Joshua's Song of Singapore: Week 17: Butterworth, Malaysia

The Ballad of Butterworth Week Thirteen

Wow, it's crazy to me that I've been in Butterworth for thirteen weeks. When I first got here, each week felt like a month, and I thought that Butterworth would always be this weird place in my mind. But now that I have been here for longer than I've ever lived somewhere else (other than Lar-dise of course), it really feels like home. I hope that I get to stay here for my whole mission haha!

This was a super great week! Elder Anglin and I have been hitting it hard, having a blast, and really learning a lot.

On Tuesday, I taught my first District Council. It was a little terrifying, but it went well overall. It was kinda like speaking in Sacrament meeting...all of the preparation that I did for it made it all worth it, because I learned so much! Then, Elder Anglin and I bought him a bicycle (finally!), and then we called a Grab (Uber) van and put his bike in it and went back to Butterworth. The driver was a nice Malay man, so I got to practice my Malay a lot.

The rest of the week was also fantastic! I got to show Elder Anglin around Butterworth, meet a lot of the members, and we found some new people to teach. We also had some crazy experiences, which I am actually very grateful for. I think Elder Anglin learned very quickly this week that missions are full of CRAZY experiences...like we met an Indian man who had Bible scriptures written on his bicycle in Hebrew and who gave up his corporate job in Singapore to come to Butterworth and get closer to God, but when we told him about the Book of Mormon, he wasn't very interested haha. We also taught a really fun English class all about sports. Elder Anglin is also a swimmer, so we explained some of the vocabulary behind swimming to a class of eight Malaysian teenagers. And then on Saturday, Elder Anglin had a bicycle accident, it was so sad! It was not super serious, but he got pretty scraped up. As we were biking home to get some new clothing and dress his wounds, I was praying a lot that he would be okay, and I just felt a ton of charity towards him and just felt so peaceful. It was a really cool experience!

On Sunday, both Moong Kau and Emy had their baptismal interviews, and they both passed. Woo hoooooooooooooooo! We are expecting both of them to be baptized next Sunday, which is so amazing!!!! Butterworth hasn't had baptisms for quite a while, but the Lord has blessed us so much, everyone in the branch (including the white boys) really feel grateful and excited!

Elder Anglin is super awesome, and we get along really well. I think that this was a kinda tough week for him...missions are just such a MASSIVE adjustment. I remember my first week was super exciting at first because everything was so new, and then after a day it sunk in how different everything was, and then it got really hard. It is something that we all go through when we switch to a new culture, and so I have been trying to encourage him to have hope that things will get better, because they totally have for me.

Overall, life is so fantastic! Training is so fun, being a District Leader is different but it is stretching me to grow a lot, and I am absolutely loving my mission. But, do you know what I love more than my mission? You all! I am so grateful for your amazing influence to me, your constant love and support, and your amazing examples. This week I really thought a lot about how lucky I am to have every one of you in my life. What did I ever do to deserve such a wonderful life full of wonderful people? Sometimes fools just get lucky. I love you all so much!

多爱，

Elder Weatherford

It really is amazing how much the missionaries are prayed for. In one of Elder Holland's talks at the MTC, he said something similar...he said that the only person who is prayed for as much as the missionaries is the prophet, and even he prays for the missionaries, so the missionaries might be the most prayed for people in the world. I can really feel it being out in the field. There is just always a constant uplifting of the spirit, and a constant spiritual safety around us, thanks to the millions of saints around the world who help us every day.

I get exposed to quite a bit of Malay every day. Malay is the language that people speak at schools and work, and so everyone speaks Malay. We mostly spend our time with Chinese people (who are legally allowed to join the church), but that being said there are still lots of Malay people at restaurants or just around that I try to say hello to, so I speak quite a bit of Malay everyday. I think that my purpose as a missionary is to help others learn about Jesus Christ, but I also am here just to help other people feel happier, so if saying "Apa khabar?" to a Malay person on the road will make him/her happy, it is worth it to me! But even though I speak some Malay everyday, I am far from fluent! I would love to study it more, but for now, I am far away from being able to hold a long conversation with some.

Questions:

1) We hold our District Councils in English. My first one went pretty well...there is still a lot that I want to improve, but I was happy with it. Teaching still scares me a little bit (especially when I have only been out 3 months), but I am growing slowly haha.

2) In Personal Study, I read around 10 pages of the Book of Mormon (because as a mission we are trying to follow President Nelson's invitation to read the whole Book of Mormon by the end of the year), and then I read some New Testament (or Jesus the Christ), and then I study in Preach My Gospel for the lessons we are teaching that day, or if we have no lessons, I study a chapter about improving my teaching skills or study skills. In Companion Study, we read the White Handbook and Safeguards for Using Technology, we roleplay our lessons and roleplay other things (like contacting), and in language study I mostly do the same things as personal study but in Chinese (Book of Mormon, Preach My Gospel, and General Conference). What did you study on your mission?

3) There is an Ipoh District Conference on 4 November, but I think that we will only go if someone we are teaching goes. We will see!

4) My typical meal schedule is pretty fixed...I eat oatmeal (just like my papa) with peanut butter and a chopped up apple in the morning, and then eat lunch at around 1:30PM after the lunch rush for contacting dies down (at a small hawker center), and then we eat dinner at 5 or 6 before the dinner rush starts. It is very fun! I love the food here, but Elder Anglin can't really eat spicy, so he is not a big fan, poor guy! I still think it is the best food I have had in my life!

5) We actually have a laundry machine in our apartment, so we can do laundry whenever. For p-days, generally we email, clean the house, go shopping for groceries, get haircuts, fix up our bikes if we need to, and sometimes take a nap. We are going to take a nap today, and I am excited!

6) I am actually not sure what kind of mission the Petersons are serving. They mostly work with members, so for example they were working with a couple members here in Butterworth to help them prepare for new callings (new Elders Quorum President and new Branch President). So I'm not sure what kind of mission they are serving...what would you guess from the description?

I feel the exact same way...isn't my mission call so perfect? It is Chinese speaking, but has so many different languages that I can learn, it has so many wonderful people that I was meant to meet, and it is just so wonderful. I remember that I felt an instant connection when I read my mission call, and the longer I spend on my mission, the more I feel that connection grow. It is an amazing blessing to have continuing revelation!

Spiritual Experiences

This week on Sunday, we had an amazing experience!

There is this really cool guy named Jason who is dating someone in our branch, and so he has been to church a lot. Elder Pack and I started to teach him the missionary lessons, and then Elder Anglin and I extended him a baptismal invitation (in Chinese!). He wanted to be baptized, but his father is Buddhist, and so he often goes to the Buddhist temples to help his father, and he thought that if he was baptized, he wouldn't be able to go to Buddhist temples anymore, and so he was scared of baptism. But not to fear, Brother Teh (who was baptized a little bit ago) was there! He super simply explained that he could still do things with his dad after he was baptized, and Jason just lit up after that and then was super happy to accept a baptismal invitation. It was so amazing to have Brother Teh there. Because he is a local Malaysian, I think he understands a lot about Chinese culture that Elder Anglin and I, as white teenagers, will never understand.

This experience made me think a lot about Jesus Christ. I know for me, when I have trials in life, one of my first thoughts is always "nobody understands what I am going through" or "nobody understands the culture of Elder Weatherford enough to help me." But, what I need to remember is that we all have a Brother Teh who is able to help us resolve our concerns....that is Jesus Christ. He understands EVERYTHING we go through, because He went through it Himself. He is always there to help us, even when it seems that nobody else can.

I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week!

Best,

Elderu Weather