Elder Matthew Halpin's Mission Blog: April 21, 2014 – Go Big or Go Home!

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