May 13, 2013

Hey there Everybody!!!

Well, here I am again, another quick week has passed!!!

I´m here again in my first sector and it is really weird to be honest. I love it and I love the people here and it is great to see that everyone was really happy to have me here in the Ward again. A few of my investigators from when I started the mission are still my investigators now, and some of the people who I taught are members now! I´ve been able to catch up with a lot of the members and together we are starting to work well to edify God´s kingdom here in Esmeralda. In the end it was a little hard to have to leave Galvarino after so many months, but I am already used to living here in Esmeralda, so it wasn´t a completely new change.

And here I am with my second son in the mission, Elder Miranda. He is from Peru, my first Peruvian comp. And only my 4th latin american comp. Wow! He questions why I speak with an argentine accent if I´m from the U.S.... it makes me laugh! I just told him that I´m an "Argengringo". That´s the best and simplest way to explain why a gringo in Chile talks like someone from Argentina.

Well, he is a newbie in the mission but has a lot of desires to work and to progress and to help our investigators, I´m so happy for that! He is so willing to learn how to do all of the things we do as missionaries, and I´m so happy to teach him and to help him progress. We don´t have many investigators at all in this moment, so this next week will be a lot of us searching for families to teach. I want to help so many people!!! I love the mission so much.

It´s pretty chilly here in Talcahuano, just how I remember it from last year during this time, but I love it and it isn´t stopping me one bit from working as hard as I can. Yesterday apart from seeing my family and being able to talk with them for mother´s day and for my dad´s birthday, (I love you all so much, it was so great to see you all!!!!) I was also able to see a missionary from this ward who is serving in Peru that my trainer and I reactivated when I first came to Chile. He thanked me for helping him come back to church, and now he is in the Lord´s work too! :) That was an amazing experience, we never know what impact we will have in the lives of others!

Well, today we had interviews with Presidente Martinez, I always love my interviews with him. We talked about how I´ve been in the mission, spiritual experiences, and just how amazing the Lord´s work is. I value every moment I have to talk with him. I cried a lot bearing my testimony to him, I felt the spirit very strongly with him... I´m really close to him in the mission. He thanked me for all that I´m doing as a missionary and that he has been grateful to have known me and to have had me in the mission. He just wants me to be me always and to be the happy me that I am to help others! I agree! I always want to be crazy and happy! :)

So, that´s all that´s been happening! Also, I´m including pictures of the same house where we are, but it had a small upgrade... it is still a little shack, but a lot better from when I arrived! I love you all so much! Until next week!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

May 6, 2013

Hey there everybody!!!

Well, another week gone, and now I´m moving on from this sector to what will be my last sector I´m sure... So the adventure in the mission field continues! As I write, I am filled with emotion and lots of memories of this sector of Galvarino... finaly it is starting to get cold here just as I am leaving... The winter time is finally coming to greet me! ^_^

Well, this past week was a really nice week.... it went by so quickly with our normal district meetings, a Mission Conference, weekly planning, english class, etc. There were so many activities that the only time we weren´t doing a thing was sleeping! It was so fast paced and we were able to get a lot done with our investigators.

We had a lot of success in the ward this past week... aside from my comp going on a "YOU HAVE TO DO THIS OR ELSE" spree with some of the lessons.... he doesn´t have patience with the people we teach....but it is an interesting learning experience. Nothing gets done if you don´t teach with love! ^_^ But we were able to leave a lot with the members to get them excited about sharing the gospel and the things in this ward are finally starting to take root in the hearts of the members. So the work of the Lord in this sector will finally grow into something huge now! ^_^ I´m more than happy to have helped with that! We were also able to put 8 baptizm dates for the near future with our investigators, so hopefully Elder Swensen will be able to do everything well. He is going to recieve a lot of responsability really soon... he´s going to train a newbie, and be district leader for the first time.... He´s really nervous, but I´m sure he will do well!

This past week was also my Birthday! Thanks for all the birthday wishes! ^_^ It poured on my birthday! I was really happy about that! I love the rain!!!!! It was a really nice present. And aside from that, Elder Swensen was able to throw a surprise party for me with a really nice family that I love so much. We reactivated them, and two sisters in the family are doing their mission papers to go on a mission! Woot! It was a wonder birthday and we ate a lot of food, there were presents and such, it was just wonderful. I really wasn´t expecting it at all. I was so happy.

We had some really great lessons too with our investigators and some people came asking to be baptized, so that was pretty awesome. This really is the Lord´s work and he is constantly preparing people to recieve the gospel. Sometimes I just laugh because God does things so much better than we do! ^_^ We are also in the process of helping a family be completed in the gospel. The father in the family is a drunk, the mom is super nice but not a member, and two kids are active members. We were finally able to get the father to listen to us and he really has desires to change his life because the family is going through some hard times. The came to church and stayed for all the hours and they really liked it... so we will see what we can do to help them get to the temple one day! ^_^ The gospel really does change lives!!!

Well, here is my cambio....

First: I´m going to continue as District Leader...

Second: I´m going to be training.... AGAIN....

and Third: I´m going to go back to my very first sector in the mission in Talcahuano, Esmeralda.

I´m filled with lots of thoughts and feelings.... but they are all good. I´m really excited to train and to be able to go to my first sector. I´m going to hit the ground running there this time because I know everyone and I know the sector. It´s going to be great. So, here I am in my last 12 weeks of the mission... how the time flies! I love you all so much! God loves us always!!!! Take care! Happy Mother´s day Mom, and happy birthday Dad on mothers day! I can´t wait to see you all family!!!

Con mucho amor, Elder Garrett

April 29, 2013

Hey there everybody!

Well, this past week passed by extremly fast! I can´t believe that the month of April is done for as well! Time is a really weird thing!

Well, first things first.... This last week I had a chance to baptize a youth in our ward! He isn´t one of our investigators.... nor is he an investigator... it is a rather silly story! It turns out that Pancho (the youth) has always gone to church since he was a little kid because his family is all active and such. "Supposedly" he was baptized when he turned eight years old... but no one in the ward remembered his baptizm and there weren´t any photos and he didn´t even have a record of membership! So in the end I had to do the baptizmal interview for him (because he is in the sector of the other missionaries in the ward) and he asked me to baptize him. We´ve been really good friends from the first day that I arrived at this sector, so I felt really honored to be able to baptize one of my good friends. It was a really special experience for me! ^_^

Apart from that, the Hermanas in my district also had a baptizm and the Zone Leaders in my district had another baptizm apart from Pancho. So my district was on fire this week! The Hermanas were going through some hard times, but I did a baptizmal interview of one of their investigators and she was baptized yesterday and it was an amazing spiritual baptizm! So now the Hermanas are really excited to keep working to help others come unto Christ!

Well, this is probably going to be my last week in this sector.... I´ve been here for about 6 months now. That´s a long time, but I love it here! If I leave I´m going to miss the people here... we´ve seen a lot of miracles in the ward and a few of the youth that I´ve left with to teach and that we are strengthening are either working on their mission papers or they are waiting for thier mission calls. How sweet is the Lord´s work! ^_^ It really is something unexplainable and just so incredible!

Apart from that, unfortunately our investigator Matias didn´t get baptized. His Mom was being a little stinker and she isn´t going to give him permission to get baptized any time soon. But I´m stll praying and hoping for a miracle.... I know miracle exist and that our Heavenly Father can do anything. So, we will just have to be patient and keep working hard to help him and his Mom out!

We are also teaching English! It´s so much fun! ^_^ Haha, Elder Gato even helped us out! I love you all so much! I hope you are doing well! Take care always!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

 

April 22, 2013

Hey there Everyobody!

This past week was really amazing! ^_^ I had a lot of fun experiences!

First of all... we had another mission conference with the whole mission.... and also I was able to go to a leadership meeting with a General Authority.... Elder Zwick from the Seventies. Elder Zwick was the mission president of Presidente Martinez when he was a missionary, so that was a really cool experience to hear some stories from both of them! I love it when General Authorities come to the mission... and I love when I can hear our Presidente Martinez talk.... the spirit is so strong when then teach and talk. It feels just like General Conference but all up close and personal and really interactive. You learn so much! In one of the closing hymns, we sang "called to serve" and it really sounded like we were surounded by angeles that were singing along with us. It was a powerful experience for me. Elder Zwick also showed us a picture of how the new temple here in Concepción is going to look like. I recieved a confirmation from the spirit that really it was going to be like that. It was amazing!

So, aside from that the things are going well in our sector. If all goes well this week, we will be able to baptize our investigator, Matias. He is preparing really well for his baptizm, but he has a few little fears that he won´t be able to keep on doing the right thing afterwards... but we are going to help him out all this week so that he takes the decision. We also had a funny experience.... at least pretty funny for me. We went to visit a less active family.... and supposedly we went to visit the correct house.... but it really wasn´t. We stopped by a few times during the week, but no one came out or they weren´t home.... but we kept on passing by. In the end the mother of the family came out and greeted us and was really nice and my comp thought that she was a member.... but I felt like she wasn´t. Anyways, she let us into the house and we shared with her, her husband, and her two kids and my comp started to share with them about how happy he was that they are members and that they need to come back to church so that they can be sealed in the temple and such.... I couldn´t stop him to tell him that they weren´t members.... in the end, the father asked if we were Jehova Witnesses or Evangelicos or from some other church.... I really wanted to laugh, it was a rather silly situation... but in the end we had a great lesson with them and from all the confusion we found a new great family to teach! ^_^ That makes me so happy!

Anyways, so apart from that, I also recieved the packages you sent me for my birthday! Thank you all so much! Thank all of you in the ward too for all of the fun birthday messages that you wrote on my apron. The members all love it! I´ve already had a few opportunities to help out in the kitchen! ^_^ I love you all so much and I miss you all! But the work progresses and I´m so happy to be here in the Lord´s vineyard to be bringing souls to our Saviour. I love you all so much! Take care, until next week! 

 

April 15, 2013

Hey there everybody!

I know I probably say this everyweek, but time just keeps going by so quickly here! SLOW DOWN!!!!! Haha, well, life goes on!

This last week was kinda crazy. It rained a few days, and then other days it has been pretty hot during the middle of the day and pretty cold during the morning and nighttime. But that is just how life is in Chile sometimes!

This week we have been working pretty hard with a few of our investigators to help them come to church so that they can progress and recieve the blessing of the gospel in their lives. We are getting a lot more help from the members in our ward, but in the end, none of our investigators showed up to church which was kinda really sad.... not depressing by any means, but it makes you feel sad in your spirit, you know? You really start to love the people you teach so much and all you desire is that they can feel the joy and happiness that you feel in your life in the gospel. We are teaching one family that is super awesome. It is a family of four and the little girl who is 11 years old is so smart and so willing to complete all of the invitations that we make for the family. She has already prayed to know if the book of Mormón is true and to know if Joseph Smith is a profet and she has recieved her answer already. She was so excited to go to church, and even a member family was going to go pick her up to go with her... but in the end the family wasn´t there... so we don´t know what happened. We are just going to help them out more so that they can feel the spirit in thier lives so that they can progress!

This last week I also had the opportunity to give a few blessings of health to people in the hospital. We recieved a call from a Sister in our ward that we needed to go to the hospital to bless her daugther who is pregnant, because she was really really sick. So we arrived and in the end, we were able to bless her and a few other pregnant women that were there in the same room that were having complications with their babies. It was really interesting to see that even though the other women were from other faiths, they could see us as servants of the Lord and they had the faith that we were able to help them out in there moments of need. It was a really spiritual experience.

We also had two opportunities this week to go to different wards in the stake to be able to do an "attack" in the ward with lots of missionaries and the members to go visit a lot of less active members to invite them back to church and to see how they are doing and to help them out. It was really special to see a lot of the members come together to help out in the mission work and to look for and visit the lost sheep in the fold of our Shepard. Yesterday I was paired up with Elder Lengruber, so that is why I have a picture taken with him! It was really fun to work with him again, even just for a day. We met some really interesting people who didn´t want to listen to a word we said, but we still enjoyed every moment of it. I love being a missionary, even if others don´t like what we share, but I know it´s true and that is why I keep on going!

Well, I hope you are all well and that all is well back at home! I can´t believe that in less than a month I´ll be able to talk to you all again my family! It felt like I just did though! Haha... I don´t know what I´m going to say because when I talk with you, I´ll be home in like 2 1/2 months! Haha.... until next week I suppose! I love you all so much! Take care!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrett

 

April 8, 2013

Hey there everybody!

First of all, you will have to forgive me that you won´t be recieving any pictures today, I forgot to bring the connector for my SD card.... so you will all just have to wait until next week! How fun! The suspense!!!!

Well, this past week went by really fast again.... I realized the other day that I only have like 16 weeks left in the mission field... O.o Yikes! I don´t like those thoughts at all! It just kinda slaps you in the face and giggles... oh time, you´re so funny sometimes! :P Sigh, it is a little depressing, but I´m at the same time filled with so much energy to work and to help as many people as I can in Chile! ^_^ I love being a missionary!

Welllllllllllllllll, moving on, this past week we have been seeing a lot of small miracles happening. We are finding a few great families to teach! I don´t know if I shared this story, but last weekend we ate some seafood for lunch, so I needed a mint or some smelly good stuff for my mouth so while we were walking around we decided to go into a small store to buy some mints. While we were there we shared a message with the owner of the store and she told us to come by a different day. It turns out that like 11 years ago she and her family had shared with missionaries. Well, this week we had 2 awesome lessons with them about the restauration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They are so interested in learning more and they are so kind and friendly! I´m so excited to be teaching them!

It seemed like the spirit was with us super strong this week, perhaps in preparation of General Conference? We invited so many people to hear the profets voice and to be able to know that God has restored his church in these last days and that revelation exists, etc. I love being able to testify that Profets exist, that they communicate with our Heavenly Father and that this is the only true church that exists in all the earth. I know that President Monson is a profet of God. We have also focused in a lot in our teachings about eternal families and eternal happiness. It´s funny that a lot of what you study turns out to be exactly what your investigators need.... well, that´s not funny at all! That is revelation! I love feeling the influence of the Holy Ghost in my life!

Well, although we invited so many people to go to General Conference, only one of our investigators showed up unfortunately.... It made me a little sad because they all missed out so much on feeling the spirit and recieving revelation. I loved General Conference, I learned so much and I felt so much happiness and peace for my life as a missionary and for what awaits me in a just a few months.... life. It was honestly really hard not to think of my future hearing almost all of the talks about eternal families, marraige, etc... but luckily they also talked so much about how every member needs to be a missionay and share the gospel! I think I´m just going to keep being a missionary forever :P But really it was so wonderful and spiritually uplifting to hear all of the messages that there were. I feel so spiritually energized and ready to just keep on going and to live life to its fullest, as a missionary now and in the near future. I recieved so much instruction from the Lord that it is so hard to take it all in! Haha, I´m just going to have to study my notes and start applying everything in my life. ^_^ I love General Conference! I really hope that all of you were able to pull something out of it and really enjoy it! I can´t believe that next general conference I´ll be back at home with my family! I love you all so much! I hope you are all well! Elder Swensen and I are just going to keep working hard here to help everyone come unto Christ! I know our saviour lives! Until next time!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt

April 1, 2013

Hey there everybody!

Well, first things first.... Happy Easter everyone!

And secondly, if you are wondering why there are pictures of a busted up car, let me explain a really random story from this last week! Well, Elder Swensen and I were just minding our own business teaching a family, when all of a sudden we hear a loud scream and something really hard hitting the side of their house. Obviously everyone wanted to know what was going on, so we all looked out the window and there was a crazy drunk man with a beer bottle hitting the front of the car. Well, in the next 20 seconds, pure destruction. This man with his bare hands was able to smash in the windshield, two side windows, and the back window of a car... not to mention he dented up the side of the car pretty well too with his super kicking abilities. It was quite impressive if you ask me! Well, we were all really confused and it happened so quickly. The neighbors were horrified as they watched him destroy this car and the he just left in a drunken rage. We asked why in the world he would do that, and it turns out that a day earlier he had crashed into the back of a different car causing minimal damage... but he didn´t want to pay for the repairs... so, for him destroying another car was the best choice to get himself out of that situation! Haha... so, lesson learned... really drinking and driving doesn´t cause all of the car accidents that happen in the world!

Anyways, continuing on with more important and less crazy things. This week has been a real test for me, but nothing too terrible. After a lot of prayer, I was able to really know where we needed to split the sector in half for the other two missionaries who came to the ward. It really is weird working in the same ward with two other missionaries, and it is weird not being able to cross a certain street of the ward boundries because it is the sector of the other two missionaries. But the work is progressing very well and we are doing our very best to help others come unto Christ.

This last week was the Semana Santa... or the holy week that about all of Chile celebrates. They all spend the long weekend partying and watching religious films on the television. They also for the most part only eat seafood... I have no problem with that, but Elder Swensen was suffering a little bit for that. He doesn´t like seafood at all. Although we are searching for new investigators... which my comp doesn´t like to do too much... so it makes things a little interesting sometimes. I have to help keep Elder Swensen excited about talking with people, planning our day and such. With 6 missionaries in the house it seems like he is taking on a different form... so we will just have to wait and see what happens. This week however we were able to find a really nice new family that had met with missionaries 10 years ago in Santiago. We have another meeting with them tonight, so we are really excited!

These week has also been a little hard for me because of the really sad attitude that some members have with other members that are trying to change their lives and do what is right. I really want to teach a few of the members who have more time in the church the principle of forgiveness and that they need to not talk really really terrible smacktalk about things that they shouldn´t be involved with... so much gossip! It saddens me a lot.... sigh... so it has been an emotional week only for that and the fact that I could focus my studies even more in the Atonement of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Well, I just want to let you all know that I love you and that I hope that you have a fantastic week! Make sure you enjoy General Conference! Be thinking of something that you want to learn, or some question that you need answered in your life! I know that God will give you the revelation that you need! This gospel is the only true gospel that exists and I know that Christ lives! I love you all so much! Ciao!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Garrétt