Flashback with me to two months ago when we talked about that Star Trek explanation for inexplicable things, and you will know what this week is looking like! I mean, how do I make sense of our Thursday the 21st of March 2024? We...
left our hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at 4:15 a.m. for an 8 a.m. flight
took a seven hour flight to Tokyo, arriving at 3 p.m.
flew ten hours to Los Angeles, arriving three hours before we left
walked very quickly through immigration, customs, and lots of steps across terminals to be the last people to board our connecting flight to Salt Lake City.
arrived at 4 p.m. - just 12 "hours" after we left.
All this is inexplicable to the finite mind! And after all that we took the Trax to our hotel, joined a couple of "Friday morning" calls with folks back in Singapore (including our first Self Reliance for MIssionaries group), and then finally got to sleep around 10 p.m. on that very same Thursday.
Our lives have really been something since last we wrote. We had a wonderful small-group visit with Elder William Jackson of the Seventy and Chairman of Missionary Medical Services. Sean and I Zoomed in to meet with him and our two other Asia Area health team members while Elder Jackson was in Hong Kong on a multi-area tour. We spent 90 minutes talking about many things, including the 11 new sets of mission leaders we will work with as they start their service in July. We are very grateful and excited for his invitation to meet with them in advance of them starting.
As was the case in January we had been planning this week to travel to zone conferences in Kuching, Malaysia. And as was also the case then, we found ourselves holding off on finalizing plans because we knew we may end up traveling with a missionary to Utah instead. Sure enough on Sunday we were given the assignment to go.
Unlike the previous time, this was with a missionary I had seen all the way through the process. Sunday morning I was able to attend the transfer council with him, his parents, stake president, service mission leaders and Singapore mission leaders. It was a very tender and spirit-filled meeting. I loved the strong desire by all to help this missionary succeed and I continue to be in awe of the blessing I have of serving this way!
It is also incredibly exhausting, heavy, and overwhelming at times. I feel the weight of the decisions we sometimes need to make as mission health councils. I feel the heaviness of recommending that a missionary transfer to a service mission when they and their families have been planning on them serving a full-time mission since they before they were old enough to sing “I Hope They Call Me on a Mission.” However I am also comforted by how powerful service missions have become in the last few years. Of course we won't share personal details about this particular missionary, but from just this week here is a great article on one such missionary, within which are links to many others.
Most importantly in all of this I feel the Spirit whisper that God has a plan for each of us as individuals. That journey is so different for each person and is always about love and invitations to keep growing. I certainly feel myself being stretched and growing. It is still painful for me, as I know it is for missionaries and their families. I am grateful to feel the sweet comfort of the Spirit when my heart is heavy.
In short there are so many inexplicable things and always the challenge to "Come What May and Love It! We love you dear readers: thanks for your kind words of support!
Photos:
1: From a beautiful walk down by the bay before the crazy week started.
2: The journey of 10,000 miles begins with a single selfie.
3: The exact halfway mark in our flight.
4-8: Branden flew out to see us, despite only having a short time together. We did some really fun things including dinner with my parents, a beautiful walk up Big Cottonwood Canyon, and lunch at Sawadee. Very different scenery than Singapore!
9: Vivian with the flowers blooming outside our hotel
10: Singapore now and then. I actually visited Singapore on business in 2001, but can't say I recall much. I spent most of my two days in office buildings :)
11: We missed the first week of church moving to an earlier time.
12: A fun exercise from English class
13: A beautiful view of the sun rise over our house (PC: Brock Foley)
And finally, this week's bonus video for anyone that has actually made it this far!
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