Death is Not the End
- Vivian Foley
- Apr 17
- 5 min read
It seems fitting this Holy week, as we prepare to commemorate the death and celebrate the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, that we talk about death and endings. This will be my last blog post as a full-time senior missionary since Sean is up next week. It is the end of this experience but not the end of all experiences. It is the coming of change that is unsure and unfamiliar in some ways and will be very familiar in other ways. It is a death of sorts but it is not the end! In that way it is so much like our Savior's gift to us.
Over the past little while I have started counting days and thinking in terms of this is the last time we will... Even in the midst of those lasts we are still having some firsts and unique experiences in our mission. As is common in my posts, here is a list...this time of some lasts and some firsts!
Last Singapore Zone Conference
Last week was full of the last Singapore Mission zone conferences we will attend. The very first day that we arrived in Singapore we went straight to a zone conference so it is fitting to finish with one here as well. In these conferences it is traditional for missionaries who will be departing to share their testimonies. So after seeing dozens of missionaries do this, it was our turn! It was a very emotional experience to stand in front of the missionaries I have grown to love and to share experiences of growth and my love for the Savior. I shared a couple of important "whys" that have carried me through my mission: my desire to follow the example of Jesus Christ and become like Him as well as my desire to honor my earthly father. It was a humbling and special experience for us!
First Singapore Cemetery
Early in our mission one of our wonderful YSA members shared ideas of many places to go in Singapore. We had done most of them and last week he invited us to go on an adventure with him to one we hadn't been to before we finished our mission: Bukit Brown Cemetery. This is a Chinese cemetery, now closed to new burials, but with well over 100,000 internments. There are several famous Singaporean businessmen and politicians buried there and we visited some of their elaborate grave sites complete with tiling and Sikh guards. It is a beautiful setting on a hill side.
The Singaporean history of cemeteries and their closure and phasing out in favor of cremation is really interesting. We also learned about traditional grave practices and the honoring of the dead in Chinese culture. It was a lovely tour which was complemented by the literal experience of having ants in my pants, as there were tiny ants everywhere and they decided to crawl up my legs when I stood still. That part was not so fun but an experience none the less! Then afterwards we had a very nice meal together at a hawker center.
Last MHCs and Missionary Sessions
We have written before about some of the amazing experiences we have had as we gather each month in Mission Health Councils (MHC). The relationships we have developed with members of these councils will be meaningful to us for the rest of our lives. As you can imagine, the goodbyes are all bittersweet. We have also been saying goodbye to many missionaries I have worked with as I complete my sessions with them. It has brought back memories of September 2023 when I was busily working to finish with clients in my counseling practice, putting those that needed to continue therapy in the good hands of other therapists. In a couple of these MHCs we have also had the opportunity to involve the couple replacing us and we feel confident that they will do great in caring for our precious friends!
First Visits with YSA Friends
As we have been winding down we have had numerous invitations to eat with members of our YSA ward. They like to ask us what foods we have not tried yet in Singapore. This question always makes me smile a little bit because there are thousands of foods to try in this city of many cultures and there is no way to begin to try them all! That being said, over the past few weeks we went to a new (to us) western style restaurant where I had lasagna for the first time in many months, experienced Song Fa Bak Ku Teh (a popular pork rib and broth restaurant), and tried out Roti John at a hawker stand. Tomorrow with our Bishop and his wife we will be trying out yet another new restaurant with more new foods to experience. It is wonderful but I am also actually looking forward to getting home and cooking and eating foods that are more familiar to me. And I will definitely miss some foods that I have come to love here!
Easter Week Traditions
In my growing up years Easter meant that my mom would create a special morning of hunting and surprises for us. On Easter morning she would hide jelly beans and marshmallow bunnies all around the house and sometimes we would still find them months later sitting in unusual places. I remember her learning how to make marshmallows in the shape of large easter eggs which she then covered with chocolate and made designs on top. I believe this was something she learned at church in the women's Relief Society organization. She would create a hunt for each of us which usually included riddle clues that led us from one clue to the next and had a treasure at the end, often a chocolate easter bunny or some other kind of Easter treat. We also always spent time coloring hard-boiled eggs while Easter Sunday usually meant going to church and having cousins over for wonderful meals of ham, potatoes, rolls, and deviled eggs.
Over the past several years we have been invited by our prophet to create Easter traditions that also include remembering and honoring the atonement, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This Holy week we have been studying about each of the events of the days leading to the resurrection of the Savior. We are truly grateful for the atonement of Jesus Christ which promises the blessings of living again and being able to overcome the world through the precious gift of repentance. Because of Him death is not the end, for we will live again!
A bunch of other recent pictures - captions within!
And finally some beautiful Singapore flowers - I keep finding new ones!
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