Shorter email this week I promise😭 (maaf) I actually added pics to my email last week, too. I always forget. Clutched up last week, Anyways.
Andrew Randall welcome to the email my guy. Every single sentence on these emails is as real as it gets from my brain. You trained me well🫡 love Ya.
We left off last week on Zone conference last Tuesday (12/16)
This email is from 12/16-12/21
🇸🇬Tuesday (Zone Conference in Singapore)
- Zone Conference was just awesome, as always. Interviews went great with President and Sister Ho. They're super awesome. Me and President Ho talked about what makes a successful missionary. He pulled up the same PMG paragraphs from the first presidency that Elder Randall showed me my first couple weeks in the mish that I talked about in last week's email (not a coincidence) that talks about if you have the Spirit, have the desire, and are obedient, then you are a successful missionary. Really felt the Spirit and President Ho is just so loving. This short Chinese man is just so powerful and commanding with the Spirit. I have full confidence he has been handpicked by God to be the Stake President of the country of all of Malaysia and the Mission President for the Singapore/Malaysia mission. Even though with all the traveling and getting in later than usual, me, Elder Jenkins and Elder Bingham went out as a trio in Great world and did the River walk on the Singapore River near Newton for like only an hour and a half and had our blitz. It was a great blitz, and we talked to so many different people. Our best contact was this guy from France. Young YSA bro from France (if only I'd have kept up my French😪) and he was super cool. He seemed decently interested. He said he was going back to France but that he'd check out our church. So cool to see the Lord preparing him and when he gets back, he will hopefully meet with all the French missionaries there and get taught there. Super cool to think about. Planting the seeds sangat pentinglah
🇸🇬🛫🛬🇲🇾Wednesday- woke up early Wednesday morning with the APs and got all ready to leave. It's a church Standard to be 3 hours early to the airport for international flights as a missionary. Our flight was at 10 so we had to be there at 7 but didn't get there till like 7:30. But man, those APs Elder Rawson and Elder Wride are just SO exhausted😭 Love them both, they're awesome. Anyways got on our flight, me, Elder Page and the Masai trio and got to Kuala Lumpur. The second we get out of "security" (security is a JOKE compared to TSA in America😭😭) (TSA is actually wild just seeing other countries "travel security" like Bro, TSA has you so locked in it's crazy. Then you get to Malaysia and even Singapore and it's just not as intense. I mean I think we know why the US is on lock down nowadays, but man let's go)
Anyways
The second we got out of security we find out there's a Taco Bell and man I was running to that thing. Man, that was so hype. Mereka tidak ada baja blast tapi masih sangat mantaplah. Saya makan semua itu sepantas kilat😋⚡⚡⚡🔔 (translate does not translate this correctly so I'll translate)
(they didn't have baja blast but very awesome still, I ate all of that as fast as lighting)
We almost missed our bus to Johor Bahru but the 5 of us got on and made it back to JB around 8-ish. Went to the church, sat and did contacts for a couple hours and then went home. Getting everything ready and texting/setting everything up was nice for the 2nd half of the week we had.
Thursday- weekly planning day. For those of y'all who don't know in this mission (I would assume in most if not all missions around the world, too) every Thursday we'll do weekly planning where for two and a half hours you plan out your entire next week and set up appointments and lessons and member visits and yeah it can get pretty boring and mentally straining, but me and Elder Page try to keep it light. Anyways, that day was great. We met with our old on-date we had to take off and were with her for an hour. She gave us a lot of gifts, and we taught her a tiny bit, got groceries, too, since we weren't able to on Wednesday. Did our weekly planning as usual, found for an hour and fifteen, made a friend, she's super cool. I don't know if she's gonna be able to stay in contact with us, but we basically taught an entire 10-minute lesson with her and shared scriptures and yeah it was great. Elder Page did well building trust and I continued to focus on conviction and testifying with a loud bold voice about the priesthood, Joseph Smith, baptism. It was great. Ate some Indian food, oh my, hit as always. I literally just get roti cheese, roti canai and roti susu. (roti means bread in Malay and it's literally all bread dishes with curry dipping sauce (If you've never had these, I feel bad. Peak Indian food. Johor Bahru in my opinion has the best food in the mission)
It was lowkey so awesome. Mid dinner, the commercial breaks are literally call to prayers.
(Malaysia is an Islamic country for those of y'all who don't know for sure. The main reason why I always mention "Muslim people" is because it's against Malaysian law to try to convert them in any way shape or form. Once anyone is born Muslim, so if even one of their parents is Muslim, they are never allowed to convert unless they leave Malaysia and even then it's still not good because their family could get in danger and just all this bad stuff. Even if a person doesn't practice Islam, they are still considered Muslim. I feel like I should have already flat-out mentioned all this but a good reminder to why I bring up people from Bangladesh and Pakistan as well which are also Muslim countries. Asia is so wild. The "sabit bulan" or crescent moon is the Islamic moon to signify its an Islamic country🇲🇾 The stripes on the flag come from the British East India company, because Britain used to control a lot of Malaysia. That's why English is a language that is used a lot all over Malaysia. The 14-pointed star resemble the 13 states, much like how the US has 50 states and the 14th point of the star represents the unity of the states.)
Sorry, I just love flags so much, anyways
For those of y'all who don't know, in the Islamic religion there's mosques everywhere and they do three prayers every day and four prayers every Friday. Anyways. So, they're playing a soccer game and then they cut it off for a commercial break and just start blasting a dude singing Arabic Quran verses, and they had drone aerial shots of Kuala Lumpur and Malaysia. They showed a shot of the Merdeka tower (3rd tallest tower in the world🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾) and then the famous Petronas twin towers in the same city line shot of Kuala Lumpur (the capital city of all of Malaysia. Biggest city in Malaysia, highest population, where all the government is) Combine that with the Arabic Quran verse sighing and I'm not gonna lie, it was so cool, it was so fire. Just chills man. Definitely don't agree with the message (Pujilah Tuhan, Praise God) but wow that was awesome. Seeing that, just the Malaysian pride was strong man, wow. They also put what the dude is saying in Malay, so I was able to read it in Malay because I obviously can't understand Arabic. Of course, too, if I wrote out what it said I would be speaking blasphemy against Bapa Syurgawi (Heavenly Father) but still really cool and interesting to see that firsthand and see another religion and see what they do.
Great night, taught our friend that night and it was so funny because as I was looking over our area book on PMG and doing some contacts, I don't even realize 20 minutes into Elder Page and his call with our friend that he was even calling our friend or investigator. I just wasn't even paying attention and then finally Elder Page helps me snap out of it and help teach. Low key puts me on the spot like crazy and I say the first vision to our friend in Malay and yeah it was a great long lesson, Spirit was super strong.
Friday- alright day. Found for a while in a neighborhood full of Chinese people and Muslims. Brought me back to Miri, honestly. Had a really good conversation with this one Chinese family. It was great. We focused a lot of our messages on Jesus Christ and why Christmas is celebrated and Jesus Christ's purpose, all that good stuff. It started raining as we're finding so that wasn't fun, but we met and got rejected by a lot of people. We taught English class that night as well and it was great.
Saturday was wild. Had a branch Christmas party from 2-5 and it was wild. We made some games for the kids to play, we shared a message to everyone in the room, led the games, there was so much food it was wild. Elder Ang pulls up, he's in the District Presidency over ALL of Malaysia. Big boss. Dude walks up to us and is like, "I want you to baptize this one guy before the end of the year," even his wife is like "I don't think that's possible." (it's not😭😭) He's like, "You two are the cherubims (angels) standing at the gate for them," and points to this massive Indian family that he wants us to start teaching. Like, we are NOT Jesus Christ😭😭 we are NOT the keeper of the gate. So funny. Had two lessons, one on the gospel of Jesus Christ and one on the Restoration (both in Malay, too. It was nice teach some lessons in Malay. You don't get too many opportunities to teach in Malay here in West Malaysia) Did a little bit of shoplot finding later that night and had two really good contacts with this one Chinese family and this one Chinese lady. The fam said they're gonna pull up to Sacrament next week when they get back from Kuala Lumpur and the other Chinese lady just moved here to Johor Bahru from mainland China and she's Christian! It was great. Ate some world-famous Nasi Lemak and finished it off teaching a recent convert.
Sunday- Christmas Sunday was great. Other than the cowboys getting eliminated from the playoffs, I love this time of year. Only had 1st hour of church and then had a linger longer after, it was great. Always fun to be around the members here. Elder Ang is really pushing us to baptize here in this branch. I love it, he's so on top of it. The Kuala Lumpur District Presidency goal is to have a stake this next year somewhere in Malaysia by the end of 2026. We'll genuinely need miracles for that to happen. I'll be around for that, so we'll see. We did a little bit of shoplot finding and then taught our recent convert as well that night. We visited one of our other recent converts, his uncle, in the hospital. We genuinely had to take our tags off, too. Just soooo many Muslim people and Muslim Indians, too. It gets to a point like of course I'm not scared of representing Jesus Christ nor am I afraid of Man, but it's for the safety of us where we had to take it off. Just the whole hospital was staring at us. Crazy. We said a prayer for this guy, and he seemed to really appreciate it. It was a great day
Monday morning- Malacca Elders just came up here for exchanges and we're going to have a district P-day today as a whole Johorlacca district, so it should be really fun. I may or may not be getting a buzzcut so stay tuned👀 (Update: Mom and Dad just gave the green light, stay tuned for buzz cut Barlow next week)
(sorry, Lola🤫)
Me and Elder Page are doing really well still. We get along great and joke around but we're definitely still locked in. It's great to lead the area here and have Elder Page to support me. This work wouldn't be possible with another companion by my side 24/7 for 42 (6 weeks) days straight.
Still just trying to do my part out here in Malaysia. It's a big country and I'm grateful to get a chip at it. To swing the axe. To show people God exists. To let them know Jesus IS THE CHRIST. To let everyone know HE IS MAKING HIS ARM BARE. The rejection is all worth it. I got a lot of it left. I'd only want to be rejected and accepted for one other human being ever.
🇲🇾Yesus Bahkan Kristus Dan untuk gereja dia dalam zaman ini. Untuk mewakili semua orang suci juga.
Even Jesus the Christ and for his church in this dispensation. To also represent all saints.
🇲🇾Ini kenapa saya pakai satu tajuk dengan kata kata:
This is why I wear my badge with the words:
🇲🇾Gereja Yesus Kristus Orang Suci Zaman Akhir
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints
🇲🇾Kesaksian saya: Saya tahu bahawa Yesus Kristus akan berdiri ke atas bumi ini dalam satu tubuh badan dengan daging dan dia akan menunjuk kepada setiap orang dia adalah Juruselamat dari manusia. Saya tahu semua ini dengan semua jiwa saya. Ini kenapa melayani misi saya. Saya mahu tolong orang untuk bangunlah dan mengenali Yesus Kristus. Saya sayangi kamu kalau kamu dibaca semua ini. Ada minggu yang mantaplah
Wrote this in Malay first and now I'll translate:
My testimony: I know that Jesus Christ will stand on this earth in a body of flesh and he will show everyone that he is the Savior of mankind. I know this with all my soul. This is why I serve my mission. I want to help others to wake up and recognize/know Jesus Christ. I love you all if you read all this. Have an awesome week.
Also, thank you Copeland Family and Grandpa and Grandma especially for putting together such a thoughtful and touching letter. Truly the Lord has esteemed and has blessed this whole Copeland family beyond measure. Even though I do not represent the Copeland name on my chest, I am still honored and proud to be a part of such a strong, exemplifying group of covenant keepers of the Lord. Thank you all.
Elder Barlow🇲🇾
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