Well, Sharon has already written about the trip to Bangkok (also check out her ‘Bangok Day 2‘ blog post), so I figure why reinvent the wheel when I could do something different to compliment it (like inventing a steering wheel). Anyways, here is a map that I made of our trip, complete with text and pictures! (I’d suggest clicking on the ‘View Larger Map’ to see it better)

View Larger Map

And Here are some captionated Photos!

Well, it has been a long time since I have written (3 weeks) and so I am way overdue. I have done so many things that it seems like there is just too much to write about, and I don’t really know where to start. Sharon is hounding me to write, and I know that I have promised a lot of people that I would, so here goes:
First, let me start with a brief summary of the past 3 weeks:
The Arrival
After the flight from LA to Taipei, I ended up in Kuala Lumpur, the capitol city of Malaysia. It was a sight for sore eyes, since it had been a couple of years since I had been there, and it really felt so good to be back. I love KL! The airport is really nice, but I didn’t get a lot of time to enjoy it because I had a flight to catch, so i quickly went to my connecting flight to Miri, Malaysia.
During the flight from West Malaysia to East Malaysia, I couldn’t help smiling to myself the entire way. The people around me probably thought I was either crazy or had attained the Buddhist goal of Nirvana, but in truth I was just thinking of how happy I was to be able to see my sweetheart Sharon again. I envisioned it in my mind at least a dozen times. I was so excited! When the plane landed, it was even better than I had imagined! Sharon was waiting for me at the terminal, and boy did she look gorgeous. She came up and hugged me big and I was the happiest man in Malaysia. She took me outside to her mom’s car, and I got to meet (for the first time) her wonderful mom. Judy Hii Ai Huong is one of the nicest women I have ever met, which is a big relief considering that I had been really scared of meeting her. She drove me to her house and showed me my new (and Ivy’s old) room. I settled in and fell asleep (the first I’d gotten for a long time).
The next couple of days were spent preparing things for the reception and running errands. One memorable and notable thing we did was have a photo-shoot. It was a lot of fun, but somewhat grueling (it lasted all day). Sharon had I think 7 dresses, so we took a lot of photos. I think that she has posted many of the pics, and she even has lots of them in a slide-show on her blog, here is the link: Slideshow
Anyways, the next big thing we did was drive down to Sibu for a reception with her family there.

Sibu Reception
Sharon has many relatives in Sibu, because that is where both her Mom and Dad are from, and it is where she grew up as a kid. Later she moved to Kota Kinabalu, then to Miri, but that is another story. There were so many relatives of hers there that I met. Her Dad’s Mom is there and she is a kind old lady, still healthy and strong despite her old age. She came from China a long time ago to Malaysia, so that is Sharon’s heritage. All of her Aunts and Uncles and Cousins were there, and so it was quite confusing at times since everyone spoke Chinese (and not even Mandarin, but FuChao, so I didn’t have much chance at comprehension). Speaking of Chinese, I am getting better slowly at Mandarin, and I can understand the gist of most sentences, so that is good. Anyways, in Sibu I was able to meet Sharon’s Dad for the first time. Jackson Ting is bluff-faced and seems kind of stern when you first meet him, but he is a really kind and nice guy, and the important thing is that I can tell he loves Sharon so much. She is his oldest daughter, and he wants to make sure she is taken care of. I love Sharon very much as well, and when he could see this, he liked me as well. I must admit that I was very scared to meet him the first time. Haha. Anyways, her family is all very nice and very Chinese, so it was a lot of fun. We had the reception at a Hotel there in Sibu, and it was very nice with lots of people. They had an MC who was very outspoken, and basically I made a fool of myself many times trying to get their customs right. Of note among the customs were the Yam Seng, where everyone stands toasts the bride and groom. I had a hard time of opening the ‘Champagne’ (sparkling cider, I’m Mormon, remember?) bottle, since it was my first time opening one. The idea is to shake it up and then pop the cork and spray it, then fill up a pyramid of glasses with it. I didn’t know there were three toasts, so after the first yam seng I totally drained the cup, and had to borrow some from Sharon for the other two, haha. Another custom is the giving of ‘ang pao’ or gift money to the bride and groom. We went around collecting little red envelopes with money inside, so that was a lot of fun. After we got home, Sharon immediately began counting the ang pao (she is very chinese, haha). Anyways, it was so much fun and I really wish my friends and family could have been there as well to enjoy it, but I guess all of you who weren’t able to come to this one still have a chance to redeem yourselves and come to my ‘real’ reception after we are married in the temple in Utah. Haha.

Whew, this is really starting to be a long post, and I still have so much more to write about. Okay, I am going to have to do this in installments. Be sure to check back for my future posts about our adventures in Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok, Thailand, and our reception in Miri!

In the mean time, here are some pics from the Sibu Reception:

After a long and grueling 24 hour trip to Malaysia, I was reunited with the love of my life, Sharon. On the last leg of the trip from KL to Miri, I was smiling the whole way. People must have thought I was crazy, haha. But I couldn’t stop thinking about seeing Sharon again. I imagined the scene over and over again in my head. But when it finally came down to it, and I passed through immigration and collected my baggage, and saw her there waiting for me, it was the happiest I had been in months. Then I hugged her and twirled her around and gave her a quick little kiss. She was so embarrassed haha. But I couldn’t help it. She was even more beautiful than when I had last seen her 3 months ago, and that is VERY beautiful. I am sooo happy now to be with her again. We have a lot of things planned and it will be very stressful, but for now I am going to just enjoy being with her again.

Well, I am sitting in the LAX Airport now, waiting for my flight. I have about 5 hours of layover here, so i figure this is as good a time as any to blog. Actually, Sharon, my darling, told me to not be lazy and use my time to post. Haha. So here I am, the same place I was at 3 years ago going to Malaysia for my mission. Seriously, I am sitting in the exact same place I sat 3 years ago, at the McDonalds. Elder Mortensen and Sister Pike will remember. It brings back a lot of memories. I am traveling to Malaysia to see Sharon, FINALLY, and I am so excited! I really can’t wait to see her. I’ve been waiting for 3 months now. Much too long. I have about 18 hours of traveling ahead of me, so I am going to try and get some sleep on the plane. This plane to Taipei will be the longest one. Luckily, I don’t have to change planes in Taipei, just stay on the plane. Then after Taipei I am going to Kuala Lumpur, where I will catch a plane to Miri. I just came in from St George where my Mom and Kendall dropped me off earlier. My mom grew teary eyed. I love them both, and I will miss them. Earlier I gave my mom and Kendall blessings so that they will stay safe and prosper while I am gone. Kendall starts school on Tuesday, and he gets his license on Monday, so there are some big things coming up. I am really way excited to see Sharon. i can’t wait! I will also get to meet her family and we are having a wedding reception type of thing for her family on the 16th. It is going to be really big, so I am kinda nervous, but I am also excited for it. Then Sharon and I are going to Thailand for a few days, so that will be lots of fun. Anyways, that’s a small update for now, but I will keep the blog updated with the latest. Bye Bye!

Today is Kendall’s birthday, but we celebrated it yesterday. I went outside to play Tennis with Kendall for a little while, then invited him in to play Age of Empires 2 with me. We started when I started complaining that I was starving, and that we should go get Wendy’s or something. He was also hungry, so he offered to pay for me if I drove him there. I went to ask mom if we could borrow the car, and she agreed as long as we had it back by 8.
So off we went. We paused our game first. Then when we got there, I told him I would treat him but we had to go inside to sit down and eat. So we went in, ordered some Junior Bacon Cheeseburgers (my last Wendy’s I’ll have in a while) and some Frosty’s, then ate. When we were on our way back, I called mom to ask her if I should pick up some cereal. She said we had some already, so I told her we were almost home. Then when we got home, Kendall and I walked inside. The lights were all off and there was a cake on the counter. When Kendall was almost to the kitchen, tons of kids jumped out and dumped balloons and confetti on him while yelling ‘Surprise!’ You should have seen the look on Kendall’s face. He was totally shocked! He was like, what about Age of Empires? Haha. We had cake and ice-cream and sang to him and then he played outside with his friends. We also gave him his presents. I was the accomplice to get him out of the house so that his friends could come over. He fell right into the trap. Later, he asked me, “What if I didn’t want to go to Wendy’s, what would you have done?” Yeah right, he always is up for Wendy’s ahaha. We all had a lot of fun. Happy Birthday, Kendall!!

Saturday I drove up to Salt Lake City with my brother, sister and grandma. We went to see my Mom as she competed in the Pageant for Ms UN International. The drive was long but we got there fast. The theatre was on the Utah State University Campus. They had categories for Miss Teen UN International, Miss UN Internation, Ms UN Internation (my mom’s category), Mrs UN International, and Ms Elite UN International (for old ladies). It was long but it was fun to watch. They had lots of people from Singapore and Malaysia. My mom ended up getting 4th runner up to Ms UN International. We decided to drive home that night rather than stay with my Aunt in Salt Lake City (my great aunt is on a mission there at Temple Square, and she stays in the apartments across from the Conference Center with all the Sister Missionaries). We stopped by to see them then we drove on home. My sister drove most of the way home while I talked to her to keep her awake. We got home really late.

Here are some pics:

Usually in church I read the scriptures. And usually when I read the scriptures, I write down my thoughts in my Study Journal. The problem recently is that every time I open the scriptures, everything seems to be talking about Sharon. So here is what I wrote yesterday:
I have been contemplating ways to make a good impression with Sharon’s parents. I really want them to approve of me. I read a couple stories just now in the Book of Mormon which I can now see in a new light. The first is the story of Ammon and king Lamoni. When Ammon first came to that land, he was captured and brought before the king. Ammon needed to gain the favor of the king or he would be killed. The king “inquired of Ammon if it were his desire to dwell in the land among the Lamanites”. Ammon answered “Yea, I desire to dwell among this people for a time; yea, and perhaps until the day I die.” “And it came to pass that king Lamoni was much pleased with Ammon, and caused that his bands should be loosed; and he would that Ammon should take one of his daughters to wife.”
Wow. This is exactly what I am looking for. I want to gain the favor of Sharon’s dad, and I want him to desire that I should marry his daughter. The only difference is that unlike Ammon, I would definitely say YES! Haha. I need to really be on my best behavior and know how to act and what I need to do. I think that one of the main reasons that king Lamoni liked Ammon is because he saw how much Ammon loved his people and his culture. I also need to show that I really love Sharon and that I really love the Chinese culture. It’s true, I really do love them, I just need to make sure that I show it. Hehe.

SO that’s my master plan. Now I just have to hope that they don’t read this and get smart to me hehe…

Right now I am doing something which I have done every day (usually multiple times a day) for the past couple months. No, I am not playing a computer game (something I haven’t done for about as long). I am chatting on Skype with Sharon! I look forward to it every day. There is about a 14 hour time difference, so morning for me is evening for her, day for me is night for her. So we can only chat in the early morning and late at night. I miss her soo much~
I really can’t wait until I can just talk to her face to face. I am usually not a really super talkative person (except, evidently, in Sunday School where I can’t seem to shut up), but I can talk to Sharon for hours and not get tired. Haha. Well, I better stop ignoring her and get back to chatting, hehe. Bye bye~

Hello again to everyone who reads my blog (I know there’s gotta be someone who reads it). I have been keeping pretty busy recently with my new job as a FreeLancer. I have also been working on a personal project on the side, BuyItNearby.com. This has been really fun to work on and it has also been a great learning experience for me. I have really started working on making it look nice now that I have started to advertise it a little. It is a pretty cool program which lets you search for eBay auctions and then plot them on a map so you can see where they are. You can use this tool to find local auctions in your area. Anyways, go check it out and let me know what you think! I am always looking for suggestions.

Romans 8:28, Alma 36:3, D&C 90:24
I have always loved D&C 90:24. I used to share it with members on my mission. Today while studying, I found Romans 8:28. I love this verse and the others because of the promise contained in them that “all things shall work together for your good“. I love that promise and how it is worded. It would be wonderful to have all things work together for my good.

What must we do to earn this promise? Paul says simply that we must “love God“, and be “called according to his purpose.” God has said in John “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” He also has said, “If ye have desires to serve God, ye are called to the work…” (D&C 4)

God again mentions this promise in D&C 90:24. This time he says that we need to “Search diligently, pray always, and be believing” and also “walk uprightly, and remember the covenant wherewith ye have covenanted one with another.” The promise is again that “all things shall work together for your good”. I like to think of searching diligently as studying the scriptures, and when he speaks about the covenant, I think of the baptismal covenant which all members have made.

Both of these verses are basically saying that we must be righteous and follow the commandments, and all things will work together for our good. This is truly a great promise, and a great incentive. Does it mean we won’t have trials? Absolutely not. Look at all the righteous people in the Book of Mormon and the Bible and the early Saints. They had many trials. But these trials worked for their good in the end. So you can see the promise is fulfilled. It is the same with us. Even our trials will be for our good if we are righteous.

Alma also adds another requirement. We need to trust in God. This is one of the most important ones, because often when we are faced with trials, the first one we remember is God, but many times we don’t trust him like we should. Remember the examples of the Saints and Prophets of God. They always trusted in God throughout their trials, and they were blessed because of it.