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:
So, it's time for me to talk about my week. This week was a pretty amazing week. Numbers wise, it was the best of the transfer. We had stake conference, and had a lot of people come for stake conference.
On Monday we had Elder Evans come, and wow, was that awesome! He shared really neat stuff about missionary work, and how to find and teach people, and gave us cool talks to read. And we had MLC (Mission Leadership Council). And in MLC he called us out, and said, "You missionaries really don't know what repentance is." And we were like, "Oh!" And then he taught us about that. I'm not going to try to explain it because if he ever saw my explanation on of it he'd think I really didn't understand it. So I'm going to be studying that for the next little while. Elder Evans was just amazing. He talked about when he was a mission president in Japan, and the experiences he had there. It was just really, really cool.
On Tuesday we found a lot of people. I went on exchanges with Elder Stratton in KL (Kuala Lumpur). He's from Arizona, and he is just amazing. He blew me away! He works so well, and I just don't know how he does it. He has awesome faith, and is a really fun elder. All our lessons fell through that day, so we just talked to people all day. And we found A LOT of people. While we were on that exchange, Elder Harker and Elder Orgo (sp?) were teaching one of our investigators at a park, and they heard a gun shot. And that's really weird in Singapore, because people aren't supposed to have guns, so they were like, "What?!!" But what had happened was a raven had built a nest in a tree, and in Singapore if a bird builds a nest in a tree they call a guy, like an exterminator, who goes out with some kind of gun and shoots the nest out of the tree. During the lesson, they heard him shoot several times, so it must have taken a bit to get the nest. But in Singapore people don't have guns, so the guy must have only shot one a few times in his life, so he must not have been a very good shot. But it's okay, it's a very safe country.
Wednesday we were able to teach Brother M**. He's doing really well! He's a young man we've been teaching for a while and he finally finished most of his exams. He's progressing and we're really happy with that. We also met a nice man named Brother O**. We'll see how he progresses.
Thursday we had two lessons. We taught our friend, G**, which was way awesome. He's progressing toward baptism and attended stake conference. Every time we teach him something he accepts it. We taught him about the temple this week, and he loved it. We also taught one of our investigators, W**, and he's just a super nice guy. He's 21, and he loves Jesus Christ. He wants to read and pray, and he comes to church. He's just really sincere, so we're so happy for him.
Then Friday, we didn't have many lessons so we were able to find a lot of really cool people.
Saturday we ended up teaching G** again, which was awesome. And we had stake conference, which was really, really good. Right before stake conference, Sister S*, the stake patriarch's wife, had her baptismal interview. She won't be baptized this Saturday, but the next Saturday. And G** should be baptized the week after that, and will our other investigator, Sister E**. So they'll all be baptized in the next three weeks.
Then yesterday we were able to find some cool, new investigators. Stake conference was great. President Simmons spoke, and told the stake about missionary work and how we're doing things. Pretty much the whole stake conference was about missionary work. They had people who are leaving on missions speak, and people who got back from missions spoke, and the stake president talked. And he said, "Missionaries are always asking what they can do. I'll give you two things you can do. Work with bishoprics on activation. And bring people between the ages of 18 and 30 to institute." So we're going to start bringing a bunch of people to institute and doing a lot of activation. It will be fantastic!
We taught Sister E** before stake conference, and she's doing fantastic. We taught her, she understood it, and we asked her how she's feeling about baptism. She said she can't wait, and wishes she could be baptized sooner. It's always really exciting when an investigator feels that way. And then afterward, she had some referrals, so we sent the elders who live by her friends over there to meet them. Then she introduced the zone leaders to 10 of her friends who live in their area, and they are all Indonesian and Christian. So the zone leaders are excited about that.
I had to go on a little exchange with the Chinese elders. We had a missionary named Elder Levitt here with us for a few days. So Elder Harker and Elder Levitt went to teach one of our investigators, and I heard that lesson went really well. And while that lesson was going on, I went out with the Chinese elders to do a baptismal interview. And I also got to help with a mission prep class, and it was so fun to speak Chinese again. After six months of not using it that much, I was a little rusty, but it was really fun. I could still get around the things I needed to say.
Then we ended up going to a family home evening at the stake president's house, and we were able to take our investigator W** to that. I think he really like that there were a lot of people his age. He was way excited. He loved it.
Then last night there was an investigator that Elder Harker and Elder Orgo found when they were on their exchange. They're from Myanmar. They dad and daughter are Buddhist. We didn't get to meet the wife last night. She was gone. And we also got to meet one of the other tenants living there who is Christian. They were just all sincere, and committed to reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. They accepted our invitation to be baptized when they find out it's true, so we're excited about them. They are a way awesome family.
So that was our week. It was amazing. Remember who you are, and make good choices. Bye.
An Awesome Week - August 21, 2016
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