Wow 20/98 weeks‼️ It was a REALLY good one
Monday and Tuesday: finished up exchanges in Malacca with Elder Png and Overly. Played badminton that day for P-day. Badminton is actually crazy fun too bad. I suck at it though😂 Badminton is huge here in Malaysia and across East Asia in general love it. Elder Png who is a native Singaporean is so good at badminton, so it was fun playing with him. P-night was kinda boring. There're only two bikes and five Elders, so we walked a lot and didn't get too much done. The Wi-Fi network was also down across Malacca for the Elders only like that whole week😂 so we had to mooch off some hotel Wi-Fi to do our contacts. Tuesday was solid though. Also walked all over Malacca with Elder Png and Elder Gabbitas. Was a solid day and actually learned a lot from Elder Png. He did 2 years mandatory Singaporean military service so he's just a wise wise man indeed. He's seen and done a lot you can tell so he taught me a lot. Told me I talk way too fast especially considering were just talking to Chinese people and Chinese Uncs all day. Of course, they're not gonna understand my Southern accent, as I've been told by many people over my mission haha, when English is their 3rd or 4th language sometimes. Told me I need to utilize the power of the pause and gave me good life advice. Elder Png is awesome. Looking forward to more exchanges with him.
Wednesday- bused back to Johor Bahru and had 3/4ths of the day in JB. Solid day. Flew around and we started to finalize and wrap up our teachings for one of our On dates this Sunday for his baptism.
Thursday- weekly planning day so always a lot of sitting and planning for our friends haha. But for lunch we met up with this one married couple. The wife is from Indonesia and the husband is from Spain. This man has blessed me with his presence more than he could ever know. He knows only a little English but enough to navigate a conversation and he's awesome. He was showing us pictures of the Madrid temple and missionaries in Spain, and I just couldn't help think of my dad. I mean how crazy is it. Being in Mallorca March 2024 literally right on my 18th birthday sitting at a member meal with my dad, two sister missionaries, and two wonderful amazing Spaniards that have touched me by their continuing faith. And now here I am a year and a half later in Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia talking to another Spaniard (Eugenio is his name). It may not seem like a big deal to anyone reading this. In any way shape or form. BUT WHAT A MIRACLE. WHAT ARE THE CHANCES. That somehow God could get a guy like me to experience all this. Me even being out here is proof God exists. For me at least, in a personal way. Obviously, I'm not saying me being alive just proves that he exists. Maaf yeah, I hope I'm getting my point across here. Anyways, March 15th 2024 might've been the day I decided a mission would be great, but in no way was the job finished in getting me out here or solidified me making the decision. Still was 6-7 months from starting my papers at that point. Then wait and wait. I could go through each little time frame of just being prolonged along my path with God. With amazing support from church leaders, extended family, and of course my parents. WHO WOULD KNOW except the Lord. HOW GREAT HE IS. HOW MUCH he has changed my life. And me--all I gotta do is open my mouth? That is the only thing the Lord expects from his missionaries day to day. (Keep the commandments and standards of course first.) But day to day work wise? Just swing the sword of truth🤺 And have the greatest and hardest time of my life. The Lord is used to making lopsided promises I guess, but dang bro. Like what. Anyways like I was saying Probably just the biggest full circle moment of my life so far. Long way to go still. Not off that escalator yet in MCI. 543 more days to fulfill my purpose. To be on the Lord's errands. Love it. What a moment with Eugenio. He has no idea how his presence has impacted my mindset and finally shown me how far I've come. Anyways we taught them a great lesson on temples in English. We had Eugenio read Helaman 10:7 in Spanish. When he was done reading I said, "Castellano or Catalan?" And he laughed and said castellano with kinda like "of course" typa smirk. So awesome.
Thursday night was crazy, too. Waited for our burgers we ordered for like 50 minutes, so we did contacts as we waited and made two friends and had a lesson with both. Elder Huish handled his lesson in Malay and me and Elder Gabbitas were calling this one guy in English. So awesome. Biking home that night always the highlight of the entire day and night. Feeling so good. Knowing you did all you could. Flying back home. Man. Still can't fathom a better feeling. Only feel it once or twice a week though some weeks not at all. It's DEFINITELY not a nightly feeling😂😂 most nights it's like dang today sucked or man I gotta do this tomorrow? Waking up at 6:59 AM every single morning and knowing you gotta talk to more random Chinese uncles all day. But man, every hard moment, every moment of not wanting to go on like that is so so worth it for even just an hour or two of feeling the indescribable happiness that I felt on Thursday night and only a couple other times on the mission. The feeling that ONLY comes from the Lord.
Friday- oh my Friday was so fire too. Did exchanges with Elder Moulton in Masai. Man, he's so awesome. We just clicked instantly. Had so much fun. By the far thee fastest day I've had in field yet. Actually wild. Masai is awesome. It's like the Fort Worth to Dallas basically. Just off to the east though and it's like the smaller, less busy side of Johor Bahru and has way more Ibans and more Malay is spoken in the city of Masai as it's the closest city to Sarawak in West Malaysia. Masai is awesome. Me and Elder Moulton just talked for like 2 and a half hours straight. I was supposed to train him as he's in his 2nd transfer, so he came in the big group right after me and I didn't read a single training module or clarification with him😂 What a day.
Saturday- Saturday was cool. Really light day compared to most. Lot of sitting. Preparing Sunday for the baptism
Sunday- 100th day in field. Sunday was also a crazy day. Had a baptism which was so special. First one in field. His name is Subash and he's from India. He speaks a little bit of English and he so so awesome. Always smiling. So blessed to have an opportunity to teach such an elect soul and see Elder Huish baptize him.
(What I'm about to tell you deserves its own paragraph)
As were wrapping up the baptism and we go to get on our bikes to grab our suitcases for the 6-hour bus ride to Kuala Lumpur later in the day. Like usual, I wrap our bike lock around my waist. As we get back to the house and go to unlock the bike lock, the key won't go in. Mind you it was raining too so the rain must've just magically broke the lock. Because now the lock wasn't coming off my waist and I wasn't able to slip it off either. SO, FOR THE REST OF THE DAY INCLUDING A 6-HOUR BUS RIDE, I had an entire massive iron bike lock strapped to my waist😭😭😭 I tried everything to get this bike lock off y'all. We tried sawing it off. We tried clamping it off. I hopped in the shower and tried to make it slippery enough to slip it off. Nah. I had two belts the whole day. Thing just wouldn't come off. We were in a rush though and quickly had to get to the bus station to catch our bus, so we had to do all that traveling while I have this bike lock locked around my waist😭 and then sitting down with it for 6 hours. Mind you it's also Fast Sunday and we didn't get in till like 11, so I was just snacking on Oreos trying to eat anything. Man, what a day.
Update: I wake up Monday morning (after sleeping with the bike lock on btw) and shoutout Elder Facer and Elder Johnson because they got it off me😂😂😂 I had it on for 17 hours!! Wild. Definitely a very funny story to tell. All I had to do was raise my arms up and it came off over the top of me. Don't know why me and Elder Huish and Gabbitas didn't think of it😂
Also, shoutout to the Dodgers🤟🏻🤟🏻💙🤍 big W. Back2Back. Still a Rangers fan, of course, but love seeing my favorite NL team win it all.
A great great week. Learned a lot about a lot of things. About missionary work, about myself, and about the mission itself. About not locking your bike lock around your waist so you can't get it off for the next couple of days and then you just look goofy wearing a bike lock as a belt. In Kuala Lumpur right now as you're reading this for Zone conference. Should be a good one. 6-hour bus ride was so nice just to have even more time to reflect, think, pray, ponder, and study. Love y'all. I feel too blessed sometimes. Happy I got to see Bishop Divine and President Gillis, (even though I was muted😪) President Rindlisbacher, Bishop Dunn, Brother Brooks, and friends back home on my P-day. Shout out all y'all. Congrats, Sister Marcom. Leeds is getting a good one. Happy birthday, Grandpa George. Love you, Grandma and Grandpa. Happy I got to hear y'alls voices. The support still means the world. Just so grateful for this church and the fulness of the gospel in my life. My goodly parents and family.
Love y'all🤟🏻 Terus untuk jadi orang-orang yang hebat
Elder Barlow🇲🇾🇸🇬⚜️
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