Shoe Thief

Micah is busy right now dealing with a robbery of his home.  His shoes, camera, and about $100 in local currency was stolen in addition to a few other minor things.  I doubt that he will spend time writing this week.  He and his companion were not home at the time and he had thoughtfully kept a backup of his photos on a thumb drive that was with him and so he still has that information and his ATM card.  We are working right now to ensure that he has sufficient funds in his bank account to withdraw enough to buy new shoes, another thumb drive (to now backup the backup) and a new camera.  -- just thought the rest of you would like to know.

P Day

Today was preparation day which meant that we went on a little trip.  Today we went to Lambir National Park near Miri.  It is said to be the most diverse rain forest Eco-system on earth!  It was a very rigorous hike in a steamy jungle, so naturally everyone was soaked head to toe... after the first 5 minutes.  The hike had some very interesting foliage, but the most exciting, and frightening thing would have to be the leaches!  They were everywhere you walked.  If you stood still for more than like 10 seconds you would have like 5 on your feet.  My feet are bloody with little suction marks.  It is so gross.  From what I know of leech anatomy, they excrete a blood thinner that just makes you bleed out, so yes, very gross.  We took two hikes that day, one to a water fall and the other to the summit of one of the small, very small, "mountains."  After living in the Rockies, nothing is a mountain.  Anyway, they were surprisingly difficult.  It made me realize how out of shape I am!  All in all we had a great experience and the summit was so worth it, I hope that the pictures do it justice!

Elder Chong from Malaysia with Micah

Micah with his companion Elder Bodhaine

Today was preparation day which meant that we went on a little trip.  Today we went to Lambir National Park near Miri.  It is said to be the most diverse rain forest Eco-system on earth!  It was a very rigorous hike in a steamy jungle, so naturally everyone was soaked head to toe... after the first 5 minutes.  The hike had some very interesting foliage, but the most exciting, and frightening thing would have to be the leaches!  They were everywhere you walked.  If you stood still for more than like 10 seconds you would have like 5 on your feet.  My feet are bloody with little suction marks.  It is so gross.  From what I know of leech anatomy, they excrete a blood thinner that just makes you bleed out, so yes, very gross.  We took two hikes that day, one to a water fall and the other to the summit of one of the small, very small, "mountains."  After living in the Rockies, nothing is a mountain.  Anyway, they were surprisingly difficult.  It made me realize how out of shape I am!  All in all we had a great experience and the summit was so worth it, I hope that the pictures do it justice!

Perma-Wet and Old People

Well, this week has seen me getting wet nearly every single day, and then I got sick.  It has very literally rained everyday for long periods of time, and exactly at the moment I have to be out on my bike.  Anyway, Miri had its own very miniature version of Hurricane Sandy.  Tuesday of last week was an incredibly stormy day.  There was ridiculousness strong winds and buckets of water.  My companion and I got stranded in a Mall for a couple of hours.  After waiting, we stepped out and half of all the trees were uprooted and buildings were collapsed.  The weak architecture did not hold up for a lot of people living in wooden shack houses.  It created a lot of service project opportunities though, which was great.  Last week we helped to clear massive trees that had fallen down at a retirement home.  It was really a great experience, especially with a crowd of old people cheering you on. 

All in all things are quite good, I am used to being in a state of "perma-wet"  Its still a little crazy to think that I only have 6 months left!  It is a time warp here, everything in the real world seems to be moving so fast!  So many of my friends are getting married, crazy.  Anyway, have a great day!

Photos

 Branch activity at the beach, I got buried alive and then they got creative...

 This is with Dick and Martha, my 2 most favorite people in Malaysia.  They took us to steamboat BBQ, all you can eat.

 This was the last day I was in Kuching, got to spend it with some of my favorite people ever!  Brother Martin BBQ'd up some wings and pork, so great!

This is the most beautiful  beach ever in Kuching, best 1 hour hike to get there too!

Missionaries!

So this week has me excited for two of my house mate's birthdays!  YES.  It means birthday cake and good food for a couple of days.  Anyway, apart from that, I am just really excited to hear that some of my cousins might be headed out on a mission a little bit earlier than I had previously expected. With 40+ cousins I am confident that at least 1 of them will go to the same mission as me.  Congrats to Britney, Brandon, Kyle, and Kayla that are going to be making that decision very soon!  I hope they choose to serve, greatest thing ever.  So, back to me, nothing much going on.  I get to go to Singapore next week, best paid vacation in the mission (don't tell anyone I said that).  Also, I may or may not be investing in some attack equipment as my companion and I try to fend off this especially ravenous pack of dogs.  One idea that my companion's dad had was to fill pray bottles with ammonia and spray the heck of the mangy dogs.  I like the idea.  I also like kicking them in the face.  Knock on wood, but I have yet to get bitten by one.  Well, send me any ideas that you might have about how I can inflict the most amount of pain with the littlest mess and expense.  For anyone that knows me I never was a softy for animals (I credit this to my animal-hating mother (I love her though)), and that has just gotten stronger as I see the state of animal care in Malaysia.  There are stray dogs everywhere.  And the ones that actually have owners still look disgusting, in fact most of them look like chupacabras, hairless nasty looking things.  

Anyway, on another note, its durian season, and anyone who knows what that means can cringe with me.  If you don't know what a durian is, look it up.  If you ever have to try one, you might vomit.  It has the texture of baby poop and tastes like a rancid onion.  The smell... open to interpretation, just imagine the worst smell in the world.  

On another note, I am contemplating my next lifestyle purchase.  After the fanny pack was such a success I’ve sort of hit a brick wall.  If anyone has any ideas please shoot me an email.  I’m always trying to spice up my life within the confines of missionary conduct ;)

Love you all, have fantastic day!  Jaga diri baik baik!  Tidak lama lagi saya balik, tuju bulan sahaja.  menyediakan hadiah ok? :) main main sahaja.  Wow, I just tried to put that in Google translate and it failed...

Jungle Trekking

So I didn't write a blog post last week because I was on a bus... for 18 hours.  I thought that I was going to die, it was that painfully boring and uncomfortable.  So, this week I got transferred to Miri, the northern city of Sarawak.  Kuching, the area I was previously serving in was the southern city of Sarawak.  If you look at a map you might think that the distance between the two cities is not very much, and you would be right.  But what a map cannot tell you is how undeveloped the road system is.  It is like jungle trekking in a bus.  The roads have so so so so so many pot holes, it’s amazing that the buses can actually function.  But to make things worse, last Monday, the day I took the bus, was a public holiday, so the buses were full.  I think I got one of the last tickets on the bus, and it happened to be the crappiest bus company too.  Anyway, the experience was horrible, I have never been more uncomfortable in my entire life, and did I mention in was 18 hours!

Well, the very next day I have a flight to go back to Kuching!  The only reason that I took a bus to Miri was so that I could drop my stuff off, get 4 hours of sleep and then take off in the morning back to Kuching.  I stayed in Kuching for one day and one night and it was so great. I got to see all the people that I had to give rushed good byes to, and spend some quality time in the city I love!  After that, the following day I had a flight to Singapore to pick up a new missionary and take him back to Miri.  Singapore is always great, love it there, it’s like a mini Tokyo.

So here I am in Miri, a new area, no investigators, a new missionary that doesn't speak the language, and little to no idea what to do.  Love you guys!