So He IS Listening!

Brian was reading the scriptures tonight to the family at bedtime.  He was talking about Jacob being a prophet. Out of nowhere our little Jacob called out, “NO!  I NOT A PROPHET!!”  And I thought he wasn’t listening.

Ice Cream on the Street with Lyndi

There is a little ice cream vendor guy that sits at the gate by the walking exit of the school every day selling ice cream. He has a cute little covered cart like all the other vendors which he drives as a side car attached to his motorcycle.   At first I assumed they were totally overpriced cones.  I was completely wrong. Each serving is only $1.00 ($0.75 US).  This is what he sells mostly.  I have red bean ice cream in the picture and it was pretty tasty.  Other flavors include: peppermint chocolate chip, yam, sweet corn, chocolate chip, durian, chocolate, blueberry, ripple, mocha chip, mango, coconut and honeydew.

You choose your flavor and he digs in the cart to find a box of it.  Then he uses a huge knife to chop through the box.  He tosses the box back in his cart then picks up your serving and peels the cardboard off the sides then lets you choose how you want it served.  Options include: wafer like cookies for each side as I have on mine, a cup OR my favorite one to see (though I haven’t tried it yet) ice cream wrapped in a slice of white bread.  The white bread idea seems genius to me because it absorbs all the drips unlike the ice cream cones my children pick.  People say it makes the bread rather tasty too.

Yesterday Lyndi bought us some from a guy downtown.  There are signs hanging from the pole of the umbrella stick showing the menu and you point to what you want because he doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Chinese.  I got this one downtown on Orchard Road outside of the Paragon right where Jana Hyatt is living.

Lyndi Prendergrast was in town for about 8 hours today so we met up just to say hello and she offered to buy the kids a treat.  Ben had a fever overnight so he got to stay home from school and join in the fun.  Lyndi moved into the Great World Serviced Apartments about the same day we did.  Only she was pregnant and came from Jakarta just to have the baby.  She was supposed to come four or so weeks early and stay six or so weeks after the baby came.  She had weird pains the day before she left Indonesia but thought it best to not mention them and just get out of there to where she could get good medical care.  She arrived and they wanted to take the baby that day.  She talked them into waiting for her husband to fly in for the birth.  Then baby Collin went to the NICU for a couple months.  What was supposed to be no big deal turned into a long ordeal for their poor family split between two countries.  She spend most her time going to and from the hospital.

Once Collin was finally discharged her husband brought the little kids over to stay with her in Singapore while he kept the school aged kids in Jakarta.  And that is where we really got to know each other.  Both of us stuck in our temporary worlds just waiting, waiting, waiting to move on with our lives.  Her to join her family back home with the new baby and me to get my shipment of household goods so I could unpack and settle into my new life.  It was so great to have someone in my building to swap childcare with or meet at the pool or playground or even drag along to Chinatown for a morning excursion.  She was a great friend and I was really excited to get together again, even if it was only for an hour and she didn’t have her other kids, Mark and Clara, that we grew to love so much in those two months together.  (Baby Collin’s visa was about to expire so he had to leave the country, Indonesia, and reenter or he would get fined.)  I’m convinced the Lord puts the right people in our path at the right moments to help us make it through whether we are trudging along with heavy feet and the friend can help lift our burdens to make them lighter or we are soaring already and they simply send us higher.

Rowdy Bunch

As if Sacrament Meeting wasn’t enough yesterday, I teach primary too.  Our congregation is so large that there are 25 kids born just in the year 2004 (6 girls and 19 boys).  That should merit three classes, but because our building just doesn’t have that kind of space (most the other classes from three year olds to ten year olds have a similar problem).  For now we are split into two classes, leaving me to teach twelve kids each week and unless someone is traveling, all twelve families are active and they attend weekly.

 

My class is a bunch of wiggly, active kindergarten and first graders.  It’s been a challenge establishing expectations of behavior.  I guess they haven’t had a long term regular teacher in a very long time.  I’m making progress, but sometimes I’m just not sure what to do.  I even have a set of twins that are super busy.  They are real cute and want my attention all the time.  I’m developing good relationships with all of them.  They smile and yell “HI SISTER ZUFELT!!!” across the school yard when the ones at Ben’s school see me.

 

Yesterday during Sharing Time (the kid meeting with music time and a fun lesson and all the classes together) Eli wouldn’t stay sitting and his mouth was going about a mile a minute no matter what I said to him about listening or singing.  I often have to put my arm around his shoulders to keep him focused and seated.  Actually, I have to do it often anyway because despite the amount of room on the pew, he scoots right up next to me or tries to sit on my lap and nuzzles his way under my arm on purpose.

 

With one arm around his shoulders already, I finally took the other hand and covered his mouth with my other hand.  “This is what I should be hearing right now during the lesson, right?” I said to him.  He looked me straight in the eyes so he knew I was paying attention and slowly licked all over my entire hand.  Yuck.  Using my superior intelligence, I then slowly removed my hand, revealing a huge grin on his face.  As he began to tell me, “See, you shouldn’t cover my mouth,” or something along those lines, I slowly wiped my hand dry across his nose and forehead.  “That’s disgusting!!” he exclaimed.  “Yep.  Sure is gross when your face has slobber all over it.” I said.  Wonder if he’ll do that again.  Wonder if they’ll fire me. J  At least I’m having fun with my cute bunch of ruffians.

Why Did the Monkey Cross the Road?

I can’t say for certain, but he was smart to take the overpass railing instead of try to dodge the cars on the eight-lane expressway.

 

Driving yesterday I saw something that made me do a double take.  Approaching an underpass on the expressway I saw a dark silhouette crossing the top of a bridge crossing the highway.  It looked like something I would picture seeing in National Geographic film.  It was a monkey skillfully running across the top of the metal railing. 

 

I still cannot get used to seeing monkeys everywhere.  They are like the local squirrel.  We hear there are squirrels around as well, but the monkeys just appear to be everywhere.  They run around everywhere, including backyards in some portions of the island.  I saw a monkey at the Pottery Jungle (a local pottery store).  Near the cashier is an ice cream freezer.  I understand a local monkey sneaks into the freezer and steals the ice cream.  The shop owner hisses at the monkey to try to scare it away.  The monkey just hisses back. 

Sunday Services - Dream World vs My Reality

Our Sunday services are designed to allow time for personal reflection and introspection each week. We partake of the sacrament every Sunday to remind us of Jesus and his atonement for our sins.  After opening song, prayer and announcements are made we sing a reverent sacrament hymn and the congregation is quiet as first the bread and then the water representing Christ’s body and blood respectively are passed to each individual.  It can be a wonderful time to ponder God, life and how I am doing or what things I need to reconcile with the Lord over and repent to become more like Jesus.  Here are the first two verses of the hymn we sung today:

 

Reverently and meekly now,

Let thy head most humbly bow.

Think of me, thou ransomed one;

Think what I for thee have done.

With my blood that dripped like rain,

Sweat in agony of pain,

With my body on the tree

I have ransomed even thee.

 

In this bread now blest for thee,

Emblem of my body see;

In this water or this wine,

Emblem of my blood divine.

Oh, remember what was done
That the sinner might be won.

On the cross of Calvary

I have suffered death for thee.

 

Here is what I think I sung today:

 

Reverently and meekly now,

Let thy head –Jacob quiet

Think of me, thou – No.  Stop.

Think what – Give me that. –  have done.

Don’t hit the bench with the markers – like rain,

No.  I’ll take it away if you don’t stop.

With my body on the tree

Maddie, don’t laugh at him.

 

In this bread – Both of you quiet. – now blest for thee,

Please use a whisper voice.

In this water – No.  That is not an inside voice.

Emblem of my blood divine.

Oh, remember – The Jesus pictures are at Jakes house in the other bag.

On the cross of Calvary (while Jake screamed “I NOT JESUS!”)

I know you’re not Jesus.  I don’t have the pictures. – death for thee.

 

I just sung my new version of the hymn to Brian and asked how his side of the bench was today during sacrament.  He said, “I had a little bit of that too. ‘Jacob, Maddie.  Go back over to mom’s side.’”  Punk husband I got, huh?

 

Maybe when they are teenagers I’ll get more out of church.  There is a time and a season for everything, right?

I Love...

That Singapore is built for short people. I can easily and comfortably reach the handles on the train. Happy day for me.

New Phone Arrives on Saturday!!

I’m excited.  A new friend from church offered to bring me half a suitcase of loot from the US this week.  Finally we will have a home phone after four months.  Hopefully it will make my cell phone bill go down. J