Aug 5, 2013

August 5, 2013

Hey there everybody!!!

Can you all believe that this is my last week in the mission field? O.o I still can´t believe it! Well, I suppose that this will probably be my last email home before I get home.... This time next week I´ll be in an airplane on my way to Santiago and from there to the U.S..... that´s so weird to think about!!!!

Well, this last week was a trying week for Elder Miranda and I. A lot of everything that we had planned fell through, and a few of our investigators told us that they didn´t want us to keep passing by... sigh.... they just don´t know what they are going to miss out on!!!! What really tears my heart is when they do understand what they could lose, but they still don´t want anything....

But we were able to have some really great experiences this past week. We have an investigator named Marisol.... I´m not sure if I mentioned her last week, but she is fighting addictions with cigarrettes and alcohol. This past week we also found out that she is going through some other problems and so we are helping her out. She was so excited to go to church and she is preparing to get baptized... and then yesterday we called her early to triple check that she was going to go to church and then she told us No because she was feeling sick and it was raining.... so randomly I said, "Well, if we can come pick you up in a car, will you go to church?" She said yes!!!! and then we realized that we didn´t have a car and we had just promised her that we would pick her up.... haha.... well... that´s when we started praying and calling members because church was going to start in about 20 mins.... We called and called and called.... and no one answered... we were freaking out!!! :) It was hilarious.... we felt helpless, but we didn´t lose hope. Finally a member that we had called, we felt to call him again, and he answered and he was soooooo willing to go pick her up and she came to church and loved it for a second time! We were so happy! Thank you Hermano Pozas!!!! :) We really felt like our prayers were answered!

We also had another experience that just left me crying with a mixture of frustration with saddness because I love our investigators so much..... We are teaching our investigator Sylvia and we planned a super great lesson about the Holy Ghost and we prayed about what member could go with us, and the hermana had hurt her leg but she was still so determined and excited to go with us to visit Sylvia. So we started teaching Sylvia and the member bore such a strong testimony of the Holy Ghost and the gospel and the importance of being baptized..... the spirit was as thick as molases in the room and it was obvious to see that Sylvia felt it too.... We challenged her to get baptized, but after thinking about it for about a minute of complete silence... she said no... she says she is afraid of water.... sigh.... We tried to help her understand and to help her, we testified and we know that she felt it.... but she is too afraid.... It was just so sad for me because we love these people so much and I know that she is just prolonging getting all of the blessing that God has in store for her. I left that lesson crying.... it is a feeling that is hard to describe... I imagine that it is a small sadness compared to the sadness that our Heavenly Father feels when we go astray in this life... But we are making plans to help her out!!!

I´m just so excited to be here in Chile working in the most amazing work ever.... The mission is just the most incredible experience ever... but I know that even though I´m going to be super sad to leave this amazing country and that they are probably going to have to drag me onto the plane to get home, I know that even more amazing adventure await me soon! Like I´ve heard from my mom and from others, the mission is like the MTC of life... and I´m excited to see what is in store. I love you all so much. Thanks for all of your prayers and support in these past 2 years. But we still aren´t done, so I´m going to finish out strong! I love you all so much! Have a fantastic week and I´ll see you soon!!!!

Con muchísimo amor,

Elder Garrétt

July 29, 2013

Hey there everybody!!!!

It´s been a really great and interesting week! And finally I can send some pictures!!!! Woot!!!

Well, an update on how things are going in my district.... Everything is going fine and normal... except that the Sister Missionaries in my district are fighting so much!!!! Sigh... The other leaders and the sister leaders that there are and I are all trying to find some solution to help the Sister Missionaries stop fighting and to just go to work. It makes things really interesting sometimes as a leader. So, the lesson there is that you should just try your very best to get along with everyone, and to not fight, because it is rather quite silly... especially with missionary work! :P

Well, officially this week Elder Miranda finished his training, so he is all ready to fly solo when I leave. He has been really fun to train, and I feel like I learned a lot more than he has. The teacher always learns a lot from the students, right? I couldn´t have been happier to be able to train him, it´s been quite the adventure.

This week we have been seeing a lot of miracles that have been happening in the sector. We´ve found a really good way to work with the members and we are getting a lot of support from everyone in the ward to be able to help out in the missionary work. Not to mention we were able to see some fruits to our efforts, we are recieving the blessings that we´ve been needing in our sector. We are finding new people to teach, we have someone who really wants to be baptized and is progressing to be baptized, we are seeing a greater number of people at church every week... things are just starting to go really well for us now. And we are just going to be working even harder to keep recieving this blessings so that we can help all of our sector come unto Christ!!!!! When things get great, then can get even better!!!! We just have to keep doing our part and trust in the Lord!!! It is His work!!!! :) 

Apart from that, we sang in a missionary choir for a 2 day youth activity. Part of the activity was cleaning the temple ground here in Concepción so that they can start construction on the temple. It was the first activity to start with the temple approved for the church, so hopefully really soon they will start the ground breaking ceremony and start construction!!!! :)

So, that´s the news and the scoop here in Chile! I love you all so much! Just keep us in your prayers as we continue to march in the Lord´s army here in Chile! I pray for all of you always!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

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July 22, 2013

Hey there everybody!!!!

This past week was a fun week, but also a difficult week... once again there are vacations here, so everyone leaves!!! haha!!! Vacations just make things a little bit difficult!!! But we aren´t getting our hopes down, we are just really excited to be working in the cold, rain, and with all our heart mind might and strength!!!!

We had a really.... I don´t know how you would describe it with one word... experience this week that I´d like to comment. It just goes to show that if we are doing what we should and we are trying to do our best, God will help us in HIS work and HE will use us to be instruments in HIS hands. One night this week after praying to start our planning for the next day, we felt the impression to stop by the Bishops house the next day. We had little idea as to why we needed to go to the bishops house, but we put it down in our agenda. Well, the next day passed by as normal and amazing as ever, and then when the hour came to go to the Bishop´s house, we went... The Bishop wasn´t home and neither was his wife, but his son Ricardo was home! He let us in and we started talking with us. Well, to make a long conversation short, after a bit of talking with him, he told us that he knows now that God loves him. It was a random comment, so we asked him why he knew that now.... He told us that about an hour before he was thinking about committing suicide and he was really going to go through with it... but he prayed to know if God loved him... and then we showed up and he felt the spirit testify to him why we were there sharing a message with him that God really is looking out for him. We testified of God´s love for us and he was really grateful... I´m really grateful too that we payed attention to the spirit to guide us to visit him exactly when we needed to be there. We left there saying a prayer thanking our Heavenly Father for that experience... and I´m so grateful that we payed attention to something so small... I don´t want to know what would have happened if we hadn´t of planned or not showed up.... 

So apart from that, we have found a new way to help the members help us in Missionary work. We are going to the houses of some members that we choose and we share a small video with them from a Conference that happened at the start of this month. We are seeing a little bit of a difference in the ward, the work is starting to grow here... we just need a few more people to teach! But that´s just how missionary work is sometimes! We just have to push forward with faith and we´ll be blessed! I hope that all of you are doing well! i´m not sure if I´ll be able to send pictures this week... my computer is freaking out a little bit! haha! I love you all!!!!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

July 15, 2013

Hey there everybody!!!! Thanks for all of your prayers for me this past week when I was sick... I got better right away! :)

Well, this past week was like a roller coaster for Elder Miranda and I, we had a lot of things that we had to do!

Well, first of all, we have been able to find a few more investigators finally. We are being blessed for all the searching that we have been doing since we arrived in the sector, so we are really excited and really happy for everything that we are recieving in our Lord´s Vineyard. My comp and I were able to set some really good goals and plans to help out our investigators and to help out the ward, and we are seeing the results. 

We had 114 people in Church this week... when we arrived we were lucky to see 70 at church... we´ve been reactivating a lot of inactive families and we are super happy to see that everyone is coming back to church, even if it is a small portion of all the inactives. So we are really excited to see the fruits of some of the work.

We also had a great experience to be able to see how much help the members can be in Missionary Work. We have an investigator named Sylvia (I´m sure I´ve mentioned her), who stopped progressing because her son (a recient convert) started to go astray. So, my comp and I talked and thought and prayed a lot to know what we should do to help her, and we felt like the only thing that would really help her to keep progressing would be getting her to have a better support system with members. So this week we put a goal to take the Relief Society President with us to a lesson with her... and MIRACLE!!!! She loved it so much, they instantly became friends, and she wanted to come to church so much. And for the first time since being in this sector, she went to church without her son AND she stayed for all 3 hours. It was a miracle! Members are such a bit help in the Lord´s work, it´s really neccesary!

This weekend, from Friday until Sunday, we also participated in an activity with the youth here in our stake where the youth were mini missionaries for 3 days and they did everything with us! I was with a youth named Gonzalo... he was baptized 3 months ago and was really excited to be able to have a missionary experience! He and I had a really great time together while my comp had his first taking the charge experience. Elder Miranda was really nervous but he did a great job! :) We are loving this work! 

So, that´s a bit of the news from this last week here in Chile. We had interviews with our Mission President, Presidente Arrington. He is a great man, and I´m so excited to have him as my new mission presidente! I love you all so much! You´re all so great! 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

OH!!!! And Feliz cumpleaños a mis hermanas KARLEY y BRITTANY!!!!!! Las amo muchísimo!!!!!!! :)

July 8, 2013

Hey there everyone!!!!

Wow, I can´t believe that another week has passed by already. Elder Miranda were able to get a lot done this week.

This past week officially we were apart of the Chile Concepción Mission.... it is a little different, and it seems like all of the missionaries are a little more sad or serious or something.... haha, it´s just a little more different than what I´ve been used to in the mission up until now. We had a chance to get to know our new mission President... He is from the U.S., Presidente Arrington. He is a really nice person and during the conference we had with him I recieved a confirmation from the spirit that he really is my mission President and that he has the keys of this mission during this time. I had been praying to know so that it will be easier working under a different command, but I´m happy to say that I recieved my answer, so I´m pretty excited. 

It was a bit of a rough week in general, I was really sick with a bunch of mucous and phlegmn in my throat and lungs and such, but now I am almost completely better. It only made working in the freezing cold and in the rain a few days a little more interesting, but I love every moment of it. I wouldn´t rather be anywhere else during this time. 

With our investigators, it was a tough week also... a lot of them it was so hard to find them and some of them left town because now the Chileans are entering there Winter Break... so we spent the week looking for a lot of people too. We are starting to teach a new family that is really nice and they are really excited to listen to our message, so we couldn´t be happier! ^_^ We also ended up contacting a new person that lives in our ward boundries now that in another place he had been going to church for a year and meeting with the missionaries, but he never got baptized... so we will see what happens there with him in this next week! ^_^ 

So, other than that it was a pretty normal week, teaching, trying to help others come unto Christ. Elder Miranda and I felt really good about this last week because we focused in on a few inactive families and the church asistance went from a normal 60-70 people in church to 100+... so we were really happy to see that we are doing some good in the ward here! ^_^ I also taught one of our investigators to make sushi and banana bread! It went really well! 

Well, I love you all so much! You are all so great and thank you so very much for all of your prayers and everything! It really helps out here! I know that Christ lives and that because of his Atonement we can all live better lives and change! I hope you all have a fantastic week! Never forget that prayers really are heard and answered! ^_^

con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

July 1, 2013

Hey there everybody!!

Can you believe that I´ve made it to my last cambio? 6 weeks left... I don´t want to think in that much! Haha

So, right now I don´t feel very well, I woke up not feeling that good at all. My throat hurts, but I was able to gargle some salt water and I´m feeling a bit better! I´m sure that soon I´ll feel fine, but I´m so happy to be a missionary and nothing will stop me from finishing my mission up the best I can.

This past week flew by, and we were able to see some progress with some of our investigators. There is one person we have been teaching named Nancy. She still is waiting to move out of her house to get baptized, so while she has been waiting to move out, we´ve been focusing in on the importance of reading the Book of Mormon. For the past two weeks we have been sharing about the importance of reading the scriptures and she has just never been reading, until finally we found out yesterday that she is addicted to reading the book of mormon. In the past few days she´s read a lot and she loves it! She told us that she didn´t know it would be such an emotional book! Haha, so we were so happy to hear about that!

Apart from that, we have been making some good plans to help out one of our investigators, Sylvia. She wants to get baptized but she refuses to get baptized because of things that her Mom says to her and her son hasn´t been a very good example for her as a new member of the church. So we are finding the way to help her out. We´ve been gaining her confidence by having her teach us how to knit a little and we are planning on getting her another support system in the Relief Society so that she can feel more support taking the decision of getting baptized.

Apart from that, we´ve been trying to get the Ward excited about missionary work, but it´s a little difficult without the support of our bishop, but we are doing our best to serve him and to help him out so that he can understand the importance of sharing the gospel. It rained a lot in this past week, but we had a great time in the rain, I don´t mind it one bit!

So, today officially I´m a part of the Chile Concepción Mission... my last 6 weeks I´ll be in another mission... weird. One of our Zone Leaders is from the other mission and is like a robot... he only cares about baptizing people, it is definitely a different vision than what Presidente Martinez has. But, we´ll just have to see how things go in these last 6 weeks. Elder Miranda and I are really excited to work and to help our investigators progress! We´re doing our part, so we will be blessed with the things we need! 

I hope that you are all doing well!  I love you so much! Happy 4th of July in a few days!!!! I made some sushi the other day, yum!!! :)

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

 

June 24, 2013

Hey there everybody!!!

Wow, what a week, it passed by quickly as always, but it was such a fun week and we were able to make a bit more progress with some of our investigators! Woot!!!

Unfortunately I don´t have much time due to a Special Mission Conference with Presidente Martinez, but I´ll get to that in a second. 

This week we had a bit of rain on the first day of Winter, it just had to happen that way. In my last district of my mission we have a few missionaries from the other mission that are now in our zone, they are a lot different, it seems like all the missionaries from our mission are a lot more happy, but hey, we´re happy to have them!

This week it was so funny. We are teaching an investigator named Sylvia. She knows that the church is true and she knows that she needs to get baptized, but she just kinda tries to ignore and neglect it, but we had an amazing lesson with her. We decided to teach her the plan of Salvation with drawings that I have made. At first she just laughed and said that she didn´t want to learn with pictures because that is what little kids do, but we taught her anyways with drawings and she understood a lot more than before and really opened up her feelings to us. So we gained a confidence boost with her and she is a little closer to taking the decision to be baptized! :) 

We also had a family home evening with another investigator and her family. It went really well and everyone, her, her kids and the member family that was with us, all participated a lot in everything! We taught about miracles and faith and in the end we heard some great news that she is looking for a job again to be able to move from her house to get baptized. It´s a complicated situation, but things are progressing, so we are happy about that. 

Other than that, we had a lot of adventures in the rain, the wind, and trying to find a lot of new people to teach. We got lost up in a hill trying to find some people to teach, but Elder Miranda and I aren´t getting our hopes down, we know that soon we will be so blessed in our sector! God will open the windows of the heavens and bless us.

Well, apart from that, I loved the big world wide leadership meeting last night... really words can´t describe how happy I felt listening to the profets and recieving inspiration from the Holy Ghost. I cried a good few times and it just makes me even more excited to work with the members and to get the Lord´s work moving. If the Chileans would just start doing what they should be doing, the church would be a powerhouse here in Chile. I´m also really excited to work in the missionary work when I get home! :) Also, to make this week complete, today we had a special meeting with Presidente and his wife. We ate lunch with them (all the missionaries that are going to the other mission) and we all said goodbye and it was amazing. He spoke final words to us and taught us things that will help us in the rest of our lives after the mission. 

So that was my week, I love you all so much, I hope you are all well and I can´t wait to see you all soon, but until then, I have to finish helping in the Lord´s work here in Chile. Take care!!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

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                      ~Scott Garrett~                      

~Happiness is a Choice, not a circumstance!~