Hello Family,
Well, today I have no idea where to begin a
well-formulated letter, so I’ll just give you a few exciting points of my week.
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| Marina Bay skyline |
1. One of our
errands early in the week brought us past Marina Bay after dark, so I was able
to snap a few obviously rushed pictures of the more famous part of
Singapore: “blurry photographic evidence...” of the cityscape across the bay and the Merlion.
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| Marina Bay skyline |
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| The Merlion |
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| mission pamphlets |
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| The Battle of the Office Copier |
2. I went on
exchanges with Elder Gottfredson, an Elder assigned to work in the mission
office building. While there, I unpacked
about a billion pamphlets, some of which can be seen in the included picture,
and I fought an hours-long battle with a huge printer. After I finally subdued it, we became friends
and it printed out 120 copies of a 12-page packet to which I had made several
nifty improvements under the awe-stricken stare of the office Elders.
3. I
positively identified that thing that always flies around that one lamppost as
some sort of bat.
4. I had the
interesting experience of being chased down by someone saying, “Hey, you
two! Are you Mormons? Can you teach me about your church?” We handed him a Book of Mormon and our namecard,
and while we took down his name and number, we explained a little about the restoration. Other sisters here in Singapore have already
begun teaching him!
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5. I tried
lots of . . . (failed adjective) . . . food.
The report:
·
sugarcane drink: tolerable
·
octopus:
pretty good
·
dried cuttlefish: highly recommended!
·
pig liver: not fantastic
·
unidentified meat, probably crab: not bad
·
Auricularia Auricula-judae
(fungus): too spicy!
Here's a tasty pasta that a less active member gave
us on Sunday. I still don't know what all those things are, but they tasted
really good!
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| Viewer discretion advised |
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| My own cooking! |
To top all of that, I made Penne all’Arrabbiata last
Monday! Despite the taste of the thin-sliced
pork-something-or-other instead of bacon, it tasted like home, and was carefully
savored horked down in 4 minutes by the four of us.
I thought of home again this week when I
visited the home of a member family who fed us a Primavera-like pasta and salad. After the meal, we shared a
message with the family about family scripture study, family prayer and family
home evening. These are things that this convert family are trying to
implement currently, we discovered. I was so glad to finally meet with a
family, because we were together in a setting in which I could feel so much
love. That's probably the biggest reason I miss home: because we always
talked and ate and read and prayed together, it really was a place of safety
and love. It's funny that since I've been away from home, my testimony of
the power of family study, prayer, and family home evening has grown. I
am glad that you will continue to do these important things together so that
the Spirit can always be felt at home and you can have the Lord's protection
and guidance. I already pray for this, and I love you so much!
Love,
Brennan
Oh, and here's an experience from my journal which I wanted to send home. [I hope I'm not too insensitive in sharing my first impressions (first experience) with a mass.]
Oh, and here's an experience from my journal which I wanted to send home. [I hope I'm not too insensitive in sharing my first impressions (first experience) with a mass.]
"Okay, things started off today with the 12:15 mass at Novena
Church. I was surprised at what happened
there, because I am not familiar with any other Christian traditions. There were a few announcements and a recited
greeting from the congregation, then a few recited prayers led by the pastor
before the communion with bread and wine.
It was pretty good (the service, not the wine) except the pastor was a
pretty poor public speaker, and I was left wondering why I was supposed to buy
his ham. Really. Also, I couldn’t
concentrate on reading the Book of Mormon, because everyone kept standing up
and sitting down and praying out loud.
Anyway, I thought I could do better preaching than that, because I would
teach plain, simple truth from the Book of Mormon. I really felt like a lot of people there were
earnestly searching for something I sadly knew they wouldn’t find there. I realized the value of simple, restored
truth and how it really does answer questions of the soul. I think we need to do a better job of
focusing on doctrine when we teach and less on application. I think that’s when the Holy Ghost will
testify, and after that is when people have the opportunity for true
conversion."
I also had an experience this week
with an investigator who wanted me to bless a cross so that it would protect
her as she slept. She also bought a cross for me to keep, as a token of
her apology for drinking and then sleeping instead of coming to sacrament
meeting. I didn't really know what to do with it, so I put it behind
Elder Fabiano's pop-tarts on the top shelf. I'm now just waiting to see
how long it takes before he notices. (If that's too
irreverent, you probably don't want to put that last part on the blog...)
[How many missionaries are in your apartment?]
We
have 4, including Elder Fabiano (part Samoan, part Italian) and Elder
Wadsworth, who was in the MTC with me for a couple of weeks. He's been
out six weeks longer than me.
This was another less active member coming with us to
teach a lesson. As we waited at a bus stop, she pulled out cookies that
she made us. She has worked her way up to manager of a coffee shop on the
other side of the island. Last week, she made me some super-delicious
pasta carbonara.
