Short happy letter - lots of pictures

Hi Family,

Okay, apparently we are going spelunking (or caving, if it's not actually as cool as spelunking or if there's a technical difference) in only a few minutes.  I don't have very much time to email.  Ipoh is great, but there's so much going on that wants to eat up my email time!  I've got fresh batteries in my camera, so you'll get to see next week where I go today.

I'll just give you the highlights of my week:

We had a record number of investigators at church on Sunday, and they all said that they are interested to meet with us again and learn more about the gospel!  Yaaay!  I'm so happy for them, and I can't wait to get back from Singapore this week so we can meet them!

(Oh, Zone conference is this week, so I'll be in Singapore Wednesday through Friday.  I'm really looking forward to seeing old friends and companions and to be uplifted and inspired and receive new revelation for my area.  I'm also excited to pick up a Christmas package! :)

We worked really hard to invite members to tell us about their friends that could be interested in learning about Jesus Christ, as well as helping them come to lessons with us this past week.  We did a lot of calling, biking, walking, knocking, talking, and teaching. (and eating.  Wholly Cow, I can't believe how much people feed us here!)  Right now, it's all just a blur.  I don't know what to tell you exactly.  I just know that missionary work is not easy, but it is completely worthwhile, and is very rewarding.  As my faith in the Lord grows ever stronger and as I slowly begin to see the bigger picture of my purpose as a missionary, I'm so thankful that I have this opportunity and priviledge.  I know that God knows me personally, and has a plan for me, which He will help me to fulfill if I turn my will over to Him.  I know that this is true for each and every one of us, as well.

I love you, too!  It's great to hear from you again and see your pictures.  (Thanks especially for the ones from pack meeting with the nametags!)

Love,

Brennan

Photos:

Elder Li and a Sikh temple.

Someone we didn't expect to see walking the streets.

Our District at the church.  Sister Carson, Sister Kelley, Elder Lallemant, Elder Stanford, Elder Li, Elder Me.

Our Family History Openhouse week:  A famous collection of old photos of Ipoh was brought for display inside the church, along with presentations and pedigree charts prepared by our members, to introduce people to the church and family history work.  A cool idea!

The district (minus me) eating at my new favorite restaurant in Ipoh.  Did I tell you about the place last week? We went to this little hole in the wall place that had really good burgers and, wait for it... Gelato!  But they were out of gelato that day.  We went with the awesome church members that you see in the pictures.

The burgers came with this big serrated knife stuck through them, instead of toothpicks.

This was an experiment with vertical panorama in that burger place. It looks like a page out of an I SPY book.

Elder Stanford and I went on exchanges together this week.

  

Good things in Ipoh

Dear Family,

Yaay!  I'm happy to hear you received the package and everything was alright.  Thanks for the letter about that.

So, last week I left off by going to lunch with a billionaire.  Yup, that happened.  The other Elders met a beautiful young couple who own an American Chicken wings franchise here, and they took us to eat tasty food at their restaurant last P-Day.  We learned that they not only have 4 collector's Rolls Royce (s), but more kids than cars.  They have 6 children under the age of 2 years old! (twins and quadruplets!)  The entire outing with them was a lot of fun, and pretty spiritual.  After hearing some of Elder Lallemant's hilarious true stories of his childhood in Canada, we shared simply with them why we come to serve missions, and the blessings that the gospel has brought to us.  They said they thouroughly enjoyed meeting us and want to learn more!

Our district helped out at the YWCA Christmas party on Friday.  We presented to lots of children from various "caring homes" a story including the symbolism of the Christmas tree, and how we can remember Jesus Christ at Christmas.  It was fun to see these underprivileged kids, some from rough family backgrounds, having a good time and singing songs together.  The best was when Santa Claus (all the way from Australia) came to give them presents.

In case I haven't mentioned it previously, Ipoh is famous for members befriending and supporting missionaries.  There are a few amazing members in particular who never miss an opportunity to let my soul and body "delight in fatness."  We celebrated Thanksgiving with a great big Chinese lunch this week.  One of our favorite members, Sister C. (She's cool enough to go by just an initial in these emails [I, like you all, also wish I was more creative]) took us out for a massive lunch, and helped us remember our many blessings.  We all had a great time telling each other what we were grateful for, and all about the miracles we've seen at the Lord's hand lately.  I'll send you a picture if I have one.

Ipoh is a wonderful place to serve, but I know that it isn't the place that determines success in this work.  I've been praying each day for more obedience and patience, and for help to develop Christlike attributes so that I will represent Jesus Christ better.  I have been striving to do my part to help the mission achieve the baptismal goal, but I feel that my contribution is inadequate.  The Lord has really been helping me to develop faith as I learn to trust his timing to see miracles.

I was devastated this week when our one investigator with a baptismal date did not attend church.  It was disappointing because I felt I had done all I could:  I had taught as clearly and plainly as possible, had worked with the branch leaders, stressed the importance of coming to church in preparation for baptism, and provided the best path possible for the investigator to walk, and he still chose not to make the sacrifice necessary to come to church.  I'm glad to know that no effort is wasted, and I definitely haven't utterly lost heart.  I pray that the Lord will bless my investigators with understanding and a desire to walk the right path, and I pray that I will have the patience and confidence and perspective to continue to lay the foundation of God's kingdom, one stone at a time.

 

I'm so thankful for all of YOU!!  I thank you for the support you constantly are to me, through emails, and through your prayers.  Most of all, I'm grateful for your fantastic examples to me!  Keep on becoming who Heavenly Father wants you to be, and remember that He loves you and wants to bless you.  I love you all so much, too!!

Love,

Brennan

Faith in Finding

Hi Everyone!

This week has been one of inflection, self-evaluation, and testimony-building.  To show my love for the Lord this week, I first studied truths about Him and reflected upon my own testimony of His importance, and then sought opportunities to testify of Him.  I believe I was given a few key opportunities to testify to those who had sincere questions about the Savior.  I felt prepared to testify to them, because I had been thinking all week about Christ and his redeeming role in my life.  I also strove to use the small pockets of "down time," (as we driving somewhere with a member, as we waited for people to arrive at scheduled activities, and the time before personal study and bedtime and after meals,) for contacting investigators or potential investigators.  I feel that this missionary district in Ipoh is full of wonderful examples of missionaries who use the Lord's time fully and wisely.  I believe that this has been the biggest struggle in my mission, so, looking to the examples of my fellow missionaries and that of the Savior, I made a resolution to make effective use of all time into one of my strengths.  It's definitely not easy, and it requires careful focus and constant attention to promptings from the Holy Ghost, but I feel much more satisfied in doing missionary work in this way, especially when I'm exhausted.  I like to think of President Eyring saying "when I find myself drawn away from my priesthood duties by other interests and when my body begs for rest, I give to myself this rallying cry: 'Remember Him.' " 

I feel that Satan is working hard on keeping us from achieving the goals we have set in our companionship.  I've never had so many appointments fall through in a single week before!  Many times last week, Elder Li and I had to exercise faith that the Lord would help us find seekers of truth as we reverted to our  backup plans, then to backups to the backups.  We spent lots of time out and about trying to talk to as many people as we could contact, in a real effort to find new investigators.  The Lord didn't answer our prayers in the way that I thought he would, but we were given the two new investigators whom we prayed for all week, through the diligence of members in inviting their friends to church. 

We have a family to teach!  They are a wonderful couple from China with an adorable little daughter.  They know a young member of the Ipoh branch, who invited them to church and helped them feel welcomed at a few activities this week. They attended our branch Thanksgiving dinner this week, and had a blast!  We had a chance to answer the father's questions about Christianity and faith in Jesus Christ.  Because I like to have beautiful logical answers to questions that people ask me, it was hard to reply to "Why do so many people that believe in Jesus do bad things?"  and similar questions.  I realized that I don't have perfect answers to all of our investigators questions, but I was able to refer them back to Jesus Christ and our Heavenly Father as the source of truth and peace and answers to life's questions.  Like Alma, I know that "there is no other way or means whereby man can be saved, only in and through Christ. Behold, he is the life and the light of the world. Behold, he is the word of truth and righteousness." 

All that has happened this week has definitely helped to strengthen my faith that people are being prepared to hear the gospel, and that the Lord's ways are higher than my ways.  As I've focused on learning about humility this week, I feel the Lord has helped me to become more humble (or at least to recognize, and desire to change, the pride in me.)  I pray that He will continue to do so, and that I will be a more worthy instrument in His hands.

Love,
Elder Baer

Love Serving in Ipoh!

Hi Everyone,

I love serving in Ipoh!  I've never been so showered with gifts (food) from members before.  I'm actually concerned that I'm going to leave Ipoh a lot more round than when I came.

At the same time, there are also challenges to moving to a new area.  We've been tracting and street contacting every day, because the area is newly opened for Chinese Elders, and we don't have very many investigators.  Plus, every one of our appointments cancelled this week.  We only had one lesson, but it was a miracle lesson.  We met a wonderful young man, code named Isaac.  He's the only one who let us into his house this entire week!  He wasn't feeling very well, but he still agreed to let us come in and let us teach him about the restoration of the gospel.  He's already Christian, and has a desire to learn more about God and how to become closer to Him, because of the blessings he's seen in his life since he converted to Christianity.  He said that he felt good as we talked, and he wants to read the Book of Mormon to find out how it can help him obtain the things that are most important to him in his life.  We'll go back and meet him again in a couple of days, to talk about what he learned, and help him to keep feeling the Holy Ghost.

We talked to so many people, and knocked on so many gates, and only 1 person agreed to listen to us.  However, because of Isaac, my faith is strengthened, and I know that God is guiding people who are seeking truth to find the restored gospel.  I also know that if I remember to seek His help, Heavenly Father will make all things work together for my good.  I've been studying Humility, from Preach My Gospel, this month, and I bet that as I've asked the Lord to help me be more humble, he's given me these recent experiences to humble me and help me develop this Christlike attribute.

Yesterday, we went out contacting again, in a Chinese/Malay neighborhood at the feet of some tree-covered mountains.  As the evening went on, the heavens gathered blackness, and all the elements combined to drench us thoroughly and scare us out of our socks.  Rain poured, wind howled, and lightning pounded the mountain.  The rain drummed on the tin rooftops and awnings of these little houses so hard that people inside couldn't hear us banging their gates with our flashlights.  I could hardly hear Elder Li yelling to me from two feet away.  We decided to take cover under a pavillion at a park just at the end of the lane where we were knocking.  The storm came on so suddenly that before we had even got to the end of the lane there was lightning striking all around.  I would see bright flashes, and before I even counted to 1 1/2, I felt the thunder boom, almost in waves, coming from various directions.  We hurried the small lighted area under the pavillion, and watched the lightning strike the mountain, and several nearby trees, including ones in the neighborhood where we had just left.  At one point, I think it even struck a pavillion neighboring the one we stood under, turning out all the lights in that area of the park!  I know that Heavenly Father was watching out for us, and keeping us safe through the storm.

While we stood under the pavillion, I talked to /shout-tacted a little man who had just been biking around the park when the rain hit.  He was obviously Christian, from the polo shirt he was wearing, and he recognized us as Christians, as well.  As we talked a little about where I had come from and why I was in Malaysia, our conversation eventually drifted to the subject of God and his prophets. 

He asked "But no one's ever seen God, right?"

I replied, "Well, God's prophets have seen him and testified of Him.  Have you ever heard of Joseph Smith?"

He said he remembered that there were prophets in the Bible, and that he had never heard the name before.  I opened a pamphlet to the page with the picture of the first vision, and related Joseph Smith's experience to him.  I also had an opportunity to testify that there is a living prophet on the earth today.

"What?  A prophet today?  What's his name?" he questioned.

"This is Thomas Monson," I said, pulling out a pass-along card with the prophet's picture, "God's chosen prophet today!"

Because he was interested in prophets, he took a restoration pamphlet, and the pass-along card, but it was obvious that he didn't want to deny his church by learning too much from us.  He didn't allow us any way to contact him again, but I hope that he will remember the minutes he spent with me on that stormy night, as the Spirit testified to him of the truth of a living prophet.

I feel so blessed to be serving the Lord as his representative here.  I know that the gospel is way true, and that because it was restored the the Prophet Joseph Smith, our lives can be more blessed and happy than we ever would be otherwise!  I encourage you to read again, as a family, (or listen to and pause occasionally) Elder Neil Anderson's talk from this conference.  Will you?  I know that if you do, and you do as Elder Anderson invites, you will build a testimony, and gain a witness from the Holy Ghost, of the importance of, and the blessings that come from the restoration through the prophet Joseph Smith.

Tons of Love,

Brennan