An Oasis in the Storm

Senior Missionaries have a lot fewer rules than our junior missionary counterparts. However one of the strictest ones is staying within our mission boundaries. They are several good reasons for this and we take it very seriously, even when it would have been nice to make a quick trip somewhere.

That said, you can see from our blog that we have had several occasions to leave our mission. All have been with permission from our Area Presidency as even the Mission President doesn’t have the authority on his own to let us go.

• Three quick trips to the United States to help missionaries transferring to service missions

• One trip to Hong Kong for an area mission leader seminar

• Two trips to Bangkok to attend the temple, meet with missionaries, and support our Young Single Adult Ward.

  
  

We just returned from the last (we think!) of such trips early this morning. It was an amazing experience and inspired the title of this blog post.

Bangkok and Singapore are certainly two very different cities in vibe, language, culture, and even climate. But they are both cities that never sleep, with millions of people in tight quarters and they are so different than the places we have lived in our lives. Beyond the physical intensity, they also are intense spiritually and emotionally. There is a lot going on in the city and in our mission service.

Thus getting permission to accompany our YSA to the temple was a tremendous blessing. We spent many hours in and around the temple there, performing ordinances, helping others to do so, strengthening missionaries, and connecting over meals with people (both those we knew and those new to us)

Bangkok Thailand Temple

Most of the YSA group that went..

Mabel came the last day!

Running into a newly married return missionary from the Singapore Mission.

The two first-timers

A delightful dinner with Newton Ward (there were two other full tables!)

Lunch with YSA.

While in Bangkok we visited a dear church member who is there, as well as joined in regular monthly council meetings by video and did a little shopping at one of the nearby malls. But at the center of it all was the temple: the House of the Lord, dedicated in holiness to the Lord. As our prophet Russell M. Nelson has repeatedly promised would happen, our time in the temple changed us! We have returned to Singapore better people, more focused, and strengthened to tackle the heavy load that comes with missionary work specifically, but also just with living in this difficult world. We saw many of temple purposes fulfilled: peace, service to others, learning, making of covenants, receiving of ordinances, and worship.

There has been much else happening before and since our trip. Here are a few other bullet points and pictures to close out this week's post:

• Last weekend we had an excellent Stake Conference. Elder Mak of the Seventy was the visiting authority, I stood in as one friend was ordained an Elder, and another YSA friend gave a wonderful talk. The meetings were very inspiring.

• Tuesday we had the transfer call for our last full transfer. Our mission received ten new sister missionaries this time and the changes were enormous! We now have twenty-three full-time missionaries in Singapore, the most we have had. So many of those we had worked with left and we will have the chance to meet many new ones, and even get some back that we have served with before!

• We had a delightful dinner at the home of our Stake President with him, his daughter, and our sister missionaries.

• I spent time helping a fairly new member of the church prepare the names of grandparents and others for our YSA to take to the temple on his behalf. He will be going in June to receive his endowment and do more of the work!

• We had a wonderful Institute lesson Wednesday night on the sensitive subject of "Multiplying and Replenishing the Earth." This class on the Eternal Family has been full of sensitive topics, but they have gone so well with great and open discussion by all. It was our most-attended class of the semester with some new faces.

Early morning flight to Bangkok

Breakout groups in Institute

Our combined second hour of church today focused on Ministering

A fun way to park cars in Bangkok

Our wonderful sister missionaries (pre-transfer)!

The most amazing tree

Sunrise from our apartment

Sunrise from our apartment