He and his companion skyped from a member's home in Singapore. It was challenging to navigate skype in Chinese so we were waiting for a while but it was worth it.
The best news, besides that he's happy and healthy, is that they did have a baptism on Saturday. Yay! Nathan spoke at the baptism on the Holy Ghost. He showed us his name on the program. We took his word for it.
There are only 4 Chinese speaking missionaries in Singapore - he and his companion and a set of sisters. They are all assigned to the second ward which is Chinese speaking. His District is made up of 4 other companionships,10 people total. One is the other companionship that they live with (which he said he likes. It's fun to have 4 of them in an apartment). The other companionship are assistants to the president so they don't see them too much. The other 2 companionships are sisters. He is the district leader. There are about 20 missionaries in Singapore and 100 in Malaysia, 30-40 of whom speak Chinese. Other languages in their mission are English and Malay. He said they are losing missionaries faster than they are gaining them (maybe because summer is coming?) so some missionaries are switching languages - mostly from English.
He says it is always hot there and when he's not wet, he's about to be. He said he still pulls out his poncho but some missionaries don't even bother anymore. He's not in the sun and rain so much in Singapore because of the public transit system. Singapore is very modern and nice. He thinks Singapore missionaries are the only missionaries in the world that have smart phones. He likes being in Singapore because there are so many people to talk do and they are friendly (mostly) and polite. He expects to eventually be back in Malaysia on a work visa. Their 90-day visitor visas present a unique challenge in their mission where they have to leave Singapore or Malaysia for a couple of nights every 3 months.
He says they hardly cook because their apartment is 45 minutes away (on the west side of the island near the port) from their church building/mission HQ/center of town and it's so easy to get food when they are out. They usually have one simple meal at home and then food on the run that's from hawker stands or American food like Subway. They have McDonalds there but it's very different and has a smaller/regional menu. Happily it includes bacon though so that's a "tender mercy." They go to Chinatown "all the time" to advertise for English class with a sign and pamphlets. People approach them and ask what kind of English they speak. He says English class is fun. He is learning to read Chinese and says he can understand about 40% of his Mandarin Book of Mormon. He said people on the train are astonished that these white boys can speak Chinese but people at church are less impressed with how well they speak.
I asked him what his favorite part about being a missionary is and he said "the spirit." Well said, Elder. Bill asked how many investigators they have right now. He said 8.
Besides the bacon and the being wet part, another funny part was when he asked if we were heading on vacation next week for spring break. He said it's hard to keep track of the seasons because the weather is always the same - hot.
I hope next week he'll be able to to tell us more about his baptism but I'm grateful for the pictures and for a wonderful, mostly glitch-free conversation. I'm grateful he is a missionary sharing the joy of the gospel with others. It means everything to me.
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