Saying good-bye will be so hard

Hello all,

First of all, Happy Father's Day to all the fathers!

Last week found us sending home 12 Elders/Sisters - it was really sad. How we love these young missionaries! They are wonderful. To a person, they were all really sad to leave - they loved serving the Lord and loved the people here. We also had two new couples arrive. The Gledhills who had been serving for over a year in Mongolia. Mongolia refused to renew their visas so they will finish their mission serving in East Malaysia. We also had the Howell's arrive. They are our new Humanitarian couple who will be serving in West Malaysia (living in Kuala Lumpur). They will mostly deal with handing out hundreds of wheelchairs and helping with clean water projects. We spent yesterday getting the house ready for this coming week - our Sr. Conference. Five of the couples will be staying with us - the first one arriving tomorrow and the last one leaving on Saturday. We will have 40+ here for dinner Wednesday night and then our meetings all day on Thursday will be at the Stake Center (we are still in charge of the food though). Then next week we get 6 new missionaries in and 3 more leave. Also, President & Sister Clark leave on the 1st of July and the new President and his wife (the Mains) arrive on the 30th of June.

We just received word today that they have finally found a new couple to replace us - it looks like we will be able to leave on the 17th afterall! We don't know for sure when they will arrive. They enter the MTC on the 9th of July. President Clark has asked that the date be moved ahead a few days so they can arrive here on the 12th so we can train them. We have such mixed emotions. We are so anxious to go home and see our family and friends but it will be really hard to leave our friends and grandchildren (missionaries) here. This past 17 months has been an incredible experience. We have made so many new friends and had so many people of different nationalities and customs, come into our lives that had we stayed home, we would have missed getting to know - especially the Sr. couples that have become a part of our lives.

We had an interesting experience going to JB last week. On the way over there the border was packed with cars. It took us 3 hrs. to get there and we were one hour late to Sacrament Meeting. Then on the way home we decided to go home via the other crossing (kind of out in the middle of nowhere). We were so proud of ourselves as we drove right up to the immigration booth on the Malaysia side - then drove across the causeway to the Singapore side without any traffic and right up to the booth there. Unfortunately, I guess the Singapore agent was bored. She looked at all the "chops" on our passport and said wait a minute. When she returned, she had us park the car and go into the immigration office. There we were questioned as to why we didn't have work passes, etc. We tried to explain that we didn't qualify as we didn't get paid and in fact paid our own way. They just didn't seem to understand the concept of "volunteers"! Well after a while (when we convinced them we were leaving Singapore in July) they stamped our passport and let us go. Today, we had no problems at all!

This week we will give talks at our Sr. Conference and then speak in JB next Sunday during Sacrament Meeting. It may be our last Sunday there as we don't know what the new Mission President will want us to do as far as using his car on Sundays. Saying good-bye to the wonderful people there will be so hard.

Our "skype" phone rang at 6 a.m. this morning and it was our grandson, Tanner (Susan & Todd's son). He leaves on his mission for Sao Paulo, Brazil in 10 days. He finally received his visa yesterday as well as his missionary badge. He was excited for us to see it. How we will miss him. We will have 3 grandsons on their missions when we return home - Garrett Kovach in Indiana, and Scott Garrett in Conception, Chile and Tanner in Brazil. We will miss them, but the missionaries learn so much on their missions and are so happy to be serving their Heavenly Father.

Well we need to close. We are leaving for the airport to pick up President & Sister Clark. They only have one one trip next week and that is the end of their traveling before they return home. It will be so hard to say good-bye to them. President Clark has taught us so much.

With our love and prayers,

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

Botanical gardens with E/S Howell.

Crowds at China Town with E/S Howell.

The 12 Elders & Sisters with Pres/Sis. Clark night before departure.

  4:30 a.m. departure to USA from Singapore.

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.

Palau Ubin

Hello from Singapore,

We've finally found time to sit down and write our "weekly" letter. This has been a busy couple of weeks (not that they all aren't). We had missionaries leave, a zone conference, a visit by the Area Medical Advisor and his wife, and a visit by General Authorities.

First we had the grandson of Brother & Sister Clark from Ft. Collins leave along with one of our previous Office Elders. It is always so hard to see these young men finish their missions and leave. There are tears on this end and great joy on the part of their families! How these young men grow and develop in the gospel. It is so hard for them to leave the people they have learned to love and serve unselfishly. They also develop great leadership qualities and abilities above anything they could have learned at home. They also became fluent in Malay and learned to eat some very strange food.

This week we had our last Zone conference with Singapore and Johor Bahru (while we are here). Elder & Sister Beard came over Tuesday night and then the Elder's early Wednesday morning. We all went to a small island (Palau Ubin) about 3/4 of a mile off of Singapore for a zone activity. You go by "bumboats". They are ancient and you're not sure they are going to hold together, but we all made it safely. The island is like singapore was 30 or 40 years ago. It is very primitive, but beautiful. All the young Elders and Sisters and President Clark rented bicycles to ride on the roads and trails. The Beard's and us either walked or went by "taxi" to see the island. We have attached some photos. We only had two "accidents" with the young Elders crashing - but nothing too serious - only cuts and bruises. We saw a few families of wild pigs, lots of stray dogs, and a huge monitor lizard. We were on 3 "bumboats" on the way back. They were racing each other to see who could reach the shore first (although we don't know if the drivers knew that or not!). It was a fun day, especially being around all the young missionaries.

On Thursday we had our Zone Conference all day. It is always a great learning experience along with being a very spiritual meeting. What wonderful missionaries we have and how much they love their mission and President & Sister Clark. It was also the Clark's last Zone Conference here. It was a very emotional zone conference. President Clark is an absolutely amazing teacher.

We had 4 General Authorities that were due to arrive at 11:45 on Friday morning. Elder Dallin H. Oaks (apostle) and Elder Donald Hallstrom (President of the 1st Seventies Quorum) and their wives were not able to make their flight from the US so they were delayed 12 hours. Elder Kent Watson (of the Area Presidency) and Bishop Dean Davies (of the Presiding Bishopric) and their wives arrived from Hong Kong and the Philippines. I was supposed to drive the wives along with the Stake President's wife, Sister Clark, and the wife of the Area Seventy to the Singapore Flyer on Saturday morning. I was so nervous about it as I have not driven much here in Singapore. I drove the route once so I wouldn't get lost (which is so easy to do in Singapore). Because of the delayed flight however, the trip to the Flyer was cancelled. I felt sorry for them, but was very releaved to not have to take them. We did get to go the Marriott to inspect their rooms and leave gifts for them. Friday night we had an open house for all the District Presidencies from all of Malaysia at the Clarks. The Watson's and the Davies attended that. They are all so nice and their wives are so sweet. Saturday they had a leadership meeting for all the Priesthood leaders with the 4 General Authorities for 4 hours. The women leaders met with their wives for 2 hours. Then from 6 -7:30 there was a general meeting for everyone from Singapore and JB. It was absolutely packed (even an hour before the meeting started). The other 2 chapels at the Stake Center were also packed (it was televised to those chapels). There are 3 chapels on the property. After the meeting the General Authorities came to the Mission Office to meet all the missionaries. Elder Oaks and Elder Hallstrom both spoke for a few minutes and then shook hands with all the missionaries, including the Sr. Missionaires. Elder Hallstrom asked Elder Garrett where he was from. When he said Ft. Collins, Elder Hallstrom wanted to know if we knew President McClure and Elder Rhodes. He said to tell them hello - so "Hello, President McClure!". We were so busy putting together fruit trays, banana bread, pumpkin bread, etc., water and fruit juices for them. We also had Elder and Sister Smith, our Public Affairs couple, from Kuala Lumpur stay with us from Thursday thru this afternoon. We love having them here! We also had the Beards from JB here from Tuesday until Saturday night - not much sleep, but a wonderful week.

Also, when the Area Medical Advisor and his wife were here for 3 days, we had to make appointments for them with Doctors and Hospitals. They also took part in our zone conference trying to teach our missionaries to eat healthy (probably a lost cause). It took hours to get all the apppointments scheduled! You never know what you may have to do as an office couple! Everything from making appointments with doctors and hospitals, to putting together fruit trays, baking deserts, inspecting rooms, buying gifts, driving people back and forth to the airport, etc - all in a days work in the Singapore Mission! Not to mention our normal daily duties - which always keep us really busy! But we love every minute of it! We have found that we can do really hard things and enjoy doing them. We are truly blessed to be here on our mission.

We received our tickets home last week for the 17th of July, although we haven't been notified of a replacement couple yet. We can't believe how fast the time is going.

With our love and prayers,

Elder & Sister Garrett,Mom & Dad, Grandma & Grandpa, Relatives and Friends

 

Some of the kids who sit on our laps in JB.

These are all the Elders/Sisters in Singapore.

On the Island of Pulau Ubin.

Small pond on Pulau Ubin.

Wild pigs on Pulau Ubin.

Elder's getting ready to ride.

Seashore at Pulau Ubin.

Typical house on the beach-- Pulau Ubin.

Lunch at Pulau Ubin with Pres. Clark.

Beach at Pulau Ubin.

Sister's getting ready to bike ride.

Racing back on bumboat.

Other "racing bumboat".

 

Typical dogs on Pulau Ubin.

Just leaving on the bumboat.

Photo with Bishop & Sister Davies.

Picture with Elder & Sister Watson.

Indian lady on the dock at Pulau Ubin.

Elder Thee goes home and Carrie comes for a visit

Hello all,

Well we survived the 18 missionaries staying with us. After washing 18 sets of sheets, and 18 +++ towels, we finally got back to normal. The Gregory's arrived early on Friday while we were still at the office and they made up all the beds for us (8 beds - the rest were just mattresses) and finished up the wash! How grateful we were. They then left back to the US the next morning. How we hated to see them go!!

We thought we would have a quiet couple of weeks, however that never happens - not in the life of a Senior Missionary! We had to make 3 trips to JB this week taking Elders over there to catch buses - twice at rush hour! What a mess! The third trip was in the afternoon and it was a breeze compared to the other times.

We are picking 2 young men up at the airport tomorrow afternoon coming in to be set apart by President Clark before they fly to Provo to the Missionary Training Center there. They are both from Kota Kinabalu in East Malaysia and have never been away from home or flown on a plane. It will be quite an adjustment for them from a Kampung (village) on the island of Borneo to SLC. One will be serving in NY and the other in Dallas, TX. We will take them to get their Patriarchal Blessing and then to our house for dinner. President Clark doesn't fly in until 9:30 p.m. so he can't set them apart as missionaries until about 11. We will then take them to our place and then to the airport at 3:30 a.m.

On Wednesday we pick up the new couple, the Brady's, who will be serving in East Malaysia (Mukah). They will only be here one day before they fly out. We may have another couple staying with us for a month. They are serving in Sri Lanka and are having visa issues and have to leave for a month. We don't know for sure yet, but hopefully they can work it out.

Our oldest grandson's wife (Carrie) is coming at the end of April for a few days. The company she works for is sending her to Penang, West Malaysia for 2 weeks and she will come by here on her way back home. We are so excited to have her visit. We can't wait to show her around. We will try to take a couple of days away from the office so we can spend the time with her.

It is such a small world. We have the granddaughter of friends from California (the Pinkston's) serving in our mission and the grandson of friends from our ward in Colorado (the Johnson's) serving here too. Then last week one of our office Elders got on the MRT (subway)and sat down next to an American. They started talking and found out that he had worked with his dad in Houston, Texas. What are the chances of meeting someone in a city of over 5 million people that had worked with your dad half way around the world! It truly is a small world!

The missionary work is going great here in our mission. There are many baptisms each week as our missionaries work so hard in sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with their brothers and sisters in this part of the world. How they all love the people of Malaysia and Singapore! The people are wonderful.

By the time we return home in July, 3 of our grandsons will also be serving missions. One in Indiana, one in Brazil, and one in Chile. Serving a mission is such a great opportunity for them and they grow up so much during their 2 years of serving others - as we witness every day with the missionaries here. How we love our missionaries!

We love each of you too! You are always in our thoughts and prayers.

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

The attached photos are of the 3 Elder's and 1 Sister that just returned home and the group of 9 Elders and 2 Sisters that just arrived.




May 2, 2012

Hello all,

Well it's been about 3 weeks since we have had a chance to write our last letter.  It seems that the closer we get to going home, the busier we are getting.  We had one of our new Elders (Elder Thee) get sick on the bus ride to his area in Penang, Malaysia.  He was hospitalized for several days up there and then we brought him to Singapore to get him treated.  We took him to 3 different doctors (a GI doctor, a neurologist, and an internist) and none of them could figure out what was wrong with him.  He couldn't eat anything and could drink very little (we almost had to force him to drink) as anything caused him stomach pains.  His legs were so weak he could hardly walk. He lost 35-40 lbs in 2 1/2 weeks.  He is a big guy (has a scholarship as a tackle for college football).  His companion had to return to his area and we couldn't stay home with him, so the decision was made to send him home to Hawaii until he gets well.  I had an email from his mother this morning and the doctors there still haven't figured it out- they all think it is some kind of bug!  Hopefully he will return soon.  He is such a great guy.  He never once complained and his companion was amazing with him.  Elder Thee's father was the first member baptized in West Malaysia (Penang). He then left and went to BYU Hawaii and married a girl from Arizona.  They have lived in Hawaii ever since and Elder Thee was born there.  He was so excited to be serving in Penang where his father is from and to be able to teach the gospel to his relatives.

We had two more missionaries come in from East Malaysia on their way to London to the MTC there. They are twin sisters. It was the first time they had ever been away from their home and they were so scared but also excited!  They kept hugging us and not wanting to leave.  After passing thru security, they kept looking back to see if we were still there. We had to motion to them as to which way to go!  What sweet girls.  One will be serving in North London and the other in South London.  They left at 12:30am and then we took Elder Thee to the airport at 3:30am for his 6am flight back to the U.S.

Our oldest Grandson's (Brandon) wife (Carrie) came to visit us this last weekend. She had been in Penang for two weeks working.  She arrived Thursday night so we took Friday and Saturday off from the office and Sunday afternoon to show her around Singapore.  We visited the zoo, China Town, Sentosa beaches, the botanical gardens, Bugis (discount shopping stalls), Little India, one of the really nice expensive malls, the top of Marina Bay Sands Hotel, a walk along the beach, the top of Mt. Faber (the tallest mountain in Singapore), a boat ride down the Singapore river, and lot fo rides on the MRT (subway). It was so much fun to show her around this beautiful country!  It was unusually hot the 3 days she was here.  We were dripping wet most of the time.  Of course, the day after she left it cooled off some (not that it ever gets cool).

We have another couple coming to stay with us in a week and a half for a Zone Conference and then staying for a special conference where we will have a General Authority from SLC visiting the region on the 18th and 19th. They won't tell us who it is yet for security reasons, but the rumor has it that it will be Elder Dallin H. Oaks.  Whoever it is, it will be wonderful.

Serving a mission here in Singapore has been such a wonderful experience and we are grateful everyday that we have this opportunity and that our health allows us to serve.  The people are wonderful and we have learned to love them so much - but we still miss our family and friends.

We pray for you all daily.

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

The Huran Sisters at the airport

Elder Thee at the airport

Carrie feeding a giraffe

Carrie with a Lemur

Carrie at the Southern Most Point of Continental Asia

Carrie on a boat ride at Marina Bay Sands

China Town

Carrie on top of Marina Bay Sands

Carrie behind a waterfall at Botanical Gardens

Carrie at Orchid Gardens

Carrie and Sister Garrett at Sentosa

Carrie and Brother Garrett at the Secret Entrance

Life is hectic, but we love it here!

Hello all,

We have had a couple of really busy, but wonderful weeks. We just finished our Sr. Conference on Monday & Tuesday. All our Senior Couples were here in Singapore (except for one who went home for their son's wedding). They started coming in last Friday, some on Saturday and Sunday and the majority of them on Monday. We had the Senior dinner on Monday night at our home. There were 34 of us. It was so much work getting ready for it (baking, cooking, cleaning, flights, housing, etc) but it was so fun having everyone together. We played some group games after dinner and then on Tuesday we had meetings all day. That night we all went to an International Seafood Buffet Restaurant for dinner (no cooking!!). We had 5 couples staying with us from Saturday until Thursday with the last couple leaving on Friday. Everyone else stayed with host families. Two of our couples, the Larson's and Cunningham's left for home (North Carolina and Alaska) on a 6 a.m. flight Wednesday morning (up at 3 a.m.). How we will miss them. All of our couples are wonderful and we all have such a strong bond as we are serving our Heavenly Father.

This week will be another busy week as we are having major transfers throughout the mission and also getting 11 new missionaries with 4 returning home. We have an outgoing dinner Tuesday night at the President & Sister Clark's and then we will have them spend the night with us for another 6 a.m. flight. That same day, Wednesday, we pick up the 9 new Elders and 2 Sisters. Their trainers will all be coming in too. That night we will have dinner at President Clarks and then the new Elders and their trainers (18 of them) will spend the night at our home (the 4 Sisters at the Presidents)! The President and AP's take them on an early morning run by our house (up a really steep hill overlooking the ocean). They will then come back to our home for breakfast and to shower. Meetings will be held at the Chapel in front of our house and then we will feed them lunch (sloppy joes, salad, chips and cookies). Dinner will be on their own and then they will once again stay at our house and fly or bus out on Friday. Friday night the Gregory's come to spend the night and fly out on the 6 a.m. flight on Saturday morning to return home. How we hate to see them leave! We have become such good friends seeing each other every Sunday in JB and then when they come to Singapore they stay with us. With their departure, all the couples have been here less time than us except for the Smiths over in Sibu, East Malaysia. They leave at the same time as us. Saturday afternoon we collapse!! We won't have anyone else staying with us until a new couple comes in on the 17th.

While our life sounds hectic (not to count all the office work we have each day), we love it here and love being with the missionaries - they are wonderful! They are so fun and are so appreciative of everything you do for them. I think they think of us as their grandparents!

This evening we took a walk along the ocean on our favorite walk. It was wonderful just to relax for a little while and enjoy such beautiful scenery before our hectic week starts tomorrow.

We didn't go to JB today (didn't have a car that we could drive over there as the President was in town). We went to the ward in front of our house. A funny thing happened. One of the lady's talked about having her maid quit after 10 years. She said she had to learn to clean and cook! Most families here all have Fillipino or Indonesian maids. They think it is awful to have to cook, clean, or take care of their own children! I don't know how we all survived without our personal maid!!

The end of our mission is coming way to fast - only 3 1/2 months left! Where has the time gone? We love the people here and serving a mission. Where else could we have this much fun! Take care and write when you can. We love and miss all of you.

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

President Clark had a heart attack

Hello Everyone!

Wow, we can't believe that it has been so long since we wrote our last "weekly" letter. It has been an extremely busy month - especially our week-ends. We have had people staying with us every week-end this month. Senior couples returning home (Brown's and Johnson's), the Public Affairs couple staying a couple of days while attending meetings in Singapore, a young man leaving on his mission from West Malaysia, a missionary going home this week and a new couple arriving today. Also, the Gregory's have stayed twice - once for a Zone Leader's meeting and once for a Mission Tour with the Area President.

One of the hardest things was our Mission President, President Clark, had a mild heart attack a week and a half ago. He had been out running 10 miles (which he does often) with one of the Assistant's, when he developed chest pains, nausea, cold sweats, etc. He finished his run - mostly a walk by this time, drove the AP to his apartment and then drove himself home, showered, shaved, and dressed and then told Sister Clark that maybe he should go to the hospital to "check it out". After testing, they discovered that he had indeed had a heart attack, but since he is in such good physical condition, it didn't do any damage to his heart. He had one stint put in and 2 arteries "ballooned". The heart attack happened on Saturday and he got out of the hospital on Tuesday. On Wednesday he wanted to go to the "hocker" stand (food courts) for lunch. There are a lot of stairs between our office and the hocker stand. He was taking them two at a time! Nothing has slowed him down. Even in the hospital he was always sitting up in bed reading e-mails, responding, working on presentations, etc. He is remarkable. We picked the young man up at the airport on Saturday afternoon that was leaving on his mission. In Malaysia, President Clark is over all the districts. It is like being a Stake President to 8 stakes! We brought the young man to the hospital and while he was still having his heart attack, he set the young man apart as a missionary (he is going to the MTC in Provo and serving in Philadelphia, PA). Not many young men can say that they were set apart as a missionary in the hospital!

Unfortunately he had his heart attack on Saturday and the General Authority, Elder Perkins - the Asia Area President and his wife, were arriving Sunday afternoon for the week long Mission Tour. There was a release dinner for a Sr. Couple (Brown's), Elder Thurman - an Elder completing his mission, the Gregory's who came over from JB for the Mission Tour meetings, the four Assistants, and Dave and I at the home of President & Sister Clark's Sunday night. Dave and Elder Brown went to the airport to pick them up while Sister Brown and I cooked the dinner at the Mission Home as Sister Clark was at the hospital. We fixed enchaladas for the main course. We were to eat at 6:30 and put the enchaladas in the oven to be done at that time (there was a strict time table for all meetings that week). Unfortunately, the dinner was delayed and the enchaladas burned on top! It was so embarassing to serve burned food to a General Authority, but he was really nice about it. In fact, he sent an e-mail later in the week thanking us for the delicious food. I think he must have meant the Subway sandwiches the next day for lunch! I did make cakes for the dinner and cookies for the luncheon and they turned out ok. As President Clark was unable to accompany Elder Perkins on the tour, the 4 AP's had to take over the President's presentations at the meetings. They were thrilled to get to spend a week with a General Authority. They learned so much from him - an opportunity of a life time. When we took them to the airport Monday evening, the AP's were asking one question after another and Elder Perkins was graciously answering them all.

This last Monday we took the young man from West Malaysia to the airport at 3:30 a.m. and then on Tuesday morning we took Elder & Sister Brown to the airport at 3:30 a.m. We then took President Clark and the 4 AP's to the airport at 5:15 a.m. We got back home at about 6:15 a.m. and were going to lay down and try to sleep for a couple of hours. At 6:30 a.m. the phone rang. It was Sister Clark calling. She was having chest pains and throught she ought to go to the hospital to be checked out! We quickly got dressed and picked her up. After testing, they found that she had Acid Reflux. They released her at about 12:30. We took her home and then went to the office. At about 3:30, we were both so tired we left and went home. Of course we then had laundry to do and bathrooms to clean as we had Elder and Sister Read arriving today! We did go to bed early last night though and slept a full 8 hours - which is a record lately!

We took Sister Clark with us to the airport to pick the Reads up today. A funny thing happened. Sister Clark was explaining that President Clark wasn't there as he was in KL (Kuala Lumpur). The Read's thought she said he was in jail! You should have seen their faces! We all had a good laugh. We took them back to the office and were going to make copies of their passports when Sister Read discovered her passport missing. She decided she must have left it in the bathroom at the airport. So we all went back to the airport (our second home!) and they did have her passport at the information counter.

We brought the Read's back to our house after doing the things that had to be done in the office to get them prepared to leave tomorrow for East Malaysia and put them to bed at about 5:30 - they had been up almost 30 hours and were walking zombies!

Well that brings us about up-to-date. In spite of how busy we are, we love our mission, all the missionaries, and the people we work with in Johar Bahru! This mission has brought many blessings into our lives. We are grateful that the Lord has entrusted us with the work that needs to be done here. Time is passing way too fast. As each of our couples and the young missionaries leave, they are so excited to see their families, but at the same time it is so hard for them to leave the people they have learned to love so much and I'm sure we will feel the same way.

You are all in our prayers. We love hearing from all of you. Even though we don't have time to answer many of your e-mails, know that we love receiving them and appreciate them.

With love,

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

Turkey follow up

A great follow up to last week's e-mail regarding Turkey.

Love,

Mom

Hi,
Follow-up to the last email about opening the work in Turkey. This is from my brother's perspective in Church yesterday.
Love,
Pres. Clark

Dear Family,

I was witness to an amazing display of the gifts of the spirit today at church. First a little background. As I wrote earlier, three weeks ago our little branch of 40 or so active members is now officially recognized by the Turkish government as an association – the first step toward being recognized as a church in this 85% Muslim country. As part of the official recognition, the Church has now assigned 4 young Elders to the branch - having transferred them down from the Romanian mission (3 Americans and 1 British). They have between 6 and 12 months field experience. Before I go on, I have to impress on you the difficulty faced by English speakers trying to learn Turkish – they tell me it is a little like learning Russian; not an easy language. I have been here cumulatively about 6 month and managed to learn a dozen odd words and to count to 10 – pitiful. I did much better in Mexico and China where I picked up quite a bit. Both the sound and the grammatical pronunciation of Turkish is not intuitive and most English speaking people I have talked to agree that it is very challenging and time consuming to master – requiring years to be conversant. As I said, the new missionaries got here 3 weeks ago with no previous Turkish language training – only Bulgarian which is worlds apart.

During testimony meeting, each of the Elders stood and bore their full testimonies in Turkish. Not with a few disjointed words but with flowing sentences. Each spoke for several minutes. The branch president translated and I was amazed at the depth and breadth of the topics each covered and details they shared. Without knowing you would have thought they had been in country 2 years and were getting ready to head home. Following the testimony of the last missionary, Elder Dennis Neuenschwander (1st Quorum of 70 emeritus) stood and spoke. He has a PhD in Russian and served as General Authority all over Eastern Europe and Russia and accompanied many of the 12 on their visits. He spoke of the many times that he had seen first-hand the gift of tongues in his travels with the 12. He concluded by bearing testimony that all present in the meeting today had witnessed the gift of tongues – referring to the young missionaries. The four young Elders then stood and sang a Quartet of “Now Let Us Rejoice” – all 3 verses in perfect unison – all in Turkish. I only recognized it from the music. Their faces shown brightly and radiated light. It was one of the most amazing and special things I have ever been party to. There were not many dry eyes in the room. I know for me I just sat there and tingled all over and felt a warmth and peace that is hard to describe but very wonderful. I spoke with Elder Neuenschwander, and several others after the meeting and each of us knew with saying it that this had been a truly special day and the we had seen a miracle and witnessed what Neal A. Maxwell referred to as a “divine signature” showing God’s love and attesting that he is pleased that His work has begun here in earnest. My only regret was that each of you were not here to partake of it.

Gordon