This week was still pretty hard. Every day I'm figuratively getting kicked while I'm down. I wonder why the first year of my mission was pretty easy (don't get me wrong, it was still hard in different ways), tapi tiada banyak masalah, and the last six months have been excruciatingly hard. I can't wait to have good chats with Heavenly Father after I die and figure out if I learned everything I was supposed to when He wanted me to haha. I showed my roommates my pictures from the rest of my mission and even with weeks like this, I'm grateful for every day. I've had an incredible mission. It makes me sad it's ending fast. Sister Opatha has been a good companion to me and is way patient with me being bummed all the time.
Despite the setbacks, I think one thing I'm supposed to learn here is how to be a kingdom builder. The church members in the Singapore 1st Ward are true saints. They have incredible families and we've had a handful of new families move in from the States or Europe or wherever, and the first thing they ask the bishop is "How can we help?" I'm starting to get what true charity means as they invite the missionaries over for dinner and offer to give us their food (which they import from America) and their time, even though they're all incredibly busy with their careers and their families. I feel silly offering to help them because they help the missionaries more than we can ever thank them for, and they usually say the same for us. They are willing to take the time out of their schedules to meet with us, or to help us reactivate people who've fallen away, or help us teach our investigators. They love missionaries and they understand missionary work is important, even though ex-pat life is usually pretty transient. I see these families and hope I can be half as wonderful as they are when I have a family of my own.
That reminds me, we had dinner with a new family who just moved here from California, and because the dad works for the embassy, they offered to give us cereal from the States, and they gave us real American milk. I just love it so much better than the boxed kind I drink here haha. And as we were leaving, they said, "You're from Oregon right? Take some Tillamook cheese!" It's the little things.
Another thing that gives me hope every week is meeting with our ward mission leader, John. He is the sassiest Scotsman I've ever met, and straight up brilliant. If I remember the story right, he got sick of college so he quit, shrugged, and built his own company in Singapore. Because why not? He was also an incredible missionary. He served in the UK, and while the other missionaries were teaching about 5 lessons a week, he'd average about 40 lessons a week because he knew how to work with the church members and ended up teaching their friends. P.S. His wife is gorgeous and perfect and from England (blessings of being a good missionary you guys). He's been really good about helping us get into the minds of the church members, and in turn the members have been talking to their friends about the church and about maybe meeting the missionaries. It's funny to see him roll up from his office wearing jeans, a half-buttoned white shirt, and Adidas classics in the fancy financial district of Singapore with all the suits and ties. He tells us "There are all these high end restaurants over here, but I just like Quiznos. Why? Because they make my life easy." Who is this guy?
On one of these days where we met with him to discuss our investigators (and the general lack of missionary work happening in our area), Sister Opatha and I were feeling pretty down because, like I said. There was no way our WML could know, but he told this story from his mission that made us feel better. Something along the lines of how he doesn't know why certain missionaries are put into hard areas, or why really good, obedient missionaries go their whole missions without getting any baptisms while others get dozens, and then he acknowledged that the area that we were in was hard to be in. Then he realized he went into a tangent and went back into talking about our mission game plan again, but internally Sister Opatha and I recognized how inspired he was and that it was nice for the Lord to give us encouragement. Even if it was through a sarcastic Scottish guy haha.
Yesterday we all forgot Elder McCarthy's birthday and I feel pretty horrible about it, even though he intentionally didn't tell anyone because he hates attention. He found out Sister Opatha and I ran out of food so he and Elder Andrus promptly forced us to take their food. I'm lucky I get to serve with the most Christlike elders in the history of missionary work (no offense Ammon and Alma). He's a whole 19 years old now, to which I said, "Wow, I remember when I was 19..." It's weird to be reminded he's so young, because he's incredibly kind and mature and it's weird to think that young men can carry themselves the way they do at such a young age. (Also it sucks being reminded that I'm an old lady in the mission now). But every now and then I remember how young they actually are when Elder McCarthy reminds everyone he doesn't know how to talk to girls haha. I had a way good chat with him this week where he recounted his horrible experiences from boarding school and I shared all of my bad experiences from my "lowly public school" and we had a good laugh.
Everyone, thanks for the sweet emails this week and last week. They were really encouraging and it freaks me out how a lot of you said things I've been thinking about this week. I was thinking of the lyrics from a way cheesy The Script song about walking straight through hell with a smile. It came out when I was stranded in Pasadena and I would go running to it, and as embarrassing as it is to admit, I kind of loved that song. I loved the image of cruising through hell and giving Satan a wave because nothing he does matters. Mikel wrote this to me this week: "I know you; you always seem to have a smile on your face even in the midst of adversity. You keep doing that and you'll shine brighter than anyone else and people will notice that and will develop a curiosity as to why you're smiling when everything else sucks. THAT makes you an inspiration to us all." He's sweet.
There's also the song:
That soul that on Jesus hath leaned on for repose,
I will not, I cannot desert to his foes.
That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake,
I'll never, no never forsake.
Love you guys.
People throw rocks at things that sparkle (think about it).
Happy Deepavali everyone!
xo Sister Wynn
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