Hello, I'm Elder Mitchell: I Tame Crocodiles, I Hike Jungles, and I'm a Mormon

[Please read the title in an Australian accent]

Yoyoyo!!!

Hello to my homeboys and -girls! So this little post is coming in a little later than usual because this morning we had an INTENSE jungle adventure for P-Day! We hiked through Malaysian jungles, saw some pretty kool waterfalls, and then we got to go to a crocodile farm in the middle of nowhere. Turns out, however, that that waterfall is the largest in West Malaysia! Boom! It's been a pretty fun day, although we've spent a good portion of it in a car traversing the length and breadth of the state of Johor :) 

We're currently working on strengthening our progressing investigators; we're also planning on pruning out our portion of the vineyard this upcoming week by putting some of the people we've tried to work with on ice for a while. I truly do love this work, and I love being a missionary! Being able to help people see how important the Gospel is in their lives truly is a great blessing! :) 

This past week we had a HUGE rainstorm that just smashed us. I'd put what I thought were all of my valuable items in my drybag before we had to go bike into the middle of said nightmare...but I'd forgotten to throw in a picture album....Little did I know about that till I reached the chapel. As I was pulling out the contents of my bag, I saw that yep, I'd forgotten to put the photo album in my drybag. Thankfully, the Lord had been kind to me, and preserved my pics for the most part. Other than a couple of pics of my little sister that got ruined (her face is now half-white, half-blue :) ), the pics were relatively untainted. As I've pondered about that, Heavenly Father has reminded me that that's also the fate of our families if we prove faithful. We'll face plenty of trials--God tells us so: "When through the deep waters I ask thee to go, The rivers of sorrow shall not thee o'erflow." (Hymn No. 85) As we hold on faithful to the Gospel, we'll be blessed with our families for forever and ever! I am so grateful for the Plan of Salvation, that ensures that we'll be able to live with our loved ones, no matter what things we're called to pass through in this life. As we continue faithful in our testimony of the Savior, all things will work together for our good.

I'm a naturally stressful person, and I've learned so much on my mission about taking that stress and putting it behind me as I rely on the Savior to work things out. He asks us to be faithful--and sometimes that is REALLY hard. But it is the simplest cure to all things. We have to humble ourselves, our views, our wills, and trust that He knows what He's doing. I love my Savior and I know that He lives. This Gospel is true! As we live its principles, we find out just how GOOD it really is, and how amazing our Heavenly Father and our Saviour Jesus Christ are!

I love y'all! Have an awesome week :)

Sincerely,
麦长老

Nama Berita!

This past week has been a great one! One of the big things that happened was Zone Meeting--we had all of our wonderful missionaries from JB and Melaka come down to the JB chapel. We were taught more about the Restoration, and I felt the Spirit testify multiple times that it really did happen! Joseph Smith did see God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ! The Book of Mormon really is the word of God! It was awesome to feel that power and that truthfulness flood into our souls :)

We've had some awesome experiences this past week, and they've helped to solidify within me the desire to be more loving. When I think about things that have happened in my past, as well as things that have happened in the past of those that I love, I am able to see the absolute importance of being able to LOVE people. Think of all the awful things that happen when people don't have charity for their fellow men--people take their own lives, the lives of others, harming and hurting those people that are hurting just as much as they are. Wars, calamities, schemes, secret combinations, murders---the list could go on and on. Now, stop thinking about that, and look at the flip side. What would happen if we all tried a little harder to be a little better, if we all would strive to show that charity to others? I can only imagine what a world and what happier lives we all would have! I testify that Jesus is the Christ, and that He loves us! I testify that He wants us to love others. I've been able to see what happens when people don't feel that they are loved, and I've been able to see the changes that come to people who are able to feel loved. I have seen the difference; I've FELT the difference myself! I know that it is true! I love this Gospel, because it teaches us how to love God and how to love others! It teaches us that we need to repent! It teaches us that we need to forgive! It gives us a moral code that helps to shape and guide our lives.

I love you all, and I'm so excited to be able to bring this message of hope and happiness to a world in desperate need of it!

Have a wonderful day!

--Elder Mitchell

Bonjour!

Happy Hokkien Chinese New Year (as of 27 February)! :) Hopefully you all celebrated it to the best of your ability ;) Well, for starters, we went to Singapore for Zone Conference and got to go do some sight-seeing for P-Day. We were originally planning on having an epic badminton tournament, but plans changed, and we ended up seeing a kool exhibit on Leonardo daVinci's works. It was pretty intense.

In other news, we got to watch "Meet the Mormons"! It was awesome, and I highly recommend it! :) Elder Baer and I got to stay in Singapore a little longer for MLC, so we went to an Asian Cultural Museum and saw a bunch of really neat-looking Melayu swords. One of my dreams is to become a swordsmith, but I feel like that realistically is a little far-off. Whatevs. I'll still dream :) 

We also got to stop by a bookshop of another Christian faith this past week. They had ram's horn trumpets there, like from the Bible! Purportedly the horns were straight from Israel, but I have my doubts. While I was there, I found a Chinese version of the Punchinello book by Max Lucado (You Are Special, or something like that--I think it was actually a sequel). Anywho, that's a shout-out to my dad, who read that book to me all the time when I was a wee lad! :)

This past week I've had the chance to really ponder on my personal relationship with Christ. I know that I've probably talked about this subject a LOT, but that's because it's important. This week I was sitting in my study room, thinking about some of the mistakes and goofs I'd made throughout the day--the times when I'd let pride get the better of me, the times when I hadn't been as valiant in the Gospel as I need to be. As I was doing so, I happened to glance at the picture of Christ on my desk, and I could feel His love. He IS our hope! He is our Light! He can bring rest and peace to our souls. Sometimes I'm really eager to tell other people that Christ can forgive them, but I forget that He can also forgive me too. Sometimes I mentally withhold the blessings of the Atonement from myself or others because they're not normal, or they're not good enough--but the blessings of Christ's love and grace are freely given to those who are willing to lay hold on them! I love that about this Gospel!

This past week we had an investigator lay hold on some of those blessings. His name is Brother Tan, and he's such an awesome guy! I love him so much and he's made the decision to be baptized! Hurrah, hurrah, hurrah for Israel! :)

I love you all, and even more importantly: God loves you! Sometimes I think we all take that phrase for granted. God LOVES us! GOD loves US! He loves us so much, He sent His Only Begotten Son, not to condemn the world, but save it. To bring us back to Him. To anchor us safely in the encircling arms of His love. Don't forget it! :)

爱你们! 再见!

--麦长老

Lulang Ho Bo?

So my Hokkien pinyin could probably do with some work, but its essential meaning is: Nimen hao ma? Or, in the language of my hood: What be goin' on, my homeslicedawgs? :) So this past week has seen Elder Mitchell wielding some pretty intense Chinese swords, helping his recent converts prep little cookie-things (the term "cookie" is use very loosely here) for Chinese New Year, and attending a farewell party for the departing senior couple. He'll miss them a lot, but they're going to keep in tough, right? :) At the party there was a jar of spread that has the consistency of Nutella, but it's cookie dough flavored. In actuality, it tastes like Animal Crackers, but no one here knows what those are. Oh well ;)

Chinese New Year is coming up, and we're pretty excited for it! The work might be getting a little slower, but we're looking forward to lots of free food. :) And fireworks. The night of 18-19 February is going to be epic :) Last year I was in Miri for Chinese New Year (it feels like forever-and-a-day ago), and the fireworks there were AWESOME! I can only imagine what JB's going to do :)

This past week I've been striving to increase my faith in my Savior. I've come to learn this past week that faith really is such a driving force in missionary work, and I haven't taken advantage of it as much as I should have throughout a good portion of my mission. When we have faith in Christ, we FIRST believe that He is there, that He hears our cries and our pleas, and that He can help us. We then ACT on what we believe. We go out and show Him that we love Him! His grace is a free gift, but it's just like the free samples that you get in candy shops. You get a sample--that's all. If you pay the price of discipleship, you are enabled to receive ALL the blessings of His amazing grace. You're able to be sealed to Him through covenants, you're able to follow His example more fully, you're able to appreciate Him even more than you would before--because you've paid the price! You've tried to walk that path of discipleship! You know how hard it is---and you know that, every time you fall or falter or fail on that path, He kneels down beside you, takes your hand, and says, "Let Me take care of it. Let Me take care of YOU."

I testify that these things are true, because I've been able to feel that power and that strength in my life this past week. I don't have perfect knowledge yet, because I'm still a very mortal, mistake-ridden person. But I have felt the Spirit, and I hope to continue feeling Him, as He testifies to me that these things are true. I love you all, and hope you have a great Chinese New Year!

Gongxi Facai! Wo ai nimen! :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

God Loves You! :)

To All Whom It May Concern:

How's it going?! How's life in your neck of the woods? Over here in JB we're pretty much living the dream, a real party-and-a-half :) Today I don't have too much time, nor do I want to take up too much of yours. I know that this Church is true, and that Joseph Smith really did see what he said he saw.

This past week we had the opportunity of meeting with Brother Tan. He's such an amazing guy! He's 76 years old, and is on date to be baptized on 28 February! I'm so excited for him! As we've been working with and teaching him, I've been able to feel the Spirit so strongly! The Lord has helped build my testimony as we've worked with him and helped him learn how to increase his faith in his Savior. There have been times where I've mentally questioned whether or not we should continue meeting with him...he is a pretty old guy, and everything. But then the Spirit reminds me that the Lord loves and is aware of ALL of us, because we are ALL His children! He loves Brother Tan just as much as He loves me, and He wants him to come back home to Him just as much as He wants me to. I know that we are all children of God. I know that He has established temples and restored His priesthood on the earth today to seal us to our earthly families, and to seal us to Him! He doesn't want to let us go! I love this Gospel and everything about it so much!

May God bless each of you! The Church is true! :)

I love y'all lots!

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

The 2nd Great Commandment

Hiya Errbody!

This past week has been a good one. We went to Singapore for MLC, and it was once again a spiritually uplifting experience. Being able to see old friends is awesome, and being able to be spiritually fed by President Mains is always awesome.

This morning I was reading through the Bible and studying more about humility and pride. I happened to come across Romans 12-14--these chapters are AMAZING! It's pretty much Paul's guidebook for how to keep the 2nd Great Commandment: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." I am far from perfect at this commandment, and so I got to learn lots about it this morning. Truly reaching outward, forgetting yourself and your vain pride and your anger and hurt, and just helping other people, even and especially those that it's hard to love. I've never been super awesome at this, so I'm excited for the chance that God has given me to repent about it. 

I know that Christ is there to help us. These past few weeks I've focused on keeping my eye single to His glory during the day-to-day trials and labors of missionary work, and I've been so much HAPPIER and EXCITED to do His work! As we are led and guided by the Spirit, things are always so much better. Our good times shine out, our bad times are illuminated--we're never alone in the service of our God!

For now I'll go ahead and close. Like I said, this past week's been great. There was a pretty big rainstorm that we got caught in...but at the very end there was a rainbow! Take a look at it! Very symbolic if you ask me--there will always be that light, that presence, that constant reminder that, no matter what and no matter where, God is there :) We also got to eat some sushi this past week...it was very....interesting. And expensive. Oh well. Here's to the experience! :)

I love y'all so very much! Have a great and grand week! :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao

Irons and Feasts--CHRISTMAS 2014

Well, it's come and gone, but Christmas 2014 was the best!!!!!!!! On Christmas Eve we had two baptisms that went super well. Louisa and Erin--they've both been learning for over a year, but they've finally made the decision to make covenants with their Father in Heaven. The services went super awesome. It was great to be able to see how happy they were, how nervous they were, and how much they've changed in the time that I've known them! :) 

We had SO MUCH FOOD on Christmas Day. First round=All of the American Christmas candy that packages from home brought. Second round=Feast at the Schollenbergers. Totes delicious :) Third round=Christmas Party at Brian Che's, where the elders were requested to sing. We'd sung "Silent Night" the night before at the baptism, first two verses Chinese, third verse English, and at the Christmas Party at Brian Che's we performed it again. I'm so grateful for the chance that we have at Christmas to be with awesome friends and family! Christmas is the best :)

A couple weeks ago, as I was ironing a shirt/pondering Christmas, I got a nice little realization. So the iron I was using is one of those kinds that has a little area for water. If you fill it up with water, the iron works 100 times better. The steam helps speed up the ironing process and makes the shirt look so much nicer and cleaner and less wrinkled. It also helps to magnify the heat. Without the water, the ironing job isn't much good at all.

The same is true in life. We all know that we're going to have trials and hard times--the almost unbearable heat of Life's Iron. But when we add the Water of Life--even Jesus Christ--our trials take on a very different nature. They still exist, to be sure, but they're different. They're not there just to make us miserable or destroy us--they're there to refine us and iron us out. With that Water present, the heat seems to be magnified, but the resulting steam enables us to smoothed out. It enables those trials to flow by quicker. It allows us to see that there is actually a reason for Life's Iron. It's not just something to heat things up--it's something that's meant to make us better.

Thanks to Christ, we have purpose in life and we find purpose in trials. Do I like trials? Not one bit. But do I know why I have them? Or rather, do I know why I need to have them? Yes. I know that they're there to help me be better. Thanks to Christ, they're not permanent. They're not fatal. They're refiner's fires, the irons of life that mend and make us. Thanks to Christmas, we have Christ, and thanks to Christ, we have everything else :)

I love you all so much and hope that you had a magnificently great and grand Christmas! Keep on keeping on! Happy New Year! :)

Sincerely,

Mai Zhanglao