Starting in Malaysia, our first miracle

We were to stay in Singapore for a little longer as part of our orientation to the mission field, each of us being assigned different senior companions at various times as part of the training. My first senior companion was Elder Lecheminant, the only American Elder allowed a missionary visa in Singapore at that time besides the Mission President and his wife. We were following up on referrals that came through the Osmond family fireside that was held in Singapore earlier. Other local Elders who were from Singapore that I would work with include Elders Jeffery Lim, David Wong and Pang Meng Hock, on occasion working in threesomes. We had regular missionary correlation meetings where we would pass off discussions and memorized scriptures as required by the Mission President Talmage Jones!

Soon it was time for Elder Soon and I to leave together for Malaysia. On 30th Aug 1980, the eve of the Malaysian Independence day, we were put on the plane on a 45 minute flight to Kuala Lumpur where we were met by Bro. Kent Davis and his wife who are an expatriate American family living there. We were brought to the mission home at No 3 Jalan Mentri Utara 7/4 Petaling Jaya where we would stay with Floyd and Edna Stoker who were the only missionaries serving in the country at that time.

Our first agenda was to look for a room to rent and here came the first miracle. While looking for a place to stay, we found that a referral that was given to us from Singapore was located next to a home that we were looking at from an advertisement! Another was even more astounding as a referral named Ho Chee Meng living at 2 Jalan Rembia turned out to be one of the advertisers of a room to let which we had independently sought for. Elder Pang in Singapore had met him on the bus on 24th Aug and passed his details to us as a referral. We did call Mr Ho to reveal the situation to him and he gave us an ‘open invitation’ to visit him!

We narrowed down our choice for a place to stay to a home that had only a couple, Mr and Mrs Cheah, living in it that was located at 97 SS2/74 Petaling Jaya. We moved in on 8th Sept 1980 and on the first night Mrs Cheah shared this remarkable story with us. She is a Christian who had tried several churches but has not developed a testimony of any of the churches yet. When we first came by to visit her home the previous week, she expressed that she felt a strong impression when she first saw us alighting from the taxi feeling that she really liked us to rent her room. While we were considering the option the next few days, she told us that she was praying very hard for us to accept their offer. Well we did and before the night was over, I bore my testimony about our divine commission and suggested that we could share the gospel with them.

We taught her all the discussions and she followed us to Church for a period of time. We finally challenged her to be baptized and I had the privilege to baptize her on 25th Oct 1980, our first convert baptism since we arrived.

Post-developments:

SpaceTime-Travel

26 Dec 2011

Singapore

Patricia Cheah after retirement had moved from KL to Singapore to help her daughter in raising her son and we met up only 29 years later when I picked her to our home in Singapore.

She had met Geok Lee after my mission to be able to attend our wedding in Petaling Jaya when she had not move to Singapore yet.

17 Jan 2012

Kuala Lumpur

Met up with David Soon, my former mission companion, who came down from Penang for our reunion with our miracle convert during our mission time!

Met up with a Sister in Taman Tun Dr. Ismail

8 Nov 2012

Singapore

She came to Geok Lee's funeral service in Singapore

8 Nov 2013

Melaka

Stop over in Melaka to meet Elder Gerrit W. Wong

9 Nov 2013

She got a ride from me to Singapore from KL where I had planned to celebrate Shuan's birthday.

17 Feb 2014

Singapore

A boat ride from Singapore to Desaru

1 Apr 2018

Salt Lake City, Utah

Click the video above to hear Elder Gerrit W. Gong speak just after he was sustained as an Apostle in the General Conference of April 2018. What a nice coincidence that we got to meet him 5 years ago in Malacca.

6 Apr 2019

Nice to meet Patricia Cheah again who is 90 years old this year with her younger brother in the far right at 85 and son Michael Lee on his right, having lunch in Kuala Lumpur.

19 June 2019

Petaling Jaya

Celebrating the 90th birthday of Patricia Cheah (actual date being 29 May)

More photos and a video of the dinner party can be viewed here.

The journey to meet my foreordained Missionary Companion

After taking care of family matters as best as I could, I was ready to return back to Australia first for my graduation ceremony and then to receive my official mission call which uniquely had already been determined.

On 15 May 1980, I was ordained an Elder by the President of the Melbourne Australia Fairfield Stake, President Gerald F. Myers.

Click this pic above to expand its view to be able to read how I received this priesthood line of authority that is linked all the way to the Savior during his ministry on the earch.

I was to report to the New Zealand Missionary Training Center(MTC) in Hamilton, New Zealand on 5 August 1980, to stay for 10 days intensive training.

It was set on a beautiful country site where there was a Church Temple and Auckland city was not far away.

It was also close to the Church College of New Zealand

I received my missionary short hair cut and my discussion manuals

The MTC was a small specialized one for those serving in countries in the Pacific islands and though I was called to serve in Singapore in Asia, I was probably sent there as I was residing in Australia at that time called from the Melbourne Fairfield Stake in 1980. Other fellow missionaries were from Australia, New Zealand and it was interesting to meet the island people from the area which primarily included the Maoris, the Samoans and Tongans who had a new and unfamiliar culture to me.

Postdated development :

Oct 2016, with facebook social media, I was able to find the daughter of Rex Kennerley. Bro Kennerley was the person in charge of the MTC in New Zealnd (seated on the far right of the front row) who was assisted by Bro Belbin. (seated on the far left of the front row). With the help of Roseanne Kennerley, I could complete my reunion information post with my two instructors found here.

My memory of them is that they seem naturally melodious in song and certainly a happy people!

Towards the end of our time at the MTC, we got to visit the Church College nearby and I experienced the NZ haka dance for the first time performed by the students as sort of a farewell or bon voyage wish for us I suppose.

Departure to Singapore :

I arrived in Singapore on 15 Aug to be met by the Mission President of the Singapore Mission, Talmage Jones with his wife Vera Jean Jones.

My planned missionary companion would arrive on 20 Aug. On that day, I was taken to the airport by President Jones and his wife to meet him. They had described me to be like the bridegroom waiting anxiously for his bride and I was indeed very anxious to meet Elder Soon to find out his experiences that led him to serve on this mission.

On our first night together, we were both excitedly exchanging quickly our experiences that led us to be together in Singapore. From both our experiences, we could only conclude one thing and that is the Lord had planned for us to be on this mission together. For one, Elder Soon revealed that in the month of December, he too was inspired to go on a mission as he was restless in his sleep like I was. We both had our prayers about going on our mission answered, he in New York City and I with my miraculous experiences in the country town of Geelong Australia in the month of December 1979!

Another interesting fact is that his Chinese given name “Ewe Seang” means ‘have luck’ while mine is ‘mountain of luck’. Here were two men going on a mission filled with luck! Other similarities that we later discovered of each other was that we both had early testimonies of the Church. David was in fact praying for the truth when missionaries turned up at his doorsteps while I was feeling a strong desire in my heart to find the purpose of life when the missionaries knocked at my door. We were both equally amazed how God had brought us together and felt very grateful indeed.



We were oceans apart but God put us together to fulfill his plans

We worked with other missionaries in Singapore

Post-dated developments:

 

After our mission, I only met David 4 years later in New York City, in the year 1986, where he had returned.

Sep 2005 Kuala Lumpur

Sep 2015 Penang

Jan 2016 Penang

Mar 2017 Penang

July 2020 Penang

The Mission Call

On the following Sunday (24 Feb 1980), I took my mother to Church. I had arranged for a priesthood blessing for her and she received it with tears flowing as the blessing was pronounced. (My mother later asked that I return the “Goddess of Mercy” idol to the Chinese temple and requested for missionary discussions. She got baptized on 22 March 1980 by Elder Floyd Stoker then serving as a couple missionary with his wife Edna.)

Visiting the branch on that Sunday of 24 Feb was the Mission President Talmage Jones based in Singapore with his 1st counselor President Ho Ah Chuan. At the priesthood meeting, President Jones stood up and explained that he had a letter from a Malaysian member named David Soon who studied in England and had expressed a desire to serve a mission. President Jones asked the quorum if they knew of anyone in the branch that could go on a mission as he was working on the inspiration to have a first pair of local missionaries to serve in Malaysia. When I heard this, I quickly raised my hand and explained that I had already submitted some preliminary mission application papers before coming home from Australia. What eventually happened was that President Jones coordinated with the Church headquarters for my mission call to start the same time with David, and when my call finally came, it was dated to begin on 6 Aug 1980.

Up to this point in my spiritual experience from the day I got baptized, I have learned of some very important things. Firstly I have learned that truth does exist in this world and that there is a loving God or Heavenly Father who is there to answer our prayers.

I learned the importance of faith and the power of the Holy Spirit, being able to trust the promptings that one receives and to have the courage to follow those promptings. Slowly but surely, I began to see that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is an inspired Church in that it is led by revelation for I had personally experienced it. It was my lot in life to become an instrument of the Lord, called by revelation for his purpose at an appointed time and place.

Malaysia is a Muslim country without visas for foreign Elders and the Lord in his own way overcame that problem. I never planned all that had occurred so far and more that is to come, nor did I have in the beginning the motivation to lead into it. I had merely sought for truth and answers to my own life’s questions and by being sincere to the answers that I found, I began to realize that there was much in return that I was to give back to life upon the earth.

My story will now continue to cover the details of my missionary service. The miracles of faith will become even more evident in my experience of being a missionary for the Lord Jesus Christ and his Church.

Finding the Church in Malaysia

My first experience at Church in Kuala Lumpur was a memorable experience. I had searched in the phone directory for the name of the Church but could not find it listed.(as the Church name was localized to be known as The Malaysian Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.)

Luckily, before coming back home, an elderly sister that I had helped to go to church in Australia passed me the contact number of his son in Singapore. On Sunday morning of 17 Feb, I called the Singapore number but it took some time before I could find out where the Church was located in Kuala Lumpur. I was referred to call a number in the Singapore chapel and a member referred me to call another number which was the Mission home.

I finally got the address of the Church in the suburb of Kuala Lumpur at No 3 Jalan Mentri Utara 7/4, Petaling Jaya. The members were meeting in a detached bungalow home. By the time I got there, Church meetings were over but I got to meet the Jack family. Within a short conversation, we found out that we were actually neighbors to each other in my parent’s home! I exclaimed that I had been calling long distance to find the Church all morning and here he was just next door to us over our common fence! Was this another sign from God I wondered but I was elated over the whole experience.

The Jack family was an expatriate American family, and Mike Jack worked with the oil company Exxon.(He was later called to be the Kuala Lumpur Branch President on 16 March) He and his wife Maveen came with 5 adopted children from different countries, from Sweden right through to Mexico and the far eastern countries of Pakistan, Korea and Philippines! They left Malaysia adopting a young East Indian baby. They were a pillar to the branch and staying with them was a returned missionary from Taiwan, a Malaysian named Thee See Ba. 'Thee See' as the nick name Americans got used to calling him by as well as the locals too instead of 'See Ba' which is his real Chinese given name, and I became good friends and we jogged almost daily in the early mornings. It was like having a missionary companion before my mission.

The Jack family before addition of the Malaysian baby