"So, we email again, for the last time!"

July 13, 2015

Dear Everybody,

Well, the time has come for my final transfer - to what the Elders in this mission call "The Land of Eternal P-Days" or just " 'Merica."  I can't believe my time to serve a mission is ending!!  It came waaay too fast!  I still have that surreal feeling that you get a couple of days before Christmas, when you know you should be ecstatic, but you just aren't all hyper about it.  Everyone keeps asking me, "Aren't you excited to see your family again?"  It will be nice to see my parents and my sisters, and yes, even Evan, again, but it feels like I'll be leaving half of my family here! I just love the Malaysian members of the Church so much, and I'm going to have a big hole in my life without them!

1.  We're planning a trip to Nauvoo, July 20-25. You're scheduled to speak in church on July 27. Do you foresee any problems with that Nauvoo trip?  That sounds like a great time to travel to Nauvoo, to me.  I don't have anything scheduled then :)  I'm really looking forward to it!  This just means that I'll have the homecoming talk hanging over my head for a few more days, but I'll live.

2.  [Other missionaries’ return dates] Great!  Thank you, it's good to know about my friends' return dates, too.

3. What is your schedule like this week?  Do you spend time in the mission office / mission home? Well, my schedule is rather airtight this week:  Today I pack as if I were going to Singapore tomorrow.  Tomorrow morning I go to Singapore, where I'll join the district meeting of my good friends Elder Flynn and Elder Tseng.  I'll turn in my Singapore work permit and have a departing interview with President Simmons.  Soon after that, all the departing missionaries will eat a departing dinner with President and Sister Simmons, then go back to sleep at the Pasir Panjang house for a few hours before we shuttle over to the airport.

4.  Have you met your new mission president? Yes, I met President and Sister Simmons two weeks ago at Mission Leadership Council.  They are AWESOME!!  I already miss President Mains a lot, but as I sat in MLC, I could feel that President Simmons has been chosen and prepared by the Lord to lead this mission.  He is a really wise and kind person (I imagine that's the kind of person the Lord always chooses to be His mission presidents), and the Spirit bore witness to my heart that the direction he feels this mission should take is the direction the Lord wants us to go.  He hasn't brought any drastic changes to the mission like many missionaries fantasized he would.  In fact, he told us that as he prepared and prayed about what to do, the revelation that he received was very similar to what President Mains had been doing already and that we will continue to follow the mission plan that President Mains drafted for 2015.  This just tells me that Jesus Christ really is the head of this work and that He knows all things from the beginning, and that President Mains and President Simmons are His inspired servants called to help us missionaries understand, receive, and follow the path He has prepared for us.

5. What testimony-building experiences have you had this week?  Once again, I'm out of time, but I'm so excited to answer all your questions in person!  Don't worry, I do have spiritual, testimony building experiences but sadly, I seldom recall them for you at email time.

6.  Do you need anything from us? Nope, you've given me just what I really needed by sending me these maps.  Thank you for all that you've done/sent me to support me throughout my whole mission experience!

Love!

Brennan