On a Lighter Note

On a lighter note…

We visited what I like to call the ‘projects’ in Rantau Panjang last night because I wanted to learn how to make fried noodles.  After the meal, the husband brought out a cage with an animal in it  I assumed it was a pet and commented innocently, “I didn’t know you could have pets here!”  The reply was a little disconcerting:  “No, that is barbecue tomorrow!”  I was curious, so I Googled it. This is a picture of the animal in the wild and also a coat made out of its scales (made for George III of England…this used to be an English colony). 

The animal is called a ‘pangolin' and belongs to the anteater family.  Apparently, it is a delicacy here!  I can only be thankful that we won’t be at their home tonight.

LOL,

Sister Bodell

A Strong Dislike of Motos and More

It's Saturday night, and it's been quite a week! I have developed a very strong dislike for moots here in Malaysia, especially in Sibu. I know they have their place, but they just spring out of nowhere and drivers don't seem to care about any driving rules at all. They dart in, out, in-between, and around cars. Scary! I had a close encounter with one Monday afternoon on our way home from somewhere. It was pouring cats and dogs. A moto came out of nowhere as I was going around a roundabout. He slid right into me. We stopped about 100 feet ahead to catch our breath, ready to take care of business. When we looked back, the moto and driver were gone. No injuries on our part, nor the driver's since he had disappeared. Motos are all over the place. They even take their families on them. I found this picture on the internet so you can see what I'm talking about.

Needless to say, I've been a little gun-shy about driving. I'm getting more relaxed about it, especially after making several trips to the airport to drop off and/or pick up missionaries. I've gone several times this week, even driving by myself. Thank goodness for GPS!

Tuesday we attended our first District meeting. We held it in our home. Sister Bodell fixed tacos for everyone. There were 14 Elders and two senior couples. I love the fact that wherever we go, members'  home or church, everyone takes their shoes off.

Outside our door during our District meeting

Wednesday and Thursday were pretty much involved with the usual day to day of study, shopping for supplies, find our way round the city. I think it was Wednesday night that we went out to dinner with the other senior couple in our district, Elder and Sister Mills. We had a great time talking and getting acquainted. This is their second mission.

We've had several days of rain . . . I should say daily. Sometimes it just pours. Somewhere I have a picture of the rain. I'll include it next week.

Friday night we had dinner with President Gara (Branch 1) and his family. It was delicious. Sister Mina taught Sister Bodell how to make a noodle dish that was excellent, which was served with a purple potato. The potato tasted a bit like a sweet potato or yam, but not as strong. It will be good with apples using the yam recipe from the Lion House cookbook. Looking forward to trying that. We picked up a purple potato this evening on the way home from Seminary. Sister Bodell was asked to say the blessing which she did . . . in Malay. I was asked to give a closing prayer, which I also did in Malay. (We start our Malay training again next week.)

A drawing of Sister and Elder Bodell by Olivia, President Gara's daughter.

Today is Saturday. I drove out to the airport by myself to pick up four Elders. They had been to a new missionary training. I got them home safely and without too much consternation on my part. We went over to the Church at 2:00 P.M. so Sister Bodell could begin teaching piano lessons. She had three students today. That will grow next Saturday. I taught my first Seminary lesson at 4:00 P.M.. There were four students today, along with two missionaries who helped translate for me. The lesson went well, and I felt the Spirit as scriptures were shared by those in the class, even as they read in Malay. I'm grateful for this experience. The District President is supposed to call a teacher from the local membership. I may end up teaching for several weeks.

The Seminary and Institute classes coincide with the local school year which runs from January to mid-November.

Here are some pictures that I hadn't posted yet. The first two were taken at our missionary conference last week. 

Our Zone Conference. How we got front row seats I'll never know.
President and Sister Mains are seated in the center.

The Senior Couples in the Singapore Mission

Tomorrow doesn't really start a new week in Malaysia. Their weeks go from Monday to Sunday so tomorrow is actually the last day of the week, but I'm still on US time. Tomorrow is the beginning of a new week for us.

There is probably much that I haven't included in this blog, but I can't remember what else at this time. It may get included next week.

It's Sunday . . . A Confirmation and More

I mentioned yesterday that we were able to attend the baptism of a young girl. Her father was baptized not that long ago. He was able to baptize his daughter. It was a beautiful meeting in our chapel here in Sibu. This young lady was confirmed a member of the Church this morning in Sacrament meeting. I had the privilege of participating in that confirmation.

The missionary effort here is amazing. The members love the missionaries and do all they can to refer friends and help the Elders anyway they can. It's not like home where we had one pair of missionaries for the the stake. We have 10 Elders here in Sibu. That's four missionaries for each branch except the Chinese branch which only has one set of missionaries. But the missionaries are all in the same district. The Zone Leaders are also in our district. Actually, the two Malay speaking branches here also have one other set of missionaries . . . Us! There is also another senior couple in our district that works with the Chinese branch. Hopefully we'll see more of them. They also work with the Sibu Jaya branch which is several miles away from us.

We are beginning to get organized. The seminary program needs an infusion of enthusiasm. It's been non-existent for over a month now. We are going to start teaching next Saturday. I don't know if we'll have anyone there or not, but we're going to give it a shot.

Later tonight we'll be off to pick up the ZLs from their meeting somewhere out towards the jungle. We were there last Sunday, but I wasn't driving. It was also dark and raining. I hope we can find where we're going before it gets dark tonight. You have to have an address for the GPS to work very well.

Finally, a Day to Catch up!

And the energizer bunnies keep going and going and going, but today we can catch up a little. As you read from the previous blog, Sunday was a whirlwind of meetings. I apologize that this is such a long blog. Here is a glance at the rest of the week's activities. If you don't want to read to the end, that's okay. However, there are some pictures at the end.

Monday: Rode with Elder and Sister Beus paying bills, running errands, getting our phones activated with new numbers, shopping, repack for trip to Singapore for Missionary Conference.

Tuesday: Up at 4:00 AM so we would be ready to go NLT 5:30 AM to be picked up to go to the airport for the Missionary Conference. President Gara and his family picked up Elder and Sister Beus from their hotel and then came and got us. Sister Bodell rode with the Garas and Sister Beus to the airport. Elder Beus drove the car and me to the airport. 

The flight to Singapore includes a flight from Sibu to Kuching and then from Kuching to Singapore. We're becoming really good at this flying business. We have one more flight this week when we return to Sibu.

After checking in at the hotel, Sister Bodell and I took the MRT (subway) to the stake center for choir practice. There were about 10 senior couples that sang in this choir. The choir was practicing for the Seniors Conference the next day. The song we sang was Though Deepening Trials.  I wish I could sing better, but I was okay.

After choir practice, the senior couples went out to dinner at a great restaurant somewhere in Singapore called Aston's. It's located in one of the many, many, many shopping malls in Singapore. We enjoyed our time getting acquainted with the other senior couples. After dinner we returned to hotel rooms to retire for the evening.

Wednesday: Today was Seniors Conference for all the senior couples in the mission. We started with breakfast at McDonald's, which was just around the corner from our hotel, with several other senior couples. Then it back on the MRT for choir practice to warm up at 9:30 AM. The meetings started at 10:00 AM. There were presentations from new couples (our turn next month) and departing couples (Elder and Sister Beus for one). Talks by President and Sister Mains and presentations to show us what some of the other missionaries are doing. I think we were done by about 5:00 PM. Lunch today was a delicious Mexican meal. The theme for this missionary conferences was Promises. 

Thursday: We didn't have to get moving quite so fast this morning, but we did have breakfast at McDonald's again. I should note here that you don't bus your own garbage. Someone is employed to do that. Bussing your garbage takes away from that person's responsibility. 

Today's conference sessions were specifically for our zone so only the missionaries from our zone were in attendance. The APs conducted and spoke. Elder Plazier, the senior AP conducted and spoke. It was like listening to a General Authority speak. We were greatly impressed by his spirit, his humility, and his ability to communicate his message. The talk was excellent. He could have spoken longer. It would not surprise us if ended up as a General Authority someday.

Pizza was served for lunch today. There were 50 boxes of pizza, one box per set of elders. Fruit and brownies were also served. There were no left-overs! Young male missionaries can really pack it away! 

President and Sister Mains took Elder and Sister Beus and us to a little place called Spizza for dinner. It was a welcome dinner for us and a farewell dinner for the Beus's. After dinner, the Beus's went back to the hotel, and we went with President and Sister Mains to spend the night in their beautiful home. 

Friday: President Mains fixed a wonderful breakfast of blueberry pancakes, scrambled eggs, sausage, fresh strawberries, and orange juice. Delicious!

L to R: Sister Beus, Elder Beus, President Mains, Sister Mains, Sister Bodell, Elder Bodell

After breakfast we had a devotional then an orientation to the mission. After the orientation, President and Sister Mains drove us to the airport for our flight back to Sibu.

It's been a great, spiritual week.  President and Sister Mains are wonderful people. They are not hard to love and follow. We've been blessed by their teaching and their example this week.

We flew back to Sibu with several Elders and Sisters on the plane. It was great to see them interact, not only with each other, but also with those they sat next to on the plane. It seemed that none of the missionaries sat by each other and each was engrossed in a conversation with the nonmember seat mate. Totally awesome to see them at work!

White-Knuckle Driving: We arrived at the airport later than anticipated. It was dark and rainy. I had the dubious pleasure of driving us back to our apartment. Fortunately, we had a couple of GPS units, commonly referred to as missionaries, with us. They're apartment is close to our home so we gave them a lift, and they guided us home. I probably need to remind you that they drive on the other side of the street here. It was a little hairy and confusing. I was very grateful for the Elders and their guidance.

Saturday: The plan today was to catch up and rest up. Okay, we got some laundry done and a little shopping done this morning. We received a call this morning from one of the missionaries asking if we knew about the piano lesson at 3:00 this afternoon, or the language training at the same time, or the baptism at 7:00 this evening. No was the answer to all three questions. So we had to scale back what we were planning on doing for the remainder of the day. Sister Bodell picked up two new piano students. We attended the language training taught by one of the Malay members. This will greatly help our pronunciation, helped the Elders prepare and print the baptism program back at our place, attended the baptism, and then shopped some more afterward. I am beat! Driving at night is not my favorite thing to do, especially on the other side of the street. I am off to bed before we attend two different sets of Branch meetings tomorrow.

Our Arrival Day

Our Arrival Day
L to R: Sister Boyter, Elder Boyter, Elder Bodell, Sister Bodell, Brother Tandiman, President Lai
(Brother Tandiman is the Asia S&I director; President Lai is the Singapore Stake President
and our local go-to man for S&I)