Same Old Same Old

This past week we have had a little success in meeting new less-active families to meet, and we hope in the future that this will produce investigators (as well as help these families come back to church). Meeting new LA fams can be a bit odd sometimes. its hard to tell why they are less-active, and sometimes it is caused by missionaries unfortunately, and therefore it can awkward trying to get to know people sometimes haha. but for the most part they are happy to have us in their homes. Our three investigators who have baptismal dates have made good progress this week. They are Puyang, and Joshua & Sylvester, who are brothers. joshua has for the most part been pretty uninterested when we meet, and mostly just doing it to follow his bro, but in our last lesson he wasnt distracted by his phone, and he was answering questions. So we set a new date fro them on the 2 of Nov. They come to church pretty regularly, but they often just sit in the back and chat, sometimes even skipping class. So we need to see them become more serious about participating and stuff. but of course its hard to get the attention of a teenager who doesnt really seem to care. Puynag is doing really well, and has started to read regularly on her own from the BofM, but she does not have reliable transport to church.. She really wants to go, but her nephew, a recent convert himself, works on Sunday and doesnt seem to care for the church much anymore... So hopefully she and her member older sister (they are 40 and 43 years old) can take some initiative and get to church.

that is so awesome that you guys hosted a lesson! i can only imagine how great a "member present" you guys would be haha! and to have the mission president would be way cool! Ive always wondered how it would be to have Pres Mains follow us to a teaching appointment.. i know he does it on very rare occasion, but even if he did follow he wouldnt be able to really contribute anything cuz of the language barrier haha. But that really is so cool, and I hope those elders know what they are getting in having the children of members babysit their investigator's children while teaching a lesson at a members house. That's like the unattainable dream lesson haha. keep it up! 

Sorry i dont have any new pictures for you this week.. ive been pretty boring i guess. cant believe September is gone already. im sure i'll be saying "cant believe December is over already" before i know it! dont worry im not THAT ready to come home yet. Its really the essence of a bitter sweet moment. cant wait to come home but never want to leave these people. Cant wait to be free of an over abundance of rules, but never want to stop living at this level of spirituality... oh well, im not the first one to do it eh? 

We will have conference on the 12th and 13th of Oct. so a week behind you guys as usual. apparently last conference here in bintulu they had the afternoon session set up but zero people came.. so the missionaries just watched it in English at the senior's house. So we'll see how this one works out. im really hoping that I'll be able to keep up with the translation, and Im pretty confident that i will be able to. the ultimate test of language skills haha. 

sorry you have to again find a new office manager dad, i laughed when i read that she had quit after the second day haha. I just cant imagine going home early from my mission based on my own choice/actions like some elders have done in this mission recently. They are just missing out on so much! I emailed Paul Evans 2 weeks ago, and while he said its tough, it sounds like he's willing and ready to stick it out. i told him that he'll have some of the best bragging rights after its all said and done. not many missionaries get put into his situation. i can only think of a few situations comparable to that in the Singapore mission. 

So s my plaque still up, or have they had to move it to make room for the new peeps? so crazy the boom of missionaries in burnsville ward. when savage members joined, it was like grafting in the goodly olive branches haha. i expect nobody expected it to flourish so much. Savage membership is really where its at! 

I hope you all also have a great week! Love you all

Elder Giblette

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Scorpion

We have had a pretty productive and interesting week, complete with a tale about a scorpion haha

So the ZLs came down from Miri for exchanges, and although we had to plan a double day to accompany them, we were able to fill the day with good appointments, extending our missionary-like reach to more people than usual :) We were able to have several lessons with one lady, Puyang, who will hopefully be baptized on the 12th of Oct. She is taking great leaps in reading the BofM on her own, and all she needs now is a reliable way to get to church. She is a very sweet lady to attributes her surviving cancer thus far to the Lord, so its great to teach her, and she loves meeting with us. We also tried to meet a lady named Pauline, whose husband is a less-active member, and their family moved to bintulu in january from Miri, a city about 3 hours from Bintulu. Anyways, we set up a great appointment for saturday afternoon, even getting two strong sisters to bring us out there. But upon arriving and calling her for more specific directions, she said she forgot about the appointment, and had gone to the place where her husband works about an hour out of town! but she sounded sincerely sorry, and its not untypical for people here to not really have plans more than a day ahead of time.. But we were able to meet her older sister, who received two copies of the BofM. so now there is even more potential, so we will see how that goes this week.

Also, while at a member's home, in a somewhat remote location, there appeared a scorpion about the length 5 inches at the side of the room. one of the members went to kill it right away, and after maiming it, E robbins said that he wanted it haha. so they captured it in a small tupperware and we brought it home. So E robbins original plan was let it starve so he could preserve it in resin. But i convinced him to try and feed it a cicak (small lizard) ha. So on saturday we did that, and after goading the scorpion on, he struck the cicak, and then grabbed it with his pincer. the feeding commenced haha. it was a slow, gruesome experience but in the end i learned a lot about the anatomy of scorpions. Anyways, we captured a small toad and tried to repeat the experiment, but the scorpion was low on energy, so we decided to postpone till the morrow, when to our great disappointment, the scorpion had passed... So ya we had a bit of fun this week with the local inhabitants. Dont worry is was only the second time ive seen a scorpion on my mission, and the first one was flat on the road haha.

thats pretty interesting about the Jewish festival, and the relationship to the gathering of Israel. somewhat related to that, my companion is from the Tribe of Benjamin, which is pretty rare i think. he has ancestry from Syria, so thats why i suppose.

I always love hearing about all the missionary work that you guys are closely involved with! It will always bring us joy and satisfaction and happiness. other than taking care of ourselves and our families, its the most important thing we can do while on the earth. 

Thats pretty exciting to hear about the latest iPhone. and i suppose it will be the latest model when i get back, so thats cool. i love that picture i sent home of the fake iphone. I always make fun of my member for it haha, but its all in good fun. Thatll be fun mom to get some new wheels. i certainly would not complain if i had the van to drive when i get home :D get something really cool and hip, like a nissan juke or something haha. i love showing my pictures to memberrs cuz they usually fall in love with you mom. many say your hair is "like rockstar" haha. its great! 

Not much else goin on, just havin a great time here. i dont remember if i said this last week, but my dream transfer next transfer would be either 1) split the bandar jaya area and train here to finish my mission or 2) get enough missionaries in bintulu to make it its own zone and then become ZL with E Loke. both arent very likely haha, but unfortunately i dont think i'll be staying in Bintulu fo rthe rest of my mission. but perhaps if my actions merit the mercy of God, i can stay here :) I love it so much!

Love you all

Elder Giblette

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Malaysia Day

Yo

So today is Malaysia Day, which apparently celebrates the joining of Sarawak and Sabah to Malaysia. At first it seems like there are just way too many holidays here, and there are, but it levels out because people here have to work ridiculous hours, so its good that they get more public holidays than they should haha. Anyways we played Futsal with the missionaries and some members from a different branch. Really fun. Bintulu just got a shipment of 3 greenies, so the zone is pretty young now. two of the guys are cool, and i guess "normal" guys, but one looks like he'll struggle haha. anyways its always refreshing to get newbies in the zone haha. 

Pretty average week though for our work. a senior couple from Kuching is in town, giving firesides and training on family history. mostly about using Family tree.orgwhich after seeing, is pretty cool. the church has done a good job making it fun and intuitive for younger people haha. (i sound like an old person) 

We've been to the hospital a couple times, visiting mothers and their sick infants. nothing seriously luckily, so its nice to show our support and concern for the great members here. We've been having pretty good success with helping less-actives come back to church, and one family's 12 year-old son was recently ordained to be a deacon, and has been passing the sacrament for 2 weeks now. its so great to see family's come back to church and feel the love and friendship they once knew. One sister in particular, when i first got to bintulu, wasnt our biggest fan, but since E Robbins came she has been much more welcoming to having us over, and she seems to really enjoy having us. 

Its really exciting to hear about all the stuff happening in Burnsville wight now, and while im not quite ready to leave malaysia, i wouldnt mind being part of the action there! 5 missionaries would be pretty cool, and perhaps burnsville is continuing its legacy of missionaries loving that area.

I also love hearing about all the creative things youre doing with seminary mom, and i know the kids are enjoying it as well haha. its too bad you were my teacher for your first yaer only, when you were atill a greenie teacher :) i couldve been enjoying your expertise, but oh well, i guess thats for kellen and hayden to enjoy. 

i wrote a short message to Paul, i hope it helps him. i think the training period can the best or wrost time of the mission. im sure he just feels like things will never change, and that he'll just be stuck there forever. but he'll make it, hes a tough kid.

sorry i dont have to much to write about. i guess it was a pretty boring week haha. everyone else in bintulu had a bit of a hassle.. they went to singapore to pick up their greenies, and on their way back their flight was cancelled in KL, and they didnt get back until Sunday afternoon, AFTER church haha. 

but ya E Robbins and i have some new plans to find new investigators, so hopefully we can get it done.

love you all!

Elder Giblette

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Transfer Week

So earlier today we got transfer news, and Im STAYING in bintulu! im pretty pumped about it, as i really dont want to leave this great place. The members have been bothering us about whether we are being transferred or not, and despite having elders for over ten years, they still havent figured out how transfers work hahaha... but Elder Robbins is also staying, so we will be together for another 6 weeks, which is fine by me. So in my dreams, this will set me up to train the last 3 months of my mission in Bintulu. So they will split Bandar jaya and i will train and die here. (all in my dreams haha) 

So Lucyana was indeed baptized this past weekend, and it was a great service, with three children being baptized from another branch. She is 19 and lives with one of our strongest members and her daughter, so I think as far as being in a nurturing environment, shes in the best as a new convert. Our work is coming back to a point where we will need to start finding/teaching new people, as out pool shrinks a bit again with another baptism. Its easy to simply be content with a relatively light workload, but I am realizing i can and need to do more. Always, always things to be improving on. 

So as you will find in the pictures i sent, my sewing expert companion has taught me how to hand sew ties. so the red tie in the picture is totally from scratch, and i myself did about 80% of the stitching. it doesnt take very long either, and its fun to do during our free time. 

Its so good to hear that Kellen and hayden are doing awesome in seminary! Im glad that my bad example didnt rub off on them haha, but it woudve been fun to attend seminary at the same time as kellen. Anyways seminary at times seems like a distant dream, and other times like i just finished it. I guess thats like high school as well. 

So each transfer p-day, we have a BBQ at the beach, and today before doing that, our district went to the tiny Bintulu zoo. its not much to see, but the main attractions are the hornbill and the crocodiles. We smuggled a chicken into the zoo, and attempted to feed it to one of the crocs, but it wasnt interested. and to make us feel silly, one of the employees walked by shortly after we tossed it in, and wasnt too happy about us doing it hahah. but in the end they didnt do anything, so its not a big did. Malaysia Boleh! 

Theres not much to report on haha. as of this transfer, i have 4.5 months left, unless i got to February  but i think i will go in Jan. not sure yet though! 

Love you all!

Elder Giblette

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Lots O Pics!

a small bead keychain Sis Eda made for me! way sweet

a tie that I made from traditional (souvineir traditional haha) fabric. my comp did a fashion internship before and is really handy with a needle and thread. so he taught me how to make a tie. this one i did about 80% of the stitching, but ive already made a new one that is way better and i did all the stitching! im pretty CRAFTY!

a tasty Bintulu sunset

the group attached to our branch that live in a longhouse about an hour outside of town. we teach them english and reading each saturday

Bintulu happens to host the Annual Borneo International Kite Festival, so we checked it out for a bit. pretty cool, but not quite on par with an international event hahaha

not much,

but you got yur classic baby with a towel on his face

 and one of the worst names for a doctor haha

Long story short, we caught a scorpion at our members house and then fed a cicak (small lizard) to it on Saturday. it. was. awesome.

goin out to a longhouse to meet a potential investigator with two great members, Sis Sia on the right and sis Dari on the left! Kelvin (Sia's kid) also came. great fun

iPhone 5M hits Bintulu! (M stands for Malysian fake) complete with antenna for better reception.

we also tried to feed a toad to our scorpion, but the scorpion didnt go for it...

me..

me about to crush children

twister Iban style. 4 people, square made up of 4sq tiles, and your opponents calling the shots. classic

Merdeka!

So this week has been pretty tough, as none of our investigators came to church, but we were able to teach a few good lessons. a couple of our investigators were also not able to meet with us, so our efforts were largely focused towards meeting less active members, which is not all that bad. its usually easier to get in the door of a less-active member than it is to find new people to teach. one of the initiatives started a while ago by the Asia presidency was to try to make missionary efforts half towards investigators and half towards less active/recent convert work. 

We ended the week with an awesome Hari Merdeka (Independence Day) Beach BBQ activity on Saturday, complete with volleyball and soccer and inter-branch tug of war haha. Super fun and always good for the members to get together with members of the other branches, as not too long ago they were all one branch (about 5 years ago i think) there is definitely a lot of love between the members here. One cool thing i noticed, that as the beach/park area was packed with people, I can say that our little branches here in malaysia are a "peculiar people" as we were virtually surrounded by other parties smoking and drinking, and frankly not appearing to be having a good time. haha. anyways it was great to be a part of that and we had some members come to sacrament meeting who have not been in a while.

So our investigator, Lucyana, will hopefully be baptized at the end of this week. i say this without 100% confidence because she will be interviewed tomorrow, and the elder interviewing her had been known to be pretty tough. Its a problem i didnt think i would ever face, but i just pray thay my feelings of her being ready are true, and the interview wont be a problem. So we look forward to that!

today we are havin a pretty relaxed p-day, gonna play a little ping pong with the other 2 elde3rs in the district. 

the Malay Book of Mormon has not yet played a huge influence in our work yet, but i think it will have a bigger effect on the members once they arrive. (the members have to order their own separately). i think there will be a big focus on reading it once they have it. We are at a point in our work where we dont really try to make time to find new people to teach, cuz we are already teaching "enough" people, and then with the direction to work half our time with less-actives, we dont really put a lot of emphasis on making sure we place a copy everyday. But the work is going well, the usual ups n downs of people progressing or not progressing. 

sorry mom but it is not exactly an easy task to print things off from the internet cafe, but if i remember i can do it on the church computer the next time im there. the quote that you inserted is a very prevalent one. thanks for adding that :) i think a lot of times i feel like the member work, the investigator work, etc just feels in vain because of the history and culture of the people here. but im always reminded that i simply need to do what I feel i need to do. to  put forth MY effort in faith, and then trusting that my actions will have a positive effect. We are constantly reminded that we sometimes never see the effects that we do have immediately or even ever. But when E Wilson visited at District Conference, he said its hard to believe how fast the church is growing  here and how much progress has been made since the last time he came. 

cant get enough of that picture of Kellen haha. classic shirt, ugliest thing ive ever seen ahah. and judging by that picture i think its safe to say that i am now the SHORTEST boy in the famiy. welp, i reigned over my little brothers while i could. now im gonna go back and get picked on all the time... just me n mom huddled together in a corner, bein small. 

nothin else to say here! love you all!

Elder Giblette

Pics!

my favorite girlfriend, Nancy. this is at the longhouse about an hour outside of town where we have a group of about 20 people. we go up there each saturday to teach english and teach them how to read

another quality product from New Zealand haha

what is known as a ngingit; when it flew in i thought it was a bird haha. HUGE!!

Independence Day Grillllinnn!

East Malaysia getting the BofMs in Malay!