Late Reply

Dear Family, Sorry for the late reply- yesterday/today have been SO LONG.  we woke up yesterday, exercise/gotready, then went to the office and reported for 2.5 hours.  We had a shipment of missionaries coming in, and we thought we were uber prepared for it, but then the airlines threw a curve ball at us and sent the missionaries coming in from the Philippines to one terminal, and the missionaries from provo to another.  Unfortunately, neither terminal was one that we normally go to, so Elder Toney and I, the Sister Training Leaders, the Mains, and the Senior couples, were running around all over Changi airport to find the missionaries.  We were all a little flustered... to say the least.  Fortunately, everyone made it alright.  We then took all the new missionaries to the stake center via MRT (the subway).  It was great to be with them and catch some of their energy.  We spent the rest of the afternoon doing trainings with them, getting to know them better, and filling them in on the info about our mission.  The poor elders were soo tired.  We sent them off to the Pasir Panjang house, and then brought the trainers in and trained them for the rest of the evening **************** I started this email around 1:30, but was interrupted by the following********* I've been on and off the phone for the past 2 hours with airport personnel and officers trying to get an Elder out of holding and allowed back into the country.  They were being super stubborn, and were telling me that we had to buy him a flight to back to KL right now, without letting us talk to him, telling us the reason why he wasn't allowed into Singapore.  The Mains are currently on a plane to Hong Kong now, and won't land for another couple hours- so there wasn't anyone really to go to.   I had to use Mom's "tone" a couple of times on the phone just to get some morsels of useful information out of them.  They were extremely polite on the phone.  At the end of all of it, we had to pay for another expensive ticket back to KL.  Unfortunately, we're not sure what's going to happen in the future with him.  There were a lot of little things that made this mess.  oh well.   ****back to where I was..****** We had a really good morning as well.  We had our second half of the New Missionary Orientation, which went really smoothly.  I'm so grateful for things that run as they're supposed to.  I also count it a blessing when Heavenly Father helps bring every needful thing to our remembrance in our preparations for events like these.  I gave a short talk on the importance of the daily schedule.  It was good for me to think back at all the help that a solid daily schedule can bring.  Especially when it seems like there are 56472983 things in missionary work that we can't control, our daily discipline in the morning is something we can, and something that sets the tone for the day.  There is an interesting quote from Elder Holland that says something like, "you tell me how your morning went, and I will tell you how your day will go, how your week will go, how your mission will go, and how your life will go" or something to that effect. President Mains is on his way to the semiannual Mission President's Seminar in Hong Kong.  Elder Holland will be presiding.  Elder Holland was the apostle who set apart President and Sister Mains.  They were both a little nervous and excited to go to Hong Kong. I can't remember what we did last week... oh, we were in KL last tuesday for New Missionary Training (for missionaries who are 6 weeks out in the field).  It was really good to be with all of them, and to hear President Mains' training on the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  I then went back and did some personal study of 2nd Nephi 31, which talks about just that.  I like the relationship it gives between repentance and baptism.  The soul that honestly repents will desire the finishing power that baptism, or a renewal of the covenant, takes in the cleansing power of the Atonement.  It was great to be with the missionaries that I welcomed in just 6 weeks ago- esp. with the Elders that are currently serving in Klang.  We all went to Chili's and had a good meal.  The next morning- bright and early- we took a taxi back to the airport (which is about an hour outside of town) and we rode with one of my old investigators, who is on date to be baptized next week.  It was good to see him again, and to hear he's doing well.  He told me a bunch of good stories.  It was interesting how the gospel light effected the way he looked at life in general, and the tone/reflection of his comments.   Last week we had transfers.  It kept us busy most of the end of the week.  I'm really excited for this next transfer.  Our housemate here was made Zone Leader, and so was Elder Bodhaine, so I'm really excited to see what they do/go on exchanges with them.  One of the new people staying with us now is an Elder Wang, who is from China.  I'm so excited to justify learning chinese with him- I already told him he's only allowed to speak to me in chinese.  Due to sudden transfer changes and other things that needed to get done, I had to reschedule my embassy visit to this Thursday.  By next monday, it will have been 10 in Singapore since we had to fly somewhere!  Then back to flying.  I'm excited to see everyone again. We were able to spend a lot of time with the members of the 3rd ward (filipino) this week.  The members are very solid, and come from a lot of interesting backgrounds.  I'm glad we've had time to be with them more, and serve them more. That's all I have for now.  I thought you guys were going to write longer emails for today.  I'm excited to hear where Eric goes.  Each morning, I go to the senior couples office and ask if there are any incoming Robinsons... (just in case)  My guess is Taiwan or australia chinese speaking. bai Elder Robinson