Music in Malaysia - Elder Joshua Avery

Written by Elder Joshua Avery, serving in the Singapore Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Mandarin Chinese.

Package from the Andersons!

Dear Family and Friends,

I got to see the new mission president, President Simmons, a couple of times this week. He and his wife have a lot of spunk and energy, and I am so excited to work with them. At Tuesday's Zone Meeting they gave me the Anderson's package. It was amazing!! Me and all of the missionaries in my house loved it, and we still have a lot of goodies to go through. What a great "ma" and "pa", even after all these years! (Phil and Lia were Josh's trek parents four years ago :)

The night of Zone Conference, we elders got to usher for a concert with David Glenn Hatch and his prodigies. It was awesome music, but my favorite was on Wednesday when he and his students did a fireside of hymns he arranged. It was so so so awesome. He talked about how when words can't soften a hardened heart, music can. He also talked about how Christ and His apostles sang a hymn before he went to suffer in Gethsemane for the sins of this world. Surely it helped Him find comfort despite the trials placed before him. That lesson stuck with me and we applied it this week.

Later in the week, we were on exchanges. I was with my district leader, Elder Cash, and he has a great voice. We were talking to this Christian on the street who seemed uninterested and wanted to get away from us. I asked him, "Can we sing you a hymn?" He didn't answer, so Elder Cash and I just started singing Amazing Grace. After that, his heart was softened and we had a great conversation with him. We gave him a Restoration DVD, which he watched. But afterwards he texted us, "I can't accept any prophet after Christ or Mohamed." So, things didn't go exactly how we'd hoped, but it taught me an important principle and gave that brother an opportunity to increase his relationship with God.

The K** family is going to be baptized next week and I am so excited! My language study goals are being met despite being in an area where I use Chinese much less than before. The work is hastening. Love you all!

Elder Avery

Miracles with Rough Edges (July 6, 2015)

Johor Bahru  (July 19, 2015)