Elder and Sister Garrett in Singapore!

Update on Elder Dass

Hello from Singapore!
.
We are finally alone again after 3 weeks of company and it is really lonesome! The Oriens left today (back to Bintulu). We have really enjoyed having them here and our nightly chats although we will probably get more sleep now. They are an amazing couple. The major thing that happened this last week was the injury to one of our Elders - Elder Dass. He is a native from Kuala Lumpur. He is the one who was robbed and beaten up a few weeks ago. The President transferred him to West Malaysia after that for his protection. He has been serving in Penang. Last week he fell down stairs in his apartment (he was on crutches due to a hurt foot) and was completely paralized. He could only move his head. All the tests done on him at first showed that he would be permanently paralized. The mission immediately had a day of fasting and prayer for him plus his name was put in many temples. I've attached a letter that President Clark (Mission President) sent out regarding his amazing recovery. He is such a great Elder and everyone loves him. He spent the first month of his mission in the hospital and almost died then of an intestional infection. He was told in his setting apart as a missionary that he would face many trials on his mission, but that he would be able to complete it and would serve valiantly. He has certainly done that. His brother served in Northern Colorado mission and he actually served in the Fort Collins Stake.

We had Stake Conference this weekend. In our Saturday night meeting they had returned missionaries speak, ones who are waiting to leave, and ones currently serving speak. The President's mother, who is 85 years old, who has been serving in East Malaysia, spoke. She is an amazing lady. Her companion is 20 years younger and has had a hard time keeping up with her. This is her 5th mission! An incredible lady! One of the returned missionaries served in the Manila, Philippines mission. After the meeting, we asked him if he knew JJ Kovach(our grandson), and he said he did and went on to talk about what a fantastic missionary he was (of course, we already knew that!).

We had a new Elder come in from Indonesia, Elder Nggiku. We had to keep him, and his trainer, here for a few days while Dave went through all the paperwork involved in getting him a work permit (required of other Asian missionaries). It is an expensive and long process. We were finally able to send him out today however they almost didn't let him leave! We had to purchase a ticket back to Singapore for him to prove that he would be coming back! It has taken many trips to different agencies and we still have to pick up his final permit on Saturday. Then the whole process has to start again for another Elder coming in soon.

We have returned to the rainy season. It was nice when we would have several days in a row of dry weather. Now it is raining just about everyday. Luckily it usually doesn't last too long, but when it does rain, it pours! We understand that Fort Collins is supposed to get snow tonight. It is hard to imagine when it is so hot here. We have to laugh at the ads for fall and winter clothes in the stores here as it is never any cooler!

Well we need to get some sleep so we will close for now. We love and miss you all, however, we love serving the Lord here in Singapore and working with such wonderful missionaries!

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

The letter from President Clark:

Dear Elders and Sisters, It is with gratitude and thanksgiving for all the prayers and fasting in behalf of Elder Dass that I write you now to share the good news. Elder Dass has now regained feeling and mobility again in his limbs! As you know, he fell last Thursday while going down the stairs with crutches for his sprained ankle. When he landed he struck his head and neck, injuring his spine and paralyzing his body below his neck. He was in considerable pain and totally unable to move anything but his head. His companion, Elder Osborne, did everything right, notified President Leblanc (local member), Elder and Sister Johnson, and called me immediately. He gave Elder Dass a Priesthood blessing and invoked the power of Heaven. Paramedics were called and transported Elder Dass to Loh Guen Lye Hospital. The Doctor’s testing with painful stimuli revealed he had no feeling in his extremities and he was diagnosed with a traumatic spinal injury with resultant paralysis. It was at this point that we asked all of you to join us in fasting and prayer for Elder Dass. I spoke with the Area President, Elder Perkins, the In Field Representative in Salt Lake, Brother Pincock, as well as our Asia Area Medical Advisor, Elder Heiner. Elder Dass’s name was placed in the prayer roles of the Hong Kong and Salt Lake Temples. His condition was discussed at the highest levels of the Church and prayers were offered in his behalf. We notified his parents, who immediately drove the 8 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Penang to be with their son. The crushing emotional pain they felt at the thought of their son being paralyzed was beyond words. Elder Dass received a second Priesthood blessing by Elder Johnson shortly after he arrived at the hospital. Later that night as the neurologist and radiologist reviewed the CT Scans and Xrays, they did not identify any fractured bones or injury to the spinal cord; which was a tremendous relief. Apparently the paralysis was caused by the “shock” to the spinal cord, coupled with the extreme pain. Elder Dass’s Mother has been staying with him night and day since arriving, while his father drove back home 8 hours through the night to start work the next morning (he is a physician in KL and had a busy day with patients). At this point, Elder Dass has been able to get up on his feet and begin physical therapy. We are very pleased and confident that he will fully recover in every way. His rapid healing is nothing less than miraculous! He still needs your prayers but the greatest fear of total paralysis has been resolved. We know the Lord’s hand has been in his amazing recovery and is indeed an answer to the faith and prayers of all of you. Please extend our appreciation and gratitude for all the prayers and fasting by members and others who have expressed their love and concern.
Love,President and Sister Clark

At arrival night devotional – after traveling for 24 hours!!

Elder Nggiku arriving from the Manila MTC the next day.

Missionaries at the airport.

Pray for Elder Dass

Hi,

We had an Elder who was severly injured his afternoon. He fell down the stairs in his apartment and broke his neck. It is looking like he may be permanently paralized. The doctor said there is a small possibility that it could be that he could regain some movement after about a year. The mission is having a fast for him and we are asking people to put names in various temples around the world. Could you please call the Denver and St. George temples and put his name in. It is Elder Ruben Dass. He was serving in Penang in West Malaysia. He is a great Elder - one of our best and also one of the most likeable. He is from West Malaysia and his dad is a doctor. He is the one that they moved out of East Malaysia after he was attacked, robbed and beaten up on his bicycle. I think satan doesn't want him serving a mission! Everyone just loves him. His brother actually served a mission in the Denver North Mission. I think he served in Ft. Collins in the Wellington Ward.

It is so hard to have an Elder injured. I know they are protected, but for some reason, the Lord does put trials in their way - especiallly when they are doing so much good.

Please keep him in your prayers. We are all hoping for a miracle. Thanks for putting his name in the temple. If you know someone in another area who could also put his name in their temple, that would be wonderful.

With love,

Mom

October 25, 2011

This is the letter from President Clark:

Dear Elders and Sisters,
It is with gratitude and thanksgiving for all the prayers and fasting in behalf of Elder Dass
that I write you now to share the good news. Elder Dass has now regained feeling and
mobility again in his limbs!
As you know, he fell last Thursday while going down the stairs with crutches for his sprained ankle. When he landed he struck his head and neck, injuring his spine and paralyzing his body below his neck. He was in considerable pain and totally unable to move anything but his head. His companion, Elder Osborne, did everything right, notified President Leblanc (local member), Elder and Sister Johnson, and called me immediately. He gave Elder Dass a Priesthood blessing and invoked the power of Heaven. Paramedics were called and transported Elder Dass to Loh Guen Lye Hospital. The Doctor’s testing with painful stimuli revealed he had no feeling in his extremities and he was diagnosed with a traumatic spinal injury with resultant paralysis. It was at this point that we asked all of you to join us in fasting and prayer for Elder Dass. I spoke with the Area President, Elder Perkins, the In Field Representative in Salt Lake, Brother Pincock, as well as our Asia Area Medical Advisor, Elder Heiner. Elder Dass’s name was placed in the prayer roles of the Hong Kong and Salt Lake Temples. His condition was discussed at the highest levels of the Church and prayers were offered in his behalf.
We notified his parents, who immediately drove the 8 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Penang to be with their son. The crushing emotional pain they felt at the thought of their son being paralyzed was beyond words. Elder Dass received a second Priesthood blessing by Elder Johnson shortly after he arrived at the hospital. Later that night as the neurologist and radiologist reviewed the CT Scans and Xrays, they did not identify any fractured bones or injury to the spinal cord; which was a tremendous relief. Apparently the paralysis was caused by the “shock” to the spinal cord, coupled with the extreme pain. Elder Dass’s Mother has been staying with him night and day since arriving, while his father drove back home 8 hours through the night to start work the next morning (he is a physician in KL and had a busy day with patients).
At this point, Elder Dass has been able to get up on his feet and begin physical therapy. We are very pleased and confident that he will fully recover in every way. His rapid healing is nothing less than miraculous! He still needs your prayers but the greatest fear of total paralysis has been resolved. We know the Lord’s hand has been in his amazing recovery and is indeed an answer to the faith and prayers of all of you.

Please extend our appreciation and gratitude for all the prayers and fasting by members and others who have expressed their love and concern.

Love,
President and Sister Clark

We watched Conference a week after you

Hello,

This will be a short letter. We have been so busy the last couple of weeks and the coming one will be just as busy! Week before last we had our 2nd Quarterly Senior Conference here in Singapore. We had 34 total Seniors. Five of the couples stayed with us from Tuesday to Saturday. They were all here at our home Thursday night for dinner and then we had the conference on Friday. Buying and preparing food, arranging housing, transportation, etc. was a huge job, however once everyone was together it was worth it. What we wouldn't have given for a Sam's or a Costco! What a wonderful group of Seniors! We stayed up until at least midnight everynight just talking and laughing. It was wonderful to hear all their stories and how much they each love the people and areas they serve, even though many of the areas are extremely difficult. The Oriens have been here with us since. Elder Orien had his hand operated on and Sister Orien had a colonoscopy this week. He needs to stay until the doctor can take the stitches out. How we love having them here. They stayed with us several months ago when she had her knee replaced. They are such a fun couple, but serve in probably the hardest and poorest area of our mission. They go home in January (to Alaska). The mission will really miss them. Is there anyone up to replacing them????

This week we will have transfers and 17 new Elders/Sisters coming in - which also means 17 trainers coming in. It will be a wild week as we pick them up at the airport, feed them,arrange for their support, train them (the President and AP's do the training), and get them off to their new areas in two days times! Luckily, we don't have anyone going home at the same time. We also have the Gregory's coming on Tuesday. They will be with us for two days along with their daughter and her husband. Then on Saturday, the Gregory's and an Australian couple who are in JB will come over for Stake Conference on Saturday and Sunday and stay with us. It will be a busy week. When everyone leaves, it will be really lonesome!

We love our mission and the wonderful people here. The gospel is growing in this part of the world so fast. It is amazing how willing the Asian people are to listen to the missionaries - more and more Chinese are getting Bapized.

We watched General Conference last week (a week after you). It was wonderful to hear the voice of the Lord for our day and age. Even though times are perilious and can be hard, it is still a wonderful time to live and we can be happy if we live the gospel in our lives and serve our Heavenly Father. It is so good to know that while the morals of the world change, the teachings of Jesus Christ do not change.

We love each of you and pray for you daily.

Elder and Sister Garrett, Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, relatives and friends.

Senior Missionaries at opening night dinner – our home

Our “Sabah” Malaysia Sr’s. singing song

“Chinese Elders” with investigator before baptism

Dave on exercise equipment at the park.

The Orien’s at the park on exercise equipment.

Our quarterly Senior Conference is coming

Hello all,

We missed sending out our weekly letter last week. We didn't get home from JB last Sunday until too late to write. We both spoke in the JB Branch and then also attended the Masai (same building) Branch. Afterwards there was a baptism and a potluck dinner. It was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday. We took one of the AP's with us. He left for home on Wednesday and wanted to say good-bye to some of the people he had baptized when he served in JB. Four of our favorite missionaries left this week. Three of them served in Singapore. One is from Utah (his dad is the BB coach at Utah State), one from Sri Lanka and one from China. We had one Sister leave from East Malaysia. She is half Japanese, but is from the US.

We moved our offices this week from the 4th floor to the 5th floor of our building. The Service Center for this area of the world was on the 5th floor, but they have moved the Service Center to Kuala Lumpur and two of the administrators are moving to Hong Kong. What a job and what a mess, but as we get settled it is really nice. Thank goodness for the young Elders! Our Stake President, who is also the Institute director, moved his office into part of the 4th floor. The rest will be used for classrooms and a Bishop's office for one of the Wards who meet in our building.

This coming week is going to be our quarterly Senior Conference. We are really looking forward to it, but it is a lot of work!!! We will again have 5 couples staying with us from Tuesday to Saturday. The rest will be staying with the President and other members of the Stake. We've been cooking and freezing meat, cookies, and brownies and shopping for food for about 35 people for meals on Thursday and Friday. The plus side is renewing friendships with these wonderful couples! The Orien's will once again be staying with us for surgery - this time for Elder Orien (Sister Orien had her knee replaced when they stayed with us before). He fell and broke his finger in East Malaysia. The doctor there said it was fine, but it now points in a different direction - he can't even type! They will probably be here at least a week. How we enjoy having them!

One of President and Sister Clark's daughters, along with her husband and two children, have been here for the last week visiting. The Clarks have been here for over two years and had never seen their little grandson. They were so thrilled to have them visit. The Clarks have actually taken some days off - which is a rarity for them! You would not believe how busy life is for a mission president and his wife. They are on the go non-stop. He is such a good teacher and motivator. He insists that we have the best missionaries in the world! We do have fantastic missionaries. The President, Sister Clark and AP's travel to all the areas of West and East Malaysia at least monthly. They are traveling every week and often twice a week.

We had a few weeks without too much rain, but we think the rainy season has returned. We have had rain everyday this week, although it doesn't last all day. When it does rain though, it pours! It must be their fall as some of the trees are losing their leaves (although they don't lose them all) and turning orange. The temperature never changes though - except maybe just a few degrees. The hours of daylight remains the same year around. It is light from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Singapore is a beautiful, lush green city. All the trees are numbered and taken care of on a regular schedule. All the trees and bushes along all the roads are always trimmed and neat. They employ a lot of people just cleaning and trimming. Landscapers use weed wackers on the grass along the roadways. We have never seen a lawnmower used except a small one on the lawns around our home and church - the large lawns we have are not found in many places. We have never seen any graffiti in Singapore. I'm sure one reason is the severe penalty for any kind of crime plus the long hours kids spend in school and doing homework. We do feel very blessed to live and serve in this beautiful city/country.

Today, we took Jean (who used to work in the Service Center) and a Korean friend of hers, along with her friend's daughter and baby boy to JB with us. The baby needed to have his passport stamped to stay legally in Singapore. The Korean lady has a visitors pass, her daughter has a student visa, her husband has a work permit but her baby has to get a passport stamp every 90 days. It took us a little over two hours to get to JB, 3 hours at church, and it took us another 3 hours to get back and the baby was so good. He is 9 months old and only cried one time and that was only for a short period. He is so cute. President and Sister Clark, along with their daughter's family, followed us over there today (so they didn't get lost). Both sacrament meetings were wonderful and the spirit was so strong, even though the Masai branch is in Malay. They won't get General Conference in Malaysia for two more weeks.

We finished our Institute class this week. We have really enjoyed it even though the class was really small. We have particularly enjoyed the unusual desserts our teacher had for us each week. They have been so kind to us!

Well, that is all the news this week. We love serving a mission for the Lord and spending time with the wonderful people we have met in Singapore and Malaysia. They are truly a blessing to us. We do, however, miss all of you and you are continually in our prayers and thoughts.

With love,

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

$56.00 per person for lunch!

Hello,

Greetings from the other side of the world! This has been another busy week (are there any other kind on a mission). Monday we went to lunch with President and Sister Clark, the Stake President, and Norman ( the Service Center Director). They are moving the Service Center for Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia to KL and Hong Kong. Norman will be leaving soon for Hong Kong. They have occupied the 5th floor of our building. We will be moving up there this week and the Stake President (who is also the Institute Director) and his secretary will be moving into the 4th floor along with an office for a Bishop and Clerk, plus classrooms for the Ward that meets on the 2nd and 3rd floor of our building. We went to a buffet that was wonderful. Singapore does have good food! You just have to be willing to pay for it ($56.00 per person for lunch!).

President Sister Clark spent from Tuesday morning to Friday night in Hong Kong for a Mission President's Seminar. On Tuesday at noon we picked up a new Senior Couple, the Hodder's, from the airport. They are from Canada. We took them to the office and then back home for dinner and then they collapsed into bed. Two days without sleep will do that to you! The next morning they had to decide what luggage to leave here (they can only take 44 lbs of luggage each into Malaysia at a time). We then took them to the airport for their trip to East Malaysia. They will have real cultural shock for a while! It again amazes me that complete strangers can become such good friends immediately. We really enjoyed their SHORT visit.

Several weeks ago the person who cleans the buildings, does maintenance and washes our cars, was backing our van up to wash it and backed into a pillar. It really dented the back of the van. It was already starting to rust. Friday he took it in to have it repaired at about 11 a.m. and had it back to us by about 6:30 p.m.. It smelled of paint but it looked brand new! If you have ever taken a car in to have bodywork done in the US you can plan on being without your car for at least a week! We were amazed.

Brother & Sister Ho, who we take an Institute class from, invited us to go with them to a play on Saturday night. We had no idea what to expect but thought it would be fun. It was put on by a group of Indian actors and actresses with a social message about how people don't want to get involved in other peoples lives. It was different, but we enjoyed it. Another couple went with us, Sesh & Teresa (Indian). He has worked for Phillips Lighting for about 30 years and she is a school counselor. What a delightful couple. After the play they had a huge buffet of food set up (Indian Food, which we like) but the Ho's insisted that we have a traditional Chinese dinner. It was certainly different. They thought it was wonderful but we have certainly had better food. Dave in particular wasn't too fond of the slimey fungus that he had in one of the dishes. It was fun going with them though and it was great spending the evening with them.

Friday night we went to the airport to pick up the President and Sister Clark, thank goodness, as the ward here in front of our house had a movie and dinner night (chicken rice - what else!). The movie was "The Three Idiots", a Bollywood Indian movie. We were so thankful to be picking them up!

We had two recruiters from BYU Hawaii come into the office Saturday. They were giving a fireside that night for the youth and our missionaries trying to convince them to attend school in Hawaii (which a lot do from here). In talking with one of them we found out he is the brother of Elaine Purdum who lives in our Ward in Fort Collins! Also, the brother of Brother Lesser in Ft. Collins is also in the Stake here in Singapore. It really is a small world. One of the concerns of many of the members in Singapore is that their kids want to go to BYU in the states or they serve a mission there and they want to live there permanently - usually getting married to an American. It really affects the future leadership of the Church here in Singapore.

We are constantly amazed at what kind of troubles our Elders encounter - from stolen bicycles, lost or stolen support cards, lost phones, etc. Yesterday 4 of our East Malaysian missionaries bused with their branches several hours to a District Conference. They were scheduled to fly back to their areas tomorrow night after a Zone Conference, however Dave received a call from President Clark while we were in JB today saying that 3 of the 4 forgot to bring their passports with them! Now they will have to bus back instead of flying back and I'm sure we will be out the money for their plane tickets. We just have to remember that these are 19-21 year olds! But we love them!

We were asked today to speak in JB next week. I'll speak on "Enduring to the End" and Dave on "Tithing", we just have to remember to keep the talks pretty basic.

We love serving the Lord here and in JB and only wish we could do more. The gospel makes such a difference in the lives of the people here. They are wonderful!

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

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

October 1, 2011

Just a quick note to remind each of you of General Conference starting in less than two hours in your area. We don't get it until next week. It is such a privilege to be able to hear what a prophet and apostles have to say to us in these trying times. You don't realize how much you miss hearing from them until you can't listen to them live (I guess we could stay up all night and watch it on BYU TV).

We were cleaning, shopping and cooking all day today and are exhausted tonight. We have all the Senior Couples coming in this week for Sr. Conference. It is always so much fun - but so much work getting ready for them all. We are leaving early in the morning for JB to church. We are taking 2 women and 3 kids with us. Also, the President and his family (a daughter, her husband, and two kids are visiting) will be following us over there.

Again, we encourage you to watch conference - it will bless all your lives.

We love all of you!

Mom & Dad

The Singapore Zoo

Hello from Singapore,

We can't believe another week has gone by! The time is going so fast. We decided we would take part of our p-day this week (preparation day). For the young Elders and Sisters this is on Wednesday each week. We went to the Singapore zoo, which is one of the best in the world. It is a beautiful zoo in a jungle setting. They don't have cages - just moats around each enclosure. It was hot, but all the shade makes it tolerable! The most entertaining thing of all were the orangutans. They were mostly sleeping when we first walked up. One woke up and started posing for everyone. We'll attach a photo of him. He was quite the ham! Another one had a piece of metal stripping and was digging a hole with it. I guess he wasn't making enough headway as he got a big mouth full of water and spit it in the hole to make digging easier. They are smart animals and the highlight of the day for us. We really enjoyed the morning. That afternoon, we returned to the office to catch up on our responsibilities (they don't take a p-day).

On Thursday the Office Elders plus one of the Chinese speaking Elders wanted to take us to lunch in Little India (of course we paid!). Little India is an interesting place. It is blocks of small stores and restaurants - mostly family run. It is full of shoppers and a lot of fun to visit. We ate at a vegetarian restaurant. Most of the people there were eating with their hands, however we all ate with forks and spoons.! We have discovered that we really like Indian food as long as it isn't too spicy.

On Thursday we picked the Mission President and his wife up at the airport at noon. That afternoon he had to take a class that is required to keep his Dental license current (he is a dentist). We dropped him off and returned to the office only to find our computers were dead along with our phones. They are putting a new MRT (subway) line in across the street from the Mission Office and they cut the lines. We were without internet or phones for two days while they spliced everything back together! How we depend on computers!

Saturday we went to a baptism in the Chinese ward. The entire baptism was conducted in Chinese - even the hymns. The ones that didn't speak Chinese (many of the Elder and Sisters, President and Sister Clark, and us) sang in English. It was beautiful hearing the two languages combined in one hymn! Today, we went to JB. I taught Relief Society. It is so different teaching here. While most of the Sister's speak English a couple only speak Chinese and one only Tamil. They are all pretty shy about participating in the lesson. The lesson was on the post-mortal world. For some it was the first lesson they had on this. It is very humbling to teach these sweet sisters. They are all so appreciative. We are learing to love them more and more each week! In Priesthood, the father of the Indian family that was recently baptized was ordained a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood today. What a great addition this family is becoming to the branch! Andy, the father, is eagerly learning the gospel teachings. As soon as there is enough active Priesthood holders in the two JB branches, it will be put under the Mission instead of the Singapore Stake. We are all looking forward to that day. Two of the missionaries in JB had their bicycles stolen this week. There have been several stolen in Malaysia recently. At least these missionaries weren't beaten up and robbed when theirs were stolen like the one in East Malaysia last week!

We have a new Senior Couple coming in this week. They are the Hodder's and are from Canada. The Mission President and his wife will be in Hong Kong for the annual Mission President's Seminar, so we will pick the Hodder's up and keep them overnight and then send them off to East Malaysia the next day! We are looking forward to meeting them.

We are thinking a lot about America this week with 9/11 in all the news - even the headlines of the papers here are talking about it. Evidently terrorism is even a threat here! They found information that the Orchard MRT stop was a target last year (the stop we go to several times a week for lunch), but the ones involved were arrested. I guess that is why we sometimes see armed solders walking around. The Orchard MRT is a mass of people all the time! We do feel very safe here though! We can't let threats stop our daily activity. We are praying, though, that the threats received in the US are only threats and that nothing happens.

As we work so closely with our young Elders and Sisters here, it makes us even more appreciative of our two grandsons now serving missions - Garrett (Kovach) in Indiana and Scott (Garrett) in the MTC preparing to go to Conception, Chili. We see on a daily basis the dedication these young men and women have to teaching others the gospel and how much they love serving their Heavenly Father. We see their testimonies and their love of the people they serve here in Singapore and Malaysia grow on a daily basis. We see the ones here in Singapore daily, the ones in JB weekly, and the rest of them at least once every 3 months (but we talk to them often on the phone). What great young people they are and what great examples they are to us!!!! I'm sure none of them would consider these two years as a sacrifice but only as a blessing in their lives.

How grateful we are for family and friends. We love and pray for all of you.

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

(Note: Picture to come as my computer doesn't download the pic that was attached. When David gets home from his trip I will pull and post it off from his computer! Thanks for your patience. deb)

The 3 D's of success

Hello All,

This has been a great week. We had our missionary, Elder Schone, come back that was injured so severely about 10 months ago. The area Presidency said the chances of his returning to this mission were about a million to one! But he really wanted to return to this mission and the doctor's decided it was ok to come to Singapore - especially since the medical care here is so good. Although he probably won't be able to serve in Malaysia. He is a remarkable young man. He is working in the office with us as an Office Elder. He had only been out a couple of months when his accident happened and he feels he still has things to accomplish here. The entire zone went to the airport to meet him and then we had a dinner in his honor. It was a good day!

On Wednesday we had our Zone Conference for the missionaries serving in Singapore. President Clark spoke on the importance of overcoming temptations. Some of teachings were:

We either change the outside world of we change the inside world so nothing is tempting.
We have free agency to make a choice to resist temption - the choice is ours.
When temptation presents itself you must immediately and completely modify the situation.
If you can't change the situation, get out.

He talked for about an hour on this subject. He is a great teacher and everyone learned from him - it was especially applicable to todays world where so many things seem to be acceptable.

President Perkins (our Area Seventy from Hong Kong) and Elder Osguthorpe (the General Sunday School President from SLC) were both here. They met with just the missionaries from 2-4. What a great meeting. Elder Osguthorpe is a professor at BYU and then 2 days a week he meets with all the auxiliary leaders in SLC. He is on a tour of Asia for 10 days. He arrived in Singapore around noon and then left at 9 p.m. for India. He is in charge of teaching in all organizations of the Church. One of the things he said was - (a quote from Pres. Bednar):

"Teaching is not talking and telling, teaching is observing and listening so that we can discern and then know what to say."

He said that President Monson always tries to be an answer to some else's prayers. We need to try to do the same. Elder Osguthorpe used to sing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. He and his wife wrote a Primary song about Ammon (Book of Mormon hero) called the 3 D's of success -

"Desire, decision, determinination, yes! These are the 3 D's, the 3 D's of success. So when you are discouraged and you don't know what to do, remember Ammon's 3 D's and the Lord will help you too." (we didn't get the 2nd verse down). It was really fun. He had everyone singing it.

He also said we are engaged in an amazing work in every corner of the world! He talked a lot about teaching in the home and the qualities we learned from our parents. He had a lot more to say, but we didn't get much of it down.

That evening from 6-8 they held a Stake Fireside for all members of the Stake. We feel very privileged to get to spend time with them with just the missionaries and to learn from them. What remarkable, wise and loving men they are.

The elders have been teaching a young woman for about a year. She said she knew the church was true, but didn't want to go against her parents in the Philippines and join the church. She decided on Thursday that she wanted to get baptized on Friday! She was returning to the Philippines on Saturday and she felt like she couldn't leave without joining the church as she knew it was true. The Elders were scrambling, but got things arranged and the Filippino ward came out in force to support her. Plus they all brought food to share afterwards (they love food for any activity). She is truly a great young woman.

Today, Sunday, was spent in JB as usual. We go to both branches. The JB branch had 10 Indian investigators there today. The people are great about sharing the gospel with others. We made it there and back without any problems - which makes it a great day!

We hope you all have a great Labor Day. For us it will be a day in the office as usual - doing the Lord's work and making another run to the airport. We love and miss all of you.

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

Reeka, the Filippino girl baptized Friday night by Elder Nowland (office Elder). Elder Schone is the Elder on the far right.