Sorry I'm sending this later than usual, but we just got back from
Singapore today, so this is the first time I've really had time. We were
going to do it in Singapore, but the internet places there rarely have
Chinese character capabilities, which my companion needs.
Anyway, last
week, we got appointments set up with some people from Myanmar who had been
dropped before on the phone, so that was nice. Unfortunately we were unable
to teach them this week.
The next day, we went to district meeting which was far away, but it was
great, especially since the Howells, the couple who's place we did it at,
are super cool. And they made us food!
One interesting thing is that some
buildings here have floors 3A and 13A, etc. to replace 4 and 14 since 4
sounds like death in Chinese.
There are a bunch of missionaries here who
have been out even less than I have already. They are from the English
speaking generation.
I got my first taste of door knocking, which is a bit
scary and unproductive, but it was fun. We called a bunch of people from
potential investigator sheets that go back way long ago, and some of them
even said they'd come to church! One interesting thing was that my
companion and I both read the same passage of scriptures, studying
different things. I guess it was important for our companionship!
I think I should tell you a bit more about Elder Chong, because he's great.
He's from Sitiawan (or however you spell it), and he's been out nearly a
year. Before his mission, he was a baker, so he's the go-to guy for great
meals. I'm a lucky elder. He's very humble and hardworking, and I love
being his companion!
On Wednesday, we read the analogy about fishermen in Preach my Gospel,
where you can go out fishing but really only have your net out a couple
hours, or you can go out and have it out the whole time. I really liked
that one. We went across town to get Chinese Book of Mormons, but
unfortunately there were only two, so hopefully we can find more soon. We
taught a cool member, who's just amazing. That night, we ran into someone
interested that we couldn't teach, but he was a really cool guy and it was
fun to talk to him.
Thursday, we did some weekly planning, but then had to leave to teach a
couple lessons deep into our area with the sisters. The first one didn't
happen, but the second one was at a member's house, and it went great.
Elder Chong gave her a baptismal date and she's ready to be baptized.
Afterwards, they fed us pizza. One had hot sauce instead of tomato sauce
and little anchovie things on it. It was pretty good. We agreed to fast
together, too. We also visited an investigator of the sisters who is super
cool from India, and we got a bit of food there. There's also ice cream
flavored soda here which is really interesting.
Friday, we mostly just passed out Book of Mormons, since our one
appointment fell through. We passed them to some really cool Nigerians.
Later that night, we had some great steamed buns from a street vendor, and
he says he'll come to church sometime.
Saturday was also good. In training, we watch the District a lot, so we
watched a ton. And then we got naan for cheap for lunch, which was
delicious. We knocked doors again, which just hasn't worked out for us yet.
We then had two lessons planned, but weird things happened and we only
taught one, but we met the other investigator who seems super cool. Ice
Milo is also a really good drink, by the way.
On Sunday, we had combined church with the KL branch because of electricity
problems at our building, and I met lots of cool people. It was really fun,
and they had food after, but we were fasting with our investigator. We were
led by that super awesome member from above to places with lots of Chinese
people, and I got a few Book of Mormons out, but the areas weren't really
in our area. We stopped at a touristy place and it started raining really
hard. IT was cool. We unfortunately waited somewhere for an investigator
for a long time, and he was also waiting there, but we didn't know each
other, so that didn't happen. We got home and had delicious chicken nuggets
and a sweet corn twinkie like thing.
Zone conference was all super fun! Our taxi driver filled up gas while the
car was running and the car stalled on the highway, but we made it to the
airport and then to Singapore no problem. The Chinese Elders are in the
process of moving, and some transfers have happened there, but it was good
to see my former companions, as well as Elder Sheranian. We watched the
Work of Salvation broadcast, and I am in it a tiny bit. On the real day of
Zone conference, Tuesday, we learned from the Assistants, the mission
president, and his wife, and it was all great. Our mission is getting many
new people in the next few months. Also, the Malay Book of Mormon recently
came out, so we got pictures with that. Everyone is super excited about it.
We had good pizza and then ice cream for dinner. The ice cream place has a
challenge that one day I want to attempt. We had a good zone meeting, I ate
some weird octopus and prawn ball things, and then we went home. This
morning, we got up and came back to KL! So that's the last week plus.
Love, GE ZL
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Monday, August 12, 2013
Week 13
This week was another good one. On Tuesday, we had a great lesson with an
investigator that we had challenged to fast with us, where in the end, he
agreed to move his baptismal date up a few weeks. He is super great.
I talked with the assistants about my travel to KL, and they instructed me to find a bus and take it to KL on Thursday. I was kind of scared, since those descriptions weren't too descriptive.
One funny thing that happened was my companion asked me to draft a text to remind everyone to come to a baptismal service on Wednesday, and I accidentally used the wrong characters, so instead of writing "Hello, everybody" I wrote "Hit with a fist". The next day, we taught two lessons on the Word of Wisdom, and then we filled the font, etc, for the baptismal service. It was the other companionship's baptism, but my companion, Elder Frey, baptized. Kind of weird, but before we got here he was in their companionship, so it makes sense. Anyway, that was a good one. Her parents flew in from China to come, which was extra cool. And luckily, after the baptism I ran into the KL Zone leaders who were in for a meeting, and they were also travelling to KL the next day. We agreed to meet the next morning, so I was very relieved.
The next day, I left and met them a few stations away, and we walked and took taxis all over Singapore looking for a bus, but it turns out we were leaving during Hari Raya, the end of Ramadan, so lots of people were travelling, and there were no tickets anywhere. Instead, we decided to take a taxi to the border. Once across (many hours later), we had a really good lunch, met up with a Chinese man from Singapore who wanted people to travel with, and took a bus to KL.
There was a Beyond 5 (pretty much a Utahn boy band) concert that we were going to go to, but we missed it by a while. We got to the house about 9:30, but I met up with companion before that and we even ran into an investigator. The Assistants also slept at our place that night, as well as another elder. Our new place is pretty nice, and has tons of locks (the Zone leaders describe it as a fortress). It's not too big, but it has a gym, and we have a great view of the Petronas towers.
Anyway, for the past few days, we've mostly just followed the sisters who are assigned to the same branch as us (apparently there haven't been elders here for years). Transportation has been expensive, because the place was closed where the other missionaries buy a pass for the holiday, and we've had to buy tokens every time. But we got the passes this morning, so everything is good.
The first day, we went with them to an appointment and then got the area book and discussed the people they are handing off to us. The next day, we went to two appointments. The first was with a young Chinese man, and he is very prepared. They had taught him some of the Plan of Salvation the time before, but we cleared that up in Chinese with him and Elder Chong told a story of how he had to tell his boss that he wouldn't work on Sundays, even if he had to quit. He quit, and got an even better job. Then, Elder Chong got him a baptismal date by simply asking "So when do you want to have your baptism?". He's really a great guy and I'm excited for him. Next we went to visit two people that aren't our investigators, but they are super great, and they fed us, which I feel bad about, since they weren't expecting four missionaries.
Sunday was also a good one. We followed the sisters to church. I love our branch. Our branch president is very willing to help. There are many Indians, many Malaysians, a few Americans, and a bunch of Chinese people. We have a senior couple in our branch, that is also really nice. There are several soon-to-leave missionaries here. I went to Sunday School in Malay, but my companion translated a lot of it. After, we went to a baptism of an 8 year old in our branch, but at the other chapel (near our place, actually. We live far from our area). There are so many cool people here.
Other things we've done this week has been: call a bunch of people, we have a few appointments set up for this week, grocery shopping, and weekly planning. Overall, I really love KL, but transportation is a bit slower, so sometimes I don't feel as productive. I'm so blessed to be companions with Elder Chong, so my Chinese can progress. Things have been crazy with studies, but I think my Chinese is definitely improving. KL food is all really good, and there are many cool buildings here, like the beautiful mosques, and of course, the Petronas towers. I also got to call in our weekly report to the district leader yesterday for the first time. Overall, I'm excited to be here, I could potentially be here a long time. Hopefully this week we can really start to get the work moving.
Anyway, have a great week!
Love, Ge Zhanglao
I talked with the assistants about my travel to KL, and they instructed me to find a bus and take it to KL on Thursday. I was kind of scared, since those descriptions weren't too descriptive.
One funny thing that happened was my companion asked me to draft a text to remind everyone to come to a baptismal service on Wednesday, and I accidentally used the wrong characters, so instead of writing "Hello, everybody" I wrote "Hit with a fist". The next day, we taught two lessons on the Word of Wisdom, and then we filled the font, etc, for the baptismal service. It was the other companionship's baptism, but my companion, Elder Frey, baptized. Kind of weird, but before we got here he was in their companionship, so it makes sense. Anyway, that was a good one. Her parents flew in from China to come, which was extra cool. And luckily, after the baptism I ran into the KL Zone leaders who were in for a meeting, and they were also travelling to KL the next day. We agreed to meet the next morning, so I was very relieved.
The next day, I left and met them a few stations away, and we walked and took taxis all over Singapore looking for a bus, but it turns out we were leaving during Hari Raya, the end of Ramadan, so lots of people were travelling, and there were no tickets anywhere. Instead, we decided to take a taxi to the border. Once across (many hours later), we had a really good lunch, met up with a Chinese man from Singapore who wanted people to travel with, and took a bus to KL.
There was a Beyond 5 (pretty much a Utahn boy band) concert that we were going to go to, but we missed it by a while. We got to the house about 9:30, but I met up with companion before that and we even ran into an investigator. The Assistants also slept at our place that night, as well as another elder. Our new place is pretty nice, and has tons of locks (the Zone leaders describe it as a fortress). It's not too big, but it has a gym, and we have a great view of the Petronas towers.
Anyway, for the past few days, we've mostly just followed the sisters who are assigned to the same branch as us (apparently there haven't been elders here for years). Transportation has been expensive, because the place was closed where the other missionaries buy a pass for the holiday, and we've had to buy tokens every time. But we got the passes this morning, so everything is good.
The first day, we went with them to an appointment and then got the area book and discussed the people they are handing off to us. The next day, we went to two appointments. The first was with a young Chinese man, and he is very prepared. They had taught him some of the Plan of Salvation the time before, but we cleared that up in Chinese with him and Elder Chong told a story of how he had to tell his boss that he wouldn't work on Sundays, even if he had to quit. He quit, and got an even better job. Then, Elder Chong got him a baptismal date by simply asking "So when do you want to have your baptism?". He's really a great guy and I'm excited for him. Next we went to visit two people that aren't our investigators, but they are super great, and they fed us, which I feel bad about, since they weren't expecting four missionaries.
Sunday was also a good one. We followed the sisters to church. I love our branch. Our branch president is very willing to help. There are many Indians, many Malaysians, a few Americans, and a bunch of Chinese people. We have a senior couple in our branch, that is also really nice. There are several soon-to-leave missionaries here. I went to Sunday School in Malay, but my companion translated a lot of it. After, we went to a baptism of an 8 year old in our branch, but at the other chapel (near our place, actually. We live far from our area). There are so many cool people here.
Other things we've done this week has been: call a bunch of people, we have a few appointments set up for this week, grocery shopping, and weekly planning. Overall, I really love KL, but transportation is a bit slower, so sometimes I don't feel as productive. I'm so blessed to be companions with Elder Chong, so my Chinese can progress. Things have been crazy with studies, but I think my Chinese is definitely improving. KL food is all really good, and there are many cool buildings here, like the beautiful mosques, and of course, the Petronas towers. I also got to call in our weekly report to the district leader yesterday for the first time. Overall, I'm excited to be here, I could potentially be here a long time. Hopefully this week we can really start to get the work moving.
Anyway, have a great week!
Love, Ge Zhanglao
Wednesday, August 7, 2013
Week 12
This week has been another amazing one, and I don't know if KL can possibly
be as cool as Singapore! First, we went to Marina Bay after email last
week. It's the iconic place in Singapore, and we got some good pictures and
got to spend time with a really cool recent convert before he left back to
China. The Merlion was my favorite part of that.
We went to FHE after with the YSA, which was fun as usual. They are all super cool. The next day we did things for our work permits, that went by smoothly, and we even made it back for district meeting, where departing missionaries shared the advice that they wish they had known earlier, including one of the APs. A bunch of them left this week, but something like 8 English speakers came this week, as well. I am no longer the least experienced missionary here! :)
We taught three investigators, none of which I've met before, and that was fun. One of them said I need to call him and he will cook for me.
The next day was also great. I went to Little India for the first time and got to eat a bunch of Indian food. A lot of the Chinese people aren't fans of Indian cuisine, so I got to eat nearly two meals, since one of the members who went with us didn't like hers.
We got another elder who was in Singapore for a couple days, and he was super cool. He stayed with us that night, so there were 7 mattresses in our one room, which is kind of odd since in our same building there is another English companionship of elders by themselves in an apartment.
Anyway, Elder Mitchell and I went out contacting for a bit by ourselves, which was fun. One very cool thing that happened is as we left the building, we saw two people coming in, which we didn't think much of. We said a prayer, and as soon as we opened our eyes, they were walking out of it past us, and we talked to them. It turns out they weren't members and were just seeing what our church was about, so that was good.
We got back and did a basketball activity with YSA and people they invited, which was actually very effective. A bunch of nonmembers came and we talked to them. And then I saw someone I knew from BYU, Damon Petersen (hopefully that's the right spelling).
Someone brought durian that night, and I finally had my first taste. I had tried many times to get things like durian juice or Durian McFlurries, but I was told my first try had to be fresh. It definitely smells not so great, I smell it all over the place. It tasted and had the texture of an enchilada, I think. I wasn't a fan.
Anyway, the next day was also a good one. We did weekly planning, which takes a very long time. I thought we accomplished a lot, though. One tradition before weekly planning is to go to a nearby pizza place first, and we ran into our Stake President there. As he left, he said "Enjoy your free meal!". It turns out he payed for all of us! What a kind man! He's super great. There were 8 missionaries, and this place isn't that cheap.
Our next day was probably the best of the week because we taught 4 lessons, which all went well. The first investigator seemed a bit uninterested when he was first met with, but in this lesson he was very interested in family history work, and then accepted things that are a bit weird for some people like the Word of Wisdom and Baptisms for the Dead immediately, no question. He also firmly believes he will get an answer to his prayers soon. The next one we watched the Joseph Smith video with, and by the end, she was practically bearing testimony to us about it. Our third lesson helped a recent convert be willing to start attending church again. Our last one was with a guy that apparently has made tons of progress, and I really like him. He agreed to start fasting.
The next day we had some very interesting lessons, but the most memorable part of the day was in between lessons. I went back down the hallway to adjust the AC when suddenly I heard a "crack" below my feet. The hallway was dark, and I couldn't really see what it was, but it looked like a toy lizard. As I was coming back, I looked more closely at it. And my worst fears were confirmed. It wasn't a toy. But it was a lizard. And it was dead. In the end, it turns out I may not have killed it, but I still feel really bad about killing a lizard. When we left the building, the Filipinos came to play there weekly game of full court basketball outside, but after seeing what Elder Frey had done to the basketball hoop, they all left, so then both of us felt badly, and it was all okay.
That night we went to a dinner appointment with some super cool people in the ward. We ate wonderful dumplings and macaroons, and I learned how to play real Mah Jong (or however you spell it).
Yesterday was also pretty dang good, though we did forget to tell two referrals who were willing to come to church what time it was at. They came to break the fast with us, though, which had some pretty dang good food.
Today was the best P-day so far, we went to Pulau Ubin, an island just off the main one, and there we mountain biked. There were four of us there, since the other two decided since it was pouring rain they didn't want to, but though we were soaked before we even got there, it wasn't crowded at all, and it was super, super fun. We walked through Mangrove Forests and saw plenty of wild boars, and had lots of good biking. And I ate another durian, which I am now a part-fan of.
I will also be leaving to KL this week!
We went to FHE after with the YSA, which was fun as usual. They are all super cool. The next day we did things for our work permits, that went by smoothly, and we even made it back for district meeting, where departing missionaries shared the advice that they wish they had known earlier, including one of the APs. A bunch of them left this week, but something like 8 English speakers came this week, as well. I am no longer the least experienced missionary here! :)
We taught three investigators, none of which I've met before, and that was fun. One of them said I need to call him and he will cook for me.
The next day was also great. I went to Little India for the first time and got to eat a bunch of Indian food. A lot of the Chinese people aren't fans of Indian cuisine, so I got to eat nearly two meals, since one of the members who went with us didn't like hers.
We got another elder who was in Singapore for a couple days, and he was super cool. He stayed with us that night, so there were 7 mattresses in our one room, which is kind of odd since in our same building there is another English companionship of elders by themselves in an apartment.
Anyway, Elder Mitchell and I went out contacting for a bit by ourselves, which was fun. One very cool thing that happened is as we left the building, we saw two people coming in, which we didn't think much of. We said a prayer, and as soon as we opened our eyes, they were walking out of it past us, and we talked to them. It turns out they weren't members and were just seeing what our church was about, so that was good.
We got back and did a basketball activity with YSA and people they invited, which was actually very effective. A bunch of nonmembers came and we talked to them. And then I saw someone I knew from BYU, Damon Petersen (hopefully that's the right spelling).
Someone brought durian that night, and I finally had my first taste. I had tried many times to get things like durian juice or Durian McFlurries, but I was told my first try had to be fresh. It definitely smells not so great, I smell it all over the place. It tasted and had the texture of an enchilada, I think. I wasn't a fan.
Anyway, the next day was also a good one. We did weekly planning, which takes a very long time. I thought we accomplished a lot, though. One tradition before weekly planning is to go to a nearby pizza place first, and we ran into our Stake President there. As he left, he said "Enjoy your free meal!". It turns out he payed for all of us! What a kind man! He's super great. There were 8 missionaries, and this place isn't that cheap.
Our next day was probably the best of the week because we taught 4 lessons, which all went well. The first investigator seemed a bit uninterested when he was first met with, but in this lesson he was very interested in family history work, and then accepted things that are a bit weird for some people like the Word of Wisdom and Baptisms for the Dead immediately, no question. He also firmly believes he will get an answer to his prayers soon. The next one we watched the Joseph Smith video with, and by the end, she was practically bearing testimony to us about it. Our third lesson helped a recent convert be willing to start attending church again. Our last one was with a guy that apparently has made tons of progress, and I really like him. He agreed to start fasting.
The next day we had some very interesting lessons, but the most memorable part of the day was in between lessons. I went back down the hallway to adjust the AC when suddenly I heard a "crack" below my feet. The hallway was dark, and I couldn't really see what it was, but it looked like a toy lizard. As I was coming back, I looked more closely at it. And my worst fears were confirmed. It wasn't a toy. But it was a lizard. And it was dead. In the end, it turns out I may not have killed it, but I still feel really bad about killing a lizard. When we left the building, the Filipinos came to play there weekly game of full court basketball outside, but after seeing what Elder Frey had done to the basketball hoop, they all left, so then both of us felt badly, and it was all okay.
That night we went to a dinner appointment with some super cool people in the ward. We ate wonderful dumplings and macaroons, and I learned how to play real Mah Jong (or however you spell it).
Yesterday was also pretty dang good, though we did forget to tell two referrals who were willing to come to church what time it was at. They came to break the fast with us, though, which had some pretty dang good food.
Today was the best P-day so far, we went to Pulau Ubin, an island just off the main one, and there we mountain biked. There were four of us there, since the other two decided since it was pouring rain they didn't want to, but though we were soaked before we even got there, it wasn't crowded at all, and it was super, super fun. We walked through Mangrove Forests and saw plenty of wild boars, and had lots of good biking. And I ate another durian, which I am now a part-fan of.
I will also be leaving to KL this week!
Monday, July 29, 2013
Week 11
Here are some pictures, first of all. I took them all today. One is all the
languages of Book of Mormons I have in my backpack right now. One is the
other 5 people in our house walking forward. One is a cool pillow I got for
free at the grocery store (Sour Cream and Onion), and one is my desk. Oh,
and then our sleeping arrangements. Anyway, this week has been a good one.
First of all, we played Steal the Flag at the Botanic Gardens, which was pretty
fun. Then we had our first FHE with the YSA and a bunch of investigators,
and it was also fun. I don't really remember the order things happened this
week, so actually I'll just say things as I remember them.
One cool experience we had was we decided to take the bus somewhere instead of the MRT and when we got to the bus stop, there was a very drunk man there who recognized us. He was baptized a while ago, but fell away shortly thereafter, and he said he had recently prayed for God to show that he was there, and as he said it he "got six answers" (there were six of us elders). He went to the trash and threw away a bottle of liquor right there. The other companionship met with him, and hopefully he can make some changes in his life. He was a very interesting guy.
Another thing we've done a lot of this week (and every week from now on) is contacting. It's fun, but I'm bad at it. The mission has a goal of one BoM a day per companionship, and we definitely achieved that and more this week. I like to carry BoMs in a bunch of languages with me, so we've passed out English, Chinese, Bengali, and Tamil this week. Bengalis and Tamils are super nice, so if I'd carried more of those, we'd be passing out even more. We've also had our fair share of rejection, though (like people getting up and walking away when we sit by them, people shooing us away, etc.), but I read a scripture in the Sermon on the Mount, that pretty much said we should rejoice when people "revile" us. One of my favorite ways is bus stop contacting, where we pretend to be waitng for a bus, and between the three of us, ensure anyone who sits down is near one of us.
The food is also something that requires serious description, because I love to eat. For breakfast, usually I drink some chocolate milk and sometimes eat some Great Grains cereal. But the other meals, we usually eat out. One restaurant that was especially good was a Korean barbeque place, which was very expensive, but pretty dang good. Unfortunately, one companion of mine did not realize that the buffet meat was uncooked (we cooked it on this little thing on each table), and had a bunch of raw chicken. Yum. We also ate a bunch of prawns, squid, and clams there. And ice cream. Singapore ice cream toppings are not the best. Another thing I ate this week was sweet corn and yam flavored ice creams. For some reason, they seem to think corns and beans are desserts here. So I've eaten some good bean and corn desserts! I have yet to try durian, though.
We also got two investigators on baptismal date this week. We taught a bunch of lessons, and slowly I'm starting to understand more of what's going on. It's amazing to see how prepared some people really are. One investigator is very interested in prayer, and we watched the Joseph Smith video together, and he paid very close attention the whole time. It was really good. Another one wants to be baptized on her birthday. Another one came to church with us before we even ever met her. We also spaced on an appointment this week. In Chinese, you'd say "women fang le ta de gizi" meaning we unleashed her pigeons. :)
Transfer news happened and we are getting a bunch of English speaking missionaries soon. We won't be the youngest anymore! Nothing affecting any of us, of course, though. This Tuesday, we have another appointment to get the work permit, and we'll probably fly out a week after that. But we don't know. Our mission president said this is the most flexible mission in the world, and it really probably is. We often get our flights the day we leave to places. I hear my trainer is someone that's has success in even the areas other consider to be difficult, so I'm excited. Everyone says "he's the man". It'll be cool speaking Chinese all the time. His English is probably about where my Chinese is, I don't know.
One fun thing that happened today was that during a game of basketball, my companion, Elder Frey (who plays college basketball), went in for a dunk and came down with a large portion of the backboard. Oops. It was very funny, though.
On a more serious note, I did a split with a Malay elder to visit a less active member's house. He was Chinese, but didn't speak Chinese, only English. We ended up teaching him how to do stretches for his leg, which keeps him from Church. And then I unexpectedly got to give him a blessing. And he agreed to come to church next week with those elders. It was fun.
Well, that's all I can remember from now. Every day is super fun and lots of funny things happen and miracles happen all the time! Have a great week!
-Ge Zhanglao
One cool experience we had was we decided to take the bus somewhere instead of the MRT and when we got to the bus stop, there was a very drunk man there who recognized us. He was baptized a while ago, but fell away shortly thereafter, and he said he had recently prayed for God to show that he was there, and as he said it he "got six answers" (there were six of us elders). He went to the trash and threw away a bottle of liquor right there. The other companionship met with him, and hopefully he can make some changes in his life. He was a very interesting guy.
Another thing we've done a lot of this week (and every week from now on) is contacting. It's fun, but I'm bad at it. The mission has a goal of one BoM a day per companionship, and we definitely achieved that and more this week. I like to carry BoMs in a bunch of languages with me, so we've passed out English, Chinese, Bengali, and Tamil this week. Bengalis and Tamils are super nice, so if I'd carried more of those, we'd be passing out even more. We've also had our fair share of rejection, though (like people getting up and walking away when we sit by them, people shooing us away, etc.), but I read a scripture in the Sermon on the Mount, that pretty much said we should rejoice when people "revile" us. One of my favorite ways is bus stop contacting, where we pretend to be waitng for a bus, and between the three of us, ensure anyone who sits down is near one of us.
The food is also something that requires serious description, because I love to eat. For breakfast, usually I drink some chocolate milk and sometimes eat some Great Grains cereal. But the other meals, we usually eat out. One restaurant that was especially good was a Korean barbeque place, which was very expensive, but pretty dang good. Unfortunately, one companion of mine did not realize that the buffet meat was uncooked (we cooked it on this little thing on each table), and had a bunch of raw chicken. Yum. We also ate a bunch of prawns, squid, and clams there. And ice cream. Singapore ice cream toppings are not the best. Another thing I ate this week was sweet corn and yam flavored ice creams. For some reason, they seem to think corns and beans are desserts here. So I've eaten some good bean and corn desserts! I have yet to try durian, though.
We also got two investigators on baptismal date this week. We taught a bunch of lessons, and slowly I'm starting to understand more of what's going on. It's amazing to see how prepared some people really are. One investigator is very interested in prayer, and we watched the Joseph Smith video together, and he paid very close attention the whole time. It was really good. Another one wants to be baptized on her birthday. Another one came to church with us before we even ever met her. We also spaced on an appointment this week. In Chinese, you'd say "women fang le ta de gizi" meaning we unleashed her pigeons. :)
Transfer news happened and we are getting a bunch of English speaking missionaries soon. We won't be the youngest anymore! Nothing affecting any of us, of course, though. This Tuesday, we have another appointment to get the work permit, and we'll probably fly out a week after that. But we don't know. Our mission president said this is the most flexible mission in the world, and it really probably is. We often get our flights the day we leave to places. I hear my trainer is someone that's has success in even the areas other consider to be difficult, so I'm excited. Everyone says "he's the man". It'll be cool speaking Chinese all the time. His English is probably about where my Chinese is, I don't know.
One fun thing that happened today was that during a game of basketball, my companion, Elder Frey (who plays college basketball), went in for a dunk and came down with a large portion of the backboard. Oops. It was very funny, though.
On a more serious note, I did a split with a Malay elder to visit a less active member's house. He was Chinese, but didn't speak Chinese, only English. We ended up teaching him how to do stretches for his leg, which keeps him from Church. And then I unexpectedly got to give him a blessing. And he agreed to come to church next week with those elders. It was fun.
Well, that's all I can remember from now. Every day is super fun and lots of funny things happen and miracles happen all the time! Have a great week!
-Ge Zhanglao
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Week 10
I'm trying to remember my last day at the MTC, it seems so long ago, but we
got up and packed, and both the other two going to Singapore were feeling
pretty sick, then we went to class, which was really weird since most
everybody was gone. Elder Fletcher first left to his reassignment. Next, we
were up, and we hurried around to get last-minute things done, and we went
to the travel office. They gave us a bunch of forms. One of them was a work
permit application, one was something telling us how to answer questions to
get into Singapore. We rode up and met some really cool guys from Saudi
Arabia. They were 18 years old, brothers from different wives of their
father, studying abroad in Salt Lake and going home for the first time in a
few months. One lady we talked to said she had a niece in our mission. Then
we flew to LA and checked in and stuff. It was kind of scary because I just
read on a paper we had that the airline we were transferring to had a
carryon limit of 15 pounds, but they let us check in our carryons for free
and she said though our backpacks were too heavy, it was okay.
Well, after I called you guys, we went to our flight to Hong Kong. It was definitely super long. And it was funny because when I told my companion that I didn't stand up once on the flight to Mumbai, he laughed and thought that was really dumb, but none of us stood up at all on the whole flight. We flew over Taiwan and Japan (and China, obviously). I also met a cool guy who was flying over to Asia to write a book about health care systems. We got to Hong Kong, and thought we'd have to hurry super fast, but we made our next flight in plenty of time.
One guy we talked to waiting for the flight was really nice, but then suddenly said he had to leave and just walked to the other side of the seating area. We then flew to Singapore over Vietnam. We didn't see pretty much of anything until we landed because it was super cloudy, though. We got in with our work permit applications without any problem, then got our luggage and our Mission President, his wife, the two assistants, and one Chinese Elder were all there. We took those pictures I sent you and ate at Burger King. Then we went with Elder Frey (the Chinese elder) to the church using the MRT and contacted a few people on the way. He's been out since November, and his Chinese is super good.
We heard the three areas we would be serving in and who the trainer is for each (but not which one we were assigned to yet). One is staying here in Singapore with Elder Frey, another was going to East Malaysia in Sibu, and one to open up Kuala Lumpur with a native Malaysian Chinese. There haven't been Mandarin missionaries there that anybody knows of.
At the Church, we had a little welcome orientation, where we met with President Mains and his wife and the financial elder. Apparently our mission has more senior couples than any other mission. And it's one of the most expensive missions for sure. Oh, and none of the areas we'll ever serve in has malaria, so that won't be a problem. And we're the first missionaries to do this work permit thing right when we get in, so we won't do via runs to Indonesia like most missionaries, which is apparently pretty lucky because many missionaries have been nearly arrested.
We also wrote talks for the next day that we all gave and then we went to the other church which is attached to a house we stayed at the next night. We ate at a good Chinese place, then we went back and slept.
I don't know why I'm going into such great detail. Anyway, the next day we had the program, we gave talks, we found out our assignments, but because work permits take 14 days to process, we will all be here at least a couple more weeks. Then the trainers flew back out to Sibu, where they've been. The work permit stuff was unexpected, I think. Flights are very easy to find, I think.
Then we hauled luggage across town on foot, on MRT, and on bus, and we sweated a TON. Our place is by the first church-ish, and it's pretty big (3 bathrooms, 2 large study rooms, we all sleep in the same room, a kitchen, big open area), so it can fit 6. There was Elder Frey and another companionship there before.
We ate some really good Chicken rice, which is something they said we'll eat more than anything here. We taught three lessons that night (well, I mostly observed). The first was a new investigator, but I don't think he's super interested. We taught about prayer. Next was a recent convert who needs to understand why we need the BoM and the restoration better. And last was a pretty great new investigator who agreed to pray daily, read the BoM, and go to church (she already took off work for next week!). I was very jet lagged though and nearly fell asleep. There were members at all those lessons, and they were nice.
We ate Subway after. Oh, and by the way, this was Elder Mitchell, Elder Frey, and me. Elder Sutherland has been tagging along with the other companionship. The next day we mostly just did doctor stuff (blood test, chest x-rays, etc) and study. Then we had a baptism that Elder Frey did, which the new investigator came to. On Sunday, we went to church, where the members are super nice, but I didn't understand some of the people. Others I can, though. There were a bunch of investigators they had met last Sunday at a place, so we went there contacting later in the evening. I definitely didn't say much contacting, but it was fun and we passed out a bunch of BoMs.
Today is p-day and we're going to do capture the flag as a zone, I guess. Super exciting. Our Zone is all of Singapore, which right now includes the 6 of us and about 20 Malay elders and sisters, which are actually English speaking when they are in Singapore. I don't know what exactly's happening in the next few weeks, but as soon as our work permits are processed, I guess I'll be flying out to Kuala Lumpur to meet my trainer Elder Chong and start the work up there. I hear it's a really cool city, but nothing like Singapore, since even in KL, you can only drink bottled water. That's one nice thing about Singapore. Well, I probably included tons of unimportant details and forgot some of the cool things. Oh, well. Have a great week! -Ge Zhanglao
p.s. Oh, and the reason I talked about that random airport lady is because the very first sister we met at the baptism happened to be her niece.
Well, after I called you guys, we went to our flight to Hong Kong. It was definitely super long. And it was funny because when I told my companion that I didn't stand up once on the flight to Mumbai, he laughed and thought that was really dumb, but none of us stood up at all on the whole flight. We flew over Taiwan and Japan (and China, obviously). I also met a cool guy who was flying over to Asia to write a book about health care systems. We got to Hong Kong, and thought we'd have to hurry super fast, but we made our next flight in plenty of time.
One guy we talked to waiting for the flight was really nice, but then suddenly said he had to leave and just walked to the other side of the seating area. We then flew to Singapore over Vietnam. We didn't see pretty much of anything until we landed because it was super cloudy, though. We got in with our work permit applications without any problem, then got our luggage and our Mission President, his wife, the two assistants, and one Chinese Elder were all there. We took those pictures I sent you and ate at Burger King. Then we went with Elder Frey (the Chinese elder) to the church using the MRT and contacted a few people on the way. He's been out since November, and his Chinese is super good.
We heard the three areas we would be serving in and who the trainer is for each (but not which one we were assigned to yet). One is staying here in Singapore with Elder Frey, another was going to East Malaysia in Sibu, and one to open up Kuala Lumpur with a native Malaysian Chinese. There haven't been Mandarin missionaries there that anybody knows of.
At the Church, we had a little welcome orientation, where we met with President Mains and his wife and the financial elder. Apparently our mission has more senior couples than any other mission. And it's one of the most expensive missions for sure. Oh, and none of the areas we'll ever serve in has malaria, so that won't be a problem. And we're the first missionaries to do this work permit thing right when we get in, so we won't do via runs to Indonesia like most missionaries, which is apparently pretty lucky because many missionaries have been nearly arrested.
We also wrote talks for the next day that we all gave and then we went to the other church which is attached to a house we stayed at the next night. We ate at a good Chinese place, then we went back and slept.
I don't know why I'm going into such great detail. Anyway, the next day we had the program, we gave talks, we found out our assignments, but because work permits take 14 days to process, we will all be here at least a couple more weeks. Then the trainers flew back out to Sibu, where they've been. The work permit stuff was unexpected, I think. Flights are very easy to find, I think.
Then we hauled luggage across town on foot, on MRT, and on bus, and we sweated a TON. Our place is by the first church-ish, and it's pretty big (3 bathrooms, 2 large study rooms, we all sleep in the same room, a kitchen, big open area), so it can fit 6. There was Elder Frey and another companionship there before.
We ate some really good Chicken rice, which is something they said we'll eat more than anything here. We taught three lessons that night (well, I mostly observed). The first was a new investigator, but I don't think he's super interested. We taught about prayer. Next was a recent convert who needs to understand why we need the BoM and the restoration better. And last was a pretty great new investigator who agreed to pray daily, read the BoM, and go to church (she already took off work for next week!). I was very jet lagged though and nearly fell asleep. There were members at all those lessons, and they were nice.
We ate Subway after. Oh, and by the way, this was Elder Mitchell, Elder Frey, and me. Elder Sutherland has been tagging along with the other companionship. The next day we mostly just did doctor stuff (blood test, chest x-rays, etc) and study. Then we had a baptism that Elder Frey did, which the new investigator came to. On Sunday, we went to church, where the members are super nice, but I didn't understand some of the people. Others I can, though. There were a bunch of investigators they had met last Sunday at a place, so we went there contacting later in the evening. I definitely didn't say much contacting, but it was fun and we passed out a bunch of BoMs.
Today is p-day and we're going to do capture the flag as a zone, I guess. Super exciting. Our Zone is all of Singapore, which right now includes the 6 of us and about 20 Malay elders and sisters, which are actually English speaking when they are in Singapore. I don't know what exactly's happening in the next few weeks, but as soon as our work permits are processed, I guess I'll be flying out to Kuala Lumpur to meet my trainer Elder Chong and start the work up there. I hear it's a really cool city, but nothing like Singapore, since even in KL, you can only drink bottled water. That's one nice thing about Singapore. Well, I probably included tons of unimportant details and forgot some of the cool things. Oh, well. Have a great week! -Ge Zhanglao
p.s. Oh, and the reason I talked about that random airport lady is because the very first sister we met at the baptism happened to be her niece.
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