The Family: A Proclamation to the World

Hello all,

We hope this letter finds everyone doing great. We are having such a marvelous time - not that it's easy, but there are so many wonderful things that happen on a daily basis that we feel so blessed to be a part of. One of the highlights of this week was the open house and dedication of the newest chapel in Singapore. It is beautiful. The two wards assigned to the building have been meeting in a shop lot chapel and now they have a beautiful 3 story Chapel. It has lawns around it, which is really unusual in Singapore. There were a lot of non-members at the open house. People in the area of the new Chapel were really curious about this beautiful church. All the different orginazations set up a room of displays. Our Elders/Sisters here in Singapore worked all week getting ready. They did a wonderful job. They also had two baptisms this week and are hoping to have more as a result of the open house. They had many dignataries from Sinapore attend a special meeting at 7 p.m. They presented 40 new wheelchairs to them from the Humanitarium division of the Church.

This morning Dave spoke in the Jahor Bahru branch. He spoke on The Family: A Proclamation to the World. He did a wonderful job. Speaking on the importance of a strong family living the standards of the Church was a great subject to speak on and one that is very special to us. As the family is under attack more and more these days, it is even more important than ever to have a strong family that lives the values of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At church today, a new couple came. They have a 42 foot sailing yacht that they have been sailing all over Asia. They spend about a year in each port and then move on. They have been doing this for 4 years so far and expect to keep it up for many years to come! They are from Australia - we love their accent. Next Sunday one of the men in the JB Ward is marrying an Indian woman (she attends the Ward, but is not a member). She has invited everyone to the wedding. She said they are planning on 1,000 people and will have a traditional Indian (from India) wedding. She changes dresses twice during the ceremony! They will have traditional Indian food. She insists we all come. If we can get the Office Elders to pick up the President and AP's from the airport we will probably go. The Gregory's want us to come spend the afternoon with them and then we will all go together. It might be a real cultural experience!

The Missionary work is going great in Singapore. The Elders/Sisters teach almost all their lessons in the Mission Office so we have a constant stream of visitors each day. It is wonderful. What a great group of missionaries we have here in Singapore. In the past it has been Malaysia that has most of the missionary work going on, but the ones here are really working hard at spreading the gospel. China may not allow missionaries into China, but the Chinese are joining the Church all over the world.

We ran out of pages in our passports this week since we go back and forth to Malaysia so often. We had to go to the American Embassy to get new pages added to our books. Before we go home, I'm sure we will have to get new passports! Going back and forth has been incident free the last few weeks - let's hope it stays that way!

Well that is our week, not too exciting, but very rewarding. We hope each of you are doing great. We think of you often and wish that we could share our experiences with you. We appreciate your prayers in our behalf. We love all of you!

Take care,

Elder and Sister Garrett, mom and dad, grandma and grandpa, relatives and friends


The attached photo is of 10 of our 12 Missionaries in Singapore putting packets together for the open house - what a grea!t group



July 4, 2011

Hi there,

We just wanted to wish you a happy 4th - one of our favorite holidays.  However, today was a regular day here for us. We celebrated by going to McDonalds for lunch. It was a busy day at the office, lots of visa runners. Tonight we picked up the Clarks and AP's at the airport. We haven't had a chance to send out our letter, but will try to soon.  We have to get up really early tomorrow, but we just wanted to let you know we miss all of you and will be thinking about you as you watch fireworks!

Love,

Mom & Dad

Father's Day!

Hi All,

We will make this short as we have a new couple here with us and we need to get back downstairs to visit with them. They arrived at 12:45 a.m. Saturday morning. After a few short hours of sleep, we took them to the Botanical Gardens. They loved it, but I think we wore them out. She had here knee replaced 4 months ago and it started bothering her from all the walking. Plus, the humidity was really getting to them. Maybe we are starting to adjust as it didn't seem too bad to us. They are the Nielsons from Utah. He taught math in the Alpine school district for 35 years. They now run a horse boarding ranch. The haven't served a mission before but worked at an orphanage in Haiti for 6 months and taught English in China for a year. They are the parents of 10 children! We do have them beat in the number of grandchildren though. At last, Dave is not the oldest Senior Elder in the mission! Elder Nielson is 6 months older! I have one Sister who is about 6 months older than me and another one who is 14 years older than me! I guess you are never to old to serve!

We have our new office Elder and he is great, but we still miss Elder Ulrich. At church today in Jahor Bahru, Dave was asked to speak next Sunday on The Family: A Proclamation to The World. It should be an easy subject for him - he loves speaking about the family. You have to keep the talks really basic in JB though.

For Father's Day today he received an e-mail containing Father's Day greetings from almost everyone in our family. He said it was the best Father's Day gift he has ever received - it made him realize how much everyone loves him! We sure miss everyone and miss the family gathering we would have had today to celebrate all the Father's birthdays. Happy Father's Day to all the men who are fathers or future fathers! We are so busy most of the time that we forget what day it even is! What better way to spend our "senior days" though than serving the Lord.

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

Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, family and friends

The Neilsons at the Botanical Gardens in Singapore.

Gecko on the fence outside of our kitchen.

Dragonfly at the Botanical Gardens.

Shanty town in Malaysia close to our chapel.

Couple having wedding pictures taken in the Botanical Gardens.

Newton Circus

Hello from Singapore,

We hope this finds everyone doing great. It's hard to believe that we've been on our mission for almost 5 months. The time is already flying by. We love Singapore - we never have to think about putting on a sweater or jacket as it is always hot! We just have to worry about having an umbrella with us and it rains almost every day. It is so beautiful here though. All the roadways are landscaped beautifully and the city is exceptionally clean. There is, however, construction almost everywhere you drive. Dave is becoming a "Singaporean" driver. Just cut in front of everyone and hope for the best! So far, so good! To get to the office we have to go around a giant round-a-bout. They call it Newton Circus - aptly named as it is a circus. There are 8 roads that come into it - all packed with cars, buses, taxis, motorcycles, trucks and bicylists. There are four lanes with everyone trying to get into a different lane all the way around! We always feel it a miracle when we make it through safely!

This morning we went to church in Jahor Bahru. We made it through immigration without any problems and arrived almost an hour early. We left at the same time last week and were a half hour late! You never know what to expect. The branch seems to have the attendance going down - it is a real concern. No one is quite sure why, except the leadership in the Branch is really lacking and there seems to be a disconnect between the Chinese, Malay, and Iban members. The people are all so friendly to us though. We went over to the Gregory's (the missionary couple in JB), with the Howarths and Bro. Allen (the high councilman) for lunch. . The Gregory's are a fun couple to be with and love to have other Americans that they can understand to visit with. Today there were talks in Chinese, Malay and English - all the Iban's had gone back to their "longhouses" for their Iban holiday.

This has been a sad week for us. One of our Office Elders, who has been such a huge help to us since we arrived, has been sick and is being sent home on Tuesday. We have a Doctor (missionary) from Hong Kong who is flying in tomorrow to accompany him home. The missionary has been out about 18 months and will be released honorably from his mission. How we hate to see him go. We will get a new Office Elder tomorrow. In about 5 weeks we will be having 17 missionaries returning home and the next day 18 new missionaries arriving. It's going to be crazy. Our two AP's will also be leaving so it's going to be different in the office. They also closed the Service Center for this area two weeks ago (except for two who will be leaving soon for Hong Kong). Everyone is leaving us!!

We love our mission and being in the service of the Lord in these latter days. We love the people here and in Malaysia. We have yet to hear a swear word from anyone (at least that we understood). People are exceptionally polite and everyone is well groomed and neat. You rarely see anyone with long hair (men), with tattoos, baggy pants, and women smoking. The hardest thing for us is adjusting to the food and the way dishes are washed in the "hawker" stands. We ate at one last week with the President and AP's. The owner's son (about 12 yrs. old) was washing dishes in front of the stand in dirty, cold, soapy water and then dipping them in rinse water inside the stand. We couldn't see if it was clean or not - but definitely cold! The owner then dished our food up on the dishes! You never hear of anyone getting sick though.

Well we need to close. We are going to the airport to pick the President, his wife and the AP's up from their latest trip (they have one trip each week). I don't know how the President keeps up his pace. He is definitely blessed - along with his wife and AP's (Assistant's to the President - young Missionaries). That is why Mission Presidents are now all under the age of 60! We pray for you daily and miss associating with each of you, but we also know that the Lord needs us here at this time in our lives.

We love hearing from you when you have time to answer.

Elder and Sister Garrett, Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, relatives and friends