Butterworth

Well, the week was good, but by no means normal. On Wednesday, we picked up Elder Elieson's new companion: who is actually someone who was in my District in the MTC. He came to replace me, and he came in for a few special reasons (visa and health related) but he actually served in the area for the first 4 and a half months of his mission! The reason I did not fly out on Wednesday was because we had a General Authority who was visiting (Elder Soress) and meeting all the missionaries in Singapore on Friday.

It was a good meeting on Friday, and Elder Soress talked about how God created all things spiritually before he did physically. This is the Second talk we have received from a general authority (while I have been here), where they take the last bit to talk about goals, and how our goals should drive us and give us direction. I think this is noteworthy. What I learned from that meeting, was that I need to be deliberate in my actions.

Friday was a little bit crazy, and I flew out of Singapore to Kuala Lumpur alone (not too rare, but it was strange that there were no other missionaries on the flight). I sat next to a really nice old Australian couple, and I talked with them a bit about Australia, and a bit about the gospel. They "have never really needed religion" and so they weren't interested in meeting with our friends in Australia. 

When I got to KL, I took a train to the city, in a place called KL Sentral. They had no bus tickets, and the earliest train they had going there was at 8:00 pm, a little late for a four hour ride. I decided it would still probably be best to get to my area that night, but what I didn't know, was that they were actually sold out of tickets. I ended up staying the night with the Zone Leaders in KL, and the next morning found out that all the train tickets for that day were already sold out, and so I got a bus, which got me to Butterworth by 6:00 pm. (it was a Holiday)

I met my Companion, and he is really nice. We have already had some good success talking with people here, and sharing the gospel. Our apartment is nice, and has a great view of Penang (we are on the 25th floor). We also met with the branch president, and an RM who was visiting the area he served in 4 years ago.

The work is good, and we had a great opportunity to testify to a few people about Eternal families over the last few days. I love sharing messages that make people happy.

Sincerely

Elder Allen

The last two weeks: Baptism and Transfers.

So, Transfers hasn't come yet, but they are this week, and I got a call from President telling me that I am moving to a town called Butterworth - a city up close to the top of West Malaysia - as District Leader. I will be with just one other Elder there, but the District includes four other missionaries who live on (what I hear is) a "paradise" island nearby called Penang, which is connected to Butterworth by a bridge, and a ferry that runs across. It will certainly be a change of pace from what I have gotten used to in Singapore.

But, onto last week. We had a really good baptism with Da He, and the spirit was very strong. He bore his testimony at the end, and you could feel that the spirit was in the room. I also gave a talk during the baptism service on the Holy Ghost, and it actually went pretty well. All the correction I got was the one white American who attends our ward because he served his mission in Taiwan telling me what grammatical mistakes I had made in my talk...oh well.

Also, a topic of interest, that morning (the morning of the baptism) we played badminton with the ward in our church, and it was pretty fun! Da He brought one of his friends, and we were able to get to know him. Afterword, we had pizza, and it still isn't as good as the good ole American Pizza.

Lastly, I just want to share one cool miracle. We were on our way home from an appointment which was unfortunately with the sisters as well after we found out that they were coming to the same appointment after we had already arrived. We had to "grab" (take a taxi home) so that we wouldn't be late, and we called like three different cars that all canceled on us so we couldn't get home. We were getting a little frustrated, and we called another car, and we almost canceled on him because he couldn't find us. Finally, we got in the car and started on our way home. We contacted him on the long drive home and it went really well! We went to his home last week and met with him, but then passed him to the Sisters because He has two daughters that we think would be better taught by them. 

I want to share that I know the Church is true. I have gotten feelings from the spirit that give me the testimony that this is God's church, and that following these teachings bring joy.

Sincerely 

Elder Allen

Nathan with previous companions - Elder Gould and Elder Rogers, his trainer.

Update: Mother's Day

Nathan only had time to send a short email home but we loved talking with him yesterday for about 50 minutes.  Here are the highlights.

He and his companion skyped from a member's home in Singapore.  It was challenging to navigate skype in Chinese so we were waiting for a while but it was worth it.

The best news, besides that he's happy and healthy, is that they did have a baptism on Saturday. Yay! Nathan spoke at the baptism on the Holy Ghost. He showed us his name on the program.  We took his word for it.

There are only 4 Chinese speaking missionaries in Singapore - he and his companion and a set of sisters.  They are all assigned to the second ward which is Chinese speaking. His District is made up of 4 other companionships,10 people total. One is the other companionship that they live with (which he said he likes. It's fun to have 4 of them in an apartment). The other companionship are assistants to the president so they don't see them too much.  The other 2 companionships are sisters.  He is the district leader.  There are about 20 missionaries in Singapore and 100 in Malaysia, 30-40 of whom speak Chinese.  Other languages in their mission are English and Malay.  He said they are losing missionaries faster than they are gaining them (maybe because summer is coming?) so some missionaries are switching languages - mostly from English.

He says it is always hot there and when he's not wet, he's about to be.  He said he still pulls out his poncho but some missionaries don't even bother anymore.  He's not in the sun and rain so much in Singapore because of the public transit system.  Singapore is very modern and nice.  He thinks Singapore missionaries are the only missionaries in the world that have smart phones.  He likes being in Singapore because there are so many people to talk do and they are friendly (mostly) and polite.  He expects to eventually be back in Malaysia on a work visa.  Their 90-day visitor visas present a unique challenge in their mission where they have to leave Singapore or Malaysia for a couple of nights every 3 months.

He says they hardly cook because their apartment is 45 minutes away (on the west side of the island near the port) from their church building/mission HQ/center of town and it's so easy to get food when they are out.  They usually have one simple meal at home and then food on the run that's from hawker stands or American food like Subway.  They have McDonalds there but it's very different and has a smaller/regional menu.  Happily it includes bacon though so that's a "tender mercy." They go to Chinatown "all the time" to advertise for English class with a sign and pamphlets.  People approach them and ask what kind of English they speak.  He says English class is fun. He is learning to read Chinese and says he can understand about 40% of his Mandarin Book of Mormon.  He said people on the train are astonished that these white boys can speak Chinese but people at church are less impressed with how well they speak.

I asked him what his favorite part about being a missionary is and he said "the spirit."  Well said, Elder.  Bill asked how many investigators they have right now.  He said 8.

Besides the bacon and the being wet part, another funny part was when he asked if we were heading on vacation next week for spring break.  He said it's hard to keep track of the seasons because the weather is always the same - hot.

I hope next week he'll be able to to tell us more about his baptism but I'm grateful for the pictures and for a wonderful, mostly glitch-free conversation.  I'm grateful he is a missionary sharing the joy of the gospel with others.  It means everything to me.

The Change

Well, this week was an awesome week, and we have an investigator who is scheduled to be baptized next week (assuming he passes his interview later tonight - which we already gone over with him this week). He is so prepared that he brought one friend for the second time to church, and then another new friend to church with him (two friends total). I was on splits after church, but Elder Elieson taught the two friends with Da He (our investigator being baptized) and he said that the friend who has come twice is very prepared! It has been really cool just to see the change in Da He himself. He seems so happy and comfortable in church, and even though he was prepared when we first met him, there is a noticeable change in him. 

The ward was super excited for Da He's baptism, and in Fast in Testimony meeting, many people bore their testimony about how exciting it was for Da He to be baptized! We also met with our Ward mission leader and revamped some of our ward missionaries roles with the ward. We assigned people to help us find fellow shippers, people to help call investigators to invite them to church, and people to help us advertise for our English class. 

I also had an enjoyable time going on exchanges with one of the Elders in my district, Elder Forsyth, and we had a good day together. We had a slower day ahead of us, so we made sure that we were busy traveling to people, and contacting on the way. We stayed really busy, and I learned a lot from Edler Forsyth in contacting about how to be more friendly with people.

Well, my time has come, but I want to share my testimony of the power of prayer in our lives. Prayer is the wonderful opportunity that we have to talk with our loving Heavenly Father. I know that God can comfort us as we reach out to him in prayer.

Hope you have a great week!

Elder Allen

The Up and Coming

Hello Everyone! The subject for today's email comes from the investigator whom I have made mention of in the past. The one and only Yang Da He. We are fairly certain that he will be baptized in just under two weeks (not this Saturday, but next Saturday). We had lessons with him on Friday and Saturday, and they both went really well. On Friday, I taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ by myself, with the help of a member because I was on exchanges with my Zone Leader Elder Allred, and he is an English-speaking Elder. One interesting thing that I have noticed is that there are lots of people over here who have problems with Nephi killing Laban when they read the Book of Mormon. It has been a question that I have received multiple times, and am learning how to answer better. Da He is straight from China, and so the lesson is completely in Chinese (I needed the member 2-3 times to help me when I didn't understand a part). It is funny because Da He wants to practice his English, and we want to practice our Chinese, so whenever we text, he texts us in English, and we text him in Chinese. 

I have received some comments, not just from my parents, but passed through them, about how my emails haven't been very long or detailed recently. I am sorry about that, and I will strive to do better. Recently, I feel like I haven't had too much to write about, and I have had a half hour less than I have in the past to write, so I have felt a little squeezed for time. However, I have been helped to recognize that what happens are things that people want to hear about, and so I will start how to write better emails. 

This week, we had a lot of time in the beginning of our week to visit members, both active and less active. We have been having a hard time scheduling with our investigators to meet during the week, and they all want to meet at the end of the week. They are all "too busy lah!" BUT, we did have a cool experience where we visited a Less Active Member (just dropped by) and he welcomed us in, and then asked for the DVD Finding Faith in Christ. We arranged to give him the DVD during Church on the up-coming Sunday, and he came and stayed for all 3 hours of Church! 

Church was busy, and I actually gave a 15 minute talk (all in Mandarin) on Home Teaching. They have the missionaries speak on the 5th Sunday of every month (one Elder and one Sister) and I was the lucky enough to get a chance to speak. It was....basic Chinese, and I think it may have sounded a bit redundant, but I wrote down the highlights of it in English, and then wrote down about five vocabulary words I needed, and then kind of just went for it. It is hard when we don't have the whole gospel library in Chinese. There is no Chinese Bible on the Gospel library app, because the Church does not have copyright to it (there is no Kings James Version, so the church has just picked one). Whenever we want to find a scripture from the bible, we have to use our hard scriptures, and not the phone. 

Well, I sent some pictures of us playing on a field during P-day. We played today, and last week in this field that is in the middle of Singapore with Skysprapers  on three sides, and then a great view of marina bay on the other. No one uses it Monday mornings so we have a blast playing frisbee together as a zone.

Well, the church is true. I feel the power, and the truth of the gospel as I testify of it. I love the promise of the Book of Mormon - see for your self it is true. Come and see. Notice the blessing in your life and see if it makes you happy.

Have a great week! 

Elder Allen

Video

scals <pscals@aol.com>	Apr 27 (4 days ago)
to me

Hi,

I ran into your son at our stake center. I thought you might like seeing him speaking Chinese.

Best Regards,
Sister Susan Johnson

Sent from my iPhone

Video (23 seconds): https://youtu.be/LDM4Hs3uT0A

Elder Daniel McDonald responded to my request to find out what they are saying. He said "I didn't get everything but they're asking what class the guy should be in, and Nathan was wondering about giving the guy something and at the end his companion tells the man to look, there's a cell phone recording there, and he looks and they all laugh."  Thanks, Daniel!