This week has found us running in circles! We had 4 Elders and one Sister return home to the states and one Sister return home to Singapore. All of them had worked in Singapore - 3 of them in the office at one time or another. It was like sending our own kids away. How we will miss them. They were all great missionaries! At least Sister Lim, who lives in Singapore, will visit once in a while! We had their exit dinner on Monday night and took them to the airport at 4 a.m. Then we had all the Senior couples come in starting Wednesday. We had the dinner for all of them (37) here at our home on Thursday night. Five of the couples stayed with us until Saturday and then 2 different couples came and stayed with us Saturday night. They left this afternoon. We will have one more couple coming tomorrow to stay with us for one night and then Wednesday night we will have about 17 Elders staying here and about half that on Thursday night! Needless to say, we are exhausted. But how fun it was to have the Seniors here. We cooked a ham dinner for them Thursday. They loved it as pork is almost impossible to get in Malaysia (mostly muslims - and they don't eat pork). Friday we had a Senior Conference and then Friday night we all rode the MRT to dinner and to see "Wicked". Everyone loved it, although as Seniors we paid our own way so it was a very expensive evening! We haven't had more than 4 or 5 hours sleep each night this week.
We were supposed to pick up the Mission Pres and his wife, along with his Assistants up at 9:50 tonight from the airport, but they called and their flight has been delayed for 2 hrs., so we will have another late night! When they say that Senior Missionaries can take rest periods as needed, they certainly weren't talking about the Singapore Mission! But we love it.
On Wednesday one of the Sister Missionaries arriving is the granddaughter of good friends of ours in California. Dave also had her father in scouting for many years. Our kids were good friends with both her mother and father. We look forward to meeting her. If she is anything like her parents, she will be a wonderful and energetic missionary! We also have the grandson of good friends of ours from Colorado arriving in April. It is truly a small world in the church!
We do love our mission and the opportunity to work with so many wonderful young missionaries and fantastic senior missionaries! How much fun we all have when we are together every 3 months. There is such an instant bond and love between everyone as we all serve the Lord in different ways. Senior couples are so needed in the mission field - especially when the mission is spread out over such a large area. The young missionaries depend on them so much as do the people in the branches they work in. We have Seniors with so many health problems, but they are truly blessed as they serve the Lord. Most health problems don't prevent them from serving - even in the jungles of East Malaysia!
We love all of you! We pray for your welfare and well being.
Elder and Sister Garrett (mom & dad, grandma & grandpa, relatives and friends)
Attached photos of Senior Conference and departing Elders and Sister with President & Sister Clark
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