30 April 2012

HELLO!!

Transfers - I’m staying here in Oxnard and my companion is heading out to San Luis Obispo.  My new companion’s name is Elder McCrackin.  I’m not sure how to spell it but that’s his name.  He has been out for like 4 and a half months or so. Finally a companion who has been in the mission less time than me! ha ha

Well even more big news!!! Matthew is really getting baptized this Friday!  His dad has been working on getting worthy enough to baptize him for like the last two years.  Finally we felt impressed to ask him if he really was working on it.  So in the lesson we had planned to ask him that question, before we could even ask him he said, “Elders let’s baptize my son, I’m tired of holding Matthew back.”  So we had a lesson with Matthew and asked him if it would be okay if someone else besides his dad baptized him.  He was totally okay with it and was excited that he was still getting baptized.  He asked me if I would be the one to baptize him.  So he is getting baptized Friday.  I’m really humbled that he chose me to baptize him.  It should be a lot of fun!

We had a big service project last Saturday called Mormon Helping Hands!  It was a lot of fun, I got to smash stuff with a sledge hammer for about and two hours.  It was a great time.  We were clearing this big field of cement chunks so they can make a community garden there.  It was cool to see so many members come out and help, there had to be around 250 people.  We got a lot of work done.

TWINS!!!!!!!! A boy and a GIRL!!  Yes that’s so cool, I’m so excited.  Congratulations Ashley and Brandon.

Sorry this letter is really short, but I don’t have anything else to say.

LOVE YOU ALL

Dad good luck with your test.

Ash good luck with your finals.

Everyone else good luck with whatever you’re doing,

Miss you all so much and can’t wait to talk to you on Mothers Day!!!  We will set up the time next Monday.

Love Elder Garrett

23 April 2012

HEEELLLLLOOOO!!!

How’s it going???  Well my week was just another week.  Nothing too crazy happened.  Just lots of work and trying to talk to people, of course no one wants to talk to us but that’s all good, the work goes on!

We are still working with Matthew, he is a stud.  We taught him about the Book of Mormon and why we have it and he picked it up like it was nothing!!!  He understood how the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith connect,  he understood how to find out if it is true or not.  It was great!  One of the easiest lessons I have ever had.  Other than that we aren’t teaching someone consistently .... Its ok though, gives us a lot of time to talk to everyone and try to find someone new.

We have been playing basketball every morning for the past week now, that’s way fun.  We get together with our district (minus the sisters) and then elder Wenz and his companion come and play.  There are some really good ball players out here though, so that makes it harder but it works out.

Oh last P-day we went on a hike. And to get there we HAVE to drive on the PCH (Pacific Coast Highway)!!!  It was the coolest road I have ever driven.  It’s at Point Magoo, which is in my area.  They film all the car commercials and movies there.  The ocean was so blue ... dang it was cool.

Well thanks for all the letters and packages!  They were great!  Sorry this email is so short but everything is really the same here. Not much ever changes.

Well I love you all and miss you tons!

Love Elder Garrett

16 April 2012

HEEELLOOO!

Well it was a weird week. It really only felt like it was maybe 3 days, but it was 7. Pretty nice I guess.

The work is slowly getting better. We are talking with everyone and trying our best to find the people who have been prepared. Right now there is much for us to do besides tracting!!!! (yeah) We are working with Matthew and trying to help the family progress together. I really do love that family though, they are awesome. The dad, Mario, is a really nice guy, we have been reading the Book of Mormon with him a lot and trying to help him feel the spirit.

Thursday night we got a call from a member of the ward wanting help giving a blessing to a nonmember friend’s baby girl. Apparently she had fallen off the stairs and hurt her stomach. So we went over to the house and the member stopped us before we went in and told us what had happened the night before. He had tried to give her a blessing by himself and I guess the baby girl went crazy! She started attacking him and started to bite her mom. I guess the eyes of the baby were black and that the baby didn’t look like herself. Then the baby ran up the stairs, but the baby is only like one so she usually can’t run, but apparently she ran way fast up the stairs. The member, who is a recent convert of like a year and a half, asked me and Elder Wood to give her a blessing because he was terrified of the little girl. As soon as we walked in the house we felt evil was there and the spirit had long gone from that home. So we started with a prayer to invite the spirit and then we gave her a blessing. It was a very spiritual moment. While I was pronouncing the blessing on her, I felt the spirit telling me what to say and I felt him standing right next to me. After we closed, the little girl opened her eyes and I saw a flash. I saw the light of Christ illuminate in that little girl. It was way cool to be able to use the priesthood and help that little girl. Very, very powerful ...

Other than that it was a normal week! Nothing really too crazy happened, we worked hard. We have been trying real hard with declarations, but it seemed like this week everyone we tried to talk to was Spanish. I’m doing great!!!!!

Love you all and hope that everything is well.

Elder Garrett

9 April 2012

One more week has passed crazy!!!

This week Elder Wood was sick from Monday to Thursday and I was sick AGAIN!!!!!!! on Thursday and part of Friday. It was a week full of studying and reading the scriptures! It was fun! I learned a lot about the sons of Mosiah and learned even more about the Savior.

Yesterday at church the 2nd ward had a sweet Easter program!! There was like 5 musical numbers and two brief testimonies given, it was sweet! It ended up going an hour and a half, the longest sacrament meeting I have ever been to!!!! In the 4th ward, Elder Wood and I had to give talks!! (The same ward I talked in 4 weeks ago!) It was fun though, I had to speak on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I learned a lot about the Savior’s life and His reason behind coming to earth. He really is an amazing example and I know that He lives.

At district meeting, Elder Haws, my district leader, told us a promise that President Castro gave to all of us for this weekend. He promised us if we went and testified of the Savior and His atonement and resurrection that we would be able to find the searchers and find the people who the Lord has prepared. That is exactly what we did, sick and everything, we went out on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and testified of the Savior. We placed 10 Book of Mormons and handed out sooo many pamphlets on the restoration, we feel that with that promise and our efforts that we will be able to have at least one baptism from all the people we talked to and testified to.

We are still working with Matthew and everything is going well with him! George on the other hand is a little different .... he told us the other day that he thinks that we are trying to kill him and doesn’t want us to talk to him any more ... weird but it is what it is ... that was a first for me though! I have never had someone I’m teaching about Jesus Christ think I’m trying to kill them. ha ha

Last week we did find this lady named Nellie. We knocked on her door and we started to talk of the Savior and His teachings. She started crying, we asked her how she was feeling and then she opened up and started talking about her family and we taught her about the plan of salvation, it was really good. We have an appointment with her on Thursday.

Well love you all and hope that you had an awesome Easter, I know I did!!! soooo much candy ha ah

Love Elder Garrett

2 April 2012

Well this week was better than last. It was a lot of hard work though. We were able to find a few new people to teach and we were able to teach a few more lessons. Hopefully all the people we taught will start to progress and start keeping commitments ...

We are still working with Matthew, he is a cool kid. He and his family are really nice and I hope that the family starts realizing how important baptism is, because he really needs it. It’s been a real learning experience teaching a 10 year old though, it’s hard! But it seems like we are getting the hang of it, just gotta keep it simple right?

GENERAL CONFERENCE!!!! Are you kidding me that was sooooooo good! We watched it at the church which was different, but I can’t believe how fast the sessions went! Did you all hear the part about writing the missionaries???? HA I learned so much from it though! I know that they really were inspired in the messages that they shared because it helped me more than I ever expected! I’m sure that you all loved it as much as I did!

Nothing new is really going on, but I sure miss you all!!! I hope you all have an AWESOME EASTER!!!

sorry this is so short ...

Love Elder Garrett