After seven long months since getting our mission call, we have arrived! With the vast experience and perspective of five days, here are some early experiences and observations:
That is one LONG flight! We had been scheduled for 22 hours from takeoff in KC to landing in Singapore. However after getting to the runway in KC, we had to return to the gate with mechanical difficulties. That added four extra hours in KC and eight in SF.
The delay also put us arriving into Singapore the morning of Zone Conference. After sleeping a few stretches on the 17 hour flight from San Francisco, we were met by the wonderful missionaries we're replacing, taken to a hotel to drop off bags and freshen up, and then hopped on the subway to get to a full day of meetings. It was challenging to stay awake but a real miracle that we were able to meet our mission leaders (the Tolmans) as well as many of the other senior couples and junior missionaries on our very first day.
Saturday we loaded our our luggage into an Uber (locally called Grab) and moved from the hotel to our apartment. We are very blessed to have a nice apartment close to public transportation. It's a 40 minute commute to the church/office, which we have done several times already. The apartment is in a nice area and has a nice amount of room. It's on the eighth floor (just above the tops of the trees) in one of THOUSANDS of Singapore high rise apartments. That first day we ventured out to shop and explore, and even made our first meal in the wok that evening.
Sunday we attended church services. We were assigned to the Singapore Young Single Adult (YSA) Ward. The Bishop, Chris Rollins, has been amazing in reaching out to welcome us in and we were so excited to attend. And it did not disappoint! We felt the Spirit strongly as we had the chance to meet many great YSA. We were asked to introduce ourselves and bear testimony to the congregation. In her testimony Vivian mentioned a beautiful message shared by our newest apostle, Elder Patrick Kearon. He spoke of finding peace in times of great stretching from the only source of true peace: Jesus Christ. Like Elder Kearon, we are so grateful for Him and His peace as we face new and stretching things.
And now it's down to work! We have offices setup in our apartment and in the church building. We have attended several Mission Health Councils and consulted with mission leaders. Sister Foley has also already been counseling with young missionaries. We attended our first district meeting today with the young missionaries, virtually due to a recent illness outbreak in the mission. I am finding a lot to do for now in supporting Vivian and helping us setup for success over the next 17 months.
Yes, a lot of wonderful things have happened but there are also some real challenges and stress along the way. We are learning to operate in a new culture, both nationally and within the mission. We are figuring out public transportation and being surrounded by thousands of people every day! And we are drowning in a communication avalanche. In the last three days the two of us have had church and personal communication via WhatsApp, GroupMe, Teams, Messenger, Marco Polo, Instagram, Google Photos, FaceTime, Google Meet, Google Docs, the church's Gospel Living app, Zoom, blog comments, text, nine different email accounts, the telephone, and other things I'm likely forgetting. We have also had to figure out SIM cards (both nano and eSIM)!
Finally on a family note, this was a week in which for several days the sun never set on the Foleys. Our family stretched from Kansas to Missouri to Connecticut to England to the Netherlands to Singapore. We are so grateful for the technology that allows us to stay connected as we go so many places!
Beautiful eternal family! 💟
God bless the Foleys on your mission! Love the updates!