The REAL Banana Leaf - 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.

My grandma took me to eat at a restaurant called
The Banana Leaf before I left for my mission. This
week I got to eat at the REAL Banana Leaf, haha!

Hey everyone!

This week was good. K** got baptized on Saturday. That was so awesome. Seeing the change that has happened in her life is just so amazing. I wish that her son would follow her example, but he is not in that place right now.

So, this week a lot of appointments fell through, but somehow we still managed to reach a lot of our goals. It is so amazing what God can do! One of the English elders' investigators brought some of their friend's kids to meet with us. We taught them about the Restoration and they were so receptive. One of them even asked to be baptized. It was so awesome. Sadly, they texted us Saturday and they said that their dad doesn't want them to meet with us anymore. It seems like kids are dependent on their parents here until they are 25 years old! For cooking, housing, pretty much their entire livelihood. So that was too bad.

I don't have anymore big news. I know you're worried, but I'm doing good. I wish I could type better. You were right about that! I should have taken a few days to get that down better before I left. I go through hard times, but nothing like I did in the MTC (Missionary Training Center). Learning the language is the main source of my stress. Every missionary in Ipoh gains weight because the members here are so generous and feed us so well....but not me. I have gone down 2 belt notches. If I lose any more weight, I will have to poke more holes in my belt. I'm sure it's just the stress of learning the language. 

The highlight of our week! K**'s baptism!

I know that faith in Jesus Christ is the most powerful kind of faith. It's better than faith in ourselves, better than faith that time will give me more exposure so I can learn, and better than faith that my efforts to study and practice will one day help me speak Mandarin. I have unwavering faith in Christ!! I also know that I will only reap what I sow. This will pay off in the end!

Love You!

Elder Josh Avery

Happy New Year  (January 5, 2015)

Miracles  (January 19, 2015)





My jungle adventure:

Training and "Just Havin' Fun" - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery, serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Hey friends and family!!

How are you guys?? I am on cloud #9 here in Tierras Blancas! Time is flying, and my companion and I are just the best of friends and goof around way too much, haha! (We get along really well :) Somos locas!! We have had a really quick and pretty successful week this week. Here's what went down:

We have officially finished teaching Ba** all of the lessons that he needs to be baptized this Sunday! He will have his baptism interview Wednesday, and from there, we just have to wait until Sunday :) He is really excited, and told us yesterday that all he wants is "to get baptized and start his new life." Isn't it amazing how we really CAN start a new life when we follow Christ's example?? I love it!

Se** was confirmed a member of the church yesterday! He was grinning from ear to ear and looked to be the happiest person at church yesterday :) We have started to teach him his retention lessons this week, and should be finished by February. He still has a long way to go in the Gospel, but I have always loved seeing people's first steps and weeks in the Gospel and this "new life" that they have begun :)

Funny story time! This week, we had our weekly meeting with our ward mission leader and while we were talking about our investigators' needs, his phone started to go off with some song in English about "weed, drinking, and just havin' fun." I looked at the American elder in our ward and we both just shook our heads and smiled because, obviously, the people have no idea what that song means, but they like the beat, haha! That happens way too much here....

My companion is just the cutest thing ever! She teaches like a pro, and I feel like she is training me more than I am training her! We work SOOOO hard all day long and always come home and chat on the couch, just dying laughing together. She keeps me sane :) I love training!!

Well guys, I really don't have that much more to inform you all on! (note from Mom: I'm not editing this because she will laugh when she gets back to speaking English and sees some of the things she said when she had a Spanish brain, haha!) It's been an awesome week, honestly, and we are just working at our fullest every moment and enjoying missionary life :) I will miss this!!! I hope that you all have a great week, and I will talk to you all next week! (Don't be too "trunky" in the meantime :P

Love you!!

Hermana Hannah Avery

My Final Transfer (January 5, 2015)

Bautismo  (January 19, 2015)

Talking With God - Elder Kolby Madsen

Written by  Elder Kolby Madsen, serving in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Danish.

This week was great. We scheduled a baptism date with one of our new friends, who just happen to be dating one of our recent converts, way great. She wants to get baptized on the 7th of February, so that should be great. We are working hard with her.

We have a date that Ma** wants to go to the temple.  It has moved around a bit, but we now have the date set in stone, the 24th of January. We will be going to the temple to have great time as Ma** and the ward go through and do dåb for de Død. yeah! Should be way fun.

I also got word of one of the guys that I taught in Randers is getting baptized this week.  So I will be going to that on Saturday, hopefully. It should be a great experience.

We also had 10 people in church. One friend who is not a member and 9 others who are usually not very active, and one of them got reactivated yesterday. It was way good. We had a great day in church this week. So many blessing that have been happening in the ward, and the Lord is very loving towards or friends in the ward here. It is so great to see how much better the work goes when the ward works with the missionaries to accomplish the same goal, instead of their own goal.

We had an appointment with our friend who we have been talking to about baptism, G**.  He said he is going into the doctor to get his back checked out on Thursday, and then he will tell us when he wants to get baptized. So, that should be way good.

We have been working hard. We had some really good stuff happen this week. We went to visit some of our friends down in Næsved in the southern part of our area. While down there we got a referral for another person in the ward who is less active and lives down there.  He was way excited to meet with us and we are plan on meeting with him more and more, it’s great.

We have had so many blessings in this area. I am so grateful it’s been such a great week. We had a great lesson yesterday in Priesthood Meeting about prayers. We talked about how the greatest commandment is to love God. They made the point that if we loved God, we would want to go out and get our home teaching done. We would want to go serve our neighbors. Then we talked about what we need to do to gain a greater love for our Heavenly Father, and how we could do that. We talked about how we gain a love for people on earth. By talking to them and taking time to get to know them. We talked about how it is the same way we need to talk to our Heavenly Father. To gain a relationship with Him, we need to take the time to get to know Him through our experiences and through prayer.

We also talked about how some times in life we need to make appointments with those who we would like to talk to. Then the teacher made a great point by asking how many of us have a time in the week where we schedule time to talk with our family members about things that are important? Then he asked, "Do we do the same for our Father in Heaven?' Do we talk things through. We claim that we have a conversation with God and that we really believe that He speaks to us through the Holy Ghost. Why do we sometimes just kneel down and talk AT God for 2 minutes (if we are lucky), instead of  speaking with Him and giving Him time to respond?

Sometimes I feel that we get caught up in praying for things, asking for things, or even just thanking God for things, but we don’t stop to listen. I would like to invite you, the next time you have a question for our Heavenly Father, to kneel and pray THEN listen quietly without any distraction. I know and promise that you will get your answer in a prompting from the Holy Ghost. We need to practice what we preach and have a conversation with God. Listen to the thoughts and impressions that come within our prayer. He is trying to talk back, but sometimes we don’t listen.

Med Kærlig Hilsen

Ældste Madsen

Drunk People and Flaming Explosives (January 5, 2015)

Accelerate the Work  (January 19, 2015)

My Final Transfer - Sister Hannah Avery

Written by Sister Hannah Avery, serving in the Chile Vina del Mar Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

(Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Saying goodbye to one of my favorite people in Chorillos!

Hey family and friends! :)

I hope that you all had a great New Year celebration, and that your resolutions are working out well for you :) haha! Well, I have a LOT of news for you all this week! Ready??

First off, I was transferred! On New Year's Eve, I got the call from my mission president that I would no longer be a Sister Training Leader, but that I was going to have a new assignment to train a new hermana (sister missionary) here. I packed my things, said goodbye to my family here in Chorrillos, and left for transfers meeting.

I was called to serve in Tierras Blancas, in the North of our mission, which is near Coquimbo. I hopped on a bus, and rode through the night without a single view of fireworks, but lots of excitement for a new year, new area, and new companion :) I arrived to my new area at about 2 a.m. (about 7 and a half hours later) and was picked up by my companion, Hermana Moreno, at about 2:30 a.m. We arrived to our apartment at 3:30 a.m. and crashed until we had to wake up for the next day 4 hours later! It was a crazy night for sure!

Last dinner with sweet Hermana Evans

Hermana Moreno is from Argentina, and this is her second transfer in the mission. She is 21 years old and super cute! She is a really hard worker, and I love her excitement for the work :) She makes me happy, and we are great friends! It should be a really great transfer!

So, we had a baptism yesterday! The boys name is Se** and he is 15 years old. He was SUPER happy and just all smiles :) Us too! It was my companion's first baptism. She was too cute and super excited about it! We have another boy named Ba**, who likes to learn English, and I asked him to come to church yesterday and he did! He told me thanks for asking him to be there, and that he wants to be baptized in 2 weeks. I was like, OKAY! Let's go! :) He is great. So, we are working hard here and just running everywhere! It's great! :)

Training has been awesome so far! It's always been my dream to train, so I am more than happy to get to do it in my last mission transfer. I am thrilled to have lots of work to do here, and that I am being kept on my toes :) It's fun!

Well guys, that is all the news I have for this week! I will write you all again next week (of course!) to let you know how things are going here in the "golden area" :) I love you all so much! Have a great week and I will talk to you soon!

xoxoxoxoxo Hermana Avery

It's an Amazing Life (December 29, 2014)

Training and "Just Havin' Fun"  (January 12, 2015)

Baptism in Tierras Blancas

Saying goodbye to more friends in Chorillos!

I found a Maryland flag being used as a canopy!

The bugs are eating me alive!

My new area

My new area

Tierras Blancas, Coquimbo, Chile

Our living room

Bedroom

Dining area

Different view of our living room

Study area

Summer Vacation - Elder Jacob Avery

Written by Elder Jacob Avery, serving in the Peru Lima West Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Current area: Vegueta, Peru

Guinea pig, anyone?

Basically I'm on summer vacation right now. I've been changed to an area by the beach! I have a view of it from my room. I'm in a small fishing town called Vegueta. We have a chapel that was built in the 1980s, but right now it's only a branch with like 50 people who attend church regularly.

This week we found a guy to teach named An**. It was kind of a rough week, so when Sunday came around, we were surprised to see a very unfamiliar face in church. He's 26 years old, and his girlfriend is a member who has been coming back to church after being inactive. One of An**'s friends is an active member of the church who we taught this week, but what was really ironic is that we taught him about how to teach friends about the gospel. We gave him a pamphlet and taught him how to share it with a friend. The friend he chose was An**! So it all worked out. An** said that he already felt at home and like he was part of the church. He explained to us that he felt the Spirit and that he wants to know for himself that our message is true. They're planning on getting married too, so we'll get that ball rolling.

The branch is super tiny. It's different than any other area I've served in. The branch president is ready to work and the whole branch is ready to get baptisms. And so am I!

Our new place in Vegueta

As you know, I was asked to serve as the district leader. My district is super young. They're like the stripling warriors. My companion is Elder Clouse. He's from Mesa and he's been out for 4 months. Another 3 missionaries in my district have all been serving less than 6 months as well. The "old" guys are going to be the hardest part for me. Elder Clouse is awesome, and we are working on his Spanish. He likes a lot of music that I like... I don't know if it's a blessing or a cursing, but it's good for now :P

I'm really thinking about what we're going to do to be successful in my area. The things that have kind of come to mind are precision and persuasion. We need to be super obedient and smart in order to have the help of the Holy Ghost, but when it comes down to it, we're going to also have to be persuasive. We can change this whole town! It's a newer area, so there's lots to do and lots of records to break.

Anyway, I love you all, and I had a great New Year's with lots of new goals. We need to rely on Him to achieve them, but goals help us grow so much more than passing through life without direction.

Elder Jake Avery

Shepherds, Why this Jubilee? (December 29, 2014)

10 Ways to Find  (January 12, 2015)

Plucking ducks

Happy New Year - Elder Joshua Avery

Written by Elder Joshua Avery, serving in the Singapore Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ, speaking Mandarin Chinese.

(Photos can be enlarged by clicking on them.)

Current area: Ipoh, Malaysia

The sister missionaries found a puppy!

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was full of miracles. Elder Li and I went through all of the former investigators in the area book, picked out ones we felt inspired to visit, and then went out to find them. One investigator we visited told us she didn't want to see us because there was no proof God exists. We promised her that if she met with us on Saturday, we would show her the evidence. We taught her this weekend and the lesson went really well. She committed to reading and praying. Her prayer was really heart felt. Near the close of her prayer she said, "I really hope you are real." I pray she will read, pray, and be receptive as the Spirit testifies of God's existence. We biked all day, and everyone we visited wasn't home or didn't have interest other than her, but it was so worth it.

We visited a person who has been investigating the church for like 15 years. I asked if we could share a message and she said no. She didn't want to hear from us. I don't remember everything I shared with her or what Elder Li shared, but the root of what we told her was that we are inviting her to come to Christ, not to our church. We told her that we aren't the teachers, but if she reads the Book of Mormon and prays to know if it is true, God will teach her that it is true. The whole lesson was in Chinese, and I understood it all and could share everything I felt I needed to say. I didn't understand any of the other lessons this week, but the Spirit was super strong for that one. We went in with her saying she didn't want to hear from us, and left with a return appointment and a commitment from her to read and pray about the Book of Mormon.

Elder Bednar said, "If you have a testimony you might fall away, a testimony is NOT enough, but if you are converted you will never fall away." I saw a great example of this yesterday. We were visiting a less active family. We were sharing with them about the Book of Mormon and how we can find out for ourselves if it is true. After I shared this, the father said, "I know it is true." He then shared that when he was a young boy he had a vision and saw angels. He said that it looked much like the painting we have of the Second Coming, where Christ is coming and the angels are blowing their trumpets. And so he has never doubted our church is true. We then asked him if he would read and pray. He said he wouldn't make any promises, but he would try. Maybe he will follow through, maybe he won't, but either way a great lesson is learned. A testimony is not the most important part, conversion is.

I have been getting down and discouraged about learning Chinese. I think my faith has been lacking. This week I have been reading and, time and time again, God has been telling me that I will learn this language. I think that as I have listened to the promptings of the Spirit, and have exercised my faith, I have pleased the Lord. I am seeing results and have seen a lot of improvement in my language this week. I have had miracles with this language and I feel better about it. Don't get me wrong, I am still stressing myself out (I have the canker sores to prove it), but I am doing better.

Love you all,

Feng Zhang Lao

Merry Christmas from Malaysia  (December 29, 2014)

The REAL Banana Leaf  (January 12, 2015)

First Sunday of 2015 in Ipoh, Malaysia

Elder Li and Elder Avery - Singapore Mission

Rains....ALL.THE.TIME!

There is no shortage of delicious food!

Miracles and Transfers - Elder Brian Burgess

Written by Elder Brian Burgess, serving in the Mexico Puebla North Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Spanish.

Present from my bishop, a nice tie.

HEY EVERYONE!!

AMAZING WEEK!! On Monday we got a call from a member who just got back from a mission in Argentina! Super cool brother! So he tells us that the stake president's daughter has a referral for us to teach. Pamela, the stake president's daughter who lives in the ward by mine, in the Alamos ward, has as a friend named L**, who lives in our ward, and our area. L** went to church with Pamela on Sunday and then brother Kevin, (the returned missionary) taught her about the Restoration that same day. On Tuesday we met her and taught her part of The Gospel of Jesus Christ. And then, in that same appointment, we scheduled a baptismal date with her. She will be baptized on the 31st of this month. She is what we call, a GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR! Throughout the week, we visited with her 3 times and she is progressing amazingly! She has a ton of questions and is loving everything! We invited her to pray about the church, and she told us her amazing spiritual experience that she had by the next day. I am still in shock!

So then, on Wednesday, we were super excited after a very struggling 4 months in our area, and Elder Mendoza and I having seen many small miracles, but nothing compared to L**. Then in the lunch appointment we get a call....

Pamela (far left), L** (Our golden investigator), Elder Mendoza and Me

Caller ID - Assistants......Elder Kenney, "Elder Burgess how are you?" to which I replied, "Doing great, Elder Kenney. What's up?" "Elder, pass the phone to your companion...." .... About 30 seconds later he hands me the phone back and tells me, "Elder, I have transfers and I am going to train!" I replied, "Sweet! Congrats, Elder." Then he gave me a muffled voice, saddened response, "Elder Kenney wants to talk to you." WHAT COULD I HAVE POSSIBLY DONE? haha! "Hey Elder Kenney," I said. Then he said, "Elder Burgess your companion is going to train and he has transfers. And you also have transfers. Two new Zone Leaders will be replacing you both." At that moment, ice hit my heart, "But Elder, we just a baptism with a golden investigator!" Then he responded, to end the call, "I am sorry Elder."

Tomorrow my companion and I will be leaving the area. I understand that President Christensen recieves revelation about whether we should have transfers or not. I was a little sad at first, but I trust in President's decision.

My time here in the Resurgimiento Ward is up, and L** will be taught now by the new missionaries. I am still happy that I found her and was able to see a miracle in my life, and that change in hers.

I testify that the church is true! President Monson IS the prophet that God has chosen to lead and guide the church today! May we all be humble and obedient to the things that he says, for it is if the Lord said it himself.

 Transfers are tomorrow.

¡QUE TENGAN UNA SEMANA MARAVILLOSA!

Elder Burgess

Christmas in Mexico (December 29, 2015)

Don't Try This At Home  (January 19, 2015)

Drunk People and Flaming Explosives - Elder Kolby Madsen

Written by Elder Kolby Madsen, serving in the Denmark Copenhagen Mission of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, speaking Danish.

Service - Denmark Copenhagen Mission

Mor!

OK, so yeah, just keep me posted on UVU.  If I have to take an acuplacer, I am going to need to study when I get home because I can’t remember anything when it comes to Math or English,  as you can see from my emails! If there is a Danish section, I will nail it! Just kidding! Well, it's great to hear that the girls had a good time. Seems like they had fun up with Dad as well.




Here in Denmark for New Year's you have three things that go down:

1. Food, and lots of it.  Everyone usually just get way stuffed and then eat some more. They say that the average Dane gains about 5 kilos around Christmas and New Year’s, but then they just starve themselves in the following months and get back to the way they were before. In all honesty, I am sick of eating.  I thought I would never say that in my life, but it's true. So sick of eating beef right now. It's great though because we just eat vegetables, haha :)

2. Alcohol, and lots of it. Everyone (except us and members, of course) drink so much here, it's ridiculous.

3. My favorite, fireworks! Whoot whoot! The best thing is, they're not like the little things that most families buy back home for the 4th of July. They're like WHAT I BUY for the 4th of July, except every family buys them.  The sky is lit up! It's great! But, naturally, when you get a country full of drunk people with flaming explosives, things happen. We have so many apartment complex areas that are now missing mail boxes and stuff. But hey, it was a great New Year celebration, haha. I love it. It’s like a war zone on clean-up right now. But traditions are great in this country.

We had a great time at the bishop's house.  We had some way good stuff happen.  We were about to bring a friend of ours to his house to enjoy the fireworks that our bishop has. He actually drives to Germany, so he bought some good stuff down there, haha. It was so much fun!

Elder Madsen photo bomb

We also had a great appointment with one of our other friends who come from Brazil.  She is great.  We had a New Year’s Day party at her house, and that was way fun.

This week, because of the holiday, it was a little slow. But we got things going.  It’s been a little crazy around here, but things are about to settle down and we can start killing it again.! The Christmas season has really paid off for the mission.  We have more than 3 times the amount of baptismal invitations for the month of January then we had last year. And last year was a record, with more baptismal invitations than in over ten years, so that was great.

We were able to help some people with service and do our thing this week. The Lord's work goes forward. One of our friends who is on his way back, got his wisdom teeth out for his mission papers this week. The guy has done a full 180 from the first time I saw him.  He is so great. He will be a great missionary. love him. It just goes to show that it does not matter what state people are in, or what their circumstances are. With a ward (family) that has open arms and are willing to help "the one," miracles happen.  People’s hearts are changed, and it does not only effect that one person, but all who will come in contact with him and the people he come in contact with. Life is like a big network, but not to get worldly gain or recognition, but to help those around us. To make a difference, one choice at a time. We are here to learn and grow, to progress and to understanding. We can’t do that if we are not helping others!


Elder Kolby Madsen

Jule Gaver (December 29, 2014)

Talking With God  (January 12, 2015)