Tripanionship

Thanks for letting me know about Mr. Litizzetti.  I really feel for his family, and I know a lot of students will miss him, and the school has suffered a great loss.  I wore nice clothes this week, too, but had no time for tie dye.

It sounds like there's a lot of music...stuff happening around now.  Good luck with arranging those songs!  How did the AFC performances go?  I loved going to those, and am really looking forward to hearing some real singing when I get home.  In the Singapore mission, from what I've observed so far, some of the missionaries sing pretty well, but not loud enough to cover the enthusiastically off-key congregations.  Sacrament meeting isn't quite as reverent as I remember.  Church is fun, though!  Everyone is excited and happy to be there.  It didn't always seem that way in Utah, but I think I learned more from church in Providence.  I guess that could be because I still don't speak Chinese very well.

In case he doesn't know already, tell brother Russon that I enjoyed his letter to me while I was in the MTC, and I still have it.  If you still don't know about that letter, I'll send you a copy next week.  I liked it.  Yes, for us proselytizing is allowed in Singapore, but the Jehovah's Witnesses are still illegal.  In Malaysia, it's not illegal, technically, but missionaries will be stopped at the border and turned back if they are recognized.  Teaching Muslims is illegal if they are from Malaysia or their parents are from Malaysia, or if they meet a list of other criteria.  It's just not a good idea to teach them at all.

Things are going well in my new tripanionship.  I am learning lots of leadership and teaching skills from Elder Harper, AP emeritus, and a ton of Chinese and communication skills from Elder Wang, from China.  It is a lot of fun, because we are all happy to be together.  Elder Harper is extremely glad to have finally escaped the office after 4 or 5 months, and is just excited all day to be back out doing missionary work.  This kind of life might be just what we need to help our investigators progress!

Are my letters getting shorter? (I realized that my first couple of weeks I didn't send a letter to President Mains. *gasp*.)  Well, I'll end this one with a list.

Things I didn't learn this week:

1. How to eat a pomegranate

2. How to download music you send me

3. How to put my shoes on quickly without using a shoe horn

4. Where to find postcards to send home for Christmas

Things I did learn this week:

1. How to (mostly) clean a white shirt of pomegranate stains

2. How to be less awkward in contacting people on the MRT

3. I need a shoe horn or slip-on shoes, or I need to figure out something better when I go to Malaysia.  (suggestions?)
4. From Elder Wang: "You need is write English use you head, you need is write Chinese use you heart."

Love,
Brennan

P.S.  Tell me if you see anything in the news about Singapore's "Little India" today or tomorrow.  I heard there were a few cars set on fire.