Red & White Talent Show and Dinner

Hello all,

Well this week has brought some interesting new happenings. First of all, the Oriens are still with us, but her knee is getting better slowly. Sister Orien goes back to the Doctor tomorrow and if he releases her, they will leave on Tuesday. We will miss them as it has been a delight to have them here. This week was the week to have our "Pasir" home (we live on Pasir Panjang Rd) painted inside. Sister Orien was here with them all week! They showed up Monday morning on motorcycles with a bucket of paint, a bunch of newspapers, a paintbrush and a roller and we have 12-14 foot ceilings! They used a paintbrush on a long pole to cut in around the ceilings. We found a ladder for them the next day in storage and they could reach a little more. They kept saying that the last "father" had a long ladder and "new father" has to find one. We finally located one in the church storage room and they were happy. They were supposed to be finished by Friday, but still have a lot of woodwork to paint! They have made such a mess. We have paint splattered on the floors and furniture in the spare bedrooms is piled all over. I think they stood on beds to paint as they are all messed up. I'll have to wash the sheets on all the beds and disinfect all the floors! I think they dumped water on all the bathroom floors (we have six). It is interesting to see how things are done in this part of the world! They left doors and windows open all the time. Wednesday night when we went up to go to bed, there was a gecko sitting in the middle of our bed! I almost freaked out! We still don't know where it went!

Last night the ward that meets in the building by our home invited us to their annual Red & White talent show and dinner. It was a lot of fun - they were so enthusiatic. Everyone gets a small red and a small white paper flag. They have two acts competing against each other at a time - one of females and one of males. After they are finished you hold up a red flag to vote for the females and a white one to vote for the males. It was hilarious! The High-Priest quorum was the favorite, singing "Red River Valley" with Chinese accents and playing their guitars.

Today is Easter Sunday and is being celebrated quite differently than at home. We started out the morning with all the missionaries in Singapore meeting with Elder Perkins (the General Authority in charge of Asia), Elder Chan (the Regional Representative), Brother Turley (the Church Historian), and Brother Nielson (in charge of the Church History Dept.) We met at sunrise at the top of Mt. Faber in Singapore. It is a beautiful spot where President Ezra Taft Benson dedicated Singapore for Missionary work in 1969. Our Elders sang a beautiful hymn, the Stake President read the dedicatory prayer from 1969 and Elder Perkins made a few comments.

Then from 4 o'clock to 5:30 all the missionaries in Singapore and the Elders from Jahor Bahru were able to meet with the group to have any questions we had about church history answered. Their knowledge is absolutely amazing. It was a wonderful meeting. Then from 6-8 the entire stake (adults and teens) were invited to meet with them and answer any questions they had. They also explained how church records are preserved and histories gathered. They are on a tour of all of Asia gathering information. It's been over a hundred years since a Church Historian has visited Singapore so everyone was very excited. The question was asked to Brother Perkins about when he thought China would be opened up for missionary work and he said (his own opinion) that he felt it was open now. He said that most people feel that the opening of China means sending missionaries in but he feels that the door is opening outward as so many Chinese are joining the Church in other parts of the world and then bringing it back home to their friends and family. It was a very spiritual and rewarding day as a lot of focus was also placed on the Resurrection of our Savior.

Our Easter dinner consisted of sandwiches between meetings - not quite our usual ham dinner at home, but I must say that the spirit was so strong today that we didn't miss a big dinner at all.

Well we must close and get some sleep as we have an extremely busy week ahead. We pray for you all daily.

Elder & Sister Garrett (mom & dad, grandma & grandpa, friends and relatives)

Bro. Neilson, Bro. Turley, Pres. Lai, Pres. Chan, Elder Perkins

Our Singapore Elder's - What great young men!

Pres. & Sis. Clark, Elder and Sis. Garrett on Mt. Faber Easter Morning.

Bro. Ho (our institute teacher), Pres. Kwan (member of the Stake Presidency) and Bishop Li

High Priest Group singing Red River Valley

Group of young girls dancing, part of a talent show.

Time with the Cunningham's and Orien's

Hello,

This has been a rainy week for us. We have had a downpour every afternoon but it helps cool things off a little bit. We had the Cunningham's from Alaska here on a visa run this week along with the Oriens (also from Alaska). Both couples are serving in East Malaysia (neither knew each other before this week). Sister Orien had her knee replaced a week and a half ago. She was doing great and walking all over the place, but now is paying the price! Her knee is really swollen and the doctor wants her off of it for a few days - so we will have house guests a while longer! They are a great couple. We have all been marveling at how all the couples who come in on visa runs, who didn't know each other before, can meet and form an instant kinship with each other. It is really fun havin all of them here and sharing stories. None of us even pay any attention to the gekkos or cockroaches - it's just a way of life in this part of the world!

Last night we had a Stake Relief Society program. Even though it was for Sisters, Dave and Elder Orien went with us. It was one of the best Relief Society programs we had ever been to. It was called "Visions from the Past". They did a wonderful job. Our husbands enjoyed it as much as we did even though they were only two of a handful of men there. Afterwards, we went to dinner at a "hawker" stand with the Oriens and Howarths. The food is cheap at the "hawker" stands, but you just have to forget the fact that they wash all the dishes in cold water out behind the stands!

On Wednesday night, after the rainstorm ended, we went to the Night Safari with the Cunningham's and Howarths. It was amazing. They have (tigers, lions, bears, elephants, hippos, rhinos, deer, hyennas, wolves, plus many animals we have never heard of!) that are mostly native to Malaysia. None of the animals are in cages (just surrounded by moats). They also had snakes, bats and some of the biggest bugs we've ever seen! They have one sections where you walk through a bat enclosure - the bats were huge! They have dim lights on the animals and it is fun to see how active they are at night.

We found out this week that Elder Bednar is coming to Kuala Lumpur next month and he has agreed to hold a meeting with all the missionaries in West Malaysia and Singapore so we will get to attend the meeting. This week also was a milestone in that the first senior couple from Singapore/Malaysia turned in their mission papers. Everyone was so excited. As missionaries (old and young) go out from this area and return home, the church will gain a lot of leadership abilities.

It sounds like we do a lot of playing, however we work long hours at the office. It is really a busy place, but at the same time a lot of fun. We make many trips to the airport each week as we always have someone coming in or leaving. The Mission President, his wife, and AP's travel all the time to the different areas of the mission. We don't know how they do it!

We miss our family and friends, but feel like we are being blessed by serving in Singapore! It is a beautiful place and the need for missionaries is so great here. It is amazing to watch these young Elder's and Sister's dedication to the Lord. They go through so many trials and yet they never complain - just become more determined to serve the Lord with all their hearts. Many more senior couples are needed too. We always thought you had to be so healthy to serve a mission, however even though we are the oldest couple out here (outside of the President's mother who is 85 years old and serving in East Malaysia) I think we are the healthiest! Most couples have doctor appointments for various problems everytime they come in for Visa runs. We feel very fortunate that our health is good (at least so far!). What a great opportunity serving a mission is - not only to serve the Lord, but to be able to immerse yourselves in the culture of another country!

Well we need to close. We have tried attaching several photos to a pdf document. Hopefully it works!

We love and miss each of you and love to hear from you.

Take care,

Elder & Sister Garrett

Mission Pres., wife and New Elder

Singapore River

Dinner with Larson's and Johnson's

Christ's church in Melaka

The chapel in front of our home

Our house from the front

Botanical Gardens

Orchids at Orchid Gardens

Harbor near our home.

"The Beast" our van

At the Jahor Bahru Branch

Dinner with Erickson's and Howarth's

We are excited to hear of a Temple in Fort Collins!

Hello all,

First of all we just wanted to let all of you know how excited we were to hear of a Temple that is going to be built in Fort Collins!  We had several family members and friends e-mail us with the exciting news.  We don't get conference here for another week, but we did go on line this afternoon and listened to President Monson's announcement.  We read the e-mails early this morning just before we were headed to Jahor Bahru for church.  We had a senior couple from JB that spent the night last night.  We couldn't wait to tell them.  It's amazing that half way around the world we can get such exciting news right away.  It does make us sad though that many of the people in our area here may never have the opportunity to go to the Temple.  If they do, it's usually a once in a lifetime opportunity.  The nearest Temple is in the Philippines however this mission is assigned to the Hong Kong Temple.  Most of the Malaysian people must save for years to be able to attend the Temple just once.  How fortunate we are in the states to be able to attend the temple often!

This has been a busy couple of weeks for us.  Last week we had an Elder that returned home (scheduled) and a new Elder arrive.  The new Elder went home from the MTC a year ago, but worked to get his life in order and arrived this last week to complete his mission.  He is so happy to be in the Mission field.  What a great young man!  This week we had a Senior couple return home and 3 other couples in for Visa runs.  We had a full house, but what fun!  All the couples we have met have been great.  One of the couples last week, the Larson's, are from North Carolina.  They kept all of us entertained with their adventures in East Malaysia.  They are humanitarian missionaries and were working with a small Kampung (village) to get a water dam put in so they can have fresh water.  They flew into a small town on a 14 passenger plane.  The baggage handler came out to pick up their luggage pushing a wheelbarrow with a flat tire!  The airport bathroom consisted of a red plastic bucket for the women and a blue one for the men! They then had to travel 4 hours thru the jungle in the back of a 4-wheel drive truck with big mud tires and a roll bar over deep rutted roads holding on to the roll bar.  They stayed in the village for 3 days getting all the paperwork signed by the villagers.  They said the people were so friendly and giving.  Listening to them tell about it with their southern accents was hilarious.  I think the Lord knew what he was doing having us serve and live in Singapore and not Malaysia except for Sundays! 

It takes us anywhere between 7 and 9 hours to go over to JB and back - mostly because of immigration.  It's always kind of disconcerting to cross the border.  As the couple that just went home said "We could be staying home just getting older or we could be out here having experiences that we could only dream about!"  We would certainly encourage any Senior couples to serve a mission!  What wonderful experiences we are having.  Everyday is a new adventure.  We are gradually discovering new areas of the city and have found that riding the MRT (subway) is a great way to go!  We've made at least 5 trips to the airport each week for the last couple of weeks either picking up or taking others to the airport.  One morning we had to get up at 2:45 to take a missionary to the airport - the only good thing about that was traffic was light!  We are becoming regulars at the airport!  Our office work is non-ending.  Between all the finances, scheduling trips, hotels (for the Mission President),recording Baptisms, Elders having to move to new apartments, having bicycles stolen, support cards lost, etc., we are always behind!  But working with all the young Elders and Sisters is wonderful and they seem so appreciative.  They keep us young (at least feeling that way)!

We are grateful for our health.  We walk up and down hills most mornings at 5:30 - the coolest time of day!  Singapore is such a beautiful place no matter where you go!  It is also such a clean, safe place.  Many of our Senior couples struggle with health problems.  We have a Sister coming in tomorrow for a knee replacement surgery.  She (and her husband) will be staying with us for about 16 days.  One of the other Senior sisters had thyroid surgery, and many have doctor appointments when they come for their visa runs.  So, health doesn't seem to be a reason not to serve a mission!

We love and miss all of our family.  We just received an e-mail this morning that Janice fell (tangled in a gas hose) and cracked both of her elbows.  She had just received word that Kadie (her youngest) had been donating blood at her high school and had passed out.  They had a hard time reviving her and called Janice.  She was rushing to Kadie's  aid and fell.  Kadie e-mailed us and said she is in a contraption that looks like a straight jacket!  Brian's and Beckies youngest, Graham will turn two this week (7th).  It is hard being away from family, but feel needed here and we are able to keep in touch by e-mail, phone and Scype and know that our family will be blessed as we serve our Heavenly Father!

We love hearing from you and your adventures also.  We still get the Relief Society weekly e-mail and love hearing about what is going on in the Ward.  We often watch our local channel 9 news from Denver (on-line).  We get the morning news at night and the nightly news in the morning, but I must admit we feel a little smug when the states are freezing and we are enjoying such beautiful weather!

We love all of you and miss you and pray for you daily. 

With love,

Elder & Sister Garrett (mom & dad, grandma & grandpa, friends)

April 10, 2011

Hello all,

This week has been great. We just finished watching General Conference for the last two days at the Mission President's home along with the Howarth's (the Public Relations couple). We had a great time and ate way too much! The speakers were great. We cheered again when we heard the Temple for Fort Collins announced again. What a blessing that will be for the people of Northern Colorado and parts of Wyoming. It seems like the general theme of conference was that we will have many trials in the times to come, but if we are living righteously and willing to serve others, we will be blessed. We particularly loved President Monson's talks and Elder Hollands talk on how Zion's Standard is unfurled and that mortal messengers are around us delivering angelic messages. We loved President Uchdorf's talk on how the Heavens are open and that the Lord speaks to us today through modern prophets. We thought his quote by Francis of Assisi was great "preach the gospel at all times and if necessary, use words!". We must be good examples in the way we live our lives! Elder Scott's talk about eternal families was touching as he talked about his deceased wife and what a wonderful person she was and how he knows they will be together eterally because of the gospel. All the speakers were great and it was wonderful watching it with such wonderful people. The AP's and Office Elders came over and watched the Priesthood session with us too. It felt strange for the three women there to be watching the Priesthood session, but we didn't discover any secret things (ha)!

We had a couple come in from East Malaysia on Monday. She had her knee replaced on Wednesday. She gets out of the hospital tomorrow and is scheduled to leave on Saturday. She is doing great. The surgery was about $15,000 less than in the US and she said her care was much better. The doctor told her that about 40-50% of his patients are people from out of the country who come here for surgery. They have excellent hospitals here with wonderful care. The health care in Malaysia is terrible though. If you can't pay up front, they won't treat you at all. I guess the doctors are good, but the nursing is terrible. This same couple visited a woman in the hospital who had just had a baby. You must furnish all the supplies for your baby (diapers, formula, etc) and for the mother, her supplies including food (this is in Malaysia)!

We have another couple coming in tomorrow for a Visa run. She also has doctor appointments (a usual thing for senior missionaries it seems). Tuesday night we are going with them and the Howarths to the Night Safari at the Singapore Zoo. It is supposed to be great. That is, we will go if it's not raining. We decided to try to go to Sentosa Island Wednesday afternoon. This time we drove out there. The only part of the island we saw was the beach area and it was absolutely beautiful! When we were walking to the section with all the attractions a huge thunder storm came up and it poured down rain for about 1 1/2 hrs. We sought shelter under a big outdoor pavillion. But by the time it finally quit raining, we decided we would just leave. Some day we will get to see the entire island.

One of the sad things this week was having to take a missionary to the airport that was returning home early - his choice. He said his knee was really hurting him all the time. We think it was just an excuse. We all felt really bad for him as we know he will always regret his decision. We had to get up at 3:45 that morning! We picked the President and his group up one night at 11 p.m. We are getting to recognize some of the workers at the airport and they are probably recognizing us!

Our hours at the office most days are long and stressful, but we love it. As the President jokes, "that's why we make the big bucks!"

We found a mexican restaurant this week. We rode the MRT down to the Singapore river walk and had a "set" lunch - chicken fajita's (without skin or bones!). It was wonderful and it wasn't served with rice!

It was hard being here this week and not being home to help Janice though (our middle daughter). She fell and fractured both elbows. She couldn't do anything for herself. She has wonderful friends though who have been helping her (as well as her family). She was excited yesterday that she was finally able to reach high enough to brush her own teeth! It has been hard for her to accept help and meals from others. She is always helping others but it is harder to be on the receiving end. She is learning though that you have to let others serve you too as they need the blessings also. Our youngest grandson, Graham (Brian's youngest) just turned two this week! How we miss our family, but we know that our family will be blessed by our service to the Lord.

We think of family and friends often, but we feel so blessed that we are here in Singapore on a mission serving the Lord and being able to get to know the wonderful people in Jahor Bahru, Malaysia!

With our love,

Elder & Sister Garrett
Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa
Friends

Scenes from Sentosa beach and Dave on the Southernmost part of Asia.