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
