning more than I ever thought possible, I felt like I had a small testimony of the gospel and things, but whatever I had has certainly increased at least 20 fold! the gospel basically boils down faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, and the Book of Mormom, the Book of Mormom, the Book of Mormom, the Book of Mormom. i know we have inspired teachers here because just when I think i have a grip on something or i know everything, they talk about a basic principle in a way that I had never thought about before. Without a testimony of the BofM, people will never truly have faith in any aspect of this church, so I am at least glad I had a pretty firm testimony that the BofM is true. you kind of get thrown into things so fast you don'e have time to build your testimony on your own time. you're expected to have a testimony of everything and to be able to be able to share that testimony with everyone! A huge principle that I struggled with at first is that during personal study time, you dont just read the BofM to study, you need to study it and other things directly for your investigators. by doing this, they told us, we would gain our own knowledge. It was hard and still is to do. but i can testify it's true. Sometimes it's much easier to just read and kind of relax during study time, but that's not what we're here to do.

I know that we absolutley must have a knowledge and testimony of the BofM. i know that it is true, and I know that Joseph Smith translated it. I know Jesus Christ came to earth and suffered for each and every one of us. I know that we can be forgiven of our sins through the redeeming power of His Atonement. i know our Heveanly Father loves us, and that he truly does want us to live with Him again.

Haha it's weird writing it and thinking about it in english beacause as I was writing it I was totally thinking of the Malay words. I think my favorite lesson to teach is the Plan of Salvation, or Rencangan Penyelamatan. I love how exact it is and i also like drawing the plan on a chalkboard haha.

Anyways, I thought about telling you about gym time haha. at first I played four square, and it's fun, but the line usually gets way too long, and it's pretty hard. but i can testify that everything Carson claimed to happen in four square is true haha. I play volleyball now because it's way more fun and you get to play longer. theres an elder in the other Singapore district who played in high school in California. I guess his team, or some team he played on won state and he was the MVP. Anyways he's of course really tall and skinny, but he can spike so well you wouldn't believe haha. Sometimes I swear he just floats above the net. I thought i was pretty good but I can hold my own. last minute! send some picture by mail or email! that tiny one of our family is junk haha!

Love you all, halfway through the MTC!

Elder Giblette

2.21.2012

That's so awesome about the Lowry's being sealed!and awesome to learn new things. thank you for the reminder about garments, sometimes I definitely see when missionaries aren't so careful to remember their importance. The email isn;t working right, so i had to compse a new email and cannot see exactly what to reply to. I'm glad you were able to find a dictionary, I'm sure it will work just fine. we haven't heard anyhitng about ours yet so go ahead and order that one. thanks! it's been frustrating having to share one between the whole district.

bad news haha, long story short I ripped the inseam on one of my slacks! Luckily not one of my suit slacks, but I don;t know if i should take em to the alteration place here, or if i should send them home. let me know! that story about hayden is awesome haha. at least ONE thing good is coming from the xbox. I can't to get my package haha. as for the birthday thing, surprise us on whther its brownies or cupcakse. donuts are actually awesome as well. I love my district/companion more everyday. unfortunately i have gone into negative time, so i must wrap up :/ I will write a letter today so i can write whatever i want haha. sorry to anyone else reading this, i only have a half hour to email so if you would like to hear from me the best way is to write a letter or use the Dear Elder service.

Love you all!

Elder Giblette

2.14.2012

Subject: Re: We're Back!

Hey dad! (and mom) I'm starting to get into the routine of the MTC finally, so now it;s just kind of a matter of time haha. The cruise sounded awesome, especially the part about two old farts body boarding. But that's more fun than what I've ever done in the ocean haha. It's seems hard to imagine you and warren being tossed around hahaha.

So my district is six elders, no sisters. They were originally goin to have one Singapore district, but about half the elders sent in their reception letters so they were only planning on about 8 missionaries originally. So there are 11 total going to Singapore, with two sisters. they split us into two districts, the other having a threesome of elders. Two of my companions are from Arizona, one from Utah, one from Hawaii, and my companion is an military child so he's kinda from everywhere. He's got a few quirks and he's overall kind of an awkward kid, but he's really smart and I'm starting to get used to him. He got a 34 on his ACT! he did a semester at Provo and he thinks he wants to major in some kind of mathmatics.

A typical day in the MTC, well all weekdays except P-Day have the same thing, but switched around depending on the day. So we'll have breakfast at 8:00, sometimes with daily planning before that, we'll have lunch at 12:45, and dinner at 5:45. Everyday had two seperate 3-hour class times, and then an hour of language study, an hour of learning the language with a computer program called TALL. and basically Personal Study time to fill in whatevers left. We go back to residence at 9:30, and quiet time starts at 10:15, then lights out at 10:30. the freetime at night flies by so fast it's hard to do much. I've found it relaxing to sew/repair stuff like ties and stuff.

I brought more stuff than I think anybody else, and we're slowly gaingin bit n pieces from our teachers the things we need or don't need. The language is coming along, I'm always amazed at how much I already know after only two weeks. I'd write some stuff in Malay but it kinda takes a while still and I don't have much time. Most of our learning materials are actually in Indonesian because the church has been there longer. Indonesian came from Malay, so it's really similar, but it's really frustrating because you'll learn something in Indo, and then our teachers will say that's wrong because it's not the same for Malay... oh well. the dictionary our teachers wanted to get are out of print, so they're currently working on finding another, but they suggested that we try to get one sent to us. They said you should not have to spend more thatn about $40 to get a good one. So it would be really helpful to get a Malay to English, and English to Malay. They said you could probably look on amazon for one. I'm out of time but I'm gonna try to print out some pictures and send them cuz I don't think there is a way to uupload them in an email :/

thanks for everything! Love you so much!