Elder Matthew Halpin's Mission Blog: January 18, 2015 – Following the crowd…

So this week went very well.

Mom: Did you send my letter?

Elder Halpin: I sent the letter 2 weeks ago, I hope it’s not lost....

Note: The letter arrive this week.

First off I want to say that at least one reason I was sent to Singapore was to learn and grow spiritually. Over the last few weeks I have learned a lot about the gospel and what it means to truly live it. Also about obedience, what it means and why it’s important.

Mom you were talking about Stake Conference and obedience. It’s really a pain. Just this past week President Mains made a new rule that only 1 set of missionaries can go to any one appointment. In a 3 companionship area I don’t know how this is going to work. We have been having a hard time getting into member’s homes anyway. Now if a certain member likes to have the missionaries over once every 2 weeks either we will only meet them once a transfer (6 weeks) or never because they will pick the set of missionaries they like the best.... ugh....

With that in mind I began to contemplate because we have the hardest time effectively using our time. I was looking at what we couldn’t do - go to malls, use the train and bus and knock doors. Also it is very difficult to effectively work with less actives and members here because they are all so busy. Anyway, I realized that I was looking at it all wrong. I was looking at what wasn’t working, not what was. I realized that most of our success in getting potential investigators happened when we were walking to and from the MRT stops in the same direction as people but that once we left the general vicinity people dispersed and it became ineffective. Also if we just stood in one place trying to talk to everyone, everyone avoided us. We therefore decided to just go back and forth and around. Pretty sneaky like. Walk up to the corner where people are waiting for the light, start a conversation with anyone who is willing and then just kind of walk in the same direction as them to keep the conversation going. Before they arrive at their flat get their number. Turn around, walk back to the intersection, by then it’s all new people. Repeat process.

We have been able to meet with a several people. We have 3 investigators now.

Sylvia is doing well. We met her again on what day? I forgot... Anyway we went to the Cortez family’s home and had a lesson/discussion on the plan of salvation. The Cortez’s are from the Philippines, they are way sick! Anyway, she has started to read and to pray. She would have come to church but one of her friends passed away suddenly in Kuala Lumpur and she went back for the funeral. Should be meeting again in the next couple days.

Doris is from China and has been in Singapore for about 2 months. She is pretty cool. She is a "freethinker." She said though that her Grandmother in China is Christian, and that actually a lot of people are starting to accept Christianity there. We talked about the restoration and she has started praying and reading. On Sunday she came to church for all 3 hours. We are meeting her again on Tuesday.

Celynne is the last one. She is from the Philippines and has been in Singapore for several years. She used to be Catholic but is now agnostic. We met and she asked what was the difference between her church and ours. So we began teaching the restoration but she asked why everything existed, why God would create everything. So we quickly changed tracks and began sharing the plan of salvation. She really is a deep thinker, asked a lot of questions, kind of looking for cracks. She has more questions and we are meeting again this afternoon at 2. It’s kind of interesting this is the 2nd time on my mission when a Catholic has asked what the difference is between our churches and the restoration has not worked and the plan of salvation has answered perfectly.

So yeah, things are picking up. We have several more promising potentials.

Also, Adam is your knee broken?

Sincerely,

Elder Halpin