Borneo Christmas

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve with Sister Lim (speaks four languages) and Sister Petty (from Bountiful), a great girl! Loves to dress up and shop, but can enter the humblest of Kampongs without batting an eyelash.

"Big Dad" with Ringkai and Endong, both new converts. Both outstanding! These two radiate the transformation of a man after baptism and receiving the Holy Ghost.

Lucie Beguiles Singapore

Dateline: Singapore, South China Sea. December 2009.

Spotted: Beautiful, brown-eyed, fair-skinned bombshell

Mission: Unknown. Entered country at 2am

Alert Status: High... Until proven otherwise.

Dateline: Singapore.

Subject in Question: Lucie

Progress Report: Last seen in darling bathing suit. Body language indicates deep motives.

Analysis: Suspicious

Dateline: Singapore.

Subject: Demands increased interest.

Progress Report: Possible decoy for subversive activities. Heavily shadowed by a wide variety of suspicious characters. What are we dealing with here? Secret service? Spies? KGB? Scotland Yard?

Analysis: Subject could be double agent or, in need of great protection!

WATCH OUT LUCIE!

Dateline: Singapore

Subject: Seems more intent on beguilement than subterfuge.

Progress Report: THE CURL : Could it be a signal? A sign? A code? A message?

Analysis: Anyone who looks that innocent must be dangerous.

Dateline: Singapore. Raffles Hotel.

Progress Report: Subject: Charm intensified. Curl becomes curlier. Eyes become flirtier. If those lips would just speak.

Analysis: Case about to be cracked. CLOSING IN ON LUCIE'S MOTIVES. Media moving in. Paparazzi everywhere.

DON'T MISS THE BREAKING NEWS TOMORROW.

INSTRUCTIONS: DO NOT DESTROY ANY EVIDENCE. STAY CLOSE TO SUBJECT! WATCH ALL MOVES.

Lucky agent assigned to case: Meme

Singapore Exposes Lucie

Dateline: Singapore

Subject: Sweet Lucie

Update: Motives were dark all along. But the trap was set!

Eating is her game. Chocolate is the name!

Make it pure. Make it dense. Make it dark!

And please make it last!

Thanks, Lucie, for the memories!

Mei Mei (secret Chinese code name)

Chellangga

Her hair streaked with gray

Skin wrinkled and old

In her weathered hands,

A story untold.

A home in the jungle

Sustained by the soil

A family to nurture

A life filled with toil.

A body grows weary,

The eyes start to dim.

When a light bursts forth...

A knowledge of Him!

Happy Birthday, Chinese Style

Happy Birthday in Malaysia: Three Chinese Ladies gave a party for lunch.

Tradition! A beautiful cake! Don't you love the fans?

The Menu:

Chicken Rendang, Spicy and hot. My favorite. Noodles, baby corn, mushroom and shrimps, sweet and sour pork, a coconut soup with yams and sweet potatoes

Tradition! Two hard boiled eggs, usually decorated with your name on them. You must cut the cake like a bride and groom!

Happy Birthday.

The End.

Chicken Little and Other Jungle Tales and Fables

Tonight’s Plan: Teach Kavita and Danny’s Family
This is the home of “The Biter”
Tonight we unwittingly, we became witnesses to and accomplishes of the demise of Chicken Little.

Approaching Kavita’s house in the dark, we are greeted by the “Cooks” (who obviously had drunk the cooking wine), and who introduced us to “Chicken Little.” Chicken Little was not at her best tonight; She lay in a dishpan, complete with feathers; but not life. The ‘barbeque grill’ was prepared and the very happy cooks eyed the hot coals AND the body of Chicken Little.

Escaping up the stairs to the house, I see The Biter. She runs at me with a full body hit. Was it meant to greet me, or stun me? I was prepared for either with a basket of defense items:
(coloring pages, crayons, cookies, paper,) Realizing that I am stunned, but not defeated, She lunges for the basket. Jumping high, she secures the edge of it, (like a pro basket ball player), and clings to the rim! I know when to stall and when to deliver. I deliver. Soon every page is out of the color book, as is everything in the basket. She is looking for ‘more’, more of anything.

Seeking for an opening, I drop to the floor to join Kavita and friends in a game of rocks: “Batu Serenban” The Biter is undeterred. Within minutes she has a new strategy: Kittens. Scrawny, terrified kittens, also hiding from the biter. They are taken from a box in the corner and she
drags their outstretched claws down my back and through my hair, as she growls in behalf of them! She also engages additional troops: A little boy begins to climb on my back and grab for my glasses. Blind the enemy is a tried and true strategy.

I look desperately for Elder McKellar. He has come to teach a Gospel lesson, but is in competition with loud, throbbing music, as the house fills with half drunk men: neighbors and friends of Danny. It becomes obvious that no lesson will be given until all have been fed.

Meanwhile, Where is Chicken Little? She passes from the outside through the living room on her way to the kitchen. Somewhat later, I glance into the kitchen. Chicken Little no longer has to worry about the sky falling: she is being chopped!

9:30 p.m., the men triumphantly enter with Chicken Little on a platter. Dad is to offer prayer.
So much needed, but who to listen? who to hear? what to say? Truth be known, they wish us to begin with AMen! All eyes are on the food. Chicken Little joins the menu with roast pig and charred fish and hot hot black chilies.

A man from the barbeque front begins to serve me. Nadai. Nadai. I protest. I have had enough. But this is a man with the Iban blood of headhunters still in his veins. Is he to be deterred by white woman? Swiftly, he turns and dumps me a plateful of noodles and chicken. He sits nearby to supervise that white woman eats all!!

Yes, we are to serve through wind and rain and sleet and snow, but did anyone mention smoke and claws and deafening music and glazed eyes?

Mercifully, missionaries have curfew. Time to shake 40 hands. Now sweaty and greased with Chicken Little and rice.

We look for our shoes. (40 others to sort through) Home. Water. Clean sheets and Prayer.
Good night and... My apologies to you, Chicken Little.

The Biter, surveying her next victim. Elder Kartchner got it on the back. Elder Hart got it on the bum!

The Head Hunters... er... Chefs... They are supporting one another as the cooking wine was very good!

Chicken Little. So sorry you couldn't see her WITH her feathers...

The Hunted... As yet unbitten... And hoping to survive one more Jungle Adventure!

A Brief Flirtation...

I caught her look in the corner of my eye...

Was she interested? And was I?

The moment was fleeting... But had not passed,

Without my hoping it would last!

Her name is Julia!

Four and Twenty Blackbirds Baked in a Pie!

We went to a family gathering Monday night: The home of Danny, Laila, and Kavita. A birthday party.

A young girl began bringing food from the kitchen, a few dishes at a time, carefully arranging it on the floor.

Everything multiplied simultaneously! 40 plates of food, 6 huge containers of rice and noodles, fifty plus people, 100 bare feet.

"Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie." Those would be chicken heads in every other dish.

And they did eat!

The Jungle Post

Just want you all to know that mail service here is quite reliable. It is called the Jungle Post.

I recently received news from far far away...

I hear tell that for me to receive it, It was passed from the monkey to the ape who dropped it in front of the water buffalo, where it was snatched in mid air by the hornbill bird and dropped into the snake's mouth; there it was picked up by a passing mosquito who just happened to come my way, and I almost swatted him before he delivered it!

The Jungle Grapevine can be precarious in its deliverance.

But i do recommend it; as it is guaranteed by the praying mantis the missionaries' personal mail guardians.

A Grandmother's Joy!

These five children are the grandchildren of one sweet sister. She and they were baptized last night.

Dillon Spencer ak Bantin


Hakkinen ak Bantin. Look at those eyes!

Andreson Bambul ak Bantin. The eyes again and that dimple!

Wilson Jimba ak Langai. One cannot resist such a look!

Priceshilla Sandra ak Bantin. The only little girl. I'm sure she would feel like a princess if she knew what one was!

Challangga ak Liang. Is this a dear face? Her feelings must be similar to that of having all of one's children in the temple. Baptism is the foundational covenant. It is the beginning of eternal joy, as evidenced by her face!

"Behold thou art my people!" 2Nephi 8:16

Boy Boy and Elder Ngo

Introducing "Boy boy" aka: Zong Yon Tian. He is a very popular Chinese young man and the Elders have been teaching him for some time. Very fun and personable. But he is worried that all his friends will reject him for joining the Church.

Thursday night was the night! It is our first Chinese baptism since coming. They are literally as scarce as hen's teeth! Elder Gno, a phenomenal young Elder from Provo baptized him. Elder Ngo is half Chinese and brilliant. He went to Harvard his Freshman year. He is truly a fine and handsome young man. Too bad, all my granddaughters are too young.

These are great moments!

...and the Lord saw the fruit was good...

And it came to pass that the Lord of the vineyard sent his servants saying, "Go and labor with all your might..."

...and the servant did as the Lord commanded and brought other servants; and they were few...

...for it grieveth me that I should lose the trees of my vineyard...

wherefore clear away the bad according as the good shall grow...


...Dig about the trees, both young...

...and old, that all may be nourished once again.

Begin at the last that they may be first.

...and if it so be that these last grafts shall grow, and bring forth the natural fruit... then ye shall prepare the way for them that they may grow...

...and the servants did go and labor with all their mights... and the natural branches began to grow and thrive exceedingly...

and the Lord of the vineyard had preserved unto himself the natural fruit, which was most precious unto him. -- Jacob 5

The Game

My favorite shopping adventure in Miri is a Chinese Pottery Shoplot. It is filled with China pottery items that I go to see just for the pure pleasure of looking at them!

Do you see what I mean?! I would almost cut off my hand for just one of these gorgeous vases at home! A young man greets me immediately with a huge smile and a string of pure Chinese syllables. We have gotten so that we play this "Game."

I look at the possibilities: Mama mia!! Where do I start? I am in love with all of them! I look at an item that I like. He quickly picks it up and indicates, "OK. Good!" I shake my head, but if I pause more than 60 seconds, or look at it twice, he whips out the calculator and punches in a number. This indicates its cost and he smiles broadly!

He then cancels that number and hands the calculator to me. I punch in a number and take my turn at smiling! Then I hand the calculator back to him. He smiles at me and looks at me as if I am very foolish. Another number is punched in. Bigger smile. The calculator and the smiles go back and forth. It is a game. If I turn away, he motions to me to look at his beautiful things and points out the evidence of their value!

Can I dispute it? Of course not! He knows it. And I know it! He can see it in my eyes. I can see the flash of glee in his! It is a game we play. He likes it! I like it, too. I just have to be careful. I lose so quickly!

The item today is a beautiful tea set. Painted with the sign of the Dragon. Very good omen. Very good omen indeed! White woman born in the year of the dragon.

More smiles. More numbers. While I am musing over the possibilities, the tea set is wrapped in Chinese newspaper and tied with a red bow!

Both smile. Chinese proverb say, "Chinese smile so big it run around face 7 times!"

White woman thinking, "Very funny Chinese man just give me great bargain."

Chinese man thinking, "Very funny but foolish woman. She not know bargain."

Both know, "We will meet and play game again. Game best part of bargain!"