26 March 2012

WHAT IS UP????

Well it has been a hard week. I’m fighting a cold, the area isn’t hopping like I would like, and it has been raining. Alright no more complaining! Well my new companion’s name is Elder Wood and he is from Rigby, Idaho, and has been out on his mission for about 14 months....it’s a bit stressful at times but it works!

Nothing really cool has happened this week though, we really aren’t teaching very many people. We are working with Matthew still and he still wants to be baptized but bishop moved his date (so that his dad could baptize him) to May 5^th ... so far away! But it’s all good, I love that family and we always have fun when we go over there. Matthew really, really, really wants to get baptized so I think that it is a good incentive for his dad to do the right things.

Oh yesterday at church we were asked to help in a baby blessing! That was so cool! The baby’s parents are anti LDS people but the grandparents really wanted him to be blessed, so the grandpa gave him the blessing with me and Elder Wood in the circle with him. It was a really spiritual experience and I know that the Holy Ghost was there.

The wards are finally warming up to me! It seems like they only like the missionary who has been there the longest because before yesterday I was convinced that no one in the wards knew my name! So that’s pretty nice. There is this family here who has like 13 kids, we had dinner with them last night. I have never seen so much food disappear soooo fast, ha ha. After dinner we sat in the living room and shared a message with them and then we just talked for a while. It turns out they are from Spanish Fork! It was nice to be able to talk about cougar football for a bit, it was a lot of fun.

Well I really didn’t hear from you all this week so I hope you are doing ok! (you should all write me!!)

Love you all so much. (Ashley stop eating pickles ... it’s weird!)

Elder Garrett

19 March 2012

Hey hey hey!!

So its transfers .... My companion is leaving and I’m staying!!!! My new companion, Elder Wood, has been out 13 months ... I keep on getting companions that are older than me, makes it super awkward sometimes!

Regardless, it has been a really good week. Elder Lenhart and I worked really hard, we are working with Matthew Arana, he is from a part member family and he has a date set for the 31st of this month. He is great, he is 10 years old and really, really wants to get baptized. The only downfall is that the dad is less active and is holding Matthew back a little. But the Bishop is working with him, and we are as well, and he made it to church so I’m thinking that maybe the dad has realized how important it really is!

Then we are working with George Galviz. He is this cool guy in his 20's that loves Jesus but has a hard time with the word of wisdom. But he has been living right for the past week and is on track for his date on the 31st as well. He really wants to follow Christ and told us that he knows the Book of Mormon is true. I’m really excited for him! He really wants to get baptized!!

OH so we are getting some twins in the family huh??? So cool! We can call them Beavus and Butthead!! ha ha Congratulations Ashley and Brandon! Love you both!

Just so everyone knows I’m doing much, much better! I’m not sick at all so you don’t have to keep sending me the “are you ok” emails. And I got both the packages you all sent! They were great, made my week. Nothing better than packages for Easter on St Patrick’s Day!

Oh so we had dinner with the cool member named David last Saturday and he took us out to a restaurant. I was stoked! Then we pull up to this Korean BBQ place ... I was a little freaked out but I couldn’t tell him, no I’m not eating there, right? Then it comes time to order ... but this place you get family sized portions so David ordered for everyone. He ordered spicy pork (it was really good) and some spicy shrimp (also really good!!) and then he ordered cow tongue ......... I literally almost threw up right there! ha ha. But I couldn’t complain because it was a member buying. It turns out that cow tongue is really, really good! Who would have thought, right? David (who is Asian) made me eat a bunch of the tongue! It looked like the roast beef you get at Arbys. It was a fun night!

Well I’m doing fine out here. Hope all is well with you!

Love,

Elder Garrett

12 March 2012

Well well well ... so another week is gone!!! I can’t believe how fast the weeks are going now, it seems like just a week ago I came to Oxnard!!! But it’s almost been six weeks, crazy.

I’m not really sure what to say ... WE SET TWO PEOPLE WITH A DATE SATURDAY!!! It was pretty cool! But first I will start off by the main event of the day, Elder L Tom Perry came and talked with us. It was pretty intense and spiritual! I had no clue that he could get so fired up about anything but he was banging on the pulpit and yelling about teaching less active families, it was so awesome. He told us that it’s all up to the members of the Church to have baptisms not the missionaries and that we shouldn’t be the ones finding people for us to teach! The members should! It was pretty nice not being chastised but to listen to him get after the stake presidents! ha ha. Then he talked about Mitt Romney and how the Lord has given him his money and made him so successful in business so that he could run for president at this time and make the church more well known around the world! I thought that was pretty cool!

This week we taught one of the part member families in the Oxnard 2nd ward. The Aranas, they are this awesome family who have had some struggles in the past. Their son Matthew, who is 10, hasn’t been baptized yet, so we taught a lesson on how important baptism is and why we do it. Then we asked Matthew if he wanted to get baptized. He said yes and now he has a date on March 24th!!! I’m so excited for him and his family! Not gonna lie pretty stoked about it!

Then we taught this guy named George Galves, he is this college student who loves smoking weed! ha ha, He does have a prescription for it though. Anyways apparently the missionaries here in the past had been working with him but he never would agree to a baptismal date because he wasn’t sure if the Book of Mormon was true. But in the middle of our lesson (on the importance of the Book of Mormon) he stopped talking for about 40 seconds and looked up and asked us, "When can I get baptized ... I know it’s true." It was so awesome!!! So now he has a date for March 24th as well!!! It was so awesome and both of these lessons happened within a hour of each other and on the same day as Elder L Tom Perry’s talk! Pretty cool yeah!!!???

So last Thursday I went on another Spanish exchange! I prayed THREE times in Spanish and bore my testimony TWICE!!! It was so scary. It reminded me of my first week in the field. I had NO clue what was going on and I didn’t know what to say but it was fun. The missionary I went with is pretty cool. We had a lot of fun!

Well family ... its 6 months on Wednesday ... can’t believe it!

Love you all!

Miss you all!!!

Elder Garrett

6 March 2012

Hey family!!!!

Sorry that I didn’t email you yesterday but I was really sick. I must have eaten some bad sushi or something cause I couldn’t stop throwing up!!!!!! (I really didn’t eat sushi, it was chicken)

It was a really trying week, I had a fever of 102 from Tuesday to Sunday night and then I woke up yesterday throwing up … so it was a hard one.

But I have learned a lot, I’m not really sure how to put it in words though. I learned a lot about the atonement of Jesus Christ. How he can take our pains and our weaknesses away if we allow him to. Like I said I was really sick, but I was able to work at least 4 hours a day because I had the Lord on my side. I was able to go on a Spanish exchange with an Elder who is as close to exactly obedient as you can come, and work all day and teach 5 lessons in Spanish! (I don’t even know Spanish) It was a very humbling experience to see how awesome the Lord is and how much He really does care for us.

Last Thursday we were tracting this street, kinda ghetto, but anyways we knocked on this door and the guy (Gilbert, 20) instantly was excited to see us and asked about the Book of Mormon and where it came from. So we taught him the restoration and about prophets, he said he understood why there needed to be a restoration and that he always knew that there was something wrong with his church (Catholic). We talked about baptism and how important it is and we invited him to be baptized but he said no! I was so shocked, but he wants to learn more and said that if he learns that this is the truth he will eventually be baptized. It was pretty cool!

Then we went to the next house. The guy was sitting in his garage smoking, we asked him how his day was. He said don’t come any closer, so I asked him why? He said that Satan lives there and that one day we all would have to bow down to the over powering awe of Satan ... it was kinda funny to hear that, but we testified of Jesus Christ and taught him about God’s desires for His children. Needless to say he was not interested but it was cool experience to see the difference in Gilbert and the Satan guy. They live right next to each other but one loves God and the other doesn’t. I don’t know I thought that it was pretty cool to see how believing in God and Jesus Christ can make your life so much better.

So this Saturday Elder L Tom Perry is coming to talk to us! I’m stoked! Besides that nothing to cool is going on. Oh I’m going on another Spanish Exchange with Elder Haws (Tyler Haws cousin, coolest kid I’ve ever met!), can’t wait for that. I will let you know how that goes!

Well love you all and miss ya!!!!

Elder Garrett