The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Kuala Lumpur District Primary Activity Day ~ Faith in God 31 March 2018

Sister YoungHee went back to Korea last year, new District Primary Presidency had been called. Sister Claire is our new Kuala Lumpur District Primary President and Sister Leeza with Sister Vivian are the counsellors.

This year, District Primary Presidency organised the Primary Activity Day this year as well, and based on the Faith in God program too. The event was organised at PJ Chapel Sacrament Hall, from 10.00am to 12.30pm.

Our family woke up early and completed our household chores, and Annabelle brought her violin for the Talent Show for their individual performance and exhibition. Issac have advanced to Young Man last year, thus only Annabelle will participate this year Primary Activity Day.

We reached PJ Chapel earlier around 9.20am, we had our breakfast at the nearest coffee shop, just next to the UOB Bank. Initially we have invited total about 10 children, eventually only 6 children turned up. It’s still fine, we just proceed to our program!

Program started with the welcome remarks by Sister Claire and she introduced all the attendees, the children together with their parents.

The opening song is Scripture Power, and the opening prayer was offered by Sister Adeline.

We have some ice breaking games after that, which Sis Leeza assigned me for one ice breaking game. Due to the attendance of the children, thus we invited their parents to join in as well.

We had 2 ice breaking games, Line Up game and the Name game. It took us about only 20 minutes for the games.

After which, there were short talks about Practice Good Nutrition and Good Health by Madeline Schow from KL Branch and Practice Grooming including Modest Dress by Adeline Hill from KL Branch.

Activity No. 1 : Serving Others #4 – Plan, prepare, and serve a nutritious meal. At this activity, the children would able to learn how to make sushi rolls or kimbap by Sister Ee from Cheras Branch.

All the ingredients that needed to do the kimbap: casserole rice or sushi rice, seaweed sheets, sushi vinegar, canned tuna mixed with mayo, canned tuna mixed with chili, crab sticks, egg or tamago sheets, Japanese original mayo.

We need a sushi mat for making the sushi roll. Cover with the cling film on top of the sushi mat.

Press rice in a thin, even layer on the sheet of seaweed, leaving 5cm gap on the edge furthest away.

Place the fillings in a row at the base. tuck and roll pressing lightly. Roll back and forth a few times. Remove the sushi mat and plastic.

Cut into slices with a sharp knife. Wet the blade with some water to stop the rice sticking as cutting.

All the parents and children were enjoying making the sushi roll/kimbap, all of us having fun learning how to make and eating as well!

We have a break after the sushi rolls making session, Sister Jennifer taught the children some exercise – the Banana exercise song!

The actions are so cute and fun too! All of the children and parents were enjoying the exercise.

Activity No. 2 - Talent Show presented by the children ^^. There were quite a few children participate, and their performance were great!

Annabelle with her Violin performance.

Madeline Schow with her Piano piece.

Adeline Hill with her Piano piece.

Jozef Kiefer Salingujay showcase his art piece.

Michael Vancott with his origami art pieces.

Schumacher singing together with the Kuala Lumpur District Primary Presidency

It was around 12.00 noon that the activity came to an end. President Royce Tai was given a closing remarks. He expressed his appreciation for the great job which the District Primary Presidency had done for the children of the district.

He too, shared about his own experience of how listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost saves him and his family from danger.

We were singing ‘I am a Child of God’ as our closing song of the activity, and closing prayer was offered by Annabelle.

Sister Claire prepared some gifts for all the boys and girls whom attended the Primary Activity Day. A small notebook.

After which we were having a lunch, the kids really enjoyed themselves. The event ended around 12.30pm. Alvin and Issac have to leave before 12.00 noon as Issac have the art class at Citta Mall to catch. Anyhow, our family had a great day in the Church ^^

Happy Chinese New Year!

Our family did not go back Kuching for Chinese New Year celebration this year. We are celebrating Chinese New Year here at our home.

 

Today is the first day of Chinese New Year. We woke up early and take our bath. After the tradition of wishing well to each others and Ang Pow giving by Alvin to the children, we went out for our breakfast and activity.

 

It is a bit quite celebrating Chinese New Year here in the city, all of the Chinese hawkers or eatery places are closed for at least a week for this holiday seasons, except all those huge Chinese Restaurants. Thus, there are not much choices except we go for Malay or Indian food, or the fast food in the shopping malls.

 

We were planning to go visit the renowned Chinese New Year lantern festival at Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Dong Zen Temple in Jenjarom later in the evening. Thus, we decided to be around Klang area so that about the time, we would able to travel to Jenjarom without any traffic jam.

We headed to the Aeon Mall Bukit Raja Klang. We were among the first batch of visitors there. Alvin bought the movie tickets of “The Black Panther” and we had our brunch at the Subway, before we went for the movie.

 

The children were so excited with all those rides machines for the toddlers in the shopping mall. Owh… I feel so funny looking at them, but how time flies they have grown up so much.

We window shopped for a while, then Alvin drove us towards to Jenjarom. It tool us almost 1 and half hour to reach to Dong Zen Temple. It was just nice that we parked our car at the road side, and by that time the area was getting crowded with cars and visitors.

We rested for a while in the car till 6.00pm. We visited the Dong Zen Temple Art Gallery with artefacts exhibition and a calligraphy hall, tea house, and strolling the Zen Garden.

There was a huge temporary tent set up to allow for the thousands of visitors for the delicious food stalls which were setting up for the fund raising event at the same time. We would have to satisfied with our food and just standing at the road side for our dinner.

After the quick bites, the timing is just right and the whole compound areas had been lighted up. It was beautiful. And again, very crowded and packed with people!

Dog takes center stage this year in conjunction with the Year of Dog. Dog is a loyal friend of man. Hence a giant lantern in the shape of dog at a height of 30 feet rotating at 360 degrees is the highlight of the festival.

A swan musical fountain at the entrance of the temple is another highlight not to be missed. Four giant lanterns signify Four Great Bodhisattva resembling compassion, wisdom, great vows and actions are at the fountain.

While Sichuan is famous for the "face changing" show, the facial masks are presented in another set of lanterns here.

 

Children's attention will invariably be caught by Disney World lanterns. Lanterns in the shapes of Dalmatian dogs, Winnie the Pooh are here to celebrate Chinese New Year too!

Our families spent around 2 hours and we left the temple around 8.00pm. There were still a lot of cars drove into the temple area and people keep coming in!

 

Well, I guess this would be the most people going for night to see the lantern festival in this prosperous and joyful seasons of Chinese New Year.

2017 Year End Day Out

We went to Sunway Pyramid Shopping Mall today. There were so many shoppers on this really end of the year, everywhere were crowded with people.

       

Initially, our plan was to watch a movie, but the cinema bookings were almost full, then we decided to go for a meal.

       

We walked in to a Wong Kok restaurant and ordered our meals. We had enjoyed the day together as a family and it is really a day that we spent well together!

Good Bye, Saigon! 17 Nov 2017

We had a really good rest and sleep last night as today we are leaving Saigon. We woke up around 8.00am, and opted to have our breakfast out from the hotel. We walked into alley again, as Alvin and I were thinking of wanting to have a delicious Bún Thịt Nướng before we fly back to Malaysia.

The food stall which we tried the other day was not open, and we ended up with another food stall and seems selling quite the same thing. We ordered Bún Chả Giò.The difference between Bún Thịt Nướng, and Bún Chả Giò, is that the latter version includes a deep fried spring roll on top but the earlier includes grilled pork.

Chả Giò is minced pork, herbs, and spices rolled up in rice paper then deep fried. Recently, cooks have been trading in their rice paper for a wheat based wrapper similar to egg rolls. They are easier to fry and stay crispy longer. The traditional Vietnamese way uses rice paper, which gets soggy after a while, but has a consistency that is much different than the egg roll type wrappers.

In this dish, the Chả Giò is cut up and placed over vermicelli rice noodles, herbs, pickled daikon and carrot, and some greens. It is similar to Bún Thịt Nướng. Not only does the Chả Giò add an extra flavour to the already delicious dish, but it also gives some crunchy texture to the soft noodles and other ingredients.

They both come with nuoc cham, a sweetened fish sauce that can be used as a dip or spooned into the bowl. This sauce shouldn't be forgotten. Its sweet and sourness balances out the flavours. Our bowl includes also with Chả Lụa and pieces of Banh Mi in it.

Chả Lụa is the most popular kind of chả. Lụa means silk in Vietnamese. It is made with very lean cuts of pork, potato or tapioca starch, and usually contains some garlic and fish sauce. The meat is tightly sealed in a banana leaf and steamed.

All of us had a really hearty breakfast and yummy too!

We checked out the hotel around 11.30am and headed to the Tan Son Nhat International Airport. We arrived around 12.45pm. We just hanging around in the airport and waited for our flight to depart.

It was quite an interesting and yummy experiences we had in Saigon! Good Bye, Saigon! And, hope to come back to visit again soon!