First, a big shout out to our October birthday friends. Granddaughter Willow turns three on the 29th and our son Brock celebrates his birthday on the 30th. My family also got together to celebrate my Mom's 80th birthday on the 4th, and my sister Melody had a big one recently too. We love them all so much and are thankful for the joy they bring to our family.
Ever since before we started our mission, Sean and I have had a shared shopping list for groceries. Since we started our shopping list in Singapore, Sean has included an item titled "Can-do Attitude" on the list for most weeks. Sometimes I check it off as completed and other times I think of it as being unattainable. As I have previously mentioned in this blog, shopping without a car is sometimes tedious and complicated. My two biggest attitude problems when it comes to shopping are not having a car to easily transport items and sometimes being in extremely overcrowded stores. Let's talk this week about some other recent events, all of which we we tried to face with a can-do attitude.
Singapore Zone Conference: Every 12-ish weeks the entire mission gathers in a divided mass for two zone conferences. They alternate locations and this was our fourth one welcoming the world to Singapore. (Well third since as you may recall we arrived in Singapore last December in the middle of one and so we were the ones being welcomed). We have tried several ways to maximize my opportunities to meet with missionaries in person as part of these and this past week had the best flow yet. I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks.
The hardest part of the week is the long hours around going in earlier than usual and arriving home between 9-10 pm most nights. Our young missionaries are used to these hours, but us old missionaries sometimes feel our age. Some highlights of the week were having a relaxed dinner with time to swap stories and laugh with other senior missionaries, seeing some missionaries I previously have worked with who are doing fantastic, and hearing a wonderful presentation from the Tolmans on the power of the Book of Mormon.
Coast to Coast Trail: We have previously written some about our goal to walk the coast to coast trail from Punggol Point (Checkpoint 10) to Jurong Gardens (Checkpoint 1). Since I last wrote in the blog we have been able to complete three additional segments of the walk, each consisting of about 5-6 km. The trail is sometimes well marked, but other times unclear or even completely lost beneath the massive construction of the Cross Island MRT line. Along the way we have seen many different parts of the island and experienced busy streets, cozy neighborhoods, lovely parks near reservoirs, wild monkeys, water monitors, and the value of drinking coconut water for energy and electrolytes.
We have also been learning more of the history of Singapore along the way. Yesterday we walked by an area called Beauty World which piqued my interest as to why. In the past the area was a series of amusement parks each with the name of "___________ World." Later the area became a market which was named Beauty World, bringing together the proprietor's daughter's name of Beauty and the old "World" names from the amusement parks. It has since become (what else?) a shopping mall!
Creeds: In Sean's institute class this week we were studying about the prophet George Albert Smith. It has been interesting to learn more about the diversity of modern-day prophets and also to see that the doctrines of the gospel of Jesus Christ remain the same. George Albert Smith suffered from mental health struggles, what we now call depression and anxiety. There was a period of about three years of his time serving as an Apostle where he wasn't able to function. I found myself identifying with this wonderful man due to his struggles and also his desires for everyone to feel loved. As part of our study we read through President Smith's personal creed - a list of 11 resolutions he committed to live by. You can read through the entire creed by clicking on the above link but I will share a couple of the resolutions which resonated with me and which I am striving to live up to: “I would not knowingly wound the feelings of any, not even one who may have wronged me, but would seek to do him good and make him my friend. I would live with the masses and help to solve their problems that their earth life may be happy."
Can-do Attitudes: I am notoriously directionally challenged! Just ask my children about the years we lived in Lowell, Massachusetts before having access to GPS. We were often lost in unfamiliar areas where I would pull over into a parking lot, pull out my giant book of maps for the Metro Boston area, and try to get back on the right route. We had a few moments that we like to laugh about now, but they weren't funny then. For example once I ended up in the restricted tunnel to the Logan airport. By the time I realized that I was headed there I couldn't find my way out. No one stopped me so I guess it turned out alright! In any case, that directional challenge has lived on in Singapore although I generally do better with the support of Google Maps.
This week I needed to support a missionary at a visit with a local psychiatrist. We have used this psychiatrist since the beginning of our mission and the first time we went there we were miserably lost as the elevator to the medical offices wasn't easily found. We wandered through food courts, in and out of the building, up and down escalators, before finally connecting with the missionaries and having them show the way. On all subsequent visits to the office I have relied on Sean to find the way, but this time he had another commitment. So, we did the only reasonable thing: over lunch I had Sean talk me through how to get there and he drew me a map on a napkin. I took the napkin with me just in case, but his explanation of how to get there reminded me well enough that I made it without my map. Ironically, the missionaries I was meeting arrived late because they got lost. I showed them my handy map and they were pretty jealous! 😊
On October 30th we not only celebrate Brock's birthday but also hit our one year mark since we started our mission. There have been plenty of days where my can-do attitude was missing and many others where the presence of a good attitude has helped us get through. Sean is great example of positivity and likes to say each day as we head out the door: "Let's go do some good!"
Stay tuned for an exciting blog post on what it's like to move apartments in Singapore. Coming in early December to a blog near you!
Photos:
1-3: Singapore flowers, both real and handmade
4: Lights going up on Orchard Avenue for Deepavali (aka Diwali) and Christmas
5-6: Institute moves to new digs to make things more comfortable for the 25+ attending each week
7: Some of the wonderful students in our new Mission Prep class
8-9: Missionaries of the Singapore mission across five zones in two conferences
10-11: Lunch at zone conference under the bright lights of paparazzi
12: Just one of the amazing ten missionaries finishing this transfer!
13: Senior missionaries on the prowl
14-16: Various activities are always going on! We learned all about Chinese family history research at one! It made us grateful for our own challenges.
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