Elder and Sister Garrett in Singapore!: We survived our first week in Singapore

Hi all,

Well we survived our first week in Singapore! We left the MTC last Sunday night and arrived in Singapore on Tuesday (we lost a day). The 14 3/4 hr flight to Hong Kong was brutal. We then flew 3 3/4 hrs. to Singapore. We spent the first night with the Mission President (President Clark and his wife) and that is when we realized things would be different. They live in a really nice condo, but there are no electrical outlets in the bathrooms and the only hot water is by an instant hot-water heater for the showers only. Dad (Dave) loves shaving with cold water! The next day they took us to the office and then to our new home.

Friday morning (Thursday where you are)

Life here is different. The city is absolutely beautiful. Every road is lined with trees and flowers. So far the heat has not been bad at all - a lot nicer than we expected.

We only have driven one time so far, but today will be our test. We have to take the Mission President, his wife, and the AP's to the airport later this morning. I just hope we can find our way back to the office. Most of the time we have absolutely no idea where we are! We still haven't been to a store. We were going to go yesterday, but all stores were closed due to the Chinese New Year. Everyone says the prices are horrible. They don't seem to have markets like we have in the US. Everything is pretty small with the markets in shopping malls (not quite like our malls). Yesterday, the Carpenter's (the couple we are replacing) and dad & I were invited to a member's home for a traditional Chinese New Year's day lunch. It was very different, but good. They were wonderful people.

President Clark has asked that we attend a Branch in Malaysia every Sunday, along with another couple that lives here in Singapore. I guess the drive there is a nightmare - everyone says that going through immigration each week will be slow going, plus they say that driving in Malaysia is a real experience! He wants to provide more leadership to that Branch.

The house we live in is big but old! It is kind of like a well-to-do British home in the jungle in the early 1900's. I'm having a hard time adjusting to it though. There are always gekko droppings on the sinks in the kitchen and dead roaches (huge) on the floors! I have to buy some disinfectants today!!!! The electrical system and the plumbing in everything is so different. We have no hot water in any of the bathrooms except when we turn on an instant hot water heater for the shower only. The kitchen only has hot water when you turn on the instant heater (that takes a long time and you don't get too much). There is only cold water for the washing machines (old). None of the bathrooms here have electrical outlets in them. (Even in the really nice condo that we stayed in with the Mission President and his wife our first night here). All bathrooms are all tile with drains in the floors. There are big gaps under the doors to the outside - along with the walls of windows. It's no wonder that gekko's and roaches get in! The gardner told Brother Carpenter that he killed a cobra in our back yard when he was trimming the bushes!!! They say that there aren't many left in Singapore though! Even one is too many for us.

Next week we have all the new missionaries coming in (9 of them), their trainers, and all the zone leaders. They will all be staying here except for 4 girls. They will all be here at the house for breakfast (3 days) and lunch (2 days) and dinner (1 day). There are a lot of beds plus mattresses for them to sleep on the floor. It will be an interesting experience. Plus, we will be going back and forth to the airport MANY times. It will be fun getting to meet all of them though.

We'll see what new adventure today brings and whether or not I can find a curling iron!

Sunday afternoon (Saturday in the States):

We spent Wednesday and Thursday with Elder & Sister Carpenter getting trained - well slightly trained! They left Thursday evening for home. Friday we took the group to the airport and we had to find our way back! We made it, but barely. We spend all of our time telling each other to "scoot over" Driving on the "wrong" side of the road is hard to get used to!!!! President Clark told us to spend the next few hours just driving around getting acquainted with the city. We first decided to find our way to the office from our home and back. It took us 3 hours and we never did find the office! The roads are HORRIBLE to find your way around on. There are very few intersections and if you get off on a wrong ramp, there is no way back. Things are labeled with different languages and we have no way of knowing what they mean! The name of the road that you driving on can change as you go through the various parts of the city. After church today, we decided to give it another try. One and a half hours later we finally found the Mission Office. We did make it back home in about a half hour though. We were pretty proud of ourselves. Now let's see if we can get to work and home tomorrow!

We decided we had better not try driving to the Ward we've been assigned to in Malaysia so went to the ward that is about 30 feet from our front door. Everyone was so friendly and nice. Ourside of heavy accents nothing is differnt from our ward in Colorado. I guess next Sunday will be our test in getting into and out of Malaysia.

We went for a long walk yesterday morning - beautiful - and then came home to tackle the gekko's and roaches in the downstairs. We cleaned for several hours and finally got all the gekko droppings cleaned up along with tons of dead cockroaches. They were under and behind furniture we moved. It was so nice to have everything disinfected and cleaned. However, when we got up this morning there were more droppings! The church does spray for roaches and other insects inside and out every 30 days, so at least we found dead roaches! That doesn't help with the gekkos though. I guess we will just have to learn to live with them (and they don't even have an Australian accent and none of them have tried to sell us Geico insurane!).

We finally found markets. What a shock. They are nothing like ours back home. A lot of the items we don't even know what they are and I'm not sure we want to know. Milk is $10.00+ per gallon! Bread is only sold by the half loaf and it is $3 and up. Eggs are never refrigerated and come 10 per pkg - not by the dozen. Everything is VERY expensive - except maybe for fish heads and rice! I still haven't found a store to buy a curling iron!!! There must be one somewhere!!

In spite of everything, Singapore is wonderful. We are excited to get started on our Mission responsibilities and working with the Malaysian people. We work daily with the office Elders and AP's (when they are in town). They are wonderful young Elders and a big help! The Church is the same here as anywhere else in the world! We love serving the Lord and feel blessed to be able to have the opportunity to do so. Many more Senior Missionaries are needed here - anyone want to join us?

With our love to everyone back home,

Elder & Sister Garrett (Dave & Glonda, Mom and Dad)