Zone Conference at Christmas Time in Singapore

Hey guys. So This last week I was in Singapore like I said earlier. The main thing we learned from our Zone Conference is sharing the Gift. They shared the Mormon message with us about sharing the gift. I learned a lot from that and now I'm pumped to share the gift with others.

This last Saturday we had our Pre-Christmas party. We were asked to do a little play on the Joseph Smith story. My companion was Joseph Smith. I was the dark spirit that came and bound his tongue. That was a lot of fun to do. We also were asked to be wise men in the party, but it wasn't as big of a part. Our church finally got air conditioning back this week. It was out for 2 weeks and church has been very very hot.

Our investigator, Ju came to the party too! She's starting to make friends in the church. She basically is another member, except she has been so busy this month to meet with us, so that's the downside. But I'm hoping that this new transfer will come out well.

We are starting to get a lot more referrals coming in and so this next week will be in for contacting them all and start teaching them. We have our youth conference today through Wednesday, so a lot of our members will be there, but we aren't allowed to go there with them. 

We also found a recent convert that got lost in the works when she changed her phone number (here in Malaysia, they just go buy new sim cards every now and then. they are cheap, like 3 or 4 ringgit usually. I'm not sure why, but it really is difficult on missionary work here when members change their number every other week) but she is super awesome, but has not been to church for a few months now. I am excited to work with her and try to bring her back. Our branch is doing extremely well still. Christmas is coming up though, but it isn't Christmas here in Malaysia. It is the Day of Binge-Eating-Until-You-Want-To-Die. I thought it would be rather relaxed because most people go back to their village for the vacation, but I just found out yesterday that there will still be plenty of people here to make sure we get stuffed from sun up to sun down... Yay.... errrrr. :/ but it should be fun. it will be my last Christmas in the mission, so I gotta make the most out of it. :)

That's all for this week.

Love,

Elder Vincent

December 10, 2014

Hey guys so this week I went to Singapore for Zone Conference, so I couldn't email this Monday. I have had a great week so far, but it is very saddening to me.  My favorite elders are going home next transfer and they just gave their testimonies.

One of them gave me a pair of socks that their parents send every single package, which is good cuz all of my socks have holes in them already.  I got a picture with almost all of my companions there, because 3 of them are going home.

I got back into Malaysia with 90 days, which is the miracle of the mission, because I might have the sketchiest passport in the mission atm...

This week was kind of the breaking point for our investigators.  If they didn't come this week, that means they can't be baptized for this year. And... one of them came. Which is great, but she is really hard to meet with, so she won't be ready until maybe January. The one that could be baptized this year had problems coming to church, but I'm not going to give up. There's still hope. For next year at least. ;)

I actually can't remember what happened this week.  It went by so fast. We have a Christmas party coming up this Saturday and we are in charge of putting a 10 minute activity together. We've been asked to do some sort of Joseph Smith story.  Not sure how that has to do with Christmas, but I think I tied it in well with the branch president's goal to have every member read the book of Mormon all the way through next year. I am going to go very hard in getting them to follow up with that. It's a good idea and should be done by everyone! That's how I got a testimony, and I know that's how everyone will be able to strengthen their testimony.

Love

Elder Vincent

December 1, 2014

Hey Guys Happy Thanksgiving and Black Friday to ya. :)

This week was a great week and also a very sad week. To start off everything, everyone is dying! Death is thrusting his sickle with his might, and literally every single investigator we have taught has had a relative die in the last week, and so they go back to take care of the burial, which usually means they will be gone for a month. So bye bye investigators, we bid thee farewell... hopefully in a month you'll come back.... :)

And Then there's us americans. eating our hearts delight out over a night thankgiving feast.

Yes. thanksgiving... yummmy and delicious with chicken, mashed potatoes, and pie. lots and lots of pie. and bergers and fries and waffles and everything else.

After all that food, there was still two chickens left, so I took them home, made it into curry chicken one day, and then the next day I made it into black peppered chicken. mmmm :) 

This week we have had quite a bit of success finding some new less actives and some potential investigators with part member families. We had 3 major families commit to come to church but didn't come...dang it... but it's ok there's always next week, right? 

We practiced for our Christmas party coming up on the 13th of December, we are doing a little nativity play and what not. I am a wiseman. 

I also translated that garment video too into Malay to help the senior couple in their temple prep class. That was fun, since he gave it to me and to a native and we tried to use as deep Malay as possible until it got so ridiculous we had to dumb it down. haha that was fun. :) 

uhmmmmmmmmmmm

Oh yeah and the church had no power for church. No air conditioning. We were all burning up.

Somebody apparently came in WHILE we are all in the church, cut a wire, and left without being noticed. Sad day.

Oh and its raining every day all day long now. welcome to rainy season! :) 

Love

Elder Vincent

 

 

 

 

 

November 24, 2014

Thanksgiving day three days early for me and the Elders in Sibu. We got some rules about our Thanksgiving dinner not being able to be longer than 2 hours, so our senior couples are going to be doing our thanksgiving today (Monday P-Day) and maybe we can get to watch a movie too, maybe like Ephraim's Rescue.

we'll see. :)

 

This week was good. Lots of trials with dropped appointments. This week actually overall was pretty hard with just strange things happening all around the zone. Our goal has been extended from 75 baptisms to 100  this year and ever since our sights have gone further, we've just had problem after problem. Satan definitely doesn't want us to get those last 25 people, but we sure can try! :)

Last Thursday I went into the immigration office and they gave me an extension until the 30th of December, but it doesn't matter because I will be going to zone conference on the 8th.

Hopefully I will be able to get back in after zone conference! :) I love this area and we have some investigators that are good, just having some really hard trials right now. 

James has been a huge help for us. He has the sickest car in Malaysia. He has his car painted with GB-13, which is the soccer team in Malaysia. He also has a PA system in his car so he can heckle people, haha. He is our main source of how people can come to church. If people can't find a way to get to church, he will pick them up. 

Our church is trying something different.  Because James is picking up people until 30 minutes after sacrament starts, we have a post-sacrament for him and the people he picks up. Only takes 5 minutes to do. I think that's a pretty good idea for those that are not able to come early.

We also have a functional Branch Council.  FINALLY! 16 months on my mission and my first branch council that meets together every week to talk about missionary work. Woohoo!! :) Anyway you guys have a great thanksgiving!

Love you,

Bye.

PICTURES FROM KUALA LUMPUR (KL)

 

 

Walk like a White person, Talk like an Iban

In church after I introduced myself and bore my testimony in Iban, a
woman whispered to me and said in Iban, "I thought I saw a white
person walk up to the pulpit, but when he started talking, I didn't
hear a white person. I heard an Iban."
That made me super super happy to hear something like that. I am back
in my hometown state, Sarawak. I absolutely love Sarawak, and I am
getting better at Iban than ever before. I can also tell that my Malay
advanced so much in Sabah, because I feel so confident with my
language. My teaching skills are doing a lot better than ever before,
and now I feel like I have the potential to blow up the area. Maybe
those are some dangerous thoughts of pride, but I feel really
confident in myself and I think that is good to feel. I am very happy
with this area. I am whitewashing it, meaning me and my companion,
Elder Weston, are both new to the area, but once we get on our feet,
we want to try to blow up the area. Elder Weston is from Oregon, the
vampire state as he says it, and he just barely got out of training. I
finally got to Sibu on Wednesday with only 14 days on my visa, but I
am hoping to extend it to at least our zone conference in Singapore. I
will be going to Sarikei on Thursday with the District president.
We have some incredible members here. They are really down to help us
with our work and following us. We also have a couple investigators
right now that have been coming to church now for 3 weeks, Ju and
Emile. They have been church shopping for a while and they have been
at this church for a while. After church I asked them, "Kani ka
berasai dik saritu?" (How was church today?) And they responded that
they felt very comfortable here. They loved our Sunday school teacher
today. Supper awesome family.
And yup.... that's about it for this week. other than that, I'm just
extremely excited about everything.  :) this is gonna be a good area.
I can tell that. I just hope my passport doesn't ruin anything.

Love
Elder Vincent

Halloween Comes and Goes

Happy Halloween everyone!

I just think of the song "Written in the Stars"

Oh written in the email
A thousand miles away
A message to the mains
Oh
Transfers come and go
But I will never change
And I'm on my way

haha those who know that song will know that's wrong, but that's the missionary song after you've been in an area for a while. haha well I don't have transfer news yet but we will see what happens. 

My buddy Ormsby and I think we're getting white washed together in Singapore. haha but we will see...

This week was OK. We have this amazing investigator named N who is Kadazan, Chinese mix. She speaks Malay, Chinese, a little Kadazan, and a little English. She is a freaking boss at everything. She is super smart, and retains everything we say. She was super super shy to come to church last Sunday, but once she met the members, she came and just was like a natural member. Like she belonged there. 

She even came with us to the Cheshire Home, which is for the mental handicapped, we do a little service for them about once a week when time allows.

Then we showed the restoration video to her, but we couldn't change the language because we don't have a remote so we had to watch it in English. She said it would be OK, but if anybody knows, the restoration video uses some tough English to understand for foreigners.

Then we ask her what she understood of it and she just basically made a full synopsis of his life, and she was really sad for all the bad things that happened to him.

Golden, kan?

Anyway, other than that, Saturday we had a huge service project at the church. We cleaned it with some members IN and OUT. The grass hasn't been cut for years, so it was growing everywhere and it took a bunch of time to clean and throw into a huge heap and burn it. Yes, I was in charge of the burning. BUAHAHAHAHA. Huge pile of smoke.

As For Halloween we didn't have much going on, but we had a little dinner at somebody's house. Nothing too big. We did get some Australian candy from a member's house that we felt to just stop by at for a second. 

And now... Basically just waiting for transfer news to come out. That's all for this week. :)

 

P.S.         SIBU 2nd Here I COME!

 

 

September 29, 2014

Hey this week was okay.

Got my 30 day extension in the area and then had to deal with 3 of our district leaving. Big apartment for me and my new companion, Elder Strathearn. We get our own showers which is nice. Elder Ormsby also commented that they get to sleep in beds the next time they are here. haha. They usually use the couches.

Overall things have been going ok with our work. We got quite a few referrals and one of them is from a member from Kuching that has a friend in Sandakan. She seems super excited to meet us, we will be going to see her at 3:30 on Saturday. I say that because I have never had somebody in Sabah tell me what time exactly they want to meet. They usually have this idea that they don't know what time they are available. This girl is different though.

Anyway, we are white washing the other part of Sandakan. I already kind of knew the area before hand from doing splits, but still don't know where a couple of the members live in their area. But we will keep going like normal.

Anyway, that 30 days means that I probably only have 3 more weeks before something has to be done with my visa. That means either I get an early transfer to Singapore, or I try to extend my visa in KK. Still waiting to hear any instructions from Prez. That's about it. Not much for this week.