Welcome to the email of the greatest week of my entire mission. This was so legendary. Filled with highs and lows. And ended off on the highest of highs.
Let the world know there's something going on in Compass Valley. The Lord is here.
No polos and tags. It doesn't matter. IAOTW
Chinese unc telling me to balik awal. Doesn't matter. IAOTW
Absolutely tragic 3-hour block in the PLQ on Sat night. Doesn't matter. IAOTW
And I got to talk all about my cousins, the Wilde family, and hear stories on stories of them from a member on Thursday with some members over dinner😂😂, which was so much fun.
This has been such a wild Rollercoaster of a transfer.
From two weeks of restriction and walking beside rivers and in parks/forests and talking to absolutely no one.
🦟 Then from that, walking in forests too much and getting bit by a random mosquito and doing zero missionary work basically dying from dengue without even knowing I had dengue for a week
To a Zone Conference week and working back up to full speed, not going too fast, not doing too much work
To then probably the greatest week of work I have had since my Newton days with Elder Huntley, putting up crazy numbers with Elder Hull and having a baptism and most importantly bringing a lot of people unto Jesus Christ and his Church and gospel.
To this last week. Safe to say WE KEPT IT UP. The Lord continued to deliver on His end as we continued to work super hard and pray super hard.
What a transfer, man. Tomorrow we find out who will accompany me here in Singapore for the next six weeks.
MARILAH JOM
P-night- had a great night in Serangoon. Found for a little and had two calls. Both calls went great with member fellowship. Taught Hua Jun and this other lady who was a referral. Tried to get Elder Hull back in the WhatsApp, but it kicked us out again which was tragic. Grabbed some GYG and went home and called it a night.
Tuesday: Halfway point of my mission🐍 325 in, 325 left. Jobs not finished.
Also, found out from Elder Freemantle, our ZL who reports with the APs, on Tuesday that Elder Hull and I put up a record for MPLs in Compassvale all time. Elder Hull and I just gave each other such a big hug. When Elder Freemantle told us that the APs were shocked and super pumped when they saw what we did this last week, man it felt great, I can't lie. Elder Hull and I really have just started to figure out stuff that is working and it has been so awesome. Not to mention the amount of people the Lord has placed in our path. Compassvale just a month ago was teaching maybe 3-6 lessons a week. Last week we taught around almost 25-28 lessons. Basically an MPL (Member Participated Lesson) is when you have a member participate in one of your lessons. They fellowship and help the friend learn and they bear their testimony. We we're able to throw up 20 lessons with these awesome amazing members participating. I always make sure to send a voice message thanking them, but I'm struggling to find another way to show my love for these members that have helped us so much. Anyways, that was super awesome Elder Hull and I got that. Shoutout Elder Huntley for teaching me so much about Singapore work and getting members helping and participating. (Speaking of my companions, read at the bottom of this email if you're curious to see what else I've learned from all my comps.)
PUJILAH TUHAN
Exchanges with Elder Francis in Compassvale. He's our DL so we had a great day and I showed him around Punggol/Changi region. We had DCM, went to Paya Lebar, Pakan, did studies, found for a little bit there in the promised land of PLQ. Actually at PLQ every single day. Shoutout the Paya Lebar sQuare. Full of very distracted Singaporeans, might I add. Including a young buck who was feeling a little too strong that day, who wanted to Bible bash in good ole Singpost Centre square. He wouldn't let me say anything and he was actually just getting flustered for no reason😂 I had no idea any of the points he was trying to make and I ended up by the end, after he asked something super goofy, just walking off. The conversation went on way too long. He was just attacking Joseph Smith and talking about why don't we as a restored church don't have our woman pray with head coverings. Obviously, I couldn't really explain to him that technically we do.
Anyways.
As we clearly see though those that are not divine and humble seekers of truth and/or do not have divine discontent and that are willing to read the Book of Mormon, show their faith through their works are not elect in any way, shape or form. They are not the ones who have a thirsting and hungering after righteousness (desire) and so in turn they will not be filled.
Anyways we left right after that and went to Tampines which was so much better. I actually got pulled off to the side like three times and like two of the times were by Muslims. This one Muslim guy actually gave me his phone number and was so confused when we told him we can't teach him (even though Singaporean laws technically allow it) I did take his number but didn't give him any promise, as I was trying to be nice, that we would teach him. He's not even fully Melayu too he's half Chinese and half Melayu. He even said he would give us consent as well
And yet still after all of this, if he doesn't receive the fullness of the restored gospel outside of Singapore and Malaysia, then we will be teaching him in the spirit world. These people's only hope is to go to America or UK or somewhere where the missionaries would be allowed to give them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
And we would get in massive trouble if I even told this guy he should go to America and learn there.
It's actually so depressing💔💔
Tuhan ada rancangan yang sesuai walaupun, memang saya tahu, Tuhan kan menyediakan❤️🩹
For the rest of the finding block, I just didn't have it. Just thinking about that fact. But again, he has divine discontent, if he desires to be filled with righteousness then he will be. I just have to have full faith to know that the Lord has these people under his care. It's super frustrating, I'm not gonna lie, we can't teach him and it makes little logical sense as to why we can't. But I will follow the direction of President Ho, and he is a man of God. I know it.
Anyways, this other chill Muslim guy named Raz just educated me on so much Islamic information and was just telling me awesome like fun facts about what they believe, and he said a lot of interesting stuff. He told me he's lived all over the world and he's seen a lot and that how how some people worship Jesus Christ only on Easter and Christmas are just following the old pagan traditions and how Muslims are actually more Christian than some Christians. Which I don't know when he said that I didn't feel to disagree. He told me that Islam actually doesn't disagree with Jesus teachings and that they really do respect him.
He also told me about how Singaporeans, Chinese and non Chinese, really don't like proselyting. Since it's a multicultural, multinational nation they don't think religions should be pushed on other people and so basically what he was saying is that by culture Singaporeans are just naturally hardened against any form of preaching and "outside religion" "outside churches"
I don't know I thought I'd share. Pretty interesting stuff. The less I know the better❤️🩹
Cue the verse though🙂↔️
- 6 And now, my beloved son, notwithstanding their hardness, let us labor diligently; for if we should cease to labor, we should be brought under condemnation; for we have a labor to perform whilst in this tabernacle of clay, that we may conquer the enemy of all righteousness, and rest our souls in the kingdom of God.
🔥✍🏻
Anyways. There's a lot going on, I know, but this is an average day in Singapore, it's so fast crazy fast paced but we rushed over to the other mall nearby and we met up with our members who took us out to eat at Casa Vostra. I don't know what Vostra means from Italian, but all I know is that Italians cooked with pizza and lasagna🍕 🇮🇹 Oh my, it was so good. Elder Francis and I shared a carnivora pizza. I got a lasagna. Man. That hit. I talk a lot about having Mexican food but getting to have some high quality Italian food hits so hard. They got us ice cream after too, some nice Chinese gelato and then got us some bread from a bread store. Amazing. We went home and did some calls. All the calls went great. People are progressing and members are helping. It was awesome.
Wednesday: the downhill day. Kicked off the entire 2nd half of my mission with a bang.
Had a great day and reunited with Elder Hull outside the Newton Stake Center. We went to Paya Lebar and ate and did studies off the bat. I cannot get this lamin yamal cup to save my life. Did 30 minutes of finding and then called our recent convert. Then did some more finding. Went to Serangoon and did like an hour there. Ate some GYG🇲🇽 then did a little bit more finding because a call dropped, unfortunately. Ripped a ROUGH 30 more minutes. We're getting quantity but not quality. I think the people of NEX are getting tired of us in the polos. I swear wearing the polos and no tag hinders us so much. I don't know I'm just being a bum not taking responsibility, but man, every finding block is such a grind. Luckily we don't do too much at all because phone work and doing teaching voice call lessons are a way better use of our time.
We did another short lesson, ended it early and then went home and did all of our calls at the house because I needed to charge my phone. My phone dies so fast😭 taught lessons from 7:35-9:05pm. All the calls went great. So awesome. Called it a night after that.
Thursday- great great day. Weekly planning day. Went to Ole Reliable PLQ in Paya Lebar. Went to Mcds. Got my 6th Beckham cup. Studies and then all of weekly planning was smooth. I've been teasing Elder Hull big time about him leaving Singapore. We both know it. He's so gone. It's all jokes. He thinks he's going to West Malaysia. Also known as the greatest place on earth. Shoutout JOHORRRR. Always gotta Shoutout the Johor Bahru. Man, I miss Malaysia.
Anyways, we ended up getting a referral. His name is Yuven Shortmickey. What an absolute name to have given to you. I had my doubts but we actually set up a call and we called him, and Elder Hull and I had the most spiritual lesson of the entire transfer with this man. He asked us why life was so hard and he sounded so defeated. We had Elder Chen on the call with us too, our senior missionary here in Compassvale Ward. We all three gave very powerful testimonies of Jesus Christ and His power and our free agency. Just all great stuff. The Spirit was so strong. I do not cry at all whatsoever. Unless I have dengue or whenever the cowboys lose in the playoffs (kidding) . But I got a Lil emotional I'm not gonna lie seriously. It was amazing. He said he could come to church and meet with us again on Saturday night.
We started to head over to the Woon's house with what I thought was going to be a very calm and normal member meal.
I had no idea what was about to happen.
We ended up finding out that they know my cousins and aunt and uncle and we just sat there and talked about them and traded stories and it was awesome😂 super fun. Learned a lot that night.
Thursday- had a legendary morning finding block to start the day in Tampines. Where we find its actually wild. We find in this massive covered walkway in between two different MRT (the name of the train system here in Singapore) line stations. So people walk to and from in between a massive mall, blue line MRT, green line MRT and then a massive bus station as well. There's just a ton of people and Elder Hull and I just walk back and forth stopping literally everyone that crosses our face (if their not Melayu, of course) (trust me those are the people I want to talk to). Anyways said a crazy locked in long prayer, super long, pleading for a miracle any success, just for the Lord to Provide. MEMANG HE DID. Probably looked like Nephi on the tower haha. Anyways we did like an hour but we met this old friend who had been taught absolutely everything, all 41 principles needed before baptism, by the missionaries a year or two ago. Super cool miracle we ran into him and now he's 18 so he doesn't need parent permission to be baptized. Hopefully we can get him to church and reteach him everything. Would be super awesome. We also met another old friend that the YSA Elders used to teach and almost baptized but he went to China and off the grid. But the fact we ran into him and he instantly recognized us (we're not the YSA Elders nor are we wearing white shirts with a tag) he's super awesome. Rudy. He's back in Lion City so he says he'd go to church on Sunday, which is awesome.
Anyways, we went and ate, studies, ripped another hour and a half in Tampines which was solid. Then went to Bedok.
AND OH MY, BEDOK WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN MY WHOLE LIFE🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
What an absolute GRIND of a finding spot.
Hordes of people just coming out of the mall and MRT, coming off the busses from the sides.
I actually couldn't stop everyone that crossed my face. I was talking so fast, absolutely FLYING around. Tons of people were staring by the bus stop. And man, you're just spreading the word of God. You're just absolutely preaching.
Doesn't stop the fact they all had their faces in their phones, but it doesn't matter. I gave every ounce of my energy to that hour and a half. Uncles were getting in our faces, people were mocking us and giving us weird looks. I'm not gonna lie it was getting so crazy and their was so much going on even I was yelling at Elder Hull to pick it up a little bit. To move on faster. To talk to more people but bless his heart, he did great. Not everyone's a public contacting city, Elder. It's all good. But what a day though.
When the finding time was over, I went over to Elder Hull and just gave him a massive hug. Just started yelling, "LETS GO" MAN. I was so hype. and we met AWESOME PEOPLE.
During the Bedok find and grind, we met this guy named James. James is AWESOME. He ended up taking us out to eat at this super nice Chinese place with his mom for her birthday and then he even wanted to get ice cream, but that's where I had to tell him we had to get going😅 (our house is so far from Bedok and it takes a while to get back, and it was already 8:30pm)
Always so nice just to even have like an hour and half where you have that constant pressure on you lifted and you just get to kinda chill and feel free. That's what it felt like during dinner that night with this guy and his mom for her birthday dinner. We were just eating with this super kind Christian guy talking about his life and our lives and our missions and his mom growing up and life stories. The connecting and bridge building was so awesome. He said he worked with youth and that to see us working so hard and showing our faith (because that's how faith works; it can only exist and show through our works) was super inspiring to him.
We eventually parted ways and we told him we'd definitely stay in touch as he actually lives super close to us and the Church. We went home and called it a night. It was pouring rain so we went in a little early.
Saturday- business partner wanted one last and final 31st day with me. Can. I kinda wanted to have one last day with him, too, before he leaves Singapore here this next week. Elder Marshall and I met up at the church around 11:00AM. Went to Serangoon and of course I know Elder Marshall loves finding, so I put more on the schedule than usual. We did an hour and a half at Serangoon, ate, studies, ton of contacts, and then went to Paya Lebar for a very important and big 2nd part of the day as we had a ton of lessons that night planned.
And unfortunately, absolutely every call dropped that night and the finding block was super tragic. Elder Marshall told me he had like a line of people waiting to talk with him and I was actually just getting stiff armed with the arm for three hours straight. Super tragic. Felt really defeated. Was looking forward to Sunday though and man, Sunday delivered.
THE LORD'S DAY
WOW! WHAT A SABBATH. As missionaries, we learned that we are no longer able to do companionship study or language study on the mission, but clearly it's for a reason because this was the best Sunday of my entire mission. Took the Sacrament and had a joyful Sabbath. We then taught three lessons during church. Brother Alex our WML (ward mission leader) is A BEAST. Helped us so much. Went home. Makan, Pstud, to Bedok, to of-contacts, found, went back to the church and did a lot of our calls there. Went back home and had two more. Then Elder Hull cooked some amazing grilled chicken. Man, what a day. Elder Hull and I put three people on date for baptism, almost a 4th. We taught eight lessons all with members and met some really cool people in the promised land of Bedok. That's just a quick run down of the day, but from waking up and having a schedule with nothing going on to all of our friends deciding they wanted to call, it was just so awesome. This other lady literally texted us and was like, "What's the process of conversion?" 😂 She's moving to Florida for three months so, Shoutout these Florida Elders who are getting handed a baptism. We hit all of our goals this last week but above all, we just kept up this momentum, found the greatest finding spot in Compassvale area, brought so many people closer to Jesus Christ, reactivated an older member, saw many miracles, preached with all of our energy, our might, our strength. Had a great time and just wrapped up a stellar week. So awesome.
Love it.
As always, when you're enrolled in the Lord's university on the greatest campus in the world, it's always a great time. This mission is truly the greatest time to accelerate discipleship and growing closer with your Savior. I'm so grateful for it.
I think for this week from hitting the halfway point of my mission, I want to go over everything I've learned from all my companions and to talk about them a little bit.
I have had 11(!!) companions through 8 transfers, counting OPK/Provo as a transfer, so 9 transfers. This mission has way less locals than you would think. Only 2 local missionaries in this entire mission. 1 Singaporean and 1 Malaysian.
Tomorrow I found out who my 12th companion will be.
I want you all to know every single companion so far has helped me so much in my life. Some have changed my life for the better.
I can't wait for these younger Elders to get in.
Provo, Utah🗻
🤙🏻🗻 ELDER STEVENS: we really were LeBron and D Wade🥲 to listen, to care, to be yourself, to have fun, to take naps, to read the Book of Mormon everyday and to take it seriously. Accountability. CHARITY. To smile more.
Absolute stud. 10/10. Brother for life; just placed in my life by the Lord. Zero coincidence we were just put together for those 5½ weeks. Helped me so much. 1 year at BYU college kid who just showed me I could become so much more. Just was able to be around someone so similar and we had so much fun. He's killing it out in Sandakan right now. Miss him😪
1st Area. Miri, Sarawak, Malaysia🇲🇾
Hariiiiii🌞 Elder Day: You wanna talk about clutch? To push others (literally🚴🏻♂️), help them become, be an example to younger people, and of course to stop and smell the roses. Classic.
🐕 Elder Randall: to be meek and humble. To focus on others. To not judge. To go forth with faith through uncertainty. Love you, Randall.
🦷 Elder Simonsen: GIGI PALSU BAPAKU. You choose how you respond to adversity. To represent the creator of the universe with boldness and strength. To not complain, D&C 58:1-7 mission changing sermon that Elder Barker and I will never forget. Persistence, to go home when you're sick. (Shoutout--those bikes that broke every single day, lari je🏃🏻)
Elder Barker: to not be hard on yourself, to have fun, to bike hard, realizing that people learn in different ways. To try no matter how much you know or have experience.
(it was his 1st transfer lah and my 2nd, but I've seen him grow so much as I've been here with him in Singapore now. He's my brother. One of by best friends I've gained through my mission. We grinded when we had no idea what we were doing. Watching Chiefs games with him and his dad after the mission are gonna hit so hard🙏🏻)
The promised land. 2nd Area. Johor Bahru, Johor, Malaysia🇲🇾
🏜️ Elder Huish- develop and apply Christ-like attributes, Being a leader is to lift others, focus to bless others not impress others. To bike fast. Consistency is key. Learned Mandarin on the mission. Stud. Master of massages too. The power of companionship unity and prayer. There was one time I really got on Elder Gabbitas and instead of Elder Huish yelling back at me, he just grabbed and hugged me and starting laughing. I'll never forget that. Immediately eliminated all contention. To show love, give hugs.
💸 Elder Gabbitas- to be temperate, be more mindful of spending money, to love the people and the principle of, "They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care"
🪂🪂🪂 ELDER PAGE- ST GEORGE'S VERY OWN. MR BLONDE HAIR, BLUE EYES. THE MAN. THE LORD PROVIDES. To not judge, to be kind, the importance of education and learning, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER, gave me great ideas for college, to give compliments, to not rush, to respect cultures and people, to not condemn, to be considerate, spirit of the law, the importance of conversation and connecting/building bridges with others. (first comp I had for two transfers; of course I leaned a lot + went through an entire repentance process alongside him and his care) to love where you're from, hometown and to talk well of past areas on the mission as well. To respect and appreciate the outdoors, an appreciation for the outdoors in general. to love. To story tell, an Elder who was not hard on me at all when I didn't need hard or strictness. I needed support and love/comfort and man, I got it from him. The Lord provides. Greatest three months of my life. Shoutout Johor Bahru, shoutout Elder Page.
3rd and 4th area. Singapore🇸🇬 Newton Ward🏙️ and Compassvale Ward🧭
The King of Newton👑 Elder Huntley- letter of the law, how to get members participating in lessons, how to do Singapore missionary work in general. To be likeable/fun but also hardworking and the importance of both principles going together. That you can't just be a super hard working putting your head down, but you have to fun to be around and people need to enjoy your presence so that they'll want to work with you. Money advice. Probably some of the best and the way he explained it. He embodied it. Coming from someone who has been offered a 7-8 figure job from a Chick fil a manager. picking your battles, being accountable, to love your area with all your heart and mind and the Lord will provide, to ask and the importance of Ask and ye shall receive. 22 year old guy. Older and super wise. Multiple years of college already. Learned a ton from him and he was tough on me. Definitely a letter of the law guy but he didn't back down when we butted heads, but he's such a stud. Had five baptisms that transfer with him.
Business partner💼 Elder Marshall- to lead with your soul and not your mind or thoughts. We got home one night and he just stood there and just gave me an entire speech for like five minutes that humbled me a lot, he spoke every word with such conviction and he meant every word. He said that Satan can influence our thoughts and so we need to lead with our heart and souls mainly because our souls are God-like and eternal and that's why we serve and live is to progress our souls to the next life with God so that we can become like him. Amazing amazing advice. To focus on others (maybe a little too much....) to work hard (understatement) to work REALLY, Really unbelievably hard. Learning how to submit my will to the Lord and do hard things with no motivation and desire. To pray with all your heart, mind might and strength to literally wrestle with God.
Mr. Medford🧑🏼🍳🏞️ Elder Hull- thee most temperate Elder I've been around. There's been Elders on my mission I feel like I've been around to help them break out of their shell and man, he's got a tough one. Quiet and reserved but super kind and considerate. He's taught me to not complain, when I had dengue for a week I didn't hear one single negative comment come from this man. He had to sit all cooped up with me and he could've easily written me off as he or I didn't know my sickness as to me being lazy but he didn't, to not revile, to not argue. To talk well of family and friends. To not boast.
I hope all of my companions learned something from me. Yes, I'm super passionate and fiery and loud and not temperate most times. I'm super bold and I may complain a good amount. I may joke around a little too much. I speak my mind on everything. I may run down everyone a little too quick. I may speak too loud and too fast. But at the end of the day, I just hope they can see that I care. That I truly do love Malaysia and Singapore with all my heart and soul. I love speaking Malay. I love the Melayu Muslims even though we can't teach or baptize them. I hope they see I just want to make connections with these people especially these Singaporeans. I give them my all and I just don't want this message to fall on ears that fall or deaf ears.
Love y'all. This next week should be a good one. I'm Excited
Never forget..
IT'S TRIUMPHANT🇸🇬🇲🇾🌏
🐯Penginjil Barlow🦁
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