This photo is taken in Shiloh's newest area, Kuching. Note how his hair has grown out a bit. In one of his previous emails, he mentioned his Malay has improved since he's arrived in his new area. Having said that, we enjoyed his latest email.


October 21, 2008

So I've got a funny story that probably happens to every missionary learning a new language, in one way or another. We had just finished teaching a group of eight indonesian guys in their early 20s about the 10 commandments. I was testifying to them about the blessings they would receive when I said, "Kalau kamu ikut sepuluh perintah, kamu akan dapat berak." The literal translation of that is, "If you follow ten commandments, you will get to crap." I realized my blunder and quickly tried to correct it while wondering if any of them had been constipated and were long awaiting that blessing. The word I was looking for was "Berkat." Dapat means "get" or "receive" depending on the word following it. Saying, "Kamu akan dapat berak" is "you will get to crap" Saying "kamu akan dapat berkat" is "you will receive blessings" Berak, Berkat, to crap, blessings, theyre all the same right? I was pretty embarrassed but just like Elder Wirthland said, Just laugh, and thats what I did. Its cool.


We drove down to Wilmington to watch Caitlin and her team run in the regionals (Jaimee went in protest. She thinks it is wrong to spend more time in the car traveling than it does to watch the race, and then only see part of the race). The girls won regionals, the boys took third, so they are both headed to State on Saturday. Woo-hoo!

Caitlin's wearing her regionals shirt that her Dad bought her (not realizing she had already bought herself a yellow one....)

The winning team with the winning trophy. Caitlin's the one in black. With a ponytail. Okay, she's the one on the far left.

This is a blurry shot near the finish line. I'm going to blame it on Caitlin. She was moving so fast, so fast that she even passed this girl in front of her.

Rebecca's small animal project has made Dad a happy guy. Her project involves the chickens, increasing their "daylight" and access to food and water. Basically, she's now in charge of the chickens and gathering the eggs and all he has to do is determine his own egg consumption.

For YW tonight, Becca and the Miamaids had a cookout at the Whitleys. Jaimee and the Beehives had their own fire tonight at our place and worked on pre-camp certification.

Jacob's keeping busy. He attends FHE at the institute on Mondays, Wednesday it is dinner for a dollar at the institute and then he has class. This past weekend was a YSA conference. He got home pretty late (early?) from that and then had to get up early Sunday morning to speak in Goldsboro. I did get a little chat in with him late Saturday night. He reported that there are a lot of cute girls in the Chapel Hill/Durham area. Who knew?