Monday, August 31, 2015

The highlight of this week was going to the airport to pick up the new missionaries! It's always so fun. They are all from America, and have so much greenie fire! I love hearing their simple, pure testimonies, and hope mine is still simple and pure, even though it is now much deeper. We tried to secretly take some pictures as we were walking, and it was so fun to get to know the new Sisters, and give our training on Muslim contacting, and visa runs, and the Book of Mormon and The First Vision. And, to see transfers. I cried a little again watching the new companionships come together - it's just such a special thing to watch, and, as Sister Simmons said, to "feel the power" of the new companionship. I also got to get snacks out for that, and copy all the new missionaries’ passports - I was literally holding 22 American passports, and I felt so powerful! We have dinner every single night for the rest of September, and I just love 1st ward and 4th ward. We do cover the whole island now. It's crazy!

This week most of our investigators seemed to be out of town again. So, that was really sad. However, the ones that we did meet we had some good lessons with. One of the highlights of our week was teaching the B teenagers. Brother B is less active, but he wants his kids to know about what he believed. This week, we taught C, J, and T the Restoration, and it was fun to see them think about, and try and understand what we were sharing with them. At the end of the lesson, they were so excited to read the Book of Mormon. These kids have so much potential.

Besides that, we taught a new investigator, J. He is asking all the right questions, and literally acted like a member when he showed up at church for the first time! He really wants to find out how to draw closer to God and Jesus Christ. I really hope that he makes the time to learn from us even though he's busy, because I know how much this will bless his life. It was a great miracle that he came to church in the first place.

We tried to get a lot of referrals this week, as we had a BBQ ward activity, but there was not a lot of success in people coming that were nonmembers. However, we did have a member take us out to contact a referral, and that was great. The referral we contacted was named Brother S, and because we were in the right place at the right time - we were able to witness a miracle. As we were standing there, I saw a really nice looking blonde girl by the MRT. I immediately felt that I should try and talk to her. It was really awkward to try and walk over to her and find a reason to start a conversation, but we did, and after we asked our question, this girl immediately looked at our name tags, and said "Oh! I am a member of this church!" She went on to tell us her story of how she is from Finland, but has been less active for a while at this point. She was really open with us, and just moved to Singapore, and yet, we don't have her records in either expat ward.  We ended up getting her phone number, and are trying to currently get her involved with the YSA. Miracles happen when you listen to promptings, and then, most importantly, act on those promptings!

We also had a lot of success with less actives this week, which I have been praying for!  Another opportunity I had to follow the spirit this week was when we left our ward BBQ. A less active, Sister M, was supposed to come to the ward BBQ, but it turns out, our phone died before the activity was over, and we couldn't get in contact with her after getting her phone number from a member. We started walking away, just deciding that we were going to try again another time, and after getting an uncomfortable distance away from the BBQ, I got this sick feeling in my stomach that we needed to go back. We also listened to this prompting and went back.  When we reached the front gate, we called the less active, and for some reason, the number worked this time and Sister M picked up. It was such a tender mercy, and we were able to meet her, and talk to her about her struggles with church. She said she is feeling very distant from God at this point, but will try and make it a point to meet with us. We shared a powerful lesson on the Book of Mormon, and am excited for her to take time to read it. I know it's the word of God.

We worked with ward leaders this week by meeting with many auxiliary leaders, and by participating in a missionary fireside for 4th ward. It was so spiritual, and so simple, and I hope the ward rallies around our new mission plan!

Finally, I would invite you to all look at Jacob 4: 4-8, and think about unshakable faith and what Christ means to you. It's such a powerful section. The Book of Mormon truly is the iron rod that will get us through all the darkness and trouble of the times. As we kneel down and focus on God, partake of the Atonement, and read the scriptures, we will be able to conquer any of the challenges life throws at us. The church is so true.

Love you all!
Love, Sister Crabb

This is a member family - the B's that we have dinner with a lot! 

This is a giant Durian that is at the airport. I couldn't help but get a picture with it!

Picking up new missionaries at the airport

Monday, August 24, 2015

L's Baptism Week! Yay!

Dear Family:
Transfers are in, and I am staying as an STL in 1st ward. We are also in charge of the entire 4th ward now, and that's pretty exciting. There is a downcut in Singapore missionaries so that they can get more visas for future missionaries here. So, it's pretty ironic that I've stayed in Singapore my entire mission! (although she still has one more transfer before coming home....)

I hope that the pictures give you a pretty good sum up of the best parts of my week :) Here are a few other highlights really quick!

This week was very, very exciting as L got baptized. It's amazing to see her sweet spirit, and see how she has simply embraced the gospel and the feelings that come with it. The spirit was so strong, and she is just really, really special. She was super nervous about going into the water and getting baptized because the member that referred her to us (well, the one who originally gave her the Book of Mormon) joked around with her that she would burn up with fire when she got immersed in the water. L really took it pretty seriously, and we heard about it numerous times the morning of the baptism! Also, she joked about running away a couple times. Super funny! But, words cannot describe the feeling when you see someone go under the water and realize that in a small way, you were a part of their journey. I've really seen myself change and grow as Sister Fuglistaler and I taught her, and it's an amazing feeling to sit and wait for them to change after the baptism. Sister Fuglistaler and I both were crying a little bit, and we gave each other a huge hug. It's just so special! We played and sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" (from young women’s awhile ago!!) for her baptismal musical number, and the best part as a missionary, is when you have someone tell you that you you changed their life. Walking away from the church after her baptism, L just looked at us and said, "You changed my life for the better, seriously, I will always be so grateful." I can't even believe I was trusted to be able to teach her.

I went down for M's baptism (someone I taught briefly in CCK! Yay!! It was such a good weekend)! M and I are pretty good friends, and it was really fun to be there for her.

Another miracle this week was the B's. They are a less active family/family that has children of record. We cold-called them this week, and he let us come up and teach their children, even after he mentioned at the beginning of the conversation that he did not want us to come to his house.  We were lucky to be there at the right time too, as we caught him coming down the elevator, so we could have a really good chat with him, and not his children to begin with.

As far as other work goes right now, we are visiting numerous less actives, and finding that they don't live in Singapore anymore, or want their records moved, or they just don't want us to come and talk to them about the gospel.

Referrals with pushups is going really well, and we are starting to do less - not sure if it is a bad thing or a good thing :).

I tried Chilli Crab for the very first time this week! It was very, very fun, and I don't know if I would try it again. The shell was really hard to crack on the outside of the crab to get the meat, but the sauce was nice, and Dad, when you come, we will get some nice cracker-covered deep fried prawns so you can dip those into the chilli sauce with the chilli crab:). Also, the person serving us asked how "Miss Crabb" liked the food, and he just laughed when he found out it was "just okay". We have to eat it with gloves, and it's super messy, but quite the adventure! Not as bad as I thought.

Here's a nice scripture I read this week about Christ...it's amazing how everything we do really comes back to Him. I'm so grateful we have a Savior and an Atonement. 3 Nephi 9:14: "Yea, verily I say unto you, if ye will come unto me ye shall have eternal life. Behold, mine arm of mercy is extended towards you, and whosoever will come, him will I receive; and blessed are those who come unto me."

Love you all! Have a great week!
Love,
Sister Crabb

Here's a little playful banter between Lynn and Alyssa from last week and this week:

Alyssa: And just so you know, I will be giving you a little bit of grief for your 50th birthday!!! You'll be so old!!

Lynn: Also, just so you know, I can take as much grief as you want to dish out about me being 50.  I have no issues being a “classic man.”  :-)

Alyssa: The grief will come...just wait! I've got Singapore stuff with me so I can figure it out! Haha! So excited!!!

L's Baptism!

L's Baptism!

After L's Confirmation

 

Trying chilli crab - one of Singapore's National dishes

Eating chilli crab

service project - cutting chicken for a giant pot of curry

group of Elders and Sisters

 

At M's Baptism

This is me in front of the chapel at Pasir Panjang. There is no church sign, and it's literally an old mansion turned into a chapel. Super cool! This is where M was baptized. 

At Pasir Panjang chapel

Monday, August 17, 2015

This week was overall a really good week! I loved being able to participate in the 5-week missionary orientation, and being able to teach La so many times this week. Sister Fuglistaler and I really want to be better at asking for referrals. It's not that we don't want to ask for them, sometimes we just forget!  So, in order to motivate ourselves to remember, we have 25 push ups we need to do every morning, and if we ask anyone in our day for a referral, it knocks off 2 push ups. So far, it is working to help motivate me! We did 19 push ups this morning, so a long way to go to be a good referral -asker!

Our investigators are doing well. La is set to be baptized this week, we actually dropped J, and O and his wife are being fellowshipped really well. We have a referral in the works of a less active who is hiding, but his wife just had a baby. We are going to hopefully get the address and go and visit them this week.
I increased my faith this week in accordance with this miracle! So, we got La all prepared for her baptismal interview, and I just had this strong prompting that we needed to teach her about repentance. I was confused, because I was pretty sure she already understood it, but told Sister Fuglistaler what I was feeling. We planned to address it, but then didn't for some reason in our lesson. The next day, we got a text from our member telling us that we needed to refresh Laura on repentance and faith. So, we hurriedly set up an impromptu appointment, and were able to meet with her. She was so concerned about mistakes she had made - mistakes she thought made her not deserve to be baptized. We taught a great lesson on the Atonement, and invited her to go home and pray and read about Jesus Christ, and pray to know that she is forgiven. That night, I prayed so hard for Heavenly Father to answer her, and in the morning, I felt so much peace. The miracle part of this, is that the next day at her interview, she was glowing because she said she had figured it out! I love La, and she is literally a miracle. I love that I get to just be on the backseat too, watching Heavenly Father do His work within her, because I know that it was only through Him and the Atonement that she was able to have her burden lifted.

Funny moment of the week, we ate at Chili's and were with our Rwandan family and their fellow shippers! While there, I was such a clutz and totally whacked my water and it almost spilled all over Brother W! Luckily, he dodged it effectively. It was funny though, because the Rwandan family got very quiet as they saw me spill my water, and they said, it is a saying in Rwanda, that when a woman spills water, it means she needs a husband. I just laughed! Such a funny night :)

(We asked her for any tips on helping us be better missionaries:)
Hmm..let me ponder what advice I could give you...I think there's a really good scripture that I read in my personal study - it's actually an Isaiah scripture - and I actually really love those. BUT, here it is. It's Isaiah speaking about the destruction of Syria, and if it's even possible to stand against God. But, apply it to missionary work...2 Nephi 20:15. "Shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? As if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself as if it were no wood." The footnote explains this verse is talking about if we can survive against God, which obviously we cannot. But another question that popped out to me, is can we survive WITHOUT God. I think if we compare ourselves to the saw, or the ax, and God as the person using those tools, we would be such ineffective tools without God.  So, how do we let God use us as the tool? Since He literally can't be here, we need to qualify ourselves more fully for the Holy Ghost, and then have the courage to act on those promptings. THAT is letting God be the work behind missionary work. We need to do all we can to "Get out of the way of the spirit." I think if you talk to any missionaries about missionary work, the sweetest experiences of missionary work, the biggest miracles, are the ones where you feel like you are just on the backseat watching God do His work. Everything about missionary work is God's, we just need to connect to the spirit, and be His hands here - the instrument that He uses physically on Earth. Hope that helps!

Love you!
Love,
Sister Crabb

Sisters Fuglistaler, Crabb, and Archibald

Monday, August 10, 2015

This week was Singapore's 50th anniversary. I got to watch the fireworks lit up over the skyline, and it was great. Such a spirit of comradery here in SG. Also, we listened to the prime minister's speech as part of our sacrament meeting! Super weird!!!

La is a total miracle - she has accepted everything we've asked of her, and overcome every trial.

We are still getting so many dinners!

O and his wife C are good - church still isn't first priority, but they are starting to ask very inspired questions.

We have called and talked to some really awesome people that want to meet us.

I am learning to really follow the spirit and endure!!

I went to my first MLC this week, and we talked all about being a Preach my Gospel mission - it was interesting to hear all the comments and people's opinions, but it was really, really awesome. I loved the spirit and power in a room full of missionaries. I get to do a couple more meetings this week...(We definitely believe in meetings in this church!) and am excited for La to be able to be interviewed for baptism!!

Also, I played the piano at Zone Conference, and it was great. I love President and Sister Simmons. They truly love us.

The gospel is so true, I love thinking of enduring as Christ centered, and as a way to become more like Him. There was this really good quote from my studies that I liked about Enduring to the End. And, we talked a lot about it this week at our Zone Conference! Enduring to the End is kind of like a tornado shape - we keep circling through the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we get closer and closer to God and more and more like Christ as we do so. Elder Maynes (of the 70...not my Mission President!!) said that " Endurance is an important principle found within the doctrine of Jesus Christ. It is important because the quality of our eternal future is proportional to our ability to endure in righteousness." I thought that was very profound. The gospel is centered on our Savior, whom I love more than anything. I know that God is in charge of this work. I'm grateful that I get to be an instrument here, and that I get to give my all to Him!

Have a great week!!

Love,
Sister Crabb

We asked her about the lady who fainted that she mentioned in last week's letter and how often they taught the Gospel Principles Sunday School class and these are her responses:  Yah, it was just a random stranger who fainted in our arms. She was walking up a hill after donating blood and she just fell. Then, she said she was fine, so I grabbed her to help her walk, and she passed out again and almost fell flat on her face, I just grabbed her shoulders and helped her down to the ground. It was a crazy experience! We actually normally don't teach gospel principles - but we have taught the last 2 Sundays because a lot of expats (including our ward missionaries) were out of town for the summer.

Zone Conference (Alyssa is 3rd row up, 2nd from right)

Monday, August 3, 2015

Hopp Schwitz!!!

(These first few paragraphs are more casual comments to us)
Exchanges for the first time were really stressful! I don't know why they intimidated me so much, but they totally did. I think I did an okay job, but I'm really grateful I get to go on exchanges again next week so that I can try again! Besides that, it was Swiss National Day on Saturday! (Her companion is from Switzerland). We celebrated by going to an authentic restaurant, and it was so yummy. I got this hash brown pancake thing, and I got a sausage, and it was just delicious! Besides that, I got asked to accompany the choir, and have taken a few hours to try and pull together the accompaniment, which is pretty difficult! Please pray for me to do well with that :). Also I had steak last week, and a lady literally fainted in my arms (she got too dehydrated, and it was CRAZY!!) She was like, I'm fine!, but then she just fell into my arms, and then all these Chinese aunties came over when they saw her fall, and put all these essential oils on her. Some lady literally pulled over in her car, and asked if she could drive the fainting lady to the hospital. Anyway, some nice Indian man called the hospital and all was well.

I love laughing with Sister Fuglistaler! We taught Gospel Principles this week, and we taught a lesson with French translation, and I met someone who served his mission with Dallin Hatch! I decided I really like French people and expats and I just have so much to say and no time to say it!

We also bought a watermelon last week, and carried it all the way home (SOOO heavy) and then, it turned out to be rotten. SO disappointing after we spent a long time trying to choose a good one! Anyways, life is good. I'm so happy!!! LOVE YOU!!!

This is her more formal letter...
This week has been another good one! I really love this area and my companion and the opportunity that I have to serve here right now. I don't think there's been a time on my mission that I've been happier, and I love that feeling right now!

We worked with the ward this week by meeting numerous members and helping them set personal mission visions - which is what our Bishop invited us to do with our members. As we did this, we had such a sweet experience with the B family. We were there, and our dinner talk really set the tone for our message as it involved questions of the soul, and our investigators, and how their family mission vision is going. They told us that they really want to see someone baptized by the end of their time in Singapore, so their vision is them around a baptismal font with someone dressed in white. Our message then revolved around how as they trusted God, they could get there. We shared "The Touch of the Master's Hands" and invited them to pray daily for the baptism. We ended with Sister Fuglistaler praying in German. Sister B broke down into tears at the end of the appointment and the spirit was so strong, and we left while the spirit was still there. It was the perfect dinner appointment, as we were in and out fast, and had the spirit there really strong. I wish all dinner appointments could be like that! One of the best moments of the week for me happened after our gospel principles lesson. One member came up to us after we taught, and said "wow, you two sisters are really good teachers - there was a really sweet spirit during your lesson." It was so encouraging to know that we are making progress, and that all my hard work to improve as a teacher over my mission and this transfer is paying off as we rely on God and the spirit.

As far as our investigators go, the three main ones we need to talk about are La, O and his family, and J.
La is doing really well! We met her this week, and she brought us Latvian chocolate because she is so grateful for us being able to teach her. We taught her the Sabbath Day, and she readily accepted. She even requested some readings on the Sabbath Day to figure out more fully if she should take a taxi to church on Sunday. She did come to church, and she even stayed after for choir because she loves to sing! She is so good, and so prepared. The ward LOVES her, and she has been so good at dodging the bullets of Satan - something I've been really praying to have happen. She has said that she has a lot of coworkers that try to tear her down, but she just doesn't listen. Also, her friend from Latvia came to visit for a couple weeks, and is really supportive of her decision to be baptized. Things are looking really good right now!
O and his family were able to meet us a couple times this week - and I guess this is my miracle for the week. That they told us they no longer need to be invited to church because they have intentions to come every week. Also, we taught C (O's wife) with a member translating into French, and that helped a lot - because she apparently does not remember the Restoration at all. Now we can resolve that concern!
J was sick this week, so we weren't able to meet, but she came to church, and we were able to talk about her in ward council and how we can help her take that leap of faith to be baptized.

We have a really big focus on referrals, and are trying to make a nice member book so we can track members' missionary work better, and help them with their concerns. We also are still trying to find less actives - being in an expat ward means there are just not a lot of them, but we have faith there is someone out there who will let us help them come back to church!

A couple other highlights of the week included us being inspired to go down to set up mattresses for Zone Conference, and while we were there, we were really able to serve Sister R. She said, "thanks so much for coming down! I'm really worried - I feel like we need to drop our investigators." She said she sometimes gets scared being the Senior companion, and needed advice. So, we role played what a drop would feel like, and she said she felt the spirit, and I think she knows what she needs to do. She is so good, and that was such a little miracle of the week.

I increased my faith this week by really praying for charity! I really tried to reach out this week to the Sisters in small and simple ways, and talking to Sister R really capped that off. I also am learning the value of praying for charity for yourself - as I pray to love myself, I'm able to be more gentle with myself, and more fully accept my weaknesses. I think it's an interesting concept, but I really like it!

Besides that, I also increased my ability to be a leader. I went on my first exchange this week, and it was a little bit of a rough one for me! I prayed and tried to figure out what she needed to learn in the exchange, and I wanted her to just feel loved and like she could do things. I tried to do that throughout the exchange, and I hope this week to improve on being better at training throughout the day. On the exchange, we successfully got locked out of our apartment in the morning, got lost 3 times (whitewashing can be hard!) and we met 3 people that I hadn't really taught before. So, it was a really stretching day! Although it didn't go how I planned it, I prayed about it, and realized that it really was the exchange that that companionship needed at that time. I'm so grateful that I have that assurance.

Love,
Sister Crabb

Her companion took pictures of her as she opened a package we sent her...

Celebrating Swiss National Day with her companion, Sister Fuglistaler