Elder Garrick with Adrian Sandavol and Elder Cashin
Adrian Sandavol and his family, wife Angie, his little girl Bella 3 yrs. and Jaron 1 yr.
Hey everyone!
So I sent that letter to the family, but for everyone else who doesn't know, I got my first baptism on Saturday! It was Adrian Sandavol. He has been investigating the church for years. His wife is a member and he has two kids. But we started to teach him shortly after I got to Pasco. He has changed a lot and he is a whole new person. We had some amazing lessons with him that I know I have talked about in past emails. Well 2 Sundays ago we put him on date for January 23rd. We met with him again on Wednesday and he asked if he could be baptized this Saturday. We said he could so we got everything planned out and it all went great. He was baptized by a friend in the ward who is a major reason why he was baptized and then he was confirmed by his father-in-law. Elder Cashin and I got to be part of the confirmation. It was great. I sent some pictures of us with Adrian and of his family. They are amazing people. Adrian's family isn't too supportive of this, but his sister did come. I don't what else to say about it haha. It was just amazing and it felt so good to see that someone who I have been teaching has changed so much and has made this commitment to God. He is so happy now and so is his family.
Well in other less good news, this week has been pretty rough for us. The Storms, one of our best progressing investigators, decided that they want to try some other churches for a while and not continue meeting with us. It is too bad. They were doing so well, but I think they found out about the Word of Wisdom and he said that he is not ready for that commitment yet. We hope that they will come around sometime. Also another investigator dropped us this week. We are doing all that we can and things just aren't working out. We decided that we need the help of our ward. We have made plans to help members start doing their own missionary work and find people for us to teach. We are also going to try and get as many referrals as we can because tracting is not productive. We met with our bishop last night and he said he will support us. I think it will work out. Another family we are teaching just found out that their grandpa has cancer. This is really stressing the dad out and I think is going to hinder us meeting with him. I don't know maybe this is what he needs so he can finally turn to God. Maybe he'll find his answer now.
Yesterday we had interviews. That's why I did not email yesterday. Today, Wednesday, is our p-day for this week. It was a really good interview and I learned a lot from the training we got. I finally met with President Belnap. He said that he considers it a blessing that I am in the Kennewick Mission. I guess Elder Cashin told him that I have helped him a lot. President also said that he has spoken to many members of our wards and they all see that we work hard. He said we are gaining their trust. Its nice to see that people actually recognize the work we do. I talked to President about my visa. He hadn't heard anything. He advised me to not think about it and to just serve. He's right, it does distract me. It's like I have a girlfriend waiting for me and I'm just waiting for the dear john letter saying that I'm not going anymore. So I have decided to write India off. It's sad, but its something that I should do. I'm not even going to think about it from now on. My mission is the Kennewick, WA Mission. If I get my visa then that will be a nice surprise, but for now I'm done with it. Hopefully I can now focus and not let this distract me.
Well Dad you talked about teaching your Sunday school class. If I could just give any advise it would be to bring the scriptures to life for yourself and for the class. Paint a picture in their minds and then apply it to them, especially with the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. Listen to "Get an Attitude" by John Bytheway. That may help. It sure has helped me. So about a book to read....Jesus the Christ is amazing. I can't believe you gave up on it. I hear The Miracle of Forgiveness is also amazing, but you have to read the whole book straight through or you will just feel horrible about yourself. But if you get to the end, then it's the best book you can read.
Everyone's New Year sounded fun. I missed all the food and games. Oh hey mom, stay off your dang foot! What are you thinking. Its a big deal! Its better to be laid up for a little while then to have surgery. The Christmas cards that I sent were Elder Cashin's. He actually drew them. I only made a few copies and it was after I had sent most of mine anyway so I only sent a few. But he's pretty good huh. Hey Lynds your funny about the TV. I will probably watch TV when I get home. I definitely don't want to watch as much as I did before my mission though. If you listen to "Turn off the TV and get a life" by John Bytheway you would understand. Those were a good Christmas present if you couldn't tell haha. But I'm sure that the flat screen is pretty cool. And now your an HD snob huh. I still can't tell the difference. Hey Dan you're the Ward Clerk! Sweet! That's a big job. I bet your pretty busy now.
Well not much has gone on. As you can see from this email, there are a lot of high ups and a lot of low downs on your mission. And you can have both in the same day. It's really weird, but we are going to continue to work hard and hopefully we can start teaching more people in members homes. That is our goal. Next week we get to go to the Temple so that will be nice. Today I think we are just gonna hang out and play basketball or something. Next week will be our last week of transfers. How crazy is that. Elder Cashin and I aren't sure what will happen to us. Pretty much anything could. E. Cashin is thinking he might leave. I think I might stay, but who knows. Well I love you guys and hope everyone is doing well. That reminds me, how are you doing Whit? How is the family doing? You'll be okay. Well love you all and I'll talk to ya next week.
Love,
Elder Garrick
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