Letter #1:
Family and Friends,
Well The Lord has sent me to South Bakersfield! But luckily He loves me and sent me during the winter, the temperature is around 76 degrees right now. The area is a biking one and I wasn't expecting that but its actually really fun.
My companion is Elder Campbell, he is from Lindon, UT! (And Granna, I already asked...he doesn't know you. Haha!) He is super smart so I'm learning tons from him. The work is hard but I'm excited to do it! We got white washed into this area so we had nothing to go off of. We already have two people with baptism dates, so that's pretty cool. It is very different teaching real people instead of actors. I'm so nervous when I teach, I don't really say much and I need to work on that.
So they are suing this new training program and my group is one of the first to use it, it is a 12 week program. It apparently will make us into some kind of super missionary, that's what President Castro says...we'll see.
The other night we were trying to find our house but we were kinda lost. So we went down this street and I thought I heard my companion say "STOP", so I asked him why. He didn't know what I was talking about so we kept on riding and again I heard someone say "STOP", so we stopped. While I was telling my companion about what happened, a gang of 25 came out of the bike path we were planning on going down. You could smell the weed and you could tell that they were all high. Who knows what would have happened if we would have kept going on. I'm so glad I listened to that prompting!!
By the way, California really needs to work on the way they label their streets! There is no number system just names. It makes it difficult to get around. Other than that this place is cool! The people are amazing. I hope to find so many people that are looking for the truth!
With Love, Elder Garrett
Letter #2:
Well week two is in the books! The work in this area has been
dead for awhile apparently BUT..... The Lord has been blessing me and my
companion to find more and more new investigators, so that's awesome!
We also have been working on less active or inactive members and
getting them to go to church! Yesterday we had one in active family come
to sacrament meeting! I was so happy to see them!!
Some how my companion and I have been ropped into the
primary program and will be singing the second verse of I hope they call
me on a mission... BY OURSELVES!!! yeah I'm a little nervous, but it
should be really fun! I feel like the members of the ward are finally
starting to trust us and are letting us know about there non member
friends so we can go baptize them!
Because we were white washed into the area we have only taught
two lessons.... this sucks but its ok cause it leaves soooo much time
for tracting! Which turns out to be one of my favorite things to do! Its
so fun going and talking to random strangers and teaching them about
how they can live with there families forever and how they can draw
closer to our Heavenly Father. Because of all the tracting we have a lot
of return appointments, so by the end of this week we should be teaching
about 7 investigators, hopefully! The people here are so ready to hear
about the gospel and learn more of Christ.
One of them is named Shane Aouto. He is poly and is 20. When we
met him he was sitting in his garage watching TV and smoking weed, ha
ha so he was fun to talk to! I asked him to put it out, luckily he agreed and then we started to talk to him
about the Book of Mormon and the first vision, the spirit there was so
amazing! I know that he felt it because he started to tear up on 1 Nephi
1:1. He told us that he has been looking for some one to teach him how
to have a relationship with God and how to become a better person! Score!!!! ha ha. I truly love Shane and want to baptize him so that he
can have a better relationship with God and have the Holy Ghost all the
time! He is amazing! We have apointment with him in about 3 hours so
hopefully that will be good!
But the bike situation..... well let me tell you a story of a
bike named "Green Lantern" The awesome bike came from Walmart. (first
mistake) It worked like a champ the first week! and I loved it! But like
all good things it had to end.... By the 10th day of its awesome life
the chain would fall of constantly... by the 13th day it became so bad
that while I was turning sharply and was putting all my weight on the
right side (second mistake) and then the chain fell off!!! so I ate
it... HARD!!!!!! It sucked so bad!!! And then the
gear shift on the right side broke and that was the end of the green
lantern... But now I have a awesome new one! A little nicer and bigger
thank goodness. But its a sweet black and yellow one, so I named
it Bumble Bee! Just for you Lucas! So thanks for helping me out,
it was really stressful to try and figure that whole situation out but
every thing is good now!
Well I hope everything is going well with you and you are doing ok!
Miss and love you all!
Elder Garrett
