Conference and Upcoming Covenants

Well, folks, it's been so long since last we've chatted! [As we like to say here in Singapore/Malaysia: Long time already (lah)! :) ] Anywho, this past weekend we've had the opportunity to watch General Conference! What an amazing experience! It was SO GOOD, and there's so much to be learned from it :) I especially loved Elder Lynn Robbins's talk--it was awesome :) 

In preparation for General Conference, we'd met with a less active member who was angry with everyone in the Church. He'd ceased being active almost ten years ago--prior to that he was the biggest help that the elders had in doing missionary work. He's a Melchizedek Priesthood holder, and he's a really nice guy. His heart, though, is cankered with anger, hate, and hurt, all of which, he claims, stem from the rudeness and pride of the members. He complained that our Church isn't focused on Jesus Christ, and that the people didn't live the laws that He has set. As he went about making all of these accusations, he started condemning himself without realizing it.

As I sat in General Conference, listening to all of the many talks that testify about Jesus Christ, it was reaffirmed to me that we come to Church NOT for the other people. They sure are nice, and they certainly can help build our testimonies--but the greatest reason we should be going to Church or being active in the Gospel is for GOD. It's for JESUS CHRIST. It's all for Him. It's improving our relationship with Him, and helping others do the same. This Church is true--sometimes it's people aren't. This Church is the vehicle that brings us as close to Christ as we can get in this life, through sacred covenants and ordinances. 

With that in mind, WE HAVE A BAPTISM ON SATURDAY!!!!!!!!!! Her name is Sister Jess, and she's so awesome! She pretty much fell into our laps, and now she's about to make her first covenant with God. She's really cool, and I know that the Lord has prepared her and her heart for this. She's going to help the Church so much here in JB, and it's going to be awesome :) I'll be sure to send pics of the baptism next week.

Well, for now, I must needs be going. I love y'all, and I know that this Church is true. My testimony means so much to me, and I hope the same goes for you too. We don't get baptized or join the Church or come to Sacrament for people alone--we come for Christ. We come WITH Christ. And by so doing, we come unto Christ. He's the center of it all. He's the heart of our message, our Gospel, and our lives.

Till we meet again,

Elder Mitchell

YOEOO (You Only Eat Ostrich Once) :)

Well, this past week has been one full of work and wonder. Last Monday brought with it the announcement that that my companion was off to Bintulu to open up the Chinese work there and train a greenie all at the same time. My new companion=Elder Lee, from Singapore, who's super awesome! More about our adventures in a minute. Monday night brought with it the English elders' investigator taking the four of us to an amazingly fancy Japanese restaurant, where we had a meal whose price was approximately $200-250 USD. Yeah...just a wee bit expensive, but it was magnificent. We dined like kings. It was my first time trying ostrich too--I'm a fan of ostrich meat. Maybe I'll get an ostrich farm when I grow up.....actually, probably not. That's a little morbid a thought.

Moving on: Elder Lee was delayed getting here to good ole JB thanks to an insane amount of rain and the craziness of Singapore traffic. Woot woot. But make it he did, and from then till now we've been busy meeting with investigators and giving them baptismal dates and hastening the work here in the JB Chinese area. It's been so AWESOME to see these people that we love so much deciding to make that first covenant of baptism. It's been so AWESOME to see the way that the Lord has been preparing them throughout their lives for this moment. This work is so amazing, and, despite the various darts of the adversary (be they in the forms of depression or frustration or lack of work or hardness of work or whatever-have-you), it will press forward. It will move on. No one can stop it. "The work of God cannot be frustrated" (D&C 3--I'm paraphrasing ;) ). 

Holding fast to the work of God, as we continue to obey His commandments, we are promised an increase in our faith, an increase in our hope, an increase in our love. The Lord is faithful, and He will not leave us helpless. I know that that is true :)

I love you all so very much, and hope that you have an amazing week! 

Keep on keepin' on :)

Sincerely,

Elder Mitchell/Mai Zhanglao

p.s. The pics are of the wonderfully grand time we had at Japanese bbq, as well as that one photo that epicly and honestly defines the relationship of Elder Mitchell and Elder Earl. Cheers :)

Investigators are the BEST!

To start things off right: I got in a crash last night. Super fun. I wasn't paying attention to the road in front of me and smacked into an impressively large pothole. I flipped forward and ending up skidding a couple of feet. The bike was on top of me, my face was kissing the ground, and my arms were on fire. Despite the initial shock and pain, it's nothing more than a bad case of roadrash, though I hope y'all like the pics from it. It totally messed with my tag, and so now it looks like I've been doing missionary work in Jurassic Park. Cheers :)

On to the good stuff: We went to Zone Conference this past week, and I had the chance to do exchanges with the assistants. That meant that I not only got to see the people from West Malaysia and Singapore, but I also got to see the East Malaysian missionaries! I've missed them and Kuching and East Malaysia in general so much! I received glad tidings of great joy from them as well: One of my investigators back in Kuching had been progressing really well, but about halfway through my time there he disappeared and wouldn't answer calls or smses. He randomly called the Chinese missionaries there now, and started meeting with them again. He's getting baptized in a couple of weeks! It's so exciting! I almost started crying when I heard about him--I love that guy so much, and it hurt so much when he disappeared off the radar. But the Lord knows His children so much better than we do, and He herded him back to the right place. I love God so very much, and I know that this is His work.

One more quick story about investigators: We met with a potential investigator this past week who's come to Church multiple times but we haven't made an investigator yet because it's been extremely difficult getting an appointment with her. Anywho, we finally got to meet with her, and she'd been talking to members beforehand. At one of our church functions about three or four weeks ago, the member had said that we don't drink tea or coffee. Our investigator decided to try it--she said that she had to have a cup of coffee every morning or around 10:30 her head would start hurting a lot. She prayed and told God that if the Word of Wisdom is true she needed to keep it.

She hasn't drunk a cup of coffee since.

This IS the Lord's work, and He is able to hasten it. This IS His glory, to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of each and every one of us. I love Him and I know that this is His work.

Sincerely,

Elder Mitchell

Good Morning, West Malaysia!

Hello Friends, Family, and Poisonous Reptiles:

This past week has been a good one. We've had the chance to be in our area for most of this past week...but we also had sick elders for most of that time as well, so that put a little bit of a cramp in our style. Whatevs. In other news, we got to go to a big Chinese wedding this past Saturday and eat to our hearts' desires! It was fun, and I've discovered a new tradition that I'm hoping to bring back to America (I've already got a couple up my sleeves that I won't tell you about yet, since that would spoil the surprise :) )--Anywho, there comes a time during the normal Chinese wedding when the bride, groom, and their immediate family go to each table and everyone raises their glasses for a toast. They then shout a word in Cantonese as loud and long as they possibly can--a sanctioned shouting match. Super great stuff :) Following that they say another word, and then drain their glasses. It's pretty much the greatest. It will be inaugurated at my wedding and will then proceed to every other Mitchell wedding to follow thereafter. So there :)

I've had a chance to read some more from the war chapters this past week. They really are full of so many great and wonderful spiritual insights! They help me to understand that even when we're in the midst of turmoil and trial (like the Nephites in the middle of a cataclysmic war), we can still rely on the peace the Gospel brings. Jesus Christ truly is the Prince of Peace, and He stands with open arms to welcome us, to embrace us, to enable us to return to the presence of our Heavenly Father. It's so wonderful! He's so wonderful! The Gospel we preach is true! :)

I hope that you have a marvelous day and week.

Love ya lots,

Mai Zhanglao :)

Liang Zhi Laohu Pao de Kuai

Hiya Folks!

This past week has included adventures to the beautiful city of Melaka as we went on exchanges with the elders there. It was super kool! I sure do like Melaka, and hope that I'll get to visit it a few more times whilst I'm posted here in JB. In addition to that, we had the mission president come and do interviews with us this past week--it's always such an uplifting and good experience when I have a reporting session with him. I sure do love our mission president, and I have a firm testimony of righteous priesthood men called of God to be our leaders. He sure is one.

This week is going to have a lot of adventures in store as well--we get to go on exchanges with the assistants, as well as with some Bahasa elders in JB, and then there's MLC on top of all that. Suffice it to say, the Chinese elders aren't going to be in their own area for a long amount of time this week, but hopefully this is the only such stacked week that we'll have for a long time. 

In other news, I had the chance to study from Alma 47 this past week. It was so COOL! Essentially, it tells the story of Amalickiah taking over the Lamanite kingdom. There are three 'tragedies' located within the chapter: The tragedy of Lehonti; the tragedy of the king's servants; and the tragedy of the queen. Lehonti and his army of rebels are "fixed in their minds with a determined resolution" to never falter from their principles...and then Amalickiah convinces them to 'come down'. And then they compound the problem by following Amalickiah's counsel, ultimately resulting in Lehonti's assassination and the assimilation of his army into Amalickiah's forces.

Amalickiah brings his triumphant army back to the capitol, and his servants go out to greet the Lamanite king and bring these 'glad tidings'--in other words, stabbing the king to death. Instead of standing to fight for him, the king's servants flee and are pursued by the Lamanite armies. 

The queen hears about all of these goings-on and INVITES Amalickiah into her quarters. He flat-out lies to her and manages to convince her to become the wife of a scumball--and there ya have it, Amalickiah's officially the king of the jungle.

As I mentioned earlier, there are three tragedies in this story, but one of them has a happy ending. The servants of the murdered king manage to make it to the land of the Nephites and live with the peaceful Ammonites--eventually these servants will help the Nephite armies in their eventual war with the Lamanites.

In all three tragedies, people made mistakes--they faltered from things that they knew to be right. Lehonti left the saftefy of the high ground. The servants fled from their duty. The queen invited the bad guy into her living quarters. What can be learned from all of these things?

1. We have to STAND for what we know to be right! We can't come down from our strongholds! We can't go around fleeing from what we know is right--to stand and defend those that we love and care about. We can't go inviting wickedness into our living quarters/lives.

2. We all make mistakes. None of us are perfect. We're all going to mess up every now and then. But instead of being like Lehonti and the queen--who continued to associate with Amalickiah/Satan after they'd been defeated once--we should look to the example of the servants, who fled to the safety of the righteous. We'll all make mistakes, but there is always going to be healing out there, in the outstretched arms of our Captain and King, Jesus Christ.

In essence, we have to build ourselves on that Everlasting Rock, even our Savior and Redeemer (see Helaman 5:12). We have to stand for our standards, we have to defend what we know to be right, we have to be willing to reject wickedness--but if and when we do make mistakes, we have to ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS remember that it's never too late! Although we may have come down from our mountain for a moment, we can't forget that the ultimate victory, in the end of days, isn't going to be with Satan. It will be with our Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ, Both of whom are willing to forgive our sins and empower us to rise above the natural man. Stand for what is right, and when we falter, we must stand back up, relying upon the arms of Him who is mighty to save.

I love you all, and hope you have a fantastic week!

Mai Zhanglao

There is Power, Power, Wonder-Working Power

Well, folks, it has been a couple weeks since the last great and grand update, so here be another one. :) JB is going great--it's certainly the most sketch of my areas, but that's okee-dokee. Today, I wanted to share a quick thought with you from my Personal Study yesterday: I was reading Alma 43, right at the beginning of the war chapters (my favorite part of the Book of Mormon! :) ). As I was reading, I noticed something cool in Alma 43:38. It mentions that every now and then a Nephite soldier would fall due to the "loss of blood". They were shielded and protected, but every once in a while during this great war that was raging they would fall because they'd lost too much blood.

I racked my brains, trying to figure out a good way to apply the scripture to me personally. This chapter has so many great parallels to the spiritual war that we find ourselves in at this time. The thought leapt to my mind of Exodus12:13--"And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt." 

What can kill us spiritually? What can separate us from the presence of God? A loss of blood--but whose blood? This is just the ramblings of a redhead, but it brought me comfort as I thought about it. The precious blood of our Savior and Redeemer, even Jesus Christ, was shed for each and every one of us. It was commemorated by the ancient Israelites as they smeared lamb's blood over the lintels and doorposts of Goshen; it is remembered by modern-day descendants of Abraham as we partake of the Sacrament and renew our covenants with God. The ATONEMENT--the heart and core of the message of the Gospel. When we suffer from a "loss of blood"--in other words, when we are without the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ in our lives, when we literally have a loss of His blood to atone for our unrepented sins--then we become spiritually wounded. Then we face the terrible possibility of separation from our Father and from our Elder Brother.

But the marvelous Plan of Salvation has been laid, from before the foundations of the world, to ensure that if and when we sin, that atoning blood will wash us clean. It is our choice--we must exhibit faith (in other words, an abiding belief and action to back up that belief) and repent of our wrongdoings, and then, in the words of Amulek, "immediately shall the great plan of redemption be brought about unto [us]" (Alma 34:31; emphasis added). 

I invite and encourage each of us to remember to always apply that atoning blood in our lives. Let us not take the Atonement for granted. Let it not only heal us, but let it ENABLE us to become more and more like its Author, even our Captain, and King--Jesus Christ, the Great Jehovah of the Old Testament, the Savior and Redeemer of the New.

I love you all and hope that you have a marvelous week! Keep on keeping on!

Mai Zhanglao

Into the West (Malaysia, That Is)

To all friends, family, poisonous reptiles:

Well, this here be the last dispatch from Kuching. I got the call this morning--I'm off to West Malaysia! Johor Bahru, to be precise :) I'm really excited for it, but I'm sad to say good-bye to all of the people that I love so much here in Kuching. The past six months have FLOWN by! I can't believe how fast it's been! I could stay here for the rest of my mission and not feel bad about it; but the Lord would like me to go elsewhere for now. I'm so excited to see what JB's got in store.
This past week the Lord taught me a really cool lesson that I'd like to share with you:

One Wednesday afternoon, as me and Elder Chong are biking along, I notice that there's something shining on my tire. We pull over, and it's a thumbtack in my tire! Nice, silver, and stuck quite fast. We tried to take it out, but the protesting squeak as air started to rush out of the tire prompted us to just leave it where it was. With the tack still in the tire, we pedaled our way to an appointment about 30 minutes away. The tire held air till there, and for another 30 minutes afterwards before it started to leak again. The tack was what was holding the air in the tire; if we'd taken it out, we would've had a flat tire on our hands.

As I sat later, pondering on that experience, I got the distinct impression that God was trying to teach me something with it. Here's the answer that I feel I was supposed to receive: Although that occurence was a miracle (it really was! :) ), I was meant to learn that good will always be good, and bad will always be bad. One of my favorite scriptures in Moroni 7:13, and its principle was demonstrated with this experience. Although the thumbtack was nice, shiny, and acted as a really pretty bike tire ornament for a while, it was still a THUMBTACK. Its identity never changed. Although God blessed that bike with the miracle of keeping from going flat for a little while, the tack was still the cause of a flat tire. The tack was still something detrimental to the bike.

No matter how appealing sin may look, no matter what "upfront benefits" it promises, no matter how attractive or nice evil's appearance may be--it will always be just that, evil. Wicked. Bad. On the flip side, no matter how dull or dim or unattractive or boring or strange good may be, no matter how old it is, no matter who it's coming from--good will always be just that, good. Happiness. Righteousness. Clarity of conscience. Peace of mind.
I know that we have a Savior--even Jesus Christ, the Son of God--who is the Fountain of all righteousness, the Author of all good things. I know that He lives and that He loves us, and that He is our greatest Ally, our best Friend, our Elder Brother, our Captain, our King.

I love you all, and hope you have a magnificent week! Catch ya later from the wilds of JB! :)

Sincerely,
Mai Zhanglao