New Purchase

So I made my second life changing purchase last week.  It has significantly made my life easier and more convenient.  My first life changing purchase was of course the fanny-pack.  It was purchased to alleviate the weight on my back and keep my back from sweaty profusely.  I have now taken it to the next level and have installed a basket on the back of my bike!  I no longer have to carry anything on my back, I just put everything in the basket!  No more sweat....right.  Things are still hot, and even more humid now that the rainy season is in full swing.  It’s just a steamy concoction of smells here in Malaysia.  What does American trash smell like?  I forgot.  But Malaysian trash, I don’t think that I will ever forget that smell, especially in 90 degrees and deathly humidity.  

A Christmas Message

Its Christmas season now and that is just so special.  It gives people the opportunity, or I like to think, the motivation to think about Christ.  Even though we should be thinking of Christ always, it is nice to see others doing the same for a change. In a world where Christ is often taken out of Christmas, each of us individually can ponder on the importance and splendor of this joyous holiday.  We can be the example to others by showing them what Christmas is all about. 

I love being a missionary because that is what I do.  I get to share a very simple yet profound message about Christ and invite others to follow his example and find renewed happiness in this life and the life to come.  Every day of the last year and a half has been like Christmas.  In serving others both temporally and spiritually I have a new respect and a stronger appreciation for Jesus Christ.  I hope that Christmas is special and happy for everyone!  

Bathroom Finding

These last few days have been pretty difficult as far as finding new people goes. When you live in an area where 90% of the people are Muslim it makes it really difficult.  And because Malaysian law says that it is illegal to approach or teach Muslims, our pool of potential investigators is small.  We go knocking, we ask people where Christians live, we see people in Pasars and try to talk to them, but most of the time it just doesn't work.  So yesterday my companion and I heard of this brand new way of meeting people.  So revolutionary and so effective that it would work anywhere, even here in Sandakan.  The method is called bathroom finding. It involves, the missionary, me, needing to use the bathroom but having no public restrooms.  We find a nice looking neighborhood and knock on the first promising door.  What happens after than is i make a very pained expression and say "Maaf gangu tapi saya perlu guna tandas! Boleh kah saya gunu tandas mu skejap sajah?"  They look at you like what are you doing, but you keep on talking before they can say no.  You quickly say, "skajap sajah, saya dari Amerika and tak tahu di mana ada tandas, minta!"  Then they say, OK.  You go use their restroom while your companion has a prime time to talk to them.  You take your time take a look around the house to make sure they arn't Muslim and then make your way back to the front door.  If they aren't Muslim its a thumbs up and you continue talking to them for as long as they will let you.  This does work!  We were able to talk to these two ladies for over 30 minutes, and they were Christian!

Photos



Elvis getting baptized Jan. 28



Car seat... Malaysian style... I dont know if they would sell well in America :)

Tarap, a fruit that is so average in taste people continue to buy it but never say they really like it...

Our favorite Chinese place in Sandakan

LDS Charities, the organization that gave away the wheel chairs

Me by the beach on one of the coldest days in Sandakan!

Roslyn getting baptized, she is so small and sweet Jan. 28





Wet Christmas

So this week has been an interesting one.  Of course it is the Christmas week, and with that comes fun and excitement.  But here in Sandakan things get a little mixed up.  Rather than a white Christmas, we get a wet floody Christmas.  It has been raining for 4 days straight now and the streets have flooded more than once.  Just two nights ago we were on our way back home from an appointment in town.  It was too late to take a bus so we took a taxi.  Once we got about half way there the traffic started slowing down and the water level started rising, and people were pulling u-turns to avoid the deep water.  He said we had to get out of the taxi and find our way back home.  So there we were, having to walk home through the flood.  The water was nice and cold, in addition to being partially sewer water (beautiful smell).  Luckily we were able to avoid the deeper water, only wading in mid thigh deep.  When we got to the worst spot we saw these teenagers helping to divert traffic.  When we asked them why they were doing this, they told us their houses were flooded in 5 foot water and they couldn’t get home.  So, they wanted to help people.  I thought this was terrific, even if half of the people were idiots and decided to try to make it through.  They usually made it halfway through and then the group of teenagers had to push them the rest of the way.  We said goodbye to them and wished them well, commending them on their civic service.  That night we ate at the restaurant at the bottom of the hill next to our house.  Right about as we were about to go pay, the group of helpers came to eat.  They were freezing and hungry and had little or no money especially with their houses flooded.  So we bought all six of them dinner.  And with the inexpensive food prices here in Malaysia, it was a small sacrifice to cheer up these guys.  It made me realize that good people still exist in the world and people still have a helping attitude. 

Christmas Spirit

This week has been an amazing week.  Getting ready for Christmas and just having a couple of experiences that make the season that much more special.  This last Friday Elder Nowland and I participated in a wheel chair charity project sponsored by Latter Day Saint Charities.  It was quite possibly the most rewarding service project I have ever participated in.  Helping these people who were either paralyzed in some way or had a mental disability be fitted for wheelchairs nearly brought tears to my eyes.  It made me feel like I am really supposed to be here.  And really, there's no other place I would rather be right now, even though it is Christmas time.  We worked with other volunteers based out of Kota Kinabalu and just shared in the excitement of helping other people.  It really amazed me how big the church really is.  People who think it is just a Utah thing should know that LDS charities, funded by tithing and fast offering money, has spent 1 million dollars in the small state of Sabah alone, this year.  The money goes to buy wheel chairs, safe drinking water systems, agricultural support and other projects.  This Christmas season I am full of joy.  It seems like it might be the best Christmas ever in terms of truly remembering the meaning of Christmas.

Plan of Salvation

So this morning I was unable to chat because there was a death in the branch and I had to go and help oversee the funeral arrangements.  A sister in the branch, her name Serima had her mother pass away this morning.  They woke up and found her dead, with her eyes open...  Anyway we went there at 9 in the morning and stayed at their house until just now about 4 o’clock.  It was a humble sight, sister Serima's house is probably the most humble I have ever seen in my entire life.  They live on the top of a hill that has no road and can only be reached by practically scaling the mountain!  Anyway they were so kind and welcoming and just loved to have us there so we stayed for a long time.  They fed us a huge meal also.  And when I say big, I at 20 fish, each about four inches long.  It was quite possibly the most I have ever eaten my entire life.  And I thought I was going to die a couple of time but it made them so happy to see us eat so much food that I had to keep on going.  Elder Nowland and I were eating for about 1.5 hours by the time we said enough :)  We shared some scriptures with them and bore testimony of the Plan of Salvation, both of which were warmly accepted.  It was a beautiful moment and the funeral is scheduled to proceed tomorrow morning.  It was raining today making it nearly impossible to get up the hill so pray that tomorrow there will be no rain and we can take the body out of the house.  That’s another thing that was a shock, the Sungai tradition is to keep the eyes of the diseased open until all of their family has been able to see her.  It just scared me, especially when you are eating right next to the body!  Anyway, at least they didn’t ask me to touch the body.  I don’t envy the family members who have to bathe her and prepare her for burial...

Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!  There truly is so much for us to be thankful for.  I know that I am especially grateful for my family this holiday season.  They are so great and such a support to me even with them being so far away.  I am also grateful to serve as a full time missionary and the blessings that have come because of my decision to serve.  Everyday I feel so lucky to wake up meet amazing people in the amazing country of Malaysia.  The people here are so special and they do a good job of being a second family for me.  This evening we are having a Thanksgiving dinner Malaysia style with roast chicken, mash potatoes, veggies, fried noodles, fried rice, tropical fruit and anything else an Asian would think to bring to a dinner.  Although it is a foreign holiday to them they are so kind to celebrate with us and learn of its importance to us.  Malaysia is hot and rainy, enjoy the cold and the snow and be grateful for it!

The monkey that attacked me.

The cute Orang Hutans

group shot with it

Probiscus monkeys, the ones with the long nose

boat ride to the island

beautiful island

island

the boat, there was no dock or mini boat so we HAD to get in the water :)

more beach :) just a 20 boat ride from the house

the trail



island

Building faith and homes

This week I have been blessed to take part in the building on a branch member's home.  The family just got evicted from their previous home and needed one of the basic necessities of life, somewhere to live.  The process is nothing like heading to the Home Depot and buying wood, nails and what have you.  The process is, going into the swampy jungle and cutting down trees with machetes.  It is quite possibly the most difficult physical labor I have ever done.  It takes like 5 minutes to walk 25 feet, there is mud everywhere and don't even get me started on the bugs and other creatures of the jungle.  However difficult, it has been rewarding.  There is nothing more worth my time than helping people and serving them any way I can.  The house is coming along nicely, but keep them in your prayers!

From October 29^th

So it has been a long time since I have written so I will try my best to sum up what has happened.  In the last two weeks we have seen 5 additional baptisms here in Sandakan.  They were all people that I helped teach and all people that I love so much.  They are really great and have changed their lives for the better.  But, more recently, I just got back from my visa run to Singapore.  It was so great to get out and "stretch the legs" for a bit. We left on Tuesday and flew to Kuala Lumpur from Sandakan.  But, unfortunately our plane had been delayed for 1 hour in Sandakan so we missed our connecting flight to Singapore.  And what makes it even worse is that because we were flying the low cost carrier Air Asia, we were responsible for paying for a new ticket to Singapore, regardless of whose fault it was.  So, as we were waiting in line to buy the new tickets I was talking to a Chinese couple from Singapore who was in the same situation as we were.  I told them that we were Christian volunteers and that we had to get to Singapore for our visa run.  He was very sympathetic to our situation and wished us luck.  As he finished buying his new tickets he left and we were up to the counter.  We found out that it would cost an additional 340 RM to make the next flight out.  We didn't have enough money on us so we headed to the ATM to get money.  As I was about to put my card in, the man and his wife come up and he takes out his wallet and says he wants to pay for the tickets.  He gave us way more than was needed to pay for the ticket, so after we accepted his charity and paid for the tickets we went to go give the extra money back.  We ended up talking for about 1.5 hours and had a great time making the best out of a bad situation.  We got into Singapore 3 hours late but made some great friends. 

Singapore was a fabulous time.  I had subway 2 times, McDonalds 2, Burger King 1, and DOUGHNUTS, all of these things we do not have in Sandakan.  It was quite the culinary experience that was extremely refreshing from the everyday curry that I have come to accept.  I also found an international grocery store that had an entire Japanese isle!  I bought a lot!  Unfortunately Singapore ended far too quickly and we were back on the plane to Kuala Lumpur, and from there to Kota Kinabalu for a two day zone conference. This time we flew Malaysia Air both legs and had fabulous service.  Once in Kota Kinabalu I had McDonalds again, so good, you guys take it for granted, I know I did!  We got in late at around 11 and had to be up at 4 to get ready for the next day's activities.

The zone planned out at amazing activity that started at 5 in the morning.  We hiked mount Kinabalu, the tallest mountain in southeast Asia.  It was about a 2 hour bus ride to base camp where we hiked the ridiculously vertical climb.  The funny thing is before we left we met this group of Japanese hikers.  They were all part of a hikers club for retirement age grandmas and grandpas.  All of them were 70-85 years old and were solid climbers!  We left before them on our trip but on our way back down we met them coming up and one of the grandmas said, "kekkou yukkuri ikimashitane"  which means you went at a pretty slow pace didn't you guys.  Let me tell you it was not an easy hike, we were all dying and gasping for breath.  It was the most cardio work I’ve done since before the mission!  We climbed 3000 feet in a 4km trail.  There were no flat spots, it was continuous up up up.  There were these ridiculous wooden stairs that sometimes were like 3 feet high! Anyway, the view was amazing, even though we didn't get to go to the very top because we didn't have the right permits, we did get pretty far up.  The clouds were swirling all around us as we hiked, sometimes entirely enveloping you.  And then in the flash of an eye the clouds would momentarily clear and you would see the most breathtaking views!  So, when the Japanese group said we went slow my reply was, "we took a lot of breaks... to take in the scenery."  A very memorable experience and definitely something I would do again.  Although my legs are dead right now, absolutely shot, I almost can't even walk, certainly not like a normal person.

After Kota Kinabalu it was back to Sandakan!  Last time we were in Kota Kinabalu my companion and I forgot our passports so we had to take the 7 hour ghetto road, break your butt, make you sick, fear for your life bus ride.  Instead we got to take one of those small propeller planes back to Sandakan with a significant difference in time, taking only 50 minutes.  Now everything is back to normal and its back to work!

Photos

The goal was to get the coin to drop from his forehead and into his mouth.

 Somebody taught him how to make a shrimp out of old plastic bags.

 First Baptism

First Baptism

I had my first baptism this past Saturday!  It had been a long and difficult two month process but it finally happened.  We baptized this wonderful girl named Gerlly.  She has the best smile ever and always has a positive attitude and an energetic hand shake for you.  She lives the most humble of lives and I admire her and her family for that.  To me she is an example of faith and of having the "bigger picture in mind."  She definitely has a personal relationship with her savior that all of us would do well to model it.  She is the first baptism in Sandakan in almost 4 months.  It was great to see how the branch members welcomed her in.  This unity in the branch is something that cannot be felt in a large ward; there are just too many people.  There is something difficult and rewarding about being one of 70 people that work together to fellowship and to strengthen the church.  Everyone knows everyone and because every family in the branch is a convert family, they have a common interest to help encourage each other and find others to share in their joy. I will forever be grateful for this experience, especially because transfers are in 2 weeks and I might be called somewhere else. Just remember, missionaries don’t go on missions because it’s easy, they go because they truly believe in what they are doing.  We try to make all of our actions exemplify the only truly universal example to us all, Jesus Christ.  I have a testimony and I'm doing my best to share it.  Until next week!

Monkeying around on P Day

This next story is quite a good one.  It was my P-day today so we thought that we would go around Sandakan area and see some of the tourist spots.  One of the most popular spots is call Sepilok Orang Utan Rehabilitation center.  The center is amazing.  It has a lot of Orang Utans that are in the in between stages of rehab and back in the wild.  Basically it consists of taking a short hike on a plank board walk into the jungle and visiting one of the feeding grounds.  The sight was absolutely amazing.  seeing these monkeys flying through the trees so close to you, with no barrier or anything.  After we had spent our time at the feeding ground we started making our way back to the rest area we started at.  By this time all of the people that came to see the monkeys were pretty much gone, so there was only a few people left.  As we were walking on the bridge this family of monkeys came running towards us.  These were not Orang Utans, they were a smaller monkey similar to a baboon.  They were very cute, they would stop and stare at us, just a foot away from you.  We thought this was so cool!  Toward the end of the train of monkeys came the alpha male of the group, about three times the size of the female and with huge teeth.  This one was not so cute, but I decided to take a picture of it anyway.  Once it got close enough I took a picture, then I made the mistake of looking it in the eye.  Within seconds it jumped at me!  Luckily I had enough time to  turn around, so it grabbed onto my back instead of my face.  I tried shaking it off and after about 10 seconds, it was off my back, I started running and it started chasing me.  I was terrified, a monkey had just attacked me.  Because I was ahead of the group when this happened, I was able to run back fast enough to get behind the rest of the group before it jumped at me again.  Instead it jumped at one of my fellow missionaries and missed.  Now we all were about 10 feet away from the thing now.  Four missionaries, and this middle aged British couple.  The British lady was practically in tears she kept on saying "No Bill!  I won’t go any further, I’m mortified."  She was shaking so hard all we could do was laugh quietly, her husband was just laughing out loud.  After a little more of a stare down the monkey left of plank bridge and went off into the jungle.  It was one of the coolest experiences of my mission.  I can now say that I was assaulted by a baboon.  I will share pictures of this next week!

New Talents

It was just last week that elder Browne and I decided that we would travel outside of the city limits and visit some families out there.  We took with us our favorite Filipino buddy and off we went on the bus.  Now the place is not too far, maybe only 30 minutes by bus.  But of course, you have to add in the walking time from the bus stop to the final destination.  Neither Elder Browne nor I know where these people live, just Ednel, the Filipino. We started this trip thinking we would spend about 2 hours round trip... it took a lot longer than that.  Anyway, we get off the bus at mile 8 and then start the long and very hot hot walk in a direction that Ednel picks.  We are walking for 10 minutes when Ednel says he is not sure where we are, but he assures us that we should just continue walking and hopefully we will get there.  We agree and walk for another 20 minutes.  But the further we walk the further we get to the middle of nowhere.  We see something ahead that looks like a bus stop so we set our course for it.  When we get there we find out that it is a Pirate stop.  A very dingy little rest stop for people waiting for illegal taxis and buses.  At this point we know that we are not going in the right direction so we sit and wait for a Pirate.  20 minutes pass and there is no Pirate, the flies are swarming this trash dump of a stop, and I am thirsty!  We cut our losses and start walking back.  It’s even hotter than the way there.  Finally I had enough and I flag down a card and politely asked for a ride.  This would be the beginning of my very long and successful streak of hitchhiking.  I don’t want to brag but I am very good at this particular skill, there is something magical about my hands.  On this day alone we would have to hitchhike a total of 5 times to get to our final destination.  But this is not all, one of those five rides happens to be a semi truck, yes, I that is right, I was able to flag down a semi truck and get a ride... for free.  Well, after 3 hours of trying to find this place we finally got to the "gated" community.  When I say gated I mean, people sitting at the head of the road trying to get money from white guys.  At this point we are tired and angry so we leave a message with the "security" and then go home.  We will never do that again, it was miserable. Moral of the story, even in a crappy situation you can learn new talents, like hitchhiking.

Bathroom Finding

These last few days have been pretty difficult as far as finding new people goes. When you live in an area where 90% of the people are Muslim it makes it really difficult.  And because Malaysian law says that it is illegal to approach or teach Muslims, our pool of potential investigators is small.  We go knocking, we ask people where Christians live, we see people in Pasars and try to talk to them, but most of the time it just doesn't work.  So yesterday my companion and I heard of this brand new way of meeting people.  So revolutionary and so effective that it would work anywhere, even here in Sandakan.  The method is called bathroom finding. It involves, the missionary, me, needing to use the bathroom but having no public restrooms.  We find a nice looking neighborhood and knock on the first promising door.  What happens after than is i make a very pained expression and say "Maaf gangu tapi saya perlu guna tandas! Boleh kah saya gunu tandas mu skejap sajah?"  They look at you like what are you doing, but you keep on talking before they can say no.  You quickly say, "skajap sajah, saya dari Amerika and tak tahu di mana ada tandas, minta!"  Then they say, OK.  You go use their restroom while your companion has a prime time to talk to them.  You take your time take a look around the house to make sure they arn't Muslim and then make your way back to the front door.  If they aren't Muslim its a thumbs up and you continue talking to them for as long as they will let you.  This does work!  We were able to talk to these two ladies for over 30 minutes, and they were Christian!

Hello from Malaysia

Two Stories

1.

So this week was an interesting week.  We were given a referral from someone in the ward.  And like all referrals we are excited and ready to contact them as soon as possible.  The only information about the person we had was that he was a he, and his address.  We didn't have a name or anything.  So we took the bus to his flat and went up to the 4th floor where he lived. His door was open so we peeked in an said "apa khabar?"  as we do this, he comes rushing to the door and quickly lets us in without even asking who we are.  We were taken aback a couple of reasons.  First, the man had no idea who we were and still he ushered us into his house like he knew us.  And second, he was wearing nothing but a pair of very skimpy underwear briefs.  So, Elder Browne and I enter with a little bit of apprehension.  As we go in we recognize that there are two other people in the room, a boy and a girl, both in their teenage years.  they are all sitting and talking, so we join the conversation and tell them why we are here.  About 5 minutes into the conversation the older man (the referral) tells the girl to go make drinks and prepare of plate of crackers.  She looks at him like... ok... but goes and does it.  Once she has made the drink mix she places everything in front of us.  The older man then proceeds to tell her to pour the drink for us.  By this time she looks a little uncomfortable and maybe a little angry, but she does it anyway.  The drink mix by the way was durrian, the vilest of all fruits on the planet.  It has an initial taste of terrible and then an aftertaste of rotten eggs.  So this drink is hardly palatable and extremely difficult to finish. So as I am trying not to dry heave and politely eat the crackers, we teach about the church.  At the end of the discussion we give him a Book of Mormon and ask him to read.  He said he will but tells us that sometimes he has a difficult time reading.  so we politely ask the girl if maybe she would be willing to help him read each night. she looks at us and says yes, in fact she even opens the book to make sure she can read what’s in it.  Then after she puts the book down and proceeds to tell us that she isn't his daughter or even a relative, and that she does not live in his flat.  She and the other guy were maintenance workers checking the quality of the old guy's water.  they had been in the apartment for maybe 10 minutes longer than we had.  So... all of the strange looks from the girl and everything made sense. 

Pictures!

These are some pictures of the compongs.  They are absolutely terrible living conditions.  the houses are built in tidal pools so they have to be built on stilts.  The tide come in and washes away the garbage they throw... or that's the idea at least, what actually happens is the garbage builds up along with other stuff...  So the whole place is a network of wooden bridges to get from house to house.  The smells are something special, let me tell you.  A mixture of dead ocean smell mixed in with dying animals, raw garbage and human waste.  and people live here!  A lot of people live here!  Anyway, this isn't even the worst compong.

Pictures!

Us waiting at a restaurant.  it was super awkward because we were the first ones there and nobody else was there...

The people we ate dinner with, great family, the Tigas

my two favorite pals, Jeffery and Joshua.  Everyone in Malaysia sits like this

the study room, very luxurious, it has air conditioning!

bedroom, also has air conditioning.  My bed consists of three stacked mattresses.

the shower/toilet/sink all in one!

the wonderful toilet

the rarely used kitchen, just this morning i killed three giant cockroaches!

The dining table, also rarely used

the entry way, our sitting area and the TV.  This is all on the bottom floor of the house, which does not have air conditioning so... we spend most of our time upstairs.

Highlights

{Editors note: Micah wants to start a question and answer thing on his blog.  You can send your questions to him at mputnam@myldsmail.net and he will answer them on this blog.}

Ok, so for today's post I thought that I would rather than give a rundown of everything that happened in the week I would highlight some of the cool experiences:

So, on Monday we were visiting with a family, the Nings.  They sort of live in the jungle and their house is sort of completely enclosed.  What I mean is that the walls don’t completely go to the ceiling so birds fly in and have about three nests.  Anyway, we were at their house and they were serving us noodles when their cat comes into the house.  This is normal until we realize that the cat has mouse in its mouth and it’s still alive!  Anyway, the cat is playing with this mouse, letting it go, pawing at it and then biting it again.  So this crippled mouse is just trying to get away.  One of the kids takes that cat away so that the mouse can go free and instead of the mouse running for the door it climbs into my companion's backpack!  So we shake the backpack and the mouse falls out and starts limping over to the door, but not before one of the kids picks it up and starts playing with it!  Of course this whole ordeal is not a big deal to everyone, so I try my hardest to keep my cool.  And I think I did a good job :)

So I thought that maybe I would talk about my bathroom at my house.  So we live in a nice house, two stories, just the two of us.  We have one bathroom/ shower combo.  This room is like this:  It is a square room with a slanted floor so that water runs into the drain in one corner of the room.  In that corner is a shower head mounted on the wall.  opposite this corner is the toilet corner where we have a old, not so nice pot.  In the third corner is the sink and in the fourth is the door to get in.  It is a completely undivided room, no curtains or anything.  Also no have toilet paper.  You have one of two options, one, you use the bucket of water and splash yourself....ya, not my favorite.  Or two, there is a hose near the drain of the room where you can hose yourself down... fresh, and clean, my favorite.  The one concern is that there is no drying cloth so you put your pants back on with a bet butt.  I hope this was helpful, everyone be grateful for your toilet paper, it’s a great invention that has not caught hold here in Malaysia.

Another interesting story.  Everyone here thinks that my name PUTNAM is from Thailand.  Everyone.  They recognize that I’m not completely white and the first thing they say is, are you from Thailand.  I try to explain that in America Putnam is a very white person name, very white.  But it is possible that somewhere down the line of genealogy we as Putnams are Thai. The name Putnam also has some gang affiliations apparently so before I got here there was talk of me having to change my name.  But, it hasn't been much of a problem.  With the occasional snicker or laugh, my name has been accepted quite easily.  But it is pronounces Pootnam.