Testify

Mission tour was great! We had Elder Kent D. Watson, a member of the Seventy and first counselor in the Asia Area Presidency over here. We had a wonderful time with him as he was extremely personable and loving. We started off with having an office meeting with him, where he counseled us to listen to all that our Mission President says, and to also do our best to support him in every way we can because he has been called of God and has the keys to lead the mission. His second piece of advice was for us to be professional in what we do. He likened working in the office to being in a fishbowl, and how we do have to be examples to the other missionaries. We had dinner and a good fireside, where he answered some questions that some YSA had asked. The next day, we had a good training session with him, where he gave us some great pointers on how to truly be missionaries. He focused on The Book of Mormon and how it is a powerful converting tool, because it is the word of God! President Clark gave a training on hope, which was also a great motivator. I also had the opportunity to have an interview with him, which was a privilege! Oh, he also knows the family of one of my good friends, so we got to chat about them!


The Bangladeshi men returned home, which was sad, but it's great because they can now build up the Church in Bangladesh! We had a new group come in yesterday, and we'll have a few more tomorrow! There is joy in teaching the prepared children of Heavenly Father!

Nana is a girl that we had been teaching, but ended up having the Zone Leaders teach. But we still participated in fellow shipping her and working with her member friend to help her progress. Her baptism was a very spiritual experience, and it was moving to be able to see how she has come to find so much joy in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and the love that she feels from her Heavenly Father, which really is reflected in her countenance. Her testimony was beautiful, as she talked about the faith and security that she has found in learning about the gospel. I had the opportunity to give a talk about the gift of the Holy Ghost. I had some notes, but I mostly just spoke what I was thinking and feeling. It was reassuring to be guided by the Spirit, because whatever I said just made sense, and I myself received a firm witness that Heavenly Father loves me. I love to testify.

However, with these testimony strengthening experiences also come trials and opposition that we have to face as missionaries. While we were riding home on the MRT a few nights ago, Elder Klemm started talking to a man while I was contacting a couple of really great people. As I was talking, I overhead the man saying "F.A.K.E., FAKE!" As I turned my attention to the conversation and the man started to speak louder, I realized that he was being yelled at by an anti. As the man continued progressing, he got progressively abusive with his words, and started telling everyone about him that we were a cult, that we were not Christians, and on and on. It took all I had to not say much, even though my blood was boiling. I had Elder Klemm get off with me at the next stop, even though it wasn't ours. It was disheartening for a moment, but then I suddenly had this great desire to talk to everyone, to be able to share our point of view, so I just started talking to everyone! It was a great feeling, once again, to testify.

Wilson is one of our new investigators who is hilarious! He talks our ear off, but has a good heart and is open to what we share, though he has a slightly different view on certain things.

Jeremy is progressing bit by bit, and it is great to be able to see the little changes in him each time we meet, and he really does think and ponder the things that we teach him. We challenged him to set a baptism date, to which he said no, then he thought about it and said that he would let us know on Sunday. We had Elder Pulver with us, and taught a powerfully scriptural lesson.

It was a good week.

-Elder Chua