Much has been written on how difficult it is to "be real" on social media. It is much easier to slide away from authenticity to either glorifying one's life and experience or being excessively negative. Even though this blog doesn't technically qualify as"social media", we face the same challenge as we write. We are trying in two dimensions to connect with you (our dear readers) and share a realistic view of an extraordinarily complex and multi-dimensional mission experience. We will continue to do our best, but know that as in personal interactions, behind every smile and every tear there is much more going on than meets the eye.
Along with the feeling of extreme contrast is the feeling of extreme acceleration. The same twenty-four hour day that used to be a full 3% of our mission when we had been out a month, is now a miniscule 2/10ths of 1%. Every single day seems to fly by in a whirl.
Mission Conference with Elder Quentin Cook
Perhaps it is bad writing form to start with the highlight, but oh well! We were greatly blessed last weekend to fly to Kuala Lumpur for two days and be taught by an apostle. It was relatively quick as we flew in mid-Saturday and out mid-Monday. But during that time we had a meeting with our entire mission, one with all the members in the several branches of the Kuala Lumpur District, a missionary testimony meeting, and even a chance 60-second elevator ride with just us, the Cooks, and their security/support. The meetings were also blessed with other powerful speakers including our mission leaders, two members of our Area Presidency and their wives, and our wonderful Area Seventy from Singapore.
We have many notes and impressions of all that we learned during the meetings. Here is just the tip of the iceberg of teachings and promises:
Our mission will be a blessing to our family, now and future
Starting each day with gratitude and repentance overpowers much sorrow in the world
Missionaries may be called to a people, a mission leaders, a culture, and/or for a purpose only clear many years later.
The reason so many terrible things happen in the world is that everyone needs to have a full range of agency, without God saying "Sure you can choose...well but not that!" To make it possible to survive, the Atonement of Jesus Christ is provided to all!
Special Musical Number
The missionaries of the mission worked for several weeks in their districts on a special musical number for our visitors. Both when we heard them practice and then when we sat at the back of the chapel and watched them sing, it brought chills and the spirit powerfully. But nothing prepared me for Sunday night when our mission president asked them to sing it once more, with all of us senior couples sitting on the stand. Days later I still haven't watched the video of it I am posting below...because I know that there is absolutely no way to recapture those three minutes of my life. It was one of the absolute spiritual highlights of our mission and lives to see those beautiful 115 missionaries whom we know so well singing their hearts out to God and to us.
Milestones: 200 different missionaries, 1000 different sessions
During the past two weeks Vivian achieved both of these milestones in her counseling with missionaries. These beautiful young people are assigned to seven missions, come from even more countries, and speak even MORE languages. But they all have a desire to improve their lives and to serve God and others better. Doing this work has been extremely heavy (much more so on Vivian than on me) but we have both felt the hand of the Lord lifting her up many, many times.
Of course the individual counseling is just one aspect of the work. During these past two weeks there have also been many self-reliance groups, consultations and councils with mission leaders, visits with psychiatrists and other medical professionals, meetings with Asia Area and Mission Medical leaders, trainings, and more. The saying is true: "You couldn't pay people enough to do what senior missionaries do for free instead!"
Family visits
There will be more on this in future posts, but we were so blessed to have Branden with us for several days. This afternoon we will have him return for a couple more days....along with the arrival of Ryan, Hannah, and Willow. Words cannot express how much we appreciate the sacrifice of every single one of our children, their spouses and partners, and grandchildren, along with several other family members, in coming across the world to spend time with us. They are truly remarkable people and we don't know how we could serve without their love and support. But then of course we have to then say goodbye for a while as well...
Senior Missionary Connection
Saturday night in KL and Monday night back in Singapore we had a wonderful time connecting with our senior mission colleagues. We all went to Din Tai Fung (the "NO PORK" edition) while in Malaysia and had a delightful meal and visit. Then two couples passing through Singapore Monday joined us for a visit to the office, bus tour, temple site, Thai dinner, and running into some of our young missionaries. It is always nice to connect with people closer to our age after spending most of our time exclusively with those much younger.
Responding to Viral Videos and Misinformation
For the past few weeks our mission has been very challenged by people in some communities taking videos of the missionaries and pushing them out negatively across social media. In these posts they have spread a lot of misinformation, most damaging of which is the inaccurate claim that our missionaries are proselyting to those of the Muslim faith, something that is illegal in both Malaysia and Singapore. In response the church has issued a statement, worked a lot with government officials, and made even more adjustments to the activities of our young missionaries. We know that great benefit, including a much stronger focus on member missionary work, is coming from all this. We also see that change is really hard and we are working to support our young missionaries as they adjust to different realities in their work than before.
Young Single Adults
As much as we love the missionaries of our district, zone, mission, and area, we also love the young single adults we serve in Singapore. We rejoice in their successes and grieve with their challenges and the opposition they face. This week I taught the very sensitive Institute lesson of "Choosing an Eternal Companion." I was so grateful to have about a dozen show up, and there was a great spirit in the class. Some of that was due to my wonderful companion, who leaned on both her spiritual and professional strengths to help present part of the lesson.
Other Photos:
1-2: Getting an extra office ready for another senior couple (before and after!)
3: Getting things for the missionary apartments
4: Wow, some marketing campaign!
5: Come on Singapore - exponent based building numbering?!?!
6: From the "bitter file"...Singapore saints lost a dear sister this month. Sister Gutierrez was a real light to many, including her husband who was the long-time Bishop of the Filipino Ward.
Postscript: Flower dump! We have seen so many beautiful ones lately.
Post-Postscript: There is an abundance of sayings in our language about the contrast of good and bad. Here's a partial list of potential titles that didn't make the cut for this week's blog:
Fire and Ice
Best of Times, Worst of Times
Opposites Attract
Opposition in All Things
Light and Shadow