Archive for May, 2007
Zone Conference in Kuching
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007Well, I just got back from Zone Conference this morning, and so I am still pretty tired. It was in Kuching again. I have flown back and forth from there so often now, it is not even a new thing anymore. It was a really good one though, because I was able to see the Waterfront again, and I got to see all the Iban shops, haha. The Trainings were really good as well, and really got us pumped up for the work here. Elder Rowley, my companion, spent a lot of money on souvenirs cause it is his last one, he goes home in 3 weeks. I bought a T-Shirt, but I’m not too worried about souvenirs cause I am pretty sure I will be staying here til the end of my mission, haha. We went on exchanges with the 1st branch elders. It was good, it was in the same area I went last time. Here are some pics and here are some videos too:
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| Bintulu and Kuching Zone Conference |
Gawai Party
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007Well, another week has come and gone, and I am still in Bintulu haha. Well, it’s ok, I like it here.
I am doing well. We did find some new investigators, including one named Alex. He is a 15 year old kid, but he is way samrt and super golden. He dreamed about us before he met us, and he said when we contacted him, he felt something stirring within him telling him we had something important to tell him. He is awesome. We set a baptism date for him and he came to church and seminary, and already has lots of friends already. He is so cool. We also were able to set 5 other baptism dates this week, it was really cool to see all the ways the Lord has blessed us here. I know that this church is true.
We had a party yesterday for our Branch. We celebrated Hari Gawai Dayak. It was a really big party. It’s like Christmas for these people. There was tons of food, and singing, and dancing, and Ngajat, and lots of people came. A lot of fun altogether. I got to dance the Ngajat also. I uploaded a bunch of pics and I took a lot of videos, so I will try to upload those sometime. I have so many videos I need to upload, but it takes so long to upload them, I often don’t have time. Maybe today I’ll upload a few.
I will be going to Kuching this next Monday for Zone Conference. It will be a lot of fun, it always is. Anyways, I will try to finish the maps for Sri Lanka, Singapore and here, then I will post them with the pics. Here is the pics for this week:
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| Gawai Party |
The Trek to the Waterfall
Tuesday, May 15th, 2007Well, this week, we went to find the waterfall with some of the youth in the second branch. It was this morning actually. It was a lot of fun. It had rained just last night, and so there was lots of mud and water. It was a blast. It actually rained a little in the morning too, so our youth at first didn’t want to go. But we went and gathered up a large group of them, and lots of them came. We had most of our youth, actually, at least most of the active ones, and even a few investigators. It was good. I took a ton of pics and videos, it’s a good thing I just bought a new 2 gb card in Singapore. So I had plenty of space. It rained a little, so my camera got wet, then the youth splashed me a lot when i was taking videos, so it got soaking wet, but amazingly, it still works. I was really happy it does. The youth were all asking us why we couldn’t come and swim with them, and I was severely tempted to swim anyways, but of course I didn’t, haha. They were all jumping off of the waterfall and it looked so much fun, haha. Oh well. I hope all of you enjoyed the map I posted last week, I am planning to do the same thing for Sri Lanka and for Singapore later, along with a link to all of the pics for that area. Just give me some time…. Haha. Anyways, that’s about all we did this week, so now here’s the pics… I’ll post some videos too.
Pics:
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| Bintulu – Trek to Waterfall |
VIDEOS:
Kuala Lumpur – My Area
Friday, May 11th, 2007This is my area in KL. It was pretty big. We rode the buses a lot. The Apartment was ok, and the Church was awesome! I came to the area in March of 2006, and I left in July of 2006. My first companion was Elder Clinton, from Texas, and my second one was Elder Gammon, from New York. Elder Gammon was the first time I was a senior companion, kind of scary for me, haha. We had a lot of baptisms in this area in comparison with the previous elders who had been there. We had a lot of success here. I really loved this area also because it was soooo diverse. There were literally members here from all over the world, and you got to meet people from so many different nations. Africa, Australia, America, UK, Chile, Philippines, Thailand, Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Indonesia, China, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, Russia, Mongolia, and of course, Malaysia. It was awesome! I will forever love the wonderful city of Kuala Lumpur!
Here is a map of the area:
If you can’t view this one very well, or you want to look at it bigger at google maps, here is the link:
KL Map
Here are the pics from Kuala Lumpur:
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| Kuala Lumpur |
Visa Run to Singapore!
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007Wow, this week I got to take a Visa Run to Singapore with Elder Stevenson, cause our Visa’s were expired, so we had to go get them re-chopped. So I was really excited because it was my old area, and I got to go and meet lots of the people who I knew and taught there. I was wayyyyy excited. We stopped in Kuching to switch flights, then blasted on to Singapore. We landed in Singapore and reported to the Mission Office, then went off to Sim Lim Square to look at electronics. Elder Stevenson wanted to buy a camera. We looked at a few, and in the end, he bought the same kind I have. It is a nice camera. Then we went to eat at SUBWAY!!! I love Subway, and it has been 3 months since I’ve had any American food. Yay! It was good. Then we went back to the office and I went with Elder Ferdi (my old buddy from Sri Lanka) and Elder Hagobian (from Iraq) and we went to the Seasons Park Condo, my old house. It was really cool. Then I made some calls and went to meet some people with Elder Antony (from Sri Lanka) and Elder Worley. We went to see the Lim Family first. Only Kandace, Sam, and Sister Evelyn were there. But they invited us in and we got to chat for a while. It was a lot of fun^^. Then we had to rush to an appointment in Sembawang. On the way, we ran into Abish Lai^^ She is so awesome, it was good to see her again, and also Jennifer Yu. She is really nice too. And they both recognized me, despite my crazy short new haircut, lol. Then we also met up with Joseph Goh, and he came with us to the Marican’s house to help us with the appointment. The appointment was good, then we went to see Derrick and Jency. They were there, and it was soo cool to see them again. So we didn’t have much time, but we said hi to them. Then I went to see Alan Thong and his awesome family. I was in for awesome new… Alice got baptized!! And Alan’s mom has a baptism date!!! So awesome! I was so happy. Then we rushed home and I got a call from Nancy saying she had seen me there at a bus stop. So I got to talk to her for awhile too. So cool. I slept soudly that night. In the morning, I went to meet Romesh. He is still doing awesome! I love Romesh, cause he is so cool, and he is really smart and friendly, and he has a strong testimony. He is probably my favorite… well, better not pick favorites haha. But he is cool. He gave me some Italian handkerchiefs and candy. So cool. He said he is considering serving a mission. Wow! That would be so cool… Anyways.. we flew back and I got in to the Kuching Airport. I bought an RC helicopter. It was really cool. Then we flew to Bintulu. The next day, we played soccer again with the youth in the rain. Afterwards, Elder Rowley was really sick. He had to stay in all day. He has been sick all the way til now. We went to see a doctor. I am so bored staying inside all day!!!! I am losing my mind!!! Oh well, guess I can write some letters… Well, that’s about it. Here are the pics for this week:
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| Bintulu – Visa Run |
Bintulu, Building a Long House
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007Well, this week was pretty cool, but also very tiring. News from home is good, and everyone is healthy, despite some accidents. Tyler is good in France, he sent me a short letter, which really brightened my day. The work here in Sungai Plan is really going well, but we are also really working hard also. There is a lot of things that need work, and our members need lots of help also. I am pretty sure that this is the most stressful area I’ve ever been in, and on top of that, I have to learn a language, haha. Actually two languages. Well, Speaking of the language, my Malay is really improving. I am finally feeling like I can say what I need to say to get my point across, and can more freely express myself. It’s like the wall of the language barrier is coming down. I am still with Elder Rowley. We are getting along ok. Elder Leo came down yesterday, so he is staying with us too. He is a cool guy, I’ve known him for most of my mission, and now he’s going home next week. Wow, really makes me feel like I’m getting old. This morning, we played soccer with the youth from Branch 2 and 3, in the mud and rain. It was really a ton of fun! We got all mussy, and then afterwards, we had a mud fight. It was really fun, but I was blinded for awhile cause I got so much mud in my eyes. Too bad. Me and Elder Rowley have been really tired from all the running around we’ve been doing. Plus, we are starting to get to be ‘old’ missionaries (Rowley is done in 2 months, me in 4) and so we just don’t have the energy we used to, haha. Plus, we’ve had to get up early many days just to have time to do the things we wanted to do. It is kinda ghetto. But still good.
Yesterday, we went to Tatau, about an hour away, to help them build a long house. We had to get up at 5:30. Bleh. I am going to die. For those of you who don’t know, our mission goes to bed at 11 and rises at 7, so it is different from most missions (10:30 and 6:30). Well, the long house building was really fun, and also a lot of work. But I was really glad we went. We got back from that and were really tired again, haha. What to do.
And then tomorrow I am going on a Visa run to Singapore with Elder Stevenson. I am so excited! I want to go see all of the members that I used to know, and the people I baptized. I am way happy to get to go back. It will be from Thursday morning til Friday night, so hopefully, I will have enough time. Well, I guess I better go now, got lots of things to do today. I love and miss all of you! Check out my pics this week:
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| Bintulu – Tiada Jalan |