Feb 23 2014 email

I loved the shirts!!! They were awesome, I brought both of them to Singapore with me today...

Oh ya I'm in Singapore right now because I am training!!!! I flew to Singapore this morning with Elder Harr!!! We are both training! Also I am now the District Leader! But I am still in Kota Sentosa.

I don't know who my son is yet, but I have met all of the Malay Elders, and there are only 3 (Elder Harr is going to be training an english elder) So I have already met him... just don't know who yet :P

I am super excited to get to train! Also I get to be district leader, and everyone who is coming into my district is super cool.

For the last few weeks I have done a lot of the teaching, contacting, organizing.

But President came and did interviews in Kuching, and now I am training and DL!

Elder Jensen is getting transferred to Kuching, not in my district, but it is going to be cool to see my MTC companion again.

Basketball playoffs, are rough.
It's ok, Luke will dunk in school playoffs.

Well, I'm gonna go email other people :P

Jumpa Lagi
Elder Bester

Also just curious, did you ever get new shoes? 

 

 

I got new shoes 2 months ago...

Any new investigators or returning members? Any new funny stories?

 

I'm trying to clean up the list of our branch, found out our less active had only been baptized, did not get the gift of the holy ghost, so she got it this week!

I have changed so much, and I honestly feel like my mind has been blown open, I understand so much more about how the church works. And holy cow I think i am going to be ward clerk for forever. My life has changed so much, and I want to help the church as much as i can.

 

 

Anyways, I'm gonna go!

Love you all!
Elder Bester

 

 

Feb 10 2014 email

This week, my email to Brent was about Mike being called to be in the Stake Presidency, and that the Olympics have started.

Ok like oh my goodness that is crazy. Holy cow I have to call dad President Bester (and still just call him dad like I did when it was "Bishop Bester")

Well, today was a good day, this week has been really crazy.

I didn't even know the olympics had started :P That is how unattached Malaysia is.

Hey so who is the rest of the stake presidency? was there a new ward? like you guys haven't given me very much news :P

Malaysia is sometimes the most crazy and random place ever. Like there is no organization :P and always just like the most random things happen. I wish I could just take you guys here for a week and just see everything, this culture and country is crazy.

So a really cool thing, President Hedges (our branch president) told me this week that he doesn't want me to leave Kota Sentosa :) Which I thought was really cool, and our Elders quorum president gave testimony of... well pretty much us, as he has seen us working hard, bringing people to church every week (We have 6 progressing investigators and 2 others at the moment)

There is always so much to write about, this place is so crazy, and a mission is so wonderful.

The picture of all of our bikes wrapped is because we all went to  a really cool place again (the same one I went to with Elder Baranov when he got called as ZL) called Bako, but a few groups didn't go, and they did that :P

Sister Bourgouis (the new sister) asked me how to do Malay study like I do because she said I have really good Malay, my Malay has gotten pretty good (Still want to get a lot better) but honestly I am fluent and can read the book of mormon fluently in 2 languages, (and almost can read fluent in Indonesian)

I bought new fake sunglasses today :P

Transfers are happening early, we get news on the 22nd and actually move around on the 24th.

Love you guys, Read the scriptures.

also give referrals to the elders. :P

Jumpa Lagi,

Elder Bester

 

 

Feb 4 2014 email

Hey family, so because of Chinese New Years, everything was shut down on monday, and the internet cafe wasn't open until today, so mission president gave us permission to email today instead of monday. So I didn't forget to email :P Just emailing a little later...

 

 

I freaking miss Padoch. Like honestly, do you realize how many adopted brothers I have? Like Padoch, russell, brendan, thomas... they may as well have lived at our house :P

I got some letters and stuff, no packages yet... I don't think, not since Christmas...

So busy, there is so much work out here.

I love you guys a lot, I gotta go to work now though, we went to the caves again for p-day.

My Malay is really good now, cause I have worked so hard at it, I want to be able to use it for the rest of my life.

It is a lot of work though, very tiring, go hard all day, Elder Hill's bike was broken yesterday, so we walked 8km to our new investigators so that we could teach them :P

We do soooooo much, we are busy fixing the branch list (There has never been a single name moved out of the list!!!)

I love you all so much, help all the YM and YW go on missions. They need it.

Make sure that you read together and pray together every day. Every. Day. No. Exceptions. Ever. If you have to, call dad and read over the phone with him.

Do no make exceptions. Read individually every day, read as a family every day. The Book of Mormon is everything.

Family I miss you all so much, Troy, you are a stud :P

Katie, Don't run over the boys too much, don't beat up Jordan :P

Luke, you are the only one who emailed me (beside Troy) so you are getting extra blessings :P

Jordan, well J, I miss you man. alot.

Also I read Jacob Chapter 6 Last night, I really liked it (cause with Jacob chapter 5... which I also read last night) it really talks about missionary work.

Something I really like to do is to talk to everyone. Honestly, like at red lights I talk to people on motos and try to get them to become a potential investigator, and it has made me wish that I had introduced the gospel, better, and more frequently, to my friends back home.

I love you all,

It felt like over 40 degrees today.

Jumpa Lagi.

Elder Bester

Also I have good enough Malay that I translate for the senior couple :P

Ok actually We are still here for a bit, so there are some more things that you can do.

So make sure that you are helping all the youth. Help them all want to serve missions. Jordan, make sure you are filling my shoes :P

Like, the youth are always on my mind.

Help them kay? please?

Love you

 

 

January 26, 2014 email

So bowling was last p-day, and we played 3 games for free!!!!!!!! That was really cool :P

 

The Chair is broken, and the sticker is from the bottom of it...

 A, me and Elder Hill, Brother C (our elders quorm president who baptized him)

 

A and his Wife (already a member)

probably my favourite picture from my mission

 

We played tennis this week :P

 

The mess is in the spare bedroom... and it is where the mould is...

seeing him get baptized was the greatest feeling in the world. That made me so happy. Like... I don't know how to describe it. He has changed so much. I'm just so happy. :)

There are so many neat and wonderful spiritual experiences that I have had, I love it out here, even when times are rough, they are still pretty good.

So I want to emphasize again the importance of reading together.

My message that I have taken away from my mission is that obviously, people need to choose for themselves, and can't... or at least shouldn't be forced into something. Something I always struggled with was the concept of indoctrination, large amounts of atheist friends, and they mention it a lot...

 

To me, for a long time, it seemed like the church was almost pro indoctrination, but as I have served, I have seen why a)indoctrination doesn't work, and b) why it is so important to read the scriptures together and individually.

So reading together, for a long period of time, gives families the chance to see the blessing in their lives, due to reading together. When people have to make choices, they have already seen the better choice, and make choices for themselves, not because it is a family thing, but because they have benefitted.

Additionally, there is absolutely nothing that is better for strengthening a family, than to read the Book of Mormon together.

I could give a lesson on this for hours. This has hit me so hard that 3Nephi 18:21 has become my favourite scripture.

Pray Together!

Love you :)

Elder Bester

jadi, saya mahu sebut sedikit dalam bahasa malaysia, kerana saya sangat suka BM.

Saya suda bersyukur untuk datang ke misi saya dan layung (serve... probably spelt wrong) di sini :)

 

Translation (maybe...)

so, I want to say a little in Malay, because I really like the Malay language.
I am thankful for coming to my mission and serving here :)