(N posting) Tuesday March 6th. We've been in Singapore for two days to meetings - called mission tour. The Asian area president and mission president tour the area - visiting each of the mission zones. I remember it from last year - in January - and have been looking forward to it. This is Asian area president Perkins and his wife outside the mission office - The missionaries were lined up to shake hands with him. We'd been to a meeting with him the night before at President Clark's home. It was a farewell dinner for the Brown's - senior couple - in KL who were going home. A very sad note for our meetings - our mission president suffered a heart attack on Saturday. He's in his 50's, very fit - was out jogging with the AP's. He'd apparently been having some symptoms for a few days, but dismissed them. But decided he needed to see a doctor. So he went home, showered and drove himself to the hospital. He had 3 clogged arteries. They put in one stint and two ballooms - seems to be doing well - although very unhappy about missing the mission tour meetings. We just got back from S'pore this morning and he was coming home from the hospital today. A few days recovery and he thinks he'll be back in the saddle. I'm sure he will. The doctors claim it was genetics that caused it, but healthy lifestyle that saved his life. We're grateful. Seems like a fairly similar situation to what Garald had before we left, except he was fortunate enough to catch it before the heart attack.

On our way over to Singapore on Sunday afternoon, we were detained at immigration on the Malaysia side - nothing serious - they asked us to park our car and go into an office and they took our passports. It was a little nerve racking for a few minutes. But after a while, they came out and said the passports had been stamped improperly the last time we went through. So it had been noted, and we were on our way. Then as we tried to go through and into Singapore, we were again asked to park and go into another office. We just had to prove documentation that our recent road tax had been paid. All the time our car was threatening to 'over heat' (can't wait to sell it off to a dealer soon) and it was a rather hot, trying ride, but all was resolved and we finally made it through. We enjoyed a good dinner - enchiladas and a very nice meeting. We've loved knowing the Browns and will miss them. There's no new couple to take their place. They served as family history specialists in Kuala Lumpur. Three more couples leave this month and then we're next.
Our air conditioner in the living room of our apartment has been leaking for months. We've had several repairmen and no success. This was last week - two repairmen and Garald worked on a broken part - gluing it back together. For now, it appears to be working. We wimpy Americans just don't seem to be able to survive without the air cons.
If we're not going anywhere, we love watching the rain - this is taken from our bedroom window. The elders are always out biking in it and drenched. Again, we wimpy Senior Americans use umbrellas and cars. But it's not cold. In fact, it seems to be hotter and steamier than ever when it rains.
These are a few of the pictures of recent baptisms (on the living room floor) that we give to new members - we've been getting the pix made and locating and buying the frames. We need to get busy to get these all distributed before we leave. Garald's district presidency job has kind of usurped our missionary activities recently and we're behind. But we hope to get them all out in the next few weeks. We won't be able to teach all the 'new member' lessons, but it will be a good place for the new couple to take over. Their name is E\S Beard and they're from Australia. They'll be here towards the end of March, which will be the same time as senior conference. We will have a couple of 'over lap' days with them - get our car sold, apartment cleaned and move out. We plan to take a few days to travel to Thailand - we're not very good at travel plans - but we'd like to see some of the islands here that we understand are beautiful. Our 'going home' date isn't firm yet, but will likely be around the first part of April. We're ready - sort of!
We've been doing quite a bit of visiting in the last weeks. I know I'm not supposed to take pix of ordinances, so I tried to click this just right before they started. The Mom here had asked for a blessing as she's having such a hard time with her boys. When the elders finished, this little guy hopped up on the chair and wanted the same thing. They obliged. He was cute. Closed his eyes and smiled the whole time. The dad is not a member - wants to be - but is having a hard time kicking the cigarettes. We hope he makes it before we leave.
Another home - little Chinese baby - parents are investigators.
Same home - Elder Koay (local missionary from KL) was teaching. The Mother was saying that her husband gives all their money away to extended family and then there's not enough left for their own family. I tried to quietly snap this pic of her little 'store' that she keeps in her living room. Can't imagine that she makes very much money from it, but she's enterprising, that's for sure. She's also very anxious to join the church and will be baptized the middle of March.
Some of our days last week we took a young mother in the branch - Madelyn - with her little girl Amysa (age 8)to the hospital. Amysa has dengue fever. This was the waiting room when we walked in. I think there were well over 100 people waiting. You take a number and wait for it to come up on the lighted board - it actually was fairly efficient, although time consuming. Amysa had to have a blood test every day but is doing better and has returned to school this week. Madelyn says it costs $1.00 for native citizens to use the facility. That's $.30 American. Of course, it would cost us as foreigners much more. Actually, sitting and watching the number boards light up and numbers called out was great practice for our language\number skills. We were there for several hours each day. So glad she's doing better now.

This was Sunday night at recent converts home - Lena and Ayu and family. Birthday cake. The dad and several children were sick so they asked El Gregory for blessings - which he and the elders obliged. The young girl in the purple shirt had been sick and had a blessing too. It caused us all to chuckle when she was ready and they were talking about a blessing for her to get better and be able to go back to school. "Oh no," she said, "I want to get better, but don't bless me to be able to back to school." Actually we saw them at the hospital the next morning when we were there. Anytime the children are sick, the parents say they have 'the fever.' Not sure just what that is, but all seem to be doing better now. Our lesson for this night had been on attending church - ALL 3 hours - and talking about what was said. As we reviewed Sacrament meeting from that day, most of the children could recall several things that had been taught. Hooray! This is a great family and the branch is in such dire need of leadership - Ayu could be such an asset. He's one of the few people baptized here who did not have a word of wisdom problem to overcome. Didn't smoke or drink - and neither did his wife. Unfortunately the grandpa in the upper right corner has not been able to give up the habits, even though he'd like to be baptized. He's extremely friendly and kind to us.
This is Elder Kampenhout (AP) from Idaho. We love this guy - he's a great missionary. His family is from the Netherlands and this is a Dutch "happy birthday" rendition that he does at every zone conference for the 'birthday group' for the month. We wanted a record of it and didn't have the camera ready at the last zone conference, so he agreed to do it for us last night at Passir House. As mine was the closest birthday, I got to be the lucky recipient. Next post, I'll try to show you our New Zealand missionary and his Hakka (sp?) Dance. Pretty diverse here. The days are flying by.