Baptism

This week we had some new experiences beginning with a new place to eat and a new Senior Couple arriving in Malaysia.

We enjoyed a great meal with one of the members of our branch who is returning to the Philippines next week. We treated Melody Avena to the Cheesecake Factory, which just opened about a month ago in Tshim Shao Tsui. It was like experiencing a bit of paradise to eat something that did not look, smell, or taste Chinese. Melody is retuning to get married and, as one Sister stated in her testimony Sunday, is going home to multiply and replenish the earth. 

Karen and Melody have become very close in the months that we have served in the Branch and is feeling bad that her friend is leaving but good that she can go home and live a life without being separated from those she loves.

The Montagues arrived this week from St. George to serve as the Public Affairs Senior Couple in Malaysia this week. We talked to them on the phone for a few minutes to introduce ourselves and are excited to get to know them better. We know that he is a retired Radiologist and that she is a stay-at-home-mom. They have six children and seven grandchildren. One of their grandchildren was born two weeks before they entered the MTC and one of their sons was married just two days before they entered the MTC.

Mary Rose Ellerma, one of the investigators that the Sisters have been teaching, asked me to baptize her this week. This was a very unexpected blessing for me because we were told in Salt Lake before we came that Public Affairs Missionaries seldom have an opportunity to perform a baptism.

In the Temple this week we experienced a Mongolian company of ten or twelve. In the group of men attending was a really old brother that could not hear and also a middle-aged brother that was blind. This created a few challenges but somehow it all works and we get to be a part of it.

We have been able to watch a few sessions of conference and are looking forward to seeing more.

I suppose that we have been guilty of framing a Senior Mission as nothing but fun in our blogs. It is easy in the social media age to glamorize our lives and not include some of the hardships that are also part of Missionary life. So, I’ll share some of the difficulties associated with the work we do. It’s sometimes hard to be a long way from home and we are not fond of a lot of the food or the effect that it has on our digestive tract.  Other than that,  things are great.

Lynn had the opportunity to baptize Mary Rose.  The sister missionaries, Sister Alamanzor, and Sister Bacolcols,   are amazing missionaries.