Constantly Risking Absurdity

Ka musta po,

Wow, minta maaf that my emails have been downers lately. I figured out my problem (besides being turned too inward when I should focus on other people).

So in looking at my life in retrospect, I realized maybe I'm just a little bit crazy. I kinda had to be to play lacrosse with a bunch of boys, flip my life upside down to move to Hawaii, and flip my life upside down again to move to California, and then flip it again to come on a mission. I think everyone who comes on a mission has to be a little nuts, or maybe we just have a lot of faith.

There's a poem by Lawrence Ferlinghetti about a tightrope walker, and the beginning says,

Constantly risking absurdity
and death
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat

I think the last couple weeks were hard for me because I lost a little of what makes me the missionary version of myself. When I first got to Singapore, I was very bold and unapologetic in proclaiming the restored Gospel to people. It didn't matter who, strangers, or people who we are teaching. I would make plans without a surety that they would happen, but had the faith to follow through on them, and it worked. I once told this guy on the MRT that the Gospel is like Dr. Pepper. Sure, he's tried Sprite, and Coke, but never Dr. Pepper. I can't describe what it tastes like to him, he's just gotta try it himself. His gorgeous lady friends told me there's no way I could believe in what I can't see, and I said "Sure you can, by the way you feel."

I think I made a good impression on them because they invited me to party with them at Chinese Gardens, but I said can't because I'm a missionary...haha. As I jumped out of the MRT, I turned back to them and said, "Try Dr. Pepper!"

I've told people "Take a chance on us missionaries. What do you have to lose?" I've been bold (and loving) in asking people to come to church, read their scriptures, try prayer, and it works. For the last week of this transfer, I've committed myself to doing that again. Alma, Amulek, Paul, Ammon, and the sons of Mosiah were a little crazy. They had to be to get the amount of work done that they did.

This week was even harder than last week. We had an appointment at Bukit Gombak, which was insanely frustrating, and then we took a cab to Tampines, which was clear on the other side of the island. I tried to contact our cab driver, but he went off on this weird rant about ghosts and I cried because it was the last straw. Everything went wrong all week, but Sunday was INCREDIBLE. So many miracles. Our ward members are amazing in putting together our Mini-MTC activity, we had lots of less actives and investigators come to church, and we really love our ward members. We spent our free time Saturday making Valentine's for everyone at church to tell them we love them.

After church, we went contacting because Sister Zhang wanted to get out of the house. I hate contacting. Other missionaries said I'm really good at it, but it is my personal belief that straight contacting, for the sake of doing something, anything, with your time, is not an effective use of your time. So while she was doing that at this REALLY pretty park up at Yishun, I called ward members and booked our week full of appointments. Hear that? That's the sound of me high-fiving my comps.

On Friday, Sister Zhang went on splits with the Woodlands Sisters, so Sister Hansen and I bought a ludicrous amount of chocolate and ate our feelings in our blanket fort. We had a really good pass off lesson with Elder Lambert and Elder Stratfold. Well I guess I should say I had a good pass off lesson with Elder Lambert, because he found us an incredible little Indonesian lady who really wants the Gospel in her life, and Elder Lambert and I were the only ones who bercakap-ed the bahasa Indonesia. It's always cool to teach with the elders from your MTC group. They grow so much. Elder Lambert definitely has an Indonesian accent now because of all the time he's spent in Singapore. He was always an amazing missionary, even at the MTC. He just has so much love for everyone he meets. I think he's going West after transfers. He's the last elder from our group that hasn't actually been to Malaysia. Oh and it's really fun to see him get hit on by everyone in Singapore.

P-Day last week was fun. Not that we're supposed to be competitive...but my team won and Sister Hansen's team lost. Not that I rub it in her face or anything. In our last round, the other team was in jail except for Sisters Waldvogel and Alfrey, so Elder Crosland and I ran to their side of the gardens. He took off running, and I was his decoy. Sister Waldvogel tried tagging him out but I ran towards her so she got distracted. He grabbed the flag, got cornered by Sister Alfrey and a rose bush, said, "I'm going for it!" and lept through the rose bush. Like a gazelle. We found a couple other people from our team, and set up an offensive screen so Sister Alfrey couldn't tag any of us out. Victory is ours. (Even though Elder Crosland was bleeding like crazy and we had to dig a couple thorns out of his hands).

Here we are in Singapore, constantly risking absurdity for the Lord. This week is going to be a good week. They won't even know what hit 'em.

Berkerja keras, bermain keras (work hard, play hard).

-Sister Wynn

Zzzzz.....