QUICK TRIP-KUCHING-------BRANCH ACTIVITY

This is Kylie and we met her on our last trip to Kuching. We have two projects going in Kuching--one is fresh water and the other is wheelchairs. We stayed at our favorite little hotel while there. It's called Telang Usan. It's older and hidden from the rest of the touristy places, but is close enough to the water front to walk. We actually met Kylie at the hotel. She was staying there also. She is from Brisbane, Australia, she's a project manager, and this was her first vacation alone. She has had a little heartbreak and took the trip by herself to recoup. We kept bumping into her on the waterfront where we were shopping in all of the little tourist boutiques. We just decided to have lunch together and so enjoyed her company. She invited us to Brisbane to visit and we invited her to stay with us in North Carolina if she ever comes to the states. The world is certainly full of Heavenly Father's wonderful children.

After lunch with Kylie, we decided to look for E. Larson's favorite dessert--fried bananas!! Some local people directed us to a kedai near the Chinese temple. The temple was beautiful and I took a few pictures. But to our chagrin, no bananas.

We got back to KK late Thursday night and prepared for the first KKII Branch Activity!!
The YW were in charge and we did it just like a FHE. It was so fun. We learned to play a new game that Sis. Maylin, YW pres., taught us. She said that they played this in her village when she was a child. We had about 30 people there and they really enjoyed the fun , fellowship, and food!!!

This is part of the game called "Good Police, Bad Person". All we needed was two neckties and the fun began!!

The winners of the last game got to pick the closing song and sing for everyone. The losers of the game got to wash dishes!!! Just like home. In this picture, standing next to me is our new sister missionary, Sister Gopinath. She is brand new!! She is from the great state of Tennessee. GO SOUTH!!! We now have eight missionaries in KK!! They are wonderful, dedicated young men and women.

I surely hope that our children are teaching our grandchildren EVERY DAY to serve a mission. Service to the Lord is the most rewarding and will bring our children and grandchildren the most happiness that they will ever have on this earth!! The gospel is true and Jesus is the Christ, the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I know these things with all of my heart.

Love you more every minute!!

MOM & DAD

SENIOR CONFERENCE IN SINGAPORE

We have had our Second Senior Missionary Conference in Singapore!! What an enlightening experience and also a lot of fun. We went a few days early and stayed at the Pasir Panjang House this time. Our friends, Barry and Linda Johnson, came early also because E. Larson needed to help them with their wheelchair project. They are the Humanitarian couple in West Malaysia. We have come to love them greatly. We arrived in Singapore on Tuesday evening

and they worked on their projects most of the day. Later in the day we went to the Asian Civilization Museum for a special exhibit of the Terracotta Warriors. They had about one hundred artifacts from Shaanxi province in China. Before we went into the exhibition, we had a drink at an outdoor restaurant at the museum. I had a strawberry milkshake and it was just that--milk with some strawberry flavoring, shaken up!! NO Ice Cream!!! On well........ The exhibition was awesome!! I would love to see all of these warriors in China. To think how old they are and they were only discovered in 1974 outside Xi'an.

The museum is located on the Singapore River in the city. Afterwards, we walked along the river and made some goofy pictures with some of the bronze statues along the river walk.

E. Larson wanted me to sit on this fellow's lap. I'm so happy that he is bronze!!! After this, we found a Mexican restaurant. YEA!!!! Haven't had any since we left the states. It was so yummy. We sat at a table right on the waterfront and were able to sit and chat. The Johnsons and we usually take the MRT, but this time we just took cabs--easier and faster.

The next day we went to some places with the Smiths who are the new Public Relations seniors for the mission. They are stationed in KL. They were so fun and I loved getting to know them. E/S Brown also in KL went with us. We all bought these special made Nativity scenes. They are being made for us and we will pick them up when we return to Singapore in January. They are made of ground cinnamon and some paste. Next we took the Smiths and Browns to Mustapha's in Little India. They had never been and wanted to buy some things that they could not find anywhere else. The streets of Little India were decorated as far as the eye could see. The Indian holiday, Deepavali, is celebrated on October 26. That's one thing I love about Malaysia and Singapore. They are so diverse, so many cultures, and so many holidays!!!

This is one of our new missionary couples, the Hodders. They are from Canada. They are simply just delightful!!! We loved getting acquainted with them. The Hodders and the other couples from Sarawak(the other state in East Malaysia) decided to take a trip to Kuching for a few days on their way to the conference in Singapore. President Clark granted permission and they left. They invited us to go, but we have been 3 times and are going back tomorrow. We have vision and wheelchair projects there. They had such a fun time that they decided to perform a silly little skit for our senior conference. The picture below is one of them performing for the rest of us. Lots of laughs!!

The next day was our 13 hour long conference. It was all a discussion format. So helpful and informative. There was so much knowledge and information in that one room!! For dinner that evening, we had a special surprise in that Elder Subandriyo, one of the Area Seventy, came unexpected and had dinner and spoke to us. He is such a nice man. We had the privelege of spending a whole day with him when he came to KK.

Sebastion picked us up at the airport when we returned and I asked him for a picture of him with his BYU hat that E. Larson gave him for Christmas. He is very proud of his new taxi!!

Senior missions are just the best!!! I would love to serve another one again. It's the best that I have ever felt in my life. So rewarding and so humbling. I would wish this experience for all of our children one day. We can skype with our grandchildren and watch them grow. Jakey is now old enough that he skypes with us on his own sometimes. We love it--he's getting so big. I miss my sisters and brother, but I will see them soon also.

I love the Savior, his Plan of Salvation, and His blessings to us!!

DAD/MOM

OTHER SEPTEMBER ACTIVITIES

This picture was taken one Saturday morning at a lovely park here in KK. Our neighbor, Debbie and her daughters, Sarah and Rebecca, wanted to take us for a walk in the park and breakfast. The man in the yellow shirt is our new friend, Max. I met Max at the hospital here in KK. He was born and reared on the island of Borneo--in Kudat, near the Tip of Borneo. E. Larson was having a sonogram at the hospital, and while I was waiting, I talked to Max. Such an interesting fellow. He knows everyone!!! Really!! There are lots of prominent Chinese people her in KK and he knows most of them. We are now teaching Debbie and her daughters about the gospel. We have had two discussions with them and they went to church with us last Sunday!!! The Elders are actually doing most of the teaching and we contribute and fellowship.

This is a picture of some of the members of the Likas Bay Rotary Club. They invited E. Larson to speak to them at their regular Wednesday night meeting at Pacific Sutera Hotel and restaurant. The gentleman standing beside me is Mr. Ling. We met him when we ordered medical optical equipment for a vision project we're doing in Tawau. His company is here in KK. He wanted to introduce us to his club and have E. Larson introduce LDS Charities to the club. Afterwards they invited us to dinner and had the opportunity to visit and talk with them. So nice and friendly!! We hope to be able to work with them on humanitarian projects in the future.

This was S. Hite's farewell at the airport. She is now back home in Raleigh, N. C. I miss her because of her positive energy and her unique laugh!! In the middle is Pris. Francis, president of KK1 Branch. He is my friend and such a good man. He doesn't come to tell all missionaries goodbye, but he does come for some.
I baked her a bag of chocolate chip cookies to eat on the way home.

Sis. Helen, with her arms around my neck, is in KK2 Branch and she is Kate's new counselor in Relief Society. She has 5 children and they are good kids. She is the mother of baby Yee(if you remember pictures). She is a gifted seamstress and makes clothes for companies here in Malaysia. She helped us order about 75 shirts for Wheelchair Assessment Training for KK and Kuching in November. E. Larson wanted us to take her out to dinner one evening. She understands English, but will not speak it with us. This is her daughter Amy, her mom's translator, with us and our Katie. We had a lovely evening and it was fun to watch this hardworking sister laugh and enjoy herself.

We love you with all our hearts and pray for your happiness every day

DAD & MOM

TRIP TO THE TIP OF BORNEO

The third week in September, we went with some of our fellow missionaries to the tip of Borneo. It's the northernmost ppoint of the island and is so beautiful. It is totally uninhabited except for these little guest cabins wehere we spent one night. This is a picture of E/S Cunningham, E/S Orien, Sis. Lowe, Kate, and E/S Larson. We had such a wonderful time, just laughing, kidding and relaxing. Sis. Lowe had been to KK once before with her companion, S. Clark(Pres. Clark's mom) on their way to the temple in Manila. She suggested that maybe we should take a trip to the tip with the Oriens and Cunninghams also. Dad wrote and got permission from Pres. Clark and we were on GO!! The Oriens are serving in Bintulu, south of us, the Cunninghams are serving in Mukah, a really isolated place only accessible by boat!!! Sis. Lowe is in Miri. All of them live in Alaska--Oriens in Anchorage, Cunninghams in Juneau, and Sis. Lowe has moved to Utah, but she lived in Anchorage for many years. E. Cunningham is a Patriarch like Dad. And, of course, we had Kate who arranged our trip and was our guide.

All of the sisters bought these lovely bead necklaces that are made by the natives. S. Cunningham found this beautiful blue and white one that was so lovely with her white hair!! She is from Sweden originally and just delightful. She and E. Cunningham had to establish a whole new branch in Mukah. They are fabulous.
They were suppose to spend the night at the sister's apartment. In the afternoon, the sisters informed us that the elders had not paid their electric bill on time and they had no electricity, hence, no air-con!!! The sister said that if the Cunninghams did not mind candles and no air-con, that they were ready for them!!!

We arranged for them to come to our apartment to stay with us, the Oriens, and S. Lowe. At least they could have air-con, even sleeping on the floor. Wellllllllll, guess what....... There was a thunder storm, the electricity went off in our apartment and did not return until morning!!! Horrors!! I felt so badly, but our guests were troupers. If they had stayed with the sisters, they would have had a comfortable bed. This is the very tip--beautiful and windy.

This is E. Larson and S. Orien with a bunch of school children who lived near the honey bee farm that we went to visit on our trip.

We just had to have a picture with this little native lady who makes beads to sell to tourists. She just barely came up dto my armpits!! I bought lots of necklaces from the ladies here.

We arrived at the tip about one hour before sunset. It is gorgeous. I could not find my pictures of the Phillipines. If you turn about 140 degrees to the right from this point, you can see some of the Philliine Islands in the distance.

This is Kate sitting on sandstone taking pictures. Our fellow missionaries fell in love with her, too. S. Orien and S. Lowe want her to meet Pres. Jack, one of the branch presidents in Bintulu. He is 36 years old, single, and handsome. When Kate saw his picture on facebook, her first comment was that he is not Chinese. He is Indian. But she is not divorced yet and we can't go there.

More pictures of the happy missionary tourists!!!

Lady showing us the honey bees. I stayed far away!!! E. Larson is braver.

We love you and have lots of stories to tell you when we arrive home.

MOM & DAD

KK CONFERENCE

This is apicture of our Missionary Zone Conference that was held in September. The cities of Sandakan and Tawau are part of the zone along with KK. The couple on the left are our Mission President and his wife. President Clark is one of the most gifted gospel teachers that I have ever met!! The words and ideas just flow from him. He always travels with his office assistants. The couple on the right are Pres. Clark's sister and her husband who are serving a mission in Sandakan. They are leaving in about 3 weeks to go back home. Their replacements are E/S Lee who are standing next to Pre. and Sister Clark. They are the very first Malaysian couple to serve a mission--EVER! Sister Hite, standing next to me lives in Raleigh, N.C. She left the next week after this conference to go home. She is a real go-getter!! The young black man on the front is Elder Williams, from the great state of Georgia. He's a really good missionaey. We have almost as many Southern missionaries as the Utahans have missionaries!!!
This picture was taken in front of our chapel in KK.
Life is good here in KK and we love it!!!!!
DAD & MOM