Week #74: His Work and His Glory – December 5, 2017 – December 11, 2017 (Miri)

 

Sister Vranes and Sister Steele

This week has been crazy! First, we started our week with exchanges in Sibu. It was good to work with Sister Steele and Sister Mark again. They are great sisters and I love them so much. They're working really hard in Sibu. We left on Tuesday, and returned Friday. This was the last stop I had, and now I have officially served or visited every sister area in the mission! It was oddly a mix between Penang and Miri, my two favorite areas! I loved every minute of it.

When we returned from Sibu, our schedule was crazy. There was a Christmas Musical Fireside on Saturday. Many people were all of a sudden asking for us to practice with the piano with them. I played the whole time when the fireside came around. It was a nice program though. I was amazed by the talent in this branch. One of the members sang a medley of Christmas songs in Malay, with a music beat box. The son played some cool beats on the box while they sang.  The miracle that came from that was our investigators coming to the Christmas Musical Fireside. The next day they also came to church. Yay! On Sunday, we were both called on to give talks, as well as teach Sunday School.  There was a lot more throughout this week, but in short, our schedule was awal. My faith in the Lord's work this week grew immensely. I've been able to see the Lord make time for everything and make more of our efforts than we could ever make ourselves. I've been thinking back on my mission quite a bit lately and the things I've learned from it. This was the topic of my talk as well. As I've looked back I can see His hand in all aspects of my mission, even though I didn't see it then. 

 

Eating Lunch with Members

I realized this mission has been the best thing I could possibly ever do. It has also been the best thing for me, and the most rewarding. On Sunday, I was crying because I realized just how much I will miss this. I love this work with all my heart. I love the Gospel. It is perfect and everything just seems to make sense. There is hope, happiness, healing, and joy that is available through the Atonement of Jesus Christ and Heavenly Father's great Plan of Happiness. He has made more of my efforts in this work than I could ever make. He has shaped, molded, destroyed, smashed, and recreated me. I side with the scripture, "Know ye not that ye are in the hands of God?" (Mormon 5:23). I have truly been in His hands. I've learned how much I truly have a loving Heavenly Father. I'm continuing to learn of His perfectness, and mercy. I'm human, so I can't quite understand it fully, but I can gain a human understanding of my perfect Father. I can make connections, similarities, and relationships. I've come to love and appreciate my parents more fully, as I've understood them and my Heavenly Father by their loving example. I've learned and experienced the great Plan of Salvation on another level. I've learned and applied the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I'm learning more and more each day how much I truly NEED Him every hour. I've learned of His work and His glory. Before my mission, Moses 1:39 was my favorite scripture. I didn't fully understand it's whole meaning, but I loved what I understood at the time. I appreciate and understand it a lot better. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to participate in His work. All that I've done out here is His glory. I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Sibu Sisters and Sister Vranes

Sibu, East Malaysia

Week #73: Knock – November 28, 2017 – December 4, 2017 (Miri)

 

Sister Vranes and Sister Cloud

 

This week has been a great week! At the beginning of the week, Sister Cloud had exchanges with Sister Winters. It was good to be back with the Miri 2 sisters. We were able to serve, contact, and work hard. We helped a member make food for an elder's farewell. We didn't even realize until we were at the event it was his farewell. One of the elders from the branch I work in, Miri 3, was also with the Miri 2 elders because his companion had exchanges. When we left, we found Sister Erickson's bike seat was stolen. One of the members was just dying from laughter. The elders then walked out and said their goodbyes. As they were saying good bye, all the elders all of a sudden started taking off their ties, and gave it to the future missionary that was leaving the next day. It was a tender moment to watch. I ended up biking the bike with no bike seat home. It was just like standing up. It's also a good thing I am pandi bicycling. The elders rode us back most of the way, one was behind me to be the caboose. It was very sweet. 

Early the next morning, we dropped Sister Winters off at the airport. As we came back, we realized the difference in how we felt when we had good studies and exercise to start off the morning versus when we didn't. The investigator that met wayyy early in the morning finally dropped us, and we just felt relief. We tried all that we could. We stopped by and gave her a Book of Mormon before we never saw her again. Even though it was a bit sad, we felt good about our efforts. We realized the importance of good studies in the morning. It was definitely journal worthy. Afterwards,

The missing bicycle seat.

we had our investigator follow us on a bike to our lessons. We were able to have a Relief Society service project with the District Relief Society President. At first, the missionaries were worried, but we all ended up loving it in the end. It was a very precious time and I really connected with a girl with downs syndrome. She was super sweet and I enjoyed being with her for a couple of hours. On Saturday, we had a talent show. It was a very fun-filled night. The missionaries were the opening act and did a dance. There was a lot of talented singing. There was a group of youth that performed many songs, with different solo vocalists. In the end, we were guessing which one would be the lead singer of "the boy band". They were so cute. There is a lot of talent in Miri. Their traditional dancing is so beautiful.

One miracle that happened this week was meeting a new investigator on Sunday. We had a less active member call us a few days before to refer her friend to us. We called up her friend, but they didn't seem that interested. We had an idea to go to a certain area, one that kind of scared me a while back though, but still felt it was right. Our less active member then called us up and told us to visit her friend in the next day or two. I asked where her friend lived and it ended up being in the area we were planning on going to after church. We visited the friend, who was super sweet, and open, had a family, and we got a new investigator.  The lesson was all in Chinese, so I

Bicycling with some members

took most of the lesson, but it was super powerful. I just felt the Spirit so strong in there. We ended up being a bit late to our next appointment, and rode as fast as we could. It took us a half hour to get there, and we planned it would take that long to get to our next appointment, so we were worried about being late. As we were riding, we ended up taking some really random turns, not knowing where we were going, but ended up being guided by the Spirit in finding a short cut. We arrived in less than 8 minutes to our next appointment. These were some big miracles!

We had a member join us for a lesson this week and when it came to Fast and Testimony meeting, she bore her testimony of missionary work. She explained how she had never been invited by the missionaries to go to a lesson with them before. She's been a member (third generation member) for over 30 years, and has never been a member present. She's shared the gospel with her friends, but never with the missionaries. It made me realize how we weren't doing our job properly. It also made me realize how willing and happy the members are to do member missionary work, and to not be scared when they are "very busy". As we were talking to a few members after church, I asked them if they ever helped the missionaries before. I was surprised that some of the very solid members said no. We're definitely going to work harder to allow EVERY member an opportunity to help us. We had been trying in the past, but I realize now we were asking some of the wrong members. I really really wanted to inspire the missionary heart in the members for a long time here, but didn't know how. I thought they were all just too shy, but I was wrong. Some just haven't been given the opportunity to do so. As we were biking home yesterday, I realized how little I knew about member missionary work before my mission. We talked about our experiences, and have come to the conclusion we need to just TEACH them, and invite them. I'm excited for these upcoming last weeks, and what changes there will be in the branch.

 

Miri, East Malaysia

I'm doing well. Sister Cloud and I get along so well. We are working well with our members and investigators. We teach well together and are having a great time as companions. She is hilarious and fun to be around. I'm learning a lot from her. I'm also learning a lot more these past few weeks. This past week, I learned the importance of journaling. I found it was the thing I needed to review my day, write the things that I can learn from, and I find I am guided by the Spirit all the time to pick out the nuggets of gold. I'm learning a lot more from my days, instead of just letting them pass me by. I've learned a lot from Matthew 7:7 "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." As I've studied this out, in the LDS version of the footnotes, I've learned asking means pray, seeking means study/meditate, and knocking means learn. I've been really focusing on knocking. As you come to ask God the things of your heart, to "know the mysteries of God", and you search them out, you are promised you can find an answer. This is what missionaries do, to teach you how you can gain your own personal revelation. Journaling is a form of meditation, that leads to answers. As you journal, you'll find a lot more truth in your day and it turns the days around. Try it :)

Week #72: Happy Thanksgiving! (Malaysia Style) – October 21, 2017 – October 27, 2017 (Miri)

 

Sister Vranes and Sister Cloud eating lunch.

This week has been great! We've been working very very hard and I am proud of our efforts this week. I feel good about the people we are teaching right now. Early in the week, we got two new investigators. Both of them have to meet early. We've been meeting them before their work. We were very good at putting in the effort to meet them, but we felt a lacking, because we found most of our studies had to be pushed back to the middle of the day. As a side note, we get to study the Gospel every single day. We have an hour to do personal studies, another half hour (or optional hour) to study as a companionship, and another half hour (or optional hour) to study the language.  On Thursday, we were able to get quite a bit of our studies in before we met our investigators. This was a testimony builder to me of the importance of studies. I love studies anyway, but this solidified the testimony I already had. As we were riding to the lesson, we had a distinct impression to teach something completely different than what we had planned. We were able to control the situation well, follow the Spirit, and teach with power and authority. The Spirit wasn't as strong before because we didn't get much of our studies in before we met them. I definitely feel a difference in my life when I study the Gospel everyday versus when I don't.

 

The Miri Sister biking.

On Saturday, we were able to celebrate Thanksgiving as a Miri missionary family with Elder and Sister Childs (more like Super Childs, the amazing senior couple). They returned late to their home from an outpost area, Bintulu, about 6 pm on Friday, and invited us for a sloppy joe Thanksgiving the next day. It was like a big family. We ate delicious food, and said what we were thankful for, and played the Mormon version of Family Feud. Did you know people in Utah pray for moisture the most? I Didn't. We finished the day with Karaoke with our Relief Society. We ate food together, had a good time, and my companion sang The Prayer. She has an amazing voice. Everyone is asking her to sing for the Talent show, the Christmas Music Fireside, and everything else within these weeks leading up to Christmas. 

This week has seriously flown by because I just realized, we had Zone Conference this week. It was my last Zone Conference, and I had to bear my dying testimony. So sad. We focused on planning and preparing. We learned a lot about how planning and setting goals is part of the holy order of things. It was something God has done since the beginning. It's definitely something to work on and continue doing throughout my life. When I think of goals and plans, I think of choices. I've been studying two talks recently, the first is "Choices" and the second is "Choose You This Day", both by President Thomas S. Monson. One quote he says in both is, "The choices we make determine our destiny". He then talks about Alice and Wonderland. I won't go into more detail, so you will have to read these talks. Goals and plans are the way we can make better choices. What are your plans today? Are they as effective as they can be? Are they getting you closer to your end goal, or destiny?

Sister Vranes and Sister Cloud