"I Serve at the Will of the President"

I will start with the funny story behind this week's title: A couple weeks ago we went to another Jamiyah-sponsored interfaith activity. As we have noted, they do a remarkable job in bringing together people of various faiths and in celebrating values unitedly held dear by those faiths. This particular event was in a large hotel ballroom and after the main program there was a lot of mingling around. Elder Ang, our dear senior missionary colleague, seemingly knows everyone in Singapore! He was bringing folks over to meet church members and missionaries . One person he brought by was clearly American but I had missed the introduction before starting to chat with him. We exchanged where we are from (him: San Francisco; me: Kansas City), and then I asked how long he would be in Singapore. His response startled me: "I serve at the will of the President."

Having had a deep interest in history, government, politics, and civics since even before Mr. Allred's AP US History class at Orem High School, I put two and two together and realized I was talking to the United States Ambassador to the Republic of Singapore, Jonathan E. Kaplan. We laughed about it and I told him I had been to the embassy earlier that week to mail my ballot. He graciously thanked me without even asking who I voted for! 😊We then posed with the others for some pictures and he was off to change into a tuxedo and attend a United States Navy gala marking its 249th birthday.

It was a funny story but the wording of his response has stayed with me ever since. I think that the mission statement of the State Department is noble: "To protect and promote U.S. security, prosperity, and democratic values and shape an international environment in which all Americans can thrive." I am very grateful for those dedicated individuals who carry that mission to the world.

I am even more grateful that Vivian and I also "serve at the will of the President." In our case there are actually several presidents who we sustain and who play a role in our mission journey:

1. President Russell M. Nelson, President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. We cherish his leadership as the prophet of our church, as the signer of our mission call, and for the special personal experience we had with him 15 years ago this month when he reorganized the Liberty Missouri Stake Presidency. He is now over 100 years old but continues to inspire and strengthen, while never pulling any punches in sharing the will of the Lord to the world.

   
   

   

   
   

2. President Tai Tolman, Singapore Mission President. We are very grateful for our current ecclesiastical leader, President Tolman. He inspires us each time we are with him. In this last Zone Conference his passion for the Savior, Joseph Smith, and the Book of Mormon was beautiful to watch and feel.

   
   

   

   
   

3. Presidents Benjamin Tai, Kelly Johnson, and Michael Teh, Area Presidency of the Asia Area. In Vivian's role of Area Mental Health advisor they oversee her responsibility in the Asia Area. Despite having vast responsibility for the church in countries with 48% of the world's population, they show interest in each person. We have enjoyed our experience in meeting them and their wives in multiple settings in Singapore, Malaysia, and Hong Kong and in reporting our service to them.

   
   

   

   
   

4. Presidents Jean-Luc Butel and Michael Beach, Stake Presidents of the Singapore and Liberty Missouri Stake. President Beach played a key role in recommending us for missionary service and President Butel in working with President Tolman to assign us to serve in the YSA Ward and in extending callings to us in Institute and Self-Reliance. We are grateful for their leadership over thousands of church members in their stakes, including us!

   
   

   

   
   

   

   
   

There are also many other women and men in our church with the title of President that have and do bless my life. None of them are perfect and it is all too easy to find fault with one thing or another that they might say or do. But Vivian and I believe that they are called of God who supports them, and we are grateful to do so as well.

In other news, here is a quick rundown on other events of the past couple weeks:

• One year anniversary time! We were set apart October 25th and entered the MTC on October 29th.

• New missionary apartment! Wednesday we did a walkthrough on the new apartment we will be moving into December 1st. More to come in a future post, but it is much closer to the office and has a lot of nice things. We will miss our current apartment but are excited for the future.

• Check-ins with the folks back home! In addition to our wonderful family calls we also had a chance to have video calls with our Bishop back home to do Tithing Declaration and with our property manager to do a quarterly catch up and house walk through. It is fun seeing the house looking good and we are so blessed to still have such strong bookings and positive guest reviews.

• Election texts blowing up our phones! Lest any of you think of saving yourselves from election ads by coming to Singapore, don't try it! Every morning I wake up to a dozen or more texts asking for money, telling me who to vote for, and telling me who not to vote for. Sigh...

• Liberty Stake Newsletter spotlight! Our beloved home stake had a nice article in it this week month's edition about us: Find story here

• Daylight Savings! No change for us here, which means that many of our US friends (except those in Hawaii and Arizona) are now an hour earlier than us.

That's it for this week - we love you!

Other Photos

1: Meeting the Seminary and Institute Director for Asia who turned out to be an almost 50-year friend of my almost 30-year friend.

2-3: New apartment views (more coming!). The first is looking out our window. The second is looking at our building from the window of Din Tai Fung :)

4: Happy Deepavali! I always heard it called Dewali before, but however it is said it is a beautiful festival of lights and incense and a Singapore National Holiday.

5: We are so excited for the branches in East Malaysia that have been sending many to the Bangkok Temple. What a blessing!

6: Looking forward this weekend to this worldwide broadcast, updating one of my favorite talks from fifteen years ago.

7: The series is complete and I have been working away at listening to Book 4 all week!

8-9: Happy birthday dear Willow! We remember the day of your birth well and can't wait to celebrate another birthday with you.

10-11: Beautiful pictures of our favorite neighborhood walking trails from our beautiful son!