This week Elder Avery sent a voice recording and several photos. The following is transcribed from the voice recording:
Alrighty, so this week was absolutely amazing. Elder Spurrier is dying tomorrow night (he is finishing his mission), so these are his final hours. In not too long, we will be having our last supper together, then I will be the one who finishes him off.
We are way excited for this upcoming transfer. We have lots of super amazing people who are going to be baptized. Sister R**, if you remember, she is the one from China, is getting baptized this Sunday. And since Elder Spurrier will no longer be a missionary, he will get to do the baptism while his parents are here. He is way excited for that, and I'm super excited too. When went to share with her the other night, and she finished the Book of Mormon once, and now she is all the way through to Mosiah again. Maybe she will finish the Book of Mormon twice before her baptism! I've never had an investigator who finished the Book of Mormon once before their baptism, and now I might see someone finish it twice before her baptism! So that's pretty cool. She reads a lot.
We taught a lot of lessons this week. Was it 34 lessons? (In the background Elder Spurrier yells, "Yeah! Wooooo! Baptizing Singapore!). Haha! Yeah, so 34 lessons this week. Sorry, there's a dead man in the office trying to talk to me. (In the background Elder Spurrier yells, "No such thing as dead!"). He's in denial still.
So this week we had a lot of fun. We ended up teaching a lot of potentials also, people we ended up finding. We taught 9 of the people we found, but we only ended up accepting a couple of them as new investigators. The others didn't seem like they were in a frame of mind to progress.
We were able to meet with Sister Gr** on Tuesday. She is a new convert, and went to work in China. But after two weeks she came back because things didn't work out with her employer. She was working 16 hours a day, every day of the week, and she wasn't allowed to go to church, so she quit and moved back. She found out that they'd hired like 6 teachers, and all but 2 ended up quitting before her.
Sister Li**, who is a less active member we've been working, kind of disappeared for a little bit and we were worried about her. But we were teaching one of our investigators the other day, and she just popped up out of nowhere while we were teaching. We were like, "Woah, Li**, hello!" And she was like, "Sorry, I've been busy." So we were able to find her and teach her. And while we were on the way to her house, we met her friend D**, who is (of another faith), and she accepted the invitation to learn the Gospel. Elder Spurrier and Elder Harker, a Zone Leader from Sibu, taught D** about the Plan of Salvation, and afterward she was like, "Woah!" It blew her mind. I guess in (her faith) they don't teach the Plan of Salvation. But that's why we're here - to teach it to them, and bring them more happiness.
Then, that same day, Sister Ri* passed her baptism interview. She was amazing, super prepared - the most prepared person I've ever seen for baptism.
There's a recent convert from Indonesia and, one of my friends from before the mission, Zack, who served in the Indonesia Mission, was in her ward or branch - I can't remember which. She now lives in Singapore, and she helps us teach a lot. So we taught two of her friends who she referred this week. And she is doing really well. We bring her to do missionary work, and get her to stop people and tell them they are a child of God. She gets so scared, but it's great. On the train, she hands out pamphlets and stuff. So when she goes back to Indonesia, she's going to be a changed person and baptize all of Indonesia.
We also ended up teaching a kid named Da**. We met him on the train with his mom. I'm going to be honest, I didn't think he was going to be too interested. But we met with him and he brought two of his friends. They are 15 and 16 years old, and their parents are okay with them learning, which is so nice. And all of them are on this search for God. They're all Christian and say, "Yah, I feel weighed down by the burden of my sins. I don't feel close to God like I used to." So we are like, "Woah, okay!" We're going to continue teaching them.
One of the highlights of the week, for sure, was on Saturday when we ended up teaching a ton of lessons all in a row. We had quite a few hours of teaching a lesson every hours, which is always way fun. One of the lessons was with a new family. The wife is from Thailand, and the husband is a local Singaporean. It's a family of seven, which is HUGE. You never find families that size in Singapore. So we are going to be teaching them, and will keep you updated on them. Elder Spurrier has always wanted to baptize a family, so my future companion and I will take good care of them so Elder Spurrier can check that off his bucket list. It's his "dying wish."
Did I miss anything, Elder Spurrier? (In the background Elder Spurrier says, "Life is good. Church was sweet." Good words from a soon to be "dead man."
Okay, I love you all. Bye-bye.
Fruit and Labor (June 12, 2016)
Goodbye, Elder Spurrier (June 26, 2016)
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| Elder Joshua Avery |
