Elder and Sister Garrett in Singapore!: 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!