Monday, October 24, 2016

Last Email from the Mission - 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.

Dear Family and Friends,

Well this is not a fun e-mail to write at all. Seeing all of you is exciting again, but I will miss this experience so much. 

This week my faith has increased as I have been reading Preach My Gospel chapter 4. This chapter focuses on recognizing and receiving the Holy Ghost. I also read this awesome quote by George Q. Cannon "Every man and woman in the Church of Christ can have the gifts of the Spirit of God divided to them according to their faith and as God wills. …

How many of you … are seeking for these gifts that God has promised to bestow? How many of you, when you bow before your Heavenly Father in your family circle or in your secret places, contend for these gifts to be bestowed upon you? How many of you ask the Father, in the name of Jesus, to manifest Himself to you through these powers and these gifts? Or do you go along day by day, like a door turning on its hinges, without having any feeling upon the subject, without exercising any faith whatever, content to be baptized and be members of the Church and to rest there, thinking that your salvation is secure because you have done this? …

… I know that God is willing to heal the sick, that He is willing to bestow the gift of discerning of spirits, the gift of wisdom, of knowledge and of prophecy, and other gifts that may be needed. If any of us are imperfect, it is our duty to pray for the gift that will make us perfect. Have I imperfections? I am full of them. What is my duty? To pray to God to give me the gifts that will correct these imperfections. If I am an angry man, it is my duty to pray for charity, which suffereth long and is kind. Am I an envious man? It is my duty to seek for charity, which envieth not. So with all the gifts of the gospel. They are intended for this purpose. No man ought to say, “Oh, I cannot help this; it is my nature.” He is not justified in it, for the reason that God has promised to give strength to correct these things, and to give gifts that will eradicate them. If a man lack wisdom, it is his duty to ask God for wisdom. The same with everything else. That is the design of God concerning His Church. He wants His Saints to be perfected in the truth. For this purpose He gives these gifts and bestows them upon those who seek after them, in order that they may be a perfect people upon the face of the earth, notwithstanding their many weaknesses, because God has promised to give the gifts that are necessary for their perfection."

I saw the gifts of the Spirit at work this week. We have been seeing great success from our English Class. Not only are we getting students but we are getting solid investigators from it. This past week we met with a girl named Al**. She said that she has always wanted to learn about Christianity because Christians and us at the Church always seem happy. She said that she had wanted to learn but was always scared that the people would be too pushy when they taught her. After coming to English Class and participating in the gospel discussion afterwards she talked to one of the members and said she had a good feeling and wants to learn. We were able to teach her this weekend and it was awesome. Then we also met with a girl from China who has been Christian for a short time only. She told us later this week that when she had met us and we invited her to learn English she had just had a rough day at work because her English is not very good yet and that she has been struggling with her confidence. She said that she has been feeling confident after coming to English class. We are also teaching her and she says she has been feeling closer to God.

We had a way awesome lesson with S** this week. It was so perfect and just what she needed. She said she knows the Book of Mormon is true and that the only commandments she still has to keep is the sabbath day and baptism. haha! when she said baptism she acted almost like she had said a swear word haha :) She said she is going to worry about keeping the Sabbath Day Holy first. She goes back to China next month so it is a time crunch for her baptism! Elder Boud has been amazing though, he knows exactly how to connect with her. Everytime she meets with us she brings treats for him haha! I think he and Elder Shirley with the guidance of the Spirit will be able to make it happen before she goes.

Miracles: Last night we went to see a member named D** K** that has not been to church in a while because he recently switched jobs. We went to his house and the owner of the apartment who's room he is renting and their family was there. The were all from Beijing and way nice. They immediately invited us in and fed us till we couldn't eat. It was delicious! The daughter is learning English and is going to try to come. We will keep in touch with them. The family wants to have us over to have Malaxiangguo. Sweet!

Also earlier this week we just finished making English Class flyers and then a lady walked into the mission office and said "My friend is in the hospital and gets discharged tonight. She said while she is in the hospital she is willing to learn the gospel because she has a lot of free time". We went and taught her friend because there were no other missionaries there (she would be in Bedok Ward), and her friend was interested and we are going to have dinner at her house tonight and teach her for the second time.

Today a recently re-activated member of 20+ years that I had helped find/teach in Woodlands took my companions and I out for lunch. It was crazy to talk to her because when i was in woodlands she was still not open to learning and she was convinced she would never come back. She was glowing and so happy. One of her daughters was just baptized and another is getting ready to be baptized. It is amazing how important the Spirit is and how God was preparing the family at the same time even though they were living in different parts of the world. i also found out that another less active family I had taught in woodlands, recently came back. Sometimes we don't get to see how our small part plays out, but every little visit, and follow-up is another step to someone's way back to the gospel. Every act is important. This was an awesome week. This is the best work and I am so excited it never ends :)
 
Love,
Elder Avery
 
The Final Countdown  - October 17, 2016

Monday, October 17, 2016

The Final Countdown - 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.
Dear Family and Friends,

I have to admit that going home is not exciting at all. I am excited to see all of you again, but leaving the mission field is heartbreaking. I have learned so many things on my mission. 

I started my mission in Ipoh and there I learned that the gift of tongues was real. I remember teaching an investigator named Li** who was from Mainland China. God didn't bless me to be able to speak good Chinese to her (it is still okay only), but through the Spirit we were able to understand one another. Nearly two years later she is still strong in the church and reads The Book of Mormon everyday. Her 8 year old daughter was baptized a couple months ago and they now live back in China. I am also forever debted to Sister Chris, President Yap, and all of the amazing Ipoh Branch members.

In Ipoh I also learned that when we are worthy and act in faith, God will give us power from on high to perform mighty miracles. There was the first time I laid my hands on someone's head in the hospital and saw them be healed instantly. She wasn't a member of the church and she wasn't even Christian, but God loves all his children and will bless anyone who comes to him and exercises faith in him.

I left from Ipoh to Melaka. Melaka was a refining fire. At times I felt alone and felt like I was wandering in darkness but it was there that I gained a witness of the Book of Mormon. That has been the single most spiritual experience of my mission. My testimony of the Book of Mormon has been the key to my motivation. If that book is true, then everyday of life is glorious and happy if we choose to follow Jesus Christ.

I then went to Petaling Jaya. I wasn't sure why they had Chinese Elders there because everyone there spoke English. That was the last transfer they opened that area for Chinese work. That transfer my companion and I finished teaching a family who lived far away who was baptized the weekend after the area closed. God's timing is everything. 

My next area was Johor. There I met some of the best friends I have ever had. I love my companion Elder Pearce and my amazing Zone Leaders Elder Hanks and Elder Lloyd. After having had a tough time in Melaka and PJ I was ready to work and get things going. My companion and I were new, our Chinese was not as good as some of the other missionaries, and we were reopening the area. There I learned what it really means to talk to everyone. After two transfers of hard work my companion and I gained some traction and it remains to be a high performing area today. I felt I had learned a lot in Johor. A couple days before transfers I prayed to God expressing a desire to go and serve in Sitiawan. That has always been a place that has been known as a "hard" area in the mission. I committed to God that I would go there and work hard everyday. I was only slightly surprised when I got a call from President a couple days later to go serve in Sitiawan.

Serving in Sitiawan was a sacred experience. Everyday I felt like I was in the palm of God's hand. It was a secluded and quiet place, a great place for reflection. My companions and I turned over every stone in that town. We talked to people no matter where we were. I became good friends with the members there and loved my companions. I will never forget the night that Elder Brown and I were out in Pekan Gerney, which is way out in the middle of no where. Our investigator was running late. It was Saturday and we were sad that we still had no new investigators that week. We only had fifteen minutes but we said a prayer and walked on a small road that looked like it lead to nowhere, After passing a couple houses we knocked on the gate of the house of a long lost friend of the member who was with us. I learned that The Spirit is important in all aspects of missionary work, including finding. I learned that we cannot be successful without it, regardless of our talents or abilities.

In Puchong I was companions with Elder Schwemmer. Serving with him changed me. He is like a brother to me. That was my first and only transfer as a Zone Leader. I learned that sometimes those who are your senior will disagree with the choices you make as a leader, but in the end you need to face the Lord not them. I also will never forget Sister Saffron and all she did for me. :)

I was caught by surprise when I was asked to go serve in Singapore as an Assistant to the President. I felt unqualified. To be honest I was scared and not very excited about it, but I learned to love it. I knew there were other missionaries who could do better than me. I still feel that way about it, but God wanted me to have that opportunity to learn. I hadn't seen a baptism since Ipoh at that point. My companion Elder Spurrier and I set a vision to baptize and many baptisms followed. Despite occasional uprising from the ward haha :), we were able to develop a good relationship with them. They are now the strongest member missionary ward in the Stake. I learned how to motivate myself and work when I had nothing left. I also loved my new companion Elder Harker. He was a great support and taught me a lot about how to help people feel loved.

The last 6 months of my mission were definitely the toughest. There were struggles and challenges that I did not expect I would face on my mission, that have tested me to my limits but I have learned patience and faith in Christ and the enabling and cleansing power of His atonement. I have lost count of how many times I have been stuck by needles. But doctor visits, immigration miracles, a lot of reimbursements, moving houses, missed plane flights, stress, and many Chinese mistakes later I have made it to the last week. I love serving in the Singapore 2nd ward. The YSA is amazing. Elder Boud and Elder Shirley are amazing and I cannot thank God enough for this experience. The best part is the work never ends! Time to go out and kill it this last week! SPRINT TO THE END :)
Love,
Elder Avery 

Book of Mormon - October 9, 2016

Last Email from the Mission  - October 24, 2016

Sunday, October 9, 2016

Book of Mormon - 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.
Dear Family and Friends,
I finished The Book of Mormon the other day. That was only the second time I have finished the Book of Mormon on my mission. I have spent the past year plus studying The Book of Mormon to better understand Christ. I highlighted every reference to him, every attribute, all of his words, and references to the doctrine of Christ. I am amazed at how much my understanding of Christ and my belief in Him has grown. Prayerfully studying The Book of Mormon has done more for my testimony than anything else. I love reading it so much. I am reading my study of Christ Book of Mormon these next 3 weeks. I plan on finishing it before I get home and then I will start reading a new Book of Mormon with a new perspective. Anyone who does not believe in The Book of Mormon has not studied it well. There is no other possible way for there to be a God and to have a plan to return to live with him other than the God and plan that is presented in The Book of Mormon. Other options might please the ears, but they are impossible.

The other day we found a super awesome prepared brother. We were on the bus going to visit a less active. When we got on the bus I had a thought come to my head that someone on the bus was prepared but it was not someone who spoke Chinese. After we got on the bus a man who is paralyzed from the waste down was trying to wheel himself on. The bus was pretty packed so he was struggling to get his wheelchair in the handicapped section. Us Elders helped him get situated and he was very grateful. He started asking us who we were and why we are in Singapore. Elder Boud, who has no fear showed him and another lady on the bus a Book of Mormon and said "This is why we're here". He taught and bore a powerful testimony of The Book of Mormon. The lady was not interested but the man in the wheelchair was. He got off at the same stop at us and told us not to go because he wanted to talk to us. He explained how he felt confused by all the different Christian teachings and doctrines. He told us that he had heard things on the internet and south park but he still wanted to learn because he felt like this was what he was looking for. We taught him the Restoration and gave him a Book of Mormon. We are passing him to the Zone Leader's and we are excited to see where things go from there.

Sister J** and Sister S** are doing great they just won't commit to a baptismal date. I think we are just going to focus on reading the Book of Mormon with them. They don't want us to talk about baptism for a while.

We had an awesome finding miracle on Saturday. After Saturday conference the ward ordered pizza which I can't eat so we went to get some Malaxiangguo.The food court in China Town was packed so there were almost no seats. The only open seats were at a table with these two 20 year old girls from China who are studying nursing. Of course we talked to them and they were way nice and wanted to learn the gospel. We were able to teach them yesterday with some of the YSA members. It is always interesting to teach people from China because they have no thoughts about God at all. It is way different than teaching Christians. 

Also A*** (an investigator I had started teaching with Elder Spurrier before we passed him to the Chinese Elders) is back and came to conference. That was sweet!

The members in our ward are always helpful. We didn't have to buy food during conference because members would always pack lunches for us. They would even bring salad for me :) We have also been trying to use members to help us learn the language because Malaysia corrupted Elder Shirley and I's Chinese. Not terribly, but it has caused us to pick up some bad habits. A lot of members have also told me that a lot of grammar and words will not make sense until I understand Characters. The new books from Taiwan that the mission will be getting soon will be a big help for the missionaries, I think that will help them get a solid foundation and help them sound more educated. 
 
Love,
Elder Avery
Gifts of the Spirit  - October 2, 2016

The Final Countdown  - October 17, 2016

Sunday, October 2, 2016

Gifts of the Spirit - 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.
Dear Family and Friends,

 This past week I learned a lot about obedience and tenacity. They go hand in hand. Often times we are asked to do things that seem impossible in missionary work. Like talk to strangers, learn Chinese, talk to strangers in Chinese, and sometimes because of our weakness the commandments or white hand book rules can seem difficult to obey. As I have recommitted myself to all these rules and am trying to live them with greater exactness I have been feeling greater spiritual power. It really is the little things that make all the difference. It is the small things like speaking English when I should speak Chinese, not filling out all the teaching records that night, getting home a couple minutes late, and other things like that that can add up and weaken our spiritual armor. 

We have two investigators named J** and S** who are so good and doing great but won't commit to a date. Keep them in your prayers.

A miracle that I would like to share is how fast Elder Boud's Chinese is improving. The gifts of the spirit are real and I can see him  receiving divine help every day. Last night he was going up to people from China and initiating the contact and did a great job. There are some times he even knows a word or two that Elder Shirley and I don't. Having a trainee is a cool experience. I want to have a good experience but when you have a trainee you want to work even harder because you want him to have a better experience than you had. 

I was able to meet with the Bishop and go through our ward list. Because a lot of people in the ward move to and from China a lot of the people are unknown. But he gave us great direction. We were able to identify all of the key investigators and less actives and part member families. We visited a less active who has not been to church in a long time. As we were trying to teach him the Restoration we couldn't get a word in because he just wanted to share his gospel knowledge. we decided it would just be best to have him help us to teach one of our investigators. After he helped us teach a lesson magically he was at church this Sunday. Testifying of restored truths is a great way to help rekindle testimonies and conversion.
Love,
Elder Avery
Study and Miracles  - September 26, 2018

Book of Mormon - October 9, 2016

Monday, September 26, 2016

Study and Miracles - 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.
 
Dear Family and Friends,
We were blessed with some great success. We were able to find a lot of people, and we have a couple investigators that we feel could be baptized this transfer if they decide to. I have been increasing my faith by taking time to try to ponder the scriptures more. I have also been receiving a lot of cool revelation as I study their opposites. One scripture that I flipped around was Moroni 7:42. Originally it reads "Wherefore, if a man have faith he must needs have hope; for without faith there cannot be any hope." after you view its opposite it becomes "Wherefore, if a man have doubt he must needs have hopelessness; for without doubt there cannot be any hopelessness." It is interesting the different insights you can get from studying the scriptures this way.

We had a super awesome miracle this week. After English class we were teaching some of our investigators who attend the English Class. There was another student who was kind of lingering around so we pulled him into the lesson and taught him also and he loved it. It's cool how sometimes God brings people to you and how he prepares them. When he first came to English class he was not ready but after further exposure to the church for a few weeks he was willing to open up and learn. 

Our member work is improving we ended up being able to teach a member for the first time in a long time here and she was way excited and is allowing us to bring an investigator to teach in her house next week. We also got a referral from a member in Sitiawan, and the referral is someone that I had met and played bowling with in Sitiawan back in February who now lives in Singapore and lives right by our house! Crazy! Maybe they weren't ready then but I hope they are ready now. We are meeting them on Thursday and are way excited :)
Love,
Elder Avery
New Assignment  - September 18, 2016

Gifts of the Spirit  - October 2, 2016

Sunday, September 18, 2016

New Assignment - 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.


Dear Family and Friends,

Wow! I love the second ward. I love being a district leader too. This week was a good week. Elder Boud is doing great. I also found out he and Jared know each other. Elder Boud went to Bingham. Elder Shirley and I only speak Chinese. I already feel like Elder Boud's Chinese is improving a lot. He is not afraid to talk to people. We are talking to everyone and already are seeing a lot of success. We are shooting for three baptisms this transfer. And I am committed 100% to it.

This morning I was reading the end of The Book of Mormon. Mormon laments over the destruction of his people. He says that they were fighting with all of their strength and energy but they were still losing because they would not repent and would not put their strength in the Lord. This truth is true with all of our daily battles in life. When we put our strength in the Lord we will still have some battles that we lose but ultimately we will win the war for our soul. If we put our strength in ourselves we will win some battles but ultimately we will lose the war for our soul. It comes back to pride and faith. Are we willing to submit to God and are we willing to trust God when the war is intense and we have lost some battles already? Yes.

This week we found two awesome new investigators. The first one was named C**W**. We met him Friday night. He was from BeiFang China. He was so interested in what we had to say that when we met him on the train he got off the train so that he could keep talking to us. He came to a baptism the next day and we were able to teach him after the baptism. That was way cool! It's been a while since I have taught anyone from Northern China so it was hard to understand at times, but overall I think it went okay :)

The second new investigator was Z**. We met her at China Town on Saturday night and she came to church the next day. We were really surprised at church when we found out she is only 14 years old. It sounds like there is a tough parental situation at home and her mom just lets her roam around Singapore all day.

The member work here seems stagnate except for in the YSA. We are working with the Ward Mission Leader, he is going to start setting up appointments for us to meet with at least one member family a day. Also I don't think anyone has tried to mine the goldmine here at all. We are going to meet with the Bishop Wednesday to go through the ward list and identify which less active families are the first on his list for us to find.

Love,
Elder Avery

Medical Challenges - September 12, 2016

Study and Miracles - September 26, 2016

Monday, September 12, 2016

Medical Challenges - Elder Joshua Avery

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

This week Elder Avery sent a voice recording. The following is transcribed from the voice recording:  

Alrighty everyone, it's time for Elder Avery's weekly summary.

Monday was kind of interesting....had to go to the doctor. Same with Tuesday. We were supposed to go to Kuching on an exchange, but I was still waiting for some test results, so Elder Harker went by himself and I got to go with the Singapore Zone Leaders. It was a good day. We talked to a lot of people, and they probably got the most potential investigators that they found in one day for a very long time. That was super exciting.

The next day I went on a full day exchange with the Singapore Zone Leaders while Elder Harker was gone, and it was a really good day. We only had one lesson and the rest of the day was finding. We felt the Spirit and got to testify and talk to a lot of people.

Thursday Elder Harker came back, and we got to meet with our investigator, W**. If you remember, he's a young guy with a Christian background. After that we went out and found some people.

Then Friday we had a good lesson with our investigator, M**.  He was really excited and came to church on Sunday wearing a white shirt, a tie and slacks. He's getting ready to get baptized next month.

We have an elder in Sibu who is having some heart problems. He's a really nice elder named Elder M**.  He's new in the mission, is a really great elder, and he's having some heart problems. But he came here to Singapore and spent the night with me and Elder Harker. We had a really good time. We really enjoyed getting to know him. He's a really nice elder. A really good guy.

Saturday was a busy day. We had two new investigators that day. Me** is 15 years old with a little bit of a Christian background because he goes to a Christian school. He seems pretty solid. We followed up with his Book of Mormon reading and he said he read the first bit and it was very engaging. That made me excited because you don't find many 15 year olds who read the Book of Mormon for the first time and find it very engaging. So that was good!

Then later that day we ended up meeting with a girl from Myanmar named N**. She's Chin, which means she has a Christian background. She read part of the Book of Mormon, she understood it pretty well, and said she liked it. We taught her at a member's house, and we were able to read the Book of Mormon together with their family. She seems like she's doing really well.

Then after that we also were able to meet with G**. He's doing good and progressing toward baptism. He'll be baptized in two weeks.

Sunday, in the morning, we got to meet with Sister E**. She's doing amazing! She's getting baptized in two weeks, and is reading the Book of Mormon very consistently. She's from Indonesia and is giving lots of referrals and is so excited for her baptism.

Also on Sunday I was able to meet with Sister R**. She's doing so well. Elder Spurrier and I found her. Her husband is still struggling with quitting smoking, but I told them don't worry about that right now. Just focus on reading the Book of Mormon everyday because that will get them in a better spiritual place, and then we can work harder on the Word of Wisdom.

We had a way cool lesson last night with Sister W** M**. We've been trying to meet with her for the longest time, and she just broke down crying. She shared some things with us some things in confidence that helped us understand better where she is at, and we were able to give her a blessing. She seems to be doing good.

Then we were also able to have a dinner appointment at the bishop's house, and were able to teach another investigator named M**, who is also from Myanmar. He is Buddhist, and is willing to learn, and he is really smart. He gets the apostasy and restoration - that really clicked with him. We just need to get him to read the Book of Mormon.

And Sunday was also a really great day because we had lots of investigators at church. We should be having three baptisms in the next two weeks. We also got transfer news today, and I'll be getting transferred to the Singapore 2nd Ward, which is the Chinese ward. I think President was originally thinking he was going to send me to Malaysia, but after some medical stuff he's assigned me to stay in Singapore, and serve in the 2nd Ward. So we'll see how things go from here.

So that's my week. Numbers wise it was one of our best, and it was only a half week. We're doing great with our finding, having great lessons, lots of people coming to church and progressing toward baptism. We feel like we're on the right track. Love you!

(Note from Elder Avery's mom: The results of the medical tests he mentions turned out to be a diagnosis of Type 1 Diabetes. After counseling with President Simmons and medical professionals, Elder Avery chose to remain in Singapore for the last weeks of his missionary service. He was released as an Assistant to the President, and assigned to train a new elder in Singapore.)

Stake Conference and New Friends - September 4, 2016

New Assignment  - September 18, 2016

Sunday, September 4, 2016

Stake Conference and New Friends - Elder Joshua Avery

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

This week Elder Avery sent a voice recording. The following is transcribed from the voice recording:  

So, it's time for me to talk about my week. This week was a pretty amazing week. Numbers wise, it was the best of the transfer. We had stake conference, and had a lot of people come for stake conference.

On Monday we had Elder Evans come, and wow, was that awesome! He shared really neat stuff about missionary work, and how to find and teach people, and gave us cool talks to read. And we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council). And in MLC he called us out, and said, "You missionaries really don't know what repentance is." And we were like, "Oh!" And then he taught us about that. I'm not going to try to explain it because if he ever saw my explanation on of it he'd think I really didn't understand it. So I'm going to be studying that for the next little while. Elder Evans was just amazing. He talked about when he was a mission president in Japan, and the experiences he had there. It was just really, really cool.

On Tuesday we found a lot of people. I went on exchanges with Elder Stratton in KL (Kuala Lumpur). He's from Arizona, and he is just amazing. He blew me away! He works so well, and I just don't know how he does it. He has awesome faith, and is a really fun elder. All our lessons fell through that day, so we just talked to people all day. And we found A LOT of people. While we were on that exchange, Elder Harker and Elder Orgo (sp?) were teaching one of our investigators at a park, and they heard a gun shot. And that's really weird in Singapore, because people aren't supposed to have guns, so they were like, "What?!!" But what had happened was a raven had built a nest in a tree, and in Singapore if a bird builds a nest in a tree they call a guy, like an exterminator, who goes out with some kind of gun and shoots the nest out of the tree. During the lesson, they heard him shoot several times, so it must have taken a bit to get the nest. But in Singapore people don't have guns, so the guy must have only shot one a few times in his life, so he must not have been a very good shot. But it's okay, it's a very safe country.

Wednesday we were able to teach Brother M**. He's doing really well! He's a young man we've been teaching for a while and he finally finished most of his exams. He's progressing and we're really happy with that. We also met a nice man named Brother O**. We'll see how he progresses.

Thursday we had two lessons. We taught our friend, G**, which was way awesome. He's progressing toward baptism and attended stake conference. Every time we teach him something he accepts it. We taught him about the temple this week, and he loved it. We also taught one of our investigators, W**, and he's just a super nice guy. He's 21, and he loves Jesus Christ. He wants to read and pray, and he comes to church. He's just really sincere, so we're so happy for him.

Then Friday, we didn't have many lessons so we were able to find a lot of really cool people.

Saturday we ended up teaching G** again, which was awesome. And we had stake conference, which was really, really good. Right before stake conference, Sister S*, the stake patriarch's wife, had her baptismal interview. She won't be baptized this Saturday, but the next Saturday. And G** should be baptized the week after that, and will our other investigator, Sister E**.  So they'll all be baptized in the next three weeks.

Then yesterday we were able to find some cool, new investigators. Stake conference was great. President Simmons spoke, and told the stake about missionary work and how we're doing things. Pretty much the whole stake conference was about missionary work. They had people who are leaving on missions speak, and people who got back from missions spoke, and the stake president talked. And he said, "Missionaries are always asking what they can do. I'll give you two things you can do. Work with bishoprics on activation. And bring people between the ages of 18 and 30 to institute." So we're going to start bringing a bunch of people to institute and doing a lot of activation. It will be fantastic!

We taught Sister E** before stake conference, and she's doing fantastic. We taught her, she understood it, and we asked her how she's feeling about baptism. She said she can't wait, and wishes she could be baptized sooner. It's always really exciting when an investigator feels that way. And then afterward, she had some referrals, so we sent the elders who live by her friends over there to meet them. Then she introduced the zone leaders to 10 of her friends who live in their area, and they are all Indonesian and Christian.  So the zone leaders are excited about that.

I had to go on a little exchange with the Chinese elders. We had a missionary named Elder Levitt here with us for a few days. So Elder Harker and Elder Levitt went to teach one of our investigators, and I heard that lesson went really well. And while that lesson was going on, I went out with the Chinese elders to do a baptismal interview. And I also got to help with a mission prep class, and it was so fun to speak Chinese again. After six months of not using it that much, I was a little rusty, but it was really fun.  I could still get around the things I needed to say.

Then we ended up going to a family home evening at the stake president's house, and we were able to take our investigator W** to that. I think he really like that there were a lot of people his age. He was way excited. He loved it.

Then last night there was an investigator that Elder Harker and Elder Orgo found when they were on their exchange. They're from Myanmar. They dad and daughter are Buddhist. We didn't get to meet the wife last night. She was gone. And we also got to meet one of the other tenants living there who is Christian. They were just all sincere, and committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. They accepted our invitation to be baptized when they find out it's true, so we're excited about them. They are a way awesome family.

So that was our week. It was amazing. Remember who you are, and make good choices. Bye.

An Awesome Week - August 21, 2016

Medical Challenges - September 12, 2016


Monday, August 22, 2016

Week 3 in Nicaragua - Elder Brigham Rush

 Written by Elder Brigham Rush, in the Provo Missionary Training Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is assigned to the Nicaragua Managua North Mission, speaking Spanish.

Okay, week 3 was pretty eventful so get ready for an action packed email. So to start off the week, Elder Perry (the other white elder that got here the same time as me) got super sick and the nurse thought he had zika. Turns out he just drank some bad water and got some super nasty parasites. He was out of commission for about the entire week, but now he's doing a lot better.

The highlight of my week has to do with the funny t-shirts I was talking about last week. So this whole time I've been hoping to see a t-shirt from a high school I recognized or something like that, but I saw something better. As I arrived at my bus stop on our way to our area, I saw a man in a plain white basketball jersey that I thought I recognized. Upon further inspection I look and see the he's wearing a JUNIOR JAZZ rec league basketball jersey. Funniest thing I've seen all week. Along with the herd of cows walking down the street that I sent in my pictures. 
Also, if you were wondering, the game "nose goes" where you touch your nose so you don't have to do something, is a world wide game. Everyone here knows what it means and it's hilarious.
On another note, as you can imagine, my area is a very humble place. Almost all the houses are just tin walls and roof and a dirt floor. If you've ever seen "the Little Rascals" just picture their club house, divide that by about a fourth in size, and you have the houses here. Usually with cable tv though so that's pretty cool. At least they know their priorities. Anyways, one night I walked into this house, it was built very nicely, and the tin all lined up well. The dirt floor was swept (I'm not sure how) and everything was put away in its place. The first thing that came to my mind was "hmm, this is a nice house". In that exact moment, I knew that I was getting used to Nicaragua. 
The last funny thing I want to talk about is the stores here, specifically the advertisements. Every single house has some special thing that they sell, and the way that they advertise that thing is by taping a piece of paper on the door that say "Hay" (which means there is) and then the thing after. My personal favorite is when people are selling popsicles. The signs say "Hay Posicle". Yes, spelled like that. 
I want to finish with a story of a less active member named Lucia. when we started visiting her, she though she had cancer, had no job, and her husband left her and her daughter to be a drunk on the street. Since then, she started going to church, found out that she didn't have cancer, her husband came home one night and we talked to him. He stopped drinking and smoking, and the next week they both found jobs! Not taking any of the credit at all, but God truly is a God of miracles. So I want to leave you with that! I'm sorry if I don't email you back, we only can email for about an hour here so I try to put as much as I can in here. If you were wondering, I still find some fleas in the house, but the epidemic is pretty much over. I love all of you! I hope you have a great week! (still no baptisms) :(
Go to church, it is very important.
- Elder Rush
*currently no links available for this entry* (August 29, 2016) 




Sunday, August 21, 2016

An AWESOME Week - Elder Joshua Avery

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

This week Elder Avery sent a voice recording and several photos. The following is transcribed from the voice recording:  

Alllrighty!  I’m a little short on time, so I’m going to have to do this AUCTIONEER style….

Just kidding, I won’t be an auctioneer, I’ve never done that... But Monday was an AWE-SOME day.  After our preparation day activities, we went out proselyting and we ended up being able to talk to some awesome people and we found a really cool potential investigator, we went to see a less active, the less active wasn’t home and then his son was, turned out the less active moved somewhere else. The son was willing to let us share share with him later, but so far he’s flaked out on his appointments, because he’s scare what his wife will think, so we just have to get him to be less scared.

Then Tuesday, was an exciting day, we ended up having our zone meeting that day, and our zone meeting was amazing and really powerful. So we went out and had an awesome day, found some cool people that we were able to set up for later. One of which was, while we were walking, Elder Harker he saw this park and he said, we have to go the park and talk to people at the park. So we’re like, "Okay". So we went to this park that was by this member’s house and we talked to some people that were saying “no” but we saw this old lady and we talked to this old lady and she was like “Hey! I’m from the Philippines and I’m Mormon and I used to be a temple worker in the Manila temple and we’re like “What the... like, who are you?” So then she’s like “yeah, yeah, and I live right here”  She's been here for like a month or two, and she had no idea where the church was in Singapore or anything like that. So going to that, we were able to teach her son-in-law who was home, who’s not a member and we taught him and he had a couple of concerns, but he was pretty good. But he also ended up skipping his return appointment, well I guess technically, it was his first appointment so he ended up skipping that, so we’re going to have to try to reschedule with him and try to catch him one of these times, but it was an awesome miracle.

Then Wednesday, we ended up having a lesson with Sister Em*, she’s the Indonesian that we found a couple weeks ago and she’s just cruising towards baptism she accepts everything, we taught her the law of chastity, the word of wisdom and all sorts of things and she just eats it right up. She just follows it without any question, which is just AWESOME and so… and we even taught her about modesty, which like no one in Singapore cares about and she’s committed to modesty. Like, that is amazing.  If we could get our other recent converts, to dress modestly, then we’d be getting somewhere.  So and we also found 8 potentials that day, so that was a really great finding day, had an awesome lesson… really, really good.

Thursday after our weekly planning, we went out and had a lot of lessons scheduled, some of them fell through, but the highlight of the day definitely was teaching Annabelle, which she’s doing good. After that we ended up teaching the Stake Patriarchs wife a lesson, she’s been investigating a really long time and I guess this sounds weird, because people don’t understand. So how this is working.... um, the stake patriarch married a member and then she passed away a couple years ago so now he’s remarried, but she is not a member and she’s pretty stubborn like “I’m not going to join the church for like, my husband, or anyone like, only if God lets me know if it’s true".  And so this past week, she says that she feels like it’s true and  she wants to be baptized. Only concern now is that she’s scared to give a talk or accept a calling and she and her husband are talking about it and they’ll let us know about the baptism date.  It will either be this month or September.

Then, after that, on Friday, we ended up teaching sister S*, she’s doing really well.  Then Saturday, we had a lot of potential lessons, we were sad because they all fell through, except for one. Um but he was way awesome. His name is R*, and he is from Myanmar, but his English is amazing. He’s been here for a really long time, so his English is completely normal.  And he is a Buddhist, but open and willing to learn. We taught him about the restoration and he understood it really well and he’s like “so, pretty much what you’re saying is that your religion has the connection between like what your religion teaches and God and others, it’s just like beliefs”  and we’re like, "yep, that’s pretty much it” so he’s like “Wow, okay, I’ll read this book and pray about it” so we’re meeting him on Wednesday, I’m excited about him. He wants to come to church next week.

And then, Sunday was another good day, we had (yawns) quite a few investigators at church and then another really cool thing that ended up happening was earlier this week was on Wednesday, I forgot to say something, so on Wednesday we went and got together with Brother Y*, he’s a recent convert that we’re teaching, so we went to go in and share with him and as soon as we’re about to start the lesson, we get a call from one of our investigators who’s name is G* and G*, for a while, we were meeting with him. He’s a really nice guy, had a good spirit, but he just wasn’t able to progress because of his working situation and he finally got a new job, so we’ve been able to share more with him the past couple weeks and then all of the sudden, we just get this call from him: “Elders I need to get baptized like right away”. And we’re like, “What?”, and he’s like, “Yeah, like as soon as I can, I need to be baptized”, and it was way exciting, and so we talked to him about it on Saturday, and he scheduled for baptism on the 17th of September and then Em*s on the 18th and then the patriarch’s wife, should be sometime before then, which is really cool, so then baptisms are coming up, but we need to find some people. 

Our finding has been down, so that’s always hard, because finding is the life-blood of missionary work. Baptisms are awesome, but if you don’t find, you don’t baptize. So we’re a little stressed about finding right now, but we’re gonna keep goin' strong!  Great day ahead... and next week, when I talk about all the crazy awesome finding miracles and awesome investigators we have, just know it’s because God loves us and He likes to test us and this was the testing week, so I hope this next week is the miracle week.  Awesome. 

Love you all!
Elder Avery

Stake Conference and New Friends - August 28, 2016

Learning Malay with Elder Harker and Elder Gara - August 14, 2016


Monday, August 15, 2016

Adventuring Through Central America - Elder Brigham Rush

Written by Elder Brigham Rush, in the Provo Missionary Training Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is assigned to the Nicaragua Managua North Mission, speaking Spanish.

Hey all!
So if you were wondering, I'm doing a lot better this week. I'm picking up the language fast and we are getting a little bit more work done. But I just want to share this story before I say anything.
The Bane of my existence -
So on Tuesday I finally got a pillow delivered to me by the wonderful senior missionaries. I love them they are the best. Before I was just sleeping on my towel every night. But anyways, that day we went on splits with the Zone Leaders and Tuesday was just an awesome day. Wednesday we woke up and I had to go get tested for parasites (I don't have any by the way, woohoo!) because I've had some serious problems since I've got here. Turns out its just that my body isn't used to eating rice and beans every meal. 
Okay, so here's the bad part. I was living life, happy that I didn't have parasites, and we just went grocery shopping in the nice part of town which was awesome. I even bought some fruity pebbles to remind me of home. I finally felt like I could make it past these next 2 years until we got back to the house and discovered that we had fleas. FLEAS!!!!!! Literally the worst thing that has ever happened to me. I can't sleep at night because I'm so paranoid. But today for P day I spent the whole day mopping every thing in my house with insecticide. They say that will work. Pray for me. 

So let me get into my missionary life a little bit. Our area is 2 little towns called Lucida and Sor Maria. They don't have any running water and its pretty much a bunch of jungle shacks, which is awesome. Every person here believes in God, which is awesome, but also challenging. Most of the time when we contact, we ask the person "do you believe in God?" and the answer is "Of course! Everyone Believes in God!" 
One of the best things I saw all week was yesterday, it started raining crazy hard, like hurricane level stuff. And instead of going inside, everyone sprinted out of their house to get their water barrels in place to catch the water so they can use it! It was quite a sight to see, it just shows you how awesome the people are here.

Our Branch, (actually called a nucleus, which is a pre branch)  consisting of around 30 people held in the nucleus presidents house. Our job is to convert that into a ward with 100 members so we can get a chapel built in our area and our district will become the Stake of Matagalpa! It sounds like a lot of work, but there's around 40 non active people alone that live in the town, so our job this whole week has just been reactivating. which is kind of sad because that means no baptisms, but its missionary work all the same! 
2 of the members we recently activated is a around 45 year old woman named Genada, who lives with her 85 year old Mother, Juana. I love Juana so much. She is missing her left leg, and all her teeth, and I can never understand her, but she was very happy when we came by and told her about the new branch that was just down the road from her house. She is confined to her wheelchair, which is a plastic lawn chair with wheels. And we go get her on Sundays and push her to the church at 8 am.
Another one of our Investigators is named Juan (very common name here) and he owns a cow and pig farm right next to the city dump. He owns 83 pigs and around 20 cows on a little plot of rocky land! He loves visiting with us and teaching us about his farm though. He's a good friend of mine at this point.
Another great thing about this country is the Shirts they wear. Not 1 person here speaks English (except one man I met the other day from Seattle, which was awesome) and they all wear shirts with English words or phrases on them of which only I can understand. So that brightens my day a little, its kind of like my own inside joke. I saw a 40 year old man walking down the street the other day wearing a shirt that said "I traded my sister for video games". 
My best friend here in Matagalpa is named Elder Alofipo. He's from Highland Utah so maybe some of you out there know him. He's been out here for 3 months so we can kind of relate.
Here's something awesome, at the end of this change I will be over 1/8th done with my mission. Wow time is flying.
I want to end by saying that God does answer prayers! If you need help or are having a hard time in your life, I would encourage you to pray to your Heavenly Father. Remember, faith without works is dead. Always do everything that you can, and count on God to make up the difference. I have a strong testimony of this and I know its true, because I live it every day. 

Another thing. The number 1 thing that I've learned here is how to be happy as a missionary. 3 main points that came to me were
1. Prayer
Always ask God for help and trust in him
2.Work
Never think about yourself and get lost in the work - President Hinckley
3.Always be learning
Even when your sitting at the bus stop or waiting for lunch, be practicing or learning something. Read a book or contact someone.
These are principles that apply directly to my life. I'll leave it up to you to try to translate that into a normal life hahaha. 
I love it here even though its hard! This church is true and we are doing the Lord's work to bring happiness to the people of Nicaragua!
I love you all!

- Elder Rush

Welcome to Nicaragua! (August 8, 2016)
Week 3 in Nicaragua (August 22, 2016)




Sunday, August 14, 2016

Learning Malay with Elder Harker and Elder Gara - Elder Joshua Every

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

This week Elder Avery sent a voice recording and several photos. The following is transcribed from the voice recording:  


All Right! (In kind of a southern drawl voice for most of the time) Let’s jump into things, “MY WEEEEK”. 
So, this past week was just superb. On Monday, we had an exciting turn of events. Um, we went to the hospital to pick up a missionary named Elder Gara… from Malaysia. No worries, he’s fine. He had gotten in a bike accident earlier, and then before that, I guess he got in a bike crash like months and months before. And he hurt his wrist and then hurt it again, and it was actually good that he hurt it again, because sometimes Malaysian doctors miss things and it  turns out that his wrist, like his hand wasn’t like,  really fully attached to, like bones or anything. So he needed to come and do surgery in Singapore, glad he didn’t stay in Kuching, because the doctor there was gonna do something different that was going to be terrible. So we brought him into Singapore then. He’s been our companion this whole week. He’s really nice, he’s from Sarawak and he is Iban, which is one of the dayak tribes here.  He’s a really nice elder, we’re glad we get to work with him. We did another family home evening with Brother Y* P* and his wife Yu* and their cute little daughters, one’s like 3 or 4 years old and the other is a little baby and we went over how to increase faith in Jesus Christ. It was a lot of fun, we drew pictures with the little girls, the ways they were going to increase their faith- it was way fun. 

And then, after that, it was Tuesday.  After our reporting we ended up just going out and doing work and… pretty good day.. I would tell you more, except that I don’t have my previous planner to look over, because while I was going over my planner, my planner, random days were out of order and upside down and stuff… so I had a misprint planner, so I have a new one now.  So I don’t remember what else happened on Tuesday.. (haha)  Um.. so.. skippin' forward to when I got a new planner! (Pause)  Um… oh, this is awkward, I’m trying to remember my week and I can’t remember everything I just got Elder Harker’s planner and I’ll just go through his except that it’s all in Malay so I don’t know what to do… (Elder Harker laughing)  (Elder Avery) What?... (Elder Harker) So what day?  (Avery) What is Raboo?  (Harker) Wednesday.  (Avery) Aww! That’s the one! Raboo!  

Okay so then, Wednesday we ended meeting with an investigator named Er*, he’s older.  He used to be, well…I shouldn’t say older, he’s like early 40s.  (Elder Harker chuckling) But, he used to be Christian and he kind of left religion and Christianity because of depression and other things and so, he was just talking about like.. I don’t know, he kind of got on the whole (southern accent in higher pitch) “Yeah, well why did Joseph Smith get to see God, like, I’ve never seen God… or like an angel and he got to do this and we just have to go off like faith and stuff”  like I’ve never seen God”  So we had to explain that, do you go off faith… but I got a little fiery because sometimes it heats me up a little bit, when people say things like that.  So I was like, “Yeah. Joseph Smith got to see God and Jesus Christ.  Because after he was beaten nearly to death, multiple times and tarred and feathered, multiple times, lost multiple children because of the ramifications of things that mobs did and other tribulations they were going through and his people were  marched through snow and left like blood in their footsteps and all that stuff… and then HE DIED. He never denied it, whereas any other human being, any other person, would have done that. Joseph Smith was an exceptional man and not only that, but of course he had to exercise and use faith before he received a witness just like it says in Ether 12:6.  So, we told him that and hopefully that will help him, I think he should be good. 

Then also that day, we taught an awesome investigator from Indonesia named Sister Em*, that we found a little while ago and now like even now,  my phone is going  off cause her and another member in the stake, who’s Indonesian, named Sister I*, they just talk all day about what’s happened, just message each other and talk about gospel stuff.  But, on Wednesday when we taught Sister Em*, which was a super good lesson, which was really short, because she only had 20 minutes, because she is a domestic helper and doesn’t get a lot of spare time. And she really like it, we reviewed the restoration and she was like, “of course I’ll be baptized on September 17th, like why not?” And that’s really cool, she’s doing really well with the Book of Mormon, she’s reading it and then…. …
Oh, yeah, (in a fast then drawn out funny voice…) 

Fast forward to Thursday, evening after our weekly planning, we had to go pretty far out of our area, because one of our recent converts named Ro*, her friend’s grandma needed a blessing so we went way far to, I forget the name of the place..but we went really far to there, to go give the blessing (Josh yawning and talking), but we felt like it was … sorry that was a yawn… but we felt like it was necessary because, I don’t know, Ro*... um... never mind... this.… Members are great. I love them… But sometimes... it’s hard to go to your home teachers and stuff like that, when they are not close to you, when you have things like that pop up. Sometimes recent converts just have to go to the missionaries.  Anyways… (laughs)... so that was out of our area, but we did that for her and because she really wanted us to do and not a member. 

And then after that, it was Friday and so, Friday... let’s see Friday… (some foreign word for Friday) Juoomant.. is that what it is? And Friday was a finding day and we ended up kind of finding this really awesome guy from China, I feel bad, we keep finding awesome people, but then they’re not in our area, so HA! I need to be careful about that.  But, we found this really awesome guy from China, so we passed him off to some Chinese elders that day, so that was cool. We also went to "Singbon?" park and met this really cool girl who is also from Indonesia and we like, when we first ran into her she was not open at all and we were like “Are you kidding me.. do you think God doesn’t talk to us like he did in the Bible, that would mean God has changed. And if God has changed, then God has ceased to be God. So then she was like, whoa, ok..she was kind of like.. ok, I’ll read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and we were like, Wooo!” It was exciting. 

And then “saptoo”, that’s “Saturday”… I’m learning Malay!!  We ended up teaching…let’s see… a lot of these lessons fell through I realize, let’s see which ones actually happened.  Oh, G* and M* happened… so then we ended up being able to teach Brother M* at Brother W*'s house and he’s amazing and he’s like “Yeah, okay, but Sunday I don’t want to go to your church again, because I’ve been going to the Catholic church for the past 7 years and I feel like I should tell my priest what I’ve been learning and see what thoughts he’s had” and of course, like always, we’re like, “what? that seems like kind of a silly idea, we all know what your priest is gonna say, like he’s gonna say like stay in his church, it’s like been 7 years… bla bla bla… “ok, fine, we’ll letcha do it. And so we did it and we prayed really hard, and then yesterday we talked to him and his priest was actually cool with it, and he was like “it’s your choice” and we were like, “woohoo!” and so… we’re excited, because we’re pretty sure we know what his choice is going to be.  (clicking sound with the side of his mouth like people do when they then point after… like some people do and wink at the same time they point… haha.)  BAPTISM!!
 
Then… after that, brother G*, we taught brother G* again and he’s been doing well, he has his work figured out and stuff, he should be able to come to church more… um, so that is exciting.  Sunday we taught Sister Em* from Indonesia again- it was a really good lesson, and then after the lesson, she gave us nine referrals who are also Indonesian and Christian so that’s amazing.  Only 2 or 3 of them are in our area, but that’s still amazing nonetheless.  And then we also were able to teach Brother Y*, who is a recent convert who came back from Brunei and then we were able to meet with Ro*, which is always amazing.  Then we came back… Oh, and then Sister Ri* ended up coming church, which was so good, because her phone has been having problems, so we haven’t been able to contact her and I’ve been waaay stressed about Sister Ri*, but she ended up being able to come to church, but she came with the 2 kids even though they live out in Compassvale, and we were able to go teach her and her husband later last night, down in- not in Compassvale, down in Queenstown and I guess they’re only going to be there for the month, then they’ll come back to Izhevsk, then we’ll be able to meet with them again.  So we’re excited.  

Um,  yeah, so that was our week! Love you all!! Be good.  Bye!!
Elder Avery

An AWESOME Week - August 21, 2016
A Rough Week, But A Good Week - August 7, 2016






Monday, August 8, 2016

Welcome to Nicaragua! - Elder Brigham Rush

Written by Elder Brigham Rush, in the Provo Missionary Training Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is assigned to the Nicaragua Managua North Mission, speaking Spanish.

Hey guys!

So, I got to my area. Sorry if some of my grammar is bad and what not, I'm typing on a Spanish keyboard. So, I'm in an area called Matagalpa and its in the mountains and it is seriously the most beautiful place you have ever seen in your life. My companion's name is Elder Reyes and he is from Guatemala; he doesn't speak English. Matagalpa is about 3 hours north of Managua, so we had a very long bus ride yesterday. Here is supposed to be the coldest area of Nicaragua, so it gets to probably 70 degrees in the night time and it feels amazing. It is raining right now. We study for 4 and 1/2 hours every morning and the showers are always cold, but it feels good because its so hot. My house is at the top of like 4 other houses, so we have to take a little spiral staircase all the way to the top. It has 2 rooms and 2 little pull out tables that we use to study. It has 2 beds and that's about all. The church just barely bought our house so there is literally nothing in it. All the walls are completely teel. I can't wait to send you pictures on Monday, I'm about to go out and teach/contact for the first time! I love you guys! The food here is good, I will write you all on Monday :) Haha! Adios!  I haven't spoken English in like 2 days. I am doing good, kinda hungry but we are about to eat lunch. This place is craaaaaaazy but I love it so much.

Last Week in MTC (July 30, 2016)
Adventuring Through Central America (August 15, 2016)






Sunday, August 7, 2016

A Rough Week, But A Good Week - Elder Joshua Avery

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

This week Elder Avery sent a voice recording and several photos. The following is transcribed from the voice recording:  

 Alrighty! Time for my week!

This week was definitely an interesting one to say the least. To start off, Monday was transfer news and we spent all of Monday - before we went to a lesson that evening -helping with stuff for transfers (he chuckles) and that was good. And then after that, that evening we went to a Family Home Evening with a less active named Y* P*, he's from China, his wife is Japanese, named Sister Y*, and so we're going to start doing weekly Family Home Evenings with them. And- the Family Home Evening was pretty good, we taught about prayer 'n did we did like a little object lesson with like a  fishing pole and like taught prayer (pauses), 'n it was all going well but then (Umm) as we're talking about prayer, we're talking about how like sometimes our prayers aren't answered the way we want and so then I started sharing with her about how like, yeah like sometimes prayers aren't answered the way we wanted, which didn't go over the greatest just because, it's kind of a difficult subject, but that's okay. (laughs) Yeah, Brother Y* P* seems awesome though! He wants to bring his family back to the Church, he wants to bring his daughters in the church, so that looks good.


Then, Tuesday was just crazy! We spent the whole day in the office and we were helping to do flights for all the transfers. So, how it used to work is: when Elder Spurrier and I were together we had a travel agency and we would just email them the stuff for transfers, and they would book all the flights, and it was nice and pretty- it was just real simple. But, because that's really expensive, the way that we've been asked to do it now is to book all of the flights on our own. So, us as the assistants we don't have much of a responsibility with booking all the flights, it's mostly one of the senior couples in the office here, but they were just way overwhelmed with stuff like, so then we went in and we helped and we were helping with that the whole day until like, 9 o'clock at night. (Umm) And so that... that was tough, we were just like at the office ordering flights and it was way stressful, and we were getting missionaries and senior couples just calling in unhappy with what we were doing (chuckles) so that, (chuckles) that was tough. But we got through it!

And then that evening Elder Lindall-Wolford from Miri, he came, and he was just a little ray of sunshine. He made me really happy! He had to fly in from Miri to Singapore because of a medical thing that he was getting looked at in Singapore, and his flight was delayed and he didn't land 'til after 11, so after curfew, but he was staying at our apartment so that meant that we had to wait for him. So we were following up with him, and he was in a jam, because they lost his baggage and they left it in Malaysia. And so he was bummed. And so then finally we just get the funniest text, and Elder Lindall-Wolford at this point was really sick and like, it's late and we just get this text that says, "Elders! The lady at the airport just gave me $130 Sin for my luggage, I bought a Big Mac, and I'm coming home!" and so then we were like, "Woohoo!", and so then he showed up at like, 1:30 with McDonalds and $130 Sin that the lady at the airport had given him, and it was just.... It was just a really funny situation, just how it worked out.

And then after that (Umm), Wednesday was also way crazy. Wednesday we picked up all of the new missionaries, and that was fun. We actually ended up getting some pretty cool potentials while we picked up the new missionaries. Usually when we pick up the new missionaries we don't see a lot of return from it, but we actually had people that like messaged and called later, which was really cool. And we actually had a really strong group - it wasn't the largest, but it was a really strong group.

And then after all of that craziness Thursday came!

So, Thursday in the morning we had to train the trainers, and we also had MLC that day. Then at "train the trainers" we realized that the senior couple who booked the flights, who are the very best and did a very good job and I do not blame them at all, but they just didn't realize what time the missionaries for the New Mission Orientation Thursday morning had to leave, so they booked almost (sharp inhale) I'd say it was like a third - about a third of the flights too early for these new missionaries, so it was like, right during the thing. And so that, that was kind of a disaster, so we had to like, we were like trying to book 'n cancel the flights in time, because Expedia has the free cancel thing, so we're trying to cancel the flights on time and we book them new ones, 'n tryna figure out how we can have the meeting while some missionaries are like, trying to leave earlier.... (chuckles) So that was just completely crazy tough, and then there was also like someone else's flight, they forgot their baggage that they needed, and so I called to change the flight, flight company wasn't gonna let me change it, so I had to like, had to talk and probably not the most Christ-like way I've talked on my mission. Like, with this Malay lady for this one airline in Malaysia for a long time, and had to read out for her the terms and conditions, 'n go through like a mock-booking with her, 'n like she- she didn't budge though. So, we lost that one. That was kinda sad.

But then Thursday's MLC was amazing! That was a huge boost after all that craziness in the first half of the week, it was just a really spiritual MLC, which was really nice to get a little spiritual food, because I felt like we were just running 'n doing so much in the office, and so much administrative stuff that like, I felt like we were definitely spiritually starved. So it was awesome to have a spiritual MLC.

And then Friday was our first Proselyting day of the week! (Yawns) Sorry. And Friday... Friday was a solid day. We went and we had a lesson that day and then after that we had in our plans to call members. And at that point we had multiple investigators drop us earlier in the week and things were just kind of tough, so we were just thinking like, "What? What should we do?" And so while we were gonnna  call members, we felt we should go to the park. So, we went to the park and we ended up talking to this amazing lady from China. She was just awesome! Like she was Christian, she just loves Jesus, she was so excited, fascinated by what we were doing, and so she ended up coming Sunday. We were able to teach her before church, she wanted to go to church in English originally, because her major right now is Business English, but she still struggles to understand it, and also her husband, whom she had brought, he.... I don't think his English is as good as hers, so we ended up figuring it out so we ended up passing them to the Chinese Elders, but that was just a really cool miracle find.

And then Saturday, I'm trying to remember, Saturday had a lot of lessons. We ended up not teaching all of them (chuckles) but it was still good. Saturday we ended up being able to teach one of our investigators named Er*, he's doing good, he just needs to increase his faith a little bit. And then we ended up being able to teach Brother S*, and he's doing awesome! Right now he's teaching us the missionary lessons and he did a good job. And then..... Then that was it, I believe.... Oh no, we also taught M*, who was amazing. We taught him with Brother W*, he came to church on Sunday, he's doing really well.

And then Sunday- Sunday after church was pretty good, we went (Umm) and we did a lot of finding. We didn't have as much success as we wanted to while we were finding, but that's okay! Y'know, it's all good!

Something that I've witnessed though, this week, is.... I mean, the cool thing is just to know that even when things happen, we don't have to take offense over criticism and judgement we receive from people because we've been given direction in Preach My Gospel and Apostles and visiting authorities that have directed us otherwise, that let us know the way we need to go 'n it's just amazing that we have living Prophets and Apostles so that we know what to do. So when people tell us that we're wrong and that we're doing things wrong, that we can take the reprovement with grace, and in our hearts know that we're doing the right thing.

And so that was our week! Love you all! Bye-bye!
Elder Avery

Learning Malay with Elder Harker and Elder Gara - August 14, 2016

Goodbye, Elder Spurrier - June 26, 2016