June 22, 2010 - Week 45

Hello everyone!

How is everybody? This may be a short email this week because it was just pretty uneventful for me. Not a whole lot happened. It has been kinda rainy here lately so it seems like the town has just been shut down. Not a lot of people are outside. We did have Zone Conference this week. That was really good. Since it was President and Sister Belnaps last zone conference we got the going away talk, except it’s not us leaving, it’s our mission president. So we were told what to do when we get home from our missions. I now know why missionaries come home and get married so fast. They drill that into our heads. President Belnaps advice was, "If the shoe fits, there is no point in trying on other shoes." He also said that we should marry a woman who will someday be, "A Bishops Wife." Sister Belnap talked about "Becoming the perfect spouse, before finding the perfect spouse." It was pretty good advice I guess, but it’s a while off for me. It was sure sad to see them go. Everyone was just bawling. I'm not going to say if I cried or not, you can decide for yourselves.....jk I cried. President Belnap has done so much for me since I have been out on my mission. He truly does love all of the missionaries here. One of the Assistants to the President said that besides his dad, he looks up to President Belnap more than anyone he knows. I think that this is the same for me. At the end of the zone conference the Belnaps and their councilors lined up and all the missionaries went up one by one to say goodbye. I gave Sister Belnap a hug and she said that she is so happy that I came to this mission. Then I went to President Belnap and thanked him and gave him a hug. He said, "Elder Garrick, the Lord has many paths that he can take us on. Some take longer than others to get to their final destination. I am so happy that the Lord brought you here." They leave next week and President Greere will come in to meet us on Wednesday. I'm excited to meet him and serve with him. I do not have any info on him except that he is from Arizona and is a lawyer too. So ya that’s about it for me. Not much else has been going on. We are still just working away. I've really been focusing on having the faith to find new investigators. I want to do more to have some members invite people to hear the missionaries too. Hopefully we can get something going this week. I heard a quote from President Hinckley that I love. He said, "Faith is not a feeling, it’s a decision." That is true.

Oh they had a thing in Dayton called, "All Wheels Weekend." It was really cool. It is one of the biggest car shows on this side of the state. There were a ton of really old and remodeled cars just lined up on Main Street. They closed everything up and just had cars parked everywhere. It was awesome. They also had lawn mower drag races. People have actually taken their lawn mowers and put new engines in them and then they race them. It was the coolest thing ever. Stuff like that only happens in good ol Dayton. It was funny because we were just walking around looking at all the cars and all these members from like Walla Walla or the Tri-cities would stop and talk to us. It was fun. I forgot my camera, but I'll have to send some pictures next week. I don't know what we are doing today for p-day. Probably just hang out. There is a bike trail that we might take. Other than that, that’s it. I hope everyone is great. Have a great week and I'll talk to ya later.

Love,
Elder Garrick