Lightbulb Moment

It's been a good week! We met President and Sister Mains!!! They are SO nice! I was worried that they wouldn't be the same and President and Sister Clark (who are now home--President Clark already has an injury from water-skiing haha). They are NOT the same, but it's totally fine. The Mainses are wonderful. They are very warm-hearted and loving about everything. President Mains came and did interviews with each of us missionaries the day before district conference, and talked to us a lot about how he is here to serve as our Mission President, and they're also here as our parents for the time being, because we are far from our actual parents right now. They were just so loving toward each of us :) We are all happy and excited that they're here.

District conference was wonderful! Elder Watson of the Seventy came and was with us for a few days. He and I talked about how I have family in Bangalore, which he thought was great and he said the Church is becoming quite strong there. Actually after the conference in KL, he was on his way to visit Bangalore. I told him to tell it hello for me :) It was very neat to talk with him. He is very pure, and very aware of those around him. Also very tall. :)

There were many testimonies that were born by new members that were so touching! One of them was Andi, who is from Puchong and who was baptized while I was there in Puchong :) She is the cutest thing ever... I must have mentioned her. She is probably 16 years old. She shared her conversion story and I wish you could have just been there. She has such a strong and deep and mature spirit already, although she is a cute and happy 16-year-old. She talked about how she was raised Buddhist but as she got older she felt that Jesus was her Savior. She was invited to church by one of the Young Women in the Puchong branch (Raquel), and when she came she felt so happy and realized as she was learning that this gospel was true and that it answered all of her questions. She was so adorable. I can't wait to someday see her with her own family--husband and children. I felt that she is going to have a strong family.

There was a talk given by a young man who is going to leave on his mission soon--to serve here with us in the Singapore Mission.  Some of his non-member family was there. We were talking with them after the conference, and we met his aunt, who we discovered really wants to learn! She met with missionaries decades ago, and still has a Book of Mormon and actually keeps it by her bed when she sleeps. She is having trouble with her teenage son, but her nephew who is leaving on his mission (Prince Wei) also has had struggles. He's changed a lot recently, apparently, and that has touched the hearts of many of his family members. So his aunt is one of those prepared people--she is so lovely and so nice! But, her husband is against the church. We're not sure yet as to why, but he wouldn't allow his family to go to church (that day he said yes because their nephew was giving a farewell talk, so he understood it as a family-oriented gathering). So we're trying to figure out how to approach this situation... it should be interesting. This would actually be my first time dealing with a misunderstanding husband. Prayer will have to play a large role.

Jack is having a lot of trials hit his life, just like a lot of people when they are in their conversion process. He is at a point when he feels peace and happiness only when he is close to the Spirit, and he recognizes that and holds on to that. He did a small relapse with his smoking the other day--something very stressful happened at his work, and so at his break he smoked a cigarette. He told us the next day, and told us humbly and admitting that it was wrong. I didn't feel frustrated with him, I just felt love and concern. We talked about it and realized that he literally didn't know what else to turn to in a moment of intense stress. The Spirit said "prayer." It seems maybe an obvious answer, but it was unmistakably put into my heart by the Spirit--it felt like a pocket of light that just popped into my heart. I offered that as a suggestion, and testified of the Spirit that prayer brings--the comfort, the calm, and the power over temptation. Jack had a lightbulb moment and said he would pray the next time he felt stressed. That was a great moment where the Spirit was the real teacher. We're very proud of Jack. He's really progressing and going to be strong. 

Other than that... trying to find more solid investigators... chugging along. Life is good. There's nowhere I'd rather be. The Gospel is true. God loves each of us. Families truly can be together forever, through the ordinances of the holy Temple. I'm grateful for the Restoration of such ordinances and I'm grateful that such blessings have been offered to me and my family. I am here trying to help extend those blessings to the people around me here in Malaysia.

Sister Gopinath