Ben's Birthday, Ben's Dentist Appointment, Thanksgiving, and Decorating

We have been up to a lot lately. I had my gallbladder removed on November 1 after finding out it was infected and causing me severe pain. I have been off for four weeks, and have enjoyed every minute. Marty was great. He keeps me grounded when I think the world is coming to an end since I have no pay check and lots of bills coming in: ER visit, surgery, dental bills (more on that later), no paycheck. In fact, I've been having to pay my work $250 per payperiod just to maintain my health insurance. Oh, and I got rear ended and paid my $500 deductible to have my car fixed while my insurance dukes it out with the other driver.

On the bright side, I have a wonderful husband and 2 energetic little boys who I love dearly. I have a busy calling, and am able to work with the BEST bishop in the church. He is just super humble and gentle. The BEST.

We celebrated Ben's birthday week November 7. It was fun. The highlight: taking the little darlings to Chuck E. Cheese:




I took with boys to their semiannual dental checkup. Jacob is a card-carrying member of the "no cavities" club. Ben, on the other hand, is the reason silver has sky-rocketed on the market. Because of some faulty dental work he had 6 months ago at a different dentists, he had 2 old cavities that weren't properly filled. They continued to decay, and he now has 2 silver teeth. They are called his "sparkly" teeth. He had to get Valium prior to the dental work. Here is a video of him 5 minutes after sedation. HILARIOUS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISYg9nCxbuc

We had a small Thanksgiving. Just us, Kellie, and Marty's cousin from BYU Idaho. Her name is Cassie, and Jacob loves her. She was quite delightful with the boys, and played UNO and went on numerous bike rides with the kiddies.


We have always used an artificial tree each year for Christmas. This year I wanted a real one with real Christmas tree smell. We found the cutest Charlie Brown Christmas tree. We had such fun decorating it. If you look closely, you will see where Ben helped hang the ornaments and helped decorate the nativity scene.





Last night, we decorated gingerbread houses with Jodi, Don, Jordie, Jacie, Dave and Danna. We had a lot of fun. The kids, namely Ben and Jacie, had fun piping the icing directly into their mouths. If you'll notice, Danna has a brace on her torso. This is what she wears keep her back positioned while it heals since having rods placed a few months ago. Happy Holidays!

THANKSGVING IN MALAYSIA

This is the picture of Satisfaction!!!!! We had just finished eating our Thanksgiving day dinner when I looked around to see if the Elders needed anything else when this is the picture that I saw. They had just finished their desserts.

We had the missionaries and our Katie Bug over for dinner. Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays that are not celebrated here in Malaysia. They do understand what it is and why we celebrate this day. Last Thanksgiving we had the missionaries and David Choong. David ate my whole chocolate cake by himself last year---soooo I did not invite him this year. I actually did not invite him last year, but he came with the missionaries. We love David--he has been a great help to us. We have learned that when the church members hear that you are cooking and inviting some people, they just might pop in also!!!!

This year I wanted to have a traditional American Thanksgiving meal for our missionaries. Turkeys(the gobbly kind!!!) are hard to find here in East Malaysia. You can find most things in West Malaysia, especially in KL. I found a frozen Butterball turkey in Hong Seng Coldstorage. It looked as though it had been in the freezer for about 10 years!!!! I'm not kidding!! So we had our usual chicken instead. The Malaysians do not waste anything. They keep it until someone buys it!!! Many stores have items that have been obsolete in the US for years. E. Larson and I love to go in hardware stores here, because we see items that even the Chinese haven't seen for a century!!

Oh well, back to Thanksgiving dinner. I fixed chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing(Sis. Brown brought me a box of corn meal from US last month!!), sweet potato casserole, fresh green beans, seven layer salad, jello-cranberry salad(Thanks to my girls for the REAL jello!!), sweet potato pies, pumpkin pies, and chocolate cake!!!! Understand why the missionaries were laid out on the floor??? It was good even if I do say so myself. I have never made a pie crust before in my life. It's so easy to buy good pie crusts back home, so why waste my time doing that? Well, guess what else you can't buy in East Malaysia. PIE CRUSTS!! Thanks to our Jenny, we had the most delicious pie crusts. She shared with me the most delicious recipe. Also, if you can't find pie crusts, guess what else you can't find? Yep that's right---PIE PANS!!!!! I finally found some disposable tins that substituted for pie pans. Who cares what they looked like, they were delicious. I forgot to tell you that the pumpkin and cranberry sauce that I used had been left by the missionary sister before us. They were still in date. I have a feeling that they had been sent to her or she picked them up in Singapore, because they are not to be found on the Island of Borneo!!!

The best part of Thanksgiving was to watch our young missionaries laugh, enjoy their meal, and then head out to teach the Gospel. I'm so thankful for them and wish that I could let their parents know just how fabulous they are. We had our regular Tuesday District meeting with them today and then went to lunch before they went to teach new investigators. They are such great examples for E. Larson and me. I took the last seven pieces of pie for them to eat today. I would share my last bite of food with them any day!!!

I'm also grateful for my wonderful family members whom I miss more and more the closer we are to coming home. I'm thankful for friends around the world. (I can say that now) We really miss our Ward in Concord, our wonderful Bishop, home teacher, and the best Southern friends anywhere!!! We're so thankful for the terrific new friends that we have made on our mission--fellow missionaries and fellow saints.

I'm especially thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who loves me, a Savior who made it possible for me to live with family again some day, the Gospel that enriches my life every day, and love that makes me happy and content. Thanks you, Family and Friends!!!

WE LOVE YOU

DAD & MOM

WHEELCHAIR ASSESSMENT TRAINING WITH THE BROWNS

These are the receipients of the chairs and the participants who came for the assessment training. The green shirts were amazing!! The assessed 31 recepients and we gave chairs to 27 of them. Everyone who receives a LDS Wheelchairs must now havwe this assessment done before they can receive a chair.

This program is from the WHO. This is at the closing ceremony which Dad conducted. The lady on the right was our guest and a government official. She spoke on behalf of the government to accept our chairs!!

This was E. Brown's team that did the assessment on this man. The chubby man in the green shirt behind him was so funny. Elders Brown and Larson nicknamed him "Chubby Checker".

This was S. Brown's team who did the assessment for this young man. The young American girl in the picture is Ashley who is doing volunteer work for a year in Malaysia. She is sponsored by the Luthern Church. The young man at her left is Farest(?) He was in a motorcycle accident about 10 years ago. He used to work for Cheshire Homes, but now has his own business. He was our translator.

This man is Joseph Liew and he is a former engineer. So humble and appreciative of his new wheelchair!! He lives in Cheshire Homes. They are our partner in the KK wheelchair project. This was Dad's team herre who did the assessment for Joseph.

Meet the Browns. This is Kim and Gaye Brown from Kaysville, Utah. They have been to Malaysia to visit with us before. They came visit with us in KK and Kuching. They were sent to discuss with our partners the possibility of doing a wheelchair assessment project for this year. They came here on November 6 and spent two weeks here and in Kuching. Also with them was another PT guy named Alan Nybol. He is from Utah also. The Browns live two blocks from where Kellie works. We so enjoyed their visit. They actually brought me some grits and corn meal. YEA!!!!!

GARY AND JUNE'S WEDDING

These are our next door neighbors, Gary and June. I really love them because they have been so helpful and nice to Dad and me while we have been here. They have actually been married since March 19, 2011. June is from a Chinese family and so is Gary's Mom. The Chinese wait many months after marriage to have their wedding reception. They have worked a long time to have a BIG reception. This was held at Le Meridien Hotel downtown KK. It's a beautiful 5 star hotel. We were served a delicious 10 course meal. There was a live band and there were about 350 people there. I noticed some "Datuks" there. I had seen their names in the paper. Datuk is and honorary title, sort of like the English "Sir". In this picture, you can see that June is a little thing and Gary is a big boy!! The lady on the bottom right of this picture is Gary's Mom. June changed dresses about three times during the evening!! I took lots of pictures, but they were terrible because my flash was on and with the bright lights, the pictures were blurred. I salvaged these few. They were so sweet and asked Dad(Pastor Elder Larson!!) to ask a blessing on the marriage and the food!!

Our 10 course meal started at 8:15 and ended at 11:15!!!! I was so tired of eating all night. We had lovely people who sat at our table and I just followed their example of how to eat the Chinese foods. It was fun!! I'm getting pretty good with chopsticks!!!

This is Gary and his Dad who is of Indian descent. I feel really safe living beside Gary and June. I know that they will help us if we ever need them. They have their own business-- a security company. They install systems in homes, autos, businesses, etc. They work really hard six days a week. They get up at about 4:30 every morning and are back home at about 6:30 in the evening. They are very independent and industrious.

WE LOVE GARY AND JUNE!!!