From: Braydon Carter <braydon.carter@missionary.org>
Date: Sun, Jun 23, 2019 at 10:27 PM
Subject: As I have loved you, Love one another.
Hello everyone,
This week was seriously one of the best weeks of my life.
It all started off with just a random thought at the beginning of the week. So at the beginning of the week we had one of the members of the branch say something to me in Chinese that made me ponder and wonder how people view us as missionaries. As missionaries we try and do a lot of follow up with people. It's not really because we don't trust people, but I know for myself some one asks me to do something and a lot of times I forget. Or if it has anything to do with unloading the dishwasher or mowing the lawn I forget many times repeatedly. So with knowing the kind of person I am we help remind people. But one of our members made a comment of how he felt that we would always check to see if people were lying. I guess he kind of felt like missionaries were always on top of him. So when I heard that it made me think whether or not a lot of members thought we were a burden or a blessings. It was in that moment I realized that I have always been part of service growing up and I never really used that love for service as a missionary.
So that lead me one day to look up at my companion and I was like, I want to go do service. Let's go wash the Elder Quorums President's car. He kind of just laughed and said alright let's do it. It was so so so much fun, and it was funny to see the families reaction as they woke up to the 2 Elders washing their cars.
The best thing for me is when they invited us in afterward and just started talking up a storm and opening up about so many things we really never realized as missionaries. They talked about all these ideas, and then even shared how they were doing and what they wanted changed in their lives. It made me realize that everyone know's for the most part on what they need to do, they know what they need to and want to fix, they just need people that are willing to love, serve, and listen to them. Then when that relationship is built they will seek out your advice and help.
Then this week I had 3 of my really good friends get baptized! It was so exciting to see them on their journey and to watch them make it this far.
This one is Chris, he was someone that I met in Penang at a stoplight. We started just a small chat with him and then the light turned green. He ended up reaching out to us the same night and a couple months later he was baptized!
[Dad addition: Chris was first mentioned in the 11 Mar 2019 email where Elder Taylor asked Chris for a french fry while they were stopped a stop light.]
I am so excited to see him grow and become an amazing member of the church.
Then this week we also had a family get baptized. It was our friends Yong and Serlyn. They were just found right before I came into Kuching, and I have been teaching them up until this point. I feel like Yong was one of the big reasons I was called here at the time I was. He doesn't speak a lot of English, but I was able to use my Chinese and explain the gospel to him. We would often read The Book of Mormon together and talk about what it meant. I love the gospel and I have a stronger and stronger testimony that God has an individual plan for all of us!
The happiest things that I saw this week was during the baptism of Yong and Serlyn. They have 2 little kids that are just the cutest things in the world. There son, Francis, is really kind of shy and every time we would go over and visit, he would run away and play his games. He is 8 years old and we wanted to try to include him, but he was scared of us or something.
But at the baptism, as Yong and Serlyn were about to be baptized, he sat on the floor right next to the font, right in the middle of young primary boys. From then it was like the shyness just went away. They continued to play tag through out the night as everone was social. It helped me see that the little things we do now will change the lives of many down the road. I'm so excited to see where Francis ends up.
I guess my big take away from the week is be hardworking, patient, and loving. The rest will just fall into place.
I love this gospel so much. I will testify again and again that The Book of Mormon is the word of God. For my friends that were baptized, it made me feel the Spirit so strong as they talked about how the Book of Mormon changed their lives in just a short amount of time.
I love all of you,
Love Elder Carter
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