A Holmes Away from Home: Week 65 Cheras Week 3

August 3rd, 2015

Cheras is the best! I love Cheras sooooooo much! The people and members just make everything worth it here. The laid back attitude and just chillness of the country is just what I need. I love it!!!!

In the branch, we have a couple of Pakistani families here as refugees and they are the best. If you have never had Pakistani food, you are missing out on life. It is my favorite food right now. Dare I say it, it is better than nasi lemak and tandoori chicken. Soooo delicious. The stories of these families are incredible, Brother Jacob was tortured in prison for 4 years because he was Chrsitian and was the first prisoner to be let out in Pakistan for his offenses. Right out of jail he was baptized and they had to flee the country for Malaysia. Brother Jimmy and his wife are some of the pioneers of Pakistan, I think his wife's family was the first to be baptized there back in the 80's, now they have a stake in the country's capital! Wow! So great to hear of their strength and faith through everything that they do.

For companionship inventory, Elder Baker gave me some really good hints on how I can improve on my teaching, which I really need to have. I am an awful teacher, teaching the doctrine simply is not my thing at all. He gave me a couple of hints on how I can be better and how I can improve. I went right to work with it. It is sooo hard, I had no idea how horrible a teacher I was until I started to pick out the mistakes I had, which were more than I thought I did. I always think when someone gives me advice, I can just take over and use their hints and change everything in a day. That is certainly not the case in teaching. I have been having the hardest time with it, and I cannot seem to get it. But I was super stressed out the the other day about it, and I was pondering on the meaning of belief from Alma 32, and the thought came to me was, I need to believe in making mistakes. Not one or two mistakes, but truly believe I will make many mistakes and learn how to be a good teacher because of them. It was really really powerful to me. I need to have patience and belief and I can learn and master anything the Lord gives me to master.

So a miracle I saw this week, I contacted a young man named JiaPoLee. He wanted to meet, so we did. He knew almost next to nothing in English, it was sooo hard to teach him, but we were able to teach him what prayer is and how to pray and who God actually is. I have never seen somebody so willing to pray, so willing to talk to God. I felt the Spirit as he said the most humble and simple prayer, it was really powerful. He even said he felt so comfortable afterwards, and we told him it was the Spirit. It was really a great miracle to see this man have a desire to be happy with God.

It has been a great week in Cheras, it truly has been. I love it here!
Keep it real everyone!

Elder Holmes