COMPANIONS:
MEMBERS:
WEEK #30 - The Trio from Rio
Hello everyone! This week was a great one. We had interviews with President Simmons on Tuesday. It was great to see him and I am appreciative of all he does for the Singapore mission!
the Trio from Rio
On Wednesday, we taught our investigator named Calvin. He has a Buddhist background and is trying to learn more about Christianity. We taught him about how we can apply the Book of Mormon into our lives. In 1 Nephi chapter 2 verse 16, it says, "And it came to pass that I Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know the mysteries of God..." We related that to him by saying, "you are like Nephi, buff and wanting to know about God haha". He works out at the gym so that gave him a good laugh :)
We met with the Kong family again, and they fed us some very good Vietnamese food. We talked about the plan of salvation (God's plan or purpose for us) with emphasis on eternal families. I am so thankful for the opportunity that we have to connect with God through Temples. Temples are the House of God. Inside, we make sacred promises that bind us to our families and to our Heavenly Father forever. Through our faithfulness, we can experience the blessings of the Temple in this life, and in the life to come.
When I was young, my mother would always take me to see the Temple before I went to school. We would sing the primary song "I love to see the Temple, I am going there someday." I never knew how much that would mean to me. As I've been out here in Malaysia, seeing members yearning to go to the Temple, saving up every ounce of their money to enter into the House of the Lord, it brings gratitude to my heart to have had that experience every day before I went to school.
On Friday, We met with Mesvern and helped Him understand the importance of church. He said that he's too busy to come to church. We did a little math problem with him :) Let's say someone gets 8 hours of sleep. That is 16 hours. There are 112 waking hours in our week. The Lord only asks for 4 hours (3 at church and 1-hour meeting with the missionaries) which is about 3.5% of our week. If we are too busy to give less than 5% of our week to the Lord, then we must reconsider our priorities. We must remember our priority is first to the Lord and then everything else. He liked that math problem a lot ;)
lunch with other missionaries
We received the news that Edmund will be moving to Penang, which is a different part of West Malaysia. He will be taking on a physics job at a college university! We emphasized the importance of continuing to read, pray, and attending church even when we are busy!
That night we met with Lynn and her husband. He is from Ghana! He has seen missionaries there too haha. It was his birthday so we sang happy birthday to him and had some good Filipino dishes. We shared with them about the Plan of Salvation, and how they as husband and wife can live together forever as they live according to Jesus Christ's teachings.
Church was wonderful. I had my first opportunity to pass the sacrament in Malaysia! It was an honor. As I stood there passing the sacrament I thought to myself, "I have the honor of standing as one who bears the body and blood of the Savior himself." To me, Jesus Christ passing the sacrament to His Apostles has the same sacredness as a deacon passing the sacrament to his fellow disciples of Christ. It was a cool thought!
One of the speakers gave a great talk. She said, "When we walk into a dark room, what is the first thing we do? Of course, we turn on the light! It would be silly to try and move around in the dark. That is why we have light. So who is our light? It's Jesus Christ :) We must turn on His light and dispel the darkness. We can try doing it alone, but we will be left with confusion and disappointment. Only through His light can we find ourselves, even in the darkest of places.
We met with Sister Angie, a member of the Cheras branch. We shared the scripture in Mosiah chapter 2 verse 17:
17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."
When we serve others, we serve God! But what blessings come from service? The Lord counsels us to learn wisdom. What is that wisdom? In the topical guide (which is a reference page that links up to other scriptures or similar words), says that wisdom can also mean: discernment, spiritual, Holy Ghost, etc. When we serve others, we learn how to feel the Holy Ghost. Those heaven-like feelings make service so worth it and important!
To finish the night, we went to a big park. I turned on my "crazy missionary" mode and used some creative ways to contact people ;) as someone was jogging towards us, I would ask if I could join and would start running with them. I got to know them and then shared about the Book of Mormon. One person named Eugene accepted! That was the first running PI contact. It was fun :-) I am grateful for the Sabbath day and the blessings of knowing why this is such a holy day. This is His day!
Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for being such a great crowd haha.
Love, Elder McKayd LaRose
the Trio from Rio
On Wednesday, we taught our investigator named Calvin. He has a Buddhist background and is trying to learn more about Christianity. We taught him about how we can apply the Book of Mormon into our lives. In 1 Nephi chapter 2 verse 16, it says, "And it came to pass that I Nephi, being exceedingly young, nevertheless being large in stature, and also having great desires to know the mysteries of God..." We related that to him by saying, "you are like Nephi, buff and wanting to know about God haha". He works out at the gym so that gave him a good laugh :)
We met with the Kong family again, and they fed us some very good Vietnamese food. We talked about the plan of salvation (God's plan or purpose for us) with emphasis on eternal families. I am so thankful for the opportunity that we have to connect with God through Temples. Temples are the House of God. Inside, we make sacred promises that bind us to our families and to our Heavenly Father forever. Through our faithfulness, we can experience the blessings of the Temple in this life, and in the life to come.
When I was young, my mother would always take me to see the Temple before I went to school. We would sing the primary song "I love to see the Temple, I am going there someday." I never knew how much that would mean to me. As I've been out here in Malaysia, seeing members yearning to go to the Temple, saving up every ounce of their money to enter into the House of the Lord, it brings gratitude to my heart to have had that experience every day before I went to school.
On Friday, We met with Mesvern and helped Him understand the importance of church. He said that he's too busy to come to church. We did a little math problem with him :) Let's say someone gets 8 hours of sleep. That is 16 hours. There are 112 waking hours in our week. The Lord only asks for 4 hours (3 at church and 1-hour meeting with the missionaries) which is about 3.5% of our week. If we are too busy to give less than 5% of our week to the Lord, then we must reconsider our priorities. We must remember our priority is first to the Lord and then everything else. He liked that math problem a lot ;)
lunch with other missionaries
We received the news that Edmund will be moving to Penang, which is a different part of West Malaysia. He will be taking on a physics job at a college university! We emphasized the importance of continuing to read, pray, and attending church even when we are busy!
That night we met with Lynn and her husband. He is from Ghana! He has seen missionaries there too haha. It was his birthday so we sang happy birthday to him and had some good Filipino dishes. We shared with them about the Plan of Salvation, and how they as husband and wife can live together forever as they live according to Jesus Christ's teachings.
Church was wonderful. I had my first opportunity to pass the sacrament in Malaysia! It was an honor. As I stood there passing the sacrament I thought to myself, "I have the honor of standing as one who bears the body and blood of the Savior himself." To me, Jesus Christ passing the sacrament to His Apostles has the same sacredness as a deacon passing the sacrament to his fellow disciples of Christ. It was a cool thought!
One of the speakers gave a great talk. She said, "When we walk into a dark room, what is the first thing we do? Of course, we turn on the light! It would be silly to try and move around in the dark. That is why we have light. So who is our light? It's Jesus Christ :) We must turn on His light and dispel the darkness. We can try doing it alone, but we will be left with confusion and disappointment. Only through His light can we find ourselves, even in the darkest of places.
security guard in the lobby
We met with Sister Angie, a member of the Cheras branch. We shared the scripture in Mosiah chapter 2 verse 17:
17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God."
When we serve others, we serve God! But what blessings come from service? The Lord counsels us to learn wisdom. What is that wisdom? In the topical guide (which is a reference page that links up to other scriptures or similar words), says that wisdom can also mean: discernment, spiritual, Holy Ghost, etc. When we serve others, we learn how to feel the Holy Ghost. Those heaven-like feelings make service so worth it and important!
To finish the night, we went to a big park. I turned on my "crazy missionary" mode and used some creative ways to contact people ;) as someone was jogging towards us, I would ask if I could join and would start running with them. I got to know them and then shared about the Book of Mormon. One person named Eugene accepted! That was the first running PI contact. It was fun :-) I am grateful for the Sabbath day and the blessings of knowing why this is such a holy day. This is His day!
Hope everyone has a great week! Thanks for being such a great crowd haha.
Love, Elder McKayd LaRose
WEEK #29 - Crazy Bargain Place
Hello everyone!
This week was the best!
The zone leaders promised that if one companionship got a new investigator (meaning someone who was interested to learn and had met the missionaries at least once) every day for 5 consecutive days, then they would take the whole zone out to Chili's! Well one companionship did it! So we went to the KL towers to get some nice food!
Afterwards we went to the craziest bargain place ever! It's called Pasar seni. There were hundred of shops selling all sorts of stuff! Hats, shoes, watches, wallet, bags, etc. I got a wallet, a watch, and some cologne (or in Asian terms it is called perfume regardless of gender haha)
On Monday night, my companion had a bloody nose. It had been going on for about 4 weeks, so we had to go to the doctors. It was tons of fun. I now have more appreciation for my parents who waited all those long hours in the hospital for me and my siblings!
On Tuesday we had a fire lesson with our investigator named Edmund. We have invited him to church for the past month, but every time he is a little hesitant because he has grown up in another church his whole life. We taught the 10 commandments and specifically emphasized keeping the Sabbath day holy. Keeping the Sabbath day holy is not just a one time attendance at church, but a Savior-like pattern of living on the Sabbath, to prepare you for that same standard of conversion throughout the week. He has been searching for an answer to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as well. We helped him understand that unless he shows his faith and comes to church, it will be very hard to receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true.
On Wednesday we visited a less active named Sister Tiya. She is from Indonesia. We finally had our first lesson in Malay in West Malaysia! It has been about two months since I had a lesson, so it was great to have the language back for a little bit!
The Singapore Mission Office called and told us that a Singapore Elder was finally allowed entrance into Malaysia, so he would be joining us in Cheras until the end of the transfer! I am going to be in another trio!! His name is Elder Graham and he is from Arkansas! He came out at the same time with Elder Tan, so they are great friends. He is planning to play professional football after the mission. When he came on his mission he was 140lbs. Now He is 195lbs. He started weightlifting for 9 months! Crazy right? He is a wonderful elder and can really connect with anyone he meets.
On Thursday we had a lesson with Brother Kong. We had a wonderful lesson about the importance of church. We helped him understand that we go to church for God, not for anyone else! Afterwards they fed us Durian! I am starting to like it! It has been a while since I tried it.
On Friday we had exchanges. Exchanges are where missionaries travel to different areas to be trained by a leader in the mission. Normally a zone leader or district leader goes to spend a day with another missionary in their area, to help them become better! Elder Bringhurst came to Cheras with me. He goes home in about two weeks. He is a really good example for all missionaries in this mission. He has mastered the Chinese language, and has continued to finish strong. He is an example of a "Return with Honor" missionary. He really helped my teaching and finding skills improve. We had a lot of success in finding those who are prepared!
On Sunday, our Branch President finally came back from New Zealand! Sunday was the first time I saw him the whole transfer. He is really great. His name is President Wells.
Today we are planning on going to pasar seni and bargain for some more stuff!! Then we got to buy some chairs for the apartment.
My Pillow exploded
Thank you all again for that wonderful package and all the love sent from around the world! I will try to have responses done by next week to all those who contributed!
Love, Elder McKayd LaRose
This week was the best!
The zone leaders promised that if one companionship got a new investigator (meaning someone who was interested to learn and had met the missionaries at least once) every day for 5 consecutive days, then they would take the whole zone out to Chili's! Well one companionship did it! So we went to the KL towers to get some nice food!
Afterwards we went to the craziest bargain place ever! It's called Pasar seni. There were hundred of shops selling all sorts of stuff! Hats, shoes, watches, wallet, bags, etc. I got a wallet, a watch, and some cologne (or in Asian terms it is called perfume regardless of gender haha)
On Monday night, my companion had a bloody nose. It had been going on for about 4 weeks, so we had to go to the doctors. It was tons of fun. I now have more appreciation for my parents who waited all those long hours in the hospital for me and my siblings!
On Tuesday we had a fire lesson with our investigator named Edmund. We have invited him to church for the past month, but every time he is a little hesitant because he has grown up in another church his whole life. We taught the 10 commandments and specifically emphasized keeping the Sabbath day holy. Keeping the Sabbath day holy is not just a one time attendance at church, but a Savior-like pattern of living on the Sabbath, to prepare you for that same standard of conversion throughout the week. He has been searching for an answer to the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon as well. We helped him understand that unless he shows his faith and comes to church, it will be very hard to receive an answer that the Book of Mormon is true.
On Wednesday we visited a less active named Sister Tiya. She is from Indonesia. We finally had our first lesson in Malay in West Malaysia! It has been about two months since I had a lesson, so it was great to have the language back for a little bit!
The Singapore Mission Office called and told us that a Singapore Elder was finally allowed entrance into Malaysia, so he would be joining us in Cheras until the end of the transfer! I am going to be in another trio!! His name is Elder Graham and he is from Arkansas! He came out at the same time with Elder Tan, so they are great friends. He is planning to play professional football after the mission. When he came on his mission he was 140lbs. Now He is 195lbs. He started weightlifting for 9 months! Crazy right? He is a wonderful elder and can really connect with anyone he meets.
On Thursday we had a lesson with Brother Kong. We had a wonderful lesson about the importance of church. We helped him understand that we go to church for God, not for anyone else! Afterwards they fed us Durian! I am starting to like it! It has been a while since I tried it.
On Friday we had exchanges. Exchanges are where missionaries travel to different areas to be trained by a leader in the mission. Normally a zone leader or district leader goes to spend a day with another missionary in their area, to help them become better! Elder Bringhurst came to Cheras with me. He goes home in about two weeks. He is a really good example for all missionaries in this mission. He has mastered the Chinese language, and has continued to finish strong. He is an example of a "Return with Honor" missionary. He really helped my teaching and finding skills improve. We had a lot of success in finding those who are prepared!
On Sunday, our Branch President finally came back from New Zealand! Sunday was the first time I saw him the whole transfer. He is really great. His name is President Wells.
Today we are planning on going to pasar seni and bargain for some more stuff!! Then we got to buy some chairs for the apartment.
My Pillow exploded
Thank you all again for that wonderful package and all the love sent from around the world! I will try to have responses done by next week to all those who contributed!
Love, Elder McKayd LaRose
WEEK #27 & #28 - I'm Officially in the Digital World
Hello friends and family!
Forgive me for not sending home an email last week. I was trying to email on the phone but it was near impossible.
KL is so fun and different! I love the people and am picking up on some Chinese too!
We went to Singapore for zone conference. It was wonderful. We basically set up all the phones and can now fully operate online! We have 4 video calls this week. It is so exciting!
On monday we went and got some protein!! It is official. Me and Elder Tan are going to hit the weights!
On Wednesday we were able to video call our investigator in IRAN! It was so crazy! He has a wonderful faith in Jesus Christ and is looking forward to strengthening his relationship! We shared about how the Church of Jesus Christ was organized in Jesus Christ's time (Prophets, Apostles, and the 70), and how it is the exact same set up in Jesus Christ's restored Church!
The Zone Leaders in Kuala Lumpur were having a baptism for one of their investigators. As we took the train there, we asked everyone we talked to if they wanted to come to the baptism! One of the people we talked to actually came! He said it was very different but he felt really good inside. He said, "why not? How could it hurt?"
We taught Priesthood Meeting on Sunday, and focused on the talk given by President Russel M Nelson titled, "The Book of Mormon: What would your life be like without it?"
In His talk he stated that, "Immersing ourselves regularly in the truths of the Book of Mormon can be a life-changing experience." The moment we know that our lives have been changed by the Book of Mormon is when, instead of just going to church, we are changed by church. Do we pray just to pray, or will our prayer change our day? Do we read the Book of Mormon just to read words on a paper, or are we studying the words of God?
It was a great lesson! These past two weeks have been crazy, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Thank you to ALL who contributed to the Ward package! I am extremely grateful for the time and effort everyone put into making my Christmas one from the East Coast! :) I will do my best to reply and thank everyone! Really though, you guys are the best! Love you all!
Love, Elder McKayd LaRose
Forgive me for not sending home an email last week. I was trying to email on the phone but it was near impossible.
KL is so fun and different! I love the people and am picking up on some Chinese too!
We went to Singapore for zone conference. It was wonderful. We basically set up all the phones and can now fully operate online! We have 4 video calls this week. It is so exciting!
On Wednesday we were able to video call our investigator in IRAN! It was so crazy! He has a wonderful faith in Jesus Christ and is looking forward to strengthening his relationship! We shared about how the Church of Jesus Christ was organized in Jesus Christ's time (Prophets, Apostles, and the 70), and how it is the exact same set up in Jesus Christ's restored Church!
The Zone Leaders in Kuala Lumpur were having a baptism for one of their investigators. As we took the train there, we asked everyone we talked to if they wanted to come to the baptism! One of the people we talked to actually came! He said it was very different but he felt really good inside. He said, "why not? How could it hurt?"
We taught Priesthood Meeting on Sunday, and focused on the talk given by President Russel M Nelson titled, "The Book of Mormon: What would your life be like without it?"
In His talk he stated that, "Immersing ourselves regularly in the truths of the Book of Mormon can be a life-changing experience." The moment we know that our lives have been changed by the Book of Mormon is when, instead of just going to church, we are changed by church. Do we pray just to pray, or will our prayer change our day? Do we read the Book of Mormon just to read words on a paper, or are we studying the words of God?
It was a great lesson! These past two weeks have been crazy, I hope everyone has a wonderful week!
Thank you to ALL who contributed to the Ward package! I am extremely grateful for the time and effort everyone put into making my Christmas one from the East Coast! :) I will do my best to reply and thank everyone! Really though, you guys are the best! Love you all!
Love, Elder McKayd LaRose
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)