Mission Moments: On the River to Kapit, Zone Meeting, Skyping, and Cooking Class

I failed to mention that Sunday night we went to an FHE at Brother Gima's. Most of the family was there. We missed Alexson, though. He's been really hard to catch lately. His work schedule is not conducive to teaching him. I miss our reading lessons.

Anyway, Elder T gave a really good lesson. As the family comes closer together, they come closer to Christ. Elder T had everyone stand up and join hands. There was a picture of Christ on the floor. We drew closer together as we drew closer to the picture of Christ. It was a great object lesson.

Brother Gima and family gathered for FHE

It's P-Day. The young Elders from the district met at our place this morning. We drove down to the river (after having to jumpstart the Altius), parked the cars, and boarded a boat bound for Kapit, a little town about three hours up river from Sibu.

The boat is something else. The engine sounds a little rough. About five minutes after departure we stopped in the middle of the river. The engine was turned off. Whatever the issue, it must have been fixed. The engine doesn't sound quite so janky now. Hmm! Maybe I spoke too soon. We are stopping again, mid river. We're now 20 minutes out from our departure. Yes, I'm writing this along the way. It's about a three-hour boat ride. At this rate it will be time to get back on another boat for the return trip. Five minutes later and we're moving again.

And away we go . . . Sister Bodell, Elders, P, O, and J

Cruising down the river with Elders S, J, T, O, S, J, P, and R

Our boat is enclosed and, fortunately, is air conditioned. This could be a really long trip if not. I would like to take pictures along the way, but most of the windows are scratched plexiglass. Everything would look really foggy! Sister Bodell prepared herself for mosquito protection by slathering with repellent, wearing mosquito repellant patches, and netting. It all worked! Not one bite on the whole trip.

Bring on the little vermin! Sister Bodell was prepared!

One of the pleasantries of the boat ride were the movies showing on a nice flat screen TV. The first was the new Fantastic Four movie. It was followed by some Chinese movie. There was a third . . . something about zombies or vampires or something. Didn't watch that one at all. It didn't matter what language they were. We couldn't hear the audio and were too far back to read the subtitles.

The ride to Kapit took close to 3½ hours. There were two stops along the way. We arrived about noon, grabbed a bite to eat, and headed to the museum which was closed and wouldn't open until 2:00 PM. The museum is an old fort. We did a little walking around until it got too hot. We finally had to find some air conditioning or melt. We actually looked like we were melting due to the perspiration. I had a pleasant young Muslim woman offer me a tissue to wipe myself off. We ended up taking together for 15-20 minutes. She had spent time in Australia, but she really didn't have an accent. She learned most of her English watching American TV when she was a child.

A view of the river from the dock at Kapit

Our boat departing the dock

The Kapit boat terminal

Boats docked along the river

We didn't make it to the museum because our boat back left at 2:15. It was a little faster trip back to Sibu. It was nonstop. I still couldn't take any decent pictures out the window because it rained most of the way back, and the windows were pelted with rain drops. This was sad because this was a much nice, newer boat which you could clearly see out the windows. It's too bad, too. The view of the jungle along the river was just like you see in the movies. There were some really long longhouses, some with as many as 20-25 doors. We'd like to find a way to go back and see them up close. They were really nice looking.

The name of the place seems like an oxymoron!

Proof that we made it to Kapit.

The closed museum . . . Fort Sylvia
If you enlarge the picture, you can see where water levels have been.

The jungle and river look just like something out of an old Tarzan movie.

The boat back was much newer and faster!

Tuesday was Zone Meeting. The training from the ZLs was about Speaking to Everyone. How would the prophets contact people? What would they say to them? How would they say it? There was some good discussion. It all boils down to love.

The Sibu Zone minus two
Elders D, S, and O
Elder and Sister Mills, Sister and Elder Bodell
Elders T, P, S, J, R, M, and J

Ya gotta love 'em!

The week has been pretty normal for the most part. We've done the usual shopping and mending.

We did have a treat on Sunday morning. We had the opportunity to be of service to Sister Doo and her family. Last Sunday they were going to Skype with Elder C, but it fell through. We had gone to their place so they could use our computer. The camera on their computer isn't working.

This Sunday we went out to try again. Elder C and Elder S, both home from their missions had a wonderful chat with the family. It was good to hear them all chatting away in Malay. At the end, Elder S offered a prayer that was very heart-felt. I didn't understand a lot of it since it was in Malay, but I felt the Spirit during the prayer. It was a beautiful experience. It's nice to know that that there are missionaries out there that are still interested in the people they taught. I'm glad we were able to help complete this call.

Es C&S Skyping with Brother Merang, Sister Doo, and family
Check out the picture! We're there, too.

This week's Relief Society cooking class was fruit pizza and salad dressing for a tossed salad.

Sisters Martha, Doo, and Norlia giving a thumbs up on the fruit pizza

Mixing the pizza crust

It tastes so good, even without toppings!

Sister Julie snitching a piece of kiwi

Sister Doo modeling the almost finished pizza . . .

The finished pizza and the tossed salad with a citrus oil & vinegar dressing
Pizza toppings: strawberries, kiwi, mandarin orange slices, sliced grapes, pineapple, and blueberries