February 18, 2013

Hey there everyone!

Well, this week Elder Phelps and I ended up finishing up the doodles of the rest of the missionaries in the house... or in other words, Elder Phelps and I! Haha, how fun for us!

Well, the weather is finally cooling down here... the weather I think is super confused and bipolar. The majority of the week it has been pretty cold with rain and lots and lots of wind. I´m hoping that the Summer is finally getting the hint that I´m done with the heat and I need the Fall time! Hooray! So now it is a little more comfortable walking outside all day.

In other news, this week has been kinda crazy with everything. We had little time to do anything the first half of the week because we had a lot of meetings to go to and a mission conference. The mission conference was super great, Presidente Martinez talked about how the second coming is definitely getting closer because the Lord´s work is speeding up and the need for more missionaries has increased drastically. He also talked a lot about the Gathering of Isreal and the othere promises that the Lord gave to Abraham. It definitely made me reflect more about the many promises that God has made and the many profecies that are being fulfilled in our time... but nothing to get scared about! :) How great a time to be a missionary to help the work of the Lord progress!

Well, apart from a lot of meetings and a mission conference that took up an entire day, we have been hunting for a new house to be able to hold a total of 6 missionaries. Presidente Martinez informed us that we need to find a house because this next cambio 2 more missionaries are coming to Galvarino.... so we have been house hunting! We just might of found a house... and today we are going to stop by to look at it from the inside... but from the outside it looks like it will work just fine! So we will have to see how that goes for us!

Well, in the mission we have all taken an oportunity to recieve a blessing super grande! And I´m extending this invitation to all of you, friends, family, whoever reads this big email bloggy thing. The challenge is to read the Book of Mormón in 3 months. It is possible if you read at least 3 chapters every single day for 3 months, now that isn´t too hard is it? Nope! If you read more than 3 chapters a day you´ll be able to finish it faster! Okay, here is the really great part... the blessings that you´ll recieve if you do accomplish reading the Book of Mormón in three months.

The blessings are as listed:

1. A more profound testimony of our Saviour and a greater love for him.

2. A renewed desire to keep the commandments of God.

3. A greater portion of the spirit will be poured upon you in your life!

I don´t know about you, but I think those are some great blessings to recieve... Please do it!! I´ve taken the challenge and already I feel so blessed in my life!

Well, I have to go to a special meeting on Wednesday this week with Presidente Martinez, the assistants, and a bunch of other random missionaries from all of the mission... so I´m guessing it has to do with this next cambio that is going to happen in the next week. I have a few guesses of what is going to happen... but I will just have to wait and see! Elder Manzanos is getting a little more excited about working everyday, so progress! Woot!

I love you all so much! I hope you are all doing great! Until next Friday!!!! Take care!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

February 11, 2013

 

Hey there everybody!

I hope you have all been well and enjoying the cold still! I imagine that things are starting to heat up a tiny bit... but not too much! Here things are going great, and 2 days ago we were delited to find that it got really cloudy and then it started to rain and rain and rain! Today it is still raining! SIGH!!!! Such a nice relief from the hot! The rain makes everything seem so much nicer and cleaner here in Chile! :)

So this past week I have still been battling the opposition, but the good thing is that things are getting better and a little more easier with my comp. I´m helping him to be a little less lazy everyday... so there is progress even if it isn´t as instant as instant oatmeal... but so much more satisfying... (I don´t like oatmeal....) So things will just keep continuing to progress, because if we aren´t progressing in this life we are just going backwards and nothing good comes out of that! :P

So, this last week we were able to have a few really nice things happen. We are seeing an increase in the excitement of a lot of the members to share the gospel and to help us visit people that we are teaching. Although in this moment we only have one investigator that has accepted a baptizm date, I´m so excited that everyone else we are teaching are right at the edge of accepting and that is really all they need to do! But that is the hard part, helping them see the blessing that they can recieve and to help the spirit be there in the lessons so that they have a real conversion that takes place in the hearts of the people... those types of conversions are the best!

So our convert Sheryl who was baptized in January, she told us a few days ago some awesome news! She is moving a little more down south in Chile! That is really good news and I see it as a blessing from God because she said that before being baptized everything was just going wrong in her life, but then after, the things just seemed to get easier and she felt God´s love. She´s been looking for a job for quite a while and right after getting baptized, and then finding an amazing job? I don´t think that is coincidence and neither does she. She is so happy and was bearing her testimony to us about that. It is great to see the promises in the scriptures come to life! When we follow our Heavenly Father´s commandments, he starts blessing us in our lives!

Well, so yesterday I reached my 18 month mark in the mission... wow... time is just flying by so quickly! I want to make the most of my mission everyday! I don´t want to stop and take a break and break the rules because that makes no sense to me... isn´t it better just to be happy that we can be serving God? The rest of our lives happen afterwards and I know that much more is waiting for me after... but now is the time and the place to do what I am doing and I have seen so many blessing in my life and in the lives of others that I am so excited to keep on going! So here I am, just working and loving the Lord´s Vineyard... and there is no stopping me from enjoying the Lord´s work, I´m going to miss it in 6 months more, I´m sure of that!

I love you all so much, and I hope you are all doing well! Keep sending the cold weather, I´m loving the rain! :)

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrett

 

Doodles of Elder Camargo and Elder Manzanos... Elder Phelps and I drew them together!

February 4, 2013

Hey there everybody!

Another week seemed to pass by so quickly! I´m still here in Los Angeles fighting the deathly heat! Where are the clouds and rain of the Chilean Wintertime?... oh, I suppose I still have to wait for a few months for the rain to come back! Jajajaja,

Well, as you can see from these pictures, we had another baptizm on Saturday! :) His name is Pedro York Estéfano Cheguan Contreras.... a very long name, but he goes by York. We found him looking for an inactive family on the ward directory, and we were able to work with the leaders of the ward to reactivate the parents while we were teaching the gospel to them and thier son. It was amazing to see the change in this family. Originally the idea was that his Dad could baptize him, but due to the chilean laws, the parents have to wait 9 months until they can get married now.... it´s rather strange, so the parents decided that it would be better to baptize their son now instead of waiting 9 more months. The incredible change was that in about 2 weeks the Mom was able to quit smoking entirely and the father stopped drinking. This really is the Lords work, and with the spirit we can accomplish great and marvalous things in our lives! :)

We are still facing a lot of opposition here in the heat of the summer... Everyone seems to be out of town and those who are still here are leaving! When I was with Elder Hinckley, about 80-90 members went to church every week... but yesterday there were only 46 who showed up to church... YIKES!!! The Bishop is a little disappointed with the members who should be showing up but they decide not too... but he is a very wise man and he was able to give a great testimony to the members about the Sabbath-day. This heat is not only affecting the members but a bit of my comp and another missionary in my District... they have been acting kinda a lot lazy lately.... it is a little frusterating when I want to go out and work and have fun working and to be able to teach and share and testify... but my comp doesn´t want to do all of that.... I have to help him out to see the importance of what we do. I love him to death, but he needs to snap out of this lazy stage! But I´m glad that when he does work, he can work with happiness. His excuse is that he is "old" in the mission... but I have less time left than him.... he is rather silly!

I´m just glad that I have a love for this work and that it is one of the funnest and most exciting things that I can be doing with my life in this moment. There is nothing sweeter than to see the gospel change the lives of others! I hope all of you are doing well and that you are having fun in the cold! I love you all so much! Take care!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrett

January 28th, 2013

Hey there Everybody!

Wow... another week gone... This past week has gone by so quickly! And we actually had a day with a bit of cloud cover here, so that was really nice! It is so hot.... I´m so ready for Fall time! :)

Anyways, this last week was a little strange. We had a lot of meetings, a lot of intercambios, and a lot of challenges in our sector, but we made it through in the end!

Summertime in Chile makes missionary work a little more difficult in some aspects... for example:

1. Everyone leaves out of town

2. The people that are still in there houses don´t want to leave their houses to answer the door

3. The number of members that go to church diminishes significantly

4. IT IS SO HOT!!!!! :P

Those are a few challenges that we face during the summer here in Chile... for that reason, I´m so ready for Fall time so that everyone can get back into the normal groove here (not that anything really is TOO normal in Chile anyways.... but I love it!). The only thing that I have really thought of to stop people going out of town is that we can go to the farm lands and burn everything... but we probably shouldn´t do that... right? Haha

Well, this past week we were able to make a few big accomplishments, even if we weren´t able to teach a lot of our investigators because almost all of them left out of town. What we were able to do was help the ward were we are at grow a little bit in a few great ways. We went to the bishop to ask him what we could do to help him in the ward, and he gave us a few names of members to go visit. So we dedicated some time to go visit the people he gave us and we tried to see what was going on. So what we were able to accomplish in the end was reactivate (or at least we hope that they are active now) a family of 5 who were baptized last year. We felt the spirit so strongly sharing with them and we were able to help them have a goal as a family to be able to go to the temple soon! Hooray! We were also able to reactivate the Elder´s Quorum President and his family.... they have been inactive for a few months now. It is sad how people go inactive for silly little disagreements in the church. Don´t we go to church because we love our Heavenly Father? Well, he came back to church with his family, so that was fantastic. And the other big thing that we accomplished is that we could help a brother in the ward understand the importance of the Priesthood, and now he is going to go to the bishop to have an interview with him so that he can have the Priesthood and that will be a big step for him and his family to have an eternal family.

I always love the opportunity to testify to the people, member or not, about the gospel and the blessings that we recieve from living the gospel. This really is a great and marvelous work that has come forth among the children of men. And for this reason we need to thrust in our sickles with all of our might to accomplish our Heavenly Fathers desires that everyone can gain the eternal life and live forever with him again.

Well, we have one investigator that we might be baptizing this weekend depending on what our bishop and his parents decide. The idea was that the father could baptize his son, but that won´t be able to happen for another 9 months... due to some laws in Chile over marraige. So depending on what the bishop and the parents say, we might just baptize him now... but if not, they are going to wait 9 months so that the parents can get married and so that the Hermano can be completing with the Law of Chastity to be able to use the priesthood. But we´ll see how that all works out.

So, that´s the update on how things are going here in Los Angeles, Chile. Maybe one day the heat will go away and that I can feel the nice cool air again! But until then, we are here fighting in the heat against the opposition. I love you all so much! I hope that you are all doing well! Today we ate huge completos as a district... 2 of them each one of us! They were so big and I´m still soooooo full.... haha! Until next week!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrett

January 21, 2013

 

Hey there everybody!

What a crazy and short week it has been... I don´t think the mission is ever going to slow down.

This last week was filled with craziness and miracles and the spirit. I did two intercambios this last week to get to know the sectors that are in my district and to know their investigators and all of that fun stuff. The really crazy part is that this week I recieved my new comp, Elder Manzanos. He is from Argentina and has one cambio less than I. We are getting along so well! I love the Argentine people, he´s my second comp from there, so no complaints from me! Why were these intercambios crazy? I had to leave our sector in the hands of Elder Manzanos, who doesn´t know much about the sector because he just got here and who doesn´t know any of our investigators or the members. But we have been working so hard and so great together this past week, and we are seeing the fruits of what Elder Hinckley and I were able to do in this sector to get it all nice and functioning.

On Saturday we were able to have a baptizm for our investigator named Sheryl. Sheryl was so excited to be baptized and she really did have a change in her life. It was a miracle to find her after searching for her for a month straight, but in the end, she still wanted to get baptized and the ward is helping us out so much so that she can remain active in the church... that´s the idea, right? The only way to recieve Eternal Life is to follow the Gospel of Jesus Christ and a part of that is Enduring to the End. The water felt so nice and cold... perfect for a hot day. The next day on Sunday I was able to confirm her a member too. She´s really happy and I´m so happy whenever I´m able to participate in an ordinance of the Gospel. Words cannot express the joy I feel when I can baptize someone and when I can confirm someone. It´s amazing, I love it! The best part of all of it is knowing that I´ve been an instrument in the hands of the Lord to help someone be apart of the fold of God.

Right now I´m extremely tired too... As a district we decided to go to a Volcano that is about an hour and a half away by bus, and then from there, we hiked 8 miles up and then 8 miles down to get to the volcano in the heat. It was so much fun! We left really early in the morning, we had to wake up at 5:30 to get to the bus station on time so that it could take us up there. It was quite a fun hike and pretty intense with the heat, the bugs, the adventure. It was a lot better than a normal zone activity of just playing soccer and eating food. We almost didn´t catch the last bus on time to take us back to L.A. from the Volcan Antuco, but by a miracle and with extreme heat and weary legs, we were all able to make it to the bus. Elder Gato enjoyed the hike too.... he hitch-hiked in my backpack like always!

Really a lot has happened this week, I don´t know what more I could share in this moment. I´m quite tired and my mind is all over the place.... I can´t believe that I almost have only 6 months left in the mission... Time is flying by way to fast! So here I am, in the ghetto L.A. of Chile! I love you all so much! Send me some rain or snow or at least some clouds! That would be wonderful! Take Care!

Con mucho amor, Elder Garrett

January 14, 2013

Hey there everyone!

I hope that all of you are enjoying your cold weather... it is just
getting even more hot everyday here! I don´t think I sweat this much
in Southern Utah in the boiling heat... maybe that is because I never
walked around in church clothes all day every day! Haha, hmmm... that
could be it... but who knows!

It´s been a great week to say the least... we´ve seen so many miracles
happening here, all the work that we have been doing since I got here
has been bringing the blessings that we are recieving now in the
sector. It´s been a great spiritual cambio with Elder Hinckley.
Starting from zero has been really fun and a lot of work... I´d rather
not have to do that again though! But we finally have some
investigators to teach and a few of them are progressing to be
baptized now.

We are actually going to have a baptism this Saturday. An investigator
that we have been trying to track down for like a month finally came
back from her vacations and she was passing through a really hard
time. We felt the urge to go visit her one night, even though we have
tried and failed so many times during a month... we could never find
her. But our prayers were answered and we found her basically crying
and even though she didn´t have time in that moment, we could set up a
meeting with her and we went and taught her and she wants to get
baptised to fill the empty space in her soul. Elder Hinckley, my cold
hearted killer of a companion, ended up crying in that lesson with
her... we´ve been praying for her for over a month now... it was a
great experience for him in the missionary work. And as always, an
amazing experience for me! Moments like that when we are really led by
the spirit shows us that this is the Lord´s work and he works in his
own ways. We are just his tools that get to do the work! I love it!
How great is the missionary work!

So she´s going to get baptized on Saturday, her name is Sheryl. She´s
a really nice person. The next Saturday we also have a baptizm planned
for an investigator named York. He is just a little kid, but we found
him through his inactive parents. He is progressing great and we
activated his family! We are also seeing a lot of miracles with other
investigators.... and we are working so well with the church members
in this ward. I love it here regardless of the heat!

Well, this cambio has ended and so has my short time with Elder
Hinckley... it was so much fun being with him, we worked hard to get
this sector prepared for the future. He is leaving the sector... but
I´ll still see him every week, because he is staying in the same zone.
I´m going to be with another Argentine, so I´ll get to work better
with my Argentine accent. haha! His name is Elder Manzanos... but I
don´t know him... so we´ll see what happens. I´m still district leader
and Elder Humpherys is in my district again! How fun!

Well, I hope that you are all doing well! I love you all so much! Send
me some cold please! I would love a bit of snow or at least some
clouds!

Con mucho amor,
Elder Garrett