Trying to find the right house number |
Week #57: Blessings are everywhere: August 8, 2017 - August 14, 2017
This week was full of miracles! One day, we were trying to find a bunch of less active members that lived near the church. These members have already been searched for, but not found. We said a prayer that day, took our bikes, and went on our way. Within less than 5 minutes, we already found the first less active. Unfortunately, they had moved away overseas, but we were able to contact their sister-in-law. She was really nice and sweet. We found out during the rest of the day, that the members we were in search of had actually moved a while ago. We were able to contact so many great people: a lady who owned a cute cafe and she likes to sing and dance, a cute Chinese family with 3 kids, and a man from New Jersey but has lived all over the world (including Afghanistan). It was a very fun and eventful day.
The next day was a miracle of a lifetime. It was very late at night and we were biking home in the rain. The place we were at was 40 minutes away from our home, on a good, sunny day. When we started, my bike seat was starting to move, and with each pedal, would move side-to-side. Then my handle bars started to come loose. At one point, it
Eating a BIG bowl of noodles |
The next day, was what
seemed a very unsuccessful day. Miri is known for it's dry, hot weather. It's
still humid like crazy, but more dry, kind of reminds me of St. George, Utah.
It's also notorious for never raining, and no wind, not even if you're biking
fast enough you should catch wind. However, Miri has been bipolar, it's rained
almost every day since I've gotten here, and there is lots of wind that fights
back (but it's ok because it's natural air conditioning). On this particular
day, there was no rain, but lots and lots of sun and wind. We were trying to
visit more members we had felt needed our help that day. As we stopped by, no
one was home. By the time it was 5 o'clock, we were drained. We were
biking to our next home when we were chased by dogs (pretty common in East
Malaysia). Then one of the dogs near the end of the street turned around and
fought the other dogs off. It was a miracle! Blessings kept pouring after that.
As we were riding, I got a picture of the beautiful sunset. It was as if God
was smiling down and saying, "You're doing good.
Keep trying!" We had
arrived to this home early (and had to wait for another member to arrive), and
started to play futsol with the members' neighbor, the cutest 8 and 5 year
olds! It was a great way to be in the right mood again (too bad they only spoke
Malay). The lesson got a raincheck, but we were able to meet a long time less
active and contact him. On the way back, our member was able to drive next to
us as we left the neighborhood to protect us from the dogs. Blessings brighten
when you count them, and there are many.
The perks of being petite |
Lately, I have been
studying families with my companion. We had one of our investigators ask from
the Restoration pamphlet, "How does the gospel of Jesus Christ strengthen
families? How is it done? What do you do?" Well that seemed like an easy
question - every day hold family prayer, family scripture study, go to church
as a family, hold FHE every Monday night, and other basic primary answers.
Little did I know that this question would keep popping up everywhere. In
District Meeting on Tuesday, a meeting held every week for missionaries to be
trained and learn how to become better missionaries, we answered questions of
the soul, such as, "Why are families so important?"
My companion shared a
talk with me called, "Teach Them to Understand" by Elder David A.
Bednar. This is a tremendous talk where Elder Bednar answers the question:
"Why is the home so crucial for gospel instruction?" I will not give
any spoilers here, but if you've ever had any thoughts or questions about your
family now or in the future, I would highly recommend reading this talk. Find
it, learn from it, and implement it :)
I hope you all take
care and be safe!
Elder Schwemmer's good-bye party |
hai , sister vranes ... is me paul ,i never know you had a blog...i had read some of your blog and i was glad you had such a wonderful time and moment serving in miri...i wish that we can meet each other one day and i will also prayer for you...i am fine, everything is great over here...i had been have a wonderful time with the brothers and the sisters,they had teach me alot... i still helping the missionary out... and meet alot of other missionary such as elder barney, tan, clark, dj, ... and sister , evans,clark, richardson, and now we had sister cloud and new sister ....
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ReplyDeletei had a calling from president ricky last week to teach in sunday school...i never know how to teach in the sunday school cause i had never attended it before well i was in the gospel principle... but i have did teach for the gospel principal class before...next week sister grace is going to teach ...than she is going to continue study... so after that i will be teaching...i believe brother kyle will be there to teach me how.... but i felt i need to be prepare first...
ReplyDeletei truly felt the Blessing that god protected you from this trouble that you face ,even i your bicycle he look after you meet people going to help you not by accident/Coincidence and also the dog fight against others dogs that trying to chase...(until now and forever he has always looking after us ... teach us and guide us with all the people that around they are meant to cross our path for a reason)
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