May 25, 2010 - Week 41

Hello everyone!

K so our p-day has been really crazy today. We usually email at the college in Walla Walla and we go in our p-day clothes because we didn't know if missionaries were allowed to email there. We always just sign on as guests. Last week we were challenged to wear our church clothes to email. We really didn't want to because we didn't know what would happen and also we are there with a bunch of kids our own age. I guess we wanted to blend in. Everyone was pretty nervous about it, but we all did it. It was crazy because we had so many students come up and start talking to us. It shows that you are a missionary all the time, even on your p-day. So this week we go to email in our church clothes and we are all actually excited this time and we are told that we can't email there for a while because finals are going on and the computers are reserved for the students. BUMMER!!!! So we go to the church and see if we can email at the family history center and the internet is down. BUMMER!!! Finally we are now at a different library that opens up at 12 and I don't have any of my stuff so I can't send any pictures or anything. BUMMER!!!!! It’s okay though. At least I was actually able to email this week. I was kinda getting nervous for a while.

Well this past week has been pretty good. To let everyone know, my ankle is completely fine. I rolled it about 1 month ago and it hurt for like 1 day. Don't worry, I’m fine. We find out this Saturday about transfers. I think there is going to be a big change in our district this transfer and President Belnap told E Buchanan and I to expect a change. We are pretty sure that E Buchanan is leaving because he has been in Dayton for 7 1/2 months. Everyone thinks that I will be training because I’m at perfect training age in the mission and now that it is summer, there will be a lot of new missionaries coming into the field. Who knows what will actually happen.

Because transfers are coming up, we asked Trisha and Destiny if we could bump their baptism forward. They are progressing great and we felt it would be okay and so did they. So this Saturday they are going to get baptized! I'm so dang happy for them. I am going to baptize Trisha and Elder Buchanan is going to baptize Destiny. Then on Sunday I am going to confirm Destiny and Elder Buchanan is going to confirm Trisha. It should be pretty cool. They are great. Trisha (the mom) has had a pretty hard life. She has done a lot of things in her past that she is not happy about and hasn't told anyone about except for us. She has lived with the guilt and shame for 20 years now. She said that she has completely changed her life. She moved from California to Dayton, Washington to start her new life, but she said even with all that change she still feels like something is missing. I talked to her about how she recognized that she was doing wrong things and she lined her life up with the commandments even before she knew about them. Now all that she needs to do is forgive herself and be lifted from the burden of her past life and how that is possible by the atonement of Christ. She is so excited for her baptism. I think that this is going to be one of the most special just because she has truly offered a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I know I talked to you all about sending scriptures, so here is mine. I don't know exactly what verse it is because I forgot my notebook where I wrote it down, but it is in Luke 7, the lady who washes Christ feet with her hair. This reminds me so much of Trisha. Destiny is really excited too.

In other news, we probably had the best day at church on Sunday. Sara and Hank Huxoll stayed for all 3 hours of church for the first time. We have been really nervous about Hank going into primary because he is almost 11 and he is pretty mature for his age. We didn't know how he would do with all the singing and stuff. We went in with him and sure enough he was bored out of his mind, but this only lasted for a few minutes. For singing time they played a game where the kids got to spin in a chair and whatever number their feet pointed to they would sing a song. Hank was the first to go and immediately a smirk came across his face. For sharing time we played another game where Elder Buchanan and I were the Holy Ghost and the world and one tried to lead a kid to the plate of cookies while the world tried to lead him to the plate of sticks. Hank really liked that too. We were way happy. John Janovich also received the Aaronic Priesthood and he is now a home teacher. He is doing so great. He is still reading the Book of Mormon for the 2nd time and is now reading the gospel principles book too. We had an investigator and her member husband come to church for the first time and they stayed for all 3 hours. Trisha and Destiny also stayed the whole time. Everyone loved it! The ward was so friendly to everyone and made everyone feel so welcome. Things are going great right now.

You guys also asked about Lynne. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get in with Lynne for a while. She works at the hospital and they are short staffed so she has been working 6 days a week for like 12-14 hours each day. On her day off she just stays home and sleeps for the whole day to rest up for the week. We talked to her and she is still very interested and she always talks to her daughter about it, but she is just busy and we will have to be patient with her right now.

Well I really don't know what else there is to tell you guys. I wrote down a bunch of things so I’m trying to remember it. If I can't remember then I will find out and write a letter to ya. I have no idea what my pant size is so I will look that up too and tell you in my letter. Oh you asked about the weather. First off, I can't believe that it snowed in Utah. That is so crazy!!! It warmed up here for a while. It actually got pretty hot and then the next day it got cold again and it has been pretty rainy the past few days. We had one day that it was way windy, like 70 mile per hour winds and it was storming like crazy. The rain was coming in sideways, the wind was blowing so hard. It’s a nice day today. I think we are going to play Australian football. It’s pretty cool. It’s like a mix between soccer and rugby. You guys should look it up. It’s called Australian Football League. We obviously don't tackle like they do, but it’s still fun.

K, hope everyone is doing great and I will talk to you next week. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Garrick