"Just Like Chopsticks"

School!

Well, not for the next two years anyway. :) Had a great week! We ended up having the best numbers in the district, and we felt that it was a great accomplishment, being able to teach more people and planting the seed of the gospel in their hearts. We had a great preparation day last week, then ended up spending the rest of the day contacting in Toa Payoh, a town in our area. We never had had too much success in the area before, but we decided to try it out. We're definitely glad we did, because, among the sea of people who weren't interested, we found a girl by the name of Karen who was really friendly and gave us her number so that we could schedule an appointment with her to finish sharing our message of the Restoration.

Elder Pace and I had some disagreements, and he brought up some points that really made me think. Some members have mentioned my immaturity to him, and it really got me thinking, that I really do need to grow up and start being serious, especially while serving as a missionary of the Lord. I hope that I grow and learn and start being the man of God that I can and would like to be. I definitely have been too playful at times, though it can be hard sometimes since I'm surrounded by my friends, the people who I grew up with. I guess that isn't an excuse, I am a missionary and can do better than that. I just wish that sometimes peopleb wouldn't be so judgemental.

The rest of the week went great, as I mentioned earlier. On Thursday, we met up with Jun Ying, and taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the steps that lead to salvation. Once again, he was receptive to it. The only problem that he has is to talk to his parents about it and get them to agree. We are praying and hoping that it will all work out. That night, we were able to teach a member's family, and some of their friends more about how families can improve communication, and one of their friends was particularly interested. We'll definitely have to see if we can get a hold of her again. Oh! We saw a man doing calligraphy, with his feet, and on his head! It was amazing! Bought a piece from him. We were able to teach Brandon Oon, Alex's brother, on Friday. He's only ten, but he asked some great questions, and we believe that he really understood the concept off the Restoration. We showed them the DVD, but he was a little distracted, so we left it with him to watch it, along with his family. Brandon is our star investigator right now! He really has a desire to learn. Oh! Bumped into four of my friends from high school, who were all headed out to have a fun weekend. Elder Pace and I talked about how we really can't differentiate the weekdays from the weekends anymore because it is the same schedule. We really do get confused. More often than not, we gets our days mixed up. Such is the life of a missionary!

Spent Saturday doing a lot of walking. Started off with making our way to a member's home to teach her boyfriend, but we had time, so we decided to look for a couple of inactive members to visit. We stopped by a mall, and I decided to get ice cream from Swensens and fries from MacDonald's. Well, the ice cream machine at MacDonald's. Anyhow, dumbest idea ever. Don't know why I decided to do that, way unhealthy, and I didn't feel too good after that. We headed over to the member's place after that and taught Aravin. They fed us first though. Great food, and I regretted more than ever then, that I had those snacks. The lesson went really well. He said that he reads the pamphlet about the Plan of Salvation at night to help him calm down from work in the evenings, because he feels peaceful and calm as he reads the pamphlet. We ended the night off by looking for two people who said that we could visit them. Turned out the address was fake. Definitely wasn't the best use of our time.

Sunday was as per normal. Had Church. One of our recent converted brought a friend, well, a French man whom he is rooming with. The ward missionary who was teaching, unfortunately, taught like the french man had been a member for 10 years, so Elder Pace and I had to keep explaining to him what the different words and terms meant. We were also able to teach him a short lesson after that. That night, we headed over to a member's home for dinner. Good food. All the members really do cook wonderful food and we really appreciate it, because we get good food, and it helps us to keep on budget. We also found out that Singapore won a silver medal in the Olympics in table tennis, the first Olympic medal in 48 years, so I was definitely happy about that.

Taught Alex, my elementary school friend on Monday. Finished up the video The Testaments, though he still hasn't come to any conclusion about whether or not anythign we are teaching is true. I guess we'll just have to continue doing our best! Went over to the Petersen's home for dinner. They are moving back to the expatriate ward, so this was our last meal over at their place. Brother Petersen brought up a very interesting topic as he talked about Singapore's "caste system," where there are certain people with "iron rice bowls," and a "white horse" to ride on. It was really interesting, and we talked about how, even though the people give up certain rights when they sign the "social" contract withthe government, Singapore is an amazing place. It is clean, corruption-free, low crime, state-of-the-art health care, along with an amazing education system. It's wonderful to be able to serve here in Singapore.

Tueday went well, District Development Meeting was wonderful and very inspirational. Elder Colvin taught us on how to go from "Zero to Success in Faith, Hope and Charity." While we were starting up the discussion, Elder Shute made an amazing point when he said that our goal as missionaries is to baptize and confirm people into the Church, but the real goal is to get them to the temple. , that this work is really about temple work, and we shouldn't be satisfied till our investigators reach that stage, and we see that success in missionary work, in ten to twenty years, both in our lives, and in the lives of our investigators. We went on to talk about those three attributes, faith, hope, and charity. We talked about having the faith that leads us to action, that allows dedicated service and obedience in exactness. There was a great phrase that was brought up, that even if we don't have the confidence, we "fake it till we make it," till we have that confidence and faith as we continue to do whatever is needed of us. We then talked about hope, about how hope "is the anchor of our souls," that hope overcomes doubt and fear. We have to have hope to overcome that doubt and fear that would otherwise poison our minds and faith. We need to have that hope, because that attitude is needed. We can obey, but if we do not have hope, it cannot work! Hope is a "personal thing" that we need to have, to have faith and hope that theLord knows us, that he sees all, that he knows the trials and tribulations that we go through. Sister Shute brought up the point that faith is believing that can help us, hope is believing that God will help us. Lastly, we talked about charity. Charity is to have a love for the people, and seeing each one of them as children of God. Charity is loving the people so much that we will do anything to help that person and his or her family to the Celestial Kingdom, helping them to the end to live with the Lord and their families forever in eternal happiness. Charity will change our lives.

We were able to teach my Aunt after the meeting. Well, Elder Pace taught her about the Plan of Salvation, while I taught a second cousin of mine that I don't think I've ever met, about the Restoration. The lesson went very well, and we hope that we can teach the both of them sometime soon again. Elder Pace and I were discussing the lessons afterwards, and he talked about how my aunt has really been reading the pamphlets and asking insightful questions, so that's definitely wonderful. We had a good number of lessons the rest of the day. We had some time before an appointment, so we went to Orchard Road, where I ended up spending about half an hour or more talking to a man named Yong Cai about his beliefs, and sharing the message of the Restoration, since he is Christian. It went really well because he asked some really good questions, and he found what was being taught to be logical. He told me of a Church that he went to that he felt was not good at all, and how he just read the Bible because that was striaght up, the word of the Lord. I came up with a though, that the Bible and The Book of Mormon work just like chopsticks. You can't use one without the other. They work hand in hand. The day ended off with a good appointment with Gopal Lama, a Neplalese studying here. Unfortunately, he heads back to Nepal the first week of September, so hopefuuly we can find the Church for him over there.

Well, yet another week! I'm done with my training in the field on Sunday! :) Thanks for all those who have been writing. For the people who have left comments annonymously, would you be willing to let me know who you are? Thanks! Take care and have a wonderful week!