Goodbye, Elder Lee! - 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.  

Haha, well this week was a roller coaster! Between Elder Lee leaving and getting stuck in Ipoh till Thursday night, many of the weeks plans went down the drain. I did have a pleasant time in Ipoh, and we were able to find a lot of potential investigators there, including a group of 6 Christian women from Indonesia who attended a school of theology.

This week Elder Brown and I increased our faith as we set a transfer vision our first day in Sitiawan. Our vision statement is, "The future is as bright as your faith". We know that the zone is 11 baptisms away from our year goal, and if you divide that by 3 it comes out to roughly 3 baptisms per district. Elder Brown and I are looking for four baptisms this transfer, and we feel we will need to find 2 "golden" investigators by the end of this week or middle of next week to make that goal. I have really come to find goal setting to be an act of faith, and increasing goals is a great way to increase our faith.

Yesterday was full of "finding" miracles. We were on the way to the church for an appointment with a less-active member and his soon to be an investigator girlfriend. I looked down at my watch as we were biking and noticed we still had some time to spare, so I slowed down and decided to bike by the shop lots rather than the main road so we could talk to more people. As we passed a bank I noticed two people out side. One was a very well dressed Chinese lady and the other a slightly ragged Indian man on a moto.

Maybe this was slightly judgmental of me, but I knew that Chinese lady had a higher chance of saying "no" but she also seemed to be fairly successful and I imagined she would be someone who would be able to manage her time so we could meet and more likely to have a way to progress and come to church. Despite the Chinese lady being more intimidating to approach, Elder Brown and I went up to her. It was a great choice! She is a Christian and we were able to introduce her to The Book of Mormon. Not only that, but after asking what we do here, she said, "Let me give you my number so if you ever need anything you can call me." She shows good potential and we are meeting with her this week to follow up on her Book of Mormon reading and teach The Restoration. I've learned that contacting is often like investing, those with a higher chance of saying "no" often have the resources to produce a higher return. I know where I could find a lot of people who will give me their numbers and say they can meet, and I also no where I can go to find less "yes" responses who will be committed to what they say.

The other day the branch president and his wife took us to meet some of their friends. I was so happy to get that phone call from them when they invited us. Being fed by members is great, but I'd give up every well-cooked meal by members for every member to be actively engaged in missionary work, and more importantly the gospel.

Love you all times 12,
Elder Avery

This is Handsome Boy (November 15, 2015)

Miracles and a Cute Dog  (November 29, 2015)