So. I guess I completely skipped over the month of February. To summarize, I turned 45, the girl's got valentine p.j. bottoms (the day after, 50% off at Target), and I had a slight career change. I'm still doing medical transcriptioning, but I'm actually working in a doctor's office. So, no more working from home in the p.j.s. It's a good thing I didn't get new valentine p.j. bottoms like the girls. That would have been a waste of $2.50. Oh, and Jacob is dating Julianne. She is from Arizona, she graduated from NAU, and is currently working on a math related masters at UNC Chapel Hill. We like her and try not to be intimidated by her math skills. And, Dad continues to keep on keepin' on. We found some dark chocolate malt balls for him, so I'm sure February was as good as it could be for him.

And. Here's the beginning of March. Jaimee's started a new soccer season. She's a little frustrated already with the caliber of her team and they haven't even had a game yet. She was just hired Saturday to work at a nursery and strawberry farm. It is owned by her best friend's family. She'll start working every Saturday starting in April, which is the busiest time for the strawberry season. She doesn't have health benefits, but she gets free strawberries and can get plants at wholesale prices. She's excited and so are the rest of us strawberry eaters.

Becca just got her learner's permit. Yep, she was honest and reported her actual height at 4'11". She's also running track again this year.

Caitlin would be enjoying her last semester in high school except for an AP 3-D art class that she thought she would enjoy. It's very time consuming and she would rather spend more time on her other AP classes. She still hasn't made a decision yet as to UNC or Wake Forest.

We seldom see Jacob, but we know he lives here. His dirty laundry piles up and the whole milk goes down. He's still working at target, going to school full time, and dating on weekends.

Shiloh sent us a package. He included sarungs for all of us. He said the one that he picked out for Dad was very rare. We all had a good chuckle when we pulled his out of the box. A very nice grey plaid. He also included a CD with pictures and I've included a few of those.

January 27, 2009
Something that I am grateful for here is how people cook things. Meals are almost always fried and you almost never have to worry about things being undercooked. They are usually over cooked. Having said that the monkey meat was cooked all the way. This past week I got to add two more things to that list with the monkey. Biawak and I forget the other but I think it was memorang. Those are monitor lizzard and beaver, respectively. The beaver was kind of plain and odd but the monitor lizzard was fun. Biawak meat is really expensive if you dont catch it yourself. Its considered a special occasion meat. 46 ringgit per kilo.

We just celebrated the Chinese New Year. Tahun Baru Cina. It was crazy. I was still living on the sixth floor so I could see all across the city that night. Fireworks were EVERYWHERE. Even right next to our building. Ashes would have fallen in the windows had we opened them. right after midnight there was soo much smoke we couldnt see past the end of our road. I found out later that the Chinese believe that the more smoke, light, and noise you make, the further the evil spirits are driven from your house and family, and the longer it takes them to come back.





February 10, 2009
This past week has been really great. Things are so much better now for so many reasons. We baptized a guy that was a member referal. Those are always the best. His name is Frankie anak Bache. I dont know if I've explained it yet or not so I will now. Everyone that is iban, bidayuh, melanau, kayan, or any kind of dayak race from indonesia or malaysia is named Something Anak Something. Anak means child and they are given their own name and their fathers. For example, had I been born here I would be Shiloh anak Shayne as would be all of my brothers and sisters anak Shayne. Then all of my children would be something anak Shiloh. Makes family history work a little different.Ive had four or five baptismal interviews so far and theyve all been really cool. Its an amazing experience.

February 24, 2009
This morning we got up early to go to one of Sarawak's state nature reserves. We went to the Orang-hutan rehab state park. It was soo amazing. You walk through a path in the jungle for about 200 meters and they come swinging in through the trees. They have some platforms with fruit on them but they will also just come in through the trees right above you. There were three mothers with new borns. The adolescent ones tried peeing on a few people and they threw some sticks at us.

Last Thursday we were doing a service project with one of the Senior elders. Elder Young is 65 but still in great shape. We were cutting tall grass, some as tall as me with, parang, or machettes. Elder young fell in a puddle and sliced open his hand. He severed the tendon in his middle finger and damaged another. My companion ran to get Elder Young's car ready to take us to the hospital whileI wrapped and elevated Elder Young's hand. He started to go into shock so Ielevated his legs and gave him water. We got him into the car and sped off to the hospital. Right before we went in he asked my companion to anoint him and then I gave him a blessing. He was in surgery for two hours and he spent the night there. Not even two days later he was up and driving again. Heis a good sport about it all. We do avoid that kind of service project though.Thats my news. My companion gets here in two days and I am excited to be training.

March 3, 2009

I forgot to mention last week but right now I am in singapore on a visa run. Immigration got a little cranky with me but I got in plenty fine. I just picked the wrong officer. My new companion is great. I found out his real last name is Rajah-Kanagasabai. He's not actually a local but most people think he is. They are stunned when I, the white guy, have to translate for him. He was born and raised in Perth, Australia and his ethnicity is Sri Lankan. He talks like an aussie, so I dont understand most of his slang. He is having a tough time realizing that the language they speak here is not the language he learned in the MTC. He is good though.