Elder and Sister Garrett in Singapore!: December 2011

How we spent our Christmas

Hello all,

Most of the week before Christmas we spent shopping, baking, cooking and cleaning in preparation for Christmas, besides all our office responsibilities.

Christmas day we went to the local Wards in the front of our home. It started at 9 and lasted only a hour and ten minutes. Both wards met together (they just recently split the wards) and it was packed. Evidently they have a tradition of passing out treats after Sacrament Meeting when Christmas falls on a Sunday as everyone was passing out candy, cookies, popcorn, etc. One of the Elders commented that he had never received so much candy at one time! After Sacrament meeting they had a Baptism for a young woman - baptized by our Elders. What a special day to be Baptized! No one was in any hurry to leave and get home.

That evening we went to President and Sister Clark's home for dinner along with all the Elders and Sisters who serve in Singapore (10 Elders and 3 Sisters). We had a traditional turkey dinner. It is amazing how much food Elders can eat! After dinner we had a devotional. We sang every Christmas hymn in the hymn book. President Clark, along with some of the Elders, shared some insights into the Christmas story. It was such a wonderful way to spend a Christmas evening. Afterwards we played the white elephant game. It was a lot of fun but not nearly as wild as when we play it in our family - the missionaries are just too nice or maybe they just like to open packages rather than "steal" others. We then brought the 3 Sisters home with us to spend the night and the Elders spent the night at the Clarks so they could all "skype" with their families on Monday morning (Christmas day in the US - the first year they could skype). We skyped with some of our kids on Sunday night (Christmas eve for them) and the rest early on Monday morning when they were all at Janice and Jon's home for Christmas dinner.

Christmas in Singapore was really a special day, but we did miss our familiy. It helped us realize that the missionaries, while we're sure they missed their families too, had a wonderful day being together.

Monday morning it was back to the office as usual! Missionary work has to go on. We picked up a young man at the airport from Kuala Lumpur that came in to Singapore for just a few hours to be set apart as a missionary by President Clark and then he flew out to the Philippines to attend the Missionary Training Center there for two weeks. After two trips to the airport and getting caught up on our office duties, we attended another Baptism at the Stake Center that evening of another man who came down from Kuala Lumpur to be baptized in Singapore by one of the missionaries who had taught him while he was serving in KL.

This next couple of weeks is going to be wild. We have 8 missionaries going home on the 3rd of Jan. and then 2 more along with a Sr. Couple on the 11th of January. We have 16 new missionaries coming in on the 11th plus 16 Trainers (missionaries) from other areas of the mission. We also have major transfers happening this next week and then even more on the 11th! Getting their money straight (every area is different) and getting all their air flights booked is a nightmare. Plus we will have to house and feed all the new ones and their trainers. On top of that, we have our Senior Conference on the 5th and 6th of January. Some will be coming in on the 4th and others not leaving until the 8th! We will have 5 couples staying with us (all 18 couples here the first night for dinner) 2 with the President and the rest (9 couples) staying with volunteer families. It is wonderful getting together with the other Seniors, but it is a lot of work! On Friday night after a day of training and sharing, we will be going out to dinner and then to see the musical play, "Wicked". After the 13th (when all the missionaries are back to their areas), we will probably both collapse!

Serving a senior mission, however, is a wonderful experience. We get to live in a different culture, experience new foods, associate with wonderful people, serve with fantastic young missionaries, and most of all, serve our Heavenly Father!

We love all of you and remember you in our prayers.

With our love and best wishes for a great New Year!

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

Photos attached:
1. The young man who came down from KL to be baptized and Elder Spendlove (one of our Office Elders)
2. Walk way along the ocean where we went walking tonight.

Merry Christmas from Singapore!

Merry Christmas from Singapore!

We have been really busy the last couple of weeks. We have had a lot of company and have had to do a lot of cleaning! We finally pulled the Christmas tree down from the storage area and put it up. It is actually quite a pretty tree. We bought some more ornaments and it looks great. This week doesn't feel like Christmas at all though. We finally did some baking tonight so we could have some cookies for the Missionaries. Since Christmas is on a Sunday, we will go to Church in the morning (here in Singapore) and then in the evening we will have a dinner at the Mission President's home and play some games. The Elders will spend the night there so they can skype with their families Sunday night and Monday morning. The Sisters (only 3) will be spending the night with us and "skyping" with their families. It should be a lot of fun. The Sisters are coming over tomorrow night to bake cookies for some of their investigators.

Last Sunday we went to both branches in JB (Sacrament in one and Priesthood/Relief Society in the other). We took Christmas packages that had been sent to the Mission Office for the 8 Elders in JB - they were certainly happy to see us! It, however, took us 3 1/2 hours to get back home as immigration was a nightmare! One of the High Counselmen and his wife went with us (Brother Allen). He got so frustrated with the other drivers that he put his window down in the back seat and started yelling at some of the other drivers who were cutting in line and then not letting us merge! He did this twice and he is such a nice easy going man! We were hoping no one recognized our badges!

Saturday night the two wards that meet in the Chapel in front of our home, had a combined Christmas party and they invited us. It was held right in front of our house. They had turkey, ham and all the traditional trimings. They also had a DJ - a member of one of the Wards, who played music while his wife directed musical games. It was a lot of fun and everyone had a great time and best of all it didn't rain! It has rained a lot the last couple of weeks. It rained all day today and often really hard. We understand this is their "monsoon" season. At least it has cooled it off a little bit. Almost our entire yard is a lake and the bullfrogs are serenading us!

Last night we went to the airport to pick up the President, his wife, and the AP's. Their plane was due to land at 6:25 - at 6:20 it was confirmed and then the times disappeared off the board and it said delayed with no time! After about a half hour we went to the information counter and they said they had no record of it even taking off in Kuala Lumpur! About that time the President called and said they had just landed - but back in KL. I guess they were coming in for a landing in a really heavy storm and at the very last minute they aborted the landing and took off again. The captain then told them that they "should" have enough gas to return to KL and they were going to do that instead of trying to land in such a heavy storm. The trip to KL usually takes 55 minutes. They made it back in 25 minutes! They went right through all the storms with no veering around anything! Sister Clark was sure they were going to die! She hates flying (but they fly every week) - she was absolutely terrified!

We had two new Senior Sisters arrive this week plus a Senior Sister here, Sister Lowe, who goes home in 6 weeks. They will be serving in Melaka, West Malaysia. I've never seen anyone as tired as these two from the States when they arrived. One of them went to bed at 5:15 p.m. and didn't wake up until 7:30 a.m. and she was still tired! They will be the first Seniors to serve in Melaka.

We have 11 visa runners (missionaries) coming in tomorrow, so we will have some of them staying with us tomorrow night. It is always fun to see them.

We hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas and will take the time to think about the real meaning of Christmas and celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. What an honor it is to serve him and the people here in Singapore and Malaysia. We love what we are doing, but we do miss all of you.

With our love and best wishes,

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

Our Christmas Tree!

Two new Senior Sisters with President and Sister Clark.

Ward Christmas Party

Musical chairs for the men.

Christmas in Singapore

Hello,

This has been a busy week and a half since our last letter. We had the Pleusiers (the Australian couple - they are Dutch with a French name from Australia) stay with us one night. Then Elder & Sister Johnson brought the Indian (Tamil) family down from Butterworth West Malaysia. It was a mother, her daughter and her son. Her son was to be set apart for his mission by President Clark, however we still don't know for certain where he will be serving. They are still trying to find some evidence of his grandparents being born in India so he can serve there (the government in India will only let those with Indian ancestors serve there). He left Saturday for the MTC (missionary training center) in Manila without knowing for certain where he will be serving. Most likely he will be serving in the Singapore Mission. They are such a humble family. The father died about 9 years ago and the mother works 6 days a week 13 hrs a day at a school (day care). The daughter works at a bank 6 days a week. The mother washes all their clothes by hand. She had no idea how a washing machine worked! We fixed a mexican casserole with a lot of cheese for dinner one night and while she ate some, you could tell she didn't like it at all! She usually eats with her hands, but ate with a spoon here. We really enjoyed having them here - what a sweet family. They arrived Friday and left late Sunday night.
Saturday we took the son, Reuben, to the airport to fly to Manila. The mother and daughter were so sad!

We had a new Mandarin speaking Elder (Elder Fanning) arrive from Utah. He is serving in West Malaysia. One of our office Elder's for the last 8 months - Elder Nowland - leave. How we hated to see him go. He is now serving in E. Malaysia. We have a wonderful new Elder in the office though, Elder Spendlove. He is from Virgin, UT and is a talented singer among many other talents. I'm sure we will love him too!

Sunday we (Dave & I) went to JB with the President. It was an historical day for JB. A district was created and it will now fall under the direction of the Mission President instead of the Singapore Stake. There were over 150 in attendance - the most in over a year. The District Presidency consists of a Tamil (Indian), a Chinese, an American (Elder Gregory), and an Australian (Brother Pleusier). Hopefully the branches will really grow. One of the missionaries had over 20 investigators there! We then went to the Gregory's for a late afternoon lunch. By the time we returned home we had been gone 11 1/2 hours - a long day, but a wonderful one.

Last night (or rather this morning) we went to the airport to pick up one of our Senior Sisters (Sister Winters - serving in Kuching, E. Malaysia). She has been in the US for a week as her father died and was returning back to the Mission. She was to arrive at 1 a.m. and then not fly out to Kuching until 11 a.m. We were going to bring her back here to sleep for a while. We waited and waited for her and she didn't show up. We thought maybe she had decided to just stay and rest at the airport. Then this afternoon we received a call from her husband and he was worried as she didn't show up in Kuching and they said she wasn't on the plane. After I made a call to the airport, we found out that she doesn't come in until tonight! He had read the ticket wrong! We are not going back at 1 a.m. again tonight! If she comes here, it will have to be by taxi!

The Christmas lights in Singapore are beautiful. We went one night on our own, another night with the Pleusiers, and then the Johnsons, and the Indian family wanted to go too. The Gregory's are coming over to spend two nights with us this week (their granddaughter is visiting and wants to see Singapore) and she wants us to go with them Thursday night to see the lights! We have yet to put up a single Christmas decoration in our home (mostly from a lack of time), but we aren't missing them at all. We usually spend many days decorating at home in Colorado. While our family in Colorado is freezing and having snow storms, we are basking in 80 degree weather every day with a lot of rain thrown in! It just doesn't seem like Christmas at all! It will be a time to focus more on the Savior and His birth than to focus on all the trappings of Christmas.

It is such a pleasure to be serving a mission and to see the growth of the Church in this part of the world among all the different nationalities. We see miracles each day in the mission as people's lives change for the better as they accept the gospel - also with our young Missionaries as they forget themselves and learn to serve and love the people here.

May you each take the time to enjoy your families and reflect on the true meaning of Christmas.

With our love,

Elder and Sister Garrett, grandma and grandpa, relatives and friends
Notice how wireless is spelled in Malaysia!