CALLED TO SERVE THE PEOPLE OF SINGAPORE & MALAYSIA

Tuesday, September 20, 2011

"Behold, they have labored exceedingly...


...and brought forth much fruit; and how great shall be their reward!"
- Alma 29:15



Charles entering the
waters of baptism!
September 3, 2011
Baptized by Elder Moody
Miri, Sarawak, E. Malaysia



"OK, so last Saturday we had the baptisms of Charles, age 9, and Roy, age 32. It was really good. It was nice, short and sweet and to the point. A lot of the baptisms here in the Iban branches last an hour to an hour and a half because of the talks, and because they always start a half hour late, but we got done in about 30 minutes. We had a good turn out of people and they were both stoked to be baptized! The next Sunday Roy got confirmed, but Charles did not because the person he usually goes with (Sister Chai) had to work, so Winny, an inactive member was supposed to bring him, but didn't come because she is too busy with getting ready for her wedding which we will be attending. The next Sunday rolls around and still no Charles at church to be confirmed. It was Winny's wedding day, so she and Sister Chai were too busy to bring him." Stay tuned to find out if Charles finally gets confirmed...

"Roy who just loves the missionaries and the church is going to go work on a rig for the next month and a half or so, so with transfers this month we may never see him again. We did our farewells with him and are sorry we won't be able to teach him the new member discussions."

Now, back to the wedding...

This is Winni (also known as Candi) and her new husband at their wedding.



So, a few weeks ago, when Winni (Candi) was getting ready for her wedding, we asked her, "Is there anything we can do to help?" This was an epic mistake which would come back to haunt us. While we were at church, waiting for Charles to show (the second time) to get baptized, President Chan called over to Winni's house. She was asleep, but President Chan "reminded" us that we were singing at the wedding. Elder Moody and I looked at each other and you could have heard crickets chirp! What!?!? We never said we would sing at the wedding! We were stressing out, and President Chan reminded us that we had offered to help. Yikes!

So we get there and there were about 300+ people. President Chan tells us we're going to be singing, so get ready. So we were sweating bullets and President Chan wasn't doing a thing to get the program changed so we wouldn't have to sing. Instead, he seemed to be really enjoying himself at our expense, laughing at us white guys along with all the other Chinese people. Anyways, after all the food, some people got called up and they started singing, but it was Karaoke... Asian Karoke... so it sounded horrible... but, man, do these Asians go at it!! We then looked at Chan and had this "are-you-joking-us? You-just-want-us-to-go-sing-Karaoke" expression on our faces". Its not even a formal thing. There was no special presentation or special musical number (thank goodness). They just wanted us to go sing karaoke, and it was just go up and sing. Sigh. Ive never been that had for so long. President Chan got us so bad.

So, I haven't got the letter yet. Perhaps on the 24th when we have transfers. Elder Moody and both feel one of us is going to be leaving. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do. The church here is in its baby stages. There are hundreds of Iban members, but that's useless because we dont speak Malay. Also, the Chinese members dont know gospel Malay, so there is a huge language barrier. So its just the China missionaries doing the work. Right now we have 3 on date for the following saturday, There all doing really good, still have a few concerns to get over, but they all have a strong desire to be baptised and have been coming to church and keeping other commitments. Abboy, Ellen, and Kelvin. All not related, but very close. Abboy and Kelvin are 21, they are best friends, and also have the same work. Ellen is Abboy's girlfriend and is one of the best with wanting to be a part of the church. They all smoke, so if you want to pray for them, pray that they can overcome their smoking addiction. Anyways, I'll let you know when I get the letter. Umm what else? Good luck with your musical. That's cool that you've been hired to direct, Mom. Love Love love...

Elder Forsyth












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