"Changes"

Woot!

I'm done with my In-field training and I am now a fully trained missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints! :)

As for the week, we had a great week in terms of people who we were able to teach this week, and our lessons with our investigators have gone pretty well. With the Oon family, we were ably to teach Brandon and Christopher, the two younger brothers of Alex. For some reason, Alex seems to have lost interest, but Brandon is doing great! He has been getting his Mom to bring him to Church every Sunday for the last few weeks, so we are definitely very happy with his progress. We will just have to continue working with him and hope that his parents consent to him being baptized when the time comes. We got caught in the rain on the way down and got pretty wet, though we were able to stay sufficiently dry, because a woman who was walking happened to have two umbrellas. We were able to talk to her and she said that she had already met with the Sisters before. Hopefully, this particular meeting will re-spark the flame in her.

Elder Nixon, one of our Zone Leaders, headed back home yesterday! It was definitely sad to see him go, but we now have Elder Tuckfield, and he is also a great person. Went on an exchange with him on Monday, and that went really well, especially since we have a lot of the same interests. In addition, he is also good friends with one of my best friend's family.

We were able to go over to our Elders Quorum President's home for dinner on Thursday, where we able to discuss less-actives. In addition, I was able to talk to his inactive son, who I knew very well and who used to be very active in the Church. Unfortunately, he has fallen by the wayside, so we'll just have to try and get him back on the path again. He is still a great kid, and says that he remembers the good feelings that he had at Church. Unfortunately, he doesn't really know what to do about it anymore.

Taught, Alex, my grade-school friend once again. We don't really know what to do anymore since he won't commit for Church, and since he's already been taught so many lessons. I guess that we'll just have to try and work with him on that, though he is in Thailand for the next week or so.
Aravin, the member's boyfriend, gave a us a surprise when we met up with him late last week. We had been pondering whether or not to ask him how he felt about the Church and whether or not he wanted to be baptized. Before the lesson, he told us that he needed to tell us something, and we weren't sure what to expect. He said then that he wanted to be baptized! Oh! That was wonderful! He just has to work on his family, but he is a legal adult so he doesn't need their consent. He has to figure out how to explain to them his decision, because there are certain rituals that he wants to do one last time, like fire walking! We know that he will receive an answer as he prays about it, and we hope that that answer will be good.

Changes! Elder Pace S. is being transferred to P.J., Malaysia, tomorrow. It definitely is bittersweet because he is/was my first companion, and we did alright together, though these past couple of weeks, and especially these past couple of days have been pretty stressful. He wasn't working too hard, and the leaders started noticing, so we talked to him about it, and since then, has been a very angry person, and it has been very tense between us, such that I got sick, and have had high blood pressure because of that. But, I still think he is a good guy, it will be nice to have a change though. My new companion, Elder Pace T. comes in tomorrow. The members are going to have a ball of a time when they see that they have the same last name. Change is definitely good. And I guess we just all have to accept that wherever we are, they is a reason for it, and we have to look at the bigger pictures. Changes can really be for better or for worse, but I guess we just take them as they come. Perhaps what I have learned the most in these past three or so months, is as Victor Frankl said, "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."

We will be having Stake Conference on Sunday, so that definitely should be great. District meeting was wonderful as per normal. Elder Colvin taught a lesson on what our purpose as missionaries really is, and that was a good refresher, to remind us what our purpose and duty as missionaries.

I guess that we'll have to see what this week brings!

"Planting the Seed"

Apa Khabar! (Malay for "How are you?")

I've been introduced by the missionaries to a store that sells five ties for ten dollars! It's a great deal so I'll probably have a decent tie collection when I get back from my mission!

I was reading a quote by President Hinckley, which I thought was wonderful. It was his counsel to missionaries where he talked about how the missionaries and members of the Church are responsible for sharing the gospel to "a world that doesn't want it," but we should be the source of the gospel to them. Even if they don't want to listen then, we have planted the seed of the gospel there. In another quote, he talked about how we should all be "a little better, a little stronger, a little more thoughtful, a little humbler, a little more prayerful, and to stand a little taller." As we do that, we can seek the Lord's guidance and be more worthy to him. I certainly hope that I'm doing all that I can to achieve that. As I continue in his service, the adversary works harder and harder to plant doubts in my mind and tempt me, but that makes me all the more want to fight harder to be worthy of the Lord. It's hard at times, especially since home is so close, but I know that with the Lord as my strength, that I can overcome all.

Anyhow, going on, this week was pretty productive. We taught eleven more lessons than we did last week. I've gotten a decent amount of my training done so far with Elder Pace. We've been going through the white handbook during companionship study. We've been exploring some new areas that Elder Pace hasn't been to yet so it's been fun showing him around. It seems to me that the people here really are pretty friendly. I guess you can kind of tell who not to approach.

We had a few interesting encounters this week. The first was a referral that we got from the Chinese Elders, Elders Hunsaker and Roberts. They gave us the number of a lady who owns a Christian bookstore, and she said we could meet up with her, so we did. Unfortunately, when we got there, all she wanted to do was sell us Christian materials. It got pretty awkward so we left. A couple of days later, we were taking the MRT (train), back home. We bumped into a bunch of Christians from another church that was started by some local pastors here. Elder Pace had told me about how he and Elder Plant (his last companion), had met with them one time and went to one of their meetings and it got really weird because they had some rituals. While teaching them, I got a really uncomfortable feeling, like the Spirit wasn't there, and I got pretty scared. Thankfully, we were near our stop and we got out soon enough. It was a weird experience, and I prayed and asked for a blessing from the Elders which calmed me down. The people were really nice, and they're great people, but that was a really weird encounter. For the last crazy encounter of the week, we were waiting for investigators on Sunday when a guy approached us and said he was supposed to meet with us. We finally figured out that he was a tour guide who said that he had been interested in using the Church as a stop for his tour of Singapore. Anyhow, we took him to Sacrament, where he acted questionally a couple of times, but we ignored him. As Sunday School started, he asked if we wanted to talk about the tour inside or outside the classroom, so we took him outside. It turned into a pretty heated encounter because he insisted on only taking to Elder Pace and Elder Shute (senior couple missionary) because they were westerners and this was a western church. He rudely ignored Bishop Lim and refused to talk to the Stake President because he is Singaporean. Eventually, he said he would call, but it was a very disturbing conversation and I had to keep my temper in check. I guess that I'm building my patience out in the field.

Oh, great news! One of the investigators that I contacted and taught has accepted a baptism date for July 5th! Unfortunately, he lives in another ward's boundary so we had to transfer him to the Elders in that ward. But, the Elders said that they'll still try and see if I can be the one to baptize him. If I can that will be awesome! But even if I can't, I know that I've done my part to bring one of Heavenly Father's children back to Him, and that's really all that matters! The ward members have been really nice to us. We had dinner appointments the whole of last week. They were all wonderful and we loved it! The only thing a little off was that we were served spaghetti four nights in a row. I think one night might have been angel hair pasta. But I really should be complaining. It's just kinda funny how that happened, the food was still great. We were taken to a hotel buffet for lunch by some members too, so we've definitely eaten more than we need to. Elder Pace's stomach isn't doing too well right now because of that. That's what we think anyways. We're trying to work on eating less and eating healthier now, it's working a little I guess. The good thing is that we take public transportation and walk around, but I do need to watch my heart because it can spike pretty easily and then I don't feel too well. Other than that, it's been great, and I love doing the work of the Lord! I love being with the missionaries. It's a wonderful bond that we have. We do have to take our work seriously but we have our fun too. Elder Nixon, who lives with Elder Pace and me, along with Elder Selveratnam, had his birthday on Saturday so we've been celebrating it these past few days!

I've also seen just how important and useful members are in missionary work. We love to receive referrals from members because it helps us to get into the homes of these investigators. So, if you have any referrals, even if you don't think your friends want to hear about the gospel, try anyway! You're helping the Kingdom of the Lord to grow!

Time to write some letters and go take a nap! I've received a few letters but I wouldn't mind getting a bunch more so do write! Thanks!