Selamat Datang dari Singapura!

Selamat Datang dari Singapura! We are sitting in the Changi airport, about ready to fly back to Miri.  We had a really good conference here in Singapore.  We flew in on Wednesday at noon, and didn't have anything scheduled, so we went to the malls and a few of the big sights.  We went to Orchard, which has literally every big name brand you can think of.  Louis Vuitton, burberry, prada, giorgio armani, etc.   The building itself was beautifully high-tech!  Everything was so clean and shiny-- and extremely expensive.  We saw a rolex that was worth over 200,000 Sing.  The funny thing was, unlike Las Vegas where it seems like most of those stores are empty, these were bustling with people buying all this expensive stuff.  At first, I thought it was really cool to see all of the 'things' the Orchard Malls had..... and then I thought about our investigators back in Miri.  All of these people are driving mercedes, BMW, Rolls Royce, Bentley, etc to their favorite designer stores and dropping thousands of Sings daily, while some of the families back in Miri are struggling to feed their kids something other than low-grade rice.  Seeing Singapore light up with its laser shows, crystal chandeliers, and neon sidewalks doesn't compare to the homemade tin can candles that light some of the houses of our members back in Miri.  I'm not going to lie, I love Singapore, and it is so cool to see, but its just hard when you know of how much people have, and how little others have.  At the end of the day, all of those malls we saw had a lot of "things".  Miri also has a lot of "things".  The more you step back, the more you realize that "things" are just..... "things"....... and they don't really mean that much in the long run.  oh well. President Mains gave a great Zone conference yesterday, where our focus was grattitude, and helping our converts become converted to Jesus Christ-- not the missionaries, or just switching churches.  Unless someone is converted to Jesus Christ, they might as well be going to some other church.  After serving for a month, I'm starting to really get to know the people I'm serving and I really would like to see this change in their lives.  One of the recommendations for helping with grattitude was to buy a little notebook and keep it with you always.  Everytime you realize something your thankful for, you quickly jot it down.  They don't have to be long at all.  If you remember to do it, you start realizing how many little things there are in your life that you are thankful for-- and how they really add up.  Sister Mains also quoted someone in saying that if you put a pebble in front of your eye, it is all you can see.... but if you keep this little journal, it's easier to keep that darn pebble out of your view.  You should try this.  I am going to.  What else... OH.  BEST NIGHT EVER.  Last night, after conference, we went to the Singapore Night Safari.  It was so cool.  The center of Singapore Island is still jungle, and they created this safari thing by the zoo that you can go on.  A bunch of us went, and it was so much fun.  You got to walk/take a tram/train through the jungle and see all of these night animals (and a lot of animals that would be the exact same in the day time, they just didn't bother turning on a real light). We got to see flying squirrels in action, giant pythons, a million other things, elephants, rhinos, lions, tigers, bears, etc.  MOST EMBARRASSING of it all was when we were waiting in line at the beginning, a group of Korean high school girls all in uniform from their school came up to us and starting talking to us.  It turns out they were going to school in Japan, and were here on a school trip (elder putnam spoke to them in japanese and translated).  They said they wanted a picture, so all the elder lined up, but then all the asian girls bunched up on my side.  After the group picture, they were lingering a little bit, and as we tried to walk off, they stopped elder putnam and said something to him.  he then looked at me, and said, "they want to get their picture taken with you..."  So I literally took my picture with 15 korean girls individually while all the missionaries laughed their heads off and made fun of me.  I thought I was going to die.  I'm pretty sure they had never seen ginger hair before.  None of the elders are letting me live this one down.  (>.<)  oh well... one step closer to becoming a trendy asian star what else... Sister Mains said something funny: She was talking to us about how heavenly father gave adam and eve two commandments in the garden, and she says "Yeah!  Eve was supposed to bear and multiply to fill the earth while she's busy canning fruit!  I thought it was hilarious... no one else really did... oh well... again. I'll include more stuff on the email on monday about last week, because I have some good stories. I got to see Elder Mayo in Singapore, which I was really excited for, but he was a little different this time, I don't really know why.  It was weird.  He didn't want to come do anything fun with us.  Ok, I'm going. BAI Oh and we will be coming back to Singapore on Dec 20th I think (RIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS) for another Zone conference, so I'm excited. Elder Robinson