So I am about half
way done with my letter to you Mom, things got hectic and I forgot to write it.
I will finish it and send it tomorrow, sorry it will be late. I will add my thoughts
on the Savior in there.
I miss you guys a
lot.
Just about the only
good thing that happened this week was that I was able to pick up my package. Thanks
you guys, a lot. The cards are really nice. The cookies are delicious. The new
white shirts are very white. I put up the Christmas tree over my desk on the
wall, it’s very nice.
I’m way jealous of
you guys.
So on Monday we got
news that I was being transferred to Singapore. To the woodlands ward. I am in
a tri-companionship with Elders Lee and Wright. They are both pretty cool.
Elder Lee is leaving on the 29th for his mission in Toronto Canada. He’s just
visa waiting (that’s why a tri-companionship). He’s from Melaka in West Malaysia.
Elder Wright is one of my "grandsons" (he is Elder Ferguson’s son). He
is from New Jersey.
The flight over was
just kind of awful. The dumb plane out of Sibu didn’t leave until 35 minutes
late. Once it got to Kuala Lumpur it had to circle for another 10 minutes
waiting for weather. Once it finally landed I had about 5-7 minutes to get to
the proper terminal. So I booked through the airport at a sprint. Made it, just
barely, had to yell to get them to hold the door. Anyway, I get to Singapore,
and of course, my checked bag didn’t make it..... So I go report my lost bag. I
don’t know my number (or anyone’s number for that matter) in Singapore, so they
give me their number and tell me to call later. I tried to call 20 times at
intervals later that night. No answer. The next morning did the same thing,
same result. Finally I gave up and went and picked it up in person. As nice as
the Singapore airport is, the lost baggage hotline is absolutely rubbish.
Our area is in the
northern half of the island, if you look up "woodlands" on google
maps, that’s our area. It’s a ward, not a branch, in a stake not a district.
We are whitewashing
the area, none of us three have been in the area before. We have no work. The Elders
before had nothing going, and from what it looks like they kind of just went
belly up and died/gave up. The area is split between 3 sets of missionaries, the
other two companionships have some work, but not much.
We live in a condo
on the eighth floor. We live with 2 Elders from the 4th ward (Elders Zimmerman
and Egbert), which is one of 2 expat wards. So it’s 5 people in a four person
house. Maksudnya, I sleep on a "taco" as they are called, a 2 inch
thick foam seat/mat thing. It’s about 4 1/2 feet long, so my feet stick out
from the knees onward. My "office" or "desk" is the corner
of the living room. Honestly though I don’t mind it, in fact, I often prefer to
sit on the ground over a chair. Other than that, the apartment is nice, we have
three bathrooms, however only 1 has a hose (limiting usability, TP is absolute
rubbish, I don’t know what I’m going to do when I get back...). It’s alright
though, we don’t have to filter the water here. We also have a dryer, but
dryers are rubbish, viva la drying racks!
We ride the MRT/bus
just about half the day, the other half is spent walking around endless malls
or walking about trying to figure out where members live in the endless mass of
condominiums and flats.
We’ve managed to
meet a few members, Elder Woo and his family. He is a 70. Bishop Loh, the Selvan
family, the Leong family, the Chong family. Tonight we are going to family home
evening with the Solomon’s – it should be good. The ward is pretty evenly split
between Chinese, Pilipino and Indians. Pretty cool, they all seem way dope.
My "area adjustment"
has not come in yet (8 days now)....(honestly the church reimbursement/support
system has gotten progressively worse over my mission, not better) My ringgits
that I converted were used up in about 2 days, so I have been using my Christmas
money to survive....
A member invited us
to use their computers to skype. Send me your names. I will email you my name
right before so we can find each other. It will be at about 9 o’clock in the
morning on the 26th (my time) you guys do the converting so that I don’t screw
it up.
Another thing is
that our house is split down the middle on missionary work philosophies. It
hasn’t really yet, but I know it’s going to cause clashes down the road.
So yeah. Just really
struggling to figure out why I was sent here. Struggling with not speaking Malay/Iban,
I really miss it. Struggling with my housemates/companions a bit. Struggling
with the area, how to get it going. It’s likely to be the last area in my
mission, maybe not though. Struggling with my general loathing of Singapore. Not
anything against it personally, just that it’s the epitome of a large city, I
hate large cities. Everywhere you look is a billion people, cars and busses and
advertisements.
I know that if I can
just focus on the people, the members, and the less actives and forget
everything else I’ll be fine. I’m just having a really hard time doing it.
I guess really that’s
just the gist of it.
If you have any
inspirational thoughts or advice now is the time for it.
Sincerely,
Elder Halpin
P.S. I think this is
the most depressing email I have ever written.
A somewhat depressive picture waiting at an MRT station.
My office/desk.
All three of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment