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
past week I learned a lot about obedience and tenacity. They go hand in
hand. Often times we are asked to do things that seem impossible in
missionary work. Like talk to strangers, learn Chinese, talk to
strangers in Chinese, and sometimes because of our weakness the
commandments or white hand book rules can seem difficult to obey. As I
have recommitted myself to all these rules and am trying to live them
with greater exactness I have been feeling greater spiritual power. It
really is the little things that make all the difference. It is the
small things like speaking English when I should speak Chinese, not
filling out all the teaching records that night, getting home a couple
minutes late, and other things like that that can add up and weaken our
spiritual armor.
We have two investigators
named J** and S** who are so good and doing great but won't commit to a
date. Keep them in your prayers.
A miracle
that I would like to share is how fast Elder Boud's Chinese is
improving. The gifts of the spirit are real and I can see him receiving
divine help every day. Last night he was going up to people from China
and initiating the contact and did a great job. There are some times he
even knows a word or two that Elder Shirley and I don't. Having a
trainee is a cool experience. I want to have a good experience but when
you have a trainee you want to work even harder because you want him to
have a better experience than you had.
I was
able to meet with the Bishop and go through our ward list. Because a lot
of people in the ward move to and from China a lot of the people are
unknown. But he gave us great direction. We were able to identify all of
the key investigators and less actives and part member families. We
visited a less active who has not been to church in a long time. As we
were trying to teach him the Restoration we couldn't get a word in
because he just wanted to share his gospel knowledge. we decided it
would just be best to have him help us to teach one of our
investigators. After he helped us teach a lesson magically he was at
church this Sunday. Testifying of restored truths is a great way to help
rekindle testimonies and conversion.
Love,
Elder Avery
