Hello!

Things are going really well here! Everything is moving so much faster now. Elder Merrill was telling me the other day that when you get into a new area, time seems to move really, really slowly, and that that's just a little blessing to help you get adjusted. Once you're in the groove of things though time flies by. We're constantly saying to each other that it feels like we're always going to bed, sleeping for a few minutes, waking up and then going back to bed again!

Christmas finally is starting to feel a little bit like it's coming. It's defnitely weird to have a warm Christmas season, but there are so many decorations up here by this point, and our wards are having a nativity this weekend, so it finally feels like the holidays have arrived. It's so funny, I keep asking people here if they're excited for Christmas, to which most people reply that they don't really celebrate. You can always count on them saying right afterwards though, "Yeah, I usually just go over to a friends house and have a big meal and we give each other presents and stuff." Don't celebrate, huh? Think again!

So this last week was really good, but pretty tough. (Literally) almost every appointment we had set up all week fell through. That was kind of disappointing, but we were able to fill it up with lots of good contacting so hopefully a few of the people we met doing that will meet with us again. Usually we have pretty good success with that, and that's really where most of our investigators come from.

So last night we had kind of an interesting appointment. Here in Singapore, we almost never meet people at their homes. I think most people are just uncomfortable doing it and from what I can tell people don't even really have friends over a lot. So last night, as usual, we met a couple of people Elder Merrill met on the MRT the other day. They were two really friendly girls and Elder Merrill just asked them if they knew a good place where we could go and talk for a little bit. One of the girls said she knew a park near there and off we went. So we start walking over and chatting a looking at the national library and things, not really knowing where we're going, until we finally get to this building with glass doors. Elder Merrill must have been thinking at this point, "Hmm... this doesn't look much like a park," but I hadn't heard where we were going in the first place, so I just kind of went along with it. One of the girls tried to open it, but it was locked, so she told Elder Merrill she wanted to go ask a nearby security guard what was going on. As she started to walk over she asked Elder Merrill, "So hey, do you guys drink?" Uh oh... So it turns out the words "Park" and "Bar" can sound suprisingly close in a crowded MRT station. We were in the building and were starting to sit down before we fully realized what was going on, got a hold of ourselves and beat a hasty retreat to a nearby McDonalds. The lesson went ok, but they weren't really that interested...

We're having good appointments too though! Still have people who are progressing and we may even have a baptism on Christmas Day! How cool would that be? Every time I go to a member's house here, I see how different it feels there from everywhere else we go. There's just something different about the spirit that goes with people who are faithful members of the church you can't feel anywhere else, and I want that so badly for our investigators. After we meet a new investigator for the first time, it's gotten pretty common for me to turn to Elder Merrill and say "Elder, I want them to be baptized so badly." And I don't want it for the numbers either! We just meet so many good people who deserve the gospel so much, and I just can't stand the thought that they might not get to experience that. There are definitely some cool people here in Singapore. (My favorite are the people from Myanmar. Soo nice, such good people. Haven't met an unfriendly one yet).

Anyway! I think that's kind of the news for this week. Things are still going really well. Elder Merrill and I are working really hard and having good success. It's the Spirit that does the work though, I'm learning that more and more everyday! I love you so much. I can't wait to here from you again, and I'm thinking about all of you back home all the time! Love you so much! I'll talk to you soon!

Love, Elder Blissett (Kevin)