May 25, 2014 – Brother Uching Returns after Two Years Away! - Week 19 in Kuching

This week was a mixed bag.

That food was Malaysian style curry pizza.

This is Malaysian style curry pizza.

So, first off, on Monday morning Brother Clement had a heart attack. We went to the hospital to give him a blessing that evening. He’s still in the hospital but doing much better now.

We also decided to go visit Brother Uching that evening. We got together everyone we could find (Brother Beliang, Brother Raymond, Brother Sup, Brother Jeff, Brother Senen, President David and Sister Catherine and mobbed his house. It turned out all right - everyone was talking and having a good time. On Sunday Brother Uching came to church, the first time in 2 years!

Also, Brother Beliang is coming consistently now. In addition, his son, Syaiful, is coming too. We had 43 at church.

So yeah.

Unfortunately we can’t meet Poura until her husband, who works "outstation," (oil rig or palm oil field) comes back, but she did start reading the Book of Mormon so it should be good later on.

Also number 6’s return appointment fell through. Still working on getting that one going.

Also making preparations for Gawai (opening gawai is Saturday at midnight and Sunday is the first day). Only sacrament meeting is scheduled. Even still, we already know that all of our strong families will be going to Kampung that evening and won’t be at church. We are fully expecting 4 people at church including us... This will be the case across all of Sarawak. It’s probably going to kill all work next week, and there might not be any email next week because all the kedais will probably be closed. The only bright side is that we have received many invitations to visit people’s longhouses which should be cool.

This week should be good anyway. Get lots of work done.

Sincerely

Elder Halpin

Pictures this week:

Elder Lafontaine and me.

Jason, Sister Merina’s son.

He’s 11 were going to try and

get him ready for the priesthood.

 

Me chilling at district meeting.

 

 

May 18, 2014 – Awesome Week! - Week 18 in Kuching

First off, I’m not going anywhere. Transfers just came in and Elder LaFontaine and I are still here in Kota Samarahan.

Kuching for life!

K-Sam (Kota Samarahan) has been getting better and better, this past week was awesome.

We had a lot of very spiritual lessons with some of our less active members. 

We are also trying to get Home Teaching going for the second time since I've been here. It’s a more concerted effort and I think it will work.

Also on Friday President and Sister Mains came and had interviews and inspected the house, all went well.

On Tuesday-Wednesday I went on splits here in K-Sam with Elder Bester, good times, we located where a less active member we had never met lived and also met with Minah and Maju. They are doing good. This week we really need to get a member there with us. Thinking about taking Roosevelt and Lucy of the Beliang clan.

Something I have been working on is letting the spirit guide me. As I have done this, over the last few transfers, I have felt myself grow more spiritually than before and also have become more sensitive to it. An example, on Thursday Elder Lafontaine and I had the opportunity to go on splits with Elder Robinson one of the Assistants to the President (APs). Good times. All of our plans fell through for that afternoon so we were going to just show up to a couple less active member’s houses. Anyway I was leading on my bicycle and felt like we should go talk to Elmie at the store where she works instead of the aforementioned activity. We got there and said hello but she wasn’t sure when her off day was yet so we couldn’t make an appointment. I was then like ugh... Anyway we were thirsty so we went into this ghetto mall to buy some drinks. While we were in there we contacted a lady named Poura who owned a hair salon. Great discussion about families and temples followed. Great potential. After that we went out and as I looked around I felt like we should go knock a few doors down this small cul-de-sac. Door knock number 6 ended in a 45 minute discussion about the restoration and a return appointment this Wednesday.

Cool stuff.

Love

Elder Halpin

Pictures:

Paper airplane built on P-day.

Unknown food item

Matthew did not indicate what this is.

Looks good though!

May 11, 2014 – Mother's Day - Week 17 in Kuching

There was no email from Matthew this week.

Matthew was able to Skype with us here at home.  It was quite awesome!

He looks good and is very happy!

May 4, 2014 – 10 Reasons the Book of Mormon is Awesome - Week 16 in Kuching

So, first off, Mother’s Day next week. I am not sure exactly of the time, but Brother Jeff has offered to let us use his computers Monday morning. I have permission to send a confirmation email on Sunday so I will do that, I’ll send you the name to search and stuff too.

So this week was better. We have 4 new investigators!!!

You might remember Andrew one our former investigators. Anyway at the time I felt like some of his siblings might be interested but it didn't really work out. It finally worked out!  We decided to drop by just to say hi and we met his sister Minah who invited us back! So we went back on Wednesday and Andrew, Minah, their father Maju and another sibling Baling met with us. They are all Anglican except for Maju who still follows "the way of the Iban".

Meeting again this week should be good.

We also met with Kelvin and Karren and taught the first Temple prep lesson. They are great!

We also are teaching an institute class on Friday night. It’s doing good.

We are meeting with Anthony and his friend Elmi’s referral on Tuesday, should be good.

Splitting your area after working in it for three months sucks. Basically there were lazy Elders here before and kind of killed the area a bit. Elder Poppleton and I and then Elder Lafontaine and I finally got the area going again and then they split it...... ugh. Anyway bottom line all the referrals and such we were working on in the other half have finally started to show face and it’s a bit frustrating.

That’s OK though, the other Elders are good and I trust them, they’ll do a good job.

I've decided to read the quad in a couple months or less. I started on Wednesday and am already to 2nd Kings. It’s going well, basically been reading a book, sometimes two, a day. I've already learned a heap I didn't realize. For instance, when Jesus says the two greatest commandments I always thought he just compiled them all into categories in his head and then made something up. Nope, it’s actually a direct quote from Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Anyway cool stuff. That’s something I've noticed as I've been reading actually, that the higher law is written all over the lower law you just have to dig for it and think about it.

10 Reasons the Book of Mormon is awesome.

1. It brings people to and strengthens their knowledge that Jesus is the Christ and made the atonement for all mankind.

2. It brings to light important doctrines and principles such as prayer, the atonement, the plan of salvation, obedience, the power of the spirit etc.

3. It is the keystone. It holds everything in place. Through it people can gain a lasting testimony of the truthfulness of the gospel.

4. If you read it every day you will become closer to your Father in Heaven and Jesus Christ.

5. It answers questions of the soul.

6. If I read the Book of Mormon in the morning then almost without fail I find a way to apply what I learned during the day.

7. It backs up the Bible.

8. It shows God’s love and longsuffering for his children.

9. It shows us the power of the Atonement.

10. It is the single most useful Missionary tool there is. It, coupled with a testimony, are pretty kuat. (strong).

Love

Elder Halpin