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!

Baptism!

Micah for got to mention that they have their first baptism planned soon.  Now here for a picture update.

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!