A shorter week. An even more faced pace week as well. Scrambling to meet new friends and hit our goals with less days in the week. And it was a great one. I love Singapore not because of the MBS tower, the buildings or the flashing lights or the food. The super cars or the clean roads. Those are cool, don't get me wrong. I mean we fly around so much I barely get to see any of that stuff or take it in too much.
I LOVE, LOVE Singapore because of the growth I have already experienced here. I have grown the same amount in three weeks here in the Lion City than the last 7-8 months in Malaysia. I love Malaysia but DANG IT THEY NEED THE SPIRIT OF GOD MORE IN THAT COUNTRY I KNOW IT. I should be getting four transfers here, too. This place is just a special special place. The Lord is here. I know it. In EVERY little interaction I have with his spirit children I feel the need to bring them to the truth so much. I'm more committed than ever. I lost my voice last week. It didn't stop me from sharing the Book of Mormon and how important Jesus Christ SHOULD be to every singular soul on this earth. It didn't stop me from getting as close as possible to someone and telling them they NEED to be baptized by immersion and by someone who has proper authority from God. All who inherit a body need a baptism. They NEED JESUS. I'm blessed to have the next 410 days to serve the Lord almighty. Even Jesus Thee Christ.
The urgency is increased. The desire is increased. Singapore NEEDS to prepare for these next 5 months. I'll let them know.
Wednesday night was great. Man, we had just two AWESOME lessons. I wasn't even looking at my phone, just the perfect scripture to be expounded + the Spirit appeared in my hand and with our words every time. I was an inch away from the camera and with my still-damaged voice, I still had to kinda yell. I wasn't trying to be too overbearing, but the member that was helping us seemed to love the energy. Man. Elder Huntley and I just were in that room cooking so hard. First time we've had a locked in prayer for the Spirit before we start our video call lessons. Man, it was great. Helped so much.
Unfortunately, yet again our passion clashed once again. Elder Huntley and I got into a yelling match by the time we were walking out of the church. Memang were literally Shaq and Kobe. (I told him this at our comp council and he was laughing at that one) We just get too locked in together and man I LOVE IT. Anyways I learned that the package my mom sent was on the 4th floor. I got prideful and really wanted to get it that night. But of course, getting home on time takes precedence. I got kinda annoyed. Later that night, I reflected on it and of course I was in the wrong. Could Elder Huntley not have been so hard on me for a misunderstanding? Could I have been more considerate of the time and situation? Yes. But at this point we just work so well. We find, teach, and memang we baptize. This was our first Sunday this transfer we didn't have a baptism. So, who cares. We move on lah. We both care so much. We both LOVE SINGAPORE. BECAUSE THE FIELD IS WHITE AND RED🇸🇬
Thursday- woke up. Ironed Elder Huntley's shirt. I was so mad at myself. I told myself If I ever acted like that again as a grown 20-year-old man, I was going to call Elder Jensen the mental health senior missionary and set up a meeting. I'm shutting that down for myself real quick. I told the same thing to Elder Huntley. If I ever act like that again, you text Elder Jensen for me. That morning I listened to Marshall McConkie's institute podcast about action and reaction. (Shoutout the goat Elder Overly. His uncle is the head institute teacher of St George Institute of religion) Anyways SUCH a good podcast. That whole day and to even now my entire mindset has been changed. I'm calmer. Also reflected on the talk 100% responsibility a BYU devotional. Why in the world was I getting frustrated at Elder Huntley and ruining a completely great P-Night? I focused on my actions and reactions. Positive actions and positive reactions. Most importantly letting go of this control aspect that people naturally place on their lives. It's just the natural man to do that. But the Lord wants us to be better. Because he knows we can. Ever since that night, I have yet to even complain once against Elder Huntley. I cannot control how Elder Huntley corrects me. I CAN control how I react. I love him. I love the work. Why should I get in the way?
Anyways Thursday was awesome. Very very light day. Us four Elders (Elder Huntley, me, Elder Mac Pherson, and Elder Reyman, the YSA Elders) are just going through it because for Zone Conference Week, you constantly have like 14+ Elders just staying in your house from Monday night to Saturday morning. So, every night we just get trash sleep. When the West Malaysia missionaries leave, the East Malaysia missionaries come into Singapore. So, there's just so much talking and just germs going around, I guess. Elder Huntley and I, Elder Reyman and Elder Mac are just sick, tired, wanting good sleep at the house. It's tough. We were joking around when the East Malaysia missionaries got in on Wednesday night when they asked us (the four of us Singapore missionaries that just continue on with a normal week) to go play basketball like nah, Elders, we got work in the morning😭 We have a regular day of missionary work, we don't get to go to the church and have Zone Conference because we just had ours with all the West Malaysia missionaries. Anyways. Thursday was light. Did zero finding. Weekly planning of course. Taught English class because the Sisters, for some reason, want us to even though they both speak Chinese and they're able to teach English way better. I don't even know why. Memang we need to be finding and meeting people who are interested instead, but it's good service for sure. English class was actually such a success though. Found a new couple that we are going to be teaching through it. So clutch.
Thursday night I was just dying though. So unbelievably sick. Just laid in bed for what felt like the entire night. Got zero sleep. Head spinning, could barely breathe. Sinuses just absolutely destroyed. Weak, no energy. Ah, that was so horrible. Woke up Friday morning and I just had to continue to sleep.
Friday- slept in till like 10am. Didn't even do personal study. Went out and I see Elder Reyman and Elder Macpherson just asleep as well looking pale as well. Man, we are just GOING THROUGH IT. Kasihan kami. YSA Elders and Newton Elders getting taken out by Zone Conference week. Had to go out the door that day though, I had my MOM (ministry of Manpower) appointment at 12:00pm for my Singapore work pass to go get it approved. It was super light. Super easy. I am now officially a worker in Singapore. I work for the church now legally. Paid by the church legally by Elder Chen. (a grand amount of 1 singular Singapore dollar that I don't even get to spend of course) I now have zero problems with any immigration. I can now walk up to immigration before getting into Singapore and say that I work. Super blessed. Anyways, we had that and then Elder Huntley's derm appointment. Did our studies (mind you, I'm still not feeling 100% whatsoever) still went out and found. Still tried to find God's elect. Selaluuuuu perluuuu. We got Chick-fil-a for dinner. 😂. Shoutout the owner once again. He's amazing. Always comes up and talks to us. Went back to the church and did some calls and baptismal interviews. This one lady said she'd bring her family to church with her on Sunday, so that was hype. Crazy busy day.
Saturday- another crazy busy day. Had so many lessons all over Singapore. We started the day off in Dhoby Ghaut. Found for an hour. Had a really interesting conversation with this YSA Bro. He was chill and one thing he said was that he wishes he could find complete truth, the historical truth. What he's missing is that he won't be able to find it. Truth only comes from God. We brought up Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He had a lot of questions and insights. It was good to answer him and help him start to think. He didn't think he needed to be baptized to be saved, which of course we disagreed on. I didn't want to hold him up too long, but it was a great convo. We taught our recent converts, went back to the church for the church fundraising activities. This one church member brought a new friend (investigator) for us. We met with our on-dates, also with the Stake President of Singapore. Which is unheard of. Elder Huntley is so good at member relations, it's wild. The Stake President is just so busy, but he got us in the schedule, and we had such a good lesson. Got him Cinnabon because he loves his cinnamon rolls. Was at the church for a little bit and man all I wanted to do was find.
All I wanted to do after we walked out of that church was just to stop people walking and talk to them about Jesus and the Book of Mormon. I was luckily able to meet up with my guy Elder Moulton at Zone Conference which was awesome. He's in Bintulu, out in East Malaysia, where working with and through members is essential. Singapore not as much. He told me that he and his companion literally did a grand total of two hours of finding. The ENTIRE LAST TRANSFER. Usually, you do 2-3 hours a day over 42 days in a transfer. So wild. The work out there is just be with your members all day and find through them. Anyways, what I'm trying to get at is that I am in Singapore, with a work pass too, to go out and find. That's just the role. The job. At least for me. I've found that's it's my strength. It's what I want to do to. I strongly disliked the slow pace of work out in the kampung, in East Malaysia. Strongly disliked the east Malaysia work. So memang I'm in Singapore to work fast paced and man just to find the elect. I love it. I'm grateful. It's awesome. It's the best. Anyways lesson with the Stake President was just oh my, was so good. He shared his testimony on D&C 88:6. Man, the Spirit was so strong. We met our guy John who was brought by a member. He was cool. Called our recent convert. Ate Pizza Hut and Cinnabon for dinner. Legendary. Met another recent convert, called our on-date, went out and found to end the night for the last 30 minutes. We call this time MIRACLE MINUTES TO THE BUZZER. Man, it was great. Seeing the nightcrawlers. Met these two bros and I stopped one of them and he was instantly like, "No, Bro" after I brought up Jesus Christ. He whips out the star of David necklace. I'm like, oh yeahkah. Luckily his Bro was super chill. He's just like, "Yes, brother, of course I have time for Jesus Christ." I introduce the church and our purpose, ask him some questions and he's flying out to Hong Kong tomorrow, so hopefully he sees the missionaries out there.
Sunday- BLESSED SABBATH. Sunday will always be the Lord's Day. Man, I love Sunday. A day where the focus can be fully more focused on Jesus Christ. We had a great day. Partook of the Sacrament and it was joyful memang. We taught our on-date at church and he's preparing for his baptism next week, which is great. My dad is in Barcelona and man, he started his race as soon as I sat down for my personal study. So awesome. So proud of my dad.
We had a member meal, and it went great. Did studies, then finished off the day with two hours of finding. Love ending the week off strong with some good finding/tracting. It's just the best here in Singapore. Went home, ate my Cinnabon, ate my misedap noodles. Went to bed.
That's a solid 20th birthday.
Of course, not your typical one. I completely forgot it was my birthday until Elder Huntley on Sunday morning brought up that it was a spejcla day that day. I told him because it's the Sabbath. He was like nah Elder, you're hitting the big two four. Big twenty-four right? 😂 Nah, still 20 years old. So gila gila. So crazy. The birthday wishes were great I really appreciated them. President and Sister Ho sent me a video of them singing happy birthday which was awesome. They were genuinely harmonizing, it was crazy. Anyways. Happy I get to be in Singapore for the bday as well. Singapore's the best. The people I get to meet, and the members I get to be around. It's just awesome. Two weeks until transfer calls. Going to be here in Singapore for a while luckily, probably until June or August, but still looking forward to ending this transfer off strong with Elder Huntley before he leaves.
By Sunday night my dad had completed his marathon and man, I was going crazy. Just insane. So special. What a run. What a ride. Love you dad.
Thank you for all the birthday wishes.
Love y'all.
Elder Barlow🇸🇬
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