Leaving Something in Singapore

So this is a story of leaving something behind wherever we went this week.  I was first.  We had to fly to Singapore this week for a visa run and for Zone/Senior Conference.  As we waited to board the plane for Singapore in the Kuching Airport I pulled out my Samsung Tablet to do language study.  Soon another Senior Couple from Miri showed up at our gate.  We had not met this cute couple from Miri before so we began talking and getting to know them.  They are the Martin’s from Australia and they are so cute.  They are newlyweds, having been married only about 18 months.  Both lost their spouses about the same time and they had known each other for a long time (in fact he had been her Bishop and knew all her kids, etc)so it was a good match.  They are having a splendid time with each other by themselves in Miri.  

Our flight was called and we boarded the plane.  After takeoff I reached down to pull out my tablet and realized I had left it sitting on the bench at the boarding area, forgetting all about it while talking with Sister Martin.  I was frantic, but I had hope because we have found the Malaysian people, at least here in Kuching, to be very honest so as soon as we landed in Singapore and went through customs I located the “Lost and Found” and proceeded to make a report which they faxed to the Kuching Airport.  I could do nothing else about it and there was so much for me to do at the Conference so I just prayed and let the Lord handle it. 

We checked into the V Hotel in Singapore and met up with other senior missionaries who were all staying there.  It is a nice enough hotel, but the smallest room we have ever stayed in.  Our inside room overlooked the pool. 

This sign in the hotel elevator cracked me up.  The spiny thing is the infamous Durian fruit that is popular in Asia.  You have to acquire a taste for it and the smell is overwhelming....right up there with pets and cigarettes.  It smells like rotten eggs so most westerners who try it have to plug their noses first.  The odor does tend to linger for a long time, hence this sign.

Elder Moulder eating a meal at a food court in Singapore.  We had to find a table where we could so we sat next to the cute many across from him.  He thought we were amusing.

My meal at the same food court.  Yummy broth but these meatballs made of pork were not my favorite.

After unpacking we met the Martin’s to go to a shop she wanted to check out to get some sewing notions.  This was our first experience with the MRT, the local subway/train in Singapore.  We were so impressed!  Speaking with some Singaporians later in the week they made the comment that since they are a new country they were able to take advantage of all the things that the western cultures had learned and apply them to their fledgling country in the 60’s when all these things were planned and built.  They sure did it right! 

Long escalators all over Singpaore.

Crowds gather at the doors of the trains but there is no pushing and shoving really.  There is a green arrow designating the area for passengers to get off the train first and the orange arrows designate the space for passengers to que up to get on the train.  Very well organized and mostly complied with.  We are very impressed.

 We went to the Plaza Singapore Mall and I was in heaven looking at all the fabric available in this store called Spotlight.  Of course they had all the gadgets (I am a gadget person) and such but I restrained myself for now.  I did, however, decide that I would lay claim to the sewing machine left by former missionaries who lived in our apartment.  I had told the other couple that I didn’t care to keep it if they had another plan for it, but now with a baby joining our family I think I should make at least one quilt or so……

At the mall I took some photos of the space, the store and some kids.  Cute, cute kids are everywhere here.  

Plaza Singapore Mall

Inside the Mall

Clothing kiosk at the Mall

Mom's with their children who want to ride the mall toys.

Lots and lots of fabric....this is just one shot.  I was surrounded by tables and walls filled with fabulous fabric.

 

After the mall we headed for the Mission Office for me to practice some music for the evening. By 6PM all the Senior Missionaries had arrived and we had a catered meal in the beautiful Stake Center in front of the Mission Office. 

Missionaries of all ages love to be fed.

Then we had a little program which was fun.  And then we braved the MRT again to return to our hotel, the V.

Up early on Wednesday we returned to the Stake Center and were taught by the President and his Assistants.  We had lunch on our own this day and I had some things to edit on the power point presentation we were making in the afternoon so I pulled out my computer and there it was!  The answer to my prayer….a message from a security guard at the Kuching Airport.  He had found my tablet! I had not closed it or protected it in any way because I was in mid use and then forgot about it, so he got on and found my email and sent me a message asking if I was the one who had left a Samsung.  After that there were several other emails from security people and an arrangement made for me to pick it up on my return to Kuching on Friday.  The woman from the security office was waiting for me in the baggage area and she came to me and asked if I was Mrs. Moulder.  I wanted to meet the man who found it and tell him thank you, but she didn’t know who it was.  I was very happy and felt very blessed.

Our presentation Wednesday afternoon went well and we realize that we have a lot to do in this country and we are not alone.  All the Seniors were so excited to get involved in Family History and to have ways to use Family History as a retention and activation tool.  There is a huge membership number in East Malaysia, enough that they could probably be a stake, but the activation level is so low.  We are not sure why, but with the Lord’s help we can find them and bring them back. 

Thursday evening after the conference ended we went to dinner with two of the couples we had met.  Pictures are below.

It was very weird to get a first glimpse at what appeared to be a single plane structure in the background.  As we walked we could see the other sides to this building and in fact there are two of them built with a different angle depending on where you are looking from.  Very weird.

I think we were along a famous hangout place for nighttime entertainment because when we finished eating our dinner and came out this place was filled with people eating, drinking, chatting and the music was very loud.

Elder Moulder eating his dinner.

This is what he ate.  The Mango drink was very good too.  Lots of wonderful fruit juice drinks here.

 

What happened next is hilarious.  Elder Moulder and I shared a dinner (chicken shish kababs).  After eating Elder Moulder thought he had a piece of food in his teeth so he tried to get it out but instead of food his tooth came out!  

So the second thing we left in Singapore is Elder Moulder’s left front canine tooth!  We are now calling him Toothless…^_^  

Yep.....Toothless!

Fortunately we were at dinner with a missionary couple who had just seen the dentist this week so we got a name and address and directions to the office and decided we needed to just show up the next morning to see if they could fit us in.  We did report to the Mission President’s wife per our instructions and she told us we had better stay in Singapore because the history of dental care for missionaries in Kuching has not been good.  We decided we had too much to do to hang out in Singapore but we would make the final decision in the morning after seeing the dentist.  We did get in to see a cute female specialist who was wonderful and she told us that the tooth had been decaying long enough that it just broke off and she wasn’t able to glue it back in because there wasn’t enough tooth left to glue it to.  It has been happening so long, though, that his body had filled in the space where it broke off so there is no hole and no way bacteria could get in so if we didn’t mind we could just wait until we have more time and return for a root canal, etc. 

The beautiful medical/dental facility we went to Friday morning.

Elder Moulder is now having a lot of fun playing with the space between his teeth and telling everyone that I hit him and knocked his tooth out.  He will return to Singapore later in the month to get a temporary and then we will get the permanent crown when we return for our next conference in June.  

When we returned to our apartment in Kuching on Friday evening we found that before they left for conference (seniors leave a day before the young missionaries because we have a senior conference and then we attend the young missionary conference too) the Sisters had decorated our apartment (they keep a key to both senior apartments) with hearts all over the place. 

Cute Sister Rhodes who just learned (from my email because she couldn't wait until Monday) from her sister that she will have a nephew, not a neice.

Lots of love was shared and we loved it!  Our cute Sisters!  We love them.  We didn’t have too much time to enjoy the hearts because we had a baptism Friday night, three men from the Matang Branch were baptized and the one young many needed a ride because he lives so far away.  It was just past where we took Sister Stephanie that night in the rain (a story from a prior blog post) but there was no rain this time.  It was great to see these men baptized.  

As we were driving there was a motorcycle that crashed into a car right next to us.  I heard it before I saw it but I saw the passenger hit the ground and roll.  We pulled over to help.  Elder Moulder, two young missionaries and our new member got out and found the driver of the motorcycle to be a young many who was very drunk.  His female passenger was obviously in bad shape but he just yelled at her to get back on the bike (I was surprised it was driveable) which I guess she did and they drove away.  The SUV they hit was smashed badly in the back.  Elder Moulder said it was clear a helmet smashed the back windshield.  All he wanted to do was get away but the Elders had picked up the license plate from the bike and before giving it back wrote it down and gave it to the driver of the SUV.  The bike left just as the police arrived and we decided it was time for us to leave.  No one else was injured but it was difficult for our sweet Elder’s to see the girl obviously hurt badly and being yelled at and not cared for by the drunk driver.  Difficult stuff to see as some people make bad choices.  

 

Today at Church (Matang Branch Conference) we met with two little families who are ready to go to the temple.  They want to go in May and the Nielson’s have helped them achieve this goal but will be leaving their mission in April so they are turning the responsibility for Temple Preparation over to us and we will be helping them.  It is such a pleasure to see this.  The one family has a 19 year old daughter who is our Family History Consultant for this Branch.  She wants to serve a mission in a couple of years when she is finished with this part of her schooling so she is considering receiving her endowments now also.   

Sweet Matang families ready for the temple with Elder and Sister Nielson.

They cannot go by themselves because most of them are humble people who have never been on an airplane or in an airport and need to have someone to help them.  We would like to go with them, but we were told by President Mains that senior couples are allowed only one trip during their missions and Elder Moulder has promised to go with someone in November already so we will have to try and find someone else to escort these families if we can.  What a great problem to have! 

We love this work! 

One of the announcements that excited all the missionaries at our Conference was the announcement by President Mains that the Malay Book of Mormon will soon be here.  He told us that he was contacted to ask how many books he wanted to order.  A normal first run order for a new language is 4,000.  Pres. Mains told them he wanted 10,000 and that should last about a year.  He told us that his challenge to the missionaries is to place one Book of Mormon per day per companionship.   He recalled the promised blessings from Ezra Taft Benson when he spoke a number of years ago of “flooding the earth” with the Book of Mormon.  It occurred to me that many of the immigration issues we are facing in Malaysia right now are “fiery darts” from the Adversary to try and hinder the work with the Book of Mormon coming soon.  It will not work.  There is an energy here in this country that we can feel.  The youth here are amazing and we are so happy to be here at this time to see the Lord’s hand in this part of his Vineyard. 

Our Assistants to the Presidents.  They both taught lessons at the Conference and did a great job.  These are such wonderful young men and women out here.  I am so grateful to serve with them.