"Blessings and Mercies"

First off, we found out who our new Mission President and wife are! We actually found out last week, but it didn't fit too well in the post so I put it in for this week. Anyhow, President and Sister Clark from Lake Oswego, Oregon will be arriving July 1st. President Clark is a dentist, and Sister Clark is a registered nurse. There will be more to come as we find out more. I'm going to miss President and Sister Skelton so much though! We also found out that we have a surprise Senior couple coming in less than two weeks so we're scrambling around in the office to get things ready! The office is going good. We recived our monthly Book of Mormon order, and found that we had accidently ordered some copies in Bislama, one of the languages of Vanuwatu, random. We're also now in charge of tracking all the missionary referrals between missionaries in the Singapore Zone, so that's going to be crazy! Zone Conference is coming up, so it's going to be busy! Oh, that means I'll be writing only on Thursday next week, not Wednesday.

The week went by crazy fast as usual, and we were able to set another baptism date. In last week's email, I talked about three different people who had accepted baptism dates, but I only named two of them. So, right now, we have Angelina, Raja, Velmurugan, Anandan, and Joe. Joe is a student from Shanghai who we met a couple of weeks ago, but could only meet up this last week. But, from the time that we first met up with him on Friday, we've already met up with him three times, and he's well on his way to baptism. He came to Church on Sunday, and has had no problems understanding or accepting the Restoration or The Plan of Salvation. It is wonderful when you get someone who is ready and willing to accept the gospel. It really helps you to see the tender mercies of the Lord, and it makes you want to work even harder to constantly feel that happiness.

We had some good dinners this week, which has been good for our taste buds but horrible for my weight and belly. I'm up to 134lbs right now and that's not too good for me at all, especially when it causes your pants to split in the middle of the mission office, and watch your Mission President roar with laughter. Anyhow, we were able to fellowship some wonderful members in the ward, and I can't wait to see what referrals we can get as we work with the members and seek the Lord's guidance on who can really help.

Velmurugan has been progressing well, having been able to meet up with him three times in the past week too. We just have to work with him to find a way to get him to Church on Sundays. Raja had to go to Indonesia for a couple of weeks to work on some pipelines for his job, so we're praying that he gets back as soon as possible. He's already been to Church twice, and is also progressing well!

As usual, our highlight for the week is Angelina. We went over last night to review the Plan of Salvation with her and had a wonderful lesson as we explained the marvelous plan that the Lord has for us, all the way from the pre-Earth life, to exaltation with God. She's really excited for her baptism! We'll be meeting with her on Friday to review some commandments, then she'll have her baptismal interview on Tuesday, woot!

So, why have we been doing better these past few weeks? (well, I think we're doing better). Remember the expectation that President Skelton gave us about having a baptismal service every two weeks? Well, we haven't been doing that. So, Elder Palfreyman and I sat down, and came up with our own individual visions for our area. It's really been helping, pushing ourselves, and seeing the blessings and mercies the Lord has afforded to us as we place our trust and faith in him. It is wonderful to be able to change, to just be constantly striving to do better. The Lord really does afford to us many mercies, and I'm definitely trying to take them as they come. But, more than that, I'm trying to put forth my best effort so that the blessings from the Lord that I receive are things that I've worked for. The only problem is that whatever you give the Lord, he gives you a lot more in return, so you're always in debt. I like being a debtor to the Lord though, he a good creditor. :)

We have four new missionaries coming today, so it's going to be fun using them and putting them to the test tonight! It's always fun to have new missionaries come, because they are so excited and ready to serve, and they really boost the morale of the mission. On the other hand, when they come, we tend to realize just how long we've been out. I was just talking to Elder Perrett, one of the Assistants, about that this morning, about how the mission zooms by. He mentioned that he wondered if life after the mission would go by that quickly too. Who knows huh? I guess we'll all eventually find out.