Otherwise I am
learning to live in Singapore. The MRT or train / subway still just gives me
headaches. I am now a master at using busses. I can get anywhere. Thank
goodness for map books.
So the church will
pay up until I get to wherever I’m going, so they would only pay until Hawaii. Also
they asked me where I wanted to fly to today, on the 23rd. So I suppose I will
tell them Spokane? I have a smart phone here in Singapore, I will check my
email tomorrow, you tell me where I should ask them to fly me and I will tell
them later this week. I am not going to extend I think.
When I get home? I
will probably sleep a while. Then probably go into mission withdrawals. They
are probably similar to the Sarawak withdrawals I am going through now.
The work is
different in every aspect. The less actives are typically less active because
they want to be less active, not because they lack encouragement or fellowship
or have broken the commandments, as was the case in Malaysia. As a result, so
far we have 2 less active family's to work with. We have knocked on the door of
almost every less active member in our area.
The members are way
cool and supportive, but they, like everyone else in this place, are busy, like
way busy. Talking to other missionaries and from my experiences so far it seems
that you visit members once every 2 weeks to 2 months depending instead of the
once or even twice every week in Sarawak.
So anyway we passed
the less active ex-Muslim girl to the Sister Missionaries. A little too
friendly if you get my meaning.
The Buddhist was
good. Her name is Cassandra. She is Chinese/Filipino. Just starting to go to
university. We met at a library and taught her the Restoration. It went well, committed
her to read the Book of Mormon and pray.
Today because people
so happened to be not busy we met with Trishalin, a potential investigator we met
while on the bus to find a less active family (the less active family asked us
to remove their records :(. Anyway, she is Filipino, just finished secondary
school (highschool) and is Baptist. The lesson went well.
Teaching is so much
different here. The people are literate, they understand what they read and
aren’t afraid to explain or state their opinions. So yeah. I don’t really know
what I’m doing, glad the spirits on my side or I’d be in trouble.
Later today we might
be meeting with 2 more potential investigators, at 4 and 6 respectively.
Cool things that
happened this week. We had absolutely nothing to do on Saturday. So just walked
out the door to see where my feet took me. I felt like skipping the bus and
walking into some HDB flats (the government owned flats that cover the entire
landscape of my area). Anyway we saw a Chinese man with a baby. Decided to be
bold. Walked up to him and was like "hello, we are representatives of Jesus
Christ here to teach people about him and his teachings. Would you be interested
in hearing our message?" He was like "yes.” Wait what? So, we got his
number, hopefully we can visit him this week.
Also met this Muslim
lady from Indonesia who said we can meet maybe this Saturday. Pretty cool. She
didn’t believe I could speak Bahasa until I did.
Yesterday was interesting.
So for the first time on my mission I was late to church. Really just rubbish. Anyway,
we went out in the evening. Decided to get on the bus to the checkpoint on the
way to JB in Malaysia. We wanted to get off at the checkpoint and maybe walk
around, slowly meander back towards the city. No can do. Once the bus enters
the checkpoint you are committed, no turning back. So of course, not having our
passports the guards told us to go wait in this corner. Eventually we were
escorted up into the interrogation office. They took us back into separate
interrogation rooms and asked us a bunch of questions. My interrogators talked
in Malay to each other and English to me, I guess to hide what they were
saying. Didn’t work. They were talking about how stupid we were for coming to
the check point. They made some immigration jokes. Talked about an incident
earlier in the day when somebody tried to come in on a stolen passport. Once
again said we must have been pretty dumb to just come to the border. Anyway
took our thumbprints then put us back on a bus to the city.
Never again will I
get on that bus....
We were able to meet
with a couple members this week. Brother and Sister Soh. They are Chinese,
older and are ward missionaries. They invited over several other families, the
Ng family that we visited on Christmas Eve. Also the Leong family that we met
my first week here. Also Brother Jimmy Tan. He is pretty old. He was the first
person baptized in Singapore. Pretty cool. He was telling us about his day. Apparently
back a while ago Singapore had a 2 child policy similar to china? I don’t know
anyway, interesting stuff.
awefulkeyboardspacebarisbroken.
Anyway, so things
are picking up. Life is good in Singapore.
Love you guys,
Elder Halpin
BTW, members aren’t
picture crazy here so I actually don’t have any with members yet.
Don’t pee in the elevators.
The view from Brother Soh’s apartment.
That’s the bridge to JB with the checkpoint on the far left....
HDB flats for days.
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