Monday, April 28, 2014

April 28, 2014 – Slow Week - Week 15 in Kuching

So this week was annoying. I told you last week about Elder Lafontaine being sick. Anyway after that blew over all of our referrals canceled and such, good fun.

We still had good success with our less active families though. There were 48 people at church.

Also the scheduled temple trip this year was moved back a month because of scheduling issues. Anyway the low down on that is that Brother Kelvin and Sister Karen will be able to go. We are working on getting them caught up on the temple class and will be going tomorrow to give the first temple preparation lesson. Very excited for them.

I know the Church is true. It’s confirmed to me every time I teach a lesson, pray or read the scriptures. I KNOW that if we will do the little things like read and pray every day that our lives will be much more happy and fulfilling. I know that Jesus Christ’s church will not fail. I am very grateful for a living prophet and know that if we will heed the prophet’s and apostle’s words that we will be blessed. I am very grateful for the atonement. As a missionary I have seen it work miracles in the lives of people.

I know that Jesus Christ lives and directs this work, his work.

Love you guys.

Elder Halpin

Pictures:



Samuel, Brother Senen’s son
holding a very long tailed lizard

Elder Lafontaine and I at Sister Lihot’s house

A random house





Tuesday, April 22, 2014

April 21, 2014 – Go Big or Go Home! - Week 14 in Kuching

Sounds like stuff is good at home.

Adam and Katherine, Happy Birthday!!!!!!

Elder Lafontaine was sick yesterday so we stayed home.

Last week, after I told you I was going to be better, by the evening I promptly got worse. I felt feverish all day and when I went home I just laid down for the evening. I woke up at about 9 o’clock and knew I had to have a fever. So I went and took my temp, 103.6, smashing my previous record of 103 flat when I was a kid..... So yeah, I took some good old Malaysian cure-all "Panadol" and went to bed. Woke up at 2:00 in the morning and was completely and utterly soaked in sweat, also since I picked the bed under the air conditioner, I was utterly freezing. I got up took a shower and changed. Anyway this process repeated all night. I would sleep then wake up soaking in sweat and uncontrollably shivering, take a shower and change. 4 showers and sets of garments later I just gave up on sleeping and sat on an office chair until morning.

Anyway I’m doing much better now.

The less active and recent convert families that we are working with or trying to work with are as follows.

Less Actives

-   - Brother Beliang, Sister Chunggat and family, (there are many, many people in this family, a few are active).
-   - Brother Clement, Sister Lucy and family - also Anthony lives in the same house, he is Sister Lucy’s brother.
-   - Brother Uching, Sister Lunyi and family.
-   - Sister Merina and family.
-   - Brother David, Sister Jouyah and family.
-   - Sister Lihot
-   - There are a few other families and individuals that we are also trying to meet with but haven’t been able to recently.

Recent Converts

-   - Brother Niga
-   - Brother Kelvin, Sister Karren and family.

They are all awesome. We have some really good referrals and we have appointments to meet both of them.

Brother Kelvin has a cousin whose name is Daughtry, like the band. He has a girlfriend of 4 years named Elvi. Anyway last week we all met at the Kelvin’s and he shared a bit with them then we explained a bit about the Kitab Mormon. They agreed to meet again this week on Thursday.

Anthony also has friend who apparently already has a Kitab Mormon and has already read it and such! Her name is Elmi, her only day off is Monday so we were not able to pursue an appointment yesterday for obvious reasons. Next week though she sounds awesome.

Really this week has been really good for me. All of the member work we have been doing is finally paying off. We gave 2-3 other referrals to the other Samarahan Elders. We had 54 people at church, granted it was Easter, but still without that the average is now in the 40s every week.

We are starting institute this week, Elder Lafontaine will be teaching. Should be good.

Anyway, Micaela it sounds like your classes are annoying but that’s OK. I only had like 3 maybe 4 annoying classes throughout all my time there. The sooner you get them out of the way the better right?!

I am going to share some mission wisdom that I have learned, that I wish I realized before my mission. It applies to everything. "Go big or go home". It was Kuching’s motto when I first came into the mission. Simply said - If you aren’t trying your hardest at whatever you’re doing, then you are probably just wasting your time and energy. Not to mention the added benefits and experiences that you get when you try your hardest.

In missionary work it is especially applicable. If you only half try to work hard, to learn the language, to talk to people and open your mouth when prompted, to study, to rely on the Lord and the Spirit, then you are only going to receive half the blessings and experiences the lord has for you.

Like I said before it applies to everything, it basically just applies to life.

Hope you guys have a great week!

Love
Elder Halpin

Pictures

Random photo I took before Zone meeting. 
There are a lot of missionaries in Kuching now, 24.

President David and I

The dreaded Sago Worm. 
They basically chop down a sago tree and let it sit for a month or so, then they go chop it up and find all the grubs that have spawned in it.


Monday, April 14, 2014

April 13, 2014 – Transfers, New Elders - Week 13 in Kuching

April 13, 2014 – Transfers, New Elders - Week 13 in Kuching

This week was good if a bit slow. So we moved as you know on Monday and we cleaned the old house on Tuesday. We organized the new house on Wednesday.

We managed to get a few appointments in on Tuesday and another on Wednesday. Anyway the new Elders arrived on Thursday. They don’t yet have bikes, they are on the way. On Saturday and Sunday we had general conference. I watched in Malay but will watch in English over the next few days. It was pretty good. I’m to the point where I understand all the general gist of what’s being said but not all the words yet. There were some good ones, Elder Holland, I think Elder Christofferson and some others I really enjoyed.

I also had quite a few firsts last week. On Tuesday while riding back from our appointments I saw fireflies for the first time. They were on a palm tree and looked like Christmas lights. Also I ate a Sago worm for the first time, it was the fried variety… It actually was ok once I got over the fact I was eating a grub. Also on a less fortunate note, I am currently legitimately sick for the first time right now. I developed a headache and fever of 101 last night and woke up this morning with no fever but still a headache and a non severe stomach bug... So yeah fun stuff. First headache I have ever had in my life. Luckily one of the sisters had the anti headache essential oil and it actually has worked.

Anyway, so about splitting the area. It means 2 things. First the number of people, both members and non members, has been cut in half.... Second it also means that we can focus more effort on both finding and working with the less active members. We will see how it goes. We are all living in the new house, it’s pretty big and a little too much for us. The new Elders are pretty cool, I think they will do good work.

Sounds good with the Garments.

Being sick this morning I did not transfer my pictures.... Next week I promise you another 3 week bunch of photos. There will be some good ones.

Adam I saw the preview for winter soldier in a cafe we were eating at, it looks pretty sick.

Also what happened to the rototiller?

Also, Elder Coloma is now in my old area in Matang, if anyone can make it in Matang it will be him.

Love you guys a lot, Miss you!

Elder Halpin

Sunday, April 13, 2014

April 7, 2014 – Transfers, New Elders, Area Split - Week 12 in Kuching

So this week was really good.

First off transfers. I am eternally condemned to Kuching except that it’s good so I’m not sure that condemned is the right word. I am staying here in Kota Samarahan with Elder Lafontaine. We are also getting two more Elders here. An Elder Capener and an Elder Allen. We moved this morning into a new house. It is across the road from our old one in a new housing development. Anyway, I’m happy I’m staying here but I have mixed feelings about splitting the area, have to decide where the boundary should be and which half we want...

Last week was also Zone conference. It was by and far the best I have yet attended. All of the trainings and talks were spot on. They addressed the problems and challenges that we (as a mission) have been struggling with and also gave us clear insight into President Mains' goals and direction for the mission and missionaries.

We were able to meet with a few less active members last week and also met some new ones. We are still working on meeting all of those potential investigators, they have been hard to get a hold of and get appointments with.

Every month the mission focuses its studies on one chapter of Preach My Gospel. This month is chapter 3, the lessons. You would think that I would know everything by now, so I decided to read it in Bahasa and I have been surprised at what I have learned. That’s something that I think is really cool. I have noticed as I study in 2 languages, in both English and Malay, different things stand out to me as I study and read them. In English I might read a verse or paragraph and just breeze over because nothing stands out or seems important, I then read the same thing in Malay and it might blow my mind and vice versa. I guess this is because words have different meanings and such associated with them.

Funny Story.

Because Kota Samarahan meetings are a mix of Malay and Iban, I have been working on my Iban a bit. Anyway I recently obtained a "Bup Kudus" or bible in Iban. The first day I was using it I passed it across the room for someone to read from. And of course, guess what happened??? A Chechat (gecko) pooped on it...... ugh. Anyway the Bup Kudus wasn’t too bad off when I got done cleaning it.

Mom, bamboo pork is pork cooked in a section of green bamboo. They use some sort of leaf to plug the top and just stick it in some coals or over a fire. It is VERY delicious. Also speaking of food, I tried Sushi for the first time today. It is almost Elder Lafontaine’s birthday and he loves sushi. It’s pretty good, mostly I just have to get over the fact that I’m eating raw fish and it’s alright.

Anyway,

Love you guys all.

Elder Halpin

Forgot my picture adapter again... next week :)

March 30, 2014 – Work with Less Active Members Continues - Week 11 in Kuching

This week was pretty good

Unfortunately all of our investigators and potential investigators fell through this week... Sort of a vicious cycle. That’s alright though, one of the YSA members, Mazura, brought her friend to church and it sounds like he might be interested in learning.

Anyway other than that the week was decent. We had 43 people at church, so that was good. On Saturday we had a branch activity, we went out to the jungle and had bamboo pork and BBQ chicken. As we were sharing a spiritual message the biggest spider I have ever seen in person crawled into our shelter, apparently its poison will kill you too.

We had a bunch of really good lessons this week with the less active members we have been working with. Brother Uching said that he would come to church next week, so hopefully he will.

Brother Niga continues to progress but slowly with his reading.

You will know what the package is when it arrives. Don’t open it or it will most likely be broken by the time I get back... It would be awesome if you could store it in the corner of your room or somewhere where it won’t freeze, the cold might damage it.

This week we go to Singapore for Zone Conference. Should be good, and the week after that is transfers. Overall time is just moving faster, next transfer I will hit my year mark.... It still seems like yesterday that I was in arriving in Singapore from America... Kind of trippy feelings not sure whether I’m excited or sad.

What I am sure about though is that the church is true and that the blessings we receive when we follow the teachings of Christ and his Prophets bring us true happiness in this life.

Love, Elder Halpin

Pictures

Brother Uching and Family
 

Bro Jackson cooking.
 

The Laba-Laba
It's seriously bigger than my hand.