Deceived

So we have had a pretty great week actually! Almost all our investigators came to church, all that came are progressing really well. We have a baptism planned for the 27th of this month for four people, and so far it looks like they will all make it, perhaps even bumping one person up to make it a five person baptismal service! but we'll see haha. 

The one tough thing was that we have a new family investigating and the whole week we have been committing them to come to church, and they said they could come. The plan was to have the senior couple bring them, just this once so they could see where the church is, and yesterday morning they were waiting outside their house when we came to get them. So we were super excited cuz we of course thought they were waiting for us... But it turns out they were waiting outside cuz some guy was coming to lend them money or something stupid like that... so when the Vaughans (senior couple) came, they were like, "uh no, we arent coming to church.." soo ya haha we were pretty frustrated, confused, and angry haha. To add on to that, the less-actives that live right next to them were also up and about, and we told them they could come to church, like the had said they would, but they pulled out the classic bag of lamest excuses ever. I dont want to rant too much cuz it makes it hard to love the people haha. So suffice it to say that yesterday night as we were discussing them and what we can do to help them, we were pretty disappointed.. but such is missionary work. 

 

One of the people we are teaching is named Justin. Hes 19 and a pretty solid kid. speaks a very little bit of english, but likes to mix in the english he knows when we are teaching haha. Hes learned just about everything, and hes one the people getting ready to be baptized on the 27th. He moved here from a city called Sibu, which is a different area in the mission. but he moved here with his aunt. A pretty solid kid, and i think hes understands what we are teaching pretty well.

 

Sounds like you guys had a great time with your pals from California. Awesome that you gave them BofMs! about referring the missionaries to them, I would suggest calling them first and seeing if they would be interested, rather than just having two missionaries randomly show up. maybe give them a little time to read or something. I loved hearing about how Catherine let you know mom how she had felt a difference between our home and her friends. It is so great to hear about your own missionary experiences! But definitely pray to know what the best way of going about it is. 

 

For 4th of July, we did nothing.. well i guess thats not true. two of our members had birthdays so we went and enjoyed nice food and good times with them. We have really great relationships with our members here, and it is not too difficult to find people willing to follow us to lessons. It is also helpful that the area is relatively small, and there area two major centers of member population. A very welcome change from Samarahan. 

 

So i have some news.. My release date has been moved up to Jan 16th! its really weird to like be informing you, but its only 6 months away, and i know how you like to plan for things far in advance mom! haha. so ya jan 16 will be my release date. Its because Pres Mains made it so that we go home in line with the 6 week transfer cycle, in order to avoid a transfer right in the middle of a cycle. So thats as of now the date. i dont imagine itll change, but I will be having an interview with Pres Mains in August, so i guess i might be able to confirm it 100% then. 

I guess its weird for me to talk about it cuz the release date seems like the part of the mission that never happens haha. But its coming..FAST 

 

Love you all

Elder Giblette

Pics

E Laycock and I, sitting in epic furniture at our members house. zoom in on that and see the hand-carvedness!!!

E Vaughan (senior) and I; he's from Virginia and has a pretty thick accent. hes absolutely hilarious. 

E Laycock and the daughter of our investigators

Super Saturday

yo!

 

pretty good week this week! at first we were kind of struggling to get things going as far as bringing members to teaching appointments, but in the end we did ok. highlight was Super Saturday. A District Youth activity where all the youth form the Bintulu District (4 branches) come together and just like play games and do activities together. its great! we played a big game of capture the flag and then lunch and some other little fun things. We would play a little game and the the losing team would have to do some kind of thing as punishment for losing haha. example: one losing team had whipped eggs rubbed in their face haha. another example: walk around the circle of teams while imitating a handicapped person.. hahaha a great example of Malaysian political correctness...

 

We started teaching a girl named Rose the week i came here, and she is doing pretty well so far. She read through the intro to the BofM and almost all the testimonies, and we didnt really commit her to read much at all haha. She isnt too educated so she had a hard time understanding some of the words and stuff, but mostly the names of people and places. Shes the only member of her family who isnt baptized, so it not too difficult a situation as far as her fellowhipping goes. we are hoping that as she prepares for baptism we can help her less-active family members come back to church as well. Shes 19 and a baby girl who is 1 already and is the cutest little girl ever! 

 

We have a few other people on date to be baptized, and they are all also doing pretty well. id like to tell you all about them, but that would take too long haha. so i'll just pick one to talk about each week

 

I always love hearing about what you guys are doing at home. it sounds like you had a great trip mom, i also often ponder on what adam-ondi-aman will be like during the Millenium. sorry to hear about the boat motor dad! :/ but i couldnt tell you what id give to go on a fishing trip to Kab. those pictures were like pictures of heaven haha

 

So this area continues to be awesome! Elder laycock and i get along really well, we are both veryr experienced, we both speak the language really well, and we are just helping our investigators. I  imagine this is a rare period of time, where both missionaries know what they are doing, and the both get along as well. I am  certainly cherishing these 6 weeks until transfers! (E Laycock is finished after this transfer cycle) which finishes the last week of July/ first week of August. I could see myself finishing my mission here, but its hard to say. So far it sounds pretty good to me!

 

Love you all!

Elder Giblette

More Pictures

me again.. 

giant frog, and you can kind of tell, i got super burned

basketball satellite. classic

Pictures

Me and the naughtiest little kid ive ever met.. Marvin. but hes hilarious.

Elder Laycock

me..

Thrown into the bin

So I have arrived safely in Bintulu! Luckily, I talked to two of my buddies who have served here already, and they put my mind at ease about coming here. Saying that i was gonna love it and a bunch of stuff I needed to hear. And since Ive been here Ive just been having a BLAST! Even though my bike hasnt come yet (classic Malaysian Courier service) we live close enough to a large group of members that have been walking to the area where they live. Although we mostly go and visit Less Active members, there are also a lot of not less-active members who are super fun to hang out with and teach. I think its largely due to my companion, Elder Laycock, but since ive gotten here i think maybe ive taken a big chill pill haha. casually walking to appointments, just takin it easy with members as we talk to their non-member friends..It great. So far this is the PERFECT transfer after 3 months of feeling the stresses of training in a tough area. So as usual the Lord knew what I needed, and I feel at home already in this area. We live in a big house with just two of us. My comp isnt too dead, and shows no signs of becoming a burden i have to carry around. 

right now we have 6 people on date to be baptized, even though two are 9 & 10 year old girls, its great to have a decent pool of investigators to work with. Even though the "quality" and intelligence of the people here is significantly lower than Kuching, I guess it'll be good for me to humble myself and simplify my teaching even more. Bintulu is much smaller than Kuching, but I live in whats called Bandar Jaya area, and that kind of means the "new" downtown.. so its "new" and there are more i guess suburban type living arrangements. But most of the members live in like "rented rooms." basically a lot of places all connected, but they call each seperate place a "room." theres a living space, probly about 10' by 10',  a small kitchen, and then usually one other room in each place. so probly in total about 50 feet square.  they certainly make the most of what the have, and the living conditions in general are much more like what i saw in Tawau. But the people are no less happy than anywhere else. This past week there were about 80 people at sacrament, which apparently is really high compared to what atttendance has been lately. The big problem though is people leaving after sacrament only. Also finding members who will fulfill their callings. there were about 15+ people in sunday school, yet nobody is the designated teacher. I did pretty well at not giving in to the members in Samarahan when they just asked me to teach, so maybe while im here i can help them take initiative and responsibility. We cant wonder why growth and retention is so poor when we just teach and do things for them. So we'll see how that goes. 

E Laycock is pretty fun to be around, its hard to tell when hes being serious and when hes not haha. we like to mess with the members, we both speak the language very well. thats the nicest things, not being the only one who can speak with people. he also speaks Iban, the native tongue of the the Iban tribe. I can speak a very little bit, and im excited to get better at it. like 99% of the members are iban, so its good to know how to speak. Even though we do not teach with it during the lessons, its fun to speak it conversationally. its very close to Malay, but its kind of "twangy". like you put weird accents on words. fun to speak haha. I want to send some pictures, but this computer wont let me plug my camera in... oh well, next week. So Laycock goes home the first week of august, so I will have 6 weeks to master the area. Im not too worried about it, cuz its pretty small. but there are A LOT more members here than my last branch, so i'll have to work on my name remembering skills. 

So obvisouly theres been a big turn around from last weeks attitude haha, so hopefully you guys didnt get too down on me getting down. 

Kimble and Nathy's mission calls!!!!

WHOA! there coming to my part of the world haha. are they both English speaking? So exciting! I'll have to send an email to aunt mel and have them email me. SO cool how they are going at the same time, and opened thier calls at the same time! nice. more Giblettes going foreign. nice.

Crazy about the storms in MN. now that i think about it, it doesnt really strom here, mostly just rain. Ther avent really been any exceptionally windy or stormy days. Malaysia almost literally never has natural disasters. i think one time Penang, where E Tyler used to be, got affected by a hurricane once. but thats the only thing ive ever heard of.

All of our investigators who are on date came to church, except one who is in the hospital in Kuching. But she was visited this past week, and we heard that she has her BofM at her bedside, so thats pretty great! 

Nothin much else, still waitin for my bike to arrive, E Hirschi called me last night to tell me they put Kelvin on date to be baptized, so thats exciting. We didnt get to see the missionary training thing, but i agree with what you said mom, the grace period for the members is over, and its time to step up. it will be exciting to come back and be on the SECOND line of the battle haha. (dont worry im not done yet over here. 

Love,

Elder Giblette

Transfas

So this week is transfers. and as of right now i cant say Im happy about where im headed off to... Im going to Bintulu, which is also in Sarawak, but is a smaller city, and is poorer, and the branches are weaker there. My companion has six weeks left, hes cool, so thats good, but i dont know/like anyone else in the zone... I'll admit i'm somewhat down, but not terribel. Im sure its not as bad as what ive heard or what i think. prayers not a few will be asked from me, for me haha. I actually anticipated such a transfer, and told myself that if it happened I would just do my best and try to be a good missionary, and the rest will be in Heavenly Father's hands. I guess the hardest part is leaving Kuching, where I have many elders who are my good buddies, and going to a zone where i dont really have any.. 

 

In other news, we had a GREAT week with Kelvin and his wife! We taught a great lesson Sat night, in which we started teaching the Restoration, and I feel like we established a good foundation of prophets and priesthood and those kinds of things. The best part was that Kelvin came to church and brought his 7 year old daughter! He seemed to enjoy church, but its always a bit unsettling when the branch you try so hard to bring investigators to isnt functioning exactly the way it should.. But he brought home a Gospel Principles book. He and his wife are strong readers, so hats really good. They are now in E Hirschi's hands and his new comps. 

 

One amazing thing that happened with them: Karen, Kelvins wife, skimmed through the BofM, and happened to come across Moroni 8, which mentions the doctrine of "infant baptism is a wicked abomination." so i was a bit worried, but it lead to a good conversation about the age of true accountability, and it then led to Karen saying, "Then in he next verses it says that infants who die go to heaven. is this true elders?" (something to that effect in Malay) We said yes and she went on to explain that they had a child a while back who only lived two days.. I know that these words fro the BofM brought great comfort and hope to them. 

 

I have gained a great testimony of the power of speaking the truth, and letting people read truths from the BofM o gain a testimony of it.

 

I love you all, next week will be contain a lot of new stuff haha!

 

Elder Giblette