Week 32 - January 25, 2026

I have officially hit 6 months living in the great and diverse land of Malaysia. From July 26th, 2025, touching down in Miri and being humbled to the dust and now to Johor Bahru and getting in and really struggling through the transition and now all the way to January 26th, 2026. A quick and eventful 6 months to say the least. From Miri in the east to Johor Bahru in the west of Malaysia I've been around both major parts of what Malaysia can offer. (that's honestly not even true but regardless). This country is special. I know it is overseen and watched over. Satan may rage hard to stop its progress. But once this country is established with the gospel, Asia will be risen up with it. With Malaysia being the melting pot of Asia and the heart of all of Southeast Asia. It will be a glorious sight to behold one day. I see now the Lord preparing the people and their minds but for when one day the gospel will eventually be able to sound in every ear, Muslim and Christian alike. It is my prayer that Malaysia will one day have a stake and a temple and will be a place where Zion is established, filled with Saints that have their eye singled to the Glory of God.

Tuhan memberkati tanah Malaysia🇲🇾

Semoga Tuhan dapat selalu menunjuk tangan dia kepada setiap orang yang tinggal di Malaysia🙏🏻🇲🇾

Monday, P-Night

- we had a lesson with our potential on-date at the church for an hour. While Elder Page was teaching in Mandarin with a member, I was calling up referrals and handling all the messaging and setting up lessons for the week. Couple past times I would just sit there and not contribute anything, but it felt great to take that responsibility into my own hands and get stuff done. Also, had about only an hour of finding and we made two friends that night! Met with three Chinese guys and they are all awesome. One of them literally invited himself to Church. Two of the three agreed to meet over video call and to be taught again. Super awesome. We ended off the night getting Nasi Lemak with the JB Elders 2. Such an amazing night.

Tuesday

- had DCM to start the day and then had a district lunch. It was fun. Went and filmed some social media stuff and then did some gate knocking for an hour. Then went to the prized place of Johor Jaya night market. So best. So many Singaporeans there and just so many people in general. There was a massive Chinese New Year parade that came through and everyone was going crazy for it. To be honest, I couldn't care less for fireworks or for any Chinese New Year parade. It's the Muslim culture and people I'm way more interested in for sure, but Elder Page is a Southern Utah boy who loves the outdoors and is a lifetime avid fireworks user, so he was loving it and filming it. But I told him that we need to make sure we're timely and get back to the bikes. A miracle followed because of our diligence to not get caught up in the crowd of worldly things. Sure Elder Page was tempted to stop and have fun with everyone, but the night wasn't done and the job wasn't finished. 

As we were walking back to the bikes, I was genuinely getting frustrated that these people who are banging cymbals and dancing with dragons wouldn't accept Jesus Christ. They would just reject us over and over. It felt great to literally and physically walk away from that all. The lights, brights, and loud noises. It wasn't a place where the Spirit wants to be. Right before we got back to the bikes, I stopped a guy since I was a little ahead of Elder Page. Instantly he seemed hesitant but a little interested to hear what we had to say. I was feeling pretty frustrated and wanted to ensure I left this random Chinese YSA guy something he would never forget. Right before I opened my mouth, I got physically hit in the face with the Spirit. Words cannot describe the feeling. My mind was moved upon, and before I said what I was originally going to say, a LIGHTNING BOLT came down from heaven and filled my voice with a testimony and spirit that genuinely made this man take a couple steps back away from me. He looked offput but intrigued. We got his number, taught him a principle and we invited him to church. I was pretty quiet the rest of the night replaying the whole night and that experience in my head. Regardless of that last contact and the Lord placing a person in our path because of our diligence to end the night strong, I still didn't feel right. It was weird.

I learned that we must not be caught up in the things of the world. Sudah bagi saya tapi sangat tidak bagus. We must focus on establishing Zion, in our own hearts and for others. We must single our own eye to the Glory of God. As I'm writing this on Wednesday at 3:48 pm (as I write throughout the week) I ask myself, "Will this guy even progress to baptism" who knows?  It's not for me to worry. I left him with an indescribable emotion and spirit he's never felt before. His whole look on his face changed. His stature changed when I told him what and who I've heard before and it was not me that carried it unto his heart.

Wednesday

- another great day of talking and being rejected many times. Man, I love finding and public contacting. We talked to this one guy who said he was a "free thinker" (whatever that means). I'm like, "Brother, so you only sometimes believe in God?" and he's like "yeah," so I say, "Brother, this is why we are speaking with you right now, we must always follow Jesus Christ and keep his commandments. We must go to church and receive all the blessings he wants for us," getting people to think and actually use their brain to comprehend such an idea about Jesus Christ is the best. We must always look up. It's always better to look up. Not when we feel like it. Not when reading the Book of Mormon only feels sesuai kadang kadang.

Anyways, we did so much shoplot finding that day. It was great. Had a lot of great conversations with a lot of people as always. Lot of rejection but tidapalah, majulah saja. 

Thursday

- I'll let y'all guess where me and Elder Page went for the 17th time for our weekly planning. Did all of our studies and planning and then did neighborhood gate knocking for an hour. Biked home and our bikes broke twice on the way back. Fixed it both times. Got back and got some Indian Muslim mamak classic. Paling tersedap makanan out here for sure. Had a conversation as we were walking back to our bikes with this Christian couple who were super interested in who we were. Two white guys in Johor Bahru. So random, trust me. I know, my brother, I don't know what I'm doing either. I just open my mouth all day to find the Lord's elect. 

Friday

- Friday was chill; we did a ton of Taman mount Austin shoplot finding. Shoplot finding is king here in Johor Bahru. So many rich Singaporeans cross the border and all their money instantly gets 3.5x better and worth more, so they all come here and shop. Our job is to let them know we exist here as a church in Malaysia just right across the border from Singapore, and that this truly is a worldwide church. That this truly is the Church of Jesus Christ and that The Lord has 85,000 committed 19-year olds seluruh dunia yang selalu berkhubat Injil dan Gereja Yesus Kristus. Anyways, it's always fun, Singaporeans are just hilarious. They are all well off in life and successful, so a lot of them think they don't need God. It's fun talking with them. It's gonna be more fun to serve there but man do I love Malaysia. Who cares if Malaysia is the slightly "dirtier, less nice" version I don't even believe in that. The attention that Singapore gets is nice but man there's nothing or nowhere that's as special as these bodies of land that are called Malaysia. Anyways, sorry another 18th rant of how much I love Malaysia and the culture and the food and the language. You gotta. The Lord just knows man. He knows. He knew I was gonna love it. Would I have ever chosen Malaysia over any European country if I had the choice? Let's just say I'm happy I didn't have the choice. Man, do not let Elder Barlow cook, please. 

Anyways 

Friday was great. Did our classic johor Jaya shoplot finding. Went back to the Church. Had a passoff lesson with Mr. Hu. We passed him off to the other Elders because it's better to have both of the other newer Johor Bahru Elders who can speak Mandarin with him than just Elder Page who's the only one that can speak Mandarin between the two of us. So that was nice. We then proceeded to Makan some nasi lemak. I'm genuinely coming back after this mission for this nasi lemak and I'm not joking. Flying to Singapore just to cross the border over here to Johor Bahru to get this nasi lemak on the corner of Jalan persiaran Molek and persiaran Molek utama.

Saturday- solid day other than my bike back tire completely popping at the end of our finding block later in the day. We started the day though by doing some even more johor Jaya shoplot finding for an hour and a half. Sat at Jollibees and I downed three large MTN dews as we did our contacts and church inviting on our phones. Don't worry, I walked and biked it all off memang. All the members here are saying I'm getting fit and skinny so I must be doing something right. Anyways yeah bike tire sudah dihancurkan so we walked all the way to the bike shop just for it to be closed. We were over by our old on-date's house, so we just walked over to them and had a lesson with them for a while. Then walked back to our house and OF COURSE got takeaway JALAN ANGGERIK NASI LEMAK. 

Sunday- had a great day at church. Elder Png gave a talk in Sacrament, and it was great. He said a lot of insightful things about charity and talked about him growing up in Singapore around the troubles he had being around people his age who discouraged or didn't go on missions. A lot of the YSA in Singapore, from what I've heard from companions, are pretty discouraging I'm not gonna lie. Who am I to judge though. It'll be fun to be around them when I serve there eventually. Elder Png is awesome for being out here on a mission though. He deserves a shoutout. Anyways this guy from Arizona also pulled up. His name is Kent Flake. He's from Arizona and I told him there's a Flake in my ward back home, so that would be crazy if the Flakes in my home ward knew this guy. He said they were probably related. He served his mission in Wellington, New Zealand. Me and Elder Page after church were talking to him for like 30 minutes and he's just awesome. Super supportive of us and was asking us a lot of questions about how our mission is like which we're always super happy to answer and explain what this mission is like. We ended up giving him a blessing actually to at the end. He's traveling all over Southeast Asia right now, so he wanted to feel some peace. 

Monday- bussing up to Malacca right now. Going to do my SEVENTH tukuran (exchange) with Elder Overly. Actually wild me and Elder Overly have had this many exchanges. I love it. 

Love y'all. It was a great week. Loving this mission. Love serving the Lord. Love learning and growing as I go. 

-Elder Barlow🇲🇾💎

Week 31 - January 18, 2026

 Hello, everyone! Crazy last week. Other than the sacred music app (where all my songs are) getting deleted and removed by the church it was a great week.

Monday

- started off Monday with some gate knocking and then went back to the house and got ready for ANOTHER bus ride to Kuala Lumpur. Got to Kuala Lumpur around 6:30pm and had a lesson with a potential on-date and then went home. Wasn't a Pday but very light. 

Tuesday

- Pday in Kuala Lumpur, very fun. Had our President interviews and just stayed around the church the whole day. Just cakap kuat (talking a lot) with so many missionaries, talking about areas, funny moments, just growing close with missionaries. Talked with Elder Lambert and was asking him how my cousins and aunt and uncle were doing; if they knew all my older cousins out in Utah. Shoutout to Elder Lambert, got to be around him the whole Zone Conference, he's awesome. Another Elder I have connections to is Elder Haddock, and I was talking with him about Johor Bahru because he did three transfers there and I was giving him all the recent convert updates and how it was doing. Eventually as a Johor District we went out and got some Mexican/Turkish typa food called "stuffed," very very good. Went back to the KLDC (Kuala Lumpur District Center) and had a training from one of the sister missionaries and the transfer slides at the end. Great day. 

Wednesday

- Zone Conference with Elder Buckner and wow this man is called of God, no doubt. I can't write a hundredth of what he said but he came into that KLDC and rocked the room for two hours straight. He looked right at the Zone Leader over all of just the city of Kuala Lumpur and said, "We need a stake;" pointed to another sister who is an STL in Kuala Lumpur and said, "When do you go home? You can't leave until there is a stake." He was joking but he wasn't. He said that. I love it so much. That lit a fire in me, Elder Page, and all missionaries who heard that. There's nothing more I want, not even a Cowboys Superbowl than seeing a stake be established here in Kuala Lumpur. AH. Spirit was so strong the entire time. Sister Buckner gave a good training on effort and attitude. President and Sister Ho didn't give any trainings, but they participated in answering questions that Elder Buckner had us all give. Then he went through them

(Since my weekly emails are literally just me journaling my weeks) 

Main takeaways

- fail, fail fast, figure it out, fix it. 

- working with hard companions is marriage preparation, any companion really (yes, he brought that up and even talked more in depth about it in the mission MLC leadership trainings)

- teach me or take it away

- 1% better, talk by Elder Dunn really good talk. 

- a mission is all about change and BECOMING

- a mission is a safety net/laboratory and a time where you are fully focused on making and establishing your discipleship as your absolute HIGHEST priority.

- he constantly mentioned he believed in prophets, seers, and revelators and that he knows there are 15 of them on this earth right now.

- Prophet Nelson saw around the corner and Prophet Oaks can see around the corner (never heard a room more quiet) 

- members are supposed to be receiving revelation

- King Follet discourse (which I've sudah read but it was a good reminder to actually slow down and study it in depth, it's not officially recognized by the church as doctrine or scripture for some reason, but it basically is I think)

- NO REGRETS. Slide your shoes underneath your seat on the flight back to MCI and say you have no regrets. Something my first senior companion Elder Day mentioned a lot and it was good to actually reflect on it.

- Book of Mormon words are love letters from the dust. Read it as such. Talked about Moroni juga. 

- Did I do what I could with what I had when I had it. 

And much more. 

I'll stop there and I hope y'all can read something and feel by the Spirit what's one thing y'all want to study more and think more about in terms of active discipleship.

Rest of Wednesday was great. Had my interview with Elder Buckner and then got my blitz companions Elder Reyman and Elder Chadwick. They're great. Elder Chadwick is actually fluent in Spanish, and he has been to Barcelona and Mallorca, so you already know I was talking to him about that. He's also a Mandarin called Elder. On the train ride home, me and Elder Reyman were talking about a lot, and he reminds me so much of my older brother. It's actually crazy he looks like him and talks like him. So funny. Felt like I was just in KL with my Bro. We went to the Petronas Towers and best of all, I got Taco Bell🙏🏻🙏🏻 such a blessing. 

Through the blitz we met people from:

- Yemen🇾🇪

- Saudi Arabia🇸🇦

- multiple from Japan🇯🇵

- Pakistan🇵🇰

- Germany🇩🇪

- China🇨🇳

- Switzerland🇨🇭

- England🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

- Singapura🇸🇬 (not a surprise but still)

And honestly, I'm missing some. And that was all in the span of maybe 2-ish hours. 

diversity. 

Thursday: bussed back down to our areas and had half a day in Johor Bahru. It was really solid. We prayed out of last transfer together and then prayed into the new one since we're staying together, me and Elder Page. Went out finished weekly planning. Did some shoplot finding, talked to some Ibans from Sarawak which are super rare to find out here in West Malaysia. Finished it off with some classic mixed rice BWR.

Friday: first full day of JB Elders two in the history of the Malaysia/Singapore Mission. We welcomed in Elder Stevenson and Elder Png and got them up to speed and told them where to go because of course, they're both super lost right now getting double-transferred to a new area. Great day though. We did a lot of contacting, more Johor Jaya shoplot finding. I was not feeling good at all, but I wouldn't let myself sit down and take a break. Memang saya sombong. Terus bermajulah. Was close to passing out but aye we made a friend on the last contact before our dinner block. It was awesome. He was super cool and from Singapore, so we just passed him off to the Singapore Elders.

Saturday, exchange with Elder Stevenson

- wow what a day with Elder Stevenson. Zone Leader and it shows. Guy has charity. Every single person in leadership in this mission has charity. You need charity as a missionary. He's so so awesome. Just super loving, high expectations, high love, we found a ton that day. A lot of Johor Jaya shoplot finding, a lot of gate-knocking neighborhood finding. Tried a new area Elder Stevenson has obviously never been to considering it's only his 3rd day in Johor Bahru. But even for me in my 3rd transfer, 3 months living in Johor Bahru I've never been there. It was great, a LOT of Hindus. We just talked and talked and he REALLY got to know me. I told him about a lot of stuff, life before mission, interests, thought process on so many different subjects and he just sat and listened the whole day. We're super tight now and he was just great at ministering, and we had a long talk at the end of the night after a Great nasi lemak makan. Told him some things that have been going this last transfer. My interview with Elder Buckner. It was just a great night.

Sunday

- Sunday was a great day. Church was great with the two Elders coming in and helping them greet and meet with the members. We taught our recent convert and then we did some gated neighborhood gate knocking, door to door. We asked these Pakistani Bro security guards if we could come in and they just took us through right to the owner guy, rich Chinese dude and he said we could go around and berkhubat Injil Yesus Kristus. He was chill. Decent number of Christians and of course, as always, so many Chinese people. Elder Page and me, as always, were just talking and talking and getting closer. He told me the entire plot of Crazy Rich Asians. He told me there's Malay in the movie so memang Saya akan menonton wayang itu bila saya kembali ke America Syarikat lagi🇲🇾

Anyways, we ended it off with a great lesson and we put a Filipino on date for baptism. We have a lot of Filipino members and they just cakap so kuat in Tagalog and their local dialects. No just because I speak Malay does NOT mean I can understand a WORD they are saying. But they translated our English and he said he wanted to be baptized on February 8th!

Love yall, another week down. A great week. Focused on being 1% better every day. Another week ahead in the great city of Johor Bahru. Sangat best.

-Elder Barlow🇲🇾

Week 30 - January 13, 2026

30 weeks wow. Hebatlah

Another great week and, yes, I got a little too ahead of myself haha when I said I wouldn't be staying

BECAUSE I WILL BE STAYING IN THE GREAT CITY OF JOHOR BAHRU FOR A THIRD TRANSFER💎💎💎 

Kemuliaan kepada Tuhan pada tertinggi🙏🏻

And to make it even crazier

ELDER PAGE AND YOURS TRULY STILL TOGETHER FOR THE NEAR FUTURE. WOW. PUJILAH TUHAN.

Shoutout the New Gem. 

Great week, too.

P-night

- Monday night was great. Taught our recent convert that I mentioned last week that wasn't being ministered to well at all, and we had a long 45-minute call with her and some other members her age. So great. Felt great. She looked happy. We went and got some just delectable Johor Bahru nasi lemak and on the way home it completely fell off my bike and got run over by a car. So tragic. Great day though

Tuesday

- very great day. Did some night market shoplot finding and some gate knocking in neighborhoods above. Me and Elder Page are gonna start to branch out more and start switching up. This is my first ever time with a companion for more than just one transfer. So, we were talking together and we're wanting to switch it up sikit. It was great. Stated our purpose and fulfilled our responsibility. Mainly everyone we talked to were Chinese Buddhists. So many out here. Anyways we had three lessons that day as well and actually had a really cool miracle. Our reactivated friend that came to us was praying for help and told us to pray so he can find a job. Then come to find out when we meet with him next, apparently his son buys him a bus ticket to Penang because he just so happened to find him a job all the way up in Penang. So, he goes up there and we do a pass off lesson with the Penang Elders (who we just did a full-on exchange with the week previous) and yeah, the Penang Elders put him on-date.

I mean none of that is a coincidence. God exists. He's a God of miracles. He has wrought a miracle in this land just like he always does. I know because I have seen God work miracles in my life. I cannot deny it. Having a front row seat to the hand of the Lord is beyond my words. If you don't think the Lord can change your life, then you're just not giving him a try. All he needs is a little effort, a little faith and striving obedience. Anyways. Pujilah Tuhan.

Wednesday- nothing really crazy, honestly. Did some noon shoplot finding for an hour. No success. Did another hour of shoplot finding later in the day. No success. Did some gated neighborhood finding and got kicked out and almost got the cops called on us by this Chinese lady. Called the APs and they told us just to get out. Crazy. No success, of course. Disappointing today for sure. Three hours of finding and not a single good conversation that led to anything. Tired, feet hurt. Not used to walking that much, but aye all good. Majulah🤺🇲🇾

Thursday- beloved weekly planning day. Went to the same mall and Carls Jr for the 5th time now this transfer. Went and did some finding later in the day and genuinely every contact but one was all Chinese. I mean I just stand there and watch Elder Page speak Chinese for an hour straight. I'm just the gate knocker guy literally with my Keychain thing. It got really discouraging tbh. But we had our pass-off lesson I mentioned earlier on this day. Just had to explain it then. Because it is a 2-part miracle that spans over a couple of weeks. The Lord's timing is special. Anyways. Pass-off lesson was awesome and yeah, like I said, Penang Elders put him on date. It was all in Chinese, so once again sat there for 40 minutes and Elder Page translated. The Lord's definitely testing my patience. I speak my Malay so fast and formally even if Chinese people wanted to speak the little Malay they know, they genuinely cannot understand it. I don't even know. It's all good lah. Perlu Kesabaran dulu. Had a lesson with one of our friends that night that was solid. Just so hard for him to come to church, he lives so far. Biggest problem this mission has is transportation to church, by far. Especially in East Malaysia. Anyways.

Friday- Friday was actually hilarious. We found (tracting, I guess is the old term for it) for 4 and a half hours and didn't have a single conversation about the gospel. Every door shut on us. I didn't lead and finish a single contact until an hour into finding. I genuinely walked with Elder Page, used my Keychain, knocked on countless gates, they would come out and then Elder Page would have to speak to them in Chinese. Very much testing my patience. This is why Malay-called missionaries don't serve in West Malaysia. Anyways, that was crazy. Still a great day. Even after all the rejection, you feel so good knowing you did all you could. Just giving people a chance. 

Saturday- same day as yesterday. A lot of finding. Johor Bahru isn't really an area where you find a lot, but our teaching circle is dried up so finding is always a constant need to find people who want to learn. Elder Page during our studies genuinely talked about southern Utah and St George for like an hour and a half straight. Didn't even do comp study just sat there and looked at Google maps, and this man broke down and talked about everything St George. This Elder loves St George, I actually have to get him to stop talking about it, it genuinely makes us so unfocused. Anyways, it was fun tho we just sit and talk so much. He's great, love Elder Page. 

Sunday- Sunday was great. Church was great as always and so many people came. We had a linger-longer afterwards and some people from Singapore even pulled up. Did some more gate knocking and some shoplot finding. 

Monday- (not P-day, Pday pushed back because of Zone Conference. Usually Zone conference is at the halfway point of the transfer, but it's pushed earlier because of the travel day to Kuala Lumpur for Elder Buckner, General Authority Seventy, Asia Area Presidency, anjing yang besar memang. He's going around to every mission in Asia and giving trainings and what he wants the missions to do and focus on. Especially for Malaysia.) MORE BUS RIDES, PEOPLE. The entirety of 24 hours wasn't enough, I guess, last week. All jokes, it was pretty chill bussing up to Kuala Lumpur. Always love seeing the big city, the capital city of all of Malaysia. The Petronas Towers, Merdeka Tower. It's all awesome. Slept at the Puchong apartment and you can literally see the Merdeka Tower and Petronas Towers at night from the shower. Best shower view of all time. Was talking with Elder Francis who is going to Miri and man, I was telling him everything I knew and remembered about Miri. Members, places to find, study spots, and he was just thankful to be going into his area with a solid base knowledge. It was great. 

Tuesday- P-day in Kuala Lumpur. Interviews with President Ho was great. Super spiritual. Went around petaling Jaya outside Kuala Lumpur, had some food. Anyways I gotta send this email before 6:30pm so I'll update y'all how Zone Conference goes these next couple days. Love y'all

Overall, a great transfer. 45 days instead of typical 42 and I learned and grew a lot, and I mean it truly. Not just saying that just to say it. Every transfer I can look back at the start of each one and genuinely say, "Yes, I just learned or experienced something that will stick with me and that will help me." That's definitely what I want out of my mission for sure. It's not about the baptisms or the numbers for me, to be honest. I really have never cared. My mission for me is I focus on whether I'm growing or not and what I'm learning. 

Onto Transfer 5. A quicker 39-day transfer. With no Zone Conference to rely on for a break. No looking forward to wasting days traveling to Kuala Lumpur halfway through the transfer--just straight 39 days of work. I love it. I love stepping out that door every single morning and getting in people's faces and telling them the truth. I love the conviction, the confidence, I know this stuff is true and I want others to know what I know. Telling What they need to change to and Why they need to change. It's just the best man. Just soaking up the awkwardness, the discomfort and just preaching Yesus Kristus. People see us and just absolutely take off. Man, what a sight to behold every time. They go out of their way to not walk in front of us. That's why I step out the door every morning. Because some people can't handle the truth, but we try to find the elect ones that will hear it. 

Singapore is coming up here soon. At least with the work pass, but even then, I won't be an official Singapore Elder at least in my mind until I have been literally called by President Ho to actually serve there. Idk, that's just me. No, I have not served in Singapore yet. No, I am not going there yet officially. Malaysia will always mean more for now. One day the country of Malaysia will flourish like its neighboring fellow Asian countries. Malaysia is the only Asian country not to have a stake at all. It used to be the fastest growing mission in the world. Church leaders and us missionaries are doing all we can, I can guarantee you that. Singapore's absolutely on fire right now, at least. Malaysia not so much. I'm grateful I get to try and help lay a foundation. A firm one. 

Elder Barlow🇲🇾

(Elder Moulton sudah pindah ke Sarawak memang susah, saya akan rindu dia😥)