Week 35

Hey guys so this week was just as busy as the last week. We have really focused on our 3 investigators, Boby, Therissa and Netelen, because they are the closest to baptism.

They did really good this week. We finally got all of them to pray by themselves and Netelen even taught a lesson on The gospel of Jesus Christ, the word of wisdom, and obedience to the commandments. That was really awesome of her. Even Therissa wanted to teach a lesson but it was already getting late by then.

Then we finished teaching them everything and we had our baptismal interviews with them.  Netelen has been reading the book of mormon constantly.  She is to 2 Nephi already. She picked me to baptize her. :)

We decided that we would put their dates to the 19th so we could have enough time to teach them more.

Also on Saturday, we had a district-wide activity. We taught our branch members how to make a peanut-butter and jelly sandwich, and that was our breakfast in the morning at 6:30.  All of our investigators came including another friend of Therissa's that she herself wants to help teach. (awesome investigators!). the first hour we taught 20-minute workshops on For the Strength of Youth.  Me and Ormsby were in charge of Music and Dance. I took an idea from a seminary teacher and decided to play a variety of good music and bad music to help them understand which songs invite the spirit and which don't. Turns out that they all are scared of Skrillex and Eminem songs.

Afterwards we attempted to play some games like Running Man, which is pretty hard when it's a hot day, Capture the Flag, which they just cheated at and the game was over in 5 minutes, and a game with blind folding people and then trying to find your friends by using different calls. At the end, it was the Elders and Leaders pouring water all over them with their blind folds on. What a day! Then we got home and took it easy for a couple hours before we went to teach our investigators. We got to the church and all the people that usually help us teach them are still there from the activity. They were absolutely hysterical because they were so tired. They didn't go home to sleep and so anything we said or did just make them laugh. So we had a different member help us teach on Tithing and Fasting.  And....That's about all for my week. :)

I am going to Singapore this week for Zone Conference. Wednesday morning I go from Bintulu to Kuching to Singapore, and then Friday we go to KL and back to Bintulu. Should be fun. :)

Love,

Elder Vincent

 

 

 

 

Week 34

Hey everyone again. This week was basically the same as last week. Except our pool of investigators is continuing to grow, and it is expected to go out of control this week.

Highlights:

Olivia, the daughter of our recent convert got interested in being baptized after teaching her parents about the temple.

Terissa, the friend of Netelen who has followed her to lessons, has brought a friend to church also, who happens to be in a part-member family anyways. 

Hey! so this week was one of the most stressful weeks ever. But a fantastic, hard working week as well.

Here is why:

We are still teaching our investigators, and then they have all decided to bring their friends. The only problem is, we now have to split our lessons, because our first investigators are already learning about the commandments, while their friends still don't know about the Restoration. So we have a chance of teaching 2-3 lessons per night. The only problem we have is that it's very difficult to find time to meet their families if we are teaching them every night. (And they all want us to teach them every single night).

Netelen, Boby, and Terissa are getting close to baptism, but two of them had to go back to their "hometown" (called kampung) for a few days, so we may wait a week or two before their baptisms. 

Evelyn and Tawi were together one night we met them and talked about the temple with them. It was a really cool experience, because after teaching about the temple, we asked them to prepare for the temple. Then Wat's daughter, Philomena, said Olivia hasn't been baptized yet. So instantly Olivia wanted to learn so she could go to the temple with them. Nice spark of interest I haven't seen before! 

We also got to see our recent convert, Preston. He has been swamped at work for this whole month working from 7am to 10pm at night, so we haven't seen his whole family at church until this week. It was fun to see them again.  :)

Week 33

Hey everyone!

So this week was very very quick. Here are my highlights of this week:

Elder Ormsby came back from Singapore on Tuesday night. He brought the mission call of a sister in our district, and she opened it and she is going to our mission on the 9th of May!

Another brother in our district was called to the Auckland New Zealand mission and he is going on the 22nd of May!

A sister in our branch came back from university, and has decided to get ready for a mission, and has activated her family because of it!

We have still been teaching Boby and Netelen. Their other friends haven't come for a while, so we will try talking to them this week. Might have an issue between family but I'm not sure. Netelen also decided to talk to her best friend about the church and she has started to learn from us. Her name is Tressa, but everyone calls her Key. (It's a kpop girl name I guess) So those are our main 3. Key's parents seem like they might be interested in learning too, but we just haven't had opportunites because we have been soooo busy. We also are teaching Suziela and Felicia, they are part of part member families, but they are really awesome families! I'm excited to go to their house every week. :)

A lot of good work was done this week. I am really happy with what I'm doing, but of course, I'm still not the best missionary or best teacher, so I know I can do better. Let's go for it! :)

Elder Vincent

Star Fruit

Week 32 - Cookie Baking Activity With Relief Society and Youth

Hello! so It's about time I send a letter. This week was just really crazy with lots of stuff going on, so I will have to just summarize a lot of it.

Highlights:

Making cookies with the relief society and youth! success!

Got 7 people on date, and 4 of them progressing in just one week alone. 

Okay so this week Elder Ormsby went to Singapore to check out what's wrong with him, but he got better after a couple days so he has been in Singapore staying with another elder that has an eye infection, so he will be coming back on Tuesday.

But in any case, we had a lot of referrals come to us the week before Ormsby got sick, so it was my goal to contact all of them this week, and it was a success. So...honestly, they are all children. Three of them are part member families, and then four of them are referrals from members that are their friends. So my goal for this week is to try to get their families involved (it will be easier to do that when I actually have a companion and have the time to go visit them all separately) because I don't want them to get automatically less active right after they get baptized. That's my biggest fear. 

But the kids I'm teaching seem to be really interested in learning and being baptized. I have brought a young man, Berendin, with me to help teach them all. He has been really awesome at teaching them. Shout out to him! Watt has also been helping me a lot to teach them too. It really helps to have members with you, especially since I had no companion for a week.

Boby, Mextervenson, Alexson, and Cincan are friends of the branch president's son, Adrien.

Netelen is the niece to one of our members, Sister Erin. She came to church with a different member across the street and now has a strong desire to be baptised.

Felicia is a girl I've been teaching for a few weeks now. Still working with her :)

Suziela is a girl of a part member family, Sister Jessica wanted us to teach her. 

So this week will be supppper busy with these kids, getting them ready for baptisms.

I am also excited to contact a family that has been living with this Filipino member that he wants us to teach. Immediately our work has changed from working with less active members to teaching people. It has kind of effected our attendance though, we had a pretty low attendance cuz I couldn't visit as many members as I usually could. When Elder Ormsby comes back tomorrow, we are just going to go hard on working with this branch, more than ever before.

Bintulu is the best!!!

Love you guys! Elder Vincent

 

 

 

Week 31

This is my weekly report...because this was basically all my week. not much happened besides this. So my companion, Elder Ormsby, went to the hospital Monday after passing out.  They admitted him for the night and they just gave him some antibiotics.  They couldn't really find anything abnormal about him. Everything was fine, but they weren't sure why he had passed out. So they kept him one more night, and released him on Wednesday morning and gave him an antibiotic.

So from Wednesday to Sunday, he just rested. We had a few appointments but maybe one for every day. Nothing to heavy for him because he just did not feel good all week. And of course, he doesn't like to just stay inside the house. It gets a little boring, but on Sunday, he had a hard time going through all the 3 hours of Church meetings, so the Stevens, the senior missionary couple, took us home.  Sister Mains decided that it was time enough that if he was going to get better, he would be better by now, and since he isn't she sent him to Singapore. He should be there for 3-4 days, but I can't really tell how long he will be there.

As for me, I will be with the Sungai Plan Branch Elders until he gets back. We will just have a pretty busy and hectic week, trying to work in both branches at the same time. But we will figure it out! :)

 

Please include my companion in your prayers.

 

 I'm including a picture of the week of a really cute Girl!

 Lala