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His mission letters sent during his Year 1 on a mission can be read at another post from the top or bottom.
17 July 2017
Transfer 9 Week 4
Hi everyone!
We started the week with interviews with President and Sister Stevens. It was great to see them again just 3 days after zone conference. We were told to read a talk from Oct 2016 General Conference titled "Am I Good Enough? Will I Make it?" by Elder J. Devin Cornish. That's a question I ask myself a lot on a mission. There's a lot of responsibilities to fulfil and expectations to meet. Sometimes things are going really well and it feels great, but sometimes it feels like everything is going against what I try to do. It's in those challenging times when I really grow. It's no fun, but when I look back, I'm glad I went through it.
Being the fourth week in Luton, I'm starting to get used to getting around without needing to think so much of where I'm going. As such, I begin to notice more random things around me:
It says "LUXURY STUDENT LIVING". Elder Egger and I didn't think it looked very luxurious heheh.
I was with Elder Stern for a day. It was really fun. He's from Canada! Till now I cannot differentiate the Canadian accent from Americans. Someone on the street managed to get it though!
Here's another random thing we found:
We found a really cool track in Luton this week when moving around this week:
25 July 2017
Transfer 9 Week 5
Dear all,
The week was rather interesting. We received an additional companion Elder Gato! He's half Japanese, half Italian, but comes from Brazil. He's called to the mission as a Portuguese speaking missionary but had to learn English. Along the way he has learned Spanish as well! It has been a blessing to have him here because we have quite a number of Portuguese and Spanish speaking people that we're teaching here. Here's one of them:
We've been having a lot of fun especially during meal times..,
After eating, they did salsa dancing as an activity...
We missionaries didn't dance haha. I'm sure it probably says somewhere in white handbook that we can't ;)
After the BBQ, they gave us almost all the leftovers! I bet we had to most packed missionary fridge in the whole mission!
The weather right now is kind of weird:
12 Sep 2017
It went pretty well for a start, but we're thinking we should change it to another day as Monday is for family home evening.
The highlight of my week was being able to go to London for a day to attend a meeting!
I felt right at home along Exhibition Road and at the Hyde Park Chapel.
During lunch break, I got to meet some special people!
It is always a joy to reunite with friends I've taught, and to see that they're doing well!
I also got to reunite with a majority of those from my MTC district!
They were amazing at the MTC, and are even more so now!
Here's the rest of the missionaries!
That's my sling bag in the picture. Oops!
I've learned a lot from the meeting. It helped me to understand why we do certain things in the mission and how I can better use those things to help other missionaries.
The theme for me this week is service. I've learned a lot better how I can serve other missionaries. It's such a strange thing, the more I serve others, the happier I become.
Here's a little update from the kitchen:
We made rice porridge with pork meatballs! It was nice to have it for dinner during the cold rainy nights. That pot fed us quite a lot! Our purpose for making it though, was to share some with an adult member who had his tonsils taken out. It was difficult for him to eat anything after the surgery and was becoming malnourished, so I decided to share what helped me when I had all 4 wisdom teeth taken out at one go. He liked it so much he asked for the recipe! It's great that he liked it, because I don't have a recipe haha!
Every Sunday after church, we go out with our ward mission leader visiting the sick and afflicted. We've had many spiritual experiences doing so, and have seen many lives being uplifted. I never knew just how much a visit can mean to someone. Here's one of the members we visited:
Many of my past companions are not around any more. It felt strange not seeing them around. I guess that's normal having served for slightly over a year now.
There were many spiritual experiences this past week apart from the visit from Elder Holland. The ones I enjoy most are those in the lessons with people we taught. One of my favourite moments are those when we find answers to questions from the Book of Mormon. It is so powerful.
For our last district lunch, we had fish and chips!
At first I was the only one who wanted it (I have been craving it for a long time), but somehow they all changed their minds and got it too. It was good!
In every transfer with each companion, there would always be something that someone says that would be stuck in our heads for a loooong time. For this transfer, it is "3 for 2 pounds strawberries!" In town centre where we talk to many people, there is a fruit stand and the fruit seller constantly repeats this phrase in a very unique way. His repetition eventually got to us and we decided to buy some!
I was so rusty I couldn't even get above 100. I'd say I did pretty well without my glasses though!
During moves on Wednesday, I met some special guests!!!
One of my previous companions and his brother were visiting from Germany! It really made my day meeting them!
I had to go to Hyde Park Chapel to wait for the new missionaries to arrive. This was one of the largest groups ever! I think it was 32 new missionaries coming in. That's the largest President and Sister Stevens have ever received. It was so huge that the Preston MTC (missionary training centre) could not accommodate all of them, so the 17 were trained at Provo MTC and 15 were trained at Preston MTC.
At our meeting at Hyde Park Chapel, there came a point where all of us trainers stood in front of the new missionaries and President Stevens would announce who would be paired with who. It felt so strange standing in front and being picked out. Slowly the group of us became smaller and smaller... and I couldn't believe that fact that I was the last one standing!!! That's when I really hoped the phrase 'saving the best for last' applied!
My new companion is Elder Miller from Salt Lake City, Utah! That's so cool!
We headed off to our new area right away!
The 2 of us somehow moved 6 suitcases from London to Canterbury during peak hour. At the end, I told Elder Miller "Never again!... if I could avoid it." We both noticed the stark difference of the people at London as we were travelling compared to those when we arrived at Canterbury. In short, the people at Canterbury are really nice and helpful! The moment we got off the train station, about 5 people told us where the lift was so we didn't have to climb the stairs.
Canterbury is pretty interesting. I was told Canterbury to the Church of England is like Salt Lake City to the LDS Church. I don't really know my way around much but will figure it out soon!
I'm out of time but here are many firsts of Elder Miller on the mission field!
First District Meeting:
First dinner appointment with our Ward Mission Leader:
Things aren't always as they seem on the map!
We are also trying very hard to work with the members here. We tried stopping by some of them. One of them has a very unique interest...
Don't worry, it's an airsoft gun. i.e. it shoots little plastic bullets. However, one wouldn't want to be shot in close range by the sniper rifle I was holding. The member actually goes on skirmishes with a team!
Elder Miller also looked through the scope and made a remark "if only we had scopes that helped pick out people who are prepared to receive the gospel." I'm sure every missionary felt that way at some point or another! :)
Here's our district picture for the week:
As far as stuff from the kitchen, this is the best thing we had last week:
Fried rice! I haven't had a companion who hasn't liked it... yet. Haha we'll see! I could mess up one day.
We also had dinner as a ward mission team before correlation:
Everyone's happier in a meeting after having a meal. That's a fact. It's very different from ward councils held right after church!
Ok, last of the food pictures:
We met up with some other missionaries too!
There's one street that is much like Diagon Alley from Harry Potter. I'll try and take a picture next time!
On Tuesday we had exchanges with the zone leaders at Ashford.
It was a good day of talking to people on the streets. The people seemed to have good moods that day, probably because it was sunny!
At the end of the day, we had dinner with their ward mission leader, a recent convert and the sister missionaries in the ward. Talk about a missionary party!
At the end of exchanges. We always go through an evaluation. It's really helpful to stop and think what areas we can improve on. There's always something to work on!
On Thursday we had zone conference!
It was at Hyde Park Chapel and took a long time to get there! We had to pack breakfast just to be safe:
It was a strange combination of hard boiled eggs, plain bread and fruits!
Here's a picture at zone conference itself:
I loved the training that was given. They always seem to be exactly what we need!
We've been trying hard to work with members in our area. So far it's been going well!
There's always a special spirit in members' homes. The most ideal for us missionaries is teaching in the homes of members. It's not easy to coordinate but it's always well worth it!
Sometimes it's not easy to get to their homes too...
There's now a small park behind those walls.
We took a train down south to see the White Cliffs of Dover!
It was pretty dangerous because of the strong wind. At one point there was a really strong gust of wind that cause a few of us to nearly fall down. Good thing we weren't standing by the cliffs at that time!
It was really refreshing to see the sea after such a long time. We were pretty much at the south most part of the mission boundaries and could even see France!
One of the highlights of the week was the 3 week meeting at London for the new missionaries. I told Elder Miller it would be the last time his group would all get together unless an apostle comes visiting again.
It's a massive group!
The other highlight of the week was a special broadcast throughout Europe where Elder M. Russell Ballard and members of the Area Presidency spoke to us. It was so good! One of the key things shared that I remember was gaining a firm testimony through studying the Book of Mormon, making the Sabbath Day a delight and how miracles have not ceased.
Elder Ballard shared his experience when he was assigned to bring relief to Ethiopia in 1984. During that time many people were dying because of a great famine there. The church had gathered donations and Elder Ballard was sent with someone else for all the official stuff. Elder Ballard saw that they had brought physical relief through the donations but wished in his heart that the gospel could be brought to the people of the country. He found out that there was a member in the country and somehow managed to find him. The 3 of them had sacrament together the next Sunday in that member's home. They had a short testimony meeting during which Elder Ballard felt prompted to pronounce a blessing upon the land. He did so. That night, he prayed at 1am, pleading to God to bring forth rain. At 3am, there were thunderclaps heard. During the rest of the time he was there, it rained every day! He reminded us that miracles have not ceased today! He told us "Miracles come when we are on our knees and pray to know the mind and do the will of God."
There was one thing that Elder Ballard mentioned many times throughout his talk, was to find quiet time to sit down and reflect on our lives, reassess if our priorities are right and if the things that are dominating our energy lead us to salvation. Life today is so fast paced and busy, setting aside time to do that is so crucial! I hope everyone can make the time to do that.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
That's the stuff they had inside. We also went atop which had a really nice view fo the Cathedral and town!
So there used to be jail cells in the tower...
As mentioned, someone jumped off and landed in a hay cart which helped him survive. I think that idea was used in a computer game called "Assassin's Creed"
If you noticed, we were wearing short sleeves that day. It was abnormally warm! We were told it was due to pollution from a storm that hit a nearby country, and fires in another country, and somehow the wind brought it all here. We had red sun in the evening:
The rest of the days were all pretty different. The worst was on Saturday where it was super windy and rain on and off throughout the day. We did catch a rainbow though:
There were many miracles with talking to people on the streets the past week. One of them even came to church! We've also been working with less actives and we're beginning to see some fruit from our labours. A member came back for the first time in over 20 years! She may not have noticed it, but I certainly saw a small change in her countenance at the end of church. We're really hoping to see things move forward this next transfer! Unfortunately, Elder Miller will be moving out and I'll be receiving a new companion. 5 Weeks is a really short time but I've really enjoyed it!
I'm out of time right now, but have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
P.S. We were walking home one night and there were fire works!
His mission letters sent during his Year 1 on a mission can be read at another post from the top or bottom.
17 July 2017
Transfer 9 Week 4
Hi everyone!
We started the week with interviews with President and Sister Stevens. It was great to see them again just 3 days after zone conference. We were told to read a talk from Oct 2016 General Conference titled "Am I Good Enough? Will I Make it?" by Elder J. Devin Cornish. That's a question I ask myself a lot on a mission. There's a lot of responsibilities to fulfil and expectations to meet. Sometimes things are going really well and it feels great, but sometimes it feels like everything is going against what I try to do. It's in those challenging times when I really grow. It's no fun, but when I look back, I'm glad I went through it.
Being the fourth week in Luton, I'm starting to get used to getting around without needing to think so much of where I'm going. As such, I begin to notice more random things around me:
There's almost every kind of name you can think of for streets in England!
We had exchanges again this week! We took a bus down to Dunstable. The bus took a special bus way just for buses
I just thought it was cool.
I was with Elder Stern for a day. It was really fun. He's from Canada! Till now I cannot differentiate the Canadian accent from Americans. Someone on the street managed to get it though!
Speed limit of 5 miles per hour!
We met up with the others for lunch at KFC.
Where Elder Egger lives in Austria, the closest KFC is 6 hours!
We had a dinner appointment in the evening and the member brought us to a carvery. I've never been to one, but it was delicious, and affordable too!
After dinner we went for free flow ice cream! :)
Hopefully I won't have to patronise this store at Dunstable...
The tall trees and green tracks reminded me of route marches back in the military. Can't say I miss that haha. I feel like I'm walking just as much if not even more! This time however, with purpose :P
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
25 July 2017
Transfer 9 Week 5
Dear all,
The week was rather interesting. We received an additional companion Elder Gato! He's half Japanese, half Italian, but comes from Brazil. He's called to the mission as a Portuguese speaking missionary but had to learn English. Along the way he has learned Spanish as well! It has been a blessing to have him here because we have quite a number of Portuguese and Spanish speaking people that we're teaching here. Here's one of them:
He cooked Brazilian food for us!
There have quite a number of members passing away in the ward recently. We helped out with a funeral on Wednesday. The member who passed away was 96! During the funeral I had the chance to interact with many of the older members who knew her. It was nice to see so many old stalwart members. They had endless amounts of lovely stories to tell. I really love funerals at church that are like that, a celebration of the life of the person.
On Sunday, President and Sister Otterson from the London Temple stopped by our ward to speak as they had a meeting further up north. President Otterson said it would be nicer if we actually had more funerals at church. Not because we want more people passing away, but because it would mean fewer members becoming inactive before the point of their death. It would mean there are more people enduring to the end!
He also shared a few things about the gospel. He related it to how he loved to exercise and was doing a lot of aerobic exercises but not strength exercises. So he decided to start by doing push ups. He could barely do 1 push up and that was it! Rather embarrassed about it, he pushed himself to improve by doing increasing amounts of half push ups (on the knees) every day. It got to a point where he wanted to improve faster and he did more than he should which strained his back muscle and caused pain.
He related this experience to our spiritual muscles. If we do not exercise our spiritual muscles, they will lose its strength. When we want to exercise the spiritual muscles, it must also be done gradually. We cannot rush it, it comes line upon line, precept upon precept (2 Nephi 28:30) He went on to speak about "Jacob's ladder" in Genesis 28 in which Jacob in a vision, sees a ladder from earth reaching heaven, with angels ascending and descending on it. He said that each step in that ladder represents the covenants that we make. Each covenant we make lifts us higher towards not just salvation, but exaltation. Step by step we make it back!
We had a ward BBQ during the week, and guess what? It rained! But here's the solution...
And of course we ate indoors:
After eating, they did salsa dancing as an activity...
After the BBQ, they gave us almost all the leftovers! I bet we had to most packed missionary fridge in the whole mission!
Other than the rain from time to time, it's usually sunny but with cold wind. So, we feel cool, but get a little sunburned on the face!
With the rain and sun though, the plants are really flourishing... and thus the talents of those with green thumbs begin to shine. We visited one of the members and they were really incredible at gardening!
That's a massive cucumber!
It's a lot of work to have such a nice garden! It really takes a lot of effort and attention. I think success in life is just the same. There's no short cut. It's just the same for spiritual things as President Otterson taught. However, I believe there are still tricks and life hacks that make it a little easier. For example, this is how the member avoids having to water too many plants:
The bottles hanging above the plants have holes that allow the water to drip constantly! It's cheap and brilliant!
Have a great week ahead!
Love,
Elder Chong
2 Aug 2017
Transfer 9 Week 6
Dear All,
Another transfer has gone by so quickly. They say time flies when you're really busy. Luton has proven to be such. The next transfer will be a 7 week transfer! We'll see how fast this one goes since it's actually longer haha.
So I've figured out that something to do in Luton, but it's in the chapel! We have a pool table and foosball table here! We played it last P-day!
Elder Egger was so good at foosball! We defeated the other Elders from Dunstable! :)
We have seen quite a few miracles this week! Here's one:
He walked into church on his own, seeking to be baptised by someone holding the proper priesthood authority! He already committed on his own to keep the Sabbath Day before we taught it!
Here's another friend of ours! He somehow got hold of one of the pass-along cards, went online and wanted to learn more! So he got our contact online and called us! The Lord is truly preparing people to receive the gospel!
Here's one last miracle:
It's the biggest rainbow I've ever seen! It's blur because it was taken from the car, while we were on exchanges in St. Albans!
I was with Elder O'Hare and we talked to many people on the streets. It was tiring but fun. At the end of the day we had dinner with a family from Italy:
I had the opportunity to cook for a family in the ward and their friends this week:
It just so happen that most of the families we visited this week had animals:
Although the cat was pretty nice. I'm still a dog person :)
Here's another animal we saw in the library in town:
8 Aug 2017
Transfer 10 Week 1
Hi everyone!
It has been a really packed week. We've been so busy but it feels really fulfilling.
On P-day we played Monopoly!
It was a special Zelda version which is pretty cool, but it doesn't change how intense the game gets haha. Elder Egger won in the end!
I'm still in a Trio and my new companion is Elder Birch from Florida! I wanted him to have a fantastic first day in the area but all of our appointments on that day got cancelled. To make it worse, we got caught in heavy rain unprepared!
There was a point where we just looked at each other and laughed at how ridiculous the day was!
Though it was a sad and wet start, the rest of the week was amazing!
There were many teaching and service opportunities throughout the week, it felt great! There comes a point when the people we teach aren't just people learning about the restored gospel, but also friends. There are many people prepared to receive the gospel, but many of them don't know it. It is such a wonderful feeling when they realise it though!
Speaking of friends, here's a highlight of my week!
Some friends I taught in London came to visit me! It is the first time I met them after baptism. There is really a difference! I was so happy to see them again!
One of the tasks we had for service was to clear this pile of rocks and concrete in a back garden. I have no idea how it got there.
But we moved stone by stone into a skip at the front of the house. Some rocks were so huge we had to break it down using a sledge hammer and pick axe!
It was tiring but we completed it eventually!
Transfer 9 Week 6
Dear All,
Another transfer has gone by so quickly. They say time flies when you're really busy. Luton has proven to be such. The next transfer will be a 7 week transfer! We'll see how fast this one goes since it's actually longer haha.
So I've figured out that something to do in Luton, but it's in the chapel! We have a pool table and foosball table here! We played it last P-day!
We have seen quite a few miracles this week! Here's one:
Here's one last miracle:
We had Lasagna! :D
I had the opportunity to cook for a family in the ward and their friends this week:
I'm glad to say it was all finished!
Here's another animal we saw in the library in town:
The school summer holidays are happening now so there are many events going on. I wish I could have gone into that inflatable whale like the kids!
One key thing I've learned this week is that faith is a choice when adversity comes. The families I've been with faced many challenges but they endured whatever came at them with faith! Not just faith in anything, but faith in Jesus Christ:
"12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall." Helaman 5:12
I know that when we build our faith in Jesus Christ, we will not fall!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Transfer 10 Week 1
Hi everyone!
It has been a really packed week. We've been so busy but it feels really fulfilling.
On P-day we played Monopoly!
I'm still in a Trio and my new companion is Elder Birch from Florida! I wanted him to have a fantastic first day in the area but all of our appointments on that day got cancelled. To make it worse, we got caught in heavy rain unprepared!
Though it was a sad and wet start, the rest of the week was amazing!
Speaking of friends, here's a highlight of my week!
One of the tasks we had for service was to clear this pile of rocks and concrete in a back garden. I have no idea how it got there.
There's a lot of pressure to come up with good district photos right now. Here's one I like!
Don't have a lot of time to type more this week but will try better next week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Love,
Elder Chong
15 Aug 2017
Transer 10 Week 2
Hi Everyone!
For most of my mission, week 2 of the transfers always seemed pretty jinxed. It would always be that difficult week for different reasons. It could be overwhelming rejection, unpleasant disagreements with companions, falling through of almost all appointments etc.
For this past week it was to do with planning and managing time. I wouldn't say I'm terrible at planning my time, but this week was really putting it to the test. Something I have always tried to work on is reacting quickly and positively to unforeseen circumstances that turn my plans upside down. In other words, not crying over spilt milk. Since it's not something I can choose to improve on at any time, I guess I'm grateful for the challenge that came this week that allowed me to grow a little.
So this is what happened: we were supposed to have exchanges with the zone leaders in St. Albans on Wednesday, and then Zone Conference on Friday at St. Albans as well. The week was planned out pretty will and all set, but on Tuesday, a member called up asking for help with moving homes. It was actually an emergency so we requested to move the exchange to Thursday instead. Thankfully it worked out! We were also able to move all of our appointments.
It was one of the most intense service I've ever done. We had to rush with the moving to save money on the rented movers truck. It was a family of 4 children, which meant a ton of stuff too! It reminded me of the time I moved from Malaysia to Singapore, from a big place to a tiny place. What made it difficult was that they were keeping almost everything! Somehow we managed to fit everything in. No photos of this because there simply wasn't time. We didn't even have time to eat lunch which made it really difficult as well. It reached a point where I simply could not lift certain things. It was strange feeling that much fatigue. The last time I felt that was in the army. After the service we rushed back, got changed and went for our appointments.
On Thursday, morning on the way to St. Albans, I thought all was well until I remembered a member was going to bring lunch to the chapel for us. >.< She didn't have a hand phone and to cut a long story short, I had to make many calls just to figure it all out. Finally I was able to begin exchanges with a peace of mind!
It was a perfectly sunny day on Thursday. I was so glad we weren't doing it on Wednesday because it rained ALL day. And as with a typical exchange there's plenty of finding, so I was spared :)
Something interesting that happened while I was finding with Elder Leone. We were having a conversation with a person, and a member walked by and helped us by bearing his testimony! We also learned that he was going shopping and needed help! He told us that he had been praying for help with shopping as he dreaded carrying the groceries up the hill which he lived on. I was glad to help him because he was so old. Many times while walking he would wobble and almost fall...
This is a picture with him!
We had the stake president from Northampton Stake share some ideas on how we can work better with members. Statistics have proven the missionary work is increases dramatically when members are involved. I think everyone knows that but it's just getting down to making it work! There were many powerful testimonies shared during the meeting. Perhaps too powerful... because the meeting was ending much later than I expected and we had an appointment! Thankfully we were able to change it to an online lesson which we started right after the meeting ended. Thank goodness for technology!
The same person we had the lesson online with was to have a lesson and an interview at the chapel on Saturday afternoon. I thought all was well until we realised that we did not have the chapel key. We had lent it to one of the members of the ward who was all the way at Chorley for the British Pageant. The solution was to ask another member to help open the chapel, but many of them were at the Pageant as well! Thankfully after many more phone calls a member helped us to unlock the chapel.
The final "hiccup" on Sunday was pretty cool. A former investigator called us, saying that he had went to the Chapel at Luton before but has since moved to somewhere near Manchester. Somehow he has gained a testimony of the restored church and wants to be baptised, and also have his cousin who he's living with be taught and baptised. In addition, he wanted his cousin in New York to be taught and baptised! The only problem? He didn't speak very good English and I'm terrible at understanding people on the phone. It may be small but I still feel that it was a miracle because all of a sudden I could understand him clearly on the phone and his situation. Eventually everything was settled!
What a week it has been! I think I'm actually improving as I never lost my patience at all during these hectic times. It would have been a completely different story if all this happened one year ago. I'm just glad I was able to do my best to help whoever needed help. I hope this week would be a little smoother! I don't want white hair so soon! :P
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
22 Aug 2017
Transfer 10 Week 3
Hi Everyone!
Many things have happened this week!
On Monday evening, we had a lesson with our Portuguese investigators. At the end of the lesson when we were about to go, they suddenly brought out food!
I noticed that Portuguese love to share food. It's actually part of their culture. My ward mission leader is also Portuguese and after he explained the history of Portugal it made a lot of sense. The oppression they they faced under a dictator in a way made them learn to take care of each other. They actually had a peaceful revolution in April 25 1974!
On Tuesday, we had to drop one of our investigators. He simply did not want to change his ways. It was a very pleasant last lesson where we agreed to disagree. I wish there were more of these than those of people ignoring us. Something I've learned from this person is the danger of replacing repentance with rationalising. He picked the commandments he liked and came up with excuses to not keep the others. I guess he's not quite prepared to change yet. We told him the church is always there, and that he has our phone number so he can always come back whenever he wants to make a change in his life. After we said goodbye, we watched him walk away... and lit a cigarette... :(
On Wednesday we had exchanges! I spent a whole day with Elder Yamada from Japan!
It was so fun to serve with him. He is full of faith and is always excited and positive about everything!
He got along with one of our investigators who's is actually pretty similar in nature!
You can see a little bit of our drawings to explain the different groups of people that were led to America that are mentioned in the Book of Mormon. It's really so exciting to teach people who actually take the time to read!
At the end of the day, we were blessed with Costco Pizza!
The member who got it for us was truly inspired. She normally buys us 1 pizza which is more than enough. Somehow she decided to buy 2 when there were more missionaries because of exchanges! We didn't tell her there were more missionaries!
The day after our exchanges was interviews with President and Sister Stevens!
After looking at the photo, one of the missionaries commented that we're a super district instead of a zone. I found that to be rather true because we're quite few in number. However, we heard that there will be 32 missionaries coming in next transfer! Counting out the leaders in the mission, it probably means almost everyone will be training or follow-up training next transfer!
Here are some of the pictures I took on the train while on the way to interviews at St. Albans:
You know summer is ending when they start gathering in the hay into bales. I'm not looking forward to winter at all!!!
We had a miracle lesson after interviews as one of our investigators who dropped us last week decided to come back. To make it even better, his boss has allowed him to change his shifts so he could come to church for the first time this week!
On Friday, we had a lesson with another one of our investigators. After listening to his life story, it is difficult to not believe that God has led him to the church. He has been coming to church since February. He is waiting for the right time to be baptised... we're working on it!
After the lesson, we had to go to from the chapel to a member's home to do some service. There's another miracle there. As we were waiting at the bus stop, it began to drizzle. As soon as started to rain, a member stopped in front of us and told us to get in. We were saved by that ride! We were completely unprepared for the rain. It was totally sunny that day, and because of that:
My most spiritual experience in the week was on Sunday once again. This is actually related to last week when we learned of a member of the ward who had a strong testimony of the gospel and lived all of the commandments which she knew except one, which was coming to church. What has prevented her is the severe social anxiety she has and it's the worst I've ever seen. We were given permission by bishop to administer the sacrament. She had not partook of it for almost 2 years and broke down in tears when we offered it. We did so, shared a spiritual thought and gave her a blessing. This week, when we went to visit her again, she was completely different. No longer depressed, but bright and full of hope. It was as if there was a glow in her countenance.
This experience reminded me of one of the people I taught a while back. During that time, I saw a gradual change in her which was amazing. This time, I saw an almost immediate change. Partaking of the sacrament renews the covenants that we made at baptism. It is as if we're being baptised again. This experience made it very obvious for me.
Ok, the final news is that our trio is now disbanded. Elder Gato has been reassigned to the Joao Pessoa, Brazil mission. This is what happened on his last day in the England London Mission:
29 Aug 2017
Transfer 10 Week 4
Dear All,
It has been a wonderful week! I cooked a lot more than usual, and taught Elder Birch along the way. I thought of it as an investment so that maybe one day he could cook for me! :)
The first thing I taught was pasta! We made a large batch which lasted us a few days.
We also made chicken curry from home:
It wasn't kept very long :P
We had a tiny district meeting this week, as the zone leaders were not able to join us. It was fun though!
We figured out how to take a picture from above!
We began exchanges right after district meeting. I was with Elder Stern for a day. He's from Alberta Canada. He actually knows the other missionaries from Canada that are serving in the same mission! In fact, they all competed against each other in basketball! One of them is my previous companion from my 5th transfer Elder Bourne!
We had a lesson with our friend who was baptised last Sunday. Instead of us teaching everything, we had him teach us the Plan of Salvation!
We're so happy for him. He was confirmed on Sunday! We've been teaching him how to use the gospel library app on his iPhone and he loves it. He tells us of the things that he's been reading. He started mentioning some deeper gospel principles and we eventually realised he had been reading Jesus the Christ by James E. Talmage!
Whilst still on exchanges we also did some service for a member. The difficulties that come with old age have prevented him from working on his garden, so we helped him out:
By accident, I plucked out one of their plants thinking it was a weed. >.<
It was an over grown low plant and so I thought it was a weed. I should have realised that because it was so easy to pluck out. There's a tendency for weeds to be difficult to get out and the plants that people actually want being fragile.
The district wanted something Singaporean/Malaysian so I made them Tau Yew Bak, or braised pork belly:
I did it in the slow cooker we have in the flat. It's so easy and effortless! I think Elder Yamada loved the dish the most haha.
Sunday was the best day of the week as usual. We actually had a miracle too! A young lady came to church on her own. She was actually the granddaughter of the member who passed away recently. After the funeral, she became curious why her Nan loved the church so much, so she came to find out and loved it! In Sunday School, the lesson was about the Word of Wisdom and she had actually quit smoking 2 days prior! We're excited to meet her again this coming week.
After church, we had lunch with some members and our recent convert:
The members had served in the mission office in the Scotland Ireland Mission about 5 years ago. They told us many interesting stories. They remembered many of the names of the missionaries and their quirks. The things we do and the way we act can really leave a lasting impression on others!
This past week, Elder Birch and I have tried to learn more about the lives of the people we meet. It was incredible. It not only helped us to get to know them, but also know how the gospel can change their lives. Many of them become much more receptive. One such was a lady we met in town. When we talked about church and a belief in God, she had some things to say and wanted to walk away. We then asked about her family and her a bit of her life. A whole new world opened up. We were invited to visit her and her family at her home a few days later. When we arrived at the door, we hear one of the children say "Mom, the bible bashers are here!". We could tell they weren't very keen to have us over, but we did what we thought to be right.
Later on the mom told us that her partner and children actually enjoyed our visit, which is unusual because her partner doesn't let religious people in. They actually look forward to us coming again! I am pretty sure they felt the Spirit!
Well that's all for the week! Here's something random I caught on camera at the chapel:
It was a spider spinning up a bug that got caught in its web. It was much like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings on a smaller scale.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
5 Sep 2017
Transfer 10 Week 5
Hi Everyone!
It seems to be getting slightly colder right now. The spiders probably feel it and are trying to get indoors:
The spiders here are way bigger than those at home. I sometimes worry they'll crawl into my mouth when I sleep! The place I've found to have the most spiders was in Cambridge when I was there a year ago. There were spiders everywhere! I almost always walked into spider webs every day.
Apart from the cold that reminds us that summer is ending, the hay fever is also a good reminder. Poor Elder Birch had to deal with that. We agreed that falling sick as a missionary is the worst thing ever. It's always a mental battle thinking whether you're really ill or being lazy.
This past week has been very dramatic. I don't even know how to put it in words. I've been reminded this week how much of an effect words can have. We somehow saw a lot of misunderstandings and disagreements happening in front of us. Many times it was because of differences in language and culture. Apparently it has been a concern in church and there was a video series made titled 'Unity in Diversity'. It was mentioned the September Ensign magazine titled "We Can Do Better: Welcoming Others into the Fold"
Having different companions from many different parts of the world, I've learned how much of a challenge it can be. The easiest way I've found to overcome it so far is by seeking to understand more than to be understood.
Something else that's been on my mind this week is the appreciation for the technology we have right now.
Travelling is definitely so much easier than before. As much as the busses here are rarely on time, at least they're still there.
I don't waste time getting lost with google maps on my tablet.
I would describe the facial expressions as "in a meeting".
There are of course dangers and distractions that come with the improper use of technology, as with any tools. (2 Nephi 2:11) There are restrictions as missionaries that prevent that, which I find is helping me to learn to balance the use of technology, and still keep my head in the real world. I was told that the virtual world tends to be way more fast paced and exciting than the real world, which leads to many becoming disinterested in the real things that are going on. For others, it is like a way of escaping the problems in reality. I'm definitely not perfect in using technology wisely, but I've been learning.
Comparing now and before, I'm learning to enjoy social interactions...
I finally got the chance to take Elder Birch up the hill to see the valley of Luton.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Transer 10 Week 2
For most of my mission, week 2 of the transfers always seemed pretty jinxed. It would always be that difficult week for different reasons. It could be overwhelming rejection, unpleasant disagreements with companions, falling through of almost all appointments etc.
For this past week it was to do with planning and managing time. I wouldn't say I'm terrible at planning my time, but this week was really putting it to the test. Something I have always tried to work on is reacting quickly and positively to unforeseen circumstances that turn my plans upside down. In other words, not crying over spilt milk. Since it's not something I can choose to improve on at any time, I guess I'm grateful for the challenge that came this week that allowed me to grow a little.
So this is what happened: we were supposed to have exchanges with the zone leaders in St. Albans on Wednesday, and then Zone Conference on Friday at St. Albans as well. The week was planned out pretty will and all set, but on Tuesday, a member called up asking for help with moving homes. It was actually an emergency so we requested to move the exchange to Thursday instead. Thankfully it worked out! We were also able to move all of our appointments.
It was one of the most intense service I've ever done. We had to rush with the moving to save money on the rented movers truck. It was a family of 4 children, which meant a ton of stuff too! It reminded me of the time I moved from Malaysia to Singapore, from a big place to a tiny place. What made it difficult was that they were keeping almost everything! Somehow we managed to fit everything in. No photos of this because there simply wasn't time. We didn't even have time to eat lunch which made it really difficult as well. It reached a point where I simply could not lift certain things. It was strange feeling that much fatigue. The last time I felt that was in the army. After the service we rushed back, got changed and went for our appointments.
On Thursday, morning on the way to St. Albans, I thought all was well until I remembered a member was going to bring lunch to the chapel for us. >.< She didn't have a hand phone and to cut a long story short, I had to make many calls just to figure it all out. Finally I was able to begin exchanges with a peace of mind!
Something interesting that happened while I was finding with Elder Leone. We were having a conversation with a person, and a member walked by and helped us by bearing his testimony! We also learned that he was going shopping and needed help! He told us that he had been praying for help with shopping as he dreaded carrying the groceries up the hill which he lived on. I was glad to help him because he was so old. Many times while walking he would wobble and almost fall...
This is a picture with him!
He kind of has dementia which is really sad and also funny sometimes. For example, he used to have a car which he could drive down to get his groceries with. He does not have it anymore and tells everyone it was stolen. However, the truth is that he parked it somewhere and forgot where it was parked >.< I was glad to be able to help him that day.
Zone conference on Friday was amazing!
The same person we had the lesson online with was to have a lesson and an interview at the chapel on Saturday afternoon. I thought all was well until we realised that we did not have the chapel key. We had lent it to one of the members of the ward who was all the way at Chorley for the British Pageant. The solution was to ask another member to help open the chapel, but many of them were at the Pageant as well! Thankfully after many more phone calls a member helped us to unlock the chapel.
The final "hiccup" on Sunday was pretty cool. A former investigator called us, saying that he had went to the Chapel at Luton before but has since moved to somewhere near Manchester. Somehow he has gained a testimony of the restored church and wants to be baptised, and also have his cousin who he's living with be taught and baptised. In addition, he wanted his cousin in New York to be taught and baptised! The only problem? He didn't speak very good English and I'm terrible at understanding people on the phone. It may be small but I still feel that it was a miracle because all of a sudden I could understand him clearly on the phone and his situation. Eventually everything was settled!
What a week it has been! I think I'm actually improving as I never lost my patience at all during these hectic times. It would have been a completely different story if all this happened one year ago. I'm just glad I was able to do my best to help whoever needed help. I hope this week would be a little smoother! I don't want white hair so soon! :P
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
22 Aug 2017
Transfer 10 Week 3
Hi Everyone!
Many things have happened this week!
On Monday evening, we had a lesson with our Portuguese investigators. At the end of the lesson when we were about to go, they suddenly brought out food!
On Tuesday, we had to drop one of our investigators. He simply did not want to change his ways. It was a very pleasant last lesson where we agreed to disagree. I wish there were more of these than those of people ignoring us. Something I've learned from this person is the danger of replacing repentance with rationalising. He picked the commandments he liked and came up with excuses to not keep the others. I guess he's not quite prepared to change yet. We told him the church is always there, and that he has our phone number so he can always come back whenever he wants to make a change in his life. After we said goodbye, we watched him walk away... and lit a cigarette... :(
On Wednesday we had exchanges! I spent a whole day with Elder Yamada from Japan!
He got along with one of our investigators who's is actually pretty similar in nature!
At the end of the day, we were blessed with Costco Pizza!
The day after our exchanges was interviews with President and Sister Stevens!
Here are some of the pictures I took on the train while on the way to interviews at St. Albans:
We had a miracle lesson after interviews as one of our investigators who dropped us last week decided to come back. To make it even better, his boss has allowed him to change his shifts so he could come to church for the first time this week!
On Friday, we had a lesson with another one of our investigators. After listening to his life story, it is difficult to not believe that God has led him to the church. He has been coming to church since February. He is waiting for the right time to be baptised... we're working on it!
After the lesson, we had to go to from the chapel to a member's home to do some service. There's another miracle there. As we were waiting at the bus stop, it began to drizzle. As soon as started to rain, a member stopped in front of us and told us to get in. We were saved by that ride! We were completely unprepared for the rain. It was totally sunny that day, and because of that:
Rainbow! :)
My most spiritual experience in the week was on Sunday once again. This is actually related to last week when we learned of a member of the ward who had a strong testimony of the gospel and lived all of the commandments which she knew except one, which was coming to church. What has prevented her is the severe social anxiety she has and it's the worst I've ever seen. We were given permission by bishop to administer the sacrament. She had not partook of it for almost 2 years and broke down in tears when we offered it. We did so, shared a spiritual thought and gave her a blessing. This week, when we went to visit her again, she was completely different. No longer depressed, but bright and full of hope. It was as if there was a glow in her countenance.
This experience reminded me of one of the people I taught a while back. During that time, I saw a gradual change in her which was amazing. This time, I saw an almost immediate change. Partaking of the sacrament renews the covenants that we made at baptism. It is as if we're being baptised again. This experience made it very obvious for me.
Ok, the final news is that our trio is now disbanded. Elder Gato has been reassigned to the Joao Pessoa, Brazil mission. This is what happened on his last day in the England London Mission:
Now it's just Elder Birch and I. It's kind of strange for me having been in trio for so long, but I'm looking forward to the remaining 4 weeks with Elder Birch in this transfer!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Transfer 10 Week 4
Dear All,
It has been a wonderful week! I cooked a lot more than usual, and taught Elder Birch along the way. I thought of it as an investment so that maybe one day he could cook for me! :)
We also made chicken curry from home:
We had a tiny district meeting this week, as the zone leaders were not able to join us. It was fun though!
We began exchanges right after district meeting. I was with Elder Stern for a day. He's from Alberta Canada. He actually knows the other missionaries from Canada that are serving in the same mission! In fact, they all competed against each other in basketball! One of them is my previous companion from my 5th transfer Elder Bourne!
We had a lesson with our friend who was baptised last Sunday. Instead of us teaching everything, we had him teach us the Plan of Salvation!
Whilst still on exchanges we also did some service for a member. The difficulties that come with old age have prevented him from working on his garden, so we helped him out:
It was an over grown low plant and so I thought it was a weed. I should have realised that because it was so easy to pluck out. There's a tendency for weeds to be difficult to get out and the plants that people actually want being fragile.
The district wanted something Singaporean/Malaysian so I made them Tau Yew Bak, or braised pork belly:
Sunday was the best day of the week as usual. We actually had a miracle too! A young lady came to church on her own. She was actually the granddaughter of the member who passed away recently. After the funeral, she became curious why her Nan loved the church so much, so she came to find out and loved it! In Sunday School, the lesson was about the Word of Wisdom and she had actually quit smoking 2 days prior! We're excited to meet her again this coming week.
After church, we had lunch with some members and our recent convert:
This past week, Elder Birch and I have tried to learn more about the lives of the people we meet. It was incredible. It not only helped us to get to know them, but also know how the gospel can change their lives. Many of them become much more receptive. One such was a lady we met in town. When we talked about church and a belief in God, she had some things to say and wanted to walk away. We then asked about her family and her a bit of her life. A whole new world opened up. We were invited to visit her and her family at her home a few days later. When we arrived at the door, we hear one of the children say "Mom, the bible bashers are here!". We could tell they weren't very keen to have us over, but we did what we thought to be right.
Later on the mom told us that her partner and children actually enjoyed our visit, which is unusual because her partner doesn't let religious people in. They actually look forward to us coming again! I am pretty sure they felt the Spirit!
Well that's all for the week! Here's something random I caught on camera at the chapel:
It was a spider spinning up a bug that got caught in its web. It was much like Frodo in the Lord of the Rings on a smaller scale.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
5 Sep 2017
Transfer 10 Week 5
Hi Everyone!
It seems to be getting slightly colder right now. The spiders probably feel it and are trying to get indoors:
Apart from the cold that reminds us that summer is ending, the hay fever is also a good reminder. Poor Elder Birch had to deal with that. We agreed that falling sick as a missionary is the worst thing ever. It's always a mental battle thinking whether you're really ill or being lazy.
This past week has been very dramatic. I don't even know how to put it in words. I've been reminded this week how much of an effect words can have. We somehow saw a lot of misunderstandings and disagreements happening in front of us. Many times it was because of differences in language and culture. Apparently it has been a concern in church and there was a video series made titled 'Unity in Diversity'. It was mentioned the September Ensign magazine titled "We Can Do Better: Welcoming Others into the Fold"
Having different companions from many different parts of the world, I've learned how much of a challenge it can be. The easiest way I've found to overcome it so far is by seeking to understand more than to be understood.
Something else that's been on my mind this week is the appreciation for the technology we have right now.
Communicating with others is also very convenient! We had a short meeting as a zone via skype.
There are of course dangers and distractions that come with the improper use of technology, as with any tools. (2 Nephi 2:11) There are restrictions as missionaries that prevent that, which I find is helping me to learn to balance the use of technology, and still keep my head in the real world. I was told that the virtual world tends to be way more fast paced and exciting than the real world, which leads to many becoming disinterested in the real things that are going on. For others, it is like a way of escaping the problems in reality. I'm definitely not perfect in using technology wisely, but I've been learning.
Comparing now and before, I'm learning to enjoy social interactions...
Reading...
and taking pictures! :)
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
12 Sep 2017
Transfer 10 Week 6
Hi everyone,
Sorry but this email is going to be really short!
Elder Birch and I thought of ways to include part member families, less actives and some investigators. We realised the common interest was sports. So we tried it out last Monday:
Sorry but this email is going to be really short!
Elder Birch and I thought of ways to include part member families, less actives and some investigators. We realised the common interest was sports. So we tried it out last Monday:
The highlight of my week was being able to go to London for a day to attend a meeting!
During lunch break, I got to meet some special people!
I also got to reunite with a majority of those from my MTC district!
Here's the rest of the missionaries!
I've learned a lot from the meeting. It helped me to understand why we do certain things in the mission and how I can better use those things to help other missionaries.
The theme for me this week is service. I've learned a lot better how I can serve other missionaries. It's such a strange thing, the more I serve others, the happier I become.
Here's a little update from the kitchen:
Every Sunday after church, we go out with our ward mission leader visiting the sick and afflicted. We've had many spiritual experiences doing so, and have seen many lives being uplifted. I never knew just how much a visit can mean to someone. Here's one of the members we visited:
It was special this week because it was her 80th birthday! She had invited us to her birthday party at the care home. She said it would be on Sunday so we thought it would be just nice since we visit her on Sunday anyway. It turned out it was on Saturday! She's does get confused a lot! But she was kind enough to save us some cake!
General Conference is coming so soon! I just thought of how incredibly sharp the Prophet and Apostles are for their age. That is truly a blessing from God. Speaking of which, Elder Holland will be visiting our mission tomorrow. We're so excited about that! Will share more next week!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
General Conference is coming so soon! I just thought of how incredibly sharp the Prophet and Apostles are for their age. That is truly a blessing from God. Speaking of which, Elder Holland will be visiting our mission tomorrow. We're so excited about that! Will share more next week!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
20 Sep 2017
Transfer 10 Week 7
Hi everyone!
It was a fantastic last week of the transfer! Elder Holland visited us on Tuesday. The Hyde Park Chapel was under renovation works so we used a lecture hall at Imperial College. Before the meeting began, we had to opportunity to shake his hand. During that time, I was playing prelude music on a keyboard. At the end of it, he came up to me to give me yet another handshake for playing the keyboard! He said "You get double" and "Good thing your mother made you practice!" He's so funny, but that last statement he made is so true. I wanted to give up playing the piano after the first few lessons when I was 7, but mom kind of forced me to continue. When I was about 14 and it got a little more difficult, I wanted to give up again, and mom revealed to me that all she wanted was for us children to be able to play hymns at church. So I did work hard to be able to do just that, but by the time I was able to play all the hymns, I was also able to play many of the songs I liked and ended up loving to play the piano!
Elder Holland spoke of the calling we have as missionaries. How we are like mini apostles. He said they cannot fulfil their calling without us. It is quite impossible for just 12 men to preach the gospel to the whole world! He said they see us the same way we see our investigators. When we leave an area, we hope that the people that we have taught continue to stay active. When we return home from our mission, the apostles hope that we stay active! He told us that we must never stop studying the Book of Mormon. In all his 29 official years as a general authority, and many unofficial years before that, he never once had to discipline any member that had been faithfully studying the Book of Mormon.
He then went on to give an amazing lecture on the Book of Mormon and also bore powerful testimony. In his candid way of saying things, he said if we were ever in the sound of his voice at the end of his life, the last thing he would say is that it is all true. We closed the meeting with hymn 131 specifically chosen by him.
It has been such a wonderful blessing to be visited by 2 apostles in such a short period of time. The one thing in common I realised is their emphasis on keeping our testimonies strong through studying the Book of Mormon.
Right after the meeting, we went out to take a picture as a mission. I don't have it yet, but this is the aftermath:
It was a fantastic last week of the transfer! Elder Holland visited us on Tuesday. The Hyde Park Chapel was under renovation works so we used a lecture hall at Imperial College. Before the meeting began, we had to opportunity to shake his hand. During that time, I was playing prelude music on a keyboard. At the end of it, he came up to me to give me yet another handshake for playing the keyboard! He said "You get double" and "Good thing your mother made you practice!" He's so funny, but that last statement he made is so true. I wanted to give up playing the piano after the first few lessons when I was 7, but mom kind of forced me to continue. When I was about 14 and it got a little more difficult, I wanted to give up again, and mom revealed to me that all she wanted was for us children to be able to play hymns at church. So I did work hard to be able to do just that, but by the time I was able to play all the hymns, I was also able to play many of the songs I liked and ended up loving to play the piano!
Elder Holland spoke of the calling we have as missionaries. How we are like mini apostles. He said they cannot fulfil their calling without us. It is quite impossible for just 12 men to preach the gospel to the whole world! He said they see us the same way we see our investigators. When we leave an area, we hope that the people that we have taught continue to stay active. When we return home from our mission, the apostles hope that we stay active! He told us that we must never stop studying the Book of Mormon. In all his 29 official years as a general authority, and many unofficial years before that, he never once had to discipline any member that had been faithfully studying the Book of Mormon.
He then went on to give an amazing lecture on the Book of Mormon and also bore powerful testimony. In his candid way of saying things, he said if we were ever in the sound of his voice at the end of his life, the last thing he would say is that it is all true. We closed the meeting with hymn 131 specifically chosen by him.
It has been such a wonderful blessing to be visited by 2 apostles in such a short period of time. The one thing in common I realised is their emphasis on keeping our testimonies strong through studying the Book of Mormon.
Right after the meeting, we went out to take a picture as a mission. I don't have it yet, but this is the aftermath:
I got to meet past companions:
It didn't feel right not to take one with my current companion!
There were many spiritual experiences this past week apart from the visit from Elder Holland. The ones I enjoy most are those in the lessons with people we taught. One of my favourite moments are those when we find answers to questions from the Book of Mormon. It is so powerful.
For our last district lunch, we had fish and chips!
In every transfer with each companion, there would always be something that someone says that would be stuck in our heads for a loooong time. For this transfer, it is "3 for 2 pounds strawberries!" In town centre where we talk to many people, there is a fruit stand and the fruit seller constantly repeats this phrase in a very unique way. His repetition eventually got to us and we decided to buy some!
It was 3 of those punnets for 2 pounds! So cheap! Basically they were clearing off the last of the strawberries! We enjoyed it so much. Strawberries are a special fruit to me. They represent mom's love for me. Strawberries aren't cheap back home, but mom would always look out for a discount and buy them when they're on sale. On evenings where we would stay up talking, we would make strawberry smoothies or slice them into heart shapes and eat them with vanilla ice cream... while the others are sleeping so they won't be jealous :)
It's too bad there are no more strawberries on sale, because it's the end of summer! I'm getting transferred to a new area in a new season. It's going to be great!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
It's too bad there are no more strawberries on sale, because it's the end of summer! I'm getting transferred to a new area in a new season. It's going to be great!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
27 Sep 2017
Transfer 11 Week 1
Dear all,
To best word to sum up the past week is 'turmoil'. It seems that whenever I start getting comfortable and settled with the place I'm at and the things I need to do, something will come and I have to figure it out again!
So what hit me last week was first, knowing that after Stake Conference back home, the boundaries for the wards have been redrawn and I'll be going home to a new ward. It'll be strange but it'll probably just feel like another transfer when I go home, only I won't be getting transferred out any time soon!
The other big news that came was that I had to move out of Luton to Canterbury, and I'll be taking a new missionary with me. Which means I'll be going to a new area without a missionary already there to help me figure out the area! It's scary but exciting too!
Canterbury would be my 5th area. It's always been sad leaving. I've never felt finished, whenever I had to leave an area. There's always so much more that I want to accomplish but I guess the Lord has other plans.
The last thing we did as a district at Luton on P-day was to go bowling!
To best word to sum up the past week is 'turmoil'. It seems that whenever I start getting comfortable and settled with the place I'm at and the things I need to do, something will come and I have to figure it out again!
So what hit me last week was first, knowing that after Stake Conference back home, the boundaries for the wards have been redrawn and I'll be going home to a new ward. It'll be strange but it'll probably just feel like another transfer when I go home, only I won't be getting transferred out any time soon!
The other big news that came was that I had to move out of Luton to Canterbury, and I'll be taking a new missionary with me. Which means I'll be going to a new area without a missionary already there to help me figure out the area! It's scary but exciting too!
Canterbury would be my 5th area. It's always been sad leaving. I've never felt finished, whenever I had to leave an area. There's always so much more that I want to accomplish but I guess the Lord has other plans.
The last thing we did as a district at Luton on P-day was to go bowling!
Here are our scores at the end:
During moves on Wednesday, I met some special guests!!!
I had to go to Hyde Park Chapel to wait for the new missionaries to arrive. This was one of the largest groups ever! I think it was 32 new missionaries coming in. That's the largest President and Sister Stevens have ever received. It was so huge that the Preston MTC (missionary training centre) could not accommodate all of them, so the 17 were trained at Provo MTC and 15 were trained at Preston MTC.
At our meeting at Hyde Park Chapel, there came a point where all of us trainers stood in front of the new missionaries and President Stevens would announce who would be paired with who. It felt so strange standing in front and being picked out. Slowly the group of us became smaller and smaller... and I couldn't believe that fact that I was the last one standing!!! That's when I really hoped the phrase 'saving the best for last' applied!
My new companion is Elder Miller from Salt Lake City, Utah! That's so cool!
We headed off to our new area right away!
Here's what we had with us...
Canterbury is pretty interesting. I was told Canterbury to the Church of England is like Salt Lake City to the LDS Church. I don't really know my way around much but will figure it out soon!
I'm out of time but here are many firsts of Elder Miller on the mission field!
First District Meeting:
First lesson:
First service project:
And first cooked meal!
Love,
Elder Chong
Of course it had to be something Asian such as sweet and sour chicken! ;)
I'm loving it here so far and hope to see great things happen here!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
3 Oct 2017
Transfer 11 Week 2
Hi everyone!
All I was looking forward to last week was General Conference it was soooo amazing! I'll talk a little bit more about it later.
We're pretty much settled in already and we did much finding and exploring at the same time this past week. We tried finding better routes to get to certain places and it didn't always work so well...
All I was looking forward to last week was General Conference it was soooo amazing! I'll talk a little bit more about it later.
We're pretty much settled in already and we did much finding and exploring at the same time this past week. We tried finding better routes to get to certain places and it didn't always work so well...
We are also trying very hard to work with the members here. We tried stopping by some of them. One of them has a very unique interest...
Elder Miller also looked through the scope and made a remark "if only we had scopes that helped pick out people who are prepared to receive the gospel." I'm sure every missionary felt that way at some point or another! :)
Here's our district picture for the week:
The theme was eternity :P
As far as stuff from the kitchen, this is the best thing we had last week:
We also had dinner as a ward mission team before correlation:
Ok, last of the food pictures:
The priesthood brethren of the ward have a tradition of having breakfast together before watching the re-broadcast of the general priesthood session on Sunday morning. It was so good!
Alright, on to spiritual food!
I don't think I've ever enjoyed conference as much as I did this time. Many of my questions and concerns were answered and addressed. I haven't watched the Sunday Afternoon session yet but thus far there has been a recurring theme of service, sacrifice, and keeping our testimonies strong by reading the Book of Mormon. I really loved the Sunday morning session because all my favourite hymns were sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. :)
I loved the way a few speakers taught about light and truth, using the solar system. At this point, I feel that I am enjoying much of this light. As a mission, we've been studying a chapter or 2 in the Book of Mormon each day, and highlighting references to Christ and doctrines and principles. As small and simple as it is, it is changing my life, even on a mission. The effort to pick out those things alone has helped me gain so much knowledge and truth about the Savior. As promised by one of the speakers, the more we learn and study about the life of Christ, the more our faith and testimonies grow. I feel a greater desire to do good and forsake sin, and it becomes a virtual cycle! light is added line upon line, precept upon precept. Elder Miller and I watched some really good videos explaining light and truth right before conference. It's in gospel library-->videos-->Doctrine and Covenants Videos--> Light and Truth, Part 1 and Light and Truth, Part 2. Those videos made a lasting impression on me ever since I watched it 10 years ago in seminary.
As missionaries, we try really hard to help others receive more of this light. Unfortunately many are comfortable being in the shadow. But oh how amazing it is to see one slowly get out of the darkness! The only ones I've been able to help, were those who had humility, that were willing to try and experiment upon the words of God. (Alma 32)
I've come out of conference all in all, having increased hope, and a greater desire to be a better person. I pray and hope that everyone will feel the same! These are challenging and dark days, but truth will prevail! Hang in there!
Love,
Elder Chong
Alright, on to spiritual food!
I don't think I've ever enjoyed conference as much as I did this time. Many of my questions and concerns were answered and addressed. I haven't watched the Sunday Afternoon session yet but thus far there has been a recurring theme of service, sacrifice, and keeping our testimonies strong by reading the Book of Mormon. I really loved the Sunday morning session because all my favourite hymns were sung by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. :)
I loved the way a few speakers taught about light and truth, using the solar system. At this point, I feel that I am enjoying much of this light. As a mission, we've been studying a chapter or 2 in the Book of Mormon each day, and highlighting references to Christ and doctrines and principles. As small and simple as it is, it is changing my life, even on a mission. The effort to pick out those things alone has helped me gain so much knowledge and truth about the Savior. As promised by one of the speakers, the more we learn and study about the life of Christ, the more our faith and testimonies grow. I feel a greater desire to do good and forsake sin, and it becomes a virtual cycle! light is added line upon line, precept upon precept. Elder Miller and I watched some really good videos explaining light and truth right before conference. It's in gospel library-->videos-->Doctrine and Covenants Videos--> Light and Truth, Part 1 and Light and Truth, Part 2. Those videos made a lasting impression on me ever since I watched it 10 years ago in seminary.
As missionaries, we try really hard to help others receive more of this light. Unfortunately many are comfortable being in the shadow. But oh how amazing it is to see one slowly get out of the darkness! The only ones I've been able to help, were those who had humility, that were willing to try and experiment upon the words of God. (Alma 32)
I've come out of conference all in all, having increased hope, and a greater desire to be a better person. I pray and hope that everyone will feel the same! These are challenging and dark days, but truth will prevail! Hang in there!
Love,
Elder Chong
10 Oct 2017
Transfer 11 Week 3
Hi everyone,
This email is going to be short, but It's been a busy week!
On P-day, we kind of wondered around town. It's really nice. There's just old buildings everywhere, that it's kind of taken for granted. Here's the Westgate tower:
This email is going to be short, but It's been a busy week!
On P-day, we kind of wondered around town. It's really nice. There's just old buildings everywhere, that it's kind of taken for granted. Here's the Westgate tower:
It was built in 1380!
We met up with some other missionaries too!
On Tuesday we had exchanges with the zone leaders at Ashford.
At the end of exchanges. We always go through an evaluation. It's really helpful to stop and think what areas we can improve on. There's always something to work on!
On Thursday we had zone conference!
It was at Hyde Park Chapel and took a long time to get there! We had to pack breakfast just to be safe:
Here's a picture at zone conference itself:
We've been trying hard to work with members in our area. So far it's been going well!
Sometimes it's not easy to get to their homes too...
But it's all fun! We enjoy every moment we can. When things get tough, we make the best out of it and move on.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
17 Oct 2017
Transfer 11 Week 4
Hi Everyone,
Last week was great! We went to do some sightseeing on P-day.
Here's one of the random ancient things scattered around Canterbury. It was near the train station:
Last week was great! We went to do some sightseeing on P-day.
Here's one of the random ancient things scattered around Canterbury. It was near the train station:
We took a train down south to see the White Cliffs of Dover!
It goes down really low!
It was really refreshing to see the sea after such a long time. We were pretty much at the south most part of the mission boundaries and could even see France!
We ate at Wetherspoons after:
It's a massive group!
The other highlight of the week was a special broadcast throughout Europe where Elder M. Russell Ballard and members of the Area Presidency spoke to us. It was so good! One of the key things shared that I remember was gaining a firm testimony through studying the Book of Mormon, making the Sabbath Day a delight and how miracles have not ceased.
Elder Ballard shared his experience when he was assigned to bring relief to Ethiopia in 1984. During that time many people were dying because of a great famine there. The church had gathered donations and Elder Ballard was sent with someone else for all the official stuff. Elder Ballard saw that they had brought physical relief through the donations but wished in his heart that the gospel could be brought to the people of the country. He found out that there was a member in the country and somehow managed to find him. The 3 of them had sacrament together the next Sunday in that member's home. They had a short testimony meeting during which Elder Ballard felt prompted to pronounce a blessing upon the land. He did so. That night, he prayed at 1am, pleading to God to bring forth rain. At 3am, there were thunderclaps heard. During the rest of the time he was there, it rained every day! He reminded us that miracles have not ceased today! He told us "Miracles come when we are on our knees and pray to know the mind and do the will of God."
There was one thing that Elder Ballard mentioned many times throughout his talk, was to find quiet time to sit down and reflect on our lives, reassess if our priorities are right and if the things that are dominating our energy lead us to salvation. Life today is so fast paced and busy, setting aside time to do that is so crucial! I hope everyone can make the time to do that.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
24 Oct 2017
Transfer 11 Week 5
Hi Everyone,
This transfer is really short! It's a 5 week transfer. Also, transfers are now on Tuesdays so our P-days during transfer week are still on Monday.
We explored town a little more last P-day. We went up the Westgate Towers!
This transfer is really short! It's a 5 week transfer. Also, transfers are now on Tuesdays so our P-days during transfer week are still on Monday.
We explored town a little more last P-day. We went up the Westgate Towers!
But some have escaped before:
This is how high it is:
If you noticed, we were wearing short sleeves that day. It was abnormally warm! We were told it was due to pollution from a storm that hit a nearby country, and fires in another country, and somehow the wind brought it all here. We had red sun in the evening:
I'm out of time right now, but have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
P.S. We were walking home one night and there were fire works!
31 Oct 2017
Transfer 12 Week 1
Hi Everyone!
Being Elder Miller's last P-Day in Canterbury, we had to be sure to go to the Cathedral!
The Cathedral was massive! I can't put all the photos here. I felt like I was visiting Hogwarts! That's one of the fantasy worlds I'd like to live in!
We were quite lucky as during the time of our visit, there was a choir practicing along with an organ. It was really nice.
A lady inside the Cathedral explained to us that the Cathedral, as well as all the old churches around Kent were built by Catholics, but are now owned by the Anglican Church. She even went on to describe how they took over... which I would not like to describe here.
We also had Family Home Evening with the Young Single Adults in the ward. All of them who attended were recent converts! They're amazing people!
I took charge of the games and decided to play werewolf (something like mafia but better). It was so fun!!! It reminded me of the crazy rounds I had playing that with family.
So with transfers, this is our previous district...
...and here's our new district with the zone leaders!
We have Sister Ikavesa from Tonga! And my new companion Elder Örtegren from Denmark!
Here's one my favourite photos with Elder Örtegren so far:
Bringing spiritual healing to all in Canterbury! :P
What's great about Elder Örtegren? Everything! He's so brilliant and talented! He plays the piano by ear which is insane to me. He's my personal jukebox now heheh. One of the best things is well, is that he also cooks! Healthy too!
My winter cravings are coming back. I really wanted to have soupy instant noodles!
We received a referral during the week and set out on what I'd like to call a side quest. The couple lived in our perspective, in the middle of nowhere!
It was nice to take a bus out of town and see the rest of our area though.
On a more spiritual note, we've had one of the best conversations I've ever had on the street last week. This person had a ton of questions and we somehow were able to answer all of them using the Book of Mormon, in a non-bashful way. He really liked the way we answered his questions, and agreed to meet up again, and he also came to church!
We've been focusing a lot as a district on being familiar with the Book of Mormon and using it to help the people we teach. All of us missionaries were asked to speak on Sunday, and I decided to speak about the Book of Mormon. I shared how I gained my testimony that it is true, and I'll share it here:
I came to the last chapter where Moroni was about to seal up the records, but before he did, he left a promise to all who would read the book. He said:
"2 And I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you.
3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
Growing up in the church, I had heard many people mention the miraculous answers they have received. I wanted some sort of special experience myself, and so after reading that last chapter, I got on my knees and prayed, as sincerely as I could. I did not feel anything spectacular or out of the ordinary. I tried waiting a little longer, but still didn't feel like I received an answer I was expecting.
Eventually I did receive an answer. I cannot remember how long it took. But I will never forget the distinct impression I received that I knew to be the answer. I probably continued on reading in doctrine and covenants, and came across a verse early on in section 6 which reads:
"D&C 6:23 Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?"
When I read this verse, I began to think back on how I felt as I was reading the Book of Mormon. Peace was the best word to describe it. At that moment, I realised what God was trying to tell me; that as I was reading the Book of Mormon, I already knew it was true. I did not need a greater witness.
I'm grateful to be able to receive answers to prayers. Knowing that the Book of Mormon is the word of God has helped me build my faith in Jesus Christ, and know that He is our Saviour and Redeemer. The coming forth of the book is in itself a prophesy fulfilled, and I know that we can always trust in the Lord no matter how dark life may seem to get at times. For everything that He says will be fulfilled, even the triumph of good over evil.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone!
Ah, it was a rocky week, many ups and downs, but still fulfilling!
I find that the instant comfort I get as a missionary often comes from food haha. At our flat right now, the closest place to shop is LIDL. The fun thing about shopping there is every week, there will be 4 fresh foods and 4 meats that go really cheap. So Elder Örtegren and I would get those things and take up the challenge of making a meal out of it. Elder Örtegren is full of surprises. I just found out his mom is a chef and so he's picked up some pretty neat cooking skills. We bought some pork and minced beef last week that were on sale. He cooked the pork and here's what he made:
I cooked the minced beef and tried out lasagna for the first time!
We got to have a meal with our ward mission leader:
We discovered a weighing scale at his place!!!
That was before the meal. After was much higher! ;)
Here's our district meeting picture for the week...
Here's the lowest point of the week:
We got caught in the rain :( All's good though! We haven't caught a cold!
It think the highlight for me was Sunday. I felt kind of exhausted from the week but really felt renewed after church. Elder Örtegren and I got to know one of the members much better. She basically shared her life story, which was full of challenges and many tragedies. However, as she faithfully kept going on, there were also many incredible miracles in her life. Those miracles and blessings only came as she stayed true to her faith and did her very best. It made me think of what if there were challenges in my life and I just gave up halfway through, I'd probably be losing out on blessings! That's my food for thought for the week.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone!
The past week has been filled with so much fun and excitement! My P-day is on Tuesday because we had interviews on Monday. Hence the later email.
We had an amazing zone conference last Tuesday!
I was quite surprised I actually knew a majority of the missionaries. It helps me not to feel so old in the mission haha. Sister Stevens was not able to join us this time. It felt so different!
Here's our zone on its own during a breakout session:
It was also nice to be with my buddies from the MTC!
The day after zone conference was my birthday! It was actually a pretty packed day, so we didn't do anything particularly special. However, I did get 2 birthday cakes! First was during ward coordination meeting:
When we went back to the flat in the evening, another member stopped by and gave another red velvet cake! So much sugar haha!
I didn't have time to do a special dinner or anything, but I did have some serious craving for soup, so I just quickly made some:
Since Tuesday was zone conference, I was also able to receive some mail from the office! :)
The rest of the week went pretty good. We are beginning to see who in our teaching pool are actually interested and committed and are doing our best to help them.
On Saturday, we went to help out with some painting for a disabled person:
The project was started sometime in September before I got here but I'm glad to say we finally finished it! I got a lot of the green paint on my nails and it looked like nail polish haha.
In the evening, the ward mission team met up at the ward mission leader's home for English roast!
It honestly felt like a continuation of the birthday celebration from Tuesday! :)
Sunday was really busy. I had to play the organ in sacrament meeting, teach the law of chastity in gospel principles class during the second hour, and then teach Young Men in the 3rd hour. I also had to help out with choir practice for something coming up in December! I must say it felt really fulfilling to serve. As a missionary, there's really a lot of opportunities to receive, as well as to give. I've learnt that the greatest joy really comes when we give.
As I mentioned, we had interviews yesterday... and Sister Stevens was back!
As you can see, the Christmas spirit is already kicking in! We have been working hard as a zone and expecting great things to happen in December! We're excited for it!
One of the best things that happened last week was at the end of zone conference, when President Stevens announced that our mission will be going to the London Temple in December for zone conference! Such a blessing!
A few months ago, at the end of a zone conference, while President Stevens was giving his closing remarks, I remember wishing for a moment how I wish an Apostle would visit, and at that moment President Stevens announced that Elder Holland would visit. This time, I was actually wishing I could go to the temple, and President announced the plans for December to go to the temple! I just feel so blessed!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone,
There were many things in the past week that just made me laugh. One of them was during a lesson. We were teaching about the restoration and our friend understood the pattern of apostasy and the starting of a new dispensation. Our conversation then went like this:
"So, we are in apostasy now yeah?"
"No, we have the priesthood and a living prophet today!"
"Really? Who? You?"
We laughed for a bit and then spoke about about Thomas S. Monson. It just hilarious being thought of as prophet. The reason he probably thought we're prophets is because of the priesthood blessing we gave him a day before that lesson. He came to the lesson looking extremely down and burdened. We felt prompted to give him a blessing after the lesson. He left that day looking so happy! He told us that right at the beginning of the lesson, he felt a surge of ideas come to him to help him with his problems. That's pretty amazing!
Apart from this friend, Elder Örtegren and I have also seen other people who felt really down when meeting with us, but leaving with more hope. One of them was a lady whom we met a week or so ago. She had a number of deaths in her family, and was not coping too well with it. She felt that meeting us was not by chance. We finally met her last week and taught the Plan of Salvation. She mentioned feeling very at peace after the lesson, like a warm blanket wrapped around her.
The last one was a man who comes from another country with a really strict religion. We met him on the streets last week and it was almost bashy but during the conversation we did figure out that he had many difficult things happen in his life and in his country, which has been causing him to doubt that God exists. We promised that we had answers to his doubts, which he agreed to meet us last weekend. The approach we had to take was rather different from normal because of his religious beliefs but he soon recognised that there were many similar beliefs. It led him to ask "so what is the difference?" We then testified of the Savior, and he asked us "how can I know?" to which we were able to introduce the Book of Mormon. He wants it in his language! He texted us a little while after we met him saying how comfortable he felt talking with us. I am pretty sure it's the Holy Ghost he felt when we testified of Jesus Christ.
It's really cool to see people have spiritual experiences without really recognising them, and it's really incredible when they begin to understand where it comes from!
Now for a little fun stuff starting from P-day, some missionaries from the zone came down to Canterbury!
We had some pretty good food. I shared this platter with 3 others:
It turned out really affordable and filling when splitting it. It's actually a challenge from the restaurant. One can eat that platter for free if it's finished alone in 20 minutes! I probably could have done it if I were 7 years younger haha.
We also had exchanges at Ashford last week! I was with Elder Nelson from Canada!
He is incredible! I learned so much from him!
The next morning, we played football for exercise with members and their friends!
We were pretty lucky because the moment we finished, it rained the rest of the day!
Well, that's all for now. As the weather has been getting colder, the people have been as well. There's also fewer people on the streets right now. We're starting to shift more to knocking on doors which isn't my favorite, but I'm sure some good things will come out of it.
Here's a sign that helps us to know what kind of people we get to speak to on a particular street:
They are very nice people, just not very interested! :P
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone!
Sorry but this is going to be really short! There were internet problems...
We began sharing the "Light the World" initiative last week! It's the same as last year, where we invite everyone to do something to help or serve someone else every day starting 1 Dec till Christmas. Much like an advent calendar.We started sharing it right after our district meeting!
Something fun we've been doing during district meeting is scripture chase! I'm rather surprised how candy can make it so competitive! I'm am thrilled to know that the missionaries in the district are really good at scripture chase using the Book of Mormon.
The Christmas Spirit is really kicking in in town. The lights are all up and it's packed with people starting their Christmas shopping. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here, but Black Friday is a huge thing. It's so huge it's not only Black Friday, but Black Friday week! So the discounts go for a week!
What my Elder Örtegren and I had for Thanksgiving was a simple Singapore Laksa, made with whatever ingredients we have. It was exactly the same but it tasted really good! During dinner we watched a movie about pioneers. That's what I felt most grateful for this Thanksgiving, for pioneers both from the past and in modern times!
Something really nice during the week, was a dinner at the chapel. There's a member who's husband doesn't like missionaries. So she can't really have us over. So we have dinner at the chapel! We were talking about Christmas during dinner and I learned about the origins of Boxing Day. In the past in England, the rich used to box up left over food from Christmas Day and give it to the poor. But now with benefits and stuff, everyone can pretty much get their own food, so it has shifted to discounts on merchandise. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Anyway, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone!
It has been a very eventful week!
On P-day, we decided to go check out a forest! It was pretty cool with all the falling leaves!
I didn't expect much but there were actually some fun things to do, such as climbing this fallen tree:
As we went around, I felt the terrain was really good for capture the flag or air-soft gun skirmishes. Lo and behold, we found a nerf gun bullet! haha. I didn't take a picture of it though, so no evidence.
We also discovered this curious wooden structure:
It reminded me of my jungle confidence course during officer cadet school training in Brunei where I had to build an A-frame and live in it for a few days. I don't think I could survive here though, it's too cold!
The last thing we wandered into was a herd of cows!
I'm sure some of you have watched this video of a guy playing a trombone and a herd of cows gathered round him. We tried doing that by making some sounds through clasped hands. Well, it didn't work. What actually attracted these young calves was our snacks! >.<
We had been notified by the office that we would be moving out of our flat on Friday. The flat we were staying in are for the senior couples in Canterbury. The new ones are coming in January and so we needed to give it up! Elder & Sister Rees from the office came down on Friday with the mission van:
We moved our stuff to the new flat first, and realised some readjustments had to be made...
There were 2 bedrooms and we had to disassemble and reassemble one of them so the 2 beds could be in the same room. Good thing it was an IKEA product, it wasn't too much of a hassle.
The coolest thing in our flat is the awesome mirror:
The lights around it switch on and off by a motion sensor. Makes us feel posh! :P
Elder and Sister Rees brought us out for lunch during the move!
So kind of them! I must say, it felt like a family outing for us! I didn't realise how much I actually miss that. After that we returned to the old flat to give it a good clean. No pictures necessary heheh. However, Sister Rees did thank us for keeping it clean, especially the toilets. I have standards! ;)
Spending time with senior missionaries is a real treat. The fact that they are out here shows how dedicated they are to living the gospel, and they carry with them so much wisdom too. Elder Rees shared something that really impacted us. With reference to challenges that he and Sister Rees have gone through, he told us they learned that "time does not heal hearts, it's the Atonement of Jesus Christ that does". He went on to elaborate how on the contrary, the ill feelings we have can worsen over time. It was a very timely piece of wisdom for Elder Örtegren and I because for some reason, many of the people we have been in contact with or are teaching recently had someone close to them pass away. For one of them, it's losing 3 people in the past 3 months. Thankfully for her heart is not hardened and bitter, and she is willing to find out where true peace comes from.
Being December now, we helped the ward set up a Nativity display outside the chapel:
The bishop also printed and laminated the daily suggestions for the Christmas initiative Light the World. We put it up on the fence:
It even has lights that automatically switch on at night! If you notice carefully, you can see that there are transparent acrylic walls. In previous years, someone stole baby Jesus! >.<
We had stake conference during the weekend! It was up at Gillingham and it was really difficult getting rides for our friends there but in the end we managed to pull it off! The stress was very similar to my days back in the military, coordinating transport and times for exercises. I felt a sense of accomplishment as everything worked out in the end.
As it's the Christmas season, stake conference here was really unique. The choir director attends Canterbury Ward and requested me to help accompany the choir on the piano. As such, my companion was dragged into singing in the choir. Because of transport, our ward mission leader and others got involved as well. In the end, the whole mission team in the ward were involved with stake choir! :P
They weren't 100% keen but they did have a lot of fun in the end! :)
For a rather small stake as it is, I was surprised how large the choir was, we didn't even have enough seats on the stand! It was very nice to have so much support. Our stake president absolutely loves music and he planned in so much music for the Sunday session. There was a musical number almost every 2 speakers. It was so nice! The meeting didn't feel that long too!
In the evening, we had dinner together as a mission team, being the last Sunday of the transfer:
Well, that's all the big stuff that happened during the week. I must say, Elder Örtegren's family have been really kind. His mom sent a package with a unique advent calendar, one for him and one for me!
It's like Christmas every day! The first thing I want to do every morning is open up one of the gifts! :P
Elder Örtegren's uncle also gave him pizza money lol. We used it on the night of moving as we were too tired to cook and didn't have food anyway!
We were very grateful and happy to receive it. We ordered stuffed crust. It was heavenly! The delivery man really noticed our joy. He said we were the nicest people he has met all evening!
Got to go now, have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone!
Last week was a blast! First off, we finally got proper pots and pans for our flat as it uses an induction cooker, and we had no induction cooker. So we were eating sandwiches for almost all our meals until we found time and approval to get the proper pans. Here's our first cooked meal!
Our spinach was going bad, so Elder Örtegren was desperate to use it up as we could not keep it any longer. So we had a salad with spinach, stir fried mushrooms with spinach, and some pork chops with spinach as a garnish! :)
The meal was prepared completely by Elder Örtegren. It was done real quick too! His mother is a chef so that's probably why. But he said when he helped out in the kitchen back home he was always told he did things too slow haha.
Here's our district picture for the week:
Our zone leader celebrated his 20th birthday! So we got him a cake! We had to go to a small shop to get a lighter for the candles. When I asked for one, the shopkeeper told me "sorry, we can only sell lighters to those 18 and older". Elder Örtegren and I laughed so hard! But yes, I had to show him my ID to proof I was way above 18. We learned that this shopkeeper went to Malaysia before and is also from Denmark! We didn't have time to speak to him more but we're definitely going back.
We had our ward Christmas party last Saturday and it was really fun! We were asked to do quite some stuff to help out..
We helped out with setting up the tables. It looked great!
Before the party started, we went out as a mission team to invite our everyone in the neighbourhood to our Christmas Carol Concert this coming Sunday:
Our hands were freezing! We couldn't wear our gloves because it was difficult to separate the flyers.
Here are pictures from the party!
There wasn't a photo taking session, but the elves get special treatment! ;)
We got our ward mission leader that cool jumper haha!
On a more spiritual note for the week, I taught chapter 42 in gospel principles last Sunday about the gathering of Israel. I had so much fun preparing and teaching the lesson. Probably for the first time in my life, I actually used the index from the Book of Mormon. I was amazed how prophecies of the gathering are found throughout the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible. The most interesting scripture I found was in 3 Nephi 21:1-7 where Christ gave the Nephites a sign that the work of gathering Israel would have commenced, and that is when their record will be made known to the Gentiles. In other words, when the Book of Mormon comes forth. I just found it exciting to realise that we are living in a time when the prophecy of the gathering of Israel is being fulfilled! It's hard work I must say!
That's all I have for now. As a bonus, it snowed last Sunday!
It was heavy everywhere but Canterbury, but oh well! Better than nothing!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone!
Last week was really good, even though it rained alot!
It rained the whole of P-day which made it really difficult shopping. Good thing we got this what we call a "granny trolley". After the move, we are now a little further from the best (cheapest) place to shop for groceries, hence we got the trolley to make the journey back from shopping less torturous. Our ward mission leader despises it and said he better not see us with that haha.
Elder Örtegren made a Danish dish which was really nice:
I can't remember what it's called. It is a rice porridge cooked in milk topped with cinnamon sugar and a knob of butter. It was really nice for a cold day!
We helped out with young men on Wednesday:
Well, I guess it's more accurate to say young man instead of men. We had a short spiritual thought and then played 2 games. The first is called D-I-E. It's like playing table tennis with a football on the floor, and if you mess up you get a letter. When you mess up 3 times and spell D-I-E then this happens:
Everyone gets a chance! I can't kick balls and never got a hit haha.
The second game we played was human hungry hippos!
It is actually really tiring! But is was really fun. I wish there were more youth here. I know for myself that it was easier living the gospel when there are more peers doing the same.
The highlight of the week was going to the London Temple! It is a Christmas gift from President and Sister Stevens as they had to seek permission since we have to leave our mission boundaries. It was a 2 hour+ journey by train. When we switched to the last train, we went into one of the carriages and saw this:
There wasn't time to go around taking photos but here's one I quickly took:
I don't think I'll ever get to go the temple with so many missionaries ever again. It was special being in the celestial room filled with missionaries from all over the world. We had lunch and Christmas devotional after the session in the morning. The London South Mission office team kindly offered to prepare lunch for us!
It was really nice! I met an Elder from my MTC group too which was really cool!
All in all it was a wonderful experience. I didn't manage to get the picture we took with a few zones at the temple, but we did take one on the way back as a zone at the train station:
The day felt really really short because of so much travelling. We were exhausted by the end of the day because we had to wake up at 4.45am! But it was totally worth it!
The last highlight at the end of the week was the Christmas Carol Concert. It was a stake event and we have been helping out with it the past few weeks.
It was a real success in the end! We were expecting 40 to 60 people but the chapel was filled and we had to open up the partition! We were glad, and exhausted too. Because although it is a stake activity. This was the crew that put it all together:
Merry Christmas!
Many picture to send home this week. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Leading up to Christmas, there were a lot of Christmas related things appearing in the shops. One of my favourites are chestnuts!
There hasn't been much happening. Unfortunately Elder Örtegren fell ill on Boxing Day and hasn't recovered since. We've been really blessed though. Many times when we needed something e.g. honey and lemon when his throat got really really bad, members would text us asking if we needed anything! Elder Örtegren has been steadily recovering, and we hope to be able to get out this week. We've been calling people on our phone, and even managed to have a short lesson on the phone. It's still not as great as seeing people in person though.
New Year's Eve felt very quiet and normal. We just slept right through. There wasn't too much noise at midnight as we have somewhat soundproof windows.
I've finally been able to get a hold of a picture from the temple trip. This is the only photo I have for the week:
Elder Örtegren and I are back in action again! Yay! And then it pretty much rains almost every day and with strong wind too... :( however on Boxing Day, I got a really good Jumbrella (jumbo umbrella) from NEXT at a really cheap price and it's keeping us and people we stop to talk to nice and dry. I don't have many photos this week, as it's been a lot of normal missionary work.
One day we went to the chapel and were shocked to find this:
Hi Everyone!
The past week has been so good! On P-day the Elders and Sister from Ashford came down for some volleyball. It was really good because the teams were pretty balanced. I was terrible at the start but got the hang of it by the end of the game.
Hi everyone!
So it's a new start in a new area! Norwich is really huge! There's a pretty big university here as well with many Chinese students. We're teaching one right now. There are many times where I get to know the people we teach a lot more, and discover what amazing things they did in the past, and what their dreams for the future are. We really want them to succeed!
I'm glad to be able to come to Norwich. It's my 6th area in a 6th zone, the mission currently has 9 zones so I'm really going through a mission tour! :)
This is my last photo with Elder Örtegren during transfers:
It really boosted our unity and morale, despite the weather haha.
Here's what the weather mostly looked like in the past week:
This was taken at the chapel. It's just about the exact same design as the one in Northampton, where I went quite a few times for zone conferences. It was strange going to the chapel and already knowing where everything is.
I had an interesting encounter with some members in the past week. It was with a convert of almost 2 years who came to the chapel (which is the stake centre) to receive her patriarchal blessing. Before she was baptised, she had a really terrible partner and asked her sister in Utah for help. Her sister told her to invite missionaries over. She did so and after a blessing on the home, a blessing for herself, and also making changes in her life, she's now in a much better place than she thought she would ever be at! And now, about to get a glimpse of the divine potential she has, as she receives her patriarchal blessing.
As she's from a different ward, she had to get a ride down here. The member who gave her a lift is 82 years old. He has travelled many places in the past. One of them was in Cyprus. He was a branch president there at one point. One Sunday, a mother went into the church building with her baby of a couple months old, and soon enough the mother was baptised. This member who was the branch president could remember holding the baby in his arms every week. Fast forward to today, the baby is now a missionary in this very mission!
It just reminded me of how the church makes the world feel so small. As well, how sharing the gospel with our loved ones can really bless their lives. We may never know who's prepared and who isn't, but when one accepts the gospel their lives are changed forever. I always share with other missionaries that feel hesitant to extend invitations or share the gospel, that the most one can do is say no--which we take as not yet! :P
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi everyone!
It has been a pretty good week. Lots of travelling around involved. Norwich is about the size of my first area in Cambridge, which is HUGE. Norwich is at the centre and there are many surrounding villages. The difference though, is that I do not have a car. We received a referral who just so happens to live at one of the furthest villages. It was so far that we almost thought it wasn't even in our boundaries! It was tricky planning to get there as we had to change buses, but what was more difficult was planning the journey back, because the bus services ended early. After making sure we could get back to Norwich, we headed off!
This is where we transferred buses, it felt like we were in the middle of nowhere. At some point, I was hoping the cat bus from Totoro would come.
We eventually met our new friend! He is from Moldova and seems to know the restoration of the gospel already! He is so cool! We just can't figure out how he can come to church because there are no buses on Sundays.
For the journey back, there wasn't any buses going back to Norwich, so we had to catch a train. Here's a funny little experience:
The ticket was 5 pounds, and I only had a 20 pound note. Never have I got so many coins as change! I'll be shamelessly using them to pay for my groceries and food. Sometimes it annoys the cashiers who have to count so many coins, but oh well!
We had zone conference last week too!
That's Ipswich and Norwich zone together.
and this is Norwich zone!
It was strange to be back in the chapel that I attended my first zone conference 18 months ago:
and that's 18 months later! Elder Sharp is from my group! :) He has obviously lost his tan, there's just not a lot of sunlight here!
Elder de Sousa and I have been enjoying our time in the kitchen during dinners. He said he can't really cook so I have been instructing him how to, and he cooks really well!
He made Singapore Laksa for us! :)
This was a little feast we put up together. We had lemon chicken, sambal chili chicken, and stir fried cabbage. It was one of those meals where you go round the different dishes and can't stop eating because of the contrasts of the tastes.
There were quite some funny moments talking to people last week. The most awkward conversation was with this person who was standing not doing much, we approached him and he straightaway declared himself an atheist. Seeing that it didn't stop us from talking to him, he then shifted to "I'm busy". We went off to the side, and he was still standing doing nothing! He tried not to make any eye contact haha.
When people come right up to us to start a conversation instead of the other way round, it can either be a really good thing, or really bad. There was this dude who came right up and said to us "tell me about your magic underwear!" >.< He was one of those who would try to make a "smart" comment and walk away, so we couldn't tell him anything.
Despite all the rather weird people we come across, there are always those who are prepared somewhere. We had a return appointment with a couple who were just so ready to listen and even invited us into their home. They had actually read the pamphlet we had given them when we first met them! (That's a really good sign of real intent). One of them had met missionaries about 5 years ago, but wasn't feeling ready so he didn't learn more about it. But now, he said himself that he really wants to know more. It's going to be great!
That's all the time I have for now. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone,
The past week has been pretty cold, but good thing I'm much more prepared this winter. We had one of those days where there's all 4 seasons in a day. It got a little warm and muggy, then it rained, we had a rainbow, then it hailed a ton, and then it switched to snow. Although my umbrella is pretty huge, I have not gone out a day without it simply because the weather has been too unpredictable. Here's a picture when all of that happened:
It was in the university hence we had to take out our tags. We went there to have a lesson.
It was so fun! I have been using quite a bit of mandarin and it's actually improving a bit, and it's bringing out my Asian accent when I switch back to English haha.
I have learned a lot about teaching Chinese. At first I couldn't really understand how difficult it is for them to understand what church and religion is. Our friend was asking a lot of questions that at first, didn't make sense to us, or rather we couldn't tell how it led to her concerns. However thanks to a convert who's helping us out, she explained a lot since she was in the same situation a few years ago.
To elaborate a little more, our friend was asking questions about cults and political parties. What we realised later on is that she's trying to figure out what kind of organisation our church is. Whenever we are exposed to something completely new and foreign, we try to compare it what we know or understand. In this case it is really difficult, but as our convert said, don't worry, it just takes time to get used to it.
Even feeling the Holy Ghost for the first time can be quite something. We always try to help our friends recognise it. For many that I've come across, it's usually at the chapel where they feel it most powerful for the first time.
Here's a picture from district meeting:
We went out to talk to people on the streets right after:
That was one of the few moments that the weather was actually good haha.
The moon looking pretty big the past few days, and we had clear skies at night:
Elder de Sousa and I have been enjoying looking at it before bed using a pair of binoculars in the flat. It was so bright that it made really distinct shadows in our room from the windows! That's why it caught our attention in the first place. It's quite mesmerizing looking the craters on the moon.
We have been continuing on in our little dinner adventures:
Ribena was on sale and so we bought a huge bottle of it. I tried mixing it with apple juice and it's been a perfect combination! We agreed that we now have a problem: when we drink apple juice, we feel that something is missing, and likewise when we drink Ribena >.<
We also had exchanges last week and it was fun! I got to be in the car heheh.
I found a set of Chinese Checkers and in the flat and introduced it to them over dinner. It was so fun and simple to teach.
The time when evaluating the exchange is really special. It's a nice time to sit down and think about not only how the exchange went, but also how I've been doing on the mission. I recalled what Elder Uchtdorf taught in the recent YSA devotional about how looking forward, it is difficult to tell how the dots connect. We try our best to make the right decisions and Heavenly Father will guide us, although he won't make every decision for us. When we look backwards, it helps us see how the dots actually connect!
As I was reflecting back on the different things that happened, the areas I've been, the companions I've had, it all seemed to connect. Recently, I received an envelope with a note written by myself sometime in the middle of last year. I listed 6 things that I wanted to achieve/be by the time I received the letter. Well, I saw 5 out of 6 that was achieved, but that one last one has still been a struggle. But President Uchtdorf's talk was an answer to it. Hopefully I can figure it out soon!
Got to go now. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi everyone,
Last week has been pretty fun. There have been quite a number of birthdays going on. On Monday for FHE, the YSA celebrated the birthdays of 2 people, one of which was our ward mission leader's. We managed to bring one of our friend there so it was great for her to see how to have a party without alcohol and other stuff. My favourite games were the ones with balloons:
The first was to hit the balloons across and when you hit it over the other teams and it touches the ground, we score points. So we were hitting balloons across like crazy.
Just a little something we had after the meeting. I'm converting them to apple ribena juice. :)
Technology has been big blessing recently. For one of our friends, there has been a need to gain a stronger testimony through reading scriptures and praying, but she doesn't understand what she reads and has been struggling to build that habit. We can't meet every day, so we have a call every night and read and pray together:
Our ward mission leader is also pretty busy, so technology is the answer to ward coordination meeting as well!
Here's another birthday we celebrated. It was with the younger sister of someone that recently got baptised. The children are really funny. When sisters visit they will sit down and have a conversation, but when us Elders come, we become their punching bags haha.
I noticed something on my desk this week...
It felt like we were at Hogwarts. To be honest, it felt a lot like Canterbury Cathedral. Similar design I guess.
We had interviews with President and Sister Stevens on Valentines Day! :)
They gave us chocolate hearts heheh.
For Chinese New Year Eve, we didn't have time to do anything special, but we were blessed as a member got us dinner out of the blue:
And it was cheap chicken!!!! Happiness in a box :) Haven't had it in a while haha.
We had an interesting service to do this week. A mall allocated the church a wall to paint:
We had to fit something special in :)
I know, I don't have much skill in artistic drawing hahaha.
We did other service as well during the week:
I helped organise a hotpot/steamboat party for Family Home Evening (FHE). It was a success, except I didn't prepare enough dipping sauces haha. I don't think I've ever prepared so much food before, there were a lot of leftovers too.
I have to give a huge thanks to helpers :P It would have been impossible to pull it off without them!
We did quite a lot of service the past week. One of the most interesting ones was tearing off wallpaper:
We counted 7 layers of wallpaper, good thing we had the steamer!
This was followed by helping a member move out an old bed:
I wish we could have had that bed. It was really nice haha.
We were treated to some really nice fish and chips after, along with many funny stories as she was a policewoman! She also kept us up to date with some important things to know, such as half the KFCs in the country closing because there's not enough chicken!
This is a dinner appointment we had with our ward mission leader. He's the best!
We took the opportunity to help cleanup, because there were lots to cleanup after feeding 6 missionaries.
I had the opportunity to help a family get started with FHE. It was sooooo fun! Brought back many memories for me. The lesson was simply about family home evening and assembling their own assignment chart. The highlight was probably playing something I played when I was young, and that's "Don't eat pete!"
Hi everyone,
It has been a really weird week!
P-day was mostly spent packing, cleaning the flat, and saying goodbye to people.
It's so nice when the people you teach make food for you! :)
The district also wanted to have food together, but it wasn't just any food, it was the SamYang spicy noodle challenge!
We had both the 4,404 SHU and 8,808 SHU. The latter is SPICY! Absolutely not for beginners!
After that I attended my last FHE in Norwich :(
It's so sad to say goodbye to so many friends :(
Everything changed the very next day. Moving in to a new area together with a new companion, sudden change in weather, figuring how to get around and who people area. Oh the whitewashing life. It was literally white! According to what people have been telling us, there's this storm called the Beast from the East which brought Siberian winds to us. It's the heaviest snow I've ever been in!
Temperatures went as low as -6 degrees Celsius...
Everything was freezing!
We just had to build a snowman as a district haha.
Many of the appointments we had cancelled because of the snow. The country really shuts down in times like these. There were no buses to get us to some places so for one of the appointments we had to bring out our bikes and cycle about 12miles (19km)
It was really slippery, I fell down about 4 times. Once while walking and 3 times on the bike. The long distance we travelled was probably worth it because...
The shop is very deceiving, from the top it looks like a tiny shop, but there's a staircase that leads to the basement which is a network of tunnels that used to be WWII bunkers. The food was good and not too expensive! It's actually a really well known shop in Norwich.
At a dinner appointment one evening, a member asked me if I liked English food. I found it hard to answer because all I could think of was roast dinners and fish and chips, I could think of more desserts than foods here. English actually eat a lot of food from everywhere which makes it hard for me to pinpoint English food. But that's what I've been enjoying the whole mission, food from everywhere!
Here's the best meal of the week!
We called it Jollibee, with reference to the fast food chain in the Philippines. It was simple spaghetti and fried chicken which was absolutely delicious!
The highlight of the week was a mission tour with half the mission. It was like a zone conference but it was half the mission and we had President Paul V Johnson who's president of the Europe Area. He has worked in the CES before and is really knowledgeable and familiar with the scriptures. It was incredible during the Q&A session where he always had scriptures to use to answer our questions.
One of my favourite things that he taught was from Ether 6 in the Book of Mormon. He likened our lives to the journey of the Jaredites across the sea towards the promised land. The winds never ceased to blow their barges towards it. It was really rough journey but they were always moving forward. When they were buried in the deep, they were unharmed because "their vessels were tight like unto a dish", and the Lord "did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters". He said that is like keeping our covenants. So long as we are always keeping our covenants, we will never sink down to destruction, but kept afloat and still moving forward. God is trying to get us somewhere, if the "waters" in our life remained calm, we'd never get where we need to be!
I was assigned to put up a musical item for the tour, and was given permission to source for talent, and so I did!
I managed to put together a choir and even got a pianist. It sounded great even though we only had less than 30 minutes of practice before the meeting started. I was supposed to have arrived earlier but my train got cancelled that morning :( Good thing I did what we do in the Singapore stake, which is to record the individual parts and send it out to the choir members so that they can learn their parts on their own. By the time we got together, everyone already knew their parts and we simply worked on singing together!
We do not have a photo of the half mission together yet but I'll share it once they send it out. By chance, I got to meet my first district that I ever lead!
Luton power! :)
Something interesting I did with some members here was to help set up a birthday party!
Those icicles were pretty cool! I'm glad to say, I didn't slip and fall this time :) The snow wasn't as bad as the first time but many people still couldn't get to church. It was great that we at least had sacrament meeting instead of cancelling church altogether. I've been told we just passed the day where the hours of sunlight and darkness are equal. So, the good news is that it's only going to get warmer and warmer from now on, but knowing the British weather, we'll have to see...
Last Monday was the last P-day of Elder Umba from Congo. He and I came to London at the same time but he's leaving earlier because he had served in Africa for a few months before coming here. We all went to Norwich to do something fun!
He score 99! Which is sadly the highest among us all. We're all completely out of practice. I was second highest at 78 which is worse than the last time I played if I remember correctly.
We played missionary ball on the pool table where each person is assigned a colour and we try to knock out all the other colours but our own. However we don't know each others colour!
Doing missionary work here in Dereham is very different from Norwich. Things that I did there don't seem to work as well over here, so we've been trying different things. The district has been very supportive and came down to help!
We met at one of our ward missionaries' home before we started off...
Let the tactical side of me get to work...
There's always some stuff going on at Norwich and this was something pretty interesting. It's the queen made out of knitting! Someone had a lot of time to spare!
We also continued our dinner and chinese checkers like last transfer! We also did some handstands just for fun. I still have the balance for it, but not quite the muscles anymore haha. Got to work it up again! My current flat is just so cram for any of that.
Opposite our flat is an old historic Anglican church that has a bell tower. When I first moved here, I noticed that they ring it every Sunday morning for about 15 minutes and I felt it was rather noisy with no proper tune to it. I told Elder Amado "one day I have to tell the person a thing or two about ringing the bells!"
In our "treasure hunt" for former investigators who have a lot of potential, we were led to knock on the door of a man and his son who actually are one of the bell ringers! They had discontinued previously because of his wife, but recent circumstances may have softened her heart. They invited us to go up the tower one of the P-days when they practice, and so we did last week!
They pull on these ropes that rotate the bells further upstairs...
The lowest sounding bell up there which is the largest, weighs approximately a ton! It would be nasty if it falls down! Anyway, after learning how it works, I don't think it's really possible to get nice tunes out of those bells haha. They have 8 notes in E flat majoy, but with the difficulty of coordinating the ringing of the bells, it's probably impossible to do some music with it. I guess I'll just have to deal with it haha.
Last P-day was also Sister Khan's last, so we wanted to make it really special. We chose to eat at the good o'l Wetherspoons:
By chance, we also found a really good place that not many people seem to go to...
And what seemed to be a perfect view of Norwich City!
We even had the Norwich Cathedral in the background! and the Sun was setting right behind us too.
It has been raining a lot over here, but once in a while there are clear skies, in those pockets of sun lit days, are wonderful service opportunities:
We were given these handy jumpsuits to protect our clothes from the paint! That's very thoughtful!
Being Easter, I thought we'd get some Kinder eggs for district meeting:
We got Sister Khan an extra large one since it's her last district meeting!
Finally, going back to where I started off, the biggest highlight was attending general conference. We watched most of the sessions at the chapel, but for one of them, we got invited to some members' home for lunch before watching the next session there!
9 Apr 2018
Hi everyone!
Well, I'm spending another 6 weeks in Derehan, this time I'm with Elder Browning from Utah! We were blessed with good weather the past week, and since Elder Browning is good with riding bicycles, we used it a lot more.
16 Apr 2018
We also had Zone Conference and it was an extra special one held at Hyde Park Chapel, so we got to go to London again! :D
It was one of the most spiritually uplifting Zone Conference I've attended. We had special visitors, Brother and Sister Alldredge. Brother Alldredge is the brother of Sister Stevens, and he was the Mission President in this very mission 18 years ago. In fact, they are here for a mission reunion. He and his wife came with much counsel for us.
I do not have time to share everything but the one thing I'll share is the one thing I've been pondering about a lot lately. Being close to the end of the mission, I've been thinking a lot about sure ways to remain active and faithful after the mission. Brother Alldredge pointed out that when the first presidency was announced, it was done at the Salt Lake Temple. He told us that had never been done before. It was done for a reason, as President Nelson mentioned about beginning with the goal in mind-- the temple. And with that, Brother Alldredge said: "If you want to stay true and faithful to the end of your lives, stay focused on the temple." To give him a little more credit, he has recently finished serving 3 years as Temple President of the Salt Lake Temple.
The mission has taught me that the standards of the world are dropping further and further from the Lord's standards. It is getting difficult to live the gospel, but there opposition to evil as much as there is opposition to good. There are an increasing number of temples today and they are getting closer and closer to members all over the world. They are there for our protection!
We were given smartphones in Zone Conference as well!
I must say, I probably understand how older people feel when first being exposed to something high tech. I was feeling a little anxious trying to use the phone. I've been using the old phones for almost 2 years now along with an iPad, switching from that to a Samsung A5 was quite a change but I've finally gotten used to it and it's been such a powerful tool!
With so much sun, there has been a lot of service opportunities as well. This one was my favourite:
You don't realise how dirty it is until you actually clean it!
Last but not least, there was a surprise visit last Sunday!
It was Sister Maughan from my MTC group! Just to make it clear, it was not to visit me. Her grandma goes to this ward and had recently celebrated her Diamond Wedding with the family.
Well, this week is going to be so different. New area and new companion again. This is the middle of my 16th transfer and I'm going to have my 16th companion. I must be a terrible companion hahaha. Change is the only constant in my mission. I used to hate it and resistance to change is probably a weakness of mine, but I've come to really appreciate it on the mission, because I learn so much from it.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
Hi Everyone,
What a stressful week it has been. My new companion is Elder Angeiras from Brazil! He has been such a great companion helping me to adjust to this new area.
As I had to take the train from Norwich to Ipswich, I simply packed my stuff and spent the remaining time of P-day at Norwich. It was really nice weather that day!
We went up to the Norwich Castle as it has a really nice view of the City:
Last district pic :( I don't know how many more goodbyes I can say in the mission, it's getting harder and harder each time!
The week I moved into Dereham, it snowed all week. Now moving into Ipswich, it rained all week. It actually got pretty cold too! What was pretty cool was a double rainbow we saw!
I don't think I've seen a double rainbow on the mission yet. When we saw it, we joked that it was a sign that we were doing the right thing at that point of time.
Here's our district picture from district meeting:
I also had exchanges on Thursday. Coincidentally I was supposed to have exchanges at Norwich on Thursday as well. I spent a day at good old Colchester where my first exchange was!
I was with Elder Brinkerhoff, we had some really fun conversations with people on the street! That's the Colchester Castle in the background.
On Saturday, there was a stake primary activity and the theme was about missionaries! We were asked to help out with a station for the children:
We practiced asking and answering gospel questions with them. I was really amazed at how they answered the questions. I don't even think I could answer the way they did when I was their age. They're definitely going to be really awesome missionaries in future!
Next to us was a station where they wrote letters to missionaries serving from the stake. One of the children wrote a letter for me haha.
Some photos were given to us from the Prophet's visit last week. I didn't have time to get them last week but here they are now:
Hi everyone!
Wow it has been sunny all week. It makes me wonder how long it will last haha. Well actually, it was sunny all week but P-day, which was rain and super strong wind.
The past week has been pretty much finding and food. We had lots of interesting conversations with people. One of them can't read, and another is a Messianic Jew. It's going to be really cool when we see them again this week.
On the food side, I've had lots of chicken this week which has been great haha.
I was asked to carve a roast chicken for the family. I was given a pretty sharp table knife, still worked and tasted great! :) It was a Portuguese family that we were with and we had some really delicious stuff. One of my favourite is that pastry with cheese next to the chicken.
After dinner, we went to visit one of their neighbours, who agreed to come over for Family Home Evening this week. It's going to be fun!
I have been trying to finish up the curry sauces I have with me and I took the opportunity to share it while on exchange:
It was as delicious as ever! I have yet to meet anyone who hasn't liked curry from Singapore :)
It's always cool when the people you teach make food for you!
We had some sort of Jamaican chicken soup with yam. Super yummy!
I'm seriously running out ideas for district pics haha. We found an empty picture frame and used it.
Hi Everyone!
Being Elder Miller's last P-Day in Canterbury, we had to be sure to go to the Cathedral!
We were quite lucky as during the time of our visit, there was a choir practicing along with an organ. It was really nice.
A lady inside the Cathedral explained to us that the Cathedral, as well as all the old churches around Kent were built by Catholics, but are now owned by the Anglican Church. She even went on to describe how they took over... which I would not like to describe here.
We also had Family Home Evening with the Young Single Adults in the ward. All of them who attended were recent converts! They're amazing people!
So with transfers, this is our previous district...
Here's one my favourite photos with Elder Örtegren so far:
What's great about Elder Örtegren? Everything! He's so brilliant and talented! He plays the piano by ear which is insane to me. He's my personal jukebox now heheh. One of the best things is well, is that he also cooks! Healthy too!
This is compared to what I made:
We received a referral during the week and set out on what I'd like to call a side quest. The couple lived in our perspective, in the middle of nowhere!
On a more spiritual note, we've had one of the best conversations I've ever had on the street last week. This person had a ton of questions and we somehow were able to answer all of them using the Book of Mormon, in a non-bashful way. He really liked the way we answered his questions, and agreed to meet up again, and he also came to church!
We've been focusing a lot as a district on being familiar with the Book of Mormon and using it to help the people we teach. All of us missionaries were asked to speak on Sunday, and I decided to speak about the Book of Mormon. I shared how I gained my testimony that it is true, and I'll share it here:
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When I was about 15 years old, I was determined to read the Book of Mormon from the beginning till the end on my own. I was a pretty slow reader, and also had many distractions as a teenager. However, after about a year, I finally did it. (Yes, I did get through 2 Nephi.)
I came to the last chapter where Moroni was about to seal up the records, but before he did, he left a promise to all who would read the book. He said:
"2 And I seal up these records, after I have spoken a few words by way of exhortation unto you.
3 Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.
4 And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.
5 And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things."
Growing up in the church, I had heard many people mention the miraculous answers they have received. I wanted some sort of special experience myself, and so after reading that last chapter, I got on my knees and prayed, as sincerely as I could. I did not feel anything spectacular or out of the ordinary. I tried waiting a little longer, but still didn't feel like I received an answer I was expecting.
Eventually I did receive an answer. I cannot remember how long it took. But I will never forget the distinct impression I received that I knew to be the answer. I probably continued on reading in doctrine and covenants, and came across a verse early on in section 6 which reads:
"D&C 6:23 Did I not speak peace to your mind concerning the matter? What greater witness can you have than from God?"
When I read this verse, I began to think back on how I felt as I was reading the Book of Mormon. Peace was the best word to describe it. At that moment, I realised what God was trying to tell me; that as I was reading the Book of Mormon, I already knew it was true. I did not need a greater witness.
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I'm grateful to be able to receive answers to prayers. Knowing that the Book of Mormon is the word of God has helped me build my faith in Jesus Christ, and know that He is our Saviour and Redeemer. The coming forth of the book is in itself a prophesy fulfilled, and I know that we can always trust in the Lord no matter how dark life may seem to get at times. For everything that He says will be fulfilled, even the triumph of good over evil.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
7 Nov 2017
Transfer 12 Week 2Hi Everyone!
Ah, it was a rocky week, many ups and downs, but still fulfilling!
I find that the instant comfort I get as a missionary often comes from food haha. At our flat right now, the closest place to shop is LIDL. The fun thing about shopping there is every week, there will be 4 fresh foods and 4 meats that go really cheap. So Elder Örtegren and I would get those things and take up the challenge of making a meal out of it. Elder Örtegren is full of surprises. I just found out his mom is a chef and so he's picked up some pretty neat cooking skills. We bought some pork and minced beef last week that were on sale. He cooked the pork and here's what he made:
I'm blessed! :)
I cooked the minced beef and tried out lasagna for the first time!
It was...alright. Haha.
We got to have a meal with our ward mission leader:
Here's our district meeting picture for the week...
I'm seriously out of ideas!
Here's the lowest point of the week:
It think the highlight for me was Sunday. I felt kind of exhausted from the week but really felt renewed after church. Elder Örtegren and I got to know one of the members much better. She basically shared her life story, which was full of challenges and many tragedies. However, as she faithfully kept going on, there were also many incredible miracles in her life. Those miracles and blessings only came as she stayed true to her faith and did her very best. It made me think of what if there were challenges in my life and I just gave up halfway through, I'd probably be losing out on blessings! That's my food for thought for the week.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
15 Nov 2017
Transfer 12 Week 3Hi Everyone!
The past week has been filled with so much fun and excitement! My P-day is on Tuesday because we had interviews on Monday. Hence the later email.
We had an amazing zone conference last Tuesday!
Here's our zone on its own during a breakout session:
I didn't have time to do a special dinner or anything, but I did have some serious craving for soup, so I just quickly made some:
On Saturday, we went to help out with some painting for a disabled person:
In the evening, the ward mission team met up at the ward mission leader's home for English roast!
Sunday was really busy. I had to play the organ in sacrament meeting, teach the law of chastity in gospel principles class during the second hour, and then teach Young Men in the 3rd hour. I also had to help out with choir practice for something coming up in December! I must say it felt really fulfilling to serve. As a missionary, there's really a lot of opportunities to receive, as well as to give. I've learnt that the greatest joy really comes when we give.
As I mentioned, we had interviews yesterday... and Sister Stevens was back!
One of the best things that happened last week was at the end of zone conference, when President Stevens announced that our mission will be going to the London Temple in December for zone conference! Such a blessing!
A few months ago, at the end of a zone conference, while President Stevens was giving his closing remarks, I remember wishing for a moment how I wish an Apostle would visit, and at that moment President Stevens announced that Elder Holland would visit. This time, I was actually wishing I could go to the temple, and President announced the plans for December to go to the temple! I just feel so blessed!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
21 Nov 2017
Transfer 12 Week 4Hi Everyone,
There were many things in the past week that just made me laugh. One of them was during a lesson. We were teaching about the restoration and our friend understood the pattern of apostasy and the starting of a new dispensation. Our conversation then went like this:
"So, we are in apostasy now yeah?"
"No, we have the priesthood and a living prophet today!"
"Really? Who? You?"
We laughed for a bit and then spoke about about Thomas S. Monson. It just hilarious being thought of as prophet. The reason he probably thought we're prophets is because of the priesthood blessing we gave him a day before that lesson. He came to the lesson looking extremely down and burdened. We felt prompted to give him a blessing after the lesson. He left that day looking so happy! He told us that right at the beginning of the lesson, he felt a surge of ideas come to him to help him with his problems. That's pretty amazing!
Apart from this friend, Elder Örtegren and I have also seen other people who felt really down when meeting with us, but leaving with more hope. One of them was a lady whom we met a week or so ago. She had a number of deaths in her family, and was not coping too well with it. She felt that meeting us was not by chance. We finally met her last week and taught the Plan of Salvation. She mentioned feeling very at peace after the lesson, like a warm blanket wrapped around her.
The last one was a man who comes from another country with a really strict religion. We met him on the streets last week and it was almost bashy but during the conversation we did figure out that he had many difficult things happen in his life and in his country, which has been causing him to doubt that God exists. We promised that we had answers to his doubts, which he agreed to meet us last weekend. The approach we had to take was rather different from normal because of his religious beliefs but he soon recognised that there were many similar beliefs. It led him to ask "so what is the difference?" We then testified of the Savior, and he asked us "how can I know?" to which we were able to introduce the Book of Mormon. He wants it in his language! He texted us a little while after we met him saying how comfortable he felt talking with us. I am pretty sure it's the Holy Ghost he felt when we testified of Jesus Christ.
It's really cool to see people have spiritual experiences without really recognising them, and it's really incredible when they begin to understand where it comes from!
Now for a little fun stuff starting from P-day, some missionaries from the zone came down to Canterbury!
We also had exchanges at Ashford last week! I was with Elder Nelson from Canada!
The next morning, we played football for exercise with members and their friends!
Well, that's all for now. As the weather has been getting colder, the people have been as well. There's also fewer people on the streets right now. We're starting to shift more to knocking on doors which isn't my favorite, but I'm sure some good things will come out of it.
Here's a sign that helps us to know what kind of people we get to speak to on a particular street:
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
28 Nov 2017
Transfer 12 Week 5Hi Everyone!
Sorry but this is going to be really short! There were internet problems...
We began sharing the "Light the World" initiative last week! It's the same as last year, where we invite everyone to do something to help or serve someone else every day starting 1 Dec till Christmas. Much like an advent calendar.We started sharing it right after our district meeting!
Something fun we've been doing during district meeting is scripture chase! I'm rather surprised how candy can make it so competitive! I'm am thrilled to know that the missionaries in the district are really good at scripture chase using the Book of Mormon.
The Christmas Spirit is really kicking in in town. The lights are all up and it's packed with people starting their Christmas shopping. Thanksgiving is not celebrated here, but Black Friday is a huge thing. It's so huge it's not only Black Friday, but Black Friday week! So the discounts go for a week!
What my Elder Örtegren and I had for Thanksgiving was a simple Singapore Laksa, made with whatever ingredients we have. It was exactly the same but it tasted really good! During dinner we watched a movie about pioneers. That's what I felt most grateful for this Thanksgiving, for pioneers both from the past and in modern times!
Something really nice during the week, was a dinner at the chapel. There's a member who's husband doesn't like missionaries. So she can't really have us over. So we have dinner at the chapel! We were talking about Christmas during dinner and I learned about the origins of Boxing Day. In the past in England, the rich used to box up left over food from Christmas Day and give it to the poor. But now with benefits and stuff, everyone can pretty much get their own food, so it has shifted to discounts on merchandise. I thought that was pretty interesting.
Anyway, have a great week!
Love,
Elder Chong
5 Dec 2017
Transfer 12 Week 6Hi Everyone!
It has been a very eventful week!
On P-day, we decided to go check out a forest! It was pretty cool with all the falling leaves!
We also discovered this curious wooden structure:
The last thing we wandered into was a herd of cows!
We had been notified by the office that we would be moving out of our flat on Friday. The flat we were staying in are for the senior couples in Canterbury. The new ones are coming in January and so we needed to give it up! Elder & Sister Rees from the office came down on Friday with the mission van:
The coolest thing in our flat is the awesome mirror:
Elder and Sister Rees brought us out for lunch during the move!
Spending time with senior missionaries is a real treat. The fact that they are out here shows how dedicated they are to living the gospel, and they carry with them so much wisdom too. Elder Rees shared something that really impacted us. With reference to challenges that he and Sister Rees have gone through, he told us they learned that "time does not heal hearts, it's the Atonement of Jesus Christ that does". He went on to elaborate how on the contrary, the ill feelings we have can worsen over time. It was a very timely piece of wisdom for Elder Örtegren and I because for some reason, many of the people we have been in contact with or are teaching recently had someone close to them pass away. For one of them, it's losing 3 people in the past 3 months. Thankfully for her heart is not hardened and bitter, and she is willing to find out where true peace comes from.
Being December now, we helped the ward set up a Nativity display outside the chapel:
Here's the complete product:
We had stake conference during the weekend! It was up at Gillingham and it was really difficult getting rides for our friends there but in the end we managed to pull it off! The stress was very similar to my days back in the military, coordinating transport and times for exercises. I felt a sense of accomplishment as everything worked out in the end.
As it's the Christmas season, stake conference here was really unique. The choir director attends Canterbury Ward and requested me to help accompany the choir on the piano. As such, my companion was dragged into singing in the choir. Because of transport, our ward mission leader and others got involved as well. In the end, the whole mission team in the ward were involved with stake choir! :P
For a rather small stake as it is, I was surprised how large the choir was, we didn't even have enough seats on the stand! It was very nice to have so much support. Our stake president absolutely loves music and he planned in so much music for the Sunday session. There was a musical number almost every 2 speakers. It was so nice! The meeting didn't feel that long too!
In the evening, we had dinner together as a mission team, being the last Sunday of the transfer:
It was awesome!
Well, that's all the big stuff that happened during the week. I must say, Elder Örtegren's family have been really kind. His mom sent a package with a unique advent calendar, one for him and one for me!
Elder Örtegren's uncle also gave him pizza money lol. We used it on the night of moving as we were too tired to cook and didn't have food anyway!
Got to go now, have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
12 Dec 2017
Transfer 13 Week 1Hi Everyone!
Last week was a blast! First off, we finally got proper pots and pans for our flat as it uses an induction cooker, and we had no induction cooker. So we were eating sandwiches for almost all our meals until we found time and approval to get the proper pans. Here's our first cooked meal!
The meal was prepared completely by Elder Örtegren. It was done real quick too! His mother is a chef so that's probably why. But he said when he helped out in the kitchen back home he was always told he did things too slow haha.
Here's our district picture for the week:
We had our ward Christmas party last Saturday and it was really fun! We were asked to do quite some stuff to help out..
We helped out with setting up the tables. It looked great!
Here are Santa's true elves:
Here are pictures from the party!
We had a special visitor too!
Here's the missionary crew:
On a more spiritual note for the week, I taught chapter 42 in gospel principles last Sunday about the gathering of Israel. I had so much fun preparing and teaching the lesson. Probably for the first time in my life, I actually used the index from the Book of Mormon. I was amazed how prophecies of the gathering are found throughout the Book of Mormon as well as the Bible. The most interesting scripture I found was in 3 Nephi 21:1-7 where Christ gave the Nephites a sign that the work of gathering Israel would have commenced, and that is when their record will be made known to the Gentiles. In other words, when the Book of Mormon comes forth. I just found it exciting to realise that we are living in a time when the prophecy of the gathering of Israel is being fulfilled! It's hard work I must say!
That's all I have for now. As a bonus, it snowed last Sunday!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
19 Dec 2017
Transfer 13 Week 2Hi Everyone!
Last week was really good, even though it rained alot!
Elder Örtegren made a Danish dish which was really nice:
We helped out with young men on Wednesday:
The second game we played was human hungry hippos!
The highlight of the week was going to the London Temple! It is a Christmas gift from President and Sister Stevens as they had to seek permission since we have to leave our mission boundaries. It was a 2 hour+ journey by train. When we switched to the last train, we went into one of the carriages and saw this:
A carriage full of missionaries!
Here's the Canterbury Crew :)
All in all it was a wonderful experience. I didn't manage to get the picture we took with a few zones at the temple, but we did take one on the way back as a zone at the train station:
The last highlight at the end of the week was the Christmas Carol Concert. It was a stake event and we have been helping out with it the past few weeks.
Between the 4 of us, we planned the whole program, did the powerpoint slides, flyers, decorations, lighting, music, refreshments etc. It was really fulfilling! Good thing it's only once a year though!
I'm really looking forward to Christmas! Have a wonderful time!
Love,
Elder Chong
27 Dec 2017
Transfer 13 Week 3Merry Christmas!
Many picture to send home this week. I'll let the pictures do the talking.
Leading up to Christmas, there were a lot of Christmas related things appearing in the shops. One of my favourites are chestnuts!
They don't seem to be that popular here so they don't sell cooked ones on the street. So we had to roast them on our own. It turned out pretty good for a first time!
Bishop and his wife were having lots of family during Christmas Eve and Christmas so they did an early Christmas dinner for us!
It was a long table that wasn't even fully extended! After dinner, they taught a really simple but fun dinner table game called chase the ace! It can include many people and it's really easy for children to play too so I'll definitely remember the game.
What also made it really fun to be there was their huge and friendly dog!
That's true love right there :)
There were some wild things in the sky as we were finding this week. There were these mass of birds that kept flying around in the sky over us. We kept walking away from them but they kept hovering above us up to a certain distance.
Just looking at them gave me goosebumps. I told Elder Örtegren it was a good thing they didn't drop their bombs all at once above us. That would have been a nasty albeit memorable experience heheh.
In our finding adventures, we also found a Christmasy street!
Another special thing leading up to Christmas was our ward mission leader's birthday! We decided to cook up a meal for him and also invite others.
Elder Örtegren made some really nice roast beef. I made a mushroom gravy to go with it. It was so nice that even though some of them didn't really like mushrooms they still had lots of gravy with mushrooms! What was also nice about this meal was that we were able to accomplish the Light the World challenge for the day. There were many that we couldn't do because it involved family. But the one for that day was to feed the hungry. That was easy!
We also had exchanges with the Elder Camara and Elder Satterthwaite at Ashford during the week. I spent the day with Elder Satterthwaite and we had a great time and some really cool miracles. One of the persons we found invited us to his place for a lesson. It turned out to be a huge place underground!
After the lesson, he insisted that we took a picture with his guitars!
For dinner, I wanted to go back to a Chinese place at Ashford to get my favourite Hor Fun:
I recommended the dishes for the rest of them again and it was all good!
For exercise the next morning, we went to a nearby court to play tennis and football:
Elder Satterthwaite taught me how to play tennis. It was really fun although I wasn't good at it. I will get better at it one day!
We were going to spend Christmas Day with our ward mission leader. We wanted to do some service by helping to clean up and prepare his home! This is before:
and then after:
It felt really good! We did some serious deep cleaning which included the carpets.
Christmas Eve was really nice and simple. Church was only an hour, and the primary children did a nativity presentation. The only problem, the pianist was ill and couldn't come! So I got called in last minute to help out. It turned out really well! We continued the day proselyting until 4pm when we were supposed to stop. I wasn't sure how it would turn out being Christmas Eve, but it turned out pretty good! The last person we stopped was most interesting. He has a Christian background but had some doubts. As our conversation went on, just about everything he agreed on and disagreed on in Christianity is what we had to share! We'll be seeing him again on Wednesday and he wants his daughter to come along too!
Our Christmas eve dinner was simple but absolutely delicious. It was chicken and rice!
Elder Örtegren's family sent a delicious sauce that I can't even pronounce but it went really well with the rice and chicken!
We didn't feel bad having a simple meal for Christmas Eve, because we knew the next day would be not only a feast but double feast!
We had brunch and Christmas Dinner together as a ward mission team!
It was a complete English breakfast, and Christmas dinner, even with Christmas pudding!
We decided to watch Cars 3 for our annual disney animated movie:
Because of the lack of interest in cars, I've never watched Cars 1 or 2. I must say part 3 was really nice though! It was a lot deeper and meaningful than I expected.
I just want to say thank you to everyone who sent packages and cards! It was such a joy to open them all. Elder Örtegren and I will enjoy lots of good food in the coming weeks, and I'll never have to buy candy for the rest of 2018 :P
I hope everyone's Christmas was filled with much joy and peace. I'm looking forward to an amazing 2018. Happy New Year!
Love.
Elder Chong
2 Jan 2018
Transfer 13 Week 4
Hi Everyone,
There hasn't been much happening. Unfortunately Elder Örtegren fell ill on Boxing Day and hasn't recovered since. We've been really blessed though. Many times when we needed something e.g. honey and lemon when his throat got really really bad, members would text us asking if we needed anything! Elder Örtegren has been steadily recovering, and we hope to be able to get out this week. We've been calling people on our phone, and even managed to have a short lesson on the phone. It's still not as great as seeing people in person though.
New Year's Eve felt very quiet and normal. We just slept right through. There wasn't too much noise at midnight as we have somewhat soundproof windows.
I've finally been able to get a hold of a picture from the temple trip. This is the only photo I have for the week:
It's strange to think that I would probably never go to the temple again with so many missionaries, but I'm grateful for the experience!
I guess I've had much time to reflect on things I want to do differently in 2018. It was interesting to plan because half the year would be as a missionary and the other half back to normal life, hence different goals to set. Hopefully I can achieve them and those that I've not achieved in 2017!
I taught the final gospel principles lesson of 2017 and had to squeeze in the last 4 chapters into one lesson. It was challenging but fun. I learned a lot about the things to come in the second coming and beyond. It's really exciting to look forward to those times. For now though, it's much work to do to prepare!
Have a blessed 2018!
Love,
Elder Chong
9 Jan 2018
Transfer 13 Week 5
Hi everyone!
Elder Örtegren and I are back in action again! Yay! And then it pretty much rains almost every day and with strong wind too... :( however on Boxing Day, I got a really good Jumbrella (jumbo umbrella) from NEXT at a really cheap price and it's keeping us and people we stop to talk to nice and dry. I don't have many photos this week, as it's been a lot of normal missionary work.
One day we went to the chapel and were shocked to find this:
We panicked and called Bishop immediately to report that someone had broken the plastic covering of the nativity and stolen baby Jesus! :( This has happened in the past before and hence they started drilling in plastic covers for the set. We were shocked that someone had the guts to break it this time! Bishop instructed us to take in the rest of the statues just in case. We did so and brought them in to the closest room to the entrance, only to find baby Jesus inside! The sisters had brought it in! So it seems that it was actually he wind that had destroyed the plastic! That's how strong the wind has been here! We immediately called bishop who was so relieved! That's our little story of making judgements too soon!
On Saturday, we realised the chapel was in a mess, and thought maybe the members assigned to clean the chapel this week weren't able to do it. We check the rota on the notice board and realised it was actually our turn! >.< so we cleaned it really good and even took down the Christmas decorations:
We cleaned it so good and tidied it up really well, that a member came up to ask if we had cleaned the chapel. It was really noticeably much better! But after Sunday it's pretty much back to what it used to be haha. Elder Örtegren and I thought how frustrating it must be to be a cleaner, because we were exhausted after cleaning the chapel and making it really nice, and very quickly our "work" gets ruined. It made us really appreciate cleaners, and also be more careful never to leave a mess wherever we go.
This week we taught someone really interesting. She said she became a Christian 3 years ago, but before that she was a witch in Malaysia! We were so shocked and curious that we asked what she did. Apparently she has killed people before... then she clarified it was spiritually. (Whew!) She does have a very extreme belief in Christianity I would say, and she's really sceptical about the Book of Mormon, but she's beginning to trust us, and is even willing to live the word of wisdom! What's really cool is that the sisters are teaching someone who's preparing for baptism, and both of them are really good friends. So strange that we found them separately. We have high hopes for them!
A brief note on the passing of President Monson. It was quite a shock to me even though we knew his health wasn't all too good. I'm really grateful for his example. I've learned that prophets are types of the Saviour, and the life of President Monson has really been just that, especially in his service and ministering to people. Looks like we'll be having 2 new apostles being called soon. Looking forward to see who they are!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
16 Jan 2018
Transfer 13 Week 6
The past week has been so good! On P-day the Elders and Sister from Ashford came down for some volleyball. It was really good because the teams were pretty balanced. I was terrible at the start but got the hang of it by the end of the game.
The very next day, we had district meeting and the zone leaders came down again. We all looked alright, then someone brought up how painful it was waking up:
True enough, ALL of us were in pain! That's how hard we played! I had no idea volleyball used so many different muscles. The only muscles that weren't aching for me were the abs and back. That's because of the regular push ups and sit ups I do. But everything else was so sore!
Something great happened on Tuesday as well! The senior couple missionaries arrived on that morning! They are the Jacksons and will be serving here for 18 months! They are much needed! We decided to stop by to welcome them in their flat.
We thought they had been at Preston MTC for a week before arriving, but we soon found out they flew right from the USA! Yet that very evening they came to institute to meet all the Young Single Adults. They're so awesome! We did our best to help them settle in. It's a huge sudden adjustment because everything is different, but I'm sure they'll settle in quickly!
The past week was full of extremes. We met an extreme atheist on the street who did proclaimed that he did a PhD on Jesus Christ and the Bible and concluded that it is all a story and God does not exist. He ended the conversation by saying: "I'm too old for you to win!".
Another time we met an extreme agnostic. He studies philosophy, religion and ethics. There was not a single question where he could answer a yes or no, even non-religious questions! Every answer was almost an essay/speech of how it could be a yes and could be a no, and he could never know. We very quickly realised that we could stand or sit and talk all day and get to nowhere.
Finally, we met an extreme believer through online proselyting. It just so happens that she is a really good friend of someone the sisters are teaching who is preparing for baptism. You know how sometimes when we speak, we may use certain word's too many times such as "like". For this person, the word was Jesus! She has such a strong desire to follow Jesus Christ, however, some of her beliefs then to be extreme and as she explained it seems to be misinterpretation of scriptures in the Bible. She's skeptical about the Book of Mormon but is willing to learn more so we'll see how that goes!
To end off, we had an extreme week of blessings! We've found so many people to teach and prepare for baptism, and also got so many people to church. It must be because of the mission-wide fast we had last Sunday. There have always been great blessings that come from that.
On Sunday, we had a long overdue Boxing Day dinner!
It's like Christmas all over again! It didn't happen last time because most of us missionaries and members were ill. Sometimes blessings are delayed but they always come!
On our own, this is the last thing we cooked together:
The reason it's last is because I'm moving to Norwich! More exciting things to come!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
23 Jan 2018
Transfer 14 Week 1
So it's a new start in a new area! Norwich is really huge! There's a pretty big university here as well with many Chinese students. We're teaching one right now. There are many times where I get to know the people we teach a lot more, and discover what amazing things they did in the past, and what their dreams for the future are. We really want them to succeed!
I'm glad to be able to come to Norwich. It's my 6th area in a 6th zone, the mission currently has 9 zones so I'm really going through a mission tour! :)
This is my last photo with Elder Örtegren during transfers:
I'm going to miss him for all his strengths as a missionary, as well as being such a good cook!
My new companion is Elder de Sousa from Portugal:
He's amazing! He's one of the few companions I have that is a convert!
The week has been full of rain, wind, some hail and snow. Here's what the hail looked like:
It was tiny pellets of ice falling from the sky! The Lord has been merciful though, when we went out talking to people as a part of the district, all the bad weather stopped for an hour. It was raining until right before we started, and it hailed ice when we finished. My jumbrella has been particularly useful!
We accomplished our goals, so the reward is ice cream! :)
There have been a few recipes that I've done so much that I'm able to produce them pretty quickly, Using that I was able to prepare a lot of food during dinner time, and surprise the district with a quick district lunch after district meeting:
Here's what the weather mostly looked like in the past week:
I had an interesting encounter with some members in the past week. It was with a convert of almost 2 years who came to the chapel (which is the stake centre) to receive her patriarchal blessing. Before she was baptised, she had a really terrible partner and asked her sister in Utah for help. Her sister told her to invite missionaries over. She did so and after a blessing on the home, a blessing for herself, and also making changes in her life, she's now in a much better place than she thought she would ever be at! And now, about to get a glimpse of the divine potential she has, as she receives her patriarchal blessing.
As she's from a different ward, she had to get a ride down here. The member who gave her a lift is 82 years old. He has travelled many places in the past. One of them was in Cyprus. He was a branch president there at one point. One Sunday, a mother went into the church building with her baby of a couple months old, and soon enough the mother was baptised. This member who was the branch president could remember holding the baby in his arms every week. Fast forward to today, the baby is now a missionary in this very mission!
It just reminded me of how the church makes the world feel so small. As well, how sharing the gospel with our loved ones can really bless their lives. We may never know who's prepared and who isn't, but when one accepts the gospel their lives are changed forever. I always share with other missionaries that feel hesitant to extend invitations or share the gospel, that the most one can do is say no--which we take as not yet! :P
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
30 Jan 2018
Transfer 14 Week 2
It has been a pretty good week. Lots of travelling around involved. Norwich is about the size of my first area in Cambridge, which is HUGE. Norwich is at the centre and there are many surrounding villages. The difference though, is that I do not have a car. We received a referral who just so happens to live at one of the furthest villages. It was so far that we almost thought it wasn't even in our boundaries! It was tricky planning to get there as we had to change buses, but what was more difficult was planning the journey back, because the bus services ended early. After making sure we could get back to Norwich, we headed off!
For the journey back, there wasn't any buses going back to Norwich, so we had to catch a train. Here's a funny little experience:
We had zone conference last week too!
It was strange to be back in the chapel that I attended my first zone conference 18 months ago:
Elder de Sousa and I have been enjoying our time in the kitchen during dinners. He said he can't really cook so I have been instructing him how to, and he cooks really well!
There were quite some funny moments talking to people last week. The most awkward conversation was with this person who was standing not doing much, we approached him and he straightaway declared himself an atheist. Seeing that it didn't stop us from talking to him, he then shifted to "I'm busy". We went off to the side, and he was still standing doing nothing! He tried not to make any eye contact haha.
When people come right up to us to start a conversation instead of the other way round, it can either be a really good thing, or really bad. There was this dude who came right up and said to us "tell me about your magic underwear!" >.< He was one of those who would try to make a "smart" comment and walk away, so we couldn't tell him anything.
Despite all the rather weird people we come across, there are always those who are prepared somewhere. We had a return appointment with a couple who were just so ready to listen and even invited us into their home. They had actually read the pamphlet we had given them when we first met them! (That's a really good sign of real intent). One of them had met missionaries about 5 years ago, but wasn't feeling ready so he didn't learn more about it. But now, he said himself that he really wants to know more. It's going to be great!
That's all the time I have for now. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
6 Feb 2018
Transfer 14 Week 3
Hi Everyone,
The past week has been pretty cold, but good thing I'm much more prepared this winter. We had one of those days where there's all 4 seasons in a day. It got a little warm and muggy, then it rained, we had a rainbow, then it hailed a ton, and then it switched to snow. Although my umbrella is pretty huge, I have not gone out a day without it simply because the weather has been too unpredictable. Here's a picture when all of that happened:
I have learned a lot about teaching Chinese. At first I couldn't really understand how difficult it is for them to understand what church and religion is. Our friend was asking a lot of questions that at first, didn't make sense to us, or rather we couldn't tell how it led to her concerns. However thanks to a convert who's helping us out, she explained a lot since she was in the same situation a few years ago.
To elaborate a little more, our friend was asking questions about cults and political parties. What we realised later on is that she's trying to figure out what kind of organisation our church is. Whenever we are exposed to something completely new and foreign, we try to compare it what we know or understand. In this case it is really difficult, but as our convert said, don't worry, it just takes time to get used to it.
Even feeling the Holy Ghost for the first time can be quite something. We always try to help our friends recognise it. For many that I've come across, it's usually at the chapel where they feel it most powerful for the first time.
Here's a picture from district meeting:
The moon looking pretty big the past few days, and we had clear skies at night:
We have been continuing on in our little dinner adventures:
We also had exchanges last week and it was fun! I got to be in the car heheh.
We made enchilada together :) It was delicious but not quite enough for 4 hungry elders haha.
The time when evaluating the exchange is really special. It's a nice time to sit down and think about not only how the exchange went, but also how I've been doing on the mission. I recalled what Elder Uchtdorf taught in the recent YSA devotional about how looking forward, it is difficult to tell how the dots connect. We try our best to make the right decisions and Heavenly Father will guide us, although he won't make every decision for us. When we look backwards, it helps us see how the dots actually connect!
As I was reflecting back on the different things that happened, the areas I've been, the companions I've had, it all seemed to connect. Recently, I received an envelope with a note written by myself sometime in the middle of last year. I listed 6 things that I wanted to achieve/be by the time I received the letter. Well, I saw 5 out of 6 that was achieved, but that one last one has still been a struggle. But President Uchtdorf's talk was an answer to it. Hopefully I can figure it out soon!
Got to go now. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
13 Feb 2018
Transfer 14 Week 4
Hi everyone,
Last week has been pretty fun. There have been quite a number of birthdays going on. On Monday for FHE, the YSA celebrated the birthdays of 2 people, one of which was our ward mission leader's. We managed to bring one of our friend there so it was great for her to see how to have a party without alcohol and other stuff. My favourite games were the ones with balloons:
And of course to get rid of the balloons. We played the classic game of popping each other's balloon.
Our focus in district meeting and as a zone is to resolve concerns of the people we're teaching. We have found that when they ask questions, it can have a deeper meaning or concern about doctrine, or social things. Hopefully we'll see more progression!
Technology has been big blessing recently. For one of our friends, there has been a need to gain a stronger testimony through reading scriptures and praying, but she doesn't understand what she reads and has been struggling to build that habit. We can't meet every day, so we have a call every night and read and pray together:
I noticed something on my desk this week...
It was from a while ago, when we were talking to people outside the university, Domino's was giving out these coupons. We read the fine print and realised it was the final week to claim it!
Who doesn't love free pizza? :)
I've been using a lot of Chinese recently and it's been pretty fun. I think it's actually improving. Well, actually, many words are starting to come back to me. Sometimes I like to think that if President Nelson could begin learning it in his 50s, I should be able to do it :) If you're not sure what I'm talking about, refer to Elder Neil L. Anderson's talk in the October 2017 General Conference.
That's all I have for the week. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
20 Feb 2018
Transfer 14 Week 5
Hi Everyone,
This email is going to be really short, but with lots of pictures :)
We went to the Norwich Cathedral on P-day last week:
We had interviews with President and Sister Stevens on Valentines Day! :)
For Chinese New Year Eve, we didn't have time to do anything special, but we were blessed as a member got us dinner out of the blue:
We had an interesting service to do this week. A mall allocated the church a wall to paint:
We had to fit something special in :)
We did other service as well during the week:
There are direct blessings that come :)
Sorry I'm out of time. Had been really busy today preparing something special. Will write more about it next week. The hint is: Happy Chinese New Year! :D
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
27 Feb 2018
Transfer 14 Week 6
Hi everyone,
Well, so this is what I was up to last P-day:
We did quite a lot of service the past week. One of the most interesting ones was tearing off wallpaper:
This was followed by helping a member move out an old bed:
I had the opportunity to help a family get started with FHE. It was sooooo fun! Brought back many memories for me. The lesson was simply about family home evening and assembling their own assignment chart. The highlight was probably playing something I played when I was young, and that's "Don't eat pete!"
We got creative and switched from cereal to using the refreshments haha.
I didn't realise this at first, but I sure have a testimony of FHE. I still have vivid memories of specific FHEs and the fun things we did as a family that we all can look back to. It truly strengthened my family.
We were told that a part of one of the Avengers movie was filmed at a building in the university here:
So we decided to take a picture at the building!
Being transfers week, we had to take more pictures just in case:
It feels like the busiest transfer I've ever had on my mission. Elder de Sousa and I seem to be running from one appointment to another every day. Running in the cold air has been hurting our throats, so we found a way to help with that:
It just so happens that we have the exact same scarf and they were both Christmas presents before we started serving together. I guess that counts as a companionship scarf if there ever was such a thing haha.
Sad news for transfer is that we are not staying together, and none of us are staying in Norwich. :(
Elder de Sousa will be going to London!!! So happy for him! I on the other hand will be taking over Dereham area which is in the same district. I guess we're running short on missionaries. It feels really strange because I feel like I'm in the perfect place to be and have many people to teach, but it seems like the Lord has other plans. Can't wait to see what is to come!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
5 Mar 2018
Transfer 15 Week 1
Hi everyone,
It has been a really weird week!
P-day was mostly spent packing, cleaning the flat, and saying goodbye to people.
The district also wanted to have food together, but it wasn't just any food, it was the SamYang spicy noodle challenge!
After that I attended my last FHE in Norwich :(
Everything changed the very next day. Moving in to a new area together with a new companion, sudden change in weather, figuring how to get around and who people area. Oh the whitewashing life. It was literally white! According to what people have been telling us, there's this storm called the Beast from the East which brought Siberian winds to us. It's the heaviest snow I've ever been in!
Many of the appointments we had cancelled because of the snow. The country really shuts down in times like these. There were no buses to get us to some places so for one of the appointments we had to bring out our bikes and cycle about 12miles (19km)
It was to a Philippino Feast, and also getting a referral!
The travel there was much more difficult than it looks. At times we felt like giving up, as we were wondering if it was really worth it. When we did arrive at our destination, we knew for sure it was worth it :) Back at the flat, Elder Amado and I were discussing how if we had turned back, we would have been so exhausted, frustrated and hungry. Enduring to the end is really worth it. Perhaps life can be like that sometimes.
The last thing that made it feel so weird was that church was cancelled. We used that time to visit members instead. The snow has all melted already, (I hope hearts have too as well haha) so I hope this coming week will be back to normal, although there never really feels like a normal day for a missionary. We'll see what happens next week!
Have a wonderful week!
Love.
Elder Chong
12 Mar 2018
Transfer 15 Week 2
Hi everyone,
The weather has been warming up and it has been great! Spring is really coming I hope haha.
We have a new missionary in the district and we decided to go get some good fish and chips last P-day.
At a dinner appointment one evening, a member asked me if I liked English food. I found it hard to answer because all I could think of was roast dinners and fish and chips, I could think of more desserts than foods here. English actually eat a lot of food from everywhere which makes it hard for me to pinpoint English food. But that's what I've been enjoying the whole mission, food from everywhere!
Here's the best meal of the week!
The highlight of the week was a mission tour with half the mission. It was like a zone conference but it was half the mission and we had President Paul V Johnson who's president of the Europe Area. He has worked in the CES before and is really knowledgeable and familiar with the scriptures. It was incredible during the Q&A session where he always had scriptures to use to answer our questions.
One of my favourite things that he taught was from Ether 6 in the Book of Mormon. He likened our lives to the journey of the Jaredites across the sea towards the promised land. The winds never ceased to blow their barges towards it. It was really rough journey but they were always moving forward. When they were buried in the deep, they were unharmed because "their vessels were tight like unto a dish", and the Lord "did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters". He said that is like keeping our covenants. So long as we are always keeping our covenants, we will never sink down to destruction, but kept afloat and still moving forward. God is trying to get us somewhere, if the "waters" in our life remained calm, we'd never get where we need to be!
I was assigned to put up a musical item for the tour, and was given permission to source for talent, and so I did!
We do not have a photo of the half mission together yet but I'll share it once they send it out. By chance, I got to meet my first district that I ever lead!
Something interesting I did with some members here was to help set up a birthday party!
I am NOT a fan of sponge bob but the party set up looked incredible! In casse you're wondering, we didn't set up everything, we just did one part of it which were the walls. It reminded me of a few DIY weddings I helped out with in the past.
Well, that's all I have for now. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
19 Mar 2018
Transfer 15 Week 3
Hi everyone,
The "Beast from the East" strikes back!!! Just as I thought things were starting to get warmer again, we get snow once more!
Last Monday was the last P-day of Elder Umba from Congo. He and I came to London at the same time but he's leaving earlier because he had served in Africa for a few months before coming here. We all went to Norwich to do something fun!
He score 99! Which is sadly the highest among us all. We're all completely out of practice. I was second highest at 78 which is worse than the last time I played if I remember correctly.
Doing missionary work here in Dereham is very different from Norwich. Things that I did there don't seem to work as well over here, so we've been trying different things. The district has been very supportive and came down to help!
and off we went! We did find new people to teach and the ward missionary gave us some referrals too! :)
I learned something interesting this week from Proverbs 16:33
"The lot is cast into the lap; but the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord."
There are quite a number of situations in found in the scriptures where the drawing of lots is used such as Nephi and his brothers deciding who should go ask King Laban for the Brass Plates (1 Nephi 3:11), the distribution of the lands to the Israelite tribes (Joshua 14:1-2) and choosing one of the apostles (Acts 1:26).
Well, that's how we decided which companionship should go to which sector. I felt like Elder Amado and I received "Laman's lot" hahaha. When I said "we" found people to teach it was really the other missionaries!
There are exciting things coming in the mission. Smart phones are coming soon! We have to complete some training videos before that will happen. Also, President Nelson and Elder Holland are coming in April! I've been asked to prepare a musical number for that so that'll be fun! I wanted to do something big but because of restrictions I have to have a smaller choir than at the mission tour :( We're still going to make it great though!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
26 Mar 2018
Transfer 15 Week 4
Hi everyone,
It's going to be a short one today. Weather has been getting better which is really nice, because people are slightly nicer too!
We had district meeting and exchanges on Tuesday:
We brought these apple and peach gummy rings which didn't taste as good as I expected, but filled us so much we didn't have lunch.
I did lasagna this time because it's so much easier than the enchilada and was more filling too.
I don't have much to tell about tracting. Each time we knock we really don't know what to expect. We knocked on this really big house that looked pretty decent from the outside, but when we went in, it reeked of mould! The person had a copy of the Book of Mormon that look pretty old. He said he never found time to read it. I picked it of the shelf and found that it was covered in what would probably be at least a few years of dust. It was so dusty the cover felt slippery! He will be coming to general conference so that'll cool!
So far on my mission, in every house that I've been to that is extremely mouldy, the person living there is kind of quirky. I still can't get my mind over whether if it's the people are not good at taking care of their homes, or that the mould may lead to quirky personality, or both. I would wish it's the mould, because that would mean we can easily help them by cleaning out the mould!
Something that has been really fun over here is working with a couple in the ward that are ward missionaries. They are pretty old and not really able to come out with us, but they have been in the ward for a long time and know A LOT. They have been giving us ideas on what to do and even promising former investigators to go look for. It's quite fun because it's like a treasure hunt. We just got a lead on a promising family to teach and will go out on the search! Hopefully there will be some good stories to tell! :)
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
2 Apr 2018
Transfer 15 Week 5
Hi everyone!
Wow it has been quite a week to finish the transfer! General Conference was absolutely amazing and historical. I won't say much because those at home will only watch it this weekend, but I must say do not miss any of the sessions! Especially the priesthood session for the men.
This has been a really short transfer, especially since only 2 out of the 5 Sundays were the normal 3 hours block of church, due to snow and conference. I have learned so much though in this packed 5 weeks and feel a greater resolve to improve, especially after watching general conference.
Sometimes we really have to be careful about what we wish and hope for. Previously I had wished Elder Holland would visit the mission and that was announced at zone conference right when I thought about it. The other time I was wishing to go to the temple, and President Stevens announced that we would go to the temple as a mission in December! Well, here's another story in Dereham...
In our "treasure hunt" for former investigators who have a lot of potential, we were led to knock on the door of a man and his son who actually are one of the bell ringers! They had discontinued previously because of his wife, but recent circumstances may have softened her heart. They invited us to go up the tower one of the P-days when they practice, and so we did last week!
Last P-day was also Sister Khan's last, so we wanted to make it really special. We chose to eat at the good o'l Wetherspoons:
By chance, we also found a really good place that not many people seem to go to...
It has been raining a lot over here, but once in a while there are clear skies, in those pockets of sun lit days, are wonderful service opportunities:
Being Easter, I thought we'd get some Kinder eggs for district meeting:
Finally, going back to where I started off, the biggest highlight was attending general conference. We watched most of the sessions at the chapel, but for one of them, we got invited to some members' home for lunch before watching the next session there!
They're the best! :)
Well, that's all the time I have right now, for those who are watching conference this weekend, I hope you enjoy it! The work is moving forward, exciting things are in store! There is reason to be hopeful and optimistic about the future as terrible as it is getting in the world. What a great blessing to be living in this time!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
9 Apr 2018
Transfer 16 Week 1
Well, I'm spending another 6 weeks in Derehan, this time I'm with Elder Browning from Utah! We were blessed with good weather the past week, and since Elder Browning is good with riding bicycles, we used it a lot more.
It has saved us tremendous amount of time getting around.
Our area is huge and covers a number of towns. We wanted to try working at places other than Dereham. So we tried going to Swaffham!
The very first thing I noticed was the smell over there. The distinct smell came from the farms everywhere! They had modern day windmills too:
There is a lot of potential there. The only thing that makes it rather difficult is how our schedule is really controlled by the bus schedules.
There has been a lot of hype in the mission recently with goals that we have set. Many districts have been posting videos along with that on the mission facebook page. There were all sorts of interesting ways that the missionaries throughout the mission did it. We also did one after district meeting! Here are some shots from the video:
Elder Nelson from Canada is really really good at basketball! Something really interesting in the district right now is that we have a new Sister missionary from Utah and her name is Sister Browning. So we have an Elder and Sister Browning in the district! Sounds like a senior couple haha. They have never known each other, but checked out the Family Tree app and found that they are 7th cousins! That's a really cool feature from the app.
Elder Browning and I have been studying the talks from the recent general conference, picking out warnings and specific counsel. Something that stood out to us was what President Nelson said:
"In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost."
In these times there are way too many distractions that can draw us away from God. That's something I feel the mission has taught me a lot. Thankfully there has been a lot of counsel given in general conference of what we can do, such as learning the pattern of receiving personal revelation.
I am truly grateful for living prophets and apostles today. Watching general conference has really strengthened my testimony that this church is led by Christ Himself. I am also grateful for the opportunity to meet President Nelson and Elder Holland this Thursday as they begin their tour around the world!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
16 Apr 2018
Transfer 16 Week 2
Hi everyone!
Wow! Just WOW! I've definitely had the best day in my life last week!
Before that, the latest weather update of the week is fog:
It actually made it feel a little colder! It was kind of fun though!
One sad thing before the Prophet's visit on Thursday was Sister Couper flying off to Temple Square to continue the rest of her mission. On her last P-day, we brought her to right where we started on her first P-day:
Yup! The best fish and chips place in Norwich again! The boss there must know us pretty well already because he gave us free chocolate! :D We were all joking about how Sister Couper could be the next assistant to the Mission President at Temple Square. It's so strange to think how district and zone leaders there are all Sisters!
Anyway, district meeting on Tuesday was great! Having an Elder and Sister Browning, we thought to use the FamilyTree app to do a relative search. At the end we discovered that everyone was somehow related to each other! Well, everyone but me :(
It's alright, we know we are all related somewhere way up in the family tree, we just don't have the records to show it yet. One day!
On the way back from district meeting, we met someone who lived in Indonesia!
She was really nice, and even shared photographs of some charity work that she has been doing for her village back home. There was no way we could tell she did so many amazing things in her life except by talking to her. She lives in another town not covered by our boundary and has met missionaries years ago. They didn't give her a Book of Mormon so we gladly gave her one!
We were able to do some service this week as well:
So much soil! It reminded me of digging a fire trench back in the army haha. Here's a little story to tell, there were 2 pairs of wellington boots available, the husband's and the wife's. One was size 10-11 and one was size 6-7. Which happened to fit Elder Browning and me! This is one of the rare times that it's great to have small feet haha.
The night before the meeting with the Prophet, we travelled to London to stay over. Reason being it takes us about 4 hours to get from Dereham to Hyde Park Chapel that includes a bus, train ride, tube ride and quite a bit of walking. Although the meeting was at 2pm on Thursday, we had to go in early in the morning to do a sound test and practice on the organ, and also a choir rehearsal. We hardly get to see the chapel at night so...
We stayed at the assistants' flat which was fun!
What a special experience it was to be with President Nelson and Elder Holland, and to shake their hands. It went so quickly as we were behind schedule, but it was still something I will never forget. I had met President Nelson in Singapore quite a number of years ago, and I don't feel like he's aged at all! Without a doubt the mantle of the Prophet rests upon his shoulders.
Sister Holland spoke of sincere prayer, which echoes the recent counsel to increase our spiritual capacity. Sister Nelson spoke of the ancestors of our investigators desperately wanting their work to be done. When one soul is saved on earth, it's never only one soul, because it affects the ancestors and the posterity of that person.
Elder Holland is a massive ambassador of missionaries staying active after the mission and how the mission no matter what location, will bring about a deep conversion for each missionary. I do feel that way for myself. Each area and companion I've been with has left deep impressions and life lessons that I would never have gained without serving a mission. As Elder Holland said, the mission is not simply something on a list to be checked off.
President Nelson testified so strongly of the restored gospel. In his lifetime of almost a century, he has seen the church grow from 600,000+ to 16,000,000+ members. He has witnessed so many barriers being broken down that allowed the gospel to be spread through all the world. The gospel is the answer to the many complex problems in the world today. He shared a specific example in Ghana where it was previously stuck in cycle after cycle of poverty. It wasn't until there was a substantial number of LDS members that were paying their tithes there, that cities began to be built up, and now they have a temple today. The blessings of tithing are real!
President Nelson mentioned that in the past, it would take hours of waiting just to meet with officials of various nations. But today, there are increasing numbers of officials coming to them instead, seeking help in solving their countries' problems. The world is in commotion and it is getting worse, but as the standards of the world fall further and further from the Lord's standards, the restored gospel and the church will stand out brighter and brighter.
The last thing that had a deep impression on me is family history. President Nelson shared how he was meeting with a Chinese official, and he explained about temples and family history. The official then pulled out of his pocket a long list which contained a record of his ancestry! He said finding out who his ancestors were made him happy. The Spirit of Elijah is real! We were told that as missionaries, our best friends in the ward should be the ward mission leader, and the family history consultants. I really need to improve on the latter.
In case you're wondering, here's what the meeting looked like:
It's kind of sad how I'll never ever get to play the organ and conduct a spectacular missionary choir for the Prophet. I'll never ever forget this day.
After the meeting, we went to take a mission photo at the good o'l Royal Albert Hall. I don't have the pictures yet, but after that I went to take as many pictures as possible with previous companions. Sadly I didn't get all of them but here are some:
It was great to see so many familiar faces and have all the memories rush back into my mind. I'm getting really old in the mission now, I could only recognise about half the missionaries in the mission. President Nelson mentioned in one of the reports that he didn't need to travel everywhere because he could meet people from all over the world here in London. That is so true! Through members, missionaries and people on the street, I've met people from just about everywhere in the world!
Transitioning from being with a Prophet and the whole mission for a day, to back in Dereham is quite a huge change haha. It's like from Heaven back to Earth. We tried applying what we have learned. One example is changing my topics on the street here in Dereham as there are many elderly people. I began talking about family history and oh my goodness I got so many more conversations and they really have so much interest in doing it, in fact many of the people we spoke to have already done it and some claim to have gone back to the 11th century.
To keep the fire of missionary work going, we also did a district blitz:
We tracted together and I did the same idea of drawing lots. This time the Sisters got Nephi's lot and found someone really cool. Guess who got Laman's lot! Again. Must be because I am the oldest in the district hahaha.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
24 Apr 2018
Transfer 16 Week 3
Hi everyone,
There's an emergency transfer and I only found out this morning that I have to move to Ipswich. You can kind of expect something really big if President Stevens calls you at 7.30am haha. Ahh, it's been a hectic day.
Anyway, last week was awesome! The weather has been on our side the whole week. We decided to go out into the woods on P-day:
We looked for all the good trees to climb
We also had Zone Conference and it was an extra special one held at Hyde Park Chapel, so we got to go to London again! :D
It was one of the most spiritually uplifting Zone Conference I've attended. We had special visitors, Brother and Sister Alldredge. Brother Alldredge is the brother of Sister Stevens, and he was the Mission President in this very mission 18 years ago. In fact, they are here for a mission reunion. He and his wife came with much counsel for us.
I do not have time to share everything but the one thing I'll share is the one thing I've been pondering about a lot lately. Being close to the end of the mission, I've been thinking a lot about sure ways to remain active and faithful after the mission. Brother Alldredge pointed out that when the first presidency was announced, it was done at the Salt Lake Temple. He told us that had never been done before. It was done for a reason, as President Nelson mentioned about beginning with the goal in mind-- the temple. And with that, Brother Alldredge said: "If you want to stay true and faithful to the end of your lives, stay focused on the temple." To give him a little more credit, he has recently finished serving 3 years as Temple President of the Salt Lake Temple.
The mission has taught me that the standards of the world are dropping further and further from the Lord's standards. It is getting difficult to live the gospel, but there opposition to evil as much as there is opposition to good. There are an increasing number of temples today and they are getting closer and closer to members all over the world. They are there for our protection!
We were given smartphones in Zone Conference as well!
With so much sun, there has been a lot of service opportunities as well. This one was my favourite:
Last but not least, there was a surprise visit last Sunday!
Well, this week is going to be so different. New area and new companion again. This is the middle of my 16th transfer and I'm going to have my 16th companion. I must be a terrible companion hahaha. Change is the only constant in my mission. I used to hate it and resistance to change is probably a weakness of mine, but I've come to really appreciate it on the mission, because I learn so much from it.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
1 May 2018
Transfer 16 Week 4
Hi Everyone,
What a stressful week it has been. My new companion is Elder Angeiras from Brazil! He has been such a great companion helping me to adjust to this new area.
As I had to take the train from Norwich to Ipswich, I simply packed my stuff and spent the remaining time of P-day at Norwich. It was really nice weather that day!
The week I moved into Dereham, it snowed all week. Now moving into Ipswich, it rained all week. It actually got pretty cold too! What was pretty cool was a double rainbow we saw!
Here's our district picture from district meeting:
On Saturday, there was a stake primary activity and the theme was about missionaries! We were asked to help out with a station for the children:
Some photos were given to us from the Prophet's visit last week. I didn't have time to get them last week but here they are now:
That was the best choir I've ever conducted in my life! Not that I've conducted many though haha.
Well that's all for the week. There's some good stuff going on here, but as always there's so much opposition. It's almost coming to a point when things are going well, I kind of expect something will come up which we have to try and resolve. It just makes my heart sink when investigators give up or get too distracted. Members are extremely important! That's what we're trying to do better here and so far it's been going well. As we were doing weekly planning a thought came to my mind that it's not about how well fellowshipped they are on Sunday, but more of what goes on the rest of the week. The struggle now is that everyone is so busy here but I know we can work things out.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
8 May 2018
Transfer 16 Week 5
Hi everyone!
Wow it has been sunny all week. It makes me wonder how long it will last haha. Well actually, it was sunny all week but P-day, which was rain and super strong wind.
The past week has been pretty much finding and food. We had lots of interesting conversations with people. One of them can't read, and another is a Messianic Jew. It's going to be really cool when we see them again this week.
On the food side, I've had lots of chicken this week which has been great haha.
After dinner, we went to visit one of their neighbours, who agreed to come over for Family Home Evening this week. It's going to be fun!
I have been trying to finish up the curry sauces I have with me and I took the opportunity to share it while on exchange:
It's always cool when the people you teach make food for you!
I'm seriously running out ideas for district pics haha. We found an empty picture frame and used it.
The idea was to make it like a photo booth!
I learned a lot about priesthood blessings last week. Through experience and also it just so happened that it was the topic of discussion in Elders Quorum on Sunday. As I think of blessings that I've received in the past, the words said were exactly what I needed to hear. I like to take little notes in my journal to remember the things said and the outcome after the blessing. We studied the talk from President Nelson in the priesthood session last General Conference. What stood out to me was making sure that when we give blessings, it is not just a prayer. I'm really grateful for priesthood blessings!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
15 May 2018
Transfer 16 Week 6
Hi everyone,
So, it looks like I'll be finishing my mission in Ipswich with Elder Angeiras! The past week has been awesome!
P-day was a real summer! Unfortunately it was a bank holiday which means not many buses to take on that day. It was difficult getting anywhere, BUT... we were invited to a Portuguese BBQ! :D !
The chicken and ribs were soooo good!
The district has been really kind. Somehow behind my back, they planned a surprise for me!
They even got a cake and pepsi! I really felt ministered to.
Tuesday was a special day. There was a meeting to attend at London, and I was companions with Elder Meier for a day!
I served with him in London about a year ago. It felt so familiar being with in the tubes and all.
I think I have forgotten how wide the gaps between the tubes and the platforms can be! I could actually fall into this particular one!
Here's a picture from the meeting:
At some point during the meeting, I realised that 6 of my previous companions where all there! So I had to take a picture with all of them! They were so kind to agree to it haha
I most probably will never be with all of them in one place again... Seeing so many of them reminded me of how blessed I've been to have so many amazing companions. Each one of them has helped me become a better person, and wow their backgrounds and talents always amazed me.
On the way back from London, Elder Meier and I grabbed some takeaway dinner to eat on the long train ride home.
It was our last dinner together! :( He's finished his mission today!
Although it isn't something new, I've recently discovered some special effects on the camera on our smart phones, so we used it to take a district pic:
This was one of my favourite effects :)
I've been really spoiled with Portuguese food this past week!
I've had Feijoada and Bacalhau something. The Bacalhau is made with salted cod fish but there are many different styles and I can't remember which one I had. The dish was one that caused me a situation where the stomach was done but the mouth was not!
Good thing there are occasional Saturday football games with members and investigators here! I definitely managed to burn off the extra energy from all the food I had during the week.
I ran around the court trying to be useful haha. Up till now, I still can't play football.
Opportunities are always everywhere! In the selfie, the other Elders were talking to someone who was watching us play football. He came to church on Sunday!
Working with members here has been great! We seem to be getting more referrals and they are looking really good. One of them is a family and with younger kids. We did a family home evening and prepared something to help them understand prayer:
Despite such a simple thing, it was still amusing for us to see it work!
There is always opposition in all things. When things are going well, something else will happen too. Recently many people have been catching colds of some sort. Members, investigators and missionaries alike have fallen a little ill. We gave our ill investigators priesthood blessings and I know for sure they felt the Spirit.
Elder Angeiras has been kind of ill in the past week as well with a really congested nose. Since I don't sleep as easily as he does, at some point at night, he begins to breathe in such a way that sounds exactly like Darth Vader. I haven't told him yet but I'll probably try recording the sound one of these days haha.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
17 May 2018
Transfer 17 Week 1
Hi everyone!
It has been a really nice week. Not just the weather, but also with things going on in the area haha.
For P-day, there were some of the missionaries in the district that had wanted to go to a castle just outside of Ipswich. They have been here for 3 transfers (about 4 months) and still had not had the chance to go. They were now about to leave and really wanted to go. Something I've learned early on in mission is that if you want something to happen... "JUST DO IT!". We knew all the logistical challenges of getting there but applying that principle, we made it happen anyway!
The castle is out in the middle of nowhere at a place called Framlingham.
It has a moat too! It made us think of the fortifications that Moroni made to cities in the Book of Mormon.
We tried fitting the whole district into a little hole meant for archers to position themselves.
There was a little museum there as well with some little things to do. I must say it had a really bloody history!
Our district has changed up a bit, now 4 out of 6 of us speak Portuguese!
We had a service opportunity this week to do some weeding:
We spoke to the neighbours there while working. The conversation started when he noticed me taking out an annoying weed which roots go really deep, but are fragile and pretty much always snap as we try to take it out. This somehow progressed to us learning that the husband was living right there in WWII, and he pointed out where an air raid shelter used to be in the garden. As always it transitioned into a gospel conversation, which we hope to continue when we go back!
On Saturday, we had a priesthood breakfast!
Good o'l English breakfast it was! It is kind of early to commemorate the restoration of the priesthood haha, but free food is always good! I am really curious as to what will be happening in June though.
Speaking of food...
This was my favourite at the flat this week was the herbal chicken soup we made in our attempt to clear out my stock of food from home. We definitely ate too much that night! >.<
There's nothing really interesting in Ipswich, as many people on the street tell us, but there are little things to look out for:
There's a housing estate here that's called California!
Someone told us that this was the steepest road in the whole of Ipswich! What he didn't tell us was that at the end of it was a Kingdom Hall!
On Sunday, we were supposed to have a lunch appointment with a member, who had to cancel as they were not feeling well. However, during church, someone else invited us over for lunch after church! I discovered that this very member baptised my previous companion Elder de Sousa back in Portugal! That's craaaazy!
After lunch we taught his sister who is not a member of the church. I can't remember when was the last time I've been in a lesson about the Restoration that felt so powerful. 80% of the lesson was in Portuguese but I certainly felt the Spirit! I realise that I was the only one in the room who isn't a convert. I've absolutely loved being around so many Portuguese members during my mission. They have a very strong passion and love for the gospel of Jesus Christ. The fact that many of the Portuguese missionaries in the mission are converts is a manifestation of that.
Something else that they definitely love and share is food! There's always so much of it! And in the mentioned lesson, all of us enjoyed the lesson so much that we all forgot about the extra pizza in the oven!!!
All is well!!! :D
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
29 May 2018
Transfer 17 Week 2
Hi everyone,
I don't have too many photos to share this week, but it was still a great week despite me falling sick on one of the days. I still have a really congested nose and a bit of the chest but I hope it doesn't get worse again.
Anyway, for P-day last week we played chicken charades. Which is basically charades but you use the noisy chicken to aid you:
It is quite surprising what you can do with a rubber chicken to describe or act out words! The tablets were there to help some of the missionaries translate the words into Portuguese. It was a good opportunity for them to learn some new words!
On Wednesday we had Interviews with President and Sister Stevens! It was held at our chapel and so we had to open it up earlier. We almost missed the bus and had to run. I think that's why I fell sick the next day because it was a cold morning. Running in cold air just messes me up. We took a nice picture at the end:
It was actually quite sad because this was our last interviews with President and Sister Stevens. This is their last transfer like me! I had to have an interview to renew my temple recommend and it was so good! It's nice to confirm that I do have a testimony!
There was a baptism on Saturday!
It wasn't someone I taught, but I did interview her. What made it interesting was that she is deaf! Nonetheless she feels the Spirit and has a testimony!
Unfortunately I have no more time, but have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
4 Jun 2018
Transfer 17 Week 3
Hi everyone,
Well, it's been another great week. What was probably the most eventful thing that happened was the service we did:
It was the same place we did 2 weeks ago but there's so much to do that we brought the other elders along.
When we first came to help out we started from the parts closest to the house. We continued from where we left of and went further. It got really wild! We're talking stinging nettle, thorns and other stuff:
We thought the snake was alive but thank goodness it wasn't. I've seen many hedgehogs here but all of them are always dead. It supposedly smelled really bad, but I've recently lost my sense of smell...
I had exchanges with Elder Gago last week as well:
It was so fun to be on exchange with him again. I had an exchange with him about a year ago in London. The coolest thing that happened during the exchange was our impromptu tracting. We stopped by a former investigator but there was no one at home. We then decided to knock 3 doors left and right, and ended up knocking the whole street. We probably encountered the meanest people I've ever met at the door, but the last one we knocked was a really amazing young couple. They asked really good questions and were willing to listen. They asked us to come back too!
I thought I'd explain why I was holding a pole at the baptismal font in the picture last week. Well, I was trying remove a spider! Anyway, just to elaborate more on the baptism of the deaf lady, I've been really blessed to experience feeling the spirit despite being deaf myself. Not the same deafness like her, but deaf as far as understanding Portuguese. We've been having amazing lessons with someone who's progressing really well. The lessons are mostly in Portuguese. The times I've felt the Spirit the most was when she prayed for answers during the lessons. Though I could not understand a word (other than amen), I knew she was receiving her answer right there!
There have been some random things in the flat I'd like to share:
First, is this duvet sheet! The missionary who left this behind must have been a huge fan of frozen! Well, Elder Andrade here is a big fan too! He probably liked it even more because I washed the sheet before exchanges ;)
Just a little background for the second thing. There's this vacuum that's really popular in England called Henry. There has been one in almost every missionary flat I've been at! Now having grown up in the church, whenever I hear the word Henry, what automatically comes to my mind is Henry B Eyring. I've discovered that I'm not the only one!
The missionary that did this really put so much effort into doing this!
That's all for now. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
12 Jun 2018
Transfer 17 Week 4
Hi everyone,
I'll jump right into it.
Last P-day we had root beer float! With A&W root beer too! The Sisters found a place in town to get it and they're not telling us where!
Here's something new I noticed in the kitchen:
The sign at the sink says: "This is a self cleaning kitchen -- that means you do it yourself!". Elder Gago here is making it happen!
We watched the 'Be One' celebration on P-day as well. It was soooo awesome! I've never seen anything like it in before and I had no idea Gladys Knight was a member of the church! There was a wonderful spirit felt as we watched the celebration. The message I am getting from everything that's been going in the church is that we need to love each other better and be more united.
On Tuesday, we had a dinner appointment at a place called Aldeburgh. It's at the coast and is a 2 hour bus ride away from Ipswich! It was a long ride!
We planned to visit some other members that live there since we don't get to go there often. There was one home that we stopped by, and it was a family that we have never met before. We knocked persistently but no one answered. I could tell the door wasn't locked but was hesitant on opening it as it may seem like an intrusion, especially since we don't know them. Suddenly there was a strong gust of wind (it wasn't a windy day at all) and it blew the door open! We were then able to shout "hello anybody home!?" and it woke the mom up from her nap. We were able to have a good conversation, share a scripture with her, exchange contacts and invite her to church! I must say it felt really creepy at first when the wind blew the door open, but it worked out well!
We were somehow assigned to make many different videos this past week for the zone and zone conference as well. We had to do them during district meeting since we were conveniently all together:
One of the best things that happened last week is a surprise meal!
I love surprise dinner appointments! Especially when it's a Portuguese BBQ!
What also went really well last week was sports night:
There were many people that came including investigators! I hope we can keep this up!
The last thing I'll share is probably the best service project I've ever participated in on my mission. It was initiated by a member in our ward to help his nextdoor elderly neighbours in their garden. The neighbours are so old that they are not able to take care of their garden, and it had almost become a jungle! The reason why it was such a wonderful service project was because the member invited other neighbours in the street to help out as well! He wasn't expecting much but everyone he invited came and some even asked other neighbours. They all brought the much needed tools which we missionaries didn't have. As we were working, other neighbours saw what was going on and came and help too! I could tell they were all happy, not just working in the garden but also getting to know each other. Towards the end, one of them prepared lunch for everyone and another neighbour got ice cream as well!
So many times they were saying that this was great! We did too! One of them is going to have us visit her school as she is a teacher! We look forward to seeing what happens from there! I forgot to take a picture of the garden before, but there was so much to clear that we had to hire a skip for all the stuff!
That's all the time I have. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
19 Jun 2018
Transfer 17 Week 5
Hi everyone,
This transfer just seems to get better and better! Last week was a bitter sweet time. We had our final zone conference with President and Sister Stevens. :( The bitter part is realising I won't be seeing everyone again or in a long time... What was really sweet was how the music I organised all went really well. It has been a stress in my mind preparing all of that the past few weeks. The assistants asked me to write a song for them and I've never done that before! I didn't actually write any tunes, just lyrics to fit into the tune of another hymn. Looking back there have been so many things I never thought I would do on a mission. It has really stretched me and helped me improve on some things I can already do. I'm really grateful for the many supportive missionaries I've been around with. They have always given me the reassurance to try doing new things, or execute ideas that come up.
On top of having my final zone conference, I also had my final exchange with the zone leaders. Their car had been sent for repairing and in the mean time were loaned a Mini Cooper!
Elder Bleyl and Brinkerhoff are really tall and so we had hardly any leg space at the back haha. I was with Elder Bleyl this time.
He is awesome! Something I'm going to miss about being a missionary is being with other amazing missionaries!
The Sisters were also having exchanges so we had a lot of missionaries to exercise together. I learned how to throw a football. I was as awkward as someone trying to learn to play the piano for the first time. There's too many things to learn to do in this world!
Exciting things are going on in our zone. Many people are getting baptised and preparing for it. What I do notice is that many of them are pretty young. And this has kind of been happening since the historic broadcast from President Nelson to the youth. The youth in the wards here have been inviting their friends to activities and church. Whether they were found in the streets, brought in by friends or family, they all are really special. The Lord knows where His valiant spirits are and they always respond to the Holy Ghost.
I feel that my capacity to recognise the Spirit has grown a lot more on the mission. I hope that it will continue to grow even after! I definitely understand better what it will take, and part of that is a lot of obedience and diligence.
I can't believe it's my last week here on the mission! I'm confident that there will be good things to come!
We've been passing this structure a lot this past transfer and we didn't say much about it at first, but this week Elder Angeiras commented that it looked a lot like a spire from the Salt Lake Temple! It kept making us think of the temple! That's where we want to be! :)
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
25 Jun 2018
Transfer 17 Week 6
Hi everyone!
I guess I have a little bit of time to wrap things up. Last week was so good. Had a lot of meals with members, and I think I've put on weight haha. I'm sure going to miss Portuguese food!
This last transfer has been on a spiritual high. This final week especially. We had another baptism in the ward and that's the third in the span of 6 weeks. That's something I've never seen on my mission up till now! On that same day of the baptism, I received a message from someone that Elder de Sousa and I found in Norwich. That person decided to be baptised! I can't think of a better way to end off my mission... except a trip to the London temple!
It has been a wonderful 2 years! I don't even know how to put it all together in words. Heavenly Father has really taught me much about life in a short span of 2 years. I've definitely learned to trust Him more. I feel that throughout this time, my desire to follow the Saviour has increased and I want to be more obedient to everything that is required of me. I do not anticipate an easy and smooth-sailing life after the mission, but I feel better prepared to face whatever is ahead of me with faith and hope.
To finish off, I would like to share my favourite scripture from Ether 12:6
"And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
I know that after a trial of faith comes a witness of the truth, and through it all we achieve greater growth and even increased faith in Jesus Christ.
I'm looking forward to being with friends and family soon! :D
Love,
Elder Chong, Woon Shuan
England London Mission
2016 - 2018
Elder Chong's last Monday on his mission will be today 25 June 2018. He will fly from London to Boston first to be with his sister Su Min the next day on 26 June. He will then fly from Boston on 19 July to visit his older sister Fei Min in Los Angeles. He will fly home to Singapore from LA to arrive at Changi Airport at 9pm on Sat 28 July 2018!
Journey home to Singapore
26 June 2018
15 May 2018
Transfer 16 Week 6
Hi everyone,
So, it looks like I'll be finishing my mission in Ipswich with Elder Angeiras! The past week has been awesome!
P-day was a real summer! Unfortunately it was a bank holiday which means not many buses to take on that day. It was difficult getting anywhere, BUT... we were invited to a Portuguese BBQ! :D !
The district has been really kind. Somehow behind my back, they planned a surprise for me!
Tuesday was a special day. There was a meeting to attend at London, and I was companions with Elder Meier for a day!
I served with him in London about a year ago. It felt so familiar being with in the tubes and all.
Here's a picture from the meeting:
At some point during the meeting, I realised that 6 of my previous companions where all there! So I had to take a picture with all of them! They were so kind to agree to it haha
On the way back from London, Elder Meier and I grabbed some takeaway dinner to eat on the long train ride home.
Although it isn't something new, I've recently discovered some special effects on the camera on our smart phones, so we used it to take a district pic:
I've been really spoiled with Portuguese food this past week!
Good thing there are occasional Saturday football games with members and investigators here! I definitely managed to burn off the extra energy from all the food I had during the week.
Working with members here has been great! We seem to be getting more referrals and they are looking really good. One of them is a family and with younger kids. We did a family home evening and prepared something to help them understand prayer:
There is always opposition in all things. When things are going well, something else will happen too. Recently many people have been catching colds of some sort. Members, investigators and missionaries alike have fallen a little ill. We gave our ill investigators priesthood blessings and I know for sure they felt the Spirit.
Elder Angeiras has been kind of ill in the past week as well with a really congested nose. Since I don't sleep as easily as he does, at some point at night, he begins to breathe in such a way that sounds exactly like Darth Vader. I haven't told him yet but I'll probably try recording the sound one of these days haha.
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
17 May 2018
Transfer 17 Week 1
Hi everyone!
It has been a really nice week. Not just the weather, but also with things going on in the area haha.
For P-day, there were some of the missionaries in the district that had wanted to go to a castle just outside of Ipswich. They have been here for 3 transfers (about 4 months) and still had not had the chance to go. They were now about to leave and really wanted to go. Something I've learned early on in mission is that if you want something to happen... "JUST DO IT!". We knew all the logistical challenges of getting there but applying that principle, we made it happen anyway!
The castle is out in the middle of nowhere at a place called Framlingham.
We had a service opportunity this week to do some weeding:
On Saturday, we had a priesthood breakfast!
Speaking of food...
There's nothing really interesting in Ipswich, as many people on the street tell us, but there are little things to look out for:
On Sunday, we were supposed to have a lunch appointment with a member, who had to cancel as they were not feeling well. However, during church, someone else invited us over for lunch after church! I discovered that this very member baptised my previous companion Elder de Sousa back in Portugal! That's craaaazy!
Something else that they definitely love and share is food! There's always so much of it! And in the mentioned lesson, all of us enjoyed the lesson so much that we all forgot about the extra pizza in the oven!!!
All is well!!! :D
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
29 May 2018
Transfer 17 Week 2
Hi everyone,
I don't have too many photos to share this week, but it was still a great week despite me falling sick on one of the days. I still have a really congested nose and a bit of the chest but I hope it doesn't get worse again.
Anyway, for P-day last week we played chicken charades. Which is basically charades but you use the noisy chicken to aid you:
On Wednesday we had Interviews with President and Sister Stevens! It was held at our chapel and so we had to open it up earlier. We almost missed the bus and had to run. I think that's why I fell sick the next day because it was a cold morning. Running in cold air just messes me up. We took a nice picture at the end:
There was a baptism on Saturday!
Unfortunately I have no more time, but have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
4 Jun 2018
Transfer 17 Week 3
Hi everyone,
Well, it's been another great week. What was probably the most eventful thing that happened was the service we did:
When we first came to help out we started from the parts closest to the house. We continued from where we left of and went further. It got really wild! We're talking stinging nettle, thorns and other stuff:
I had exchanges with Elder Gago last week as well:
I thought I'd explain why I was holding a pole at the baptismal font in the picture last week. Well, I was trying remove a spider! Anyway, just to elaborate more on the baptism of the deaf lady, I've been really blessed to experience feeling the spirit despite being deaf myself. Not the same deafness like her, but deaf as far as understanding Portuguese. We've been having amazing lessons with someone who's progressing really well. The lessons are mostly in Portuguese. The times I've felt the Spirit the most was when she prayed for answers during the lessons. Though I could not understand a word (other than amen), I knew she was receiving her answer right there!
There have been some random things in the flat I'd like to share:
Just a little background for the second thing. There's this vacuum that's really popular in England called Henry. There has been one in almost every missionary flat I've been at! Now having grown up in the church, whenever I hear the word Henry, what automatically comes to my mind is Henry B Eyring. I've discovered that I'm not the only one!
That's all for now. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
12 Jun 2018
Transfer 17 Week 4
Hi everyone,
I'll jump right into it.
Last P-day we had root beer float! With A&W root beer too! The Sisters found a place in town to get it and they're not telling us where!
We watched the 'Be One' celebration on P-day as well. It was soooo awesome! I've never seen anything like it in before and I had no idea Gladys Knight was a member of the church! There was a wonderful spirit felt as we watched the celebration. The message I am getting from everything that's been going in the church is that we need to love each other better and be more united.
On Tuesday, we had a dinner appointment at a place called Aldeburgh. It's at the coast and is a 2 hour bus ride away from Ipswich! It was a long ride!
We were somehow assigned to make many different videos this past week for the zone and zone conference as well. We had to do them during district meeting since we were conveniently all together:
What also went really well last week was sports night:
The last thing I'll share is probably the best service project I've ever participated in on my mission. It was initiated by a member in our ward to help his nextdoor elderly neighbours in their garden. The neighbours are so old that they are not able to take care of their garden, and it had almost become a jungle! The reason why it was such a wonderful service project was because the member invited other neighbours in the street to help out as well! He wasn't expecting much but everyone he invited came and some even asked other neighbours. They all brought the much needed tools which we missionaries didn't have. As we were working, other neighbours saw what was going on and came and help too! I could tell they were all happy, not just working in the garden but also getting to know each other. Towards the end, one of them prepared lunch for everyone and another neighbour got ice cream as well!
That's all the time I have. Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
19 Jun 2018
Transfer 17 Week 5
Hi everyone,
This transfer just seems to get better and better! Last week was a bitter sweet time. We had our final zone conference with President and Sister Stevens. :( The bitter part is realising I won't be seeing everyone again or in a long time... What was really sweet was how the music I organised all went really well. It has been a stress in my mind preparing all of that the past few weeks. The assistants asked me to write a song for them and I've never done that before! I didn't actually write any tunes, just lyrics to fit into the tune of another hymn. Looking back there have been so many things I never thought I would do on a mission. It has really stretched me and helped me improve on some things I can already do. I'm really grateful for the many supportive missionaries I've been around with. They have always given me the reassurance to try doing new things, or execute ideas that come up.
On top of having my final zone conference, I also had my final exchange with the zone leaders. Their car had been sent for repairing and in the mean time were loaned a Mini Cooper!
Exciting things are going on in our zone. Many people are getting baptised and preparing for it. What I do notice is that many of them are pretty young. And this has kind of been happening since the historic broadcast from President Nelson to the youth. The youth in the wards here have been inviting their friends to activities and church. Whether they were found in the streets, brought in by friends or family, they all are really special. The Lord knows where His valiant spirits are and they always respond to the Holy Ghost.
I can't believe it's my last week here on the mission! I'm confident that there will be good things to come!
Have a wonderful week!
Love,
Elder Chong
25 Jun 2018
Transfer 17 Week 6
Hi everyone!
I guess I have a little bit of time to wrap things up. Last week was so good. Had a lot of meals with members, and I think I've put on weight haha. I'm sure going to miss Portuguese food!
This last transfer has been on a spiritual high. This final week especially. We had another baptism in the ward and that's the third in the span of 6 weeks. That's something I've never seen on my mission up till now! On that same day of the baptism, I received a message from someone that Elder de Sousa and I found in Norwich. That person decided to be baptised! I can't think of a better way to end off my mission... except a trip to the London temple!
To finish off, I would like to share my favourite scripture from Ether 12:6
"And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."
I know that after a trial of faith comes a witness of the truth, and through it all we achieve greater growth and even increased faith in Jesus Christ.
I'm looking forward to being with friends and family soon! :D
Love,
Elder Chong, Woon Shuan
England London Mission
2016 - 2018
Elder Chong's last Monday on his mission will be today 25 June 2018. He will fly from London to Boston first to be with his sister Su Min the next day on 26 June. He will then fly from Boston on 19 July to visit his older sister Fei Min in Los Angeles. He will fly home to Singapore from LA to arrive at Changi Airport at 9pm on Sat 28 July 2018!
Journey home to Singapore
26 June 2018
7 July 2018
With his two sisters in Boston!
28 July 2018
Arrival to Singapore at Changi Airport
19 Aug 2018
Homecoming talk at Bukit Timah Ward during Sacrament meeting on Sunday morning
At the end of all meetings at Church, he participated with his father, in a group with the Bishop, to confer the Melchizedek priesthood to youngest brother Ray and ordained him to the office of an Elder.
24 Sep 2018
24 Sep 2018
Just past noon on Monday morning and I saw this photo Shuan posted on Facebook! My immediate response by way of comments, "Oh Piano Guys! Awesome!!! They are my Favorites Paul Anderson, AI, Shuan, Jon Schmidt & Steven Sharp Nelson! https://bit.ly/2Ice9WM"
Scroll up above to view the post of Elder Chong's latest weekly letter home that has been recorded in the blogpost (Click here to jump to the top or beginning of this blog post.)
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