Housing in Miri on a River

Some Elders from Miri District, Sarawak, Malaysia

A Typical Wet Day in the Life of a Malaysian Missionary

Elder Robinson Seeks Revenge Eating Baby Crocodile (actually Monitor Lizard).

                                Elder Robinson Barely Escapes Crocodile  Attack

Another crazy week in Malaysia

ANOTHER CRAZY WEEK IN MALAYSIA.  I feel like I never stop.

The reason why I am so late writing this letter is because for P-day today, we decided to do something different.  We heard there was some good hiking inland a ways, but we didn't really know where.  Someone told us about this Lambir Park, so we started looking into it.  We decided as a Miri District to all go together.  So.  We woke up extra early this morning, and it had been pouring rain all last night, so everything was wet.  Anyways, we get to the main bus station, and get on a bus headed to Sebu (a town in central Sarawak).  Well, we rode it for about an hour or so, and then saw a sign for Lambir, and we all jumped and told the bus driver to stop!  We got off in what was literally the middle of the jungle.  It was so hot, and all the fresh rain water made it really humid.  We went to the little house they have set up, and pay for our entry, and started hiking.  Malaysian "Marked Trails" are not like AMerican ones... at all.  In fact, they tie a little string on a couple trees and you are supposed to follow that.  The ground doesn't even look like a trail.  It is like a hunt for the right colored string on the tree.  Anyways, after hours of hiking we had some cool finds.  We went to a water fall and took some pictures in front of it.  We also went to this point called Bukit Pantu.  It was such a HARD hike.  The whole time, I was imagining what Eric would have been like had he come on the hike...... let's just say he wouldn't have been invited... not that he would have wanted to go!  It was crazy.  In the middle of the Jungle.  We kind of got lost a couple of times... that was frightening.  The hike to the top of Bukit Pantu was so worth it.  It put you on top of this cliff that looked inwards towards the jungles of Borneo.  It was kind of spooky being in there.  It was like the jungles you see in movies.  There were huge ants (maybe over an inch, and super fat) that would travel in these huge lines.  They were so big that you couldn't smash them easily with your shoe.  Oh.  Other bug problem.  They told us at the front, if it started to rain hard, to come back to the house IMMEDIATELY.  The reason why, is because there are leeches all over the jungle, and when it rains, the leeches jump of the trees and will grab on to you.  I, of course, thought this was a bunch of nonsense, and didn't take any heed.  Well, the trees were still wet and within a kilometer or so into the jungle, THERE WERE LEECHES.  They weren't what I was expecting.  THey were narrow and orange.  Some were small, others pretty big.  They are also extremely fast.  I watched one bolt up Elder Putnam's leg!   I looked down at my shoe at one point and saw ten on my shoe.  I caught one on my foot and ripped it off, but it was too late- the leech had already bitten so now my shoe has a bunch of blood stains.  One of the sisters also got bit pretty bad and there was a bunch of blood.  I'm trying to upload pictures as we speak.  I don't think I have ever sweated more in my life.  Probably because I have never climbed things so steep, so steamy.  I also had never had to use a vine to swing over a river to get to the next part (that was actually very fun, I have a video)  So lots of adventures today.  Oh, and when we were done, we went back to the main road and tried to hitch hike back to Miri.  We saw a bus come by, but he wouldn't stop.  Finally, a bus came.  The problem was that some lady had a bunch of durian, so the whole bus smelled like rotten onions.  Lovely.  Not to mention a bunch of stinky, sweaty missionaries.  And now I am sitting in an internet kedai, in gross clothes, covered in dirt, emailing you.  

What else.  

Oh.  My companion, Elder Matheson, is district leader, so he has to do splits with everyone.  That means, I get to do splits with everyone!  This week, I got to go on splits with Elder Chong.  He is one of the chinese elders, who is from Sitiawan.  He doesn't speak a whole lot of english, so I got to learn a ton of Chinese.  It was so fun.  I really hope, somehow, I will be able to learn a lot here.  It was funny, because he came to our area, so he wrote out a prayer in Malay so he could contribute to the lesson.  He is a pretty cool guy.  He worked in a bakery for three years, and wants to work in a bakery when he gets older.  We made pancakes for him, since he had never had them, and I made homemade stove syrup for him.  He ate so many of them.  and he put so much butter on them.... haha

This week, one of our investigators, whose name is Dangkan, fed us Biowak.  Biowak is the iban word for monitor lizard.  I'm uploading a picture of it now.  He told us he caught it in the gutters by our house >.<  Anyways, I ate some.  it was pretty good.  White meat, like chicken... but somehting was off.  Oh, we made Fajitas yesterday with that fancy spice packet you sent. SO GOOD.  It was the best home made meal we've had yet!  Tortillas aren't a thing here, so we bought prathas (a malay flat bread thing) that you fry at home.  They were chili garlic flavored.  They were so good.  We're still talking about it.  

I got the package too!  That was really good how you did it so it was actually addressed to the Hodders.  That way, they can go pick it up with out having me there.  The caramels were very good.  And all of the other stuff was good too.  WHen you get a chance, you should take some pictures of Utah/home/you guys and put it in a little album so I can show some of the people here.  They love pictures.  ALso, everyone is emailing me about holiday stuff... and it is kind of depressing because it is so hot here and no sign of holiday stuff :(  Everyone was jealous of the pumpkin pie stuff you sent!  Except, we have no oven to cook it.... oh well, we'll find one!  Could you send some Christmas music?  Sheet music?  I miss it!  Elder Bodhaine played sleighride in the house and I about died.  Hopefully when we go to Singapore we'll be able to get some.  There is one thing I want for Christmas.  I really want an electronic dictionary that has English, Chinese, and Malay.  Is that even a thing?  You should look into it.  I would love that.  Even just a English - Chinese one.  

I'm sorry the video didn't upload last time.  It took soo long.  It was a video of the storm, and is SO COOL.  Oh well,  I guess I'll show you when I get home.  I think I included a couple of the aftermath in this upload.  

That is exciting to hear about WHitman and his farewell.  That all happened so quickly!  I can't believe I wasn't there for his call, his opening, his temple experience, or his farewell!  I hope he is excited!  Mariel has been keeping me updated, because he hasn't!!  It is kind of sad that he is leaving so close to the Holidays... but hopefully he will have an awesome experience in the field.  I'm telling myself that so that my Christmas here will be really fun!

So President Mains has asked all of us to find 4 hours of service per week.  This week, one of the ward members asked Elder Chong and I to help her out.  They live in this wooden house on stilts over a mud field.  Getting to the house is a disaster, because there is so much mud!  A couple blocks away, there is a huge pile of rocks and crumbled cement.  So.  She had us wear these woven straw baskets that have one loop that goes on your arms and head, so the basket can rest on your back, and stuff these baskets with rocks.  It was very tiring.  Oh, I forgot to tell you why.  She wants to make a walk way to her house, so people don't have to get muddy.  It was fun, but a lot of work.  Got my work out in for the day!  It is interesting, because there is so much that needs to be done here, but the idea of service projects isn't really a thing here.  We pray a lot for opportunities to serve.  Somehow, they always show up... especially when you least expect them.  

We also had an interesting experience with an investigator.  We have been teaching the parents of a child who was baptized (the missionaries before us did that), but the word of wisdom has been a huge stumbling block.  The wife is very quiet.  We assumed they just didn't want, because the husband never kept the commitments.  Well, we went last night to drop them, but the wife spoke up and said she wanted to be baptized.  We asked her why, and she said that when she saw the picture of her son standing there alone in his white clothes, she felt like she should have been there.  Her sister is one of teh strongest members in teh branch, and has been talking to her.  The real issue we are facing is that she can't read, so she has never read the book of mormon.  At that moment in the lesson, the idea came into both of our heads, that we should ask the Husband (even though he doesn't want) to read the book of mormon to his wife.  He himself has never really read it.  he agreed.  This story doesn't probably make a whole lot of sense, but it was a very amazing experience to see how ideas can be put into our heads by the spirit if we are earnestly seeking to follow it.  This is kind of like the last try with this family, so we're praying that this will help them.  The book of mormon is most definitely the most powerful tool we have.  Everyone should be constantly reading it.  If you don't have a reading habit... start one.  We will all be held accountable for the opportunities we had to learn from it.

This email feels really rushed, probably because we got here way late and still haven't grocery shopped.....

one last funny story.  

we have an area called taman tunku that is pretty far away, so we usually ride the bus out there.  Well, on the way back last week, the bus driver literally slammed on the brakes, gets off the bus, and walks away.  The engine was still on.... the keys in the ignition.... and the driver just left.  We sat there for ten minutes... not exactly sure what to do.... finally, he came back, and continued driving.   As if nothing had happened.  Very strange.

oh, I tried emailing the scouts last week, but they didn't respond.  I don't have their email addresses right I think.  I feel really bad that I didn't write Jeff.  Especially because now I know how important letters are.  I should get back in contact with him.  

ok, I'm going now. 

Bai

Elder Robinson

Masih hujan..still raining

Helllo Fam, This week was jam packed with stuff, so this will probably be a long email.... I finally got the package on Monday!!  Thank you very much!  The cookies were not so good... and the blank sprinkles melted and looked like mold haha.  They probably would have been better had I received them ON TIME.  But the Hi-chews, reeses, and caramels have been perfect!  And all the spice packets look really good.... we're excited to try some of them.  The only appliances we have are a rice cooker, small microwave, and a propane camp stove..... so we're going to get creative.  Elder Bodhaine's mom sent him See's Goodies, and they turned out really well.  Oh, and she sent peanut brittle, which was very good.  Can you make toffee?   So that was monday.   TUESDAY: So we go to district meeting at 11, and afterwards, we always go to town for lunch.  Well, the senior couples only have enough room for most of the elders, so two always have to ride bikes..... we volunteered.  Well, the skies were BLACK, and looking really weird, and it started pouring pretty hard.  By the time we got to Boulevard (where teh mall is) the wind was out of control and the rain too.  There is a covered driveway that all of us were watching it under.  I'll try to upload the video, it was insane.  After a few minutes, police came and told us to go inside.  We followed their orders and had lunch.  They wouldn't let us out for a couple of hours.  Finally, we left, and outside was completely destroyed.  Trees were in the road, buildings had their whole roofs flipped off and in the road.  All of the missionaries and the senior couples drove off in the one direction you could, but elder Matheson and I stayed and helped out.  We were lifting huge trees out of the middle of the road with tons of locals.  It was a cool experience working together.  One of the trees was literally (I'm not exaggerating at all) covered in 1inch red ants.... and they told me to grab on.  I did, and watched the red ants crawl up my arms as we lifted this tree out of the road.  I have red marks on my arms to prove it >.<  We then realized that if downtown was bad, then the kampong houses most of teh members and investigators lived it would be bad.  We went to the nearest Kampong and found that whole houses had been wiped out.  We spent all day chopping down trees, digging up rubble, and clearing roads.  We met a lot of people that we otherwise would not have met, and it was neat for them to see that we were there.  We are part of the community- we speak the language, we live here, and we're interesting in the general well being of the community- I think those who saw us understood that a little better.  In fact, a reporter from the Borneo Post saw us, and interviewed us and took a bunch of pictures of us helping clear out/chop up some fallen trees.  (side note: these trees literally bleed, when you cut the branches, it looks like you cut yourself because it just bleeds exactly like a human. So I had a machete in one hand, and the red tree blood all over my shirt, face, arms, everything.  I saw one of the pictures and it looked like I was from some horror movie where a missionary goes into a village and kills everybody.  Needless to say that shirt is RUINED)  We checked the newspaper the next day, and unfortunately we weren't included in the article.  The interesting thing is that the storm only lasted a few hours, but it was strong enough to really damage many peoples homes.  Only a small part of Miri was devastated by the storm.  In fact, the weather was bright, sunny, and nice for the clean up.  Our branch president bore his testimony about it yesterday, and it was really nice.  He said that many times in our lives, Storms will come in that seem like they're the end of the world, when really they only last a few hours.  Even though it seems so dark in the moment, if we endure it well, bright/sunny weather is in the forecast.  I always interpreted it that even though our homes are fine, not too far away there are people with devastating storms in their lives.  We all have a responsibility to be there for each other, and look out for the storms so we can give our help where it is needed.   I tried uploading a video of part of the storm on the home server.  look in shared folders, videos, DAJR Mission Wednesday: Halloween is not a thing here.  We tried explaining it to an investigator.  We said, yeah, we dress up like monsters, and knock on people's doors to ask for candy.... They didn't understand why on earth we would do that, and they were even more confused about people actually giving us candy.... So no, Halloween isn't a thing.  We tried to celebrate by going to a 'nicer' restaurant here.  I had just been given a ton of crackers and milo at an investigators house, so I decided to order something not fried rice-esque.  Not to mention we tried to make spanish rice in the rice cooker with a taco seasoning packet.... not a success haha.  So I got a chicken basket.  It tasted weird, but I had already paid for it so I ate it all.......  THURSDAY-> Worst. Day. Ever. I woke up, and felt a little sick.  I cut myself some banana bread and tried to eat some.  How do I put this in an email to make it not sound disgusting...... hmm. ....  Let's just say for the first 4 hours of the day, I had to be within 10ft of the bathroom.  It was awful.  Every time I either threw up, or you know what, I felt dizzier and dizzier.  I kept getting really hot, and then really cold, so I took my temp.  I had a fever of 103 degrees!  I didn't telll anyone, but they knew I wasn't looking too good.  We tried to weekly plan, and I asked Elder Matheson if I could take a 5 minute break.  I sat on the couch and passed out.  I woke up at 6:00PM!!  I was mad that no one woke me up, because we had plans for the day!  They wanted me to rest.  I felt embarrassed, because I knew we hadn't done anything productive that day.  I told them I was fine, and that we could go to our appointments.  BAD IDEA.  I had cleared my stomach long ago, and they fed us orange drink that made me want to.... well...  And then the appointment I was just ready to pass out.  I came home, showered, and fell asleep.  It is now monday, and I am still feeling the aftershocks of thursday, if you know what I mean.  I haven't really eaten much, because everytime I do, it makes me feel like I want to throw up, or ... well..... :) Friday: we had a service project where we went to an old folks home here, and removed a giant tree that had fallen.  There was a little, catholic nun who gave us some not so good tools, and we went to work chopping up the thing.  It was fun, I wish I had pictures.  Even elder Martin (senior couple) took an ax!   Saturday: We took a member to one of our new investigators.  We just met him a little while ago, and his circumstances are so sad.  There is a new shop lot being built, so all the workers live in these little wooden huts in the 'backyard' of it.  The family is nice, and humble.  Anyways, we take a member who ALWAYS talks about the word of wisdom.  THe WoW is a big thing here, so we are very careful about when/where/how it is brought up.  We prep our member to not say anything about it.  He agrees.  Well, we go into the hut to find that our investigator is completely drunk.  The member insisted on going in.  We tried to make the appointment somewhat productive, but the member just dove right into a WoW rant.  The room just felt so different.  After this experience, I thought a lot about the word of wisdom.  There are so many questions here as to why our church insists on no alcohol or tobacco, but tonight it made a little more sense.  We sing a indo hymn with every investigator before the lesson, to invite the spirit, and have an environment conducive to learning.  While we were singing, his singing did anything but that.  We try so hard to help investigators understand and feel the spirit, so to see one in a state where he can't even understand or feel himself I thought, no wonder we don't want them doing that!  It also made me think about other things that detract from the spirit.  We're promised to have his spirit to ALWAYS be with us, not when it's convenient, desperately needed, or on sunday mornings.  If we think we're up for that responsibility, and if we understand that magnitude of this gift, we should do everything in our power to remove things that distance ourselves from receiving His presence.  Obviously, there are big things like alcohol, that make it impossible to hear the spirit.  But what else is there in our lives that maybe add some white noise to the reception we are receiving?  It is one thing to see a picture in perfect, high-definition, and another to see a fuzzy/blurred image.  THe clearer it is, the more you can get out of it. Sunday: Church was nice.  Some of the members asked us if we would meet them at the church at 5 to help show them where some recent converts lived (for home teaching).  Well, at about 4:45, the power goes out because of the rain.  We decide to be faithful, and go out to meet the appointment.  It was raining SO HARD.  By the time I was out of our street, I was completely soaked.  We went to the church to find that no one was there to meet us, and they had all just assumed it was canceled because of the rain.  THe title of this email is masih hujan... still raining....  We went to a member/investigators house to find it was flooded so we helped a bit with that.   The funny thing about this mission, is that there have been many occasions (in the 2 months I've lived here) where I have thought, "There is no way this is real life.  This has to be a movie."  I thought that last night as I was flying down a flooded street, pitch black, frogs belching so loud we almost canceled an appointment, and just RAIN RAIN RAIN.  I thought this when I was cleaning up the rubble after the storm.  I thought this when one of our investigators tried to feed me a giant sego larvae......  ok, that's all I have to say today.  I really hope this video loads, so then I can upload some pictures. Elder Robinson Helllo Fam, This week was jam packed with stuff, so this will probably be a long email.... I finally got the package on Monday!!  Thank you very much!  The cookies were not so good... and the blank sprinkles melted and looked like mold haha.  They probably would have been better had I received them ON TIME.  But the Hi-chews, reeses, and caramels have been perfect!  And all the spice packets look really good.... we're excited to try some of them.  The only appliances we have are a rice cooker, small microwave, and a propane camp stove..... so we're going to get creative.  Elder Bodhaine's mom sent him See's Goodies, and they turned out really well.  Oh, and she sent peanut brittle, which was very good.  Can you make toffee?   So that was monday.   TUESDAY: So we go to district meeting at 11, and afterwards, we always go to town for lunch.  Well, the senior couples only have enough room for most of the elders, so two always have to ride bikes..... we volunteered.  Well, the skies were BLACK, and looking really weird, and it started pouring pretty hard.  By the time we got to Boulevard (where teh mall is) the wind was out of control and the rain too.  There is a covered driveway that all of us were watching it under.  I'll try to upload the video, it was insane.  After a few minutes, police came and told us to go inside.  We followed their orders and had lunch.  They wouldn't let us out for a couple of hours.  Finally, we left, and outside was completely destroyed.  Trees were in the road, buildings had their whole roofs flipped off and in the road.  All of the missionaries and the senior couples drove off in the one direction you could, but elder Matheson and I stayed and helped out.  We were lifting huge trees out of the middle of the road with tons of locals.  It was a cool experience working together.  One of the trees was literally (I'm not exaggerating at all) covered in 1inch red ants.... and they told me to grab on.  I did, and watched the red ants crawl up my arms as we lifted this tree out of the road.  I have red marks on my arms to prove it >.<  We then realized that if downtown was bad, then the kampong houses most of teh members and investigators lived it would be bad.  We went to the nearest Kampong and found that whole houses had been wiped out.  We spent all day chopping down trees, digging up rubble, and clearing roads.  We met a lot of people that we otherwise would not have met, and it was neat for them to see that we were there.  We are part of the community- we speak the language, we live here, and we're interesting in the general well being of the community- I think those who saw us understood that a little better.  In fact, a reporter from the Borneo Post saw us, and interviewed us and took a bunch of pictures of us helping clear out/chop up some fallen trees.  (side note: these trees literally bleed, when you cut the branches, it looks like you cut yourself because it just bleeds exactly like a human. So I had a machete in one hand, and the red tree blood all over my shirt, face, arms, everything.  I saw one of the pictures and it looked like I was from some horror movie where a missionary goes into a village and kills everybody.  Needless to say that shirt is RUINED)  We checked the newspaper the next day, and unfortunately we weren't included in the article.  The interesting thing is that the storm only lasted a few hours, but it was strong enough to really damage many peoples homes.  Only a small part of Miri was devastated by the storm.  In fact, the weather was bright, sunny, and nice for the clean up.  Our branch president bore his testimony about it yesterday, and it was really nice.  He said that many times in our lives, Storms will come in that seem like they're the end of the world, when really they only last a few hours.  Even though it seems so dark in the moment, if we endure it well, bright/sunny weather is in the forecast.  I always interpreted it that even though our homes are fine, not too far away there are people with devastating storms in their lives.  We all have a responsibility to be there for each other, and look out for the storms so we can give our help where it is needed.   I tried uploading a video of part of the storm on the home server.  look in shared folders, videos, DAJR Mission Wednesday: Halloween is not a thing here.  We tried explaining it to an investigator.  We said, yeah, we dress up like monsters, and knock on people's doors to ask for candy.... They didn't understand why on earth we would do that, and they were even more confused about people actually giving us candy.... So no, Halloween isn't a thing.  We tried to celebrate by going to a 'nicer' restaurant here.  I had just been given a ton of crackers and milo at an investigators house, so I decided to order something not fried rice-esque.  Not to mention we tried to make spanish rice in the rice cooker with a taco seasoning packet.... not a success haha.  So I got a chicken basket.  It tasted weird, but I had already paid for it so I ate it all.......  THURSDAY-> Worst. Day. Ever. I woke up, and felt a little sick.  I cut myself some banana bread and tried to eat some.  How do I put this in an email to make it not sound disgusting...... hmm. ....  Let's just say for the first 4 hours of the day, I had to be within 10ft of the bathroom.  It was awful.  Every time I either threw up, or you know what, I felt dizzier and dizzier.  I kept getting really hot, and then really cold, so I took my temp.  I had a fever of 103 degrees!  I didn't telll anyone, but they knew I wasn't looking too good.  We tried to weekly plan, and I asked Elder Matheson if I could take a 5 minute break.  I sat on the couch and passed out.  I woke up at 6:00PM!!  I was mad that no one woke me up, because we had plans for the day!  They wanted me to rest.  I felt embarrassed, because I knew we hadn't done anything productive that day.  I told them I was fine, and that we could go to our appointments.  BAD IDEA.  I had cleared my stomach long ago, and they fed us orange drink that made me want to.... well...  And then the appointment I was just ready to pass out.  I came home, showered, and fell asleep.  It is now monday, and I am still feeling the aftershocks of thursday, if you know what I mean.  I haven't really eaten much, because everytime I do, it makes me feel like I want to throw up, or ... well..... :) Friday: we had a service project where we went to an old folks home here, and removed a giant tree that had fallen.  There was a little, catholic nun who gave us some not so good tools, and we went to work chopping up the thing.  It was fun, I wish I had pictures.  Even elder Martin (senior couple) took an ax!   Saturday: We took a member to one of our new investigators.  We just met him a little while ago, and his circumstances are so sad.  There is a new shop lot being built, so all the workers live in these little wooden huts in the 'backyard' of it.  The family is nice, and humble.  Anyways, we take a member who ALWAYS talks about the word of wisdom.  THe WoW is a big thing here, so we are very careful about when/where/how it is brought up.  We prep our member to not say anything about it.  He agrees.  Well, we go into the hut to find that our investigator is completely drunk.  The member insisted on going in.  We tried to make the appointment somewhat productive, but the member just dove right into a WoW rant.  The room just felt so different.  After this experience, I thought a lot about the word of wisdom.  There are so many questions here as to why our church insists on no alcohol or tobacco, but tonight it made a little more sense.  We sing a indo hymn with every investigator before the lesson, to invite the spirit, and have an environment conducive to learning.  While we were singing, his singing did anything but that.  We try so hard to help investigators understand and feel the spirit, so to see one in a state where he can't even understand or feel himself I thought, no wonder we don't want them doing that!  It also made me think about other things that detract from the spirit.  We're promised to have his spirit to ALWAYS be with us, not when it's convenient, desperately needed, or on sunday mornings.  If we think we're up for that responsibility, and if we understand that magnitude of this gift, we should do everything in our power to remove things that distance ourselves from receiving His presence.  Obviously, there are big things like alcohol, that make it impossible to hear the spirit.  But what else is there in our lives that maybe add some white noise to the reception we are receiving?  It is one thing to see a picture in perfect, high-definition, and another to see a fuzzy/blurred image.  THe clearer it is, the more you can get out of it. Sunday: Church was nice.  Some of the members asked us if we would meet them at the church at 5 to help show them where some recent converts lived (for home teaching).  Well, at about 4:45, the power goes out because of the rain.  We decide to be faithful, and go out to meet the appointment.  It was raining SO HARD.  By the time I was out of our street, I was completely soaked.  We went to the church to find that no one was there to meet us, and they had all just assumed it was canceled because of the rain.  THe title of this email is masih hujan... still raining....  We went to a member/investigators house to find it was flooded so we helped a bit with that.   The funny thing about this mission, is that there have been many occasions (in the 2 months I've lived here) where I have thought, "There is no way this is real life.  This has to be a movie."  I thought that last night as I was flying down a flooded street, pitch black, frogs belching so loud we almost canceled an appointment, and just RAIN RAIN RAIN.  I thought this when I was cleaning up the rubble after the storm.  I thought this when one of our investigators tried to feed me a giant sego larvae......  ok, that's all I have to say today.  I really hope this video loads, so then I can upload some pictures. Elder Robinson