Working Hard 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.

Elders Schwemmer and Avery in Singapore

Dear Family and Friends,

I have increased my faith this week by working hard to achieve our goals. Yesterday was Fast Sunday and by evening we were very hungry. As much as I wanted to go home and eat, I knew we were still four potentials short of our goal. We said a prayer and I was committed not to go home until we had found our four people. After many rejections we were able to receive 3 referrals from 3 different people and find someone who was interested. I felt really good after that. Sometimes it is easy to be satisfied with being just a little shy of your goal, but you feel 10x better if you work diligently till the final hour and achieve it.

This past week I went on an exchange with Elder Berry from West Virginia. He is an awesome missionary. I think Singapore was a refiner's fire for him. I am very impressed with the work he is doing there. He said that he was struggling with the invitation that Elder Riddle and I gave the zone to invite one person to be baptized a day. We said a prayer and ended up being able to invite multiple people to be baptized and we found a lot of people who showed real interest. He is an awesome missionary and leader to his district. I think that Elder Hansen is teaching him a lot too.

Elder Scwemmer and I have a new investigator named M** T** who is awesome and I think will progress a lot. I was unable to be there for this past lesson but, Elder Schwemmer said that she has read up to chapter 10 in the Book of Mormon after 1 week. That is awesome. Those who read and pray come to church. And those who do all three of those things get baptized.

Our member work has slowed down a little bit. That is mainly our fault. We have not been visiting members like we should. That really is the key. If they see and hear from the elders they help the elders, but if they don't see or hear from them the elders are on their own. We have some repentance to do. I think that this upcoming Zone Conference with Elder Neilson will be insightful, and I hope I can learn more about how to work more effectively with the branch.

Thanks for everything,
Elder Avery

Sweetened and Condensed...Like Milk (February 29, 2016)

MLC in Kuching, East Malaysia  (March 14, 2016)