Pics

a family we visited for Gawai

E Hirschi the little monkey boy

smashin rice padi to get the actual rice.

FINALLY

Hello,

so if you cant tell by the subject line, something exciting finally happened this week. 

we've found that we must just be really efficient at knocking doors, cause we had planned for about two hours, but the first house we knocked, we met an awesome guy named Kelvin. He welcomed us into his home right away, and we ended up talking with/teaching them for almost 2 hours haha. They are very open to learning new things, and they admitted to us, "we are Anglican, but we are also in doubt about our beliefs." Normally, this is not a good statement, but its like music to a missionary's ears hahaha. They would bring up random things,like being born with Adam's sin, and when we explained that we are only responsible for our own sins, they werent like offended, or defensive, but rather accepting, and said stuff like, "this is all new to us" "we need to study more about this" 

So needless to say we are really really excited and hope that they do not hear any of the terrible rumors that circulate around here about the church. We dont have a set appointment, but we hope to meet them wed or thurs. Anyways, finally SOMEthing happened for us, so i hope we can get some established investigators for E Hirschi and whoever replaces me. 

E Hirschi is still having a bit of a tough time with the language, but he is definitely improving. I guess i cant say for sure im geing transferred, but i would be VERY surprised if i stayed here for another cycle. Transfers will be the 20th. its super rare for a trainer to stay with his trainee after the 3 month training period is over. Its hard to say whether i'll stay in East Malaysia for the rest of my mission. Its definitely possible, but i would personally like to serve in Singapore again or Kuala Lumpur. 

In other news..theres not really any other news haha. I did my first baptismal interview, so that was cool. It was a Chinese man, so a member had to translate for me. But his name is Bong, and he is set to be baptized on the 22nd. 

So the vise thing.  We dont get visas in the usual sense. We simply go through immigration and get a 90 day "touring visa"  So zone conferences are set up to have us all come to Singapore in intervals of less than 90 days in order to get new stamps. the problem is that about 60 missionaries go through immigration at about the same time. Malaysia/Singapore, mostly Malaysia, are scared that we are working, for which you need an expensive work permit. So when they see large groups of similarly dressed white guys coming into Malaysia, with passports full of U-turns, (leaving the country right before the end of your 90 day stamp and coming back within a few days) they stop us and dont want us to come back into the country. There have been a few cases of one missionary being stopped, and then everyone behind him being stopped automatically cuz he looks like the other guy haha. So other than that, having zone conference in singapore is super fun. so now they have us wear p-day clothes when we go through immigration. The funny thing is when we were going through KL, i overheard the officers saying, "i remember these white guys, this time theyre wearing different clothes." hahaha so we arent really fooling anyone :) 

Its exciting to hear about all your travelings. I guess my only advice for Hayden is to not give up. its gonna suck, and its gonna be tough, but it will all be worth it. Refinished floors will be really nice. I cant imagine how itll be with george locked up.. haha that could get desperate. at least he will have the craft room to also roam around. a little more space. 

Gawai technically finishes at the end of the month, i guess the biggest celebrations are at the beginning and at the end. most people come back into town after about a week, but some stay away the whole month, some never come back haha. mostly the topic of drinking doesnt come up  unless we are teaching someone, but at christmas we got some of the same stuff. They see the white man drink on tv, and the real white man not drinking haha. 

Not much from here. I remember when summer break meant something...haha

Love,

Elder Giblette

Yup

 

Yo,

 

So the small momentum we gained last week unfortunately did not carry over into this week.. But we can feel good about saying we tried. With our sweet Nigerian family gone, we really arent teaching anyone. We kind of have regular appointments with less-active members, but thats not the same haha. 

 

We were however able to attend two pretty fun events. Friday night was the birthday party for the daughter of one of the District counselors. there was a pretty good turn out, and a lot of good food and live-band kereoke. classic Malaysian fun right there, then Sarturday night was the spectacular wedding of the oldest daughter of the richest member in Kuching. it was held at the exclusive Borneo Convention Center of Kuching. Just a VIP magnet. with approx 500 in attendance, it was really quite the event. the best aprt was that Bro Lebanon, the father, set up the missionaries' tables with table that he felt were the most likely to accept an invitation to meet with the missionaries! So it was really like a giant district missionary activity haha. I guess it was actually a wedding reception, but it was ridiculous. like a 7 course meal haha, and not enough poeple at our half full table to eat it all. youd all really be surprised at me, I dont really hesitate to eat things now, except fish. I just still have a hard time picking the thread-size bones out. anyways, craziest thing, but really nice, was the baby octopus they had for the appetizer. Just straight up lil octopi. i ate it like it was a french fry haha. quite tasty. anyways, A really fun time and hopefully quite fruitful for missionary work.

 

This week will usher in the celebration of Gawai. or Harvest Festival. its a holiday the natives of Sarawak celebrate, and it (for normal people) involves returning to kampung, or hometown village, and just partying and drinking yourself dead. lasting anywhere from a week at kampung to never coming back hahaha. Our members of course dont participate in the drinking part, but everyone will be going back to kampung. unfortunately most before Sunday, so we will have a small sacrament meeting and then a potluck for Gawai. this is a dreaded holiday for us missionaries cuz (from what ive heard anyway) there is nobody in town haha. and basically all we will be doing is knocking on empty houses haha. But we will find joy in going to open houses and eating ourselves silly. i was Sabah last year for this, and was not effected in the slightest. So we look forward and also dont look forward to the upcoming weeks. already this past week people have been using the classic "I'm getting ready for Gawai" excuse, and say they have no time... Anyways, its certainly a unique experience for the missionaries serving in Sarawak.

 

i guess not much else to tell you guys. at this point i havent gotten moms message yet... haha so i'll wait and then add according anything she has to say :)

 

sorry mom. we're out of time! dont feel bad though. i still love you :)

 

Elder Giblette