AUGUST

We have not been traveling in a long time because our projects have all reached the point that it is not required that we do so. We have been spending more time on our "shadow leadership " part of our mission. We spend more time with the young elders and sisters helping them with their investigators and trying to contact the inactives. This family pictured here is a family that the sisters were teaching. We met them at church one evening to hold a FHE with them. They were so nice and a rare group because it was the father, mother, and children. We had a fun time and they seemed to really enjoy themselves. The sisters did a great job of teaching them. We were just thrilled to be part of it. Unfortunately the family has not been back to church. The father works at Sutera Harbor Golf Club and that means Sunday work for him. The mom works full time also. Hopefully their interest can be rekindled.

In KK there are 35,000 automobiles in the downtown area every day. There are only 7,000 parking spaces. Many people double park, park in highway lanes, or wherever they can find a space to squeeze into. Most parking spaces have numbers written on them--a few do not. If their is a number on them, this means that you have to pay. There are not meters to put money into. There are meter-maids who check and put tickets on your car for payment. Keep in mind that the daily average temperature is about 86 degrees. This is a picture of a meter maid in KK. They all look like this. They are wrapped and layered from head to toe--even gloves on the hands!!!!! This sweet gal was so nice and polite to pose for a picture with E. Larson. When you receive a ticket, you just have to keep looking for a meter maid to pay her. We always pay our tickets, sometimes it takes a few days until we can see a meter maid to pay. We have an Adopt-A-Highway project here with the branch in KK. The only one that I know in Malaysia!!! We clean the stretch of highway in front of our church building. We do this service every 3 months. The biggest trash that we collect on these days are parking tickets!!!! We probably collect 100 plus tickets each time we clean the highway!!!!

This was my project for about three days when my projects were really slow. I found this in one of the drawers in the living room and decided to start this with our little neighbor, Rebecca. Her mother left her with me one day and I thought that it would be a good project for us. She lost interest very quickly, but I could not stop until I finished!! It was relaxing and fun to do.

One evening E. Larson and I were out visiting members of the branch. We needed to go see the Harun family because Adrian(the son) was getting ready to go on his mission and he was having a difficult time. As we were headed upstairs in this large flat, I immediately noticed one of our LDS Charities wheelchairs. They are easy for us to recognize because of the color and the logo on the back. I told E. Larson to look at this young man and of course, he wanted to go over and speak. He gave them our card and explained that we represent the organization that provided this wheelchair. This is a Muslim family and they were so appreciative. Everyone in the family came out of their flat to shake our hands and invited us to eat with them. This was during the month of Ramadan and after certain prayers every night, they break their fast. They fast from before daybreak until after dark every day in the month of August. There is a specific time in each state and/or zone for the fast to end each day. It ends when the prayers from the loudspeakers are finished. These loudspeakers are in the mosques. Then they dive into their food. This family was just starting to eat and invited us to join them. They had never seen us before!!

These are just some of the typical days that we have here in KK. We love ya'll so much.

DAD & MOM