Thanksgiving In Singapore

Zone Conference this week made for an exciting change to our normal week and included a plane ride to and from Singapore. Due to visa problems, the mission leaders have decided that it is best for the missionaries to come into Singapore to have zone conference instead of having the leaders fly out every three months to the missionaries in their areas. So, I spent two nights at the mission home in Singapore.

Zone Conference brings with it a lot of consequences, one is the travel that it takes to get there (essentially it takes us half a day of travel to get there from our home). Another consequence is the enjoyment that we get from being able to interact with missionaries who we don't see very often. I got to see Elder Howell (the first time since the MTC) and it was great just to meet and talk with other missionaries from our zone. Zone Conference, of course, also brings a lot of training, and I really enjoyed the presentations and the doctrines that were shared. One of my favorite parts was Elder Tad R Callister's talk on being a consecrated missionary, which was shared by our mission president's wife: Sister Simmons. Another fun fact is that we watched a music video of "Savior, Redeemer of my Soul" that was played by the youth Symphony that Ethan Bullock is in (there was an Elder in the conference who was in the music video and he knew Ethan)!

Other random facts from Singapore: I had cereal for like the first time in two months (and I took advantage of it). I got the Liahona magazine which included the conference talks. I received a package from home with Christmas presents in it! I got more langauge material from the Taiwan Taipei to study. I got to go to China town. I went on a run with some of the Elders and it was awesome (we probably only went 4 miles and I was way sore the next day...probably because I haven't ran since the MTC).

For those of you who asked, we did celebrate Thanksgiving, and probably quite a bit more than other missionaries outside of the US. It just so happened that our Zone Conference was on Thursday, and so we had a fairly traditional styled thanksgiving meal, along with pizza later to top it all off. 

As we enter into this season of gratitude, starting with Thanksgiving and ending with Christmas, I am so grateful for the Savior and for the potential that we have to change our lives through him. Missionary work is about others, and I am finding more and more joy as I forget myself and look to improve so that I can be a better instrument for the Lord. I am experiencing many miracles that confirm to me that the Lord truly is preparing His children to hear the word of God. The Church is true, and if anyone is struggling with their testimony, just remember to be patient with yourself and to trust in the savior, remembering your past experiences with Him.

Sincerely,

Elder Allen

(sorry, I forgot to charge my camera for Singapore and then I forgot to bring it here to send the pics that I did take...)

Typical Week For a Missionary in Klang

This week was good, even though we had a lot of appointments cancel on us and we didn't spend the whole time in our area, I felt like I learned a lot though, and as always, there were some cool moments in the week where I felt the spirit strongly, and felt capable of doing things that I otherwise would have done poorly.

The first experience that I want to talk about happened on a night when we had two appointments cancel on us all of a sudden, and so we had a lot of time to contact, visit members, or do other sorts of missionary work. Normally, we would have stuck to our back up plans, but since we had two appointments cancel, that gave us time to do activities that we would not have been able to do if one of our appointments canceled. We decided to visit the homes of one of our investigators, and we were able to have a really great lesson with them while we visited. We taught the Plan of Salvation, and I felt the spirit as we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and how it applies to our progression in that plan. The Plan of Salvation is truly a plan of happiness, and it really is simple. I am so grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and for the opportunity that we have to learn to apply it in our lives.

The other cool experience that I want to mention happened when we were teaching an investigator about baptism. Our investigator comes from an interesting background: he is very willing to learn about Christianity, his sister is Christian (and has met with LDS missionaries and chosen a different church), and the rest of his family is Buddhist. Our lessons are also interesting because we teach him in English, but sometimes clarify things in Chinese (if a gospel word is unfamiliar in English, it might not be in Mandarin). But, despite these things, we were able to help him make the connection between baptism and happiness/being able to go to the celestial kingdom with his family. When we, as missionaries, keep the commandments of the Lord and invite others to be baptized, I know that he sends the spirit to help us, as missionaries, and also to help investigators.

Well, that is basically it for this week. I recognize that some of the experiences I share may not be too exciting for the casual reader, but they are significant to me :). One thing that I am learning, is that it is the simple things that are consistent in our lives that make the biggest difference. Learning to recognize the spirit in our lives is one of the greatest blessings that we can have. When we are true to what we know, the spirit can come into our lives, even though we are imperfect people. The Church is true :).

Sincerely,

Elder Allen

Pics: 1. Eating one of the few sweet foods available (roti susu).

         2. The family we visited in the before-mentioned lesson.

Cheese Naan, The Rainy Season

Ever since arriving at Malaysia I have been told that we were in the "rainy season." But I didn't really believe them since, as I have already mentioned before, for the first six weeks I was here I was not rained on once. But, I now truly believe it, because it has rained everyday this week, and I have gotten soaked. But, the work still goes on an we were able to have a good week, despite showing up to many locations very soggy:)

I finished up watching conference this week (I was unable to previously because my companion was in the hospital) and it was awesome! Listening to prophets brings the spirit and a desire to change and improve. While we were in the church, we saw a rat in the room with the TV. The next day, we saw two in the back in the church. Unsurprisingly, there is now a rat cage in the back of the church, and a Branch President asked us to check on it during the week :).

This week we also had exchanges, and I went with Elder Graham on Friday. Elder Graham is even newer than I am, and so we had the two green missionaries in Klang for one day. On the exchange, there was a point where we had three appointments scheduled, and all three fell through. So, we decided to drop by a member and say hello. While we were there, we were able to meet an inactive member who we have never been able to contact before! He was visiting this family (the members whose house this was were introduced to the gospel by this now-inactive member) when we dropped by. We shared a message and it was really great to be able to meet him, especially since we have not had a correct address or a working phone number for him.

Well, that is about it for this email. We are working really hard to have a "White Christmas" (investigators in baptismal clothes) and we put another investigator on date this week. He is pretty awesome and super funny. When we asked him if he believed in the Book of Mormon, he said "oh yeah, I believe in the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith." He also expressed a desire to read the whole Book of Mormon before he is baptized, so we will be working with him to achieve that goal. 

I have a testimony of the Book of Mormon. I have followed the promise that is found in the back of that book, and I know that any person who sincerely reads that book and asks God if it is true can have that same experience. 

Sincerely,

Elder Allen

Pics: sorry, a little boring: 1. I took a pic of part of Malaysian culture: you pay to fill up your water bottle (I have not seen a single drinking fountain in Malaysia). 2. My "Large Fry"

Reuniting With a Dear Companion

Hello, thanks for diligently reading my emails! This week was really good, with too many things to write about in one email. I forgot my journal as well, so I am just going off of my planner and will only be able to write about a few things. The subject line comes from a scare that I went through a few days ago. After biking 40 minutes away to visit an investigator, and then coming back, we were contacting and I went to point at my chest to show the person my name tag and I realized it wasn't there. We had biked so far already, that I figured there was no way I would ever find where it fell off. So, I just took out my all-Mandarin tag and continued with the day. That was around noon. The crazy thing is though, as we were leaving this morning, I found that name tag that I thought I had lost under my laundry! I guess I had forgotten to put on my tag a few days ago (how embarrassing, that is the first time that has happened and I can't believe I wasn't representing the Lord for like 2 hours) because I didn't see it and Elder Rogers didn't notice either. Anyways, I am really grateful that it is with me again because people here don't read Mandarin (only 50% of the Mandarin speakers can read characters), and because it has been with me since the MTC.

Well, that was a long story that most of you might not care too much about. A week ago, after we emailed on P-day, we went to an "escape room" with a lot of our zone. The mall it was in was huge and it had an indoor roller coaster (see pic). Elder Rogers crashed his bike the next day (his tire went in between the metal grates of a gutter) and our phone was destroyed in the process, so we bought a new one (Elder Rogers is Ok by the way, it happened at low speed). Yesterday, we had District Conference (think Stake Conference) so we had all the branches from the district, which encompasses all of Kuala Lumpur, gathered for a meeting. It was the biggest group of members I have seen since the MTC.

We also had some good lessons this week, one of which was with an investigator who is quite open-minded. His name is Alexander and we had already taught him the Restoration. We were planning on teaching him the Plan of Salvation, but halfway through, Elder Rogers and I both thought we should talk about Baptism, and so we did. The spirit was really strong, and we were able to get some good discussions going about baptism, and faith. We found out that his life goal is to help other people, and so we were able to connect that to serving God by serving others. 

My main take away from this week is the importance of loving others. I tried to focus on doing things out of my love for other people, and I found myself working more efficiently and effectively. The spirit was a lot stronger and I enjoyed myself a lot more when I was contacting. You may be thinking that this principle is only applied to missionaries in the field, but I like how it is stated in Alma 34: 27-29: once we have prayed for forgiveness, and have cried unto the Lord for our support, we should always have our hearts drawn out in prayer for our own welfare and for the welfare of others. We need to focus on building up ourselves in order to improve, but in order to reach our fullest potential, we also need to focus on others.

You are all great.

Sincerely,

Elder Allen

Pictures: Biking in the rain

A look at some Indian Food

The Mp3 I bought today for $3.75