McKayd LaRose Mission: October 2017

Hello to the World!!

The Ibon Necklace!!

This week was super! Lots of experiences to share, but no time at all! On Tuesday we were just about the finish the day up when we ran into this guy names Jeffery. Turns out, he spoke a little English! That just seems foreign to me now haha. He said he was living in Bintulu for work. We asked him what his purpose was in this life. He responded, "Do be a good person, and do serve my country." That is such a good desire! Our whole purpose as a missionary is to add to his righteous desires. We explained to him about the Book of Mormon, and how it simply adds to the truths that he treasures. He responded, "Can I have one?" It was so cool. He said, "Thank you very much. I was just sitting here waiting for my friends, but I think God had a different purpose and He sent you to me." Me and my companion where on the verge of tears. What a remarkable experience.

As we were walking down the street, we saw a man with a flame torch cooking a full blown pig. It was the craziest and coolest thing I have ever seen haha. I have the video that my mom can send out later!!

Sunsets and Missionary Work

This week I learned a huge life lesson that is such a simple principle. We have been working with a less active family in our branch. They are struggling to find work and haven't gone to church in months. When we visited with them and they were listing a bunch of reasons why they were too busy and stressed with finding work, we asked, "Do you pray and read your scriptures everyday?" Then the expected answer came, "sometimes, but not everyday." If we feel stress or experience hardships in our lives, how can we expect God to help us, when we don't have the time to talk to Him each day, or read from His sacred word? We must show our faith, do the little things, and God will take care of the rest. It was a great lesson to learn!

Oh you know. Just those white guys.

My dear mother has asked me to answer these questions. Here we go haha:

1: What do you wear for pajamas?
- I have made an oath to never wear long sleeves or sweatpants again in my life. You will wake up in the morning thinking you just took a shower, when in reality it is just sweat. Gross, I know.
2. How often are you on your bike?
- Normally never. Because our area is just apartments, we ride our bikes to the Church (5 minute bike ride), lock them up there, and start walking for the next 8 hours!! This is our area.

3. How big is your church building?
- Our Church building isn't actually a church building. It is a shop lot. It is basically like a storage unit but bigger. I will take a picture of it later. The inside looks like a mini chapel haha.

Random facts about Malaysia:
1. Remember those speed bumps around malls and such? They have them EVERYWHERE in Malaysia. A lot of people like to drag race haha.
2 Have you ever seen an open sewage system? Well, I have. Malaysia has open sewage systems all around. Beautiful sunset. Beautiful poop pond. Whaa?? Yep. That is not a luxurious lake, but where all the extract from the species of the apartments flows into. Great, right? Had to take a pic.

3. Have you ever put your cereal in the fridge? Ants love ANYTHING that ANYONE leaves open or at least keeps out in the open. Putting it in the fridge prevents all those 100s of ants that could invade a cereal box!
4. Have you ever needed to have 3 filters on your water system? I have now!!

Thank you to all who have the time to read my emails. Sorry they have been so short this week, I hope to get them going again. I will try to respond to everyone as well, it is just hard with the time limit to email.

Love you all!!
Love, Elder McKayd LaRose

Hello friends and family!

This week was very nice!!

Finishing up from my last email, Singapore was so fun! There are a lot of cool places to visit.

In the mall, there was a river going through it and a whirlpool at the end! How crazy is that??

China town was also fun. There are so many cultures to appreciate in the world! Singapore is basically New York but a lot cleaner :) Really fun!

During Zone Conference (training for missionaries), President Simmons gave a great talk. He said: "The Lord gives us challenges that He knows we can overcome. The mission (or our lives) will use our strengths to test our weaknesses, and our weaknesses will test our strengths." That is so true! We do not know the meaning of all things. But we MUST love God enough to trust Him. Trust Him that when bad things happen, its not His fault. Trust Him enough to say, "Thy will be done, oh Lord not mine."

While I was also in Singapore, I discovered something that impacted the rest of my mission...more physically than spiritually. I walked into the Singapore Mission office to see Matt Dyer standing there with a 51 lb suitcase full of sweets from the US!! I was in Heaven!!! Take a look in the pictures below! The suitcase was filled with so many amazing things! From Spits (sun flower seeds) to Cadbury Eggs!

Thank you so much to all those who contributed!! I will thank each and everyone of you individually next week!! My mom has been concerned with how skinny I am becoming. So, this was a wonderful idea to fatten me up. Look mom, our dinners are so healthy now!

Seriously though, other than reading scriptures and bring people closer to Christ, a missionaries favorite thing is to receive a package or letter from home!!

We had the privilege and opportunity to fly to Kuching to be in the presence of a member of the Seventy (Elder Meurs) and the Church Historian, Elder Snow! Elder Snow expanded my mind of the history of the Church, and how sacred some of the early records are!

He expressed with fervent testimony of the reality of the Restoration and First Vision. "We are not moving away from Joseph Smith. Stay anchored to the reality of the Restoration." Every single person who has come in contact with the church can know for themselves of the reality of the Restoration. "No one can go around the bar of faith that demands of them to ask God if the Restoration is true." Really great thoughts!

Also had some traumatic experiences this week. Some advice for the kids. Don't wear band-aids in Malaysia. It doesn't work the same as America. The humidity is the killer. Look at my finger! Crazy.

Also, a very long time ago my mommy made a little salad for Elder McKayd LaRose. It was from our garden, so she was very excited. Turns out there was a caterpillar in my salad. I was scared for the rest of my life. It took me YEARS to finally eat a salad again. Well turns out, October 21st, 2017, there was a bug in my curry. It wasn't a little bug. It was a really big bug. I refused to take a picture. It was a great memory of the tragedy of my childhood :)

I hope everyone is doing well!!! Thanks for everyone and all their support!!! See ya next week!!

Love, Elder McKayd LaRose