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,
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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.
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