Singapore Mission

In the early days of the church in Singapore, we tried to concentrate on finding priesthood holders. And so we started teaching a young man, college age, and as we taught him, he had two younger sisters, ages 14 and 13, that came in and joined in the discussion, kind of sitting in the background, not saying much, but drinking it all in. And these two young girls started coming to church, but the older brother didn't. And at the end of the lessons, he said, you churches are all the same, you're right, and everybody else is wrong. And I don't want to have anything to do with it. But his sisters wanted to be baptized. Unfortunately, their father wouldn't give them permission. And so as I left Singapore, I, for some reason, kept in touch with these two girls. It's hard enough to keep in touch with people that you teach and baptize, but two young teenage girls, it's something else. As I kept in touch, I'd write every six or eight months. And two or three years after I left Singapore, I got a letter from them. And they said, guess what, Elder Larson, we met the missionaries again, and we were able to get baptized. Well, these two young girls had more faith than I think I've ever seen in my life up to that point, especially among young people that were not raised in the church. But what a blessing for them. They came to BYU-Hawaii. They married, returned missionaries. Both of them ended up settling in Hawaii. Their children have been on missions. Their grandchildren are currently on missions. It has been such a blessing to be a part of that and to keep in touch with them over the years. That alone was one of the great blessings of my mission.

When I arrived in Singapore from Taiwan, I focused on the English discussions because most people in Singapore spoke English, at least those that we were teaching. But one day I knocked on a door and the young lady there, her English was worse than my Mandarin, which isn't saying much. And I gave her a Mandarin door approach. I was on my own. My companion didn't know any Mandarin and she wanted to know more. So I set up an appointment to go back. And then I went back to our apartment and to prepare for that, I pulled out all my cheat sheets for Mandarin and went to the lesson, not knowing what to expect, but with prayers for guidance and help and preaching in a language that I was totally unprepared for. As I taught the lesson, I had a constant prayer in my heart. And it was amazing because as I taught and I read from the romanization sheets I had from the MTC and I butchered the language, I don't have a clue how she understood what I was saying. But somehow between my lips and her ears, it changed and she was able to understand it. At the end of the lesson, she wanted to know more. There just happened to be an elder who had much better Mandarin that had been moved into our apartment and he took over the teaching and she was baptized several weeks later. But as she came to church every week, she brought friends. I think she never had less than about six or eight friends with her to church. And I don't know how many of them joined the church, but through the help of the gift of tongues and Heavenly Father's blessing, it worked in spite of me.

When I was transferred from Taiwan to Singapore, I had four weeks to learn the discussions in English. I'd been learning Mandarin up to that point, and I had to learn them one every week. The first time I ever heard a fourth, fifth, or sixth discussion in English, I gave it. My companion was brand new from Salt Lake, didn't have a clue how to be a missionary because there was no MTC. He was learning from ground zero. But as I studied and planned, and I've never planned harder for anything in my life than I did at that time, asking for divine help to remember and be able to teach and share the gospel. And as I gave those early lessons, I felt lifted beyond anything I could ever imagine. I knew that Heavenly Father was aware of me, that He loved me, and that He helped me. Of that I have no doubt.