Teaching The Principle

Yet another epic week, we’ve been doing good. We’ve been leading the zone these couple of weeks, as office elders! It’s been fun to get so much work done, but of course, it really is because the Lord has blessed us so much, he’s been very kind in allowing us to meet some of His chosen children.

Met up with Ember, an investigator that Elder Taiamoni passed to us. He’s a really nice man from Myanmar who seems to want to seek the truth and goodness in life. Humility really is the key to accepting the gospel. We were able to set a baptism date with him, so that was definitely a plus. The problem for him and many of our investigators, though, is that they are constantly tied up with work. I had no idea that people could be so caught up in all that mess that seems to steal away the true meaning and purpose of our lives.

We went over to a member’s home for dinner on Thursday, and had a great time. They had one of their nieces over there, who isn’t a member, and we were able to teach her a lesson on the restoration of the gospel. When we got there, it turned out that the member’s husband had to rush off because another member had passed away and he was the only member of the Bishopric available. So, we were stuck with having no man in the home. The rules state that we cannot be in a home/room alone with women, no matter how many of them there are. We were trying to think of what we could do to alter that, and decided to call President Skelton to see if we could leave the front door open and still stay. When we called him though, he taught me a very important lesson in a sentence. In reference to the investigator, he said, “You can’t teach her the lesson, you have to teach her the principle.” What he meant by that was that we can’t try making exceptions to a rule. When we understand what it is, we shouldn’t try and compromise. We can’t expect people to keep their commitments and covenants if we don’t abide by our rules either. It was a good reminder and a great lesson.

So, it was up to us to try and find another male to come to help us. We tried calling a number of members and were rather unsuccessful, so we called President back and asked him what we should do. He just told us that we had to leave if we couldn’t find anyone. We got desperate and asked if it could be my Dad if we couldn’t find anyone. His reply was that he didn’t care who it was. Anyhow, President had said that he would do anything to get that man (my Dad) baptized. We managed to get a male member to come along just as we got my parents to come along to, so they got there within a couple minutes of one another. We had the dinner, then proceeded on with the lesson, where my Dad was also able to sit in. I was really glad to be able to teach both the investigator and my Dad! He even asked a question about what language The Book of Mormon was written in originally! Ah, I love the gospel and my Dad so much, they need to be friends! :)

We had another referral received in Friday. We were able to teach their little 9 year old relative, Bjornn, who’s a very funny and nice kid. We were able to see him last night too, and acted out the story of Ammon and King Lamoni for him (if you really want to know, I played King Lamoni).

On Friday night, we received a random call from a man named Steven who I had contacted a few months back. He said that he wanted to meet up, so we set it up for the next day.

Saturday was absolutely crazy! We were trying to have our studies, but we were also trying to figure out how to help Li Zhen, a recent convert, to store her things while she went home to Chinese and on some school tour for a month. She needed it moved since she was leaving the next day. We finally got Lim Yi to help us move four huge bags and a portable A/C unit. It was crazy and took up a lot of time. We had lunch, then had to rush off for our appointment with Steven. It took us awhile to find his place, and we had to stop to ask for directions. Some lady we stopped for help insulted me, saying “You’re Singaporean, but you don’t know where to go? “ Bah! Anyhow, we eventually found his place. It was a little studio in a flatted factory. Apparently, he’s a Qi Gong Master, and has been to Australia and the States to teach people. The lesson went amazing with him! He said that he really wanted to change, to be Christian. Just a sincere desire! He agreed straight up to start working on his Word of Wisdom problems, and we’ll be seeing him this Sunday.

English class was good.

We had an appointment with the Sisters so that they could pass us an investigator, because they thought she lived in our area. Unfortunately, she didn’t live there, she only worked there. She lives in their area. Ah, it was rather funny.

Still working with Pan. Sikit sikit, lama lama, jari bukit….

So this random guy came into the office yesterday. Started talking about American politics until we told him that we didn’t discuss that, then started going on about how sadistic God was because of the punishments in the Old Testament. He also went on about God’s biasness towards Christians. Just a really weird guy. No matter what we explained, he just asked the same questions and wouldn’t listen. How do people get to that stage?

Met with a man name Solvere, who I contacted a few days ago. He just talked about being unfied in all religions, tried to impose himself on us. Nice guy. But another nutty appointment.

Off to lunch now! Cheerio.

21 years old in 12 days!

At Elder Perrett and Elder Taiamoni's farewell dinner.