Week 46: Compassvale, Singapore

The Chronicles of Compassvale

Good morning everyone! It has been a super extraordinary good week!

The most amazing thing was Sunday yesterday! First of all, Debbie came to church! Her boyfriend was gone for his National Service, and so she didn't go out partying and she came to church. She even came in a dress which was super cool! Michelle also joined us for church, and Sabrina came with her kids! Linda Wong and her family didn't make it, but that is okay. And then following church, we went over to the house of a member who is moving out soon to pick up some things for the other Elders. They ended up giving us a ton of food as well, so we carried 20kg bags of food (pancake mix, chocolate chips, etc.) for the rest of the day. And then, we went to dinner with Vishnu. Vishnu is a nice man from India who came to church today. While he was there, a Filipino couple invited him over for dinner, and so we went to dinner with all of them. On the way there we taught him about the gospel (on a bus) and invited him to be baptized. It was really fun!

I guess I got a bit ahead of myself...the rest of the week was fabulous as well. On Wednesday (for Labour Day), our ward had a service Project at a soup kitchen, so we got to help out with that. And then, we met a nice guy named Johnny from the Filipinos. We had eaten dinner already, but then he invited us over to his house and bought us McDonald's. We ended up teaching him four of the five missionary lessons in one go and committed him to be baptized! Woo hoo!

We also met with this cool guy named Tee Beo and his daughter and her friend (both of whom served in Taiwan). He was asking about why life is so hard, and so we showed him a video, and then it was serious and Elder Stone looked at him and said "你有很多问题" (which means "You have a LOT of problems.") We all started laughing, and explained to him that he used the word for problems instead of questions haha. It was pretty hilarious.

We also found out about transfers this week...I will be staying here with Elder Stone (I will be his last companion!) , but a new guy is joining us. Also, Elder Anglin is going to be Zone Leader in Sabah, which is exciting! I am glad I am staying, because I think we are going to see some baptisms soon!

This week, I read the story of when a blind man was brought to Jesus, and they asked if he was blind because he had sinned, or because his parents sinned. I love His response: 

"Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him." 

Sometimes, we have hard things in life like being blind or being stressed or countless other things. It can be hard to see what we did to deserve it, but at times we are given weaknesses like that so that God can heal us and bring us to Him. When we struggle, remember that there is always a reason! 

Sorry this email was such a mess. I love you all so much and hope you have a great week! I am so grateful to be here in Singapore. 

Best, 

Elder Weatherford 

Pictures:

1. A goofy picture of us (missionaries aren't ALWAYS serious) 

2. Us with Vishnu on the MRT 

3. Us with Michelle and Sister Heidi at her lesson

4. Us at the service project with one of our young men (I think Elder Stone looks like an Italian cafeteria man)

5. Us with Tee Beo, his daughter, and her friend (you can tell which one is his daughter by their eyes ) 

6. Some delicious food! 

7. Some of the Elders in our district. 

8. Us with Debbie and Lisa at lunch. 

9. Us with Johnny, our Filipino amigo 

Some answers to email questions --

1. We are not supposed to go out of our areas, but since the country of Singapore is so small, we can go anywhere IN Singapore on P-Day. 

2. Yeah, we have keys to the chapel! 

3. I think Elder Taylor had the best Chinese in the mission, but since he left, I'm not sure who. Maybe Elder Carter, maybe yours truly? 

4. I showed him my passport and we talked about "confidential" things there, I asked him how to balance wanting to set so much done in so little time, and then we talked about all the temptations (music especially) IN Singapore. It was really good! 

5. There are a lot of Bangladesh people here in Singapore. We don't really teach them since it is very Muslim and very strict (they can stone you if you sit next to a woman who you are not married to). We love learning languages!