Sunday night - N writing

This last week-end was stake conference which involves a trip to Singapore. Crossing the borders is a little nerve wracking to me. President Clark would not allow the young elders to go over as they've had so many 'border problems' lately. So it was kind of a long, boring weekend for them with no church here. We had Seminary on Friday night then left for Singapore on Saturday morning. Stayed at Passir house on Saturday after attending the night meeting. We attended conference on Sunday morning and returned home tonight - Sunday. Not very many members could go to conference as they don't have passports, cars (some of them ) or money for gas. Anyway... it was a great conference and as we looked around we said to each other, "Hey this is like Utah church." Most everything in English, beautiful music, great talks, etc. Made us a little nostalgic. If our little branch divides, it will go back into being a district in the mission, so this may be the last stake conference for JB branch for a long time to come.

A couple of interesting things happened this week-end. On Friday night I was teaching my Seminary class and we had played a match-up game with some dates and events in church history that we'd covered so far- they did quite well. Then we were talking about Oliver Cowdrey and how his pride caused him to leave the church for 10 years, I talked to them about staying faithful in the church as they're the new generation coming up and are soooo needed. (all of 5 present) I told them in years to come, I'll be in touch somehow and will be so interested in knowing where they are and what they're doing. Sometimes (when I can get them to stop talking and listen) they look at me with such trust in their eyes, it causes me to feel a great feeling of responsibility. This particular time a love for them washed over me with such intensity that I can't even explain it. I had to work hard at controlling my emotions. This 'second generation' is really the hope for the church here in Malaysia. When they begin to take over, things will move forward even faster, and policies and procedures will be more ingrained. If they'll only stay faithful and they are so few - it's not an easy task for them, but we have great hope for them.

After taking one of the 'far away' students home that night, the cell phone rang and a teary voice said, "Sister Gregory, please call me right back as my phone is out of time." I said I would, but then couldn't retrieve the number on my phone and didn't know who it was. So about midnight received a second call and it was a member of the branch and her 23 yr old daughter who wanted to come for a blessing. They came early Saturday morning and brought the husband\father who is not a member. Apparently he has had some very bad experiences lately and has decided it's time to take the missionary lessons and would like us to teach him. Although we're glad to do that, we'll bring the young elders on board as quickly as possible. The daughter wants very much to go on a mission, but her mother says she can't leave her until she has a husband with the priesthood in her home. Oh My! She said she heard my talk in sac. mtg a week ago (a last minute thing cuz the regular speaker didn't show) and when I talked about leaving my 95 year old Mother - she knew things needed to happen in their family and surely she could leave her 58 year old parents. Well, I don't know what's going to happen there, but we have an appt for next Sunday to start missionary lessons with the Father. We'll hope for the best for them.

We're leaving on a bus in the morning (Monday) for zone conference in Kuala Lumpur. It will be a nice change of scenery for a few days and conference is always so inspiring. Looking forward to it. We're staying an extra day and hope to see the Petronas Towers. E mailed one of the other couples who is going to be there and she responded, "Can't wait to talk to someone over 19 years old who doesn't speak Chinese." We chuckled and kind of feel the same way. They also teach Seminary and Institute in their area (Butterworth) so we're looking forward to sharing sympathy and ideas.