SINGAPORE AND SENIOR CONFERENCE

As most of you know, we fly to Singapore every three months to have our visas "chopped". Six months ago, President and Sister Clark(Mission President) arranged for us to have all seniors come in at the same time and have a conference with us, just like he has with the young missionaries in the mission. It has been wonderful!!! We all love seeing each other and sharing "war stories" for our areas that we're assigned. It has been so rewarding and most pleasant to visit, laugh and talk. This mission has more senior couples than any mission in the church!! We have fifteen couples serving. Our mission is so large in area. Our flight from Kota Kinabalu to mission headquarters in Singapore is over 1,000 miles!! When we have senior conference, we fly in one day, have a thirteen-hour conference the next day, and usually fly back to our area on the third day. President Clark is a phenomenal teacher and communicator. When he speaks to you, he looks you straight in the eyes until he is finished speaking. He is decisive and there is no doubt as to where he stands on any issue!!! He knows the scriptures so well and uses them to teach all conferences.

After our thirteen-hour conference on Friday, we all met at Marina Sands and ate at an open restaurant with the most fabulous buffet that I've ever seen. The mission helped subsidize the meal. It was pricey!! Definitely not peanut butter and crackers!!! In this picture, Sis. Kelsey(one of our new single senior sisters in the mission) is in the white sweater across from E. Larson. She is from Cody, Wyoming. She was so cute--saying that she had never been out of Cody and definitely had never believed that she would be eating at a place like this half way around the world!!!

After dinner, we hurried to the theater at Marina Sands to see the musical, "Wicked". I loved it--wonderful, fabulous, mesmerizing, etc. !!!!!!!! Several in our group had already seen the play either in LA or New York. They said that this production was superior. We were not able to all sit together because we each purchased our own tickets, but we were all in the same section. You're not allowed to take pictures, and I wanted something to say that we had seen "Wicked" besides my ticket, so Linda Smith took this picture of E. Larson and me outside the theater where they were selling souvenirs. There is this huge shopping mall in Marina Sands between the theater and the casinos that has all of the shops that you find on Rodeo Drive in LA or New York or Paris, etc. This gal from North Carolina was definitely having a good look!! (Along with Sis. Kelsey from Cody, Wy. and all the others)

One of the most difficult tasks for the mission is to find places for all of the seniors to stay when we all come in at once, so that we do not have to rent hotel rooms. The Pasir Panjang House will only house five extra couples, besides the Garretts(Office couple who stay there). There are extra mattresses for the young missionaries when they come in, but seniors don't bunk together like they do!! President and S. Clark take two couples in their apartment, and E/S Gordhamer stay with their son who lives in Singapore. That leaves six couples who need places to stay. We have been fortunate to have lots of expats who live in Singapore who are willing to house couples in their homes. This is the second trip that E. Larson and I have stayed in some one's home. This time, our great friends, E/S Johnson stayed with us in the home of Br. and Sis. Reed. This is a picture of their little daughter, Emma by part of the pool in their home. Bro. Reed has a three year contract to live in Singapore with his family. He is an engineer with an International Company and his company provides this fabulous four-story home, the furniture in it, international schooling for four of his seven children who are living at home, and his car!!! Cars in Singapore are outrageous. President Clark's mission van cost $168,00!!!! It's a regular Toyota--not a Rolls Royce!!!!!

The Reed's home was so fun. It has a swimming pool that intertwines all through the bottom floor of the home. Some parts have steps from some of the rooms. You can basically get out of bed and take a dive!!! There were four levels to the home and E. Larson and I stayed on the fourth level by ourselves. There were two terraces that looked out at the rest of the neighborhood. Bro. and Sis. Reed said that they are trying really hard not to be seduced by the Singapore lifestyle. S. Reed says that she really misses Wal-Mart and Sam's Club!! Me, too. Their children are learning to read, write, and speak Chinese. Bro Reed is from New Zealand and S. Reed is from Oregon. They met at BYU.

This is the Reeds with their sixteen year old daughter, Rachel. This is their living room downstairs. There's a common living area on each floor!! As you can tell, I was blown away by this house. They made us feel so very comfortable while we were there. In this picture, S. Reed and Rachel had just gotten back from their morning jog.

This picture was taken Sunday morning, right after Sacrament. E. Larson and I had to leave then to catch a taxi to the airport for our flight back to Kotsa Kinabalu. We spent Saturday night at the Pasir House with the Garretts because all of the others went back to their areas on Saturday. We stayed through Saturday to be with the Johnsons. We met them in the MTC in Provo and flew to Malaysia together. Their area is in West Malaysia in Butterworth. We have always been on the same visa run schedule because we came out together and they are also humanitarian missionaries. I have come to truly love them. This was our goodbye picture. Because we extended for two weeks, we will not go home with them. They have decided not to travel, but go straight to Salt Lake City, their home. I so look forward to seeing them again. Oh, what wonderful friendships a person builds on a senior mission!!! Barry and Linda Johnson are the BEST!!!!

We caught a taxi right in front of the Pasir House and headed for the airport. I tried to take some pictures of Singapore on the way. This is their famous Ferris wheel that gives a great view of all of Singapore. The Johnsons and we were going to do this on Saturday but we "ran out of gas" before the day was closing. It was one of the few things that we did not do in Singapore. One can actually have a meal in your compartment on this Ferris wheel!! I takes 45 minutes for it to make one rotation!! Maybe before we leave to go home-----but it would not be so fun without Barry and Linda!!

This is a picture of Marina Sands where we ate the big buffet and saw "Wicked". This was taken out the back window of the taxi.

I like sharing all of these experiences with our children and let you know that "Dorothy is not in Kansas anymore"!!!! It has been a wonderful experience in many ways, and I especially am grateful for the friendships that we have made on the other side of the world!!!

I love all of my family and friends everywhere. What wonderful times we live in these latter days!!! With all of our faults, America is still the greatest place on the face of the earth!! I so look forward to being home with my family. Love you eternally

MOM