Trip to Mukah and Sibu in October of 2013

In-service Trip to Mukah and Sibu

This trip, we finished on October 8^th, had an inspired and special element of having Sister Angelina and Sister Hellen travel with us to Mukah.  Sister Angelina is the Relief Society President in Sentosa.  Her husband, Brother Christopher, home town is Mukah.  Sister Hellen is Sister Angelina’s daughter and  is the Kuching District Young Women President, Chairman for the East Malaysia Youth Conference and a return missionary.  When Sister Angelina heard we were going to Mukah, she expressed the desire to travel with us.  Sister Hellen wanted to go but felt she could not because of all the work she needed to do with youth conference.  A few days prior to us leaving we received a SMS from Sister Hellen that she received an impression that she needed to go to Mukah with us.

When we reached Mukah, the Bradys had arranged for us to visit two seminary age boys and their non-member families.  The elders were sick and could not translate for us. It was determined that Sister Angelina and Sister Hellen would go with us on our visits.  With the help of Sister Hellen translating a beautiful spirit came as we taught the importance of attending seminary and they need to serve a mission.  Sister Hellen was able to teach and testify about the importance of serving a mission and for the families to learn of the gospel.

Next we went to visit Monica.  A very strong and active young women.  Monica had met Sister Hellen before and also knew of her.  There was an instant bond between them.  Monica is turning 17.  We were able to visit about seminary, youth conference and about preparing for a mission.  We also visit about putting the Savior first and the importance of taking time to study the scriptures before studying for her exams each day. 

A young single adult from Mukah, Agnes, has been attending school in Kuching but we had not been able to locate her.  The Bradys went to visit Agnes’ grandmother and Agnes was there visiting during the school holiday.  They got her phone number.  Sister Boyter was able to SMS her and get her information about Home Evening and Institute in Kuching.  We also shared with her that Sister Hellen would be to church on Sunday.  They were able to meet and she will be helping with Youth Conference.  Agnes has two other friends from Mukah who are attending school in Kuching that we will be contacting.

Rizal, the Mukah Seminary teacher, attended the In-service meeting with Bradys, Sister Angelina and Sister Hellen that late afternoon.  Our plan was to teach about the importance of personal spiritual preparation to teach.  We soon found out why Angelina and Hellen were to be there with Rizal.  He had been praying for almost a year that Sister Angelina and Sister Hellen would return to Mukah (he had met the entire family a year before) to visit with his parents who are non-members to permit him to go on a mission for the church.  He was so touched when he saw them walk through the door.  The lesson for him under the direction of the spirit went to spiritual preparation for his mission. 

At the close of our meeting, we went to see a less active young man, Stanley.  Taking Elder Brady, Sister Hellen, Elder and Sister Boyter.  We left Sister Brady and Sister Angelina behind due to the size of the home we were going to visit.  Rizal stayed with Sister Brady and Sister Angelina and another Seminary student came and they visited for another hour about missions.

Rizal’s parents did allowed Sister Angelina, Sister Hellen, and Elder and Sister Brady to meet with them.  And the parents agreed to let Rizal go on a mission after a very inspiring meeting, according to the Bradys.  Rizal brought his missionary papers to the Bradys on Sunday.  And President Lai is in the loop with help from some wonderful members.

Elder Brady, Sister Hellen,  Elder and Sister Boyter went to see Stanley, who is not enrolled in seminary and is less active.  We found Stanley out visiting with his friends.  We invited him back to his home where we met with his family who are members except for the father.  We invited Stanley to attend seminary, to come back to church and prepare for a mission.  He said he would.  However, the impression came that we should focus on his father, who is not a member.  With the help of Sister Hellen translating Iban, we learned of his love for the church and the blessings his family has received from joining the church.  Elder Boyter asked the question “What is keeping you from joining the church?”  He said smoking and alcohol.  Elder Boyter invited the father to have a blessing from Elder Brady before Elder Brady returns home to help him with these problems.  That he needed to come to church and be baptized before Elder Boyter returns to Mukah in November to see him.  He said he would.  There is a very special relationship between the father and Elder Brady.

Sunday morning while we were in Sibu, the Bradys shared that the whole family came to church in additional to all the other youth we had visited.  Stanley had on his white shirt and tie and the family were dressed in their very best.  They looked very happy sitting as a family.  There they heard the testimony of Sister Angelina and Sister Hellen at Fast and Testimony Meeting. 

There was a combined Young Men and Young Women class that Sister Hellen taught about serving missions, youth conference and seminary.

When we returned from Sibu on Monday, we invited the Bradys, Sister Angelina, Sister Hellen and Rizal for dinner as part of in-service.  In addition we also invited Angelina’s relatives Joseph, Pauline and their daughter Jessica who is 21.  When we met them on Friday, there came a special relationship between Sister Boyter and Jessica.  Jessica gave Sister Boyter a special gift when we were eating Sego worms at their home.  Sister Angelina shared with them a Restoration Pamphlet.   The next morning Sister Boyter felt impressed to share a Book of Mormon and the Proclamation of the Family with Jessica and her parents, Sister Hellen had also felt the same impression that morning.

 After our in-service meal with them we went back to their home and Sister Boyter presented her gift of the Malaysian Book of Mormon with her testimony to Jessica and The Family A Proclamation to the World in Malay to the family.  The father also responded positively after reading the Proclamation.  Pauline then asked Elder Boyter for a Priesthood Blessing to help her with her health issues.

We hope this will lead to discussions with the missionaries, Sister Boyter and Jessica exchanged phone numbers and email addresses to keep in touch.

Between the dinner and going to Jessica’s home we dropped in at the church to attend the branch home evening. 

Sibu

In our travel between Mukah and Sibu, we stopped to take a photo.  Elder Boyter met a small group of women on the side of the road.  One of the women said she was a member of the church in Sibu and was there visiting family.  Elder Boyter asked if she had shared the Malay Book of Mormon with her family.  She said she had not.  So Elder Boyter asked the family if he could give them a gift and told them about the Book of Mormon and asked them to learn about the church from their daughter and sister, who was the member. 

We arrived in Sibu mid-afternoon on Saturday.  We had an in-service at 7 pm.  All teachers were present. The full time missionaries translated for us.  We taught on Spiritual Preparation and Student Preparation.  We were told by Elder and Sister Beus that Mimi, one of our teachers bore her testimony the next day that the things taught that night were an answer to her prayers on some personal matters.

We took the teachers out to dinner afterwards.

We went to church at Sibu 2 Branch.  After Sacrament Meeting we met two 15 year old young men from Sibu 1^st Branch.  They are going to attend Youth Conference but have not been attending Seminary.  They told us they would like to attend.  Their teacher would be Juan who only teaches his daughter.

To our surprise we were asked to do a combined Young Men and Young Women class for Sunday School for Sibu 2^nd Branch.  We thought we would find the active youth there, but the less active youth came instead, the ones we were hoping to go visit.  We had one non-member there.  The full time missionaries translated.  We talked about Youth Conference and Seminary.  And then taught a short lesson on the attributes of Christ.

Elder Boyter met with Sibu 2^nd Branch President and invited him to meet with the Branch President of 1^st branch about having a combined seminary class for the coming year.  The youth from Sibu 2^nd branch have no seminary at this time, and to recommend to the District Presidency names of teachers that would be strong and positive for the youth.  The 2^nd Branch president felt he could have 8 youth from his branch enrolled in seminary next year.

The Chinese branch is not holding Seminary at this time.  Mimi is the teacher but no one has come. 

One possible idea would be to combine all three branches for Seminary and get a dynamite teacher….maybe teach in English.  We were impressed with the youth we met and see great potential.  But we need the District Leadership to be converted to the Seminary and Institute program. 

We attend Seminary at Sibu Jaya with Elder and Sister Marteeny.  Sister Bia is great and trying very hard.  She had 10 students there, 2 were institute age.  The lesson was from James, blessing of the sick was part of the lesson.  At the conclusion of the lesson, one student was sick and asked for a blessing.  Elder Marteeny gave a beautiful teaching of different types of blessings.  Elder Boyter and Elder Marteeny gave a blessing to the sick young man.  Then one of the YSA men is having problems at home and requested a priesthood blessing, which was done.

While we were in Sibu, we received a SMS from Doris Chuan anak Kok, stating she wants to go on a mission.  She is going to school in Kuching but she is from Sibu.  We have not met her due to her living so far out and she has not transport, but have had extensive contact with her through SMS with Young Single Adult activities.  We found out from her she is from Sibu 1^st Branch.  We are contacting the senior couple in Sibu to help get her line up with her branch president.

We had prayers almost hourly in the car as we traveled to Mukah, from all of us as the traffic was concerning….by the time we reached Mukah we felt we were spiritually ready to go out and visitJ

ONE YEAR LATER

Elder Rizal Takin left for his mission in the Spring for the Singapore Mission.  In October 2014 his father, mother and sister-in-law were baptized.  President Mains gave him permission to return home to baptize his family.  

Hello Everyone!!

 

I miss you guys. 

Supposedly I should email this to you guys last week. I am sorry. Last week, we totally busy. We spent our P-day at the beach with all the elders, missionary couple and some of the members. We went to the beach in Kampung Nyalau which is Kedayan tribe area in Miri. We had a fun trip! We spent our time by playing soccer, barbeque and just chilled aroud that place. The beach was really nice but the sea water still 'milo color' . Hahaha. Oppppsss! Malaysian Water anyway. It was fun to spend whole day with all of them. Bintulu has a lot of fun places to go. Not sure what are we going to do today.

Last 2 weeks was such a great and miraculous weeks for me. Last last friday(04/10/2014), President Mains called our zone leader in Bintulu. He told them that I can go home and baptize my family. I was way happy. The next morning, we went to Mukah. I was way excited to meet my family, especially my parents. I am so happy with them because finally they made a right decision. It was been to long. They did not accept the church and the gospel before. I am so thankful and grateful to God for all of these. Because of Him and His Spirit, my parents heart was opened eventually. A lot of changed happened after I left. In retrospect, it was good for me to choose to go on a mission before and made a such a great decision. I remembered before, I was so worried about my future and also my parents did not want me to go. I got a lot of challenged that tried to stop me to go before. Anyway, I am so grateful to serve in Singapore Mission. God knows what is the best place for me to go. He has His own reason to send me here, Now, I knew and I realized. I am not be able to baptized my family If I serve in outside of my country. I feel so happy right now and I can feel the God's love for me. How great His power! Because of my right decision to go on a mission that changed my parents. Last time, when I am in Mukah, I talked to them and asked them to prepare to go to the temple. But I asked them to wait for me so that we can go there as a family. I already had 7 months already. It was surreal! The time went fast. Seriously, I really really love and enjoyed my mission so far. I wish anyone that plan to go on a mission could feel what I feel. I wish I can meet God and talk to Him. I wish I can hug Him and and say thank thee for the blessing that I had. 

Anyway, your attitude is what your mission will be. As we follow His commandments and obey it, He will pour over many great blessings into our life. Seriously, He did it to me. Everytime I did my missionary work with real intent, I can feel that He helped me in my work everyday. I prayed for miracles everyday and He did it answered it. Last week, three days in the row, we got a lot of miracles. Tanjung Kidurong(the place where I serve right now), such a small area. Sometimes we just walked and did tracting a lot. 2 weeks already I am in Bintulu and I am not really that know and familiar with the area. One time, after we had appointment with less active member, on the way back to the church, 1 old lady talked to us. She surprised that I am Iban. She said it's been to long that she wanted to talk to us but did not have any opportunity. She asked us what is our purpose. We said that we are from the church and teach people about Jesus Christ. She is Iban and Catholic. She said that she is not that strong in that church. Then, we gave her a pamphlet and asked for her phone number. She said not need and she said just come over to her house. She is really nice. She also wanted me to teach my companion how to speak Iban so that all white people will know Iban. When my companion started to speak Iban, she was way shocked and just laughed. Elder Sheranian(my companion) told her that he is from Kapit, Sarawak. Hahaha. She almost believed it and Elder Sheranian told her that he just kidding. 

Another big miracle that we had last week was we met 1 inactive family. At first, we were really scared to meet them because this family is pretty 'sketchy'. Then, my companion and I made a hilarious decision which was flipped a coin. Heads and tails. If heads, we should talk to them and if tails, go to the next appointment. We got heads then. We both looked at each other and told ourselves that we have to do it. We need to be bold then and talked to them. We knocked on the door and 1 guy came out. We were a little bit nervous. Anyway, that guy was way shocked. He said ' Hey elders! ' with a big smiling face. Huhhhhh! I thought he will mad at us. He asked us to come in and talked to them. I asked them why they stopped going to church. They never been to church since 7 years ago. They was baptized in way back 2004. Then, at 2005, they went to the temple. After they went back from the temple, they got so many challenges that happened in their life. The wife in that family was upset before because her mum died. On that day, they asked the church members to come to their long house and prayed for her mum and also the grave. But, the members did not show up because on the same time, there was 1 member, which is the branch president, his dad, also died on the same day. The members attended that. That inactive family did not know that. Because of that, they was offended and never come to church anymore. They also stopped using garments and become wicked again. It was good that they told us that and now they want us to help them and repent. The most sad thing was their oldest son almost go on a mission before. He already got his mission called, and called to serve in somewhere in black people place. They can't remember. It was so sad. Because of being offended, it did not happen. Their oldest son was really mad before but he had to follow what his parents said. That family feel so guilty about that. They said after they left the church, they had so many bad things happened in their life. They ever had a thought before to come to chuch but they said they feel ashamed with what that they already done. Now, they feel so happy to meet us again. The wife said she is really happy and God already planned for us to meet again. She said thanks God because gave them chance again to change themselves. They left their garments in Miri. We told them to use it again. They thought that they already got excommunicated from the church. They did not want to use garments because they felt that they are not 'sacred' anymore. Next morning, they went to miri again and took it. That night, they hold a FHE( malam keluarga) at their house. They invited us and all the members to come. It was good that the members came and gave them support. I am so happy for all these things! There are so many things that God already helped me with. Because of him, I met this family. Because of that faithful night and that 'coin', we met them. 

There were so many miracles that happened last weeks that I can't mention it all. I just shared with you guys 1 biggest MIRACLE that happened which is we brought back that inactive family and also some of the less active family that we met. In the scriptures said in Matthew 18 verse 14, How think ye? if a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?And if so be that he find it, verily I say unto you, he rejoiceth more of that sheep, than of the ninety and nine which went not astray. So, bring back all the lost soul to Him and until forever they will remember us. 

 

I love my mission! 

 

With love,

Elder Rizal Takin.