5 Nov 2018 - The week of many adventures

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Braydon Carter <braydon.carter@myldsmail.net>
Date: Sun, Nov 4, 2018 at 8:15 PM
Subject: The week of many adventures 11/05/2018

Hello everyone! :)

I need to apologize in advance. I am not going to be able to send out a lot of one-on-one emails today. I had a way nice week and I have so many stories I want to share with everyone. So, if I don't have the chance to send you an email, I apologize. But I'm gonna beef up this week's email to make up for it. :)

To start off, every week before I start writing my emails, I always read through everyone's emails for the week! This week, I ran across my dad's email and he said, "Oh how the time flies...".  Ain't that the truth! I'm not sure if many of you keep track of dates, but exactly 2 months ago I landed in Singapore. I have been a missionary for 4 months now with 2 months in the field. THAT IS NUTS! It's going so fast but I just love it more and more.

If you followed last week's email you would know that this week was going to be crazy awesome. And it was. I traveled between 3 awesome cities, went to way expensive places, met a lot of really awesome people, and just got so pumped for missionary work.

On Monday, a little after I sent the email, my companion and I arrived in KL [Kuala Lumpur], which is way, way different than Sitiawan. Sitiawan is small with an ok amount of people. KL is massive with millions of people, and towers. As I first got into KL, I found myself getting a little bit distracted. For those of you who knew the 'before mission me', I was a business fanatic. I loved wearing classy clothes, talking with high level people, learning for other people's success, and really just feeling like I was going to rule the world. Well, the second we got to KL, all those feelings rapidly came back. I was surrounded by what seemed like Millionaires. There were massive buildings with big bright billboards, tons of marketing everywhere, all different kinds of fashion, and people in classy blazers and nice shoes all around me. I was in heaven.

To top it all off, when we got there, our zone leaders asked us to go to the mall and wait for them there. They asked that as we were waiting for them, we had the assignment to go into the Gucci store. So we did.

I immediately thought of Kyler. He would love KL, and especially the Gucci store. Just a little fun fact. The cheapest thing they had in the store was a pair of socks for 100 USD. HA!

But anyways, I pulled my head out of the business clouds and remembered I was a missionary. Kyler and I can go back in 2 years and get all the Gucci we can't afford.

Then we met up with our zone leaders and had an awesome couple of days in KL where we all came together as a zone to discuss how we can help build stakes in Malaysia, and help prepare Malaysia to get a temple. It really was a beautiful sight and feeling, seeing 40 missionaries all come together to talk about how we can better ourselves for the people. The spirit was so, so strong, and we learned so much throughout the conference. I really love that our only purpose for 2 years is really just to love the people to death and give them something that is so special. I especially loved how our Mission President (who is a airplane owner, and loves flying) told us how planes have cylinders that will set off explosions to help the plane go faster and faster. The more operating cylinders that are working in harmony makes it so the plane can hit top speeds. He then related it to missionary work. ( I really loved this part of the conference ) He said we, in our own ways, have our planes. Our sole purpose isn't just to go find, find, find, but to make sure that all cylinders are firing. This means helping the ward members, helping those returning members, helping each other as companionships, helping find the lost sheep, etc, etc. These are all important factors in missionary work, and he promised us that, as we make sure that all of our cylinders are firing, we would see a temple with in a couple years. BUT we've got to get all those cylinders firing. That just got me hyped. We concluded the conference, said our goodbyes, and all separated to continue the work.

But Elder Duzett and I got to stay in KL for the night where we did exchanges with the zone leaders. I had the opportunity to be with an awesome Elder named Elder Soreneson. Seriously, the guy is a stud. And, I honestly have to say going out with him to do missionary work was like nothing I have experienced while I've been out here. To start off, we had a wild experience I want to share. Elder Sorensen and his companion had set up an appointment the week before that they had forgotten about. It was with an expatriate that is from Taiwan and visiting Malaysia for a week or so, and his friend who is looking into the church. As we had left the zone conference, Elder Sorensen told me we might have a dinner appointment but we weren't sure. The expat hadn't confirmed yet, so Elder Sorensen and I went out and tried to do some finding.  We talked with some awesome people and still hadn't heard from the guy. Elder Sorensen, knowing I haven't eaten western food in a while, said, "I'm not sure that appointment will go through. Let's just go grab some dinner." So we went into the mall, and this was my first dinner:

It was so, so good. But I want you to notice I said 'first dinner'. That's because, as we were eating, the expat had contacted us and said he wanted to take us to the Ritz Carlton Hotel and eat some dinner. For those of you who don't know what that is, it is a way nice hotel. Like I'm assuming 5 Stars. That is way fancier than I have ever seen. So we ran to the hotel where we found the expat and his friend. We ate dinner at the nicest place I've ever been to in my life. We had a legit classical band playing music for us as we ate, as well as super fancy waiters that put the napkin on your lap. I was in shock, but I went with it. I ended up getting a super nice spaghetti, and a really, really good cake with ice cream. Here's a picture of our dessert:

Anyway, we weren't there for the food obviously. We wanted to help answer the friend's questions and invite him to keep learning in Taiwan. To make a long story short, this guy and I hit it off. We started talking about life and why we were here. I found out he loved Tony Robbins and we started talking motivation. I tied it all back into the Book of Mormon and the Gospel. I let him know I love motivational speaking. It's my dream. But I know my biggest motivations come from the Book of Mormon, and letting the spirit guide me in my works. The spirit was so strong and that dinner and conversation was seriously awesome. The expat member shared a sweet testimony and we all had a really fancy dinner talking about God and how He's blessed our lives. We encouraged the friend to keep learning and he agreed to listen to the Book of Mormon like he would a pod cast and keep going to church with his friend. Here's a photo of us all:

My favorite part of the night was what Elder Sorensen said to me afterward. Just a quick back up story. All of you know I love business, I love the fancy life style, and I love learning from others that have found success in their life. Elder Sorensen has kind of grown up in that life style. His dad was an expat for many companies and he's super business smart and has been surrounded by these kind of people since he was young. Long story short we were talking about how that dinner appointment went and what I learned. Then he said to me, "I want you to remember one thing. Just because they have a lot of success doesn't give them any credit".

I don't know if I will forget those words as long as I'm serving. At first, I was really confused with what he said, but he explained it. He told me that a lot of the times we think that successful people have it all figured out, that their lives are perfect, and they don't have problems. Which is false. To put the cherry on top, he said that these people might have everything in the world, but they don't have the most important thing in the world, and that is the gospel. He was so right. We as missionaries carry "The most expensive thing in the world", and that is the fullness of the gospel. It was eye opening.

After an awesome two days, my companion and I headed back to Sitiawan.

As we got back that night, we ended up getting a call from our Mission President saying that he wanted to come and visit Sitiawan. After a couple days he did, and we had a wonderful time together for the day. We met with all of our branch members, and discussed how we can really help the branch. It was such a sweet time to be with him and serve with him for the little time he was here in Sitiawan. Here are some photos from his visit:

And lastly, to finish this week's email, we went to IPoh, about an hour north of Sitiawan, where we had our District Conference!

Our district conference was incredible. A ton of members from all around that area came to Ipoh to hear from our sweet Mission President, as well from each other.

As we were there, it was so cool to feel the spirit of all those members in that part of the world. Their attitude for the church is so special. They all love coming to district conference so they can all see each other and worship as a big family. The spirit was so strong and it was a beautiful sight seeing all the strong members in this part of the world. My favorite part of the conference was me getting to help one of our members. In Ipoh, a lot of people speak English so our conferences are in English. But some of our members don't know it super well. On the Sunday morning session, I got to spend the full two hours translating for one of the members. It was so, so cool. After it was all done and over, he leaned over and said, "Thank you. Your Chinese is improving so fast." That's not because of my efforts, but it's all because of God. God is making me into an instrument in his hands.

I could have gone into some more detail but I think that will be good for this week! :)

I love you all so much! I know that this church is so true. I also know it's not the easiest thing to be perfect every day. I know I'm not. But I know as we continually give God all we can, He will make us into the strongest people ever. Just like I told my dear friend at the restaurant, The Book of Mormon is the biggest motivation in my life. It grows me everyday, and I literally draw from it's strength! I encourage all of you to do the same!

I love you all!
Elder Carter