Kota Kinabalu - 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.

Elders Avery and Spurrier with friends in Singapore

Dear Family and Friends,

Missionary work seriously is the best thing that anyone could ever do. I wish I could do it full-time for my whole life. Everything else in life is way less significant. I wish that I could help everyone get off their phones, take their earbuds out, and focus on the things that actually matter.

This week I decide to increase my faith by taking more "me" time. That sounds really odd, but we need to take care of our own spirituality if we want to help others. I have been feeling a little drained because I have been spending almost all of my personal study time studying help to other people. Because Elder Spurrier is awesome and we are good at getting ready quick, we are starting to get ready by 8:00 so that we can start studies 20 min earlier. I love it because it gives me more time to read the Book of Mormon for myself. There are a lot of good things to read, but nothing does it for me like the Book of Mormon. It brings a closeness with God that I cannot get anywhere else.

I absolutely love taking the Zone Leaders on exchanges. At first it was pretty intimidating because I felt really inadequate, but now it is feeling more natural and we are seeing a lot of crazy miracles from it.

Earlier in the week Elder Spurrier and I flew to KK (Kota Kinabalu) to work with Elder Leavitt and Elder Loh. This was my first time doing missionary work in East Malaysia. It was a blast and a way spiritually uplifting experience. I know next to zero Malay which makes things difficult when we have to go to Malay speaking areas, but is okay because then I can only talk to people who know English (they are usually the more educated people). In the taxi on the way to the KK elders' apartment I only asked Elder Spurrier to teach me one phrase in Malay, "Kamu mahu dibaptiskan kah?," or in English, "Do you want to be baptized?"

Tallest and smallest in the mission :)

Elder Leavitt had some questions on how to plan effectively and how to daily follow-up with everyone he is working with. He seems to have it figured out now. We spent the whole day working the goldmine by visiting less active members and talking to everyone on the way. Elder Leavitt and I must have invited at least 50 people to be baptized because that is all that I knew how to say, haha! We had a lot of people who said yes to our baptismal invitation. Their number of new investigators for the week was thirteen, which is amazing! They said that they only had two from the exchange and all the rest were just by having a better follow-up. I think they are going to be able to start baptizing a lot moving forward. They both work really hard.

Towards the end of the week we took the Singapore Zone Leaders on an exchange. I got to go with Elder Roundy, and I think we both learned a lot from it. He benefited a lot from his exchange with Elder Cocq and is feeling a lot more comfortable talking with Singaporeans. He is a very experienced elder and knows all the things he needs to do. I think the exchange was just an energy boost for him. He was really happy and he talked to a lot of people. They ended up doubling their PIs (potential investigators) this week and exceeded the standard of excellence for new investigators this week. They will continue to see that success if they continue talking to everyone.

Miracle of the week for Woodlands: This week we were running a little late and decided we had to taxi to our appointment. We got into the taxi and it ended up being a Singaporean Chinese guy who studied over in the UK. He was really smart and was listening to the Piano Guys (one of the few times we didn't have to tell the taxi driver to turn the music off). He is a free thinker but still open to other religions. He was really amazed by what we were doing and is going to let the missionaries in his area share with him and his wife.

This week we had something kind of awkward happen. A ward leader asked us to "slow down a little bit" because he is getting feedback from members that we were pushing them too hard. Because we are trying to get the whole ward moving at a fast pace, we have a handful of members that are right there with us and love it, and then some others who are not excited about it.

I probably had the most awkward lesson of my mission earlier this week. It was a dinner appointment with a member, so I didn't expect it to be anything unusual. But after dinner we shared the Restoration with the family and invited them to share it with their friends. One of the members in the family got really upset with us and said, "That doesn't work in Asian culture! If people want the Gospel, they will see the light of Christ in me and ask me about the Gospel." Thankfully, very few of the members have that kind of perspective.

We know most of the members in the ward now. And for some reason it is always the same members who are excited to teach with us, and they have some of the busiest lives too, haha! It is still a work in progress, but it has improved a lot.

Love you all,
Elder Avery

Be Honest with Yourself (April 18, 2016)

Baptism and Travels  (May 2, 2016)

Be Honest with Yourself - 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 friend from Sitiawan, now in Singapore

Dear Family and Friends,

This week I increased my faith by trying to be more honest. I can't think of anything that gauges how prideful we are more accurately than our level of honesty. There are so many different levels of honesty. It can be things as simple as making things seem better or worse than they are, covering your mistakes, telling only parts of the truth, or a complete and blatant lie. I've noticed that there is no one that I deceive more than myself. Being honest with yourself is the first step to self-improvement. You can't know where you are really at and what you have to work on if you are not honest with yourself. When our motives are not the best, when we justify our sins, or when we turn a blind eye to our weaknesses and shortcomings we need to catch it or we will never change. I have full faith that no matter who we are and where we are in life, God can help us to change and become who we want to be, but the only way to access the Atonement and improve is by being honest with yourself and others.

This week we had many miracles. To keep it simple I will list them briefly:

1) We had a member come to a lesson, but the investigator we were planning on meeting with canceled. After saying a prayer with the member we found someone to teach on the spot.

2) We had a really awesome lesson with an investigator named Sa** who has been really tough in the past.

3) We get to work with Elder Ch**, and things are going great despite his current physical condition.

4) We were only one member present lesson shy of our goal, despite only having three full days of proselyting.

5) We had two of our investigators who are on date come to church.

We are still teaching the members regularly. They seem to be getting really pumped. Not only is it helping the work, but we are getting fed the most I have ever had on the mission. We had multiple members report to us this week that they had given out the Restoration pamphlets we had given them.

We did not get as many referrals as we wanted this week, so we definitely need to work on being more persistent with the members when we are asking for referrals. Overall I am so impressed with the Woodlands Ward. It is so nice to be in a ward :) I will never take being in a ward for granted again!

Love you,
Elder Joshua Avery

In the Woodlands (April 11, 2016)

Kota Kinabalu  (April 25, 2016)

Elder Spurrier

Elders Avery and Lloyd

Sitiawan Crew

Elders Wimmer and Avery

The MerLion and Marina Bay, Singapore

In the Woodlands - 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.

Elders Spurrier and Avery - Singapore Mission

Dear Family and Friends,

We are seeing a lot of success in the Woodlands Ward. One of the nice things about serving in a ward is I don't have to worry about the church functioning properly in the area I serve. Church meetings run without me having to worry about anything.

I am increasing my faith by striving to apply the teachings and revelation I received during General Conference. I especially loved Elder Holland's talk about preparing for tomorrow. I think the future has definitely always been one of my biggest fears, because sometimes I question my ability to be the servant God wants me to be. The great news is that God blesses us for trying, God loves us no matter what, and God wants to bless us. Moving forward with faith ultimately comes from faith in both the redemptive and enabling powers of the atonement. The only failure comes from not trying to take our discipleship to a higher level.

This week I went on exchanges with Elder Riddle from the KL (Kuala Lumpur) Zone and Elder Stenquist from the Sibu Zone. I am so impressed with a lot of the missionaries in our mission.

Elder Riddle and I had a great exchange. I feel like he does a great job of talking to everyone and teaching while he finds. While on the exchange with Elder Riddle we had an awesome miracle. We were meeting with a member to teach him the Restoration. Before we went to the lesson, Elder Riddle and I said a prayer that we would be able to find someone we could teach during that appointment with the member. We were meeting the member at one of the MRT stations. When we arrived to the MRT station we had the member say a prayer that we would find someone to attend our lesson with him. When he finished his prayer Elder Riddle and I both felt impressed to talk to the same person. We ended up being able to persuade this person to sit in on our lesson with the member. The guy we found did not seem super interested, but I feel like it was a priceless experience for the member who was with us.

Elder Stenquist and I had a lot of appointments fall through on our exchange, which was alright because we ended up doing a lot of finding because of it. Elder Stenquist said that the things he learned the most on the exchange was asking good questions as we find people, and teaching while we find. I think that he does a great job of talking to everyone and I think he loved being able to contact people who are educated enough to have a good gospel conversation. It felt really good to be around Elder Stenquist. Exchanging with him increased my faith.

We had a lot of member appointments this week and we had multiple new investigators from part member and less active families this week. I think the members are really starting to trust us. We are mainly just sharing very brief Restoration lessons with them and inviting them to invite their friends to listen. It seems to have pretty good success. We will also be meeting the young men in the ward this week. We only have three young men right now and that needs to change! haha. The members here are awesome.

Love,
Elder Joshua Avery

Singapore! (April 4, 2016)

Be Honest with Yourself  (April 18, 2016)

Singapore! - 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.

(Elder Avery was transferred this week to Singapore, where he will be serving as an Assistant to President Simmons.) 

It's hard to step into the shoes of such a great missionary!

Dear Family and Friends,

Passing over the Mission Book....aaauugghh!

This week was crazy! Everything is so fast paced. I am definitely in need of the enabling power of the Atonement if I want to go at the pace we would like to go. I miss KL (Kuala Lumpur) and Elder Schwemmer, but I am excited for the new opportunities and experiences ahead. I never thought I would serve in a ward on my mission! My new companion is Elder Spurrier from Cottonwood Heights, and he speaks Malay. However, we will be attending an English ward, wearing English nametags (had to order one for me).

This week I have increased my faith by trusting God more, and looking forward more. It is so easy to let "what ifs?" and "I wish I had..." control you. This is the most inadequate I have ever felt in my entire life, but I have a testimony that this new assignment comes from the Lord. While Elder Spurrier and I were teaching a member about the Restoration I felt the Spirit really strong, and received the witness I have been looking for, confirming that this assignment comes from the Lord. I am so excited to be serving in the Woodlands Ward. We have amazing members. We will be visiting all of the members this transfer and sharing the Restoration (video) with them. I think that will get them fired up! We already have a couple members who seem way excited to do missionary work.

This week we went to go visit a former investigator named Sa**. When Elder Spurrier called her to confirm the appointment she was less than excited to meet, but Elder Spurrier was able to talk her into letting us stop by. When we arrived for the lesson we only had a couple minutes because we had gotten lost earlier in the day. We went into the lesson said a prayer and sang, "I am a Child of God." After we finished singing she broke down crying. She told us she was so happy that we had come and set an appointment for us to come back and teach her whole family. Her parents from Indonesia also live with her. While she was saying the closing prayer in Indonesian (I couldn't understand it), she and her father were crying. It was clear that the Spirit had touched both of their hearts. I was so grateful to God for helping them to feel His love. We didn't say anything important, but the Spirit did. Because Elder Spurrier speaks Indonesian we will be able to teach the parents also.

We have an awesome investigator from Bangladesh who will hopefully be baptized this month. His English is really good and he is already Christian. Every commitment we give him he runs with. He committed to never work a Sunday for the rest of his life. I am so happy for him :)

We also found an awesome new investigator named Br**. He is Malaysian Chinese. He is Christian but has never been baptized. I am excited to see how he progresses.

We called all of the members and asked them what their favorite color is, and tried to set an appointment with them to teach the Restoration. Some of the members seem way excited about it. We will be going over to a FHE (Family Home Evening) with a family tonight. In 3rd hour of church we gave all of the members Restoration pamphlets to give out and committed them to give it out and invite a friend to General Conference. We also had a couple members do some finding with us after lessons. My favorite thing was when we were able to help a prospective missionary place a Book of Mormon with a family after one of our appointments. I can feel the fire growing here in Woodlands!

Love you all!
Elder Avery

Our Little Piece of the Vineyard (March 28, 2016)

In the Woodlands  (April 11, 2016)

Our Office

Elders Avery, Riddle and Spurrier - Singapore Mission

Our Little Piece of Vinyard - 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

Patronus Towers, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Dear Family and Friends,

I would have rather taught more than one lesson this week, but I know that we did our part in talking to everyone, working with the branch, and following up with our investigators everyday. The worst part is when we teach people who feel the Spirit when we meet them and are super interested, commit to an appointment, and then they decide they are no longer interested for a totally invalid reason after we leave. Yesterday we were reading Jacob 5 before church. I couldn't help but feel the same way when the master of the vineyard says in sorrow, "what more could I have done for my vineyard?" I consider Puchong to be a choice spot of land in the vineyard. I know that it is capable of producing fruit because the English elders are thriving.

I am going to increase my faith by only worrying about what I can control. In missionary work we can't control the culture, climate, traffic, transportation, rules, language, and choices people make. We can however choose our attitude, how we adapt, how we feel, what we say, our level of obedience, and our commitment to Christ. All the worry in the world over things we can't control will never do anything. I know that by submitting to the will of God, by being patient and long-suffering with what we can't control, God will strengthen us to have a positive and optimistic attitude.

This week we went to visit a less active family. Near the family's house we saw a lady and her daughter come out of their car and try to scurry into the house before we could say anything...they were too slow, haha! We introduced ourselves to the mom, who tried to shew us away. We were persistent and kept at it. We knew there had to be an underlying concern. She finally said, "You're Jehovah's Witnesses, aren't you!?"  "Nope," we replied. "Are you sure?" she asked (haha!). "Yes!" we answered. We told her we were from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She let us in and introduced her to her husband Jo**. We started by asking about their religious background. They had to be some of the longest wind people I have ever met, haha! They just went off and told us their whole life story and we could not get a word in. Normally I would have just butted in, but we felt like we were just supposed to listen politely until they ran out of things to say. That was quite a struggle for me. God was helping me a lot with that. When they finished talking, they said that although they were not very interested in church that they were praying to help their 16 year old son J** to find a church, and that they feel we are an answer to their prayer. Jo** told us, "Even though you two haven't said anything this whole time, you have brought a really good feeling into our home." He then turned the time to us. We only had two minutes left, so after an opening prayer we shared a scripture from The Book of Mormon that met their needs and then asked the father to say a prayer. In his prayer he thanked God that we came and helped him and his family to have a very light feeling. Jo** came to church yesterday and we look forward to meeting them again this week.

We have launched the new branch initiative and we have a new branch mission leader. We have a sign up list for members to come do missionary work with us. We have a couple people signed up this week, so if we can't get any lessons for that time slot, we will have them drive us to visit some of the 100 less active members in the branch. That will help a lot because public transportation here is very poor.

Thanks for everything! Gotta go!

Love,
Elder Avery

Vision (March 21, 2016)

Singapore!  (April 4, 2016)

Vision - 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,

It was another great week in Malaysia. We prayed asking for lawyers and low and behold we get on the bus and sat next to two Chinese law students. You get what you go for in life.

Elder Schwemmer did really great this week. We play tennis every morning. I'm still not any good at it. His main concern seems to be the language, but I think he is doing great! It's hard and just takes time.

Earlier this week I was feeling stressed and a little overwhelmed because the work is going slower than I feel it could.Then during one of my personal studies I flipped through the hymn book and read through the hymn, "I Believe in Christ." The last verse really spoke to me where it says, "I believe in Christ, so come what may..." I really felt much better after reading and pondering that. If we believe in Christ and are obedient it really doesn't matter what is ahead because it will all be for our good and will work out in the end.

I strengthened my faith this week by working on a zone vision with Elder Riddle, and working on a branch mission vision with the other elders in the branch. Our branch vision is to reach 120 attendance at sacrament meeting and maintaining over 100 attendance for 3 consecutive months. To achieve this we will be focusing on 3 areas: 1) home and visiting teaching, especially to part member and less active families 2) a new referral sheet that will be on a table outside the chapel 3) a teaching sign-up list that will allow members to sign up for a time to teach with us during the week. We will try to schedule a lesson for that time, but if we can't schedule a lesson for that time or the investigator cancels, we will go home teaching with the member or go visit a less active that we haven't met. Every time a member does their home teaching, gives a referral, or signs up to teach with us, they get to put a marble in a jar. When we fill the jar as a branch, there will be a big branch party. We are looking to launch it this week. Hopefully the branch will use it. We will have to follow-up on it like crazy if it is going to work.

Yesterday after church, Elder Schwemmer and I went contacting. It was raining and we were getting soaked, but we were behind on our finding goals and were determined to find prepared people. We ended up finding a lot of prepared people. One of them was the owner of a nice coffee shop near the church. We have seen a lot of success in contacting as we have been inviting people to quit smoking if they're smoking while we talk to them. Even a lot of hardhearted Chinese man will listen to us when we explain how Christ can give them the strength to quit and take control of their lives, and of course baptism sounds appealing to someone like them who wishes they could have a "do over." After good success in contacting we got a call from a potential investigator who we ended up wanting to meet right then. We ended up being able to perfectly hit our goals as well as our new investigator goal, and we surpassed our goal for baptismal invitations.

The branch is very willing to help. We are hoping our branch vision will be able to help. All in all things are in a good direction. I feel like I am starting to get a "feel" for the branch and the area now. I think we will really be able to hit hard going into next transfer.

Thanks for everything!
Elder Avery

MLC in Kuching, East Malaysia (March 14, 2016)

Our Little Piece of the Vineyard  (March 28, 2016)

Elder Schwemmer

I have mission supplies!

Ballet with pigeons :)

MLC in Kuching, East Malaysia - 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.

First Chapel I've seen in Malaysia (Kuching)

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was so awesome! Being trained by Elder Brent H. Neilson was definitely the highlight. He is the head of the missionary department for the whole world. I am so glad I took good notes. I feel like I will have things to refer back to for years to come. I'd say the best part of his whole visit though was the prayer Elder Neilson offered at the end of the MLC (Missionary Leadership Training) in Kuching. The Spirit was so powerful, I couldn't help but be overcome with emotion. I want to be able to pray with that level of faith, love, and real intent. I think that like most things in the gospel, praying in that manner falls in the category of things that cannot be taught, but can be learned.

One of my favorite things that Elder Neilson shared with us was about using the "Gold Mine"or less-active members to find. We are increasing our faith by acting in all diligence with this counsel. Yesterday we printed off the branch list and went through it with our branch president. We have enough less-active members to where we will never have to wonder what we want to do. We are coordinating our efforts with the YSA (Young Single Adults) who recently made a YSA reactivation plan. I feel that will be especially effective because many of the people on that list are in the 15 - 25 year old target group. Included on that list are children of record and many part member families. We have been asked by our branch president to make a branch mission plan/vision. I think that will help us to follow Proverbs 29:18. I think that if we tackle this tactfully and pull together with the branch we will begin to see some epic success here in the Puchong Branch.

We are also increasing our faith by looking for a lawyer. We asked the branch presidency what they feel they need in the branch and they say a lawyer. I guess they have men of many professions in the KL (Kuala Lumpur) district but no lawyer...not sure how to find one but we will.

As Elder Schwemmer and I were thinking of how we could more effectively find educated kingdom building investigators, we thought about the University down the street from our apartment. We decided to go to the University to see if we could talk to someone from some sort of Religious Studies department and organize something where we could share. Sadly, we went to the University to find the front door locked with a bunch of chains and a padlock through the door handles...that explains a lot. But it was Saturday, so what can you expect? We will try again later this week.

We had a miracle this week as Elder Riddle and I were trying to make it back home after our late night flight from Kuching (MLC was in Kuching, and that was my first time in East Malaysia). Our flight didn't land until nearly midnight and by then we were beat and wanted to get home. I had personally never made the trip to the airport and back, so I was not sure of the best way to get to and from there. The Sister Training Leaders suggested the bus. We went to buy bus tickets but the next bus was not till 12:30. Elder Riddle and I both felt that although a taxi would be really expensive, it would be the better option. So we went and got a taxi. While we were doing that, we remembered that the bus goes to KL central and, because it was so late, there would be no trains. I'm sure that we could have found a taxi or something from KL Central to where we needed to go, but I was thankful that God was able to guide us to make the best decision.

This week was awesome! Full of instruction and revelation. Thanks for all that you do. Hope you all have an awesome week!

Here's a link about our conference: http://www.mormonnewsroom.my/article/general-authority-tour-of-the-singapore-mission

Love,
Elder Avery

Working Hard in Malaysia (March 7, 2016)

Vision  (March 21, 2016)

Elder Riddle

P-day Fun!

The Patronus Towers, Kuala Lumpur

At the chapel in Kuching

Working Hard in Malaysia - 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.

Elders Schwemmer and Avery in Singapore

Dear Family and Friends,

I have increased my faith this week by working hard to achieve our goals. Yesterday was Fast Sunday and by evening we were very hungry. As much as I wanted to go home and eat, I knew we were still four potentials short of our goal. We said a prayer and I was committed not to go home until we had found our four people. After many rejections we were able to receive 3 referrals from 3 different people and find someone who was interested. I felt really good after that. Sometimes it is easy to be satisfied with being just a little shy of your goal, but you feel 10x better if you work diligently till the final hour and achieve it.

This past week I went on an exchange with Elder Berry from West Virginia. He is an awesome missionary. I think Singapore was a refiner's fire for him. I am very impressed with the work he is doing there. He said that he was struggling with the invitation that Elder Riddle and I gave the zone to invite one person to be baptized a day. We said a prayer and ended up being able to invite multiple people to be baptized and we found a lot of people who showed real interest. He is an awesome missionary and leader to his district. I think that Elder Hansen is teaching him a lot too.

Elder Scwemmer and I have a new investigator named M** T** who is awesome and I think will progress a lot. I was unable to be there for this past lesson but, Elder Schwemmer said that she has read up to chapter 10 in the Book of Mormon after 1 week. That is awesome. Those who read and pray come to church. And those who do all three of those things get baptized.

Our member work has slowed down a little bit. That is mainly our fault. We have not been visiting members like we should. That really is the key. If they see and hear from the elders they help the elders, but if they don't see or hear from them the elders are on their own. We have some repentance to do. I think that this upcoming Zone Conference with Elder Neilson will be insightful, and I hope I can learn more about how to work more effectively with the branch.

Thanks for everything,
Elder Avery

Sweetened and Condensed...Like Milk (February 29, 2016)

MLC in Kuching, East Malaysia  (March 14, 2016)