Monday, November 5, 2012

5 November 2012



Hello family!!!

Well this week had its ups and its downs ... but that's the mission for ya!

We taught a few lessons to some of our investigators.  One of them named Elizabeth is trying to quit smoking and we are helping her cut back bit by bit until she doesn't want to smoke anymore! Hopefully it works.  We have been teaching a lot about Christ’s atonement and what it can truly do for her if she uses it!  My favorite one we shared with her is when Christ is walking down the street and a lady touches his robe and is healed.  When we read that with her, her face lit up and she was so happy. The gospel really does help people’s life and will change it!

We also taught this lady who we passed over to the singles ward, named Nichren.  We taught her with the elders that cover that ward so there were four of us there.  It was powerful to have so many testimonies of the restoration!  The lesson went well and she told us that she would be baptized!  It was really good.

Oh man riding bikes here is insane!!!!  Especially because we live on the side of a mountain!!  I'm pretty sure that everywhere we ride is up hill, but that's OK with me!  I'm getting into better shape and I have been a lot happier!  I love being on bike, so much better that being in a car with air conditioning ... who needs it, haha!

Halloween was really fun!  We tried to tract but people thought we were dressed up in a costume and that we were too old to be going around getting candy!  So it didn't really work ... later we made homemade root beer and went to the trunk or treat that the wards were throwing!  I love Halloween as a missionary and I'm sad that this is my last one.  We had to be in at 8 pm and apparently Santa Barbara gets kinda crazy on Halloween!  We avoided some areas, but all around it was a great day!

So Saturday I went on an exchange with my Zone leader, Elder Foy.  I really like him a lot, he was in my district when I first came into the mission.  Anyways we worked in the singles ward (his area).  I had the most spiritual moment of my life!!!  We were teaching this young lady named Dorothy, we had the ward mission leader with us and we taught at the church.  We started sharing the restoration and things were going so well!  She was understanding, we were asking questions and sharing scriptures.  It came down to the end, when we asked her to be baptized on December 15th and then she started laughing so loudly!  I didn't know what to do .... I was in shock.  But eventually it got quiet and she looked up and said that "she had been coming to church for two months or so and has tried so hard to have the courage to meet with the missionaries, and that she had been praying about baptism and if she should do it."  I was terrified and thought that she was going to say NO!  But she said, "One night I was praying and I heard a voice as clear as we are talking now tell me to be baptized before the end of December." It was so so powerful.  Elder Foy started to cry and I was fighting back tears and the spirit was testifying to everyone!!  So she is getting baptized on December 15th!!!  This work is so true and God is there preparing people to receive this gospel!

It was a very good week all together and my testimony has grown so much!  I love this work and I know that it is true!

I hope that everything is well with all of you and that you had a great week!!!!!

I love you all so much,

Elder Blake Garrett

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