Pics

Devouring the durian. It's the best.

Niah caves.

Back on track

So we have both recovered and were able to have a good week this week. We have met a few new investigators, and had a couple of first lessons with them. This past week has really been one of the firs weeks in a long time where we have able to make and keep appointments with investigators. I think i've had a false sense of security in just working with less-actives. of course we are still doing a lot of that, but weve been able to kind of mix in more investigator work as well. Unfortunately we have not yet been able to make contact again with michael and his family, but other people have surfaced. I really believe its a result of E jensens desires to get out and work and try to meet new people. almost being "naive" when suggesting something, but then me simply taking him at his word, and then it works out. so i guess im just an old, tired elder haha. 

Our beloved senior couple, the Vaughans, have finished their mission, and today flew to singapore and then back home. They really were an amazing couple, and the members really loved em. sister vaughan was able to learn malay and they were constantly out visiting members. there is no replacement couple for them and now one couple, the Stevens, are left to take care of the four Bintulu branches. So that will be a big challenge for the members here, but I feel they will be able to step up to the challenge, and begin to take care of themselves. 

Our plan as a zone is to go to the Niah caves next p-day. you'll remember i went there last i think july. its the massive caves that are about 1.5 hrs away from bintulu. Im really excited to go, and i know its gonna be a blast. 

Its great (and also terrible) to hear about it getting colder in MN. Im sure i'll love it for about 5 minutes.....

im excited to hear more about your high councilor adventures dad. thats a pretty crazy way to start out! 

the paln for thanksgiving (which is not celebrated here) is to have a great big meal supplied by the senior couple. There is no turkey to be found, so we will be having chicken for thanksgiving haha. regardless of what it is, im confident it will be awesome. 

so speaking of that, i'd like my firs meal to be a woodlands pizza. no joke. but we can talk about that later. perhaps the greatest "skill" i'll take from my mission, is not being a picky eater anymore. im pretty much ike dad now, "no" taste buds and ready to eat anything hahaha. ive eaten so many bitter, sour, and downright nasty things i dont think any food in america will be gross. the BEST part being that food in america is rarely served with bones. while its hard to have a meal here without it being riddled with little bones haha. 

thats all for this week folks. tune in next time. 

Love

Elder Giblette

ps i forgot my card reader so no pics this week :D

I'll

So this past week jensen and i both fell vicitm to illness...again.. We were both feelin pretty good until friday after lunch. We are pretty sure it was some kind of food poisoning, at least for jensen. I just felt lightheaded and wanted to rest, while jensen dint feel so weak. but throughout the night we was up every little while trying to poop and puke. so we took a full day on Saturday, and also rested up yesterday after church. today we are both feeling like we're over the hump, and i just hope its for real this time. So despite that rough end to the week, we were able to do a little bit of work before. 

We met a great new family through a less-active family that we have been working with. The father, Michael, is RC but not very strong. his wife and two kids are not yet baptized into a christian church. He said several times that he was willing to try our church and see if he would like his family to join. We had a nice visit with them, trying to establish what we normally do when we meet with and teach people. They seem genuinely interested, and their teenage children do as well. They live a bit far out as far as biking goes, but I know if their truly interested that we will be able to arrange appointments. I really hope that they work out, and make the determination to come to church. Ive never really taught a family before, and while i know they wouldnt be ready for baptism before i leave, I would love to teach them and help E jensen prepare them for baptism. 

Other than that we did not have many other appointments. Some exciting things are happening this week though for the Bandar Jaya branch. This morning the senior couple took a 3 families and a sister to Manila to go to the temple! So they will return friday evening, and I cant wait to be able to talk with them about the big new changes in their lives. this branch actually only has one other endowed member, and he's struggling anyways. So it will be a great blessing of strength for this branch. Unfortunately after that though, the awesome senior couple, the Vaughans, will be finishing their mission next monday the 25th. they will be sorely missed by the missionaries, but mostly by all the members they have helped so much. The worst part is that they do not have a replacement couple... so one couple will be in charge of nurturing the 4 branches of Bintulu. 

Ok, one funny, puzzling thing that we came across in a visit with our 1st councilor's family, is a bit of a riddle/mathematical theory. see if you can figure it out. we have not.

a man want to buy a t-shirt for $97, but he has no money. so he borrows 50 from his brother, and 50 from his sister. he buys the t-shirt for 97 and receives in change $3. he gives one dollar to each his brother and his sister, and keeps one for himself.  lowering his debt to each to $49. now. when when add up the leftover, $49 + $49 + $1 (debt to brother + debt to sister + what he himself has) we end up with how much money? $99... So the unsolvable question is: Where did that last dollar go? 

The theory is that when there is money loaned, 1% is lost. the same principle applies to him who borrows $100, $1000, or $10,000,000. How does this happen??

this was presented to us, and its the first ive heard of it. perhaps someone who receives this email can shed some light..?

So other than that...not much goin on haha

forgive me for the lame email :) (but dont fret, we can talk face to face not too long from now)    :D

Elder Giblette

Singapore Pics

Sinjapo

So we went and returned from singapore. at the beginning of the week i was feeling a little more congested than usual, then Tuesday night i broke into cold sweats, and had trouble sleeping, but when i woke up i didnt have a temp or anything. and i wasnt about to let anything keep me from enjoying me last conference in singapore. the schedule went a little like this: wed morning we fly to kuching to catch a 1040 flight to singapore. arrive in singapore at `230, and then have the day to do whatever we want until 7pm. we went bowling and ate. nothing too exciting. 7-9pm was our zone activity, where we just had a training on family history. thurs 930am-5pm was zone conference. then we had time to go get dinner, and then had a zone meeting 7-9pm. then we went out and explored singapore a little for the new guys. friday at 140 fly to KL, then back to bintulu at 430. arrive home at about 7pm friday. pretty fun and a lot of traveling. 

so i thought i got over my sickness while in singapore, but i was wrong whensaturday morning i was a little worse, with the addition of coughing to a very stuffed nose and a slightly sore throat. now im pretty healthy, plenty of energy. im still just a bit coughy. so i may not go out tonight in order to avoid coughin all over my members haha. but nothing serious in the slightest. 

so not a whole lot of missionary work done this week, but this being my alst zone conference, i think i may have just stepped onto the time accelerator, and i feel like i'll be home in no time. all missionaries who will go home before the next zone conf gave departing testimonies. that was what really put it onto perspective for me and the other guys in my group. we all felt like it wasnt long ago when we were watching the departing missionaries give their testimonies at our FIRST zone conference! so ya thats how thats going.

FYI my official release date will be Jan 16th. i havent recieved my flight plans yet, but i imagine they will come within a couple weeks, both to you and me. 

the news from you guys about the massive typhoon was the first any of us had heard about it, so thats pretty surprising. basically the Philippines and Indonesia form a perfect shield around malaysia, so there havent really ever been any natural disasters in malysia.. but it would be so scary to be serving over there.. its good to hear that no missionaries were hurt or killed. they probly pulled them all to safe locations well ahead of time. even we have a pretty set emergency procedure, so im sure in a place like the philippines they have a good system. 

so awesome to hear about your friend Rachel. in our zone meeting, a member from singapore shared his conversion story with us, and it basically innvolves a lifetime of having associations with members throughout his whole life, and eventually he just decided that he was "running into" them too many times for it to be a coincidence. The Lord really does prepare His children, and sometimes it takes longer than others. I know that whether or not Rachel joins the church, she will always value the relationships she has/had with members. keep loving her and being that example of lvoe and happiness that you always are mom! 

i got my package and transported it home with no problem. i have to admit that i didnt have the patience to wait to open the wrapped presents haha, and opened everything basically right away hahahah. the key item, the gold bond powder, is perfect. everything else is jsut a fun bonus. the little toys will make perfect gifts to give to members!

i really dont need anything else, so dont worry about it. save all your pampering for when i get back! :D

welp. thats it.

love you all!

Elder Giblette

Another week, another few parties

So we have had an EXCELLENT week. a lot of work done. green fire emanating from E jensen. and parties. mostly focusing on less-actives, as we were unable to meet with our two guys who have a baptismal date. But also met a few new people, so hopefully this week we can follow up with them. E Jensen is just eating everything up here. he loves the people, the places, and his language is coming along. the only thing he is struggling with is the food haha. he's a pretty picky kid, and does not enjoy rice, so he will either force himself to get better, or he will starve haha. meanwhile i jsut love all the food they cook haha. you all will be amazed at how unpicky i am. after malaysia, i'll probly eat anything america has to offer haha. 

We were privy to a very unique experience. A member's sister was married on saturday, and it was held at their longhouse. the grooms family are not members, so unfortunately there was alot of alcohol involved, but other than that everyone was really nice, and it was a pretty interesting ceremony. basically the thing that sealed the deal was the bride and groom, their parents and grandparents (if present) and the "heads of the longhouse" (the "leader" of each longhouse for the respective families) standing in a circle. an exchanging of rings, and then everyone in the circle taking a shot of hard liquor... luckily they allowed like sparkling apple juice instead for those who did not wish to take a shot of alcohol haha. but ya no kissing or anything. Malaysia in general, it rare to see any public display of affection. so a kiss in front of everyone was out of the question ahaha. 

so that was saturday night. then last night, at our branch presidents house was held a farewell party for the senior couple, the vaughans, who leave at the end of november. a lot of food and more ngajak.  so much fun. no alcohol or bad stuff like that haha, just good ol wholesome fun. such na blast of a time. 

So ya we go to singapore on wed and come back friday evening. gonna try to go bowling on wed in singapore since we have most of the day to do with how we please. 

pretty cool with the new car and all. how do you guys fit all the cars there haha?? i guess you think youre pretty cool and stylish now huh mom? you are! all my members love your hair and say you are a "rocker" haha. i cant wait to have the van to drive around. im seriously grateful for any vehicle i can get haha. thatll make life in rexburg much easier for sure. and i'll popular cuz i'll be able to rive everyone around! 

ya so im pretty sure the singapore mission is the most expensive mission in the world. constantly flying around missionaries. the housing alone in singapore is outrageous. they dont tell us the prices of flights, but ya i guess you could say imma frequent flyer now haha. a lot of guys get frequent flyer cards, but there arent really any benefits. 

welp. thats about it. ive been told that pres has some exciting announcements this zone conference. so we'll see!

Elder Giblette

Pictures!

check out the weaving of these baskets! almost everyone here does these. pretty sweet. its like a pretty durable plastic material. cut into strips

Me doing the ngajak. the traditional Iban dance. they say im pretty good at it, so look forward to seeing the videos of me when i get back!

all the missionaries in our district along with a few members.

the sistas.

packin about 20 people plus kids into a 10' x 10' room for FHE!  bestnyaaaaa

me n jensen at Marina Bay in singapore