Apartment for Let

Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks? This week we have learned how to close up an Elders apartment. The lease was up on the house in which four Elders were living, and due to various reasons, the lease was not extended. We were asked to take care of the closing. We were amazed that on Wednesday of this week, almost the entire zone turned out to help clean the house and move personal and Church belongs to the missionaries new abodes. Let me tell you, a lot of stuff can accumulate in a missionary apartment that has been occupied for many years. It was not a pretty sight! Most of the missionaries were able to come back on Thursday to help clean, mop floors, wash windows, vacuum, etc. There was also more stuff to throw away. We've made several "hauling" trips with our car. Everyone is now settled, at least, temporarily in their new digs. Two of the Elders moved in with the Chinese Elders and the other two moved in with the Zone Leaders.

Elder T with Elder B in his "house cleaning attire"

Our new responsibility is to meet with the landlord, walk through the house, and try to reclaim as much of the deposit as possible. Good luck with that one! We're waiting now for the landlord to contact us so we can do this.

We're also involved with closing the Senior Couple's house in Bintulu. The reason we picked this one up is because of the three Senior Couples in our district, we live the closest to the landlord. I should mention that both of the landlords involved here are Chinese. We may have to take President Chua, our District President, to go with us. He's Chinese and speaks Chinese.

It's been a pretty busy and frustrating week with the housing situations, but we're still here. We're learning more about this process. Procuring new housing is also a challenge. We've been involved with that since we've arrived, but it's been unsuccessful in finding suitable lodging for the Elders.

On a different note, this week was Zone Meeting so all the zone was here. They went bowling Monday afternoon. We tagged along because there weren't enough bikes to go around. It's a good thing we were there, however. Before anyone got started bowling, Sister Mills took a wrong step on a short step and landed on her knee, breaking her knee cap into at least three pieces. Her husband and I gave her a blessing before taking her to the hospital. That's when she found out about the knee cap. Needless to say, she was not a happy camper. The doctor put a splint on her leg so she can't bend her knee and put her on bed rest. She's down for six weeks. Not fun! Elder Mills is heavily involved with the Sibu Jaya Branch having been recently called as the Branch President there. We're helping out where we can. Sister Bodell is staying with her Saturday night while Elder Mills participates in a baptismal service for his branch that night. Me? I'm going to seminary.

The Elders were able to get several games of bowling in. There were definitely some interesting bowling styles!

Seminary was great! Brother Merang is doing a super job. This was his second lesson. The youth are participating in discussions. It's good to see this happening.

We had our last choir practice Sunday evening. District Conference is next weekend. President and Sister Main, our mission president and his wife, will be in the neighborhood this week for interviews with the missionaries and attending District Conference. This promises to be a good week. I will try and take notes and pictures along the way for the next post.

The Gospel is true! How grateful we should be to have living prophets on the earth! We will be blessed if we heed their counsel and advice.