Elder Wilson and I have spent the last 3 days in the kampong (village) of Long Pilah, researching the possibility of doing a water project in this remote village.  These pictures show some of the interesting things that we observed in the people there.  Look closely at the ears of the elderly woman above.  She has the traditional long ear lobes of women of her tribe (the Kayan's).  Her ear lobes come down past her shoulders.  She was very friendly to us.  The little girl is Angelik.  She is four years old and became our shadow as we were staying in her grandmother's long house home.  We had so much fun playing with her.

 A group of women were playing badminton in the village.  Several of the women were smoking rolled cigarettes as they played.  They use the tobacco leaves that are almost right out their front doors in the jungle and then roll the crushed tobacco inside.  It was interesting to see them smoke while they played.

 Many of the villagers used these hand-woven baskets to carry all sorts of articles around the village.

 This man is mending his fishing net.  The young boy is named Wallace and he is another child that liked playing with Elder Wilson in front of the long house.

 We found several of these mats where the villagers were drying their freshly picked, home-grown rice.  After it drys, they took it into a near by shed where they had a machine that removed the husk from the rice kernel. It was very interesting to observe the self-sufficiency of these villagers.

We took this picture of a local village man.  He was about the typical height of many of the men that were over 50 years of age.  The women tend to be very short as well.  Sister Wilson feels like an "Amazon woman" around most of these people!

P-day!!!

One day a week all of the missionaries get to have a day off called P-day.  They do laundry, send e-mails to their families and occasionally, plan an outing.  This P-day was spent at the beach!  Elder Wilson and I have the privilege of participating with them in their P-day activities (We provide the transportation!)  It is so fun to spend time with these wonderful young people who are giving 18-months to two years of their lives to serve our Father in Heaven and his children here on earth.  I am blessed to be part of this great missionary work.  

Malaysian Families!

Elder Wilson and I have the privilege of occasionally going out in the evenings with the young Elders and Sisters to teach families about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Here are a few pictures of  member and investigator families we have met with in Kuching.  This is one of my favorite parts of our mission--meeting with the people in their homes.  I am humbled by their kindness to us.  The Malaysians are truly a wonderful people!

Investigator family.  I could not get the little girls to smile for the picture. It seems that they all like to have serious faces when their pictures are taken. 

Elder Bringhurst and Elder Hadley playing games with the children.  Elder Wilson did his magic tricks for them and they loved it!

This picture was taken while we were in the home of a young widow (she is 41 years old).  Her home is very humble, with little furniture and a leaking roof.  Her husband had a stroke and died one year ago.  Leaving her with eight young children.  She works two jobs to try and support her family and the children mostly take care of each other while the mom is working.  I have shed a few tears for this courageous mother as I reflect on the daily challenges that she faces each day.

Another Gawai Party!

Here are some more pictures taken at another Gawai party held at President Ero and Sister Molly's home in the mountains.  He is the District President and she is the District Relief Society President for the church in the Kuching area.  The views from their home were spectacular, overlooking his olive palm plantation.  A true paradise... 

These people are from another dayak (native) tribe.  Each tribe has it's own costumes.  All are very colorful.  

Their music is played mostly by the "bong-bong" method.  The dancing is a slow movement of feet and arms to the bong beat.  

The men also wear colorful head coverings and vests.  

May 2017  

The past couple of weeks we have had the pleasure of attending several pre-Gawai parties.  These pictures are at the Samarahan Branch of Kuching.  The members of this branch really enjoy one another and like to party and have activities together on a regular basis. 

The costumes are so colorful; the dancing and music is delightful; and people are happy and fun!