FIrst Baptism

The best day! 1/4/14

 Well hello there and Happy New Year!

I realized that 2014 was the one year I am going to spend in its entirety on missionary work and I realized that was weird yet fantastically simple as well. Feeling great!

I hope everyone back home had an incredible New Year and has set some goals for this upcoming year! That's really important!

This week was a good week. Elder Cook and I did some solid work, and we feel that the work here has really taken a step forward because of it!

We found some new people to teach! Here is a quick bio for each of them: 

An Indonesian lady named A___, who is very Christian. We taught her twice last week, and when she gains a personal witness about the Book of Mormon, we think she will be rock solid, especially because she has a bunch of Mormon friends.

H___, a Tamil (Indian) kid who is relatively unsure about any religion - like most Hindu-born people, he thinks every religion goes to their own concept of Heaven after this life, so the only thing you can do wrong is switch! But, his heart was opened to Christianity because his ex-girlfriend was Christian, which is wonderful, and now we are teaching him. He is really cool!

Y___ who apparently is pretty golden! She had an amazing lesson Sunday night with Elder Cook and our district leader, Elder Allen. We feel really great about her!

Also, perhaps the most exciting thing of this week was that Erika was baptized! She was my first investigator to take that huge step, and I felt so full and happy as a result. I really feel so blessed to have helped her change her life and enter the Church. Seriously, what more could you want from life?! I had the opportunity to baptize her, and the Spirit that flooded the room was amazing when she was immersed and brought back out of the water. Life is just so great!!

For any of you who feel like you might be getting worn down, just keep your thoughts in prayer and always push forward! Here's a silly cliche that has really been holding me up lately: 

"When life gets too hard to stand, kneel."

I love it. I testify that if you turn to prayer, you will be lifted up. We've got to get broken down before we can get lifted up, right? So just push on and move forward with faith.

Love you all! This Church is really Jesus Christ's church on the earth, and I wish I could help everyone I know come to realize that.

Have a great week!

Malaysiah Boleh!

Elder Coleman

Happy New Year

With his Christmas gifts--small things that made him happy, like the Chick Fil-A sauce :)

We LOVED getting to "see" our elder on Christmas day!! 

Hello all!!

I hope you had a very Merry Christmas! And that it was more Christmas-y than mine! Don't think I'm complaining, I think Christmas traditions over here are hilarious, but it's definitely weird not being home!

I got to Skype home for the first time on Christmas, which was so great! Anyone who knows our family knows we are a talkative, lively bunch, so the hour I had to chat with them vanished like smoke! It was amazing nonetheless. Really makes you appreciate your family even more when you're not with them for Christmas!!

This week was interesting, as my companion Elder Cook got really sick and was essentially bedridden the whole week! The poor guy. I kasihan him a lot (pity in Malay, but that's how the Elders here talk hahaha). Luckily, we did exchanges with other missionaries a couple of times so I was still able to get out to my area!

We started an English Class out here! That's been fun and we hope that our members can start bringing their friends in weeks to come! hahahah So funny though. Malaysians cannot, not even to save their lives, correctly pronounce the "th" sound. There's no similar sound in Malay or Iban and it's so funny to watch them try to say it.

So. Christmas in Malaysia. People just jalan-jalan, or walk/stroll/travel around, going from house to house, eating random people's food! Even M u s l i m people get into it and jalan! hahahah it is so funny! So, after a delicious meal at the Senior Couple's home of ham and rolls and green beans (SO GOOD), we went to 4 houses and ate a full plate or two at each of them! I ate a chicken foot, more rice and noodles (mi [pronounced 'me'] in Malay) than I want to remember, and some REALLY REALLY REALLY gross meat that was claimed to be babi hutan - or wild boar. Literally, it had the taste of... well, poop! It was SO GROSS. Whatever! You only serve once lah!

Anyways, I've just been so blessed that I haven't gotten sick. I'm really grateful for that. Oh, and I gave another talk in sacrament meeting! In Malay! Such good times.

Love you all! Please keep giving service to be like Christ! :) I'm trying to, so give it a shot! Happy New Year!

Malaysia Boleh,

Elder Coleman

His much-loved advent calendar...every day he got to open a note from a family member or friend.
He says it was a treasure!

Before he opened his gifts! I don't know what time it was but knowing him, it was EARLY! :)

With Santa! aka President Schollenberger at the branch Christmas party

The Kota Masai Branch

Christmas in Malaysia

Fun at the Masai Branch Christmas beach party! (Photos courtesy of President Schollenberger)

Well, Merry Christmas from Malaysia!

I'm doing just swell out here! Life on the other side of the world just couldn't get better. I realized yesterday that this is going to be the most un-Christmas Christmas ever, but whatever. It's hot here, and no one decorates with Christmas lights, or anything like that, so it's not much of a Christmas! I still have a giant Christmas box to open from home though, and talking to my family (!!!!) is going to be awesome, so that will make things seem a little bit more like Christmas. It's tough because in JB, my city, the vast majority of people are I s l a m, and that just makes it hard to see anything Christmas-y out here. But, occasionally the grocery store near our house plays Taylor Swift Christmas music! Totally can hahaha so life is still great!

Erika is on track to be baptized on January 4. I'm really excited for her, and it will be my first investigator to be baptized! It is such a huge blessing to have seen her progress. When we first started with her, she had a hard time praying, and didn't really feel comfortable doing that, but in our lesson yesterday, she volunteered to do the opening prayer! She's really doing remarkably well and we feel very good about her.

Everything out here is going great. I really have gotten pretty close with Elder Jackson, who lives in the same house as me. He is a brilliant guy and really helps me out whenever I need it!

This week we had Christmas Conference and got to watch the Christmas Devotional in Singapore! Because I am in one of the Singapore Zones, even though I'm in Malaysia, I only saw those serving in Singapore. I'm like the only missionary from my group of MTC missionaries in the Singapore Mission in West Malaysia or Singapore! Yikes! I miss them all haha but I feel like I'll be seeing them soon.

Keep up life back at home everyone and try to be like Christ for me! :) do a good turn daily and think of Jesus! :) Love you all!

Malaysia Boleh!

Elder Coleman

Ps hahaha the Malay word for the week: responsibility . It's epic: tanggungjawap. To make some one responsible, or give them responsibility, is mempertanggungjawapkan. SO GREAT.

Lunch at the beach party -- chicken heads and feet! 

(Here's a link to a blog post by Elder C's district president with all the details of the Christmas beach party, including the technique the Malaysians use to eat chicken feet!)

In the middle of a speed eating game! That's why everyone is watching him!

The Gift of Tongues is a Thing!

Elder Coleman and his companion with their investigator Erika and some of her family
(she's on the left with her hands on the little boy)

 Hello everyone!

Okay, I know, I missed last week's update and I'm sorry!! I had to run quickly and didn't have time to get a long email in. This week I hope makes up for it!!

My new companion, Elder Cook, is from Kaysville, Utah, and was serving in Bintulu before he came over to Johor Bahru with me. He has definitely got a good work ethic, and I think that's awesome! I'm thinking we are going to do some great work together. 

This week has been great showing the new Elder around and introducing him to the members. I have been praying ever since I began my mission to obtain the Gift of Tongues, essentially the ability to speak other languages through a gift of the Spirit. I have had some awesome progression in the Malay language since I began, but in the last week, the language seems to have clicked. When Elder Adams left, a missionary with some of the best bahasa in the entire mission, I really needed to improve if I wanted to understand things said to me. I prayed harder and got some major help. It's been so cool. I seem to be able to understand most things spoken to me now. I'm going to try and keep up everything that I've been doing to make sure I still can improve and receive help from the Lord!

We had some awesome lessons this week with Erika. She is so enthusiastic about the gospel and is really accepting everything we've taught her. In fact, we moved up her baptismal date two weeks to January 4th! It's been so cool seeing her progress and also feeling the Spirit so strongly in our lessons. In one of our recent lessons, I nearly started crying because the Spirit was so strong! Man! So great.

My companion and I are really working on finding others to teach right now, and one of the major other things we do is help people who have stopped coming to church every week refind their commitment and come back into the fold. That is what Christ did, right? :)

   

Okay, something that I love about Malay, one of the greatest things about the language in my opinion. You can get really creative with what you say with it. In Malay, there is a suffix (which sometimes comes with a prefix but don't worry about it) that makes me laugh like every day. The suffix is "-kan". Check this out. It essentially means to "___-ify" something. 

Example: Jatuh means to fall, but the word "jatuhkan" means to knock something over! Or to fall-ify something. or.... Kalah means to lose, but kalahkan means to defeat, or to lose-ify someone! hahahahh Is that not epic?!?!? I mean that's just genius! If it doesn't make sense, I'll have plenty of time to attempt to explain it when I get back in a couple of years :)

Alright, I love you all! You're all in my thoughts and prayers!

Malaysia Boleh!

Elder Coleman

TYTYTYTYTY

A Few Life Learnings

The Hong Kong LDS temple is the closest temple to Malaysia, but obviously too far away for the missionaries ever to have an opportunity to attend while serving their missions. 

Elder Coleman didn't send an actual weekly update this week (boo hoo) or any photos, but we were able to email a bit back and forth with him when he was online. He told us he loves the Christmas Advent calendar we sent him with notes from family and friends. I wonder if he is really only opening one per day, but if not, then hey. It's all good. Here are a few excerpts of things he shared with us:

When I asked about his new companion, he wrote: "I have a theory that it takes about a week or two to become friends with any companion. It hasn't been two weeks yet, so I can't make a judgement about us just yet! But he's got an even bigger personality than mine! :)"

When I asked about the people he is teaching, he wrote: "Right now we've only got one actual investigator, Erika, who is planning on being baptized. But we are really going to be working to bring that number up and find more people who are interested. It's tough because J B has way less Ibans than other areas. There are mostly I s l a m i c people here."

Some things he is learning:

Sometimes it is hard not being an older elder in the mission because people inherently think you're uncool because you're new. But a great lesson I learned this week: Whether or not you end up a legend, if missionaries talk about you for years to come or not, whether you are the coolest elder in the mission: none of that matters. What matters is that you are in good standing with Jesus Christ, our Employer and Captain, and do everything He would ask you to do. So I'm really grateful for that realization because, no matter what, I'm going to be the missionary Christ would have me be. :)

Another thing: So many people here live in poverty, yet are so happy. It's such an epic lesson for me and helps me learn what's really important in life.

Finally: Take advantage of the temple, everyone at home! I can't even go once over my two years here in the mission field :/ so use it often! I know that our family really can be together forever. It's so cool to teach that to so many people because it is building conviction in me that one day, a while from now, we will all be together and laughing together in the Celestial Kingdom. It's real.

And although I'm sad we didn't get more from him this week, he redeemed himself with little things like this: "Mom, I miss you so much! I realized the other day I have never heard you be sarcastic ever, and I have realized you are the best example for me in the whole world. I love you!"

One thing I love about his emails is he often begins with a Malaysian word, as if we know what they mean! Thank heavens for Google translate! Sudah! Belum Lagi! Bolehkah! And his English is definitely sounding more awkward as the weeks go by...

Unexpected News!

Elder Adams (on left) will be leaving for Bintulu on Thursday (shown here with Elder Crosland)

Hey Everyone:

Right now I am shocked! Today we got transfer news, and Elder Adams, my companion and trainer, is leaving to be a Zone Leader in an area far from here called Bintulu. (A zone leader is someone who has leadership responsibility for all the missionaries in his area, or zone.) I just found out I'm getting a new companion. This whole thing was totally unexpected. My new companion is Elder Cook, and he will finish my training (which is usually 12 weeks and I've already completed 6 weeks). I really thought I would be with Elder Adams for my entire training! And I don't know a thing about my new companion! It still hasn't gotten into my head that I am not going to have Elder Adams... yikesssssss. I have no idea about the transfer procedure because this is my first time (emoji with the teeth showing). All I can do, though, is trust that the Lord is doing what He knows is best for me and the Kota Masai area where I'm serving. I have to have that faith and keep pushing onwards! The coming week will definitely be interesting!

This past week we went Christmas caroling. Weirdest thing ever! We sang in Malay... but caroling is nothing like it is back home. Okay. So all of the church members in my area gathered at one house, with everyone inside. Then, we sang a song - but the group leader forgot to bring the hymn books with him. So we ended up just singing regular LDS hymns! hahahah Great songs but definitely not Christmas songs. Then, we packed up, and went to someone else's house who was already in the group of carolers - went inside, sat down, drank some orange sunkist water stuff (actually pretty good just impossible to explain), and sang there. Then we got up and went to another person's house, who was already with us! Then we went to the house of someone who wasn't caroling with us and brought them to the next house! They "ikut" or follow. (Hahaha it is a word that is used differently in Malay. You "ikut" the person that drives you in a car... doesn't even make sense hahahah) But so much fun! 

On a spiritual note, one of our investigators just agreed to be baptized. She is progressing, and I know she will make it. I'm so excited and so grateful to see the changing power of this gospel. I know this work is true, and I know I'm doing what Heavenly Father wants me to be doing.

Stay strong everyone! Love you all! Hope your Thanksgiving was great and that in the coming weeks you sing some real Christmas songs in English for me!

Malaysia Boleh!

Elder Coleman

Elder Coleman was blessed to have this Thanksgiving feast with the JB elders at the home of the Schollenbergers, who are a senior missionary couple serving there. The Schollenbergers were able to find a 9 lb. turkey (which cost a fortune) and prepared a delicious meal for the missionaries. (Photo courtesy of Ed Schollenberger)

Local member with his temple recommend!

Sweet Miracles and Learnings

Oh yum! Chicken feet?! Actually, not that bad :)

Hello all!

So I know you have seen some pictures of members playing Jenga with us, and I wanted to give a little background to it! It is a great idea that my companion had, so we have been doing it with a ton of less active and also members in our area! It is a Jenga game, connected with Helaman 5:12. We have to build our foundation on Christ, and if we have faith in Him, we cannot fall! It is a lot of fun and you label all the bricks with things that strengthen our faith, such as "hadir 3 jam di gereja" (3 hours attending church) and "ambil sacramen"(take the sacrament) and "ada malam keluarga"(hold family home evening) etc. Then as you stop doing them, you remove them from your foundation of faith. and it becomes easier and easier to fall. It is a really fun time that really builds the trust with the missionaries as real people, rather than just these orang putih! (white people) So much fun! We are always looking for clever ideas and fun ways to get members involved, with fun games that have messages attached. If any of you can think of games like that, I would love it if you emailed me the idea and Elder Adams and I will try to use them!! (My email is jon.coleman(at sign)myldsmail.net)

Okay, here in Malaysia, stuff happens. Last week, rain came every day. except one. So yeah, sometimes we ride all the way out to Kota Masai (20+ miles with crazy hills, my legs are unreal) and it's still raining. So this week my companion and I prayed really hard that we could have a week without rain so we could make sure we were accomplishing everything the Lord wanted us to. And this week, it only rained once during the day; the only other times it rained were at night or in the morning, times we weren't proselyting. That was definitely a miracle we saw in our area this week that was super sweet! The Lord is really looking out for the work in this area.

It's an urban area, but we leave the city and ride out to the suburbs. I don't have many village things near me because I am in a big city called Johor Bahru, but it's pretty sweet looking. The food here is all delicious; there are just sometimes fishy things I am so not down for (see the fish pic), but it's all great. Also, McDonald's and KFC are quality restaurants down here! They're actually way good, but Burger King is much cheaper so we go there more often. We have to have American food sometimes to counter the digestive issues we experience at times from the local food!

This week we got super sweaty playing soccer = bola sepak, like SUPER sweaty and gross, probably sweatier than I have ever been in my entire life! But I've been refining my keeper skills! Hahaha Also, every week I work on my piano skills at church! My sight reading isn't that awful and it's actually getting way better. I might even be able to be a pianist by the end of my mission!

Also, I've kind of made a resolution to learn Mandarin Chinese when I get back, so I've been talking to Chinese Elders about some random Chinese phrases! I've learned how to ask for a name and say what mine is and also say 'I'm a missionary from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.' Pretty cool.

Something I really have seen this week is the reality of my calling and how important it is. One of our main investigators is named Erika, a relative of some recent converts. Elder Adams and I taught her about the Plan of Salvation, Heavenly Father's plan for His children that allows all of us to live on this earth, gain experience, and return to live with Him and our families forever. As I was teaching, I really just realized how significant this message is! See 3 Nephi 5:13:

13 Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been ^acalled of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

I really know that to be true, that this message can really help people have a better and more fulfilling life on earth but also have a joyful existence with our families after this life. I remember saying in the lesson "Sebab rancangan ini, kalau saya meninggal, atau seorang ahli keluarga saya meninggal, saya tak risau. Saya tahu memang saya akan jumpa mereka lagi selepas kehidupan ini di bumi"(Google translate: Because of this plan, if I died, or a member of my family died, I'm not worried. I know I would see them again after this life on earth.) I really felt the Spirit testify to those words.

This gospel is true! If you have read the Book of Mormon, and at one point knew it was true, please! Think about your life and come back! If you haven't, I exhort you to read just one chapter (Alma 7) and pray if this book is true. If it is, it will open up a completely new aspect of your life and you will be happier than you have ever been in your life. In the slightest possibility the message of our church is true, I plead with you to find out for yourself. 

I testify it is true. I know that it can change your life and bring happiness that is unrivaled by anything on this earth.

Love you all and talk to you next week!

Malaysia Boleh!

Elder Coleman


EXCERPT FROM ELDER ADAM's WEEKLY EMAIL (Elder Coleman's current companion and trainer):

I called sister sukie on the phone to meet with her.. the phone call went something like this (a bit is lost in the translation)....

hey sister sukie, where are you now?

just at home elder..

oh perfect, can we drop by later and meet with you and the family. 

sure elder.

sister sukie, have you eaten yet? 

no elder not yet. 

oh really?! neither have we... soo how bout we get a chicken at the store bring it to your house and you cook it for us...can or not? 

sure elder, meet at 8 oclock yea? 

ok sister sukie, thank you! CLICK

so after dinner was set up we headed out towards some less-actives homes. upon realizing that getting the chicken from the store would be an ordeal in itself we called sister sukie back and asked if we could invite the less-active families over to her house and throw a family home evening/dinner instead. she was totally on board.. so we changed routes and headed straight to her place. 

we asked for a list of what we needed to get at the grocery store. she told us we would not know how to find everything and that her husband just got home and could drive us all over there. i had told her we would buy the chicken but very quickly it appeared as we were doing their weekly grocery run. they were throwing things left and right into the cart. we got up to the cashier and sister sukie and brother lidi awkwardly moved away from the register leaving elder coleman and i standing there... haha we ended up emptying our pockets and coming out with enough. that was the kinda bummer. but not really, from then on it only got better. sister h____ and brother m____ who have been long time less-active showed up at the house excited to join us all. we played with the kids and talked with brother m  and sister h while sister sukie cooked. we then had brother m  come with us to pick up another less-active family, sister d. so by the time all was said and done we had 15-20 people in the home having dinner fellowshipping one another. and then playing jenga and read the scriptures together. sister h told me she felt very happy and comfortable and invited us to her place so she could make us dinner in the following week. 

we have been really trying to capitalize on this idea. having fun activites in the homes of members and less-actives showing them that the gospel can be shared with our friends in fun ways. and that we (the elders) are actually fun and real people. we hope to see many referrals of families and friends come out of this. lately we have been trying to more creatively go about the work with faith and charity. i pray we can all be on the same page in this effort."  

Fish for days

Yep, I'm in Asia! Gotta love it!

P-day outing - a captive audience?!