WEEK #34 - Cave Chillin'

Last pday was one of the best ones yet! We went to some caves about an hour and a half away from our area. They were so cool! We were walking on bat poop the whole time which was fun. Apparently it used to be an old trading area for travelers passing by! It was pouring rain the whole time so we got SOAKED. Inside the cave there were waterfalls and just magnetic rock formations. It looked surreal.
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On Tuesday I gave a training on " Becoming Repentant to Teach Repentance." It was really good. I focused the training on Alma 13:18 that talks about Melchizedek. "But Melchizedek having excersized mighty faith... Did Preach repentance unto his people. And behold, they did repent; and Melchizedek did establish peace in the land in his days; therefore he was called the prince of peace."
I broke the training up into three parts.
1. Mighty Faith (exercising mighty faith is an act of repentance) We must repent beforehand, to receive greater power when testifying to others!
2. ‎"Melchizedek did preach repentance... And behold, they did repent." We must be bold by raising a voice of warning, and loving by raising a voice of hope.
3. ‎"And He did establish peace" We know there is peace in Christ. Repentance is the only way we can become like Him. I've already messed up a lot on my mission. I always thought I would have to live with that regret forever. But true repentance erases regret. Repentance allows us to change in a Savior-like way; to focus on what we can do right, rather than what we've already done wrong.

More Chinese new year stuff

On Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Johnson! (different Elder from last week). He is in Sungai Plan (where I used to be) and came up to Miri where I am now (about a 4 hour bus ride). Elder Johnson came out with me from the MTC and I have always wanted to serve with him. We saw a lot of miracles that day! Elder Johnson was calling through a couple of his PIs (potential investigators, those who expressed an interest to learn more). One of them answered and said he was sorry because he couldn't meet in Bintulu because he moved to Miri. That happened to be on the one day Elder Johnson was in Miri for exchanges! We ended up meeting him and his friend. They were both from India and 0rsctices Hinduism. They spoke little English but really enjoyed the lesson on how God is our Loving Heavenly Father. The knowledge that they had a Father in Heaven who knows them personally   gave them pure joy. They loved praying for the first time. Afterwards, Nitish said, "Can I pray again?" It was a special lesson.

Sneaking to see members at work

On Thursday we visited Brother Sait and his family, who were recently baptized into the Church. For some reason, we were in the lesson for 2 HOURS. We honestly don't know why it took so long but it did! When we walked outside to go to our bikes, someone had stolen our bike lights! We didn't really want to go home in the dark, so we went to a DIY store (Do It Yourself, kinda like a really really really really small Home Depot). While we were there we contacted one of the kindest most branch president-looking person ever! We set up an appointment for Saturday. We knew that that was the reason why the lesson took so long and our bike lights were stolen :)

 Elder Johnston!!! taking a selfie wtih my camera

OK!! So my family has requested that I describe "A Day as a Missionary." Here you go!! **CAUTION: This schedule could very depending on the missionary :)

7:00am Wake up, pray, make your bed

7:10-7:45am Excerize (Free body workout Tues-Wed, Basketball/Soccer at the Church or badminton on Thursdays, Free body workout Friday-Saturday, Break Sun-Mon.

7:45-9:00am Prepare for the day (Eat breakfast[cereal or hot chocolate drink called Milo if don't have time. If have time, eggs or oatmeal) YES MOM, IT'S TRUE. I eat oatmeal and it reminds me of yours :) Shower, get dressed

9:00-9:30a.m. Plan for the Day (We plan who we want to visit that day, where we want to go, when we are going to do our studies, our to-do list for the day, etc.)

9:30-10:30am Personal Study (Normally I study from the Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel [which is a guide book for missionaries], Conference Talks [Leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints give semi-annual speaches or talks that help members of the Church strengthen their testimony and receive personal revelation for their lives], and normally I study for my investigators! If there is a certain lesson we are teaching[like the Plan of Salvation] then I would study that topic to prepare myself for the lesson.

10:30-11:30am Language Study (Normally I read the Book of Mormon in Malay, and there are quite of few study materials for learning Grammer, vocabulary, pronunciation, etc.)

11:30-1:30pm Lunch, call through PIs, do some To-do list. (Normally we head out of the house now. We go find shop lots {which are little stores that are all outside} and sit down to eat. Normally people at work are on their lunch break so it is a good time to call them. I normally eat rice, noodles, or chicken haha).

1:30-3:00pm Area Book (Our mission has switched from paper to phones! So all of the paper records of past people being taught need to be synced online. That normally takes a while, so we do it for a while too!!

The biggest leaf ever!!!

3:00-4:00pm Companionship Study (We sing a hymn, say a prayer, read from the Missionary Hand Book{which are the rules and standards of being a missionary} share what you have learned during personal study, prepare to teach what lessons we have for the day, practice teaching(normally called role-playing), study chapters from Preach My Gospel, and confirm plans for the day.


4:00-5:00pm Less Active Finding/Contacting (during this time we normally try to go to members who haven't gone to church in a while, normally people say they are "less-active." Otherwise we try to find people who are out in the streets, in a mall, or the shop lots and try to strike up a conversation :)

5:00-6:00pm Dinner time! We find a place to sit, finish to-do list, or continue to call people.

FEAST

6:00-9:30pm Normally have 2-3 appointments which people. Sometimes we meet with Investigators (people who are interested in the Church), Less-Actives, or members. There are a variety of things we could teach to these people. All of our lessons are centered on the restored gospel of Jesus Christ, Eternal Families, the Book of Mormon, etc. During the "lessons" (as they are called), we get to know the members by asking how their day was, small talk, etc. We begin with a prayer, and then share our message. A lesson can last from 10min to 45minutes, but also varies with the person. We teach a cirtain gospel topic, commit the person to strengthen their testimony{pray, reading a chapter from the Book of Mormon, going to church, watching a Mormon message} and then conclude with another prayer :)

9:30pm-11pm Prepare for Bed (Shower, brush teeth, write in journal, answer texts or calls). There are 4 Elders to an apartment, so there will be some form of fun from that time range haha. Then we normally say a companion prayer, and a personal prayer before we head to bed.

That is the schedule!! Of course it varies, such as District Meeting, Church, Weekly Planning, so there is always something different to do each day!!

I hope everyone has a great week!! Love you all :)

WEEK #33 - Valentines and Fireworks

Hello everyone!!

To start out the email, I want to give a huge shout out to my Brother Keldon! He took 1st place in the SC wrestling tournament! It is a regional tournament, and he beat up on everyone! He also took 2nd place at state!!!!! I was not even close to that my junior year!! He has the heart of a warrior. He is a stud wrestler, and I'm scared to try and wrestle him when I get back! I'm so proud of him. Watch out for him next year!

Earlier on in the week, we met this family that was really interested to meet. Unfortunately, they forgot their number and the wood houses don't really have an address, so they promised to call when they got home. Well, they never called haha. So we lost them! We kinda forgot about them for a while, and then last Monday guess what happened? They walked into the internet place where we were! Within the two hours that we come to the store once a week, they came :) we got their number and set up an appointment!


Afterwards we headed to the beach! There was a ton of cool stuff there! There are cool docs that you can walk out to, and even an abandoned ship! We wanted to go explore in it, but it was not reachable by missionary standards :) we brought some fire food (meaning a bed frame that we accidentally broke in the house)

For District Meeting I trained on "Bringing 'em and keeping' em" It is one thing to bring people to Church, but another thing to keep them at church! We talked about how we can help people have a spiritual experience at church so they never want to miss a week! Elder Don R. Clarke of the Seventy shared some great insight on helping investigators have a spiritual experience at church. He specifically focuses on what they can do during the sacrament(communion): pray to know if the church is true, and give gratitude for the Atonement of Christ. Let's all try this next week!

We were heading our way over to a member's house, when we saw a guy walking down the street. We turned around and it turns out he was a former investigator of about 3 years! My teacher in the MTC (Sister Yuen) taught him last! He said that his heart is finally opened and is ready to learn and be baptized! It was a miracle :)

You thought the 4th of July was crazy? Try Chinese New Year, it's insane! There are fireworks going off the entire night for 2 DAYS! People go around and play the drums while people are in those dragon costumes. Pretty cool!

On Friday we had exchanges. I went with Elder Johnson to his area (Miri 1). Elder Johnson and I came out together, so it was fun to be companions for a day! We saw a ton of miracles that day from simply talking to everyone. We contacted this teenager, and after teaching him about the Book of Mormon, he had us follow him to his house, and there sits a family of 8 people! Turns out, they were formers as of 10 years ago, and have family and relatives in the church! What are the chances?

Fun fact: we met the very person that made the granite "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" sign for our Church!

I had the opportunity to give a talk in sacrament meeting on Sunday! The topic was: "How can we be spiritually self reliant?

I broke it into three stages, and first compared it to our temporal lives.

1st stage: completely reliant on others (like when we were babies)
2nd stage: somewhat reliant (like when we were teenagers)
3rd stage: self reliant (like when we are already married, in college, or have a job).

Then I flipped it around but with a spiritual view:

1st stage: completely reliant (Relying completely on our parents testimony, the missionaries, or other people's testimonies).
2nd stage: somewhat reliant(we have a testimony, but it is not very strong, so we still need the crutch of someone else)
3rd stage: spiritually self reliant (we have a strong testimony and have an understanding of the Atonement of Jesus Christ).

How can we get to that 3rd stage? I talked about CPR.
Church, Praying, and Reading.

If we take time each day to have meaningful prayer and scripture study, I promise your life will be filled with greater direction and happiness, and you wil able to identity with clarity and conviction the promptings of the Holy Ghost.

If you attend Church because you want to and not because you have to, that Church will give you a glimpse of what heaven feels like. If sincere preparation is taken place to make Church a spiritual experience, I promise you will have a Temple-like experience.

I hope everyone has a great week!!