Christmas in Malaysia - Love Knows No Borders

On Christmas day, after opening our gift to each other we grabbed a couple of passengers and headed about an hour south of KL to Seremban where our Branch President, Tennyson Renner, his wife, Anne, and their kids, Tennyson, Garrett, Ethan, Janella, Zach and Jezreel live. They also have a little dog named Julie and a pet spitting cobra named Sprinkles. They have a nice house which Anne has made into a beautiful home. I think that they knew we'd be feeling a little melancholy being away from our family for the holidays and graciously allowed us to share their family with them.

The Renners had also invited a bunch of other folks, most of whom were away from their homes for the holidays. Paul "Trip" Baker and his wife Kim (Kim is the daughter of my friend and fellow counselor in the branch presidency, Graham Doxey, who was back home in Utah for the holidays. Also present were fellow expats Steve Smith and Rita Miller, Daniel Olayemi from Nigeria, Eric Acheampong from Ghana (I think) and Joyce Goh, and Tina Lee from KL.

The Renners had prepared a great feast for us and we helped with some of Tobi's broccoli and cauliflower salad (which is now famous on two continents), a turkey, and two apple pies lovingly handmade by Scott. There was no lack of food and it was all delicious. We particularly love Anne Renner's Philippine pasta salad. I think we may have come home with more food than we brought.

After dinner, although we could all feel a post-feast coma coming on, we forestalled the effects by playing a few rounds of "Werewolf," a game introduced to us by the Bakers and which we love to play whenever we all get together. (Our dear readers should find this game and get it. It's great for big groups.) I got a kick out of little Zach Renner. He's about 4 and always seems to have a toy gun in hand; sometimes two. Once I caught sight of him running up the stairs with a gun in each hand and a sword stuck down the back of his shirt. You never know when the bad guys might come. (I just know that he and my grandson, Jace (also 4) would be best buddies.

Too soon, it was time to head back up the road to the big city. We thank all those who were present for helping to make this a very memorable Christmas, and special thanks to the Renners who have become very close friends. Thanks for a wonderful day.

Scott and Tobi

Christmas in Malaysia - Branch Christmas Party

Our Branch decided this year to do a service project for our Christmas Party. We went to an orphanage to prepare a meal and give the orphanage workers a break. We had so much fun working with many members of our Branch preparing Curry Chicken, Vegetable Omelets, a yummy lime spicy chicken and warm vegetable salad. It was delicious and so much fun. Now I pride myself in my culinary prowess but when it came to cutting the carrots I was a flop. Every time Sister Ee checked my progress she kept saying that they weren't thin enough. My carrots did not get chosen to go into the omelet mixture. They had to go into the Chicken curry. Maybe next time I will do better. It is just so enjoyable to work with so many wonderful people. To visit and talk to them. The children in the orphanage are well fed and clothed but even so it is sad to see so many children without the love of parents and family. Our Elder and Sister Missionaries were on hand to interact with the children and the children sure loved them. The Branch members are such hard workers. No one has to tell them to sweep, mop, wash and clean. They just start doing it. Even the men. With so many people to work it makes the job so easy. After watching Sis. Ee do all that wonderful cooking, I want her to give me lessons.

Christmas in Malaysia - RS Dinner

Our first activity of the Christmas Season was having our Relief Society Christmas Dinner. It was so much fun working with Karen McKinley in preparing the food for this activity. We weren't sure how many sisters to expect since only about 25 had RSVP'd. We planned for 30 people. The week before Karen and I settled on a menu and unknown to each other we both made some changes to what we were going to bring so that we what we brought could be easily increased. As I took load after load of food upstairs to Karen's apartment, I kept thinking that we would have food left over for days. Well instead of the 30 we had anticipated,60 people showed up. We were thrilled and had enough food to feed them all. The program was so nice and so many of the sisters were involved in set up, clean up and participating in the program. We had a group that included our two beautiful full-time Sister Missionaries sing a special musical number that really was wonderful. It was such a treat having this program and dinner at Karen McKinley's beautiful and spacious apartment.

Christmas Letter - 2009

Merry Christmas to all of our friends and family back home.

Christmas 2009 is a new experience for Tobi and me. We find ourselves about 10,000 miles from you. Instead of cold and snow we are experiencing a Christmas of 90 degree heat and humidity. The whole world is lush and green. The only place one sees even a hint of Christmas here is in the shopping malls. They have a number of them around town and most are very upscale and go all out to decorate for Christmas and New Years.

Tobi and I have not done any decorating of our apartment. Tobi didn't think she could bear it. Too much of a reminder of family and the wonderful Christmases of past years. So in the morning we'll sleep in till 8am or so and then open the gift we got for one another. Nothing else has arrived yet, although some of the kids sent us online credit for e-books. Tobi got me a Sony "Reader" for my birthday and so now I can just download my books onto my Reader.

I have to say that when we first arrived here and for the first couple of months Tobi felt a bit overwhelmed. Everything was new and different, especially her job. She had gained a certain level of comfort in her job back home, having done it for about 14 years, but the job here was completely different and the few days of overlap with the girl she replaced were just not enough, even with the training she had received. I found myself on many evenings figuratively talking her down off the ledge. Luckily she has terrific bosses here and they are very understanding. She has learned quickly and has started to feel like she is a definite asset to the office here.

As we were preparing to come to Malaysia we wondered why we were doing this. We had our reasons for making this leap, but both of us felt as if there was another reason, or perhaps many other reasons, why we were being led here. Now that we've been here for 9 months some things are beginning to come more clearly into focus. We believe more strongly than ever that this was the right thing to do at this time in our lives. We miss our children and our grandchildren terribly. It's probably ridiculous since they are being cared for so well by their parents, but we have often thought that they need us. I guess it's more likely that we need them. It probably does us more good to play Peek-a-Boo with Jaylee or listen to Bella's stories, or see Nixon's smile than any small benefit they may derive from a few minutes on Skype every week or so.

The other day we were talking and I said to Tobi, "You know, when our time here is up and it's time for us to go home, we are really going to miss this place." That thought has given us a renewed sense of urgency to be engaged with this country, this community; because I can already sense the sadness I will feel when it's time to go. We have some friends here who are already very dear to us. The Wintheisers, the Renners, the McKinleys, the Loke family, Claire and Lilian Lim, Miow Lin, the Doxeys, Sega Appanan, the Kofoeds, our wonderful missionaries and their wonderful investigators. The list is long and I haven't done it justice. Tobi's bosses, Legal Attache Greg Gilmartin and Assistant Legal Attache Chuck O'Neal and their wives, Caryn and Colleen have been a great support.

Know that you are all in our thoughts and prayers always. Our family and our old friends are precious to us. We miss you.

As I write this is it approaching midnight on Christmas Eve. I haven't heard any sleigh bells yet but I'm sure Santa is on his way. (He starts here and works his way west. It makes sense logistically when you think about it.) Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Love,

Scott and Tobi

We love the Missionaries

We had District Conference today and after the meeting we were slowly making our way out of the building stopping to visit friends here and there. We have a new Mission President, President Clark and his wife and I got to visiting together. Scott was visiting another Brother from India that not only knew his parents when they were on their mission in Goa but also our Nephew Jay, who also served a mission in Bangalore. The Elders were talking to the Sister Missionaries about how hungry they were and how they were wishing someone would invite them to dinner. I was completely engrossed in talking to Sis. Clark that I hadn't picked up on the clue but Scott heard them (they were very loud and looking at us) and said that maybe we could invite the Missionaries to dinner (also very loud). We told them we didn't have anything prepared but if they would be willing to help prepare the dinner they were welcome.

What a fun time we had looking through the free

zer and refrigerator trying to put together a dinner. We actually didn't do too bad. We had lots of mashed potatoes. I boiled and cut up chicken breasts and put them in

to the chicken gravy Scott had made. We then had carrots and yellow squash that we sauteed in butter with some dried onions and then added a little bit of parmesan cheese. A nice big green salad with avocados, tomatoes and red bell peppers added a nice touch. And to end the dinner we had yummy chocolate cake. I think I told the Missionaries that we didn't have any dessert and just as we were getting into our car to go home, President Renner's wife, Anne, gave us a chocolate cake that she had brought for her children to eat on the way home. They live an hour away. She h

ad heard the conversation between us and the Missionaries. I was so grateful for that Chocolate cake. It really finished off the dinner beautifully.

Everyone worked together, by peeling and cutting up the potatoes and other vegetables and setting the table and before too long we were sitting around the table eating our feast.

(In the picture to the right you can see Elder Wall from Park City, Utah, Sister Viehweg from Idaho, Elder Mattox from Florida, an investigator named Kong, and Sister McCurdy, also from Utah. Behind the couch next to Scott is Adrien, a recent convert.)

Along with the Missionaries we also had a new investigator, Mr. Kong and a new convert,

Adrian. We visited and t

old stories and laughed so hard at many of the stories the Missionaries

told. Scott got in a few of his old Missionary stories that I love to hear again and again.

Scott asked me if this reminded me of dinners around our table at home with our own children and it sure did. These wonderful Missionaries sure fill the hole in my heart at being away from my family.

Afterwards, we started to

clean up and then I remembered that the Sister Missionaries are singing in a special number with me and a few

other sisters for our Ward Relief Society Christmas Dinner so while the m

en finished cleaning the kitchen (and they did a fantastic job) we practiced our song.

It was a wonderful end to a perfect day.

Back Home in Malaysia.

We had a great time on the cruise. Venice and Ancona, Italy; Santorini, Mykonos, and Corfu in the Greek Isles; Athens and the Acropolis; and Dubrovnik, Croatia. I will attach pictures.

The best part of our vacation was, of course, our visit home. We got to spend a lot of time with our kids and our grandkids. Nolan, Treo and little Jaylee Joy came up from St. George for the weekend. Jaylee is a little doll. She has the cutest smile, she scrunches up her face and puts everything into it. Nolan joined Brock, Justin and I for a round of golf at Eaglewood on Saturday morning. We won't discuss scores, but what a beautiful day and what a great time we had.

We thank Dane and Annie for letting us use our home and making room for us. We love staying in the downstairs bedroom. Sometimes we stay there during the summer when it's hot upstairs anyway. Leah managed to find us and jumped in bed with us one morning and when we would go to bed before the girls, Bella was always sure to tell us some fantastic bedtime stories. "This is not a princess story, this is a lizard story." (pronounced lithard.)

Giada, of course, having just turned one, didn't remember us and it took a few days, but she finally warmed up to us and we loved holding her and helping her walk around holding onto our fingers.

Jennie was so thoughtful and sweet to bring her boys by to see us and play with us for several hours each day. We loved playing with Jace and Nixon. Jennie also gave us the great news that number 7 (for us, not her) is on the way and should make HER appearance (maybe my emphasis will make it happen) in April. Actually she doesn't find out the gender for a few more weeks.

We're still sorry that we failed in our plans to visit the temple. We had it all planned and were out the door with Dane and Annie. We were going to meet Jennie at the Bountiful Temple and all of a sudden Tobi looked at her recommend and discovered that the one she thought was her current one, was actually an old one. Jennie went to the temple without us. I still feel bad about that.

Julia is busy with work, her singing, and dealing with all the attention she's getting from the guys these days. There are so many guys in her life now that she has to spend her time categorizing them: Good Potential; Possibilities; May Surprise Me; Have a Nice Life; etc. It puts in mind an egg farm where all the eggs roll down the tube and roll into the proper gate. She's just hoping to find the right kind of egg. Probably a lame analogy, but there you have it.

Justin and Maria are in the middle of relocating. Trying to sell their house and moving into a rental. They have sold a number of items in an effort to reduce and simplify their household. Justin arranged his schedule so as to spend more time with us, which was great.

We are back in Kuala Lumpur now. I just got back from the hospital. (This is the government run hospital where the patients are in wards of about 50 people, all in the same room, with no cooling system, just windows open to the outside. Kind of like our hospitals will be if the government runs them.) I was asked to give a blessing to the sister of one of our members. This family is from India and it seemed like everyone in the hospital ward was Indian as well. So I gave her a little lesson about blessings and faith and how Jesus blessed people, etc. and then gave her the blessing and told her that she was going to be healed and when she was, she was to learn more about Jesus and his church from the missionaries. When we finished with her and were saying goodbye, an old, old woman in the next bed, black as an Indian can get, asked us if we would bless her as well. We did so and she thanked us so humbly, with her hands together, that we were really touched. (I was there with brother Peter Ee of the branch). She will be healed too.

As I write this I am listening to one of KL's fabulous thunder storms outside. Incredible cracks and rolls of thunder that seem to be right outside our windows. Reminds me a lot of my KC days.

I hope I can get my pictures uploaded to this blog. I'm going to try.

Love you, Scott and Tobi

We're Heading Home!

In about 4 hours we'll be heading to the airport on our trip home. I can't believe it's been six months. In some ways it seems to have gone by so fast. But whenever we think about all the things we've missed with the kids and grandkids, then it seems we've been here a long time.

We arrive at about 4pm on Thursday afternoon after about a 30 hour trip, counting layovers in Seoul and Chicago. The flight from Seoul to Chicago is one of those interesting ones where we arrive before we leave. (We leave Seoul at noon on Thursday and arrive in Chicago at 10:15 am the same day.) Thanks to the International Dateline, for Tobi and me, Thursday will last for 38 hours. (For several years I've been wanting time to slow down. Maybe I'll get some extra things done on Thursday. I doubt it.

We had a great visit with Glenn Hinton (Tobi's sister, Vicki's husband) this past weekend. He had to come to Malaysia on business and spent several days in Penang before flying here on Friday evening. We had a late dinner at one of our favorite Thai restaurants, the Rain Noodle House. The next morning Glenn and I went upstairs to our friends house, Scott and Karen McKinley, who have been here a couple of months now and live in our same condo tower. Scott and I are both big BYU fans and we have discovered a perfect synergistic partnership. We both have Slingbox, mainly to watch BYU Sports, but I have been extremely disappointed in my internet connection speed here. It makes it nearly impossible to watch a game or anything else. Scott M. has a great connection, but, being from the east coast, he doesn't have The Mountain network, which shows most of the BYU games. Guess who does. So, I take my laptop up to his condo and we use his connection to watch the BYU games. One of these days I will actually see if I can get a connection like he has.

Anyway, so on Saturday morning at 9am, Glenn and I went upstairs to watch BYU beat Utah State. (The game was at 7pm Friday back home.) Tobi thought this was kind of lame of me to take our guest to watch a ball game, but Glenn didn't seem to mind.

After the game we took a walk over to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur City Center) Park and were going to go up to the observation deck in the Petronas Towers (the bridge between the two towers), but alas, they has already sold their allotment of tickets for the day. We did the next best thing and took a taxi to the KL Tower (this is a spire much like the Seattle Space Needle) and went up to the top of it. It's actually a higher view than at Petronas because it's on top of a hill. The view was quite impressive. We found our condo and the Embassy. Off to the west about 10 miles or so we saw this large mountain that seemed to have sheer cliffs several hundred feet high on all sides. Someone said, "That's where the Batu Caves are. This was something that Tobi and I hadn't done yet, so we had our cabbie take us to Batu. The Batu Cave is a Hindu Shrine. There is a large gold-leaf Statue over 100 feet high in front and then you have to negotiate 272 steps (they are numbered) to climb to the opening of the cave itself. The best part of this adventure was the ice cream vendor at the top of the stairs. Then, if you go down some more stairs into the enormous cave and up some more stairs, you come to a large cavern that is open to the sky at the top. It's quite a sight with ferns and vines of all kinds draping the sides of the opening which is a couple hundred feet above you. There are birds flying around and there are monkeys living inside this cavern. Unfortunately, they live off of the scraps of food that the tourists give them.

On the way back we took Glenn to another favorite restaurant, the Lemon Garden, which is a buffet of all kinds of Asian foods. Nobody left there hungry.

Tobi and I had to abandon Glenn for a couple of hours to go help with a District Music Training session. I'm sure they didn't realize that neither of us has much music training ourselves, but Tobi especially did a nice job of instruction.

On Sunday morning, after a home-cooked breakfast of eggs, bacon and toast, we summoned a taxi for Glenn and he was on his way back home. We had a great time and he promises to bring Vicki with him the next time.

I hope to see many of you while we are home, and those we don't see will just have to come and see us. You're all invited any time.