Our First Christmas in Malaysia

We didn't purchase gifts for each other because if we need something we get it, and we live very simply here.  We decided to just go to Tony Romas for dinner as our Christmas treat.

It is definitely not like the ribs in America because they don't have pork ribs, but it was a good treat.

I found these stockings at a shop in the mall, filled them with simple treats with Spiritual Thoughts attached for the 6 Elders.  We had them to dinner after church on Christmas Day to help make their day a little more special..   

Merry Christmas Elders

WeeLoon is a very special young man who was baptized in October.  He was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood on Christmas Day by Elder Lamb.  We had him for dinner as well. 

We  became acquainted with this darling Chinese family when we first started teaching our English classes.  They have become sweet friends and accepted our invitation to come to the Christmas Party at our branch on Christmas Eve.  She has listened to two lessons from the missionaries in our home, but is going back to China for a month for Chinese New Year, so hopefully when she returns she will take more lessons.  Her spirit is so sweet and her English is really progressing. 

Being away from our family for Christmas was a very hard thing for me.  I am so blessed to have a family that loves being together and continues with our Christmas traditions, even adding a few new ones.  They are so special to me.

Things here have been so busy  with  activities this week, so  I haven't had a lot of time to think about being away from home.  We are blessed to be able to speak to our family on Skype or FaceTime so that helps when I get lonely  or just need to talk to them.

I am so thankful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for the opportunity to serve the saints here in Malaysia as I serve the Lord as a missionary and do my best to support and love each of them.

This is really a learning experience for me and I am learning to rely on inspiration from the Lord so that I can make a difference here.

Here We Come A Carroling

For our P-Day activity, the missionary force spent the afternoon caroling.  We went first to an Orphan Home.  There are 46 children who live there from teens down to babies.  Their caregivers seemed so nice and were very grateful to us for coming.  The Elders make a great chorus.

These little ones were so darling.  They just stared up at us with their big eyes.  It is hard to think of them as orphans.  They seem very happy and secure and so well behaved.

Oh No!!  Not the Checkpoint....

This is where the day took a bad turn, or we did at least.  We were on our way to the next orphan  home and turned off the wrong exit and ended up at the checkpoint where you cross the border into Singapore.  You should see it, there are several lanes marked for buses, motorcycles, trucks and automobiles.We had no place to turn around so we had no choice but to go up to the checkpoint.  We had two elders in our car and the others were with Bro. Ben.  He knows his way around because he lives here, so he didn't take the turn with us.  Anyway after trying to explain to the agents at the window that we didn't really want to go into Singapore,  they made us all get out of the car and go into an office to talk to the agents inside.  We had to try to explain  why we didn't have our passports with us, because we really weren't headed for Singapore, we just got into the wrong exit.  They asked many questions about what we were doing in Malaysia, where we are staying, how long we are going to be here, etc.  Thank goodness we all carry laminated copies of our passports with us at all times, so they took those and asked us to wait.  This was quite a scary experience, because many of the missionaries are questioned as to why they are in Malaysia, and sometimes their passports are chopped with a black stamp so that they cannot stay in Malaysia.  After about 45 minutes, they finally decided to let us go back into Malaysia.  Now we didn't have time to go to both of the places we had planned to go.  Luckily, when we called the orphan home, we found out that the children had gone on an outing and were stuck in traffic and would not be home until 7pm, so they missed our caroling.

 

Our next stop was the Green Acres Elderly Care Center.  This is a place where some of the previous Elders had visited.  We stopped and sang in each room.  Some of them had only two people in and others were larger and had several beds.  Some of the people obviously didn't even realize that someone was there, but others really loved the singing.  This man even sang along with us.

These are some of the caregivers who came running after us and wanted to get a picture with us.

This beautiful lady remembers the Elders well. 

She even has a picture on her wall of her with one of the Elders who used to visit her. 

I told her that I would send him this picture, that he was now back in America. 

I think we were able to brighten the day for some of these people who probably don't get many visitors and certainly not ones who sing Christmas Carols to them.

It's Feeling More Like Christmas Here In Malaysia

It isn't easy to get in the Christmas Spirit when you are living in an Islamic Country.  The few decorations that they do have are very secular.  We are trying very hard to bring the Christmas Spirit into the lives of the members of our two branches and also the Elders. 

This Santa was at the place where we stop for lunch when we have

District Meeting in Masai.   Ho Ho Ho  Merry Christmas!!! 

Elder Hadley & Elder Read set up the Christmas in the Masai Branch. 

Great Job!!

President Tee, the Branch President of the JB Branch organized a day of carroling with the missionaries, he and his wife and two other sisters.  We had a wonderful day.  We traveled quite a distance between places, and survived a torrential rainstorm, but our spirits were so happy as we were able to share some of the true Spirit of Christmas with many people.  You will see from all of the smiles that it was a great day and the families enjoyed us sharing our Spirit with them.  You would be amazed at the beautiful sound that comes out of these few people.

This family are friends of Sister Eunice, 

not members, but they sure enjoyed our singing and even joined in.

Liu Wei is an investigator.  Her smile always makes my day!

We visited her at her work and got in out of the rain for a while.

.

Alex Ng is a less active member who was so happy to see us

and joined in on the caroling.

Smile everyone!  You are on camera

Pia is a sweet investigator.  We visited her at work and sang to her and the other customers as they ate their dinner.

Ms. Chong is a recent convert. 

Her family are not members but they come to church and activities with her often.

They are quite an addition to the branch

We stopped at Holiday Plaza for KFC dinner, so we sang to Sister DaDa at her work.

The Kwan family live about 45 minutes away from church,

so they are not able to come very often.  Transportation is definitely a problem here.

I am so grateful that we are able to support the branch members and leaders here in Malaysia.  It is certainly a growing experience for us and one that we will remember always.

P-Day Excursion To The South China Sea

We haven't done a fun P-Day activity for a while, so we decided to go check out the waterfalls and have a little hike.

On our way we saw many monkeys jumping around in the trees and some of them came to greet us on the road.

When we got to the waterfall area, it was reserved for a group from Singapore, so we had to quickly change our plans.  Luckily we had our Branch Mission Leader, Brother Ben with us and since he is from here, he knows the places to visit. 

Our alternate was the South China Sea. 

What a beautiful place.  The beach isn't too much fun for missionaries, since they cannot swim, but they had a great day anyway.

  If you can't swim, just climb a coconut tree.

Or climb on a fallen log

                                                                           ....or just be yourselves

Treats are always a good idea!

A wonderful day was had by all!!  The end!!

Our Youth Activity Was a Success

We decided to plan a joint youth activity for both of the branches that we serve.  The youth don't get many opportunities to attend church and when there aren't activities, they are really left out.  Since the youth are the future of the Church, we feel like it is very important to strengthen  as much as we can. 
We started with a Spiritual Opening using the 2016 Mutual Theme "Press Forward".  We taught them about "Our Path to Eternal Life"  from Conversion, to learning & growing in the gospel,to sharing the gospel, to family history and temple ordinances through videos, music and some participation from them.
Elder Lamb encouraged them to learn the Articles of Faith.

We then served them lunch which was KFC(a Malaysian favorite), potatoes & gravy, watermelon

The Elders helped us plan and carry out some very fun games.  We did relays, Minute To Win It Games and Charades.  They really had fun and truly got into the action.

Transfers Come So Quickly

We welcomed two new Elders to the JB District.  Elder Read is straight from the MTC, and Elder Schindler was transferred from East Malaysia as a trainer for Elder Davis.

One of our first stops was to visit a member who was baptized about 20 years ago by a  sister missionary serving in Australia who was from our home ward in Peoria, Arizona.  He has become less active, so we will continue to visit and encourage him.  He seems to enjoy the missionaries' visits.

After a hard day of missionary work, we took a break while waiting for the Elders to get their shopping done.  Oh a massage feels so good right now, except it squeezes your feet really hard, and that hurt.