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! 

Zone conference

So zone conference and Singapore were a blast! they did a good job controlling our time, so we unfortunately didnt get to really walk around and "vacation" in Singapore like we normally do. i cant complain though because i doubt theres any other mission who gets to have zone conferences like we have. anyways, a great, uplifting conference in which we DID finally receive the Book of Mormon in Malay! it is a "proselyting" copy, so there are no footnotes and only a brief, 3 page index. its wayyyyy better than the indonesian version though, and I at least have a much easier time understanding it. I can more or less read it and understand everything, being able to catch the meaning of unknown words through context clues. but the best part is being able to study it, and having confidence that I am learning vocab and grammar in Malay, which differs from Indon more than most people say. So hopefully with Pres Mains initiative to hand out a BofM a day, this new tool will increase the work here in [East] Malaysia. 

in addition to being in Singapore, we were able to have some key lessons with our investigators, and now have again 5 people on date to be baptized. all but one of them came to church too, which is the best part. So the work is progressing again here after a couple slow weeks. 

Its exciting to hear about another school year starting, and even more exciting to know that i'll get to see the end of it! Im glad you found my testimony useful, and i hope that Kellen does better than me as Seminary President haha. dont let him slack off!

So the painting was done by the landlord, in an effort to improve the house as part of his contract. the elders have been in this house since about 2007, so its relatively very old. its nice and large, with only two of us using it. and is indeed a house. 

The package is AWESOME! so many baking supplies haha! and the syrup is just perfect. already baked some of the peanut butter cookies last night. speaking of the state fair and deep fried stuff, my Louisiana-ian companion is quite the fryer, and we arent afraid to deep fry oreos on the occasion. haha, seriously so good. ive certainly expanded my cooking abilities on my mission, and my current favorite is a simple, yet delicous pasta dish. involving mixed pasta and cream of chicken. nice. since coming to bintulu, there arent many place to eat around our house, but in former areas there stands that do waffles, and they put peanut butter and chocolate spread on them while still hot. so good. also wayy back in tawau they had these things that were somewhat like pancakes, but they would only cook one side, then out butter, sugar, and some kind of peanut mixture on there. so tasty.

So as good as this week has been, it has also been a very very heartbreaking week for the Singapore mission. Last Friday night, an Elder Wiberg, serving in my former area of Samarahan, met with a terrible cycling accident. he was operated on and stabilized over the weekend, but late last night passed away. We are all still in shock, and he will be dearly missed. His dad, upon being told, faithfully responded with "he has been transferred to a better area now" Before going to Samarahan, he served where i am now in Bandar Jaya, and the membership here is devastated. we will be holding a kind of service tonight in place of FHE. I guess just keep his family in your thoughts and prayers. I cant imagine such a thing happening, but it is truly comforting to have a sure knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. We really dont know when we will be called back home, and we must always be ready. 

So i hope this doesnt damper your week too much, i cant think of a better to time to cross the veil, in the service of God, so in this i found great solace. Know that i sincerely do try to ride safe as we travel around, and that now i will be even more vigilant in being safe. 

I love you all

Elder Giblette

Zoneconferenceyayuhhh

so this past week has been good, getting somewhat back to normal.. We had our house painted, and that was funny in and of itself cuz it was a couple indonesian dudes just ainting our house as fast as possible haha. not that theres anything inherently wrong with indonesians, i actually like them more than most malaysians, but they werent exactly the most skilled workers haha. not to mention they showed little or no care for our stuff or the floor haha. lets just say im glad it wasnt MY house they were painting. but overall the house looks really nice, and we got to rearrange ALLL the furniture so its just how we want it. nice. unfortunately we had to stay at the house until4pm the three days they were here..

As far as our investigators go, we have had some ups n downs. more or less deciding that our peoples' baptismal dates need to be moved back. The way i see it, we could have them baptized within the next week, but it would be before they really understood what they were doing. I think thats how it has been for a great majority of converts throughout Sarawak.. people just go with the flow and get baptized quickly, but just as quickly they fall away. So i am doing my best NOT to follow in those footsteps, and give my recent converts the best chance of staying active and faithful the rest of their lives.

So other than what i guess could be called normal investigator problems we had a really great week. church attendance was back to normal and our sunday school class was higher than it has ever been since ive been here. Since coming here, and finding our branch clerk to be less active, the missionaries are often called upon to assist in using MLS, the clerk program. so its cool to familiarize myself with it, but tough at the same time cuz its only a temporary fix..

We leave for Zone Conference wed morning, and come back Friday night, so we are all looking forward to it greatly. I will get to see my good buddy E Loke, but other than him not many others. my good buddies from my group are in west malaysia/singapore, so they are in the other zone conference. not sure if ive mentioned it, but people are now being called to this mission in english in addition to malay and chinese. so basically the mission is split into west and east malaysia, as all the west malaysian branches are in english. 

sorry but not much else to report. sorry boys to here your summer is coming to an end, but life goes on. hayden have you slimmed out any from growing, or are you going kellen style and just getting bigger? speaking of that pictures are always the highlight of your emails :)

oh ya, testimony :) part of this i sent to g-ma and g-pa a couple weeks ago

I think the biggest principle I have learned is that God has an incomprehensible and personal love for EACH of his children here on earth. He knows us each better than we know ourselves, and he is constantly giving us trials and chances in life for the purpose of making us BETTER. He knows exactly what we can handle, and he often requires us to rely on His strength rather than our won.

I have learned that as we take time to do all we can to serve those around us, we will bless peoples' live, and we ourselves will be greatly blessed. I know this is true, and I challenge you in your waning years to find opportunities to "go about doing good." we'll never know the good we are capable of until we try.

Jesus Christ is our Savior, and only through Him can we be forgiven of our sins, and saved from the eternal damnation that Satan desires for us. I know this is His church, and that through the ordinances performed through the Priesthood power, we can gain salvation. Even though salvation is ultimately a personal matter, we have the ability and the responsibility to help everyone around us. it is hard to have a celestial perspective, but we need to see everyone as our future "heaven buddies" in the celestial kingdom, for we should all desire this for our fellow human beings. when we try to see others as the Savior does, we too can gain that Celestial perspective and start really, truly wanting to help those around us. They need what we have, and what we have is precious and true. The Gospel is the way to repent and receive forgiveness of our sins. The Gospel is they way we can throw off the burden of said sins. The Gospel is truly the only way to happiness. I testify that there is "no other name given" by which we can be saved. 

I love you all, and i want you to know that YOU are the future of the church. I know that sounds funny cuz youre just kids now, but i remember being in your place not too long ago and hearing that. And now I AM fulfilling that in serving a mission. without you the church will not be any longer. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen :D

love you all, have a great week!

Elder Giblette

so weird to think that another school year is sarting, but this time i'll be home before its over. sounds like normal school preperation stuff as well. 

We had a slow week this week. It was Hari Raya, or the end of Rhamadan, so the biggest holiday in Malaysia bar none. In Bintulu though, and Sarawak in general, there arent many muslims, so the celebrations werent anything big or special, but everywhere else in malaysia ws robly pretty crazy. they get really strict about the fasting over in west malaysia, here not so much. but as a result, many memebers were out of town, as well as investigators being either ut of town, busy with overtime shifts, or in the hospital. also, the keyboartd im using is quite terrible, os bear with me. despite many people being unavailable to meet, we were able to have a couple good lessons with some of our new investigators joshua and sylvester. they are 14 and 16 yr old bros. their younger sister was baptized in feb,  may have told you a little bit about them already. anyway, they have a very very limite knowledge of Christianity, and we have had to go very slow, and teach the most basic principles. like who God is. its fun to teach such simple things, and ths past week i got to hear their first prayers.. EVER! i thin that is when i feel the Spirit the most.. someones first prayer. if they understand wht they are ding, then they are usually very slow, quiet, and its great to see the most basic desires of their hearts. they are set to be baptized at the end of september. 

one of our investigators, lucyana, went to a YSA conference in Sabah. we havent had a chance o talk to her yet, but she probly had a great time. so because of the great exodus of hari raya, our day at church was a bit of an adventure, and a reminder of how young, inexdperienced, and sometimes downright unprepared the members here are. we arrived at the church at 8:30, and waited until about 9:10 until the 2nd counselo arrived with his builing keys. (sacrament starts at 9) setting up took about 20 mins, so around 9:40 we finally started sacrament. our branch pres wasnt in town ,and apparently ddnt tell anyone.. i was called to give a talk, chosen as he announced the speakers haha. Its not that i mind giving an impromptu talk, its just..disappointing sometimes to see such faithful people fail to come prepared to church. i have yet to find a qway to instill the fact that curch is not an end-of-the-week deal, but it should be the central focus of their lives. of course this is a problem everywhere, but its one thing when a minority of the membership doesnt really care about church, and another thing when EVERYone feels that way haha. im not complaining, but just expressing my feelings abuot how young this church still is, despite it being here for about 15 years.

i cant belive i didnt write about this earlier, but with the last transfer, E Trotters group finished. so thats why i have a picture of that E Brown, he was in trotters group. (youll remember that trotter was my trainer)  

So although Robbins is from New Orleans, he doesnt really have an accent at all. but yes dad, he does have some pretty cazy stories haha. Robbins mothers side is guatamalean, and his fathers side is syrian, so he has a pretty interesting mixture of blood. many people here think he is from like pakistan, or that area. even though he has very white skin.. his facial features are pretty middle eastern though. he is a very intersting person and we get along well and share many similar interests, including a love for creating video/editing video, and various artistic things. 

i dont really have trouble speaking english actually. but i will often think of malay before i think of english. there are also several words/phrases that i want english to adopt haha. I have definitely seen that because of my study of Malay, my understanding of english has increased, and i have an infinite appreciation for having grown up in America. ecause virtually everywhere either speaks english, or wants to. americans cant realize how universal english is until they travel to differnet places. 

For Hayden: Dude, you should keep playing football. it will be fun and you will get into such good shape! i know its hard, but its totally worth it. its also really hard to sacrifice the time, but the video games will still be there when you finsih. i promise. and remember, you da man hazey. haha (thats my impersonation of dad) 

welp, zone conference is next week, so thats gonna be great, after this one, i'll only have one more!

love you all

Elder Giblette

Pictures

Elder Brown who just finished his mission came to visit Bintulu. his parents and sister "p[icked him up" from the mission

Elder Robbins

Beautiful Bintulu

Picz

Nothin like fried chicken head.. the brains had a dryish texture. not much meat overall.

all those who were baptised. the chinese lookin kid is Justin, the two girls from left to right are Sylvia and Anglela. the guy next to E Laycock is Bro Mambang, father and grandfather to the girls

a member who got ahold of my camera haha..Kelvin

elder Robbins