16 1/2 months and counting

Hello from Singapore,

We've had a little bit of a lull this past couple of weeks. We just had one new couple arrive (Elder and Sister Vaughan from Virginia) and one Elder from Malaysia leave on his mission. We had the Vaughans here for 3 days and the Elder for 1 day. The Vaughans will be serving in Bintulu, East Malaysia and the Elder leaving (from Kota Kinabalu, East Malaysia) will be serving in Canada. He is from a very poor family. He quit school when he was 15 to help earn money to support his family. He taught himself English and speaks pretty good English. He doesn't quite understand the difference between "he, him" and "she, her" though. He would be talking about his mother and refer to "him" and speaking of his dad and refer to him as "her". It was a little hard to follow. He is really going to be in cultural shock for awhile though - as well as freeze this winter.

We also had one of our Sister Missionaries here in Singapore have her appendix out this week. She was really in pain overnight but didn't want to wake anyone up. Her biggest worry was appointments that she couldn't keep for a couple of days.

Next week will be the start of an extremely busy time until we go home. We have 15 Elders/Sisters going home on the 12th, a new Sr. Couple arriving on the 12th, the Senior Conference on the 20th and the 21st (most are coming in early and staying a couple of extra days), speaking in Church on the 24th, new missionaries arriving on the 28th, the new Mission President and his wife arriving on the 30th, the Clark's leaving on the 1st of July, and then we leave on the 17th of July (still no replacemet couple though!).

We are starting to go through some of the things we have collected over the last 16 1/2 months and deciding what we should keep, what to throw away, what to mail home, etc. We also have to get the house ready for the new couple (if we get one!!!)

We went to JB for church today. Attendance is really down in the branches over there due to Gawai (a huge holiday in the Iban culture). This is a several week long celebration in which every one goes home to their "long houses" to celebrate with their families with parties, etc. It really plays havoc with church attendance. Also, due to Gawai and school being out, the lines were horrible at immigration. We left home at 7 this morning and didn't get back home until 4 p.m. Elder Garrett (Dave) was exhausted driving in crazy traffic, and waiting in long lines at the borders. It's helping him to develop patience though!

We also finished reading the Book of Mormon. We were asked by President Clark as a mission to read the Book of Mormon in 53 days. It was a great experience to all be reading the same thing at the same time.

Well we need to close and get ready to go the airport to pick President Clark up (our normal Sunday night routine).

We love our mission and serving our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ - even in our small way. We pray for everyone daily and miss you all.

Love,

Elder & Sister Garrett (Dave and Glonda, mom & dad, grandma & grandpa, relatives, and friends)

  

 

Elder Oaks and the Singapore Zone - Singapore and JB, (along with some other Sr. Couples that came to see him).

Waiting in line at immigration.

Looking across the causeway over to JB in Malaysia.