Q & A with Brother Tan Hong Min

• Can you please tell us where and when you serve your mission?

I served in the Singapore Mission from 21 Oct 2006 – 5 Nov 2008.

During the span of my mission service, I served in 5 ward / branches:

• Bintulu 2nd, Sarawak North District
• Kuching 2nd, Sarawak South District
• Singapore 2nd, Singapore Stake
• Miri, Sarawak North District

• Please tell us how and when you decided to serve a mission. What were the most influential factors that motivated you to serve?

When I returned home from my studies in Australia, I had not only obtained a Bachelors Degree but also a new perspective of life.  This was because I had joined The Church of Latter-day Saints. My love of the gospel inspired me to have the passion to share the gospel with my immediate family. However, none of them showed interests in learning about the gospel. They were also unwilling to make changes in their lives to accept the gospel.

I know my family needs the gospel in order that we can live together forever. I will continue to pray that their hearts may be touched by the spirit and I believe the lord will provide the opportunity for my family one day to accept the gospel. However, at this point in my life, I had the desire to share the gospel with other people even if my own family was not ready for it. After much prayers and fasting,   I decided in the beginning of 2006 that I wanted to serve my mission. The factor that most influenced my decision to serve a mission was the doctrine on eternal family and the blessings of eternal life that families could receive by living the gospel together.

3. Was your family supportive of your desire to serve? Was any of your friends and relatives surprised that you sacrifice two years of your life for this mission?
        
My mother understood me well but my father did not. Yes, almost all of them were surprised as none of could understand why I should give up two years of my life to do something that did not provide an income.
    

    4. Please share with us some of your most memorable experiences.

I was blessed to get to know a group of youth, most of whom were about 14 years old. One of them was from an in-active part-member family. I talked to him while he was with one of his close friends. The conversation led me and my companion to another 6 to 7 young men of about the same age. Eventually all of them joined the church. The day I was transferred out of their branch I promised them that I would be back in five years time to help them fill up their papers to serve missions.

    5. On a personal level, please tell us what you have learned and gained from your mission?
           
I have learned to adopt an eternal perspective of life. This has influenced me to focus my priorities on things that are eternal and less on things that are of this world. Thus, my priorities are commitment to serve God, strengthen my family, do well in my job, serve my friends and finally take care of my needs.
     
I also learned that by obedience to the God and the commandments, we will be blessed with all that we need. I also learned to develop selfless love towards everyone.

    6. What were the challenges you faced during your mission?
        The challenges that I faced during my mission include:

• Having to adjust to companions who come from different background, culture and habits. I learned the importance of patience and tolerance so that I can live and work together with my companions who were with me 24/7.
• I found it extremely challenging to ride a bike in terrible traffic for long hours in some cities where the traffic was chaotic and at times dangerous.
• Learned to be long suffering and persevering when investigators with whom we had spent long time to teach and for whom we had many hours on our knees praying for them but still did not want to accept the gospel for various reasons.

    7. Has your understanding of the gospel and testimony of Jesus Christ changed after your mission?
Yes. The more I got to see how the power of the gospel could change people's life, the more my testimony about the gospel grew. This was especially so as I witnessed the changes that the investigators were experiencing in their lives when they became active member. Later they became church leaders and they in turn became mentors to new converts.  I could feel the warm feeling of the spirit flowing through me testifying to me the truth of the gospel as I saw the blessings flow into their families because of their obedience to the gospel.
 
The long serving faithful members / couple missionaries in many branches and wards also strengthened my testimony about the blessings of a faithful servant of God.

8. What advice do you have for those who are considering to serve?

        One only three reasons why you cannot serve a mission:
        A) You're physically unfit / over-aged to serve
        B) You're not worthy to serve (at the moment) but still possible after repentance process
        C) Your next-to-kin is seriously ill at the moment
 
 If none of the above conditions apply to you, I'll say, you must go. You'll never regret. What you will gain is definitely more then what you have to sacrifice.