40 WEEKS WOW.
LET'S JUST START
MONDAY NIGHT P-NIGHT MIRACLE.
Did a little bit of finding on our way to the MRT (the name of the public transportation here, everyone just calls it MRT. Stands for mass rapid transit) station. Met a cool guy named Norman. Always love meeting humble people who are open to learning more. Then went to the church. Taught our on-date. He's doing great. Did some more contacts. Set up the week ahead. Called one of our members going through a hard time.
Here's where the average P-nights get a little miraculous.
We go to Bugis and do some finding. Elder Huntley stops this one Chinese uncle and I wasn't there for the conversation (we do something called split finding as Elder Huntley and I will split off and do kind of our own finding and stop our own people simultaneously). Anyways, Elder Huntley as I'm talking to other people, stops this one guy and he goes, "Stop spreading your cult." Of course, Elder Huntley shuts that down real quick. As I'm walking back over, I stop the same guy that said that (but I didn't know that Elder Huntley had already stopped him) He goes, "I already talked to your friend over there." I'm like, "Okay brother, have a good day." Nothing seems wrong and we keep finding. Eventually Elder Huntley and I are having a really good, nice non-doctrinal conversation with this mainland Chinese family. As we're talking, I unfortunately see out of my peripheral
Two police officers.
Yeahkahhhhhhhh. Bolehkah macam ini kah?
My heart just drops. I'm like hitting Elder Huntley's arms to get his attention. When it comes to police, man, I just comply. Like "Yes, you already have my passport information, but I can pull it up for you, brother." Elder Huntley instantly whips out his work permit. I tell them I'm still awaiting my card, but I've already been approved for my work permit. I just don't have the actual physical card on me. They ask to look at something on my phone and Elder Huntley, being Elder Huntley with no care in the world, just starts grilling the police officers, raising his voice a little bit asserting that of course we don't want them going through my phone (because it's happened before that travel agents will go through missionaries' phones or people who they think are illegal) Anyways, I don't want to make this too long. Two mrle police officers pull up. They take pictures of us. They were grilling me asking me how long I've been in Singapore. They ask me what we're doing and if we stop when people reject. Like brother, you think we're just grabbing people and throwing them in the font? I don't even know. This bigger guy comes over, and he was chill just kinda lets us know he got a complaint. I mentioned the Chinese unc from earlier cause that uncle called the cops on us. We found out from what the complaint was
Cop goes, "Yeah, we just want to make sure you two aren't spreading a cult."
Yaahkahhhhhhhh memang tak boleh macam ini saya tahuuu
Also, to clear it up, ANYTIME the cops are called on for anything in Singapore, THEY HAVE to follow up and make a report about it. Singapore doesn't play around. So, of course, the police officers were just doing their job, and I am not mad at them at the slightest. Elder Huntley was kinda pressing them a bit, but I was being super chill with them. Giving them what they wanted.
Tidapa we maju
Anyways, we get back to Newton and start going home. As we're walking home and we're talking and kind of complaining about what just happened, we see our on-date crossing our face on the crosswalk and we're like, "Brother, what are you doing how are you?" and we stop him.
Our guy Karan who we called this last week on Saturday and we put on-date first conversation ever just on the street I invited him to be baptized. This chill Indian guy and here we are just talking to him unplanned. So awesome. We share a couple scriptures about the Atonement, ask him some questions and if we can call him the next day. He said he felt super good when we called him last. He still wants to be baptized--all great stuff.
We would've never met him if we didn't get stopped by the cops unfairly. We would've gotten Chick fil a and stayed in Bugis and there's absolutely no way we would've run into him. Just so awesome to see how God turns that whole thing into a miracle. So hebat.
Tuesday- exchanges with Elder Wright. From LEE'S SUMMIT MISSOURI. SHOUTOUT, LEES SUMMIT. Not gonna lie, wasn't one of the greatest exchanges but we did with what we could. Got out pretty late after our Zone Council meeting. We didn't have Sim cards. Elder Huntley forgot to give me his, and we forgot to ask. So, we didn't have any internet connection for most of the day. Still worked hard. Found for like 2 hours. Had Wingstop. Always fun. Had a lot of calls at night, so it was a pretty chill day. Met a husband and wife on vacation from England and they were members. They were super nice and supportive. Asked us how we did missionary work in Malaysia. UNFORTUNATELY, still cannot preach to the Muslims. Tak lama lagi kami semua akan tolong mereka janganlah risau. Man I miss Malaysia and it's food and seeing the Jalur Gemilang.
Anyways maafkan
Solid day. Got McDs for dinner. Had a call at night. We had to hover around the McDs for the free wifi because we didn't have a Sim card. Elder Wrights just a teddy bear. He's pretty quiet. He's just so nice. Some people at the end of the night were calling us Mormons and I felt like they were just taking advantage of Elder Wright's meekness. Memang Im shutting that down SO fast. This one couple was talking about how they "already know the Mormons" like, "Sister, my ancestors were called Mormons when it was used as a slur, and they were being killed and driven from their homes." it's not even worth it to get into it but there were multiple times when I had to just back up Elder Wright cause that Elder is just so nice and loving. That's why companionships are a thing and it's cool to see how missionaries bring different aspects to the work.
Tuesday night I was going through it. Wingstop + McDs almost took me out y'all. It's getting rough out here😂😂 all jokes, Its great out here.
Wednesday- reunited with the man Elder Huntley. Man, I love him. We just absolutely FLY AROUND. we work so hard. We're so diligent. We get fired up. We're urgent. That's my guy. From Folsom.
Anyways
GREAT DAY
I mean we got Chick fil a with a member MEMANG it was a great day.
Elder Huntley and I finally had a great sit-down conversation that was deep. Literally the only time we have time to speak to other is during meal blocks in our schedule. Other than that, we're just so locked throughout the day and when we find, we don't find side-by-side so we honestly don't talk a ton. But he told me a lot of great things, and I gained a lot more respect for him. Made me happy to hear.
Look at the peace-making going on🤟🏻 you love to see it.
Oh, by the way, when I was on exchanges in Jurong on Tuesday, Elder Myers and Elder Huntley put someone on-date for baptism while finding. Just first contact, "Brother, do you want to be baptized?" and he said, "YES." ANOTHER ON-DATE. SHOUTOUT, BRUCE.
Anyways. we did some finding in city hall. We got a free Chic fil a chicken sandwich gift card just handed to us. Lord's restaurant just providing out here so hebat. We had a member meal with our member. Elder Huntley and I originally planned to share something, but Elder Huntley just was overcome by the Spirit and starts talking about
Pride.
Pride is the devil. One of my favorite songs from J. Cole. Such a good one. It's so true. Pride really is the devil. Everything bad comes from pride. My whole life I've dealt with pride. Thinking the choices I always made were the best. It wasn't until I realized I was a member of the house of Israel
Israel literally means from Hebrew to:
LET GOD PREVAIL.
It wasn't until I let God prevail in my life until I've started to see my life change for the better. It wasn't until I've humbled myself this transfer until I've seen change in this companionship and the work. Elder Huntley said at the member meal he has seen a big change in me which meant a lot to hear. But truly, anyone who will let God prevail in their life is a part of his church. They are chosen and their election of grace will come. They are elect and I am here to find them. This is doctrine. I'm glad for it. I'm happy to find the Lord's elect. We stopped this man after we were done with our video calls on Wednesday night and he just got soooo mad. Was just yelling at us because we invited him to church. We then ran into a couple from the Ivory Coast actually which was really cool. They were super super nice, they said they have seen volunteers like us in the Ivory Coast, and they wished us the best of luck.
I mean that is a big seed planted regardless. It would've never happened if we didn't get caught up and yelled at by some dude for doing nothing wrong. The amount of times I've felt prompted to stop someone for no reason is crazy. So grateful for this service. It's the best. It's so hard betul betul. MEMANG I don't want to wake up at 7:00 AM every single day and workout. Monday night ends and I'm like
Yahkah another week Kah bolehkah? Macam mana kah?
But I find strength through Jesus Christ. Just keep serving and it's just been going so great.
Wednesday was great. Spirit was so strong as we were talking about pride and I shared a lot of things about my pride between me and Elder Huntley and how we're overcoming it and just having the Spirit there, and Elder Huntley and I sharing our thoughts to this member just completely eliminated any contention that was left. We're doing so much better now. We laugh more, get along more. We're doing so great now.
It started with me actively humbling myself. Actively reflecting. When I tell people that Jesus Christ has truly changed my life, I mean every word. Man, I'm so excited for all these missionaries and friends I know that just got their calls to get out. It'll just be so hard and so awesome and so tiring and so rewarding. Blessed for the next year ahead.
Sorry this email is so long and just all over the place. Just so much happens every day and so many little interactions I want to speak about. I have to leave some out, unfortunately. I type as fast as my brain wants to. Yahkah
Thursday- went to Vivo city in Harbourfront right next to the boat tower to do weekly planning and studies. It went great. Did some Keppel bay finding near Sentosa Island. Crazy views but no one elect there. Actually, everyone was just hard hearted and this one guy said, "Jesus Christ isn't doing too well right now." I'm like, "REALLY, brother?" Had a great lesson and tried to put this one guy on-date. He didn't accept, unfortunately. It was a great day. Taught our other friend from Chile with the help of our other friend at the same time.
Friday- had a lot more finding Friday. Made five friends. Great day. Had Chick fil a, too. Called our on-date. Great day. Orchard road finding in the morning. It was fun. Just a usual day. Nothing really crazy happened
Saturday- definitely journaling this pretty fast. Haven't been too on top of Journaling throughout this week. But anyways, Saturday was awesome. Had genuine real real Mexican food at this one super nice place with a member. The owner is literally from Puebla Mexico. Found in city hall. Boat tower is literally in sight the whole time. Wasn't the best finding. We got Wingstop for dinner, the usual. So good. Met this really cool guy Renny at great world river walk at night after some calls. So good. That was a really good finding block. My phone was dead and I just completely focused on being humble, calm, and said a locked-in prayer. Had the Spirit like crazy when we were finding. I could tell when I stopped anyone that night, they noticed something different. Didn't raise my voice. Definitely wasn't my usual bold self, but I kind of liked it. Finding with the Spirt, of course, works so so well.
Sunday- Sunday always the best. Church was amazing. Taught our on-date. Had a member meal. It was fun. Did like 30 minutes of finding the whole day. Sunday was great.
For p-day we're going to Sentosa Island. McDonald's here has Mcgriddles. Memang saya mahu satu. Anyways sentosa. Super nice, really touristy but should be soo much fun. Might play volleyball at the beach.
Saw that USA lost in WBC. Man, that's so tragic. Venezuela got their revenge I guess haha.
Missing out on March Madness is not the most fun thing as a big sports fan, especially someone who was born during March Madness. Sacrifices lah. Send me y'alls brackets, I wanna see. This one member was like, "Are y'all keeping up with March Madness?" Like, "Sister, of course we're not😭 We're so locked. Absolutely flying around." Anyways.
Met these two members from Stanley Ward in Overland Park Stake. I took a pic with them. They're here for the crazy nice Disney cruise that all the tourists are going crazy for. I should've asked how President Gillis and the missionaries are just baptizing absolute NATIONS right now🙏🏻 Already know it's getting held down so well right now. Bless up Kansas City Missouri Mission.
SHOUTOUT THE OPK🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Anyways.
On more important matters, One more week until transfer calls. I will be staying in Newton which is awesome. Elder Huntley, unfortunately, is also guaranteed to be leaving. This is like his 5th transfer here. It's totally guaranteed for both. So I'll be leading out Newton next transfer with a new companion. Guaranteed to be here until May 15th, which is awesome. Really looking forward to this next week. Last full week of the transfer. Fastest transfer of my entire mission, it's so wild.
Love y'all. If you read all this, I cannot express how much I appreciate you. I want to payback this support so much. Love y'all
🇲🇾Penatua Barlow🇸🇬
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