Sunday, June 5, 2016

Three Baptisms - 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 week was an awesome one! There were three baptisms this past weekend. One was one of our investigators named Ra** (she was a member referral), one was an 8 year old named A* (his Mom was recently reactivated), and number 3 was An** (Li**'s daughter in Ipoh).

The start of this week was a little crazy. We had missionaries coming into Singapore for a short training and we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council) on Thursday. We knew this week would have a couple bumps, so Elder Spurrier and I skipped most of our P-Day to teach some lessons. It was way worth it :) Woodlands is on fire!

Sister P** and her two daughters came to church this week. She has been a new person since her daughters have started investigating too. She is keeping all of her commitments. Her daughters R** and Ra** both liked church. Haha, I laughed because Sister P** had them fast (we haven't taught any of them about it). Her girls are doing a good job of reading the Book of Mormon. The three of them are getting baptized next month :)

Sister R** is amazing! She has read almost all of the Book of Mormon in about 10 days! When we taught her last night she was in Mormon. It's crazy to think how much her life and her husband's life have changed. All we did was go to visit Brother A*, a less active member, and discovered he has an amazing family too! He seems way happy. Last night he made us dinner when we went to teach his wife. She is by far the fastest progressing investigator I have ever taught in my mission. She said the other day, "What do you still have to teach me? The Book of Mormon answered all of my concerns." She is doing great! She gets baptized in three weeks.

I have increased my faith by taking more time to pray for specific concerns I know that other people have. It is one of the easiest acts of service ever. All you have to do is identify a blessing from God that someone needs, and you pray for it. I have definitely been getting more out of my prayers by putting more effort into that. That, with fast Sunday, has been giving me a good spiritual boost.

We had a way cool finding miracle this week. We were on the train traveling to an appointment and talked to a kid from Thailand who studies here. He said he had seen me before, and he pulled up a picture on his phone of me and one of the Zone Leaders from over a month ago! I guess we had contacted his friend over a month ago and his friend sent him a picture of us. He was interested, and we were able to meet with him the next day.

The members seem to be way fired up! We had seven investigators at church, and nothing gets

members excited like seeing investigators at church :) We have a good variety of participation from across the ward. It is way exciting! I am so excited I will still be here for a while longer. I have a lot of people I love a lot here.

And I love you all!




Elder Joshua Avery

Fire in the Woodlands (May 29, 2016)

Fruit and Labor  (June 12, 2016)