October 22, 2012

Hey there everybody!

So Cambios have come in, and where in the world am I? Take a guess, quick!!!

Well, I´m in the same sector, and I´m with the same companion! Woot! I´m super excited that Elder Hughes and I can stay as companions for one more cambio. We are bother really excited, and we are working as hard as ever to make sure the 6 investigators that we have that have baptizmal dates that they are going to get baptized and have tons and tons of blessing from the Lord! The weather once again has been acting up... just when I thought that the rain would stop... nope! RAIN ATTACK!!! Haha, I do love the rain, but this mother nature lady is getting quite ridiculous!

So, as for interesting things that happened this past week? Well, Elder Hughes and I are still leading the zone with all the work that we are doing. Our zone has 3 baptizms this month... and they were from our sector. Our zone leaders called us to thank us for all the work that we have been doing and for being examples to the zone for all the work that we have been doing. We were the only companionship that completed with the norms of presidente with all of the goals for the week and such. I wish that the other missionaries would stop congradulating us and just go to work! Haha. This is the eternal salvation of the people here in Chile, so we should do our part to make sure they can recieve the blessings that we have! All I know is that Elder Hughes and I have found a great groove to work with, the groove of the spirit, and we aren´t going to slow down. This work is amazing and so important. I love being a missionary to help other out. The light in the eyes of the people and the change that I can see when they start feeling the influence of the spirit in thier lives and when they start to change is amazing.

Yesterday we were in our Ward Council meeting and Elder Hughes and I had to stop the meeting from ending just to help the leaders in the ward understand that the new converts are precious and they need to be taken care of. Just like President Hinckley said, All new converts need to have a calling, a friend, and to be nurished by the good word. Almost none of our converts have friends or at least members visiting them, we are the only ones nurishing them, and they don´t have callings. It was really sad that none of the leaders of the ward know that our converts are going through some really tough times. Camila has a kidney disease and her mom Andrea doesn´t have enough income to barely pay for food and she can´t really afford to buy all the medicine that Camila needs. That is just one of the things that are passing in the lives of our converts. So they all committed to help us out in the missionary work and to complete with thier duties that they have in thier callings. It was a sad, but happy meeting. But I hope things will be getting better now. I´m glad that the ward loves me more than enough to accept the suggestions that we have as missionaries that we found in the words of the profets... So hopefully they didn´t take it too hard! We shared our thoughts with love.

I´m glad that I can be in this sector still, all the members are really happy that Elder Hughes and I get to stay together for 6 more weeks. It´s going to go by so fast, so we are going to keep working hard to help as many people as we can! It´s going to be fun to work with all of the investigators that we have. There are a lot that we have to do, but when we are doing all that we possibly can, I know that the Lord will bless us with the spirit and that he will help us out with the things that we can´t do. I have a lot of fun teaching little kids with a small whiteboard that I have and that I´m able to draw pictures of what we are teaching to help them understand. Elder Hughes likes it when I draw, but he refuses the whiteboard when I hand it to him when it is his turn to teach, he doesn´t draw :P Haha. Oh well! I´m glad that we teach really well together, he has learned so much! I hope that means that I´ve been a good trainer!

Well, I love you all so much! I hope that you are all well and that all will be well! Take care always! Ciaó!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

Check out my fancy first 2 pairs of shoes! fun stuff! ouchy!

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October 16. 2012

 

Hey there everybody!

This past week seemed to fly by so quickly! (Seems like I always say that now :P) Wow, time is just flying by. This is the last week I might be with Elder Hughes... we are going to recieve cambios tomorrow and we are going to have to do our cambios on Friday... so this time cambios are coming a little sooner than usual! Elder Hughes and I have been asking Presidente Martinez every week in our emails to him if we can stay together another cambio... but whatever happens happens I suppose! We´ll keep working hard no matter what though!

We ended this past week with 5 baptizmal dates set up for November! So already we have a few people that are getting excited to get baptized here in our sector! ^_^ It is so much fun teaching the gospel! It was actually pretty cold this last week, but luckily we haven´t had to deal with a lot of rain. The rain should just end! My goodness, it just doesn´t want to stop! :P

This past week I had a lot of great spiritual experiences. We have an investigator named Monica that has had a really really hard life, and we had the impression to go visit her. When we got there she was just about to leave, but was having a lot of problems with depression and such and she expressed to us that she was thinking about killing herself... who knows if she was leaving to take her final walk of her life?! But we showed up and we were able to listen to her and talk to her and she had a change in her heart and she wanted a blessing from me. That blessing was super powerful, and I know that I said the words that our Heavenly Father had for her. She felt a lot better after that and was smiling and laughing. It was a really unexpected experience and I´m glad that we were able to pay attention to the spirit and that we found her at the right time.

Another spiritual experience that we had is that all of our plans fell through and we had no idea what to do for the last hour of our day. So after thinking of something random that we could do, we decided to go visit a recent convert that was baptized earlier this year. While we were walking up a road, I had an impression to stop walking and to go contact a door that we had already contacted before... and I remember that we got rejected there. Well, we went and knocked on the door and we found an 18 year old named Brayan. Brayan is an Athiest that has a lot of questions about if God really exists or not. He wants to know that if he exists because he said if God does exist, it would mean that he needs to change his life. He understands that God is someone important, so he wants to find out if he exists. I was so happy to know that he was willing to accept us and to listen to our message. We taught about God and read with him the experience of King Lamoni´s Dad in the Book of Mormon and the power of prayer. He committed to pray to know if God lives, so I am sure he will get an answer! We are going to stop by his house later this week to meet up with him again.

So, for all of you who read this letter, please, magnify your callings, or at least do the little bit that we are asked to do as members with our callings! It would make missionary work here a lot smoother if the members would help out and do what they should! It is frusterating sometimes when our converts and the less active members feel like we, the missionaries, are the only ones trying to help and support them... and really we are practically the only ones that are trying to do that. It is sad to see that a lot of the people here are lazy sometimes, but I love them so much and they are at least helping out a little. Just do your part! ^_^

Earlier today, we also went to a small zoo that they have here in Concepcion, that was fun! But I love you all so much! I hope you are all well and that you know that I love you! Make sure that you are always reading in the scriptures and all that fun stuff! Take care! Until next week!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrett

October 8, 2012

 

Hey there everybody!

Finally I´m able to email you all! Jaja! I hope you are all doing well!

So, how did you all enjoy General Conference? I loved it! ^_^ I´ve always loved General Conference, but being super focused in on the gospel as a missionary has helped me to have a greater love and opportunity to hear the profets voice and to recieve personal revelation. Can you believe that announcement about the missionary work? I don´t know why, but when I heard that announcement I started crying with joy! I just love and respect this work so much! I was filled with the spirit! I know that this is the work of the Lord and that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet called by God. I took so many notes and I just loved hearing all the messages of conference. I watched the whole entire conference in Spanish, because I like Spanish a lot, but all of the other Gringos went and watched it in English. Haha, they tried peer pressuring me into watching it in English... haha! Yeah right! :P How many other times in my life will I have a chance to watch General Conference in Spanish? Who knows! At least one more time! That´s for sure!

So not only did we have General Conference, but after the second session on Saturday, we had 3 baptizms! ^_^ Elder Hughes, Brayan (a youth from our ward.... it was his first baptizm), and I were all able to baptize someone! I was able to confirm 2! We baptized María, Anna, and Francisco. We were going to have a fourth baptizm, but the other grandson in the end wasn´t quite prepared like the other two grandchildren of Maria, so we are going to wait a little longer with him and just prepare him a bit more! But it was such a great experience to have a baptism right after general conference. I felt the spirit so strongly! I was so incredibly happy! I´m so glad that Elder Hughes and I are working hard and that we are seeing some fruits of all of our efforts. This truly is the work of the Lord and it brings a happiness that is undescribable!

Well, not all the happened in the past few weeks has been sunshine and happiness. We´ve actually had a lot of rain these past few days... We thought that the rain had gone away! And we have been working a lot in a really poor part in our sector filled with drunks and druggies that just have really terrible lives. It is so sad to talk with them and to see how they are trapped in a huge addiction. It only made me want to help them out more! We also saw a huge group of chileans fighting with rocks, and poles and sticks... it was crazy! And then at the start of one week we found a Drunk guy and took a picture of him... and then a couple more days later we found him again super drunk, passed out and vomiting... he sounded like he was dying and we tried waking him up so that he wouldn´t die in his sleep... but he wouldn´t wake up.... it was really sad! I hope he is alright!

Well, we are getting close to the end of another cambio... it´s so weird to think about how fast the time has been going by here in Chile! I honestly can´t believe that I only have 10 more months in the mission left now... And in two days I will complete my 1 year in Chile anniverasary! Haha. But I´m glad that I still have so much time to work and help the people here in Chile. I know that this Gospel is true and only by living the principles in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ will bring our salvation. I love you all so much! I hope you are all well and doing great! Until next week!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrett

October 1, 2012

Hey there everybody!

Sorry I don´t have as much time as I would have liked to write you this week. Instead of having a normal P-day, I had the opportunity to go to a Leadership Meeting for pretty much the whole day! Elder Hughes and I, and the work that we are doing is getting used as a good example for all of the missionaries. I´m just glad that we understand that this is the Lord´s work and that this is a grand opportunity we have to serve our Heavenly Father and to help our brothers and sisters return to live with him again. I hope you are all getting ready for General Conference this weekend! It´s going to be fantastic and a great opportunity to recieve revelation for our lives and the next 6 months! Elder Hughes and I are getting prepared to have 4 more baptizms to add to this spiritual weekend! ^_^ I hope you have us in your prayers and that you all understand that the work of the Lord can never be stopped by the power of Satan. He can never win, and I´m glad that I can be here fighting against the wicked influences of evil. I know that this is the only true church and the only path that will lead to Eternal Life. Always be grateful for your blessings and always remember that we are nothing without our Heavenly Father, but with his help we can really become like him one day and that there are no limits. We need to always be strenghtening our faith. I love you all so much, I will write more next week when I have more time! I love you all and I hope you are well! ^_^

Con mucho amor, Elder Garrett