December 9, 2009 Week 17

Hey everyone!

How is everybody doing this week? I hope all is well with everyone. So let me start with the usual of the letter then I'll get into the good stuff. I have not yet gotten my swine flu shot haha. Seriously it is just really hard to get it. We don't have any stores in our area and no way to get there. And I have been asking everyone and they are all telling me that the shot made them get the swine flu and I'd be better off not getting it. I pretty dang healthy right now. I don't even have a cold.

Hey Congratulations Nick and Bonnie! A little boy thats awesome. And his name is Grant? Is that right? Well I like the name. You'll have to send me a picture of him. And thats so good that Pete got into Washburn. It seems like everything is falling into place for you guys. Those are the blessings you get for staying faithful you guys. I'm sure the fam will be sad to see you leave, but at least its the best program for ya.

So it is so so so cold here. It has been in the single digits all week and the high sometimes gets up to 20 degrees. A member in the ward gave me a coat that I wear underneath the coat dad gave me. So that keeps me pretty warm. That scarf is a life saver and the ear muffs I got. Ya I wear ear muffs and a scarf. Never thought I would until I came out on my mission. But I am going to get some thermals today at wal mart because my legs are freezing. Unless that's one of the presents you sent me :)

Speaking of presents, thanks so much for the packages you all sent me. I got all 3 packages and I also got JoAnn's Christmas package and I got her chip package last week. You guys are awesome. That tree idea was great. We hung it up and put all the ornaments up too. Thanks for all the great notes everyone made in them too. We took a picture and we will send them off to you sometime this week. I do have some questions/comments on the presents though. First off thanks for the CD player and Josh Groban CD. It's so good. We have listened to it everyday since. So I guess I have to wait to open all the presents until Christmas huh. Except for the 12 days of Christmas ones. I already listened to that tape. That was great, thanks guys. I didn't know if I should listen to it now or on Christmas but I figured I'll talk to you on Christmas so I might as well listen to it now. The kids are talking so well now. Thanks for that picture you guys sent me too. The twins have changed so much. They look exactly like Makai. Its like you have triplets, just one is bigger and a boy, but they look exactly like Mak. That pictures great though. I hung it up in my room.

Okay so yesterday was zone conference. It was a lot of fun. We had a little talk from President Belnap and then we did a Christmas program. The assistant president of the mission and his wife did the Christmas story and there were a few missionaries who sang and played instruments and stuff. Then we had a slide show that a missionary put together. then we had a great lunch of ham and potatoes and other good stuff. And then we got to watch Forever Strong. It was a really good movie. I had never seen it before. And ya I saw a couple people that I knew, especially Dave Cole. He's in like every scene. But it was a ton of fun. We got a letter from the 1st presidency, a copy of the slide show on CD, and a picture of the mission with Elder Holland (although you can't see anyone in the picture because we are all so small). It was great. I also got to see a lot of the elders from my old district and zone and I saw Elder Olsen and Elder Smith. Elder Olsen is doing pretty good.

Alright so onto the best part of this email. 2 Sundays ago Elder Cashin and I decided to do a fast for our investigators and just for our missionary work. And the blessings just poured out to us after that. I will name off everything that happened. First was the Storms who we tracted into and then he came back and apologized and told us to come in. We taught him again and he is really interested. We also met a former investigators family and they want to learn more too but after the holidays. We had an awesome lesson with another investigator and the spirit was way strong it was amazing. He doesn't believe that Joseph Smith saw God and Christ face to face. We talked about Moses and how he did too. He got really emotional and said he will pray about it. Huge progress for him. Then we went to see a potential investigator. When we showed up he was really excited and we taught him for 3 hours! We have another appointment with him this week. Vien wants to take the lessons still and she came to the Christmas party. She is also going through a really hard time and we had a fantastic lesson with her too. She was just bawling during our lesson, but we were able to help her through the Book of Mormon. She doesn't get the concept of prayer so we taught her that and she is going to do it. We called the people who went to Elder Holland and two of the members are working with the people. We found out there is a part member family and the wife who is a non member wants to take the lessons. I got a coat on the coldest day of the year so far. At church a lady called us up and said she wants to take the lessons again. We have no idea who she is. Ya this week has been way good. I didn't even think about it until recently but I know its because we fasted. Anyway I hope everyone is good and that they are having a fun and happy holiday season. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Garrick