If it is snowing in America, it must be raining in East Malaysia....

We awoke to our first real snowfall in years. It continued until late afternoon. Beautiful. I lost track of the amount of cocoa and mugs we went through today.


Last week we had some really cold weather. Our highs didn't get above freezing and our lows at night were around 11 degrees. We stayed toasty warm in the house, with much use of the aforementioned cocoa mugs.

However, unbeknownst to us, the electricity went out in the barn. My first thought was, "No big deal, we won't lose the food in the freezer, it's too cold for anything to thaw". And then, I remembered the boy's snakes, who prefer a warm and humid climate. Shayne brought the snakecicles in. We used our bathroom for the "Reptile Resurrection Room", since it seems to be the warmest in the house. We used heating pads and tons of towels warmed in the dryer.

Jacob and Shayne also "cuddled" the snakes to their warm bellies.

And whaddyaknow?

It worked! Snakes Alive!

The girls were not worried or impressed with the outcome. Jaimee and Rebecca were involved in a snake warm up a few years ago, when Jacob was on his mission. It wasn't to this extreme, however. Caitlin feels that if the snakes freeze twice, that's it. Two strikes and they're out.

We also had a birthday to celebrate. Not too shabby for a 45-year-old.

He bought all of his presents, except one. A source of amusement for me was that he hid the bag, and then couldn't find it. And just who was he hiding it from?!?

I told him he needed to practice his "surprised" look. The kids didn't know which presents he had bought, and so the game of the evening was guessing which was the surprise gift.

And, last but not least, an update from Kuching...

January 7, 2009

I did get my package and I think that it is, if not the best Christmas package ever, at least in the top three. Its up there with the gameboys, paintball guns, cellphones, and rock gear. I haven't made the grits yet, I'm buying cheese today so that I can. All of it was extremely important and very much appreciated. Especially the Dark chocolate. Have ya'll tried the kind with Chili or did you just send it to me because its wierd? Either way, I liked it a lot.

Last night at a dinner appointment I ate snake. It was cut into inch long pieces and fried. We ate it with soy sauce. I think.

January 13, 2009

When I went the the malls in Florida I would usually check the chocolate store and as you know I tried quite a few different things but I had never tried the chili. It always scared me but once you sent it I just decided to eat it like you would any other dark chocolate and it turned out fine. I converted one of the elders in my house to liking dark chocolate. As it is for most people, he was just eating it wrong the whole time. He has already asked his parents to send him more.

The weather here now is really great. It's not hot at all really. It rained for about four days straight again and there was some pretty bad flooding in some parts but the actual temperature feels great.

My old trainer, Elder Etable, is training a new elder now. His name is Elder Leavitt, he is from Arizona and he is the one Uncle Brian interviewed and stuff. I got meet him this past Monday. We had what is called a Zone tour, where Elder Hallstrom of the Asia area presidency came and trained us. All of the elders in all of east malaysia came down here to Kuching for it. I got to see the two of them along with a lot of others including Elder Romney.

I just got over a really bad cold. I had to stay in for three days because of it. One of the nights my fever was all the way up to 102.6. At that point I asked for a blessing and later the doctor gave me an antibiotic. I am however, better now, out and working again. Nothing is worse than staying home on your mission.