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

HELLLLOOOOOO!   Another week is gone ... I can’t believe it!   There is definitely a difference here on the coast. People are set in their ways and don’t want to hear that they need to change. But to some extent I know that everyone hates being told that they need to change. Especially when it comes from a twenty year old kid right!? ha ha.   This week Elder Lehnhart and I got sick. We must have caught the flu or something cause we couldn’t stay out of the bathroom. It was frustrating not being able to go out and talk to people but the rest was well needed!   Since we don’t really have too many investigators yet, we have been working on less actives ... always fun!!! But they are really nice people and we have reactivated one of them so far. Hopefully we will continue having some success there.   Yesterday for dinner we ate over at a member’s house. It was right on the beach and had a patio on top of the house. We got to eat up there and watch the waves and the harbor and the sunset, it was way cool to see!!!! During dinner the member started talking about golf and golfing with Tom Watson and Jack and Daly, it took me a second to actually comprehend what he was saying but once I did ... oh boy   I said "Hold on. What? You golfed with professional golfers?" He said "Yes." So I asked him "Where?" He said "Augusta." I yelled "WHAT, YOU PLAYED AT THE MASTERS???"  It was so cool! He showed me all the pictures of it and the golf ball he used on 18. Then he showed me an invitation from Augusta Country Club asking him to come play in the par 3 tournament! It was so awesome. Kind of sad but that was one of the coolest parts of my week.    Oh and I forgot to tell you all, on March 10, 2012, I will have the great privilege of hearing from an Apostle of God! (one of the twelve)  It is not normal that we get a visit from an apostle in March, so I’m kinda scared but way excited to hear from Elder L Tom Perry!    I’m not really sure what else to write. We have just been doing a lot of tracting ... a lot of tracting ... so hopefully that helps out the teaching pool a little bit! Oh and I’m going on a Spanish exchange on Wednesday! I can’t wait, I love trying to speak Spanish. ha ha.    Anyways I love you all!!!   Elder Garrett 

  HEY FAMILY!!!   Sorry I didn’t email you yesterday, we had a zone conference and me being myself I forgot to let you all know! Sorry . . .   So in my new area, we cover two wards - Oxnard Second and Oxnard Fourth wards. It is way different to cover two wards, but oh well. Everyone is way nice so far though. It’s cool to see wherever you go there is always someone who you can connect with just because you have the same faith in Jesus Christ.   My companion, Elder Lenhart, is way cool. He is goof ball! He is always laughing at something which is good because it gets way boring if you are with someone who doesn’t like to laugh and have fun. It definitely makes the days go by faster. But it’s always hard getting use to someone new.   Well it was a good week!! Last Saturday Luana was baptized! The baptismal service was a very spiritual experience and I’m very grateful to have been there. I am very blessed to have been here to see her make that covenant with the Lord and take part in her receiving the Holy Ghost. Other than that this week has been a slow one. The areas we have need a lot of work and I know that Elder Lenhart and I are supposed to be here to find the people who are in need of the gospel. It is very humbling to know that the Lord has trusted me to watch over this part of His vineyard.   Yesterday in our zone conference, President said that the Lord equals us for the task. It made me realize that the Lord is always watching over us and it is up to us to make sure that we are ready for what the Lord requires of us.  He will always make us equal to the task that He has given us. I also had the great opportunity to teach with President Castro yesterday. It was a practice situation, but none the less very stressful! ha ha. Thank goodness I didn’t mess up to bad. It was for sure a learning experience. It went well :)   Well family I miss you all and I can’t believe it has been over 5 months!! Crazy, right? I hope everything is well with you and I love you all!!!!!!!   Elder Garrett  

HELLO!!!!   How are all of you doing???   I'm doing great! Oxnard is a very beautiful place! Sometimes I actually forget that I'm on a mission and not on a vacation! It's way cool to see the ocean and the palm trees!   So like I said last week my new companions name is Elder Lenhart. He is from Lehi and is pretty cool! It's wierd getting to know a new companion. But thats all part of this mission thing I guess.   My new area is really dead there isn't much going on. Its a little different because we cover two wards but thats ok. Just more stuff that we can do right? But something really exciting is that we have a baptism on Saturday! Her name is Luana Meyer. She is way cool and very spiritual. The missionaries that started teaching her set her with a date on Feb 25th. But there was really no need in waiting another week because she was so ready when I got here so Elder Lenhart and I bumped it up to Feb 18th!    But like I said earlier these areas are slow and I'm not really used to it anymore. I know that we can turn it around with the Lord's help but its going to be a lot of work. It's going to be fun but stressful. Its going to be alot of knocking doors and talking to every one! I'm excited! We already found a new investigator whose name is Ed. He is way sweet he has been shot twice in the head! And says that he knows God saved him for a reason! He is so ready to recive the gospel.   So there is this less active member in our ward who has had some problems with alcohol. We were at his roomates for dinner and he came in drunk. The drunk guy started crying and was mumbling "I need you Jesus". Me being new to the area had no clue what was really going on. But it turns out that he had been sober for 12 years prior and he started drinking again two weeks ago. He then looked at me and said I need the gospel to save me. And asked his roomate for a Priesthood blessing. It was a very spiritually powerful blessing filled with comfort and warmth. The guy who has a problem with drinking agreed to meet with us every other day to take the lessons and agreed to come to church every week. So yesterday he showed up to church and tonight we are going over to his house to give him the lessons so that he can come closer to Christ! That night was so life changing for me. To see someone so far gone that has nothing else turn to Christ and rely on His priesthood. I'm so so thankful to be here to help him with this and I'm honored to do so.   This mission so far has changed my life and I would not trade it for anything in the world! I've come to know the Savior more and I have gained a realationship with Him. And seeing the change in people just baffles me....   I love you all so much and HAPPY VALINTINES DAY!!!!!!!!   Love Elder Garett