Updating - September Stuff- N.

Updating - it's been too long. Always have good intentions, but... you know. Last Sunday Garald had the opportunity of blessing David and Nancy's baby (prior post pic) Trying to remember the name and say it correctly is a challenge. But he did a great job. Last Tues. after district mtg and lunch, we were able to make seven home visits with Sister Norma (we usually do two or three) - then on Sunday three people who haven't been to church since we arrived - attended. We were thrilled to see them, and hope they keep coming. Many factors contributing - not just us. Garald teaches gospel doct. every week in Masai branch. They're having such a hard time filling positions. I've picked up another piano student and we meet before church for some, after church for others. And the one I'm hoping might be ready to play for the branch by the time we leave - we go to her home on Thursday mornings. She has a donated keyboard for practicing. Gosh - I wish I knew more about teaching piano - well, even just playing piano would be good too. Stumbling along. This was the JB Relief Society lunch at our apartment. (the cake kinda fell apart - oh well) After hearing we'd had the rolls\casserole demo in Masai R.S. - they planned one as well. It's not a bad thing that they want to kind of 'keep up' with each other. They've never had this experience before. We just hope we can 'keep up' with both branches. So Saturday involved Institute class in the morning, then Masai R.S. at 2:00 - teaching\practicing leading the singing. (music thing again - why oh why didn't I learn more before getting HERE) Then JB R.S. at 5:00 with lunch\demo and English class at Sister Norma's at 7:30. Fun Day! Our English class is growing every week. So grateful for "Daily Dose" learning system that donated this whole English learning program - through my sister, Karen. It's simple and really great. Seminary and institute will be finished for the year in one more month. Attendance is dwindling. We attended our last CES 'training' meeting in Singapore the other day. Always a 'cultural' experience driving from one country to the other. Thought we had it down pat, but ran into a few snags last time with updating our road tax and insurance. But we worked it out and we're not in jail. Whew! But it did bring back those old intimidating feelings we had when we first attempted this.
One of the little girls at the home of an 'inactive' that we visited today. The Masai branch meetings being conducted in their own language is now drawing people back. (I think I saw the world's largest cockroach here on the wall - I tried to not obsess over it. I wanted to take a pic, but you can be grateful I didn't. Just didn't seem like the thing to do in someone else's house)
Same home - just visiting on the floor. Inactive sister we were visiting is in orange - Salomah - Sister Norma next to me, then Sister Madeline, who just came back into activity and brought us to visit this sister we'd never met before. She's willing to have the branch come for Sunday night evening get-together at her house in two weeks. Maybe a good way to ease her back into activity. Such good people! Don't you just love all these cute 'little girl' faces. Every house has one of those baby swings you see hanging from the ceiling. They put the baby in for a nap and then bounce it from the spring attached to the ceiling. Newborns to two and three year olds use them.
The renovation at this shop lot is going forward quite quickly. This is the location being completed for the new Masai church. We're anxious to see it get finished and we'll have a little community 'open house' when we move in - maybe - we hope. November - probably. Just a little nervous about how to do that. Guess we'll face it when the time comes. Might as well add it to the list of 'things we've never done before, but pretend we know what we're doing.'
This is the 2nd floor. Wow - walls - how cool! Members of the new branch will love getting into their own building. It will be such a blessing for them and we're anxious to see it finished. We drive by occasionally to see how it's progressing, and are amazed how fast it's going. On the day we first visited this location with Bro. Norman from Singapore, who is over physical facilities, it was sooo very interesting to hear the negotiating going on. It had been listed as 7,000 sq ft. and a monthly rental price and contract agreed on. But the contractor who was submitting a bid, measured it as just over 5500 ft. Norman said his 'owner' (the church) would not pay the original price because it had been misrepresented. We were afraid the whole thing was going down the drain, and we just stood back and watched. But more negotiating with agents, lawyers, Norman and others finally culminated with a second agreement. It's so nice to see that savvy people watch out for the church' interests. And it was intriguing watching the whole process. We were pretty glad we weren't doing the negotiating.
Fresh chicken anyone? Right off the back of this flat bed truck. Okay, I drug my camera with me on my morning walk\run (well, more walk than run) the other day. Sharing scenery that I'll likely not see on my Draper walk, but hope to remember from my Malaysia days. But then who could forget this!
AND fresh pork from the neighborhood panel truck. Yes, you can buy meat in the pasa raya (supermarket) but folks here tell us if you want the freshest of the fresh - this is where you go. And it does look good. Mmmm - maybe not for me. I think I'm a supermarket kind of person.
The cutting block where they cut up your choice of meat. I do tend to wonder how\if it's cleaned. Guess I won't go there. Everyone seems to be fine with it. Remember the temp here - very hot and - no, this meat is definitely not in refrigeration.
I think I've shown this before. But I love seeing this Buddhist temple every day. Not only because it's so colorful and interesting, but also because it means I'm almost back home. Lots of regulars now see me every day and the Muslim people wave, smile, say hallo (that's not a typo - it's how they say it) and wonder what the heck this crazy old white lady is doing. Love seeing them.
Now here's a pretty gross pic. But maybe it shows how hot\sweaty I am when I get home. The hanging meat may be fine in the heat, but I'm not. (yes - that's the unmade bed in the left hand corner) And I wish running in the heat made me lose weight - but no such luck. Too much good food everywhere. Well, some of it's not so good, but we know where the good stuff is now.
And here's some of the good stuff. This is Brian and Melanie. He's our 'tech dude' and he helps us a lot. He's the one who finally got us back on line when we moved a few months ago. We'd been promising to take them to dinner to show our appreciation. So here we are at Todak restaurant on the ocean. They gave us some tips for ordering here - very helpful. There's no menu, just fish flopping around in containers on the deck. We've stumbled through this before, but now we'll be better. He's the JB branch clerk, and we're just doing our job - which is to help keep the active people active. We love teasing some of the Chinese, because they have such a hard time making the 'r' sound in English. So Brian is not really the branch clerk - he's the branch cluck. And the guard house into our apartment building is the 'got' house. Hey - they laugh at our Malay and rightly so!
Might as well finish up this post with a food picture, of course. We had crab, sea bass, prawns (top) and... uh, some kind of shell thingies and some other seafood that I can't remember what it's called, and vegetables. Delish! (the coke wasn't mine)

It's late here and I'm going to brush my teeth and crawl into bed. It's P Day Eve - hooray.

Oh wait - one more thing. I've decided there are times I really need to drive. When Garald was learning the Asian driving, it was kind of a 'white knuckle' experience for me, so I figured I'd never try. But sometimes I need to run home during church or run to the store and he's not available. Thanks to Roxanne for advising me to always keep the driver by the inside line. I think of it every time I drive. Well, almost every time. Last Sunday I ran home from church to check on dinner and sneak a snack and on my way back, I wondered why this driver was stopped right in front of me and glaring. Oh yea, I'm on the wrong side of the road. Mind wandered for a minute and I defaulted back to U.S. driving. You see the right side is the wrong side unless you're in the U.S. then the left side is the wrong side - get it? Obviously I need more practice. Will work on that. I'll bet you're glad this post is ending.