This email is a long one. Harap Maaf yeah?😭😭
STAYING IN JOHOR BAHRU‼️‼️🇲🇾💎
The New Gem PROVIDES AND SO DOES THE LORD.
PUJILAH DIA🙏🏻🤟🏻
So hyped to get another transfer here, man. Not gonna lie Elder Huish and Elder Gabbitas were teasing me so hard that I was gonna be the one to leave and they were gonna somehow both stay. Elder Huish really wanted a 4th transfer here in JB. Elder Gabbitas was really really disappointed to leave. He wanted a 3rd bad. He wasn't lying when he said Johor Bahru is the promised land. It is truly so awesome. Definitely hoping for a 3rd transfer here, but let's not get ahead of ourselves bolehkah?
I will be serving with Elder Page🫡🪂 He's coming from Kota Samarahan in Kuching from East Malaysia. His Malay will be fresh from Sarawak, and he also speaks Chinese as he did Chinese immersion his whole life. We have so many missionaries in this mission that did Chinese immersion, it's awesome. Elder Day, Simonsen, Barker, Gabbitas, and Elder Huish (who did no immersion but completely self-taught himself out here and was able to do full contacts in Chinese self-taught!!!) All have spoken Mandarin and have helped me so much in that very crucial language here in this wonderful country of Malaysia. A LOT of Chinese people live in this country even in East Malaysia. I've been so blessed with companions and am so excited to get to work with Elder Page. I was actually lucky enough to contact and talk with him before the mission back in February a couple weeks after I got my call. His friend's mom knew my mom from Utah. We emailed each a couple times and he was only 4ish months into his mission. So it's cool to be in his spot now that he was in when I contacted him and now we're gonna dominate together in Johor Bahru. So awesome. I've met him one time before at Singapore Zone Conference back in September. He's super funny. So incredibly chill. He's awesome.
Elder muka surat akan memimpin kami di tanah yang dijanji, 🫡🏙️🇲🇾💎
Monday was great. I wanna talk about P-day. We went hiking and had a great time. Weather was perfect. Took so many awesome pictures. And Elder Wilde, with his analogy in his email last week about choosing the wrong way and the fence analogy, has inspired me to talk about this. Terima Kasih sepupu yang hebat saya🤟🏻 (here's a translation for you Preston: Gracias mi maravilloso primo🇬🇹🤝🏻🇲🇾) (only time I'll use translate fr) Anyways, we were hiking and trying to make our way down the mountain. We were kinda wandering around. Not a ton of urgency. Not looking for any directions. Not preparing ourselves mentally in case we got lost. We were astonished by monkeys in the trees. Looking up and around but not on the path ahead. On our way trying to get out of this mountainside, dense forest area, me and Elder Huish's phones started acting so weird. Definitely an unfortunate, unexpected situation to happen along the path. We weren't able to use them. They started restarting on us (we ended up having our phones wiped because the phone thought we were trying to sign in unauthorized or something) but anyways I think you can see where I'm going with this. Eventually we had to lock back in and eventually we found some big red arrows to point us to safety and away from the deep dense, choking forest.
If we become casual in our discipleship, we WILL get lost. If we do not heed the words of the Prophet Dallin H. Oaks, We WILL lose our ability to heed the Spirit and the Words the Lord himself wants us to hear. We WILL lose sight of the Glory of God and most importantly we lose sight of what we can become. What God knows we can become. He created us so why he wants such a creation to yield no fruits? No works? No direction? Most importantly no faith? Of course not. That's why he pushes us as members of his church. That's why he gives us Prophets, the Holy Ghost. How great of a blessing is having a LIVING PROPHET. We are truly so blessed. I knew Russell M. Nelson was a Prophet. That man signed my call. The person or name doesn't matter now. It only matters if they're called of God himself. I know Dallin Harris Oaks is leading this church and hears the Lord's voice. Man, the Lord calls studs. STUDS I SAY. That's a man I wanna work for. LET'S GO. I will voice what Elder Rindlisbacher said about going on a mission. We can control our worthiness and most importantly our desire. We don't need to be perfect. We have weaknesses. I know I did and still do. It almost got in the way. But my desire was there. That's why I was called. I had a desire to foreign and to learn a language. I've been sent to the most diverse country on this planet. THE LORD DELIVERS. Will you answer the call if you are reading this? (and able to go on a mission) If you care enough to read my emails and all these experiences, then have it for yourself if you're able to. Just like Elder Wilde said, we can't be on the fence. A mission is gonna be hard (understatement of the century) regardless so just do it. EVERY worthy able young man to serve. I love that the Prophet emphasized that again. I wanted to shout it out once more. Thank you, Elder Rindlisbacher, congrats, love you bro. I learned a very important lesson from P-day in the forest getting lost. Truly through small and simple things do we learn. But we have others around us. We have big red arrows to point us to safety in church leaders, parents and 15 prophets. I know the 15 men of the first presidency and Quorum of the 12 are called of God.
Monday- my fault this email is already so long but yeah Monday was great. Phone got completely wiped and lost my messenger and Facebook. Was able to get it back though, luckily. Thank you, Mom. P-night we literally sat at the church for like 2 hours and just did contacts and calls. Got some Takeaway Nasi Lemak and had one more call. I was teaching this one guy while Elder Gabbitas and Elder Huish were calling this one lady. I was teaching him in English, and he had a lot of questions. I got to the point where I was explaining the Book of Mormon and opened up to the pictures at the start of it, all the paintings and stuff. The one I opened up to was Jesus Christ appearing to the Nephites in the Americas. If you're a member you know exactly which one I'm talking about haha. The old school one. I was explaining that Jesus appeared to these people after his death. Right after I got done saying this, this dude over the phone goes, "Are you serious?" and his tone implied that I was joking or something. He wasn't crazy hostile after that but it's interesting to teach this gospel to someone that is hearing it for the first time. Because, yes, without the Spirit confirming the truth and without reading the Book of Mormon, it can be hard to believe that Jesus actually did that. Big testimony booster though. Because as I was teaching him a lot of things like the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, how he translated it, Faith, Repentance. (clearly this was an unplanned lesson) the Spirit was so strong. It confirmed the truth to me. Yes, it may still seem sometimes hard to believe but regardless I know it's true. Because what greater witness can you have than from God. Anyways a little rant right here. Because if my faith was weak that little comment from him would've shaken my faith. But man, I'm built on a very big cornerstone for sure. I'm grateful, no doubt.
Tuesday- Tuesday we had transfer calls. Man, every minute that inches closer to getting that zoom link to join the transfer call with the whole west side Malaysia zone in the west side zone messenger group chat, the heart starts pumping, my fingernails start to tremble because they're getting bitten. Palms start getting sweaty. Knees start getting weak, arms are heavy. AH. Man, I celebrated so hard when he said, "Elder Barlow, you will be staying on in Johor Bahru," but then President Ho said the word "Tawau" the three of us didn't hear if he said Elder Huish or not, so I thought maybe he was talking about me. I got so nervous if President Ho was gonna do me like that. But luckily, he was talking about Elder Huish. So Elder Huish is going to Tawau. Alllll the way out there in Sabah, really close to the Philippines actually. Tucked away all the way in east Malaysia. And Elder Gabbitas is going to Newton in Singapore where all the Ex Pats live!! He was really disappointed though and very sad to leave Johor Bahru. I told him though, "Elder, you simply cannot be mad about living in Singapore at the age of 18." He agreed. He's gonna kill it down there for sure. Did a ton of phone contacting on Tuesday. Had an hour and a half lesson with our previous On dates. We're still really trying to get them baptized. Elder Gabbitas and Elder Huish got really close with this awesome family. I have as well. I promised Elder Gabbitas in his BR (Book of Remembrance, basically where you can write a note of appreciation to a comp who is leaving) I told him in the BR, to ease his mind, that I will do EVERYTHING in my control and power to get them baptized with Elder Page, God be my witness. I debated with him whether or not we should continue to go over and teach them, but Elder Gabbitas really wanted to see this family make a commitment to change their life in baptism. We all did of course. Me and Elder Page will work super hard to get them in the water🫡
Wednesday- Final full day together as a trio. Very sad indeed. We found out Elder Huish and Elder Gabbitas full travel days started on Thursday at 3:00 PM as they have to bus up to Kuala Lumpur from JB to fly out of Kuala Lumpur. Elder Huish also has to take like 3 flights to get to Tawau😂 crazy. That's how tucked away it is. So final day together on Wednesday and we literally had to sit at the house all day because these Indian bros came by and were fixing our AC. We had to stay there as it is a standard to stay as they fix stuff. Unfortunate. After they finished after a couple hours, we spent the entire day for Elder Huish and Elder Gabbitas doing their final runs of saying goodbyes, passing out letters, taking grab rides, getting driven all around Johor Bahru, visiting members and biking from home to home saying goodbye. Very weird day. It was for a reason though. The Lord maybe wanted Elder Huish to slow down for a second. Lol. That's how I see it at least. Didn't do much missionary work. We ate a lot of food with this one member. All the members were sad that Elder Huish and Elder Gabbitas were leaving when they texted in the branch chat they would be leaving. I'm not the best with member work, but these Elders are. They really bonded with each and every single member and I have a lot to implement and learn from them for sure.
Thursday- Thursday was crazy. From 11 AM to 2:30 PM we were doing even more goodbyes and fly-bys, lunch with our branch president and then meeting with the Masai Elders up so I could be accompanied when Elder Huish and Elder Gabbitas left. Said goodbye to Elder Huish and Elder Gabbitas. It was sad for sure. They're awesome. We took the third bike all the way from JB to Masai because there's now a trio in Masai that needs a third bike and we don't in JB. Had our hour-long dinner Thanksgiving meal just the three of us at a Chinese place😂 Had some calls that night too. It was Thanksgiving for us here in Malaysia since we're 14-15 hours ahead of y'all. Of course no one celebrates it here though. Got to call Fam for 30 minutes though which was nice that morning as well. Solid day.
Friday- Woke up, called my Bro Garrett which was great, Happy Bday Bro. Got to see my grandparents. It was great. Great way to start the day. Saw that the Cowboys won too🤟🏻 Big W. Friday was pretty chill though. Also didn't do much missionary work. Had to wait for the other Masai Elder to come in and my comp Elder Page to get in. We were at the bus station from like 2-8, only had an hour that night of finding and eating. Friday night was horrible though. We had our Zone calls and district calls to determine our baptism transfer goals and I just felt so sick. Out of nowhere, too. I had to leave and just go to the bathroom and just suffer there. Genuinely thought I had food poisoning. Nothing bad ended up happening. I eventually laid on my bed and passed out and felt way better in the morning. Thought I was gonna throw up that night. I have still yet to get sick on my mission, which for this mission, is such a blessing.
Man, Elder Page is awesome though. That night we prayed into our companionship and into the transfer. We just talked and talked and talked. We click really well. Really got to know each other fast. But we had a lot of work over the next couple days we just had to catch up on
Saturday- Saturday we just focused on our weekly planning. Just getting everything set and in order for this entire transfer. Usually, you do weekly planning on Thursdays, but we definitely had no time on Thursday because Elder Huish and Elder Gabbitas both left on Thursday. So, we just spent the whole time figuring out what we wanted to do. We found a little bit. Taught our recent converts that day. We were flying for sure. Was feeling really stressed Saturday morning. Just looking ahead knowing I don't have an hour of training in the schedule. Should make the days go faster now without it but still. Also just really sad I missed Thanksgiving with the fam. Homesickness for the first time in a while hit me hard on Friday morning and Saturday morning. It was tough. Missing the Cowboys play and what not. But once again I continually tried to remind myself how important it is to be out here and be doing this work. Anytime I look back on this mission, I only see it all for my good. All the hard times and hard adjustment periods, even adjusting here to Johor Bahru, now adjusting to a new comp and just kinda that new transfer feel. It's crazy. Elder Simonsen always stressed to me that you're always gonna be going through some form of adjustment or change or trial or adversity. It's so true. That's just how missions are. It's all good though, just gonna keep pressing on. Came home Saturday night and man my brain was just pounding. Just was going through it. I can sit here and talk so much about this night. I learned so much about the work that night, needing to step up, more responsibility, more work, more pressure, leading a way bigger area and now I just can't follow a senior companion around all day. Man, it's exactly what I was fearing If both Elder Huish and Elder Gabbitas would leave, it would all get placed on me. All the seven souls that are on date for their baptisms. We had a call with this one lady Saturday night, and I just couldn't do it man. I was so unlocked. (unfocused) We wrapped up that 45-minute teaching call over the phone, went home, I was super quiet. Man, I love it though because Elder Page could tell I was just in my head and man he just talked, talked, talked with me just to snap me out of it and it worked. Eventually he got me to open up and just rant and get all my thoughts out. Made me feel so much better man. He walked me through his mission and how he felt and how the Lord is giving me more responsibility and that he trusts me since he is giving me more responsibility. He talked about how I am so close to just getting to this big milestone point in my mission where it picks up. We talked about Malaysia and the work and what it needs and his different areas, his comps and what he's learned from them. I mean Bro, we literally talked for like 2 hours straight just about SO MANY different topics and little stories and tidbits😭😭 He's an amazing listener and man we just talk and talk and talk so seamlessly. Anyways, I think you get the point. He Really, really helped me and just took the load off for me that night and my mind for how I will think about the work this transfer. Man, I want a second transfer with him here in Johor Bahru so bad cause we'll just get so much done together then AH. The Lord really gives you your comps for a reason. Man, it's special to see his plan unfold.
Sunday- Sunday was wild too😂 woke up at 9:25 on accident😭 rushed to church super quick, solid day at church, went back home, did personal study, did a lot of lorong (neighborhood) finding and talked to SO many Chinese Buddhist people it's wild. Elder Page literally did all the contacts in Chinese. There's actually so many Chinese people in Malaysia it's wild. The fact I know zero Chinese too, man it's like yeah, I am SUPPOSED to be here. The Lord has sent me here no doubt. Just speaking Malay only let's go. Cause Elder Page that night mentioned how he had a firm belief that if you're called to this mission, you should be learning or speaking Chinese. It's just so interesting. Then this one Indonesion guy we saw (who was Muslim) I was chatting it up with him in Malay and he was speaking Indonesion. Wild. So fun. Literally the only contact we had in Malay that whole night. Other only Malay contact we had, this dude was from Pakistan😭. He was Muslim (shocker) so couldn't berbincang dengan dia tentang Injil Yesus Kristus.
Man, what a week. I'm getting stretched and pushed and molded through the higher responsibility and added diligence and urgency with the work and it's so great to continue to grow as a missionary, as a person, and break out of the Junior Companion just following the Senior Companion around mindset. Like yahkah I actually gotta lock in or nothing is getting done. These people will not be getting baptized. Can't be having that. Feeling really really good about this upcoming transfer. Once Elder Page is up to speed and gets a feel of West Malaysia missionary work (because this mission is literally three missions in one. Singapore, West Malaysia and then East Malaysia. Literally all three places are completely different😭) We'll be soooo chillin tho. Love y'all. Work hard, commit yourself to a cause bigger than yourself. You'll find purpose. The noblest is building up the Kingdom of God. Anytime I start to miss music, driving, or the Cowboys dominating the NFL and what not, I just think to myself like man, I only have one opportunity, one massive choice, from the age of 18-26 (in terms of when it's possible age-wise to even do a mission) to go out and do something bigger than myself to this capacity. Gathering Israel. Showing my commitment. My desire to help him. To show my love. By showing it to his children. Gathering Miri now Johor Bahru. Just going wherever the Lord sends me. Experiencing all this. It's just special. It's like why don't I not want to be doing this at some moments? It's not even about the blessings or just doing it for the blessings, but man I'm sure they'll follow. They already have actually never mind. Anyways, this is way too long. YALL ARE AWESOME LOVE YALL. Happy I got to see some great, familiar faces on the family call, and talk to some cousins and uncles. Y'all are the best. The support is always everything🤟🏻❤️
Elder Barlow🇲🇾
No comments:
Post a Comment