This is me at "Make a Difference Day." That's the swing set we painted at the women's shelter.Hello Everyone!
I don't know if anyone knows this, but since I came into the mission at mid-transfer, I will probably leave a little earlier than I am supposed to. I will leave at the end of the transfer. So my leave date will probably be July 27, 2011. That is one year from today. How weird is that? I cannot believe that in one year I will actually be home. Time has gone by so fast for me. Even though I will be home in 1 year, I have not yet hit my year mark. That is still August 12th, so I am still an 11th month missionary. That is something I promised myself - is that I would not say I have been out longer than I actually have.
This week was not completely exciting so I'm not sure how long this email will be. We are still trying to find new investigators. It is very difficult. Our ward is fantastic. They support the missionaries so much. They feed us and are so grateful for the work that we do. They are happy to fellowship new people that we are teaching and do a great job at it. We have been tracting and trying to find people on the streets. Elder Williams and I are still working hard. We have faith that more investigators will come through our own efforts and hopefully we can find more through the ward members.
We had an alright lesson with Caysie this week. She is on date for baptism, but she is not willing to come to church right now. We actually had Sara Huxoll come out with us and bear her testimony on coming to church. We are going to continue to work with her. Lorns is doing great. That is Caysie's friend. He promised his mom that he would try out her church. He said that he was going to try it out, but if he didn't like it he would be happy to come to our church. I guess his moms church is highly anti-Mormon, which I think is a good thing. Lorns is really learning a lot from us and he really likes it. His faith is increasing greatly. I think he will go to that church and if they say anything anti against the LDS church, he will recognize that it is not true. Hopefully we can have Lorns come to church as well.
On the 24th of July they had a thing called, "Make a Difference Day." The whole stake got together in Pendleton, OR and did a ton of projects through all of the town to fix it up. We first went to this women's shelter and painted their swing set and benches and patio. It was really a lot of fun. We got a tour of the womens shelter after. It was a nice place and I'm sure a great place for those women to go to when they are in danger. Later we went to the animal shelter and fixed some stuff up there. There was the cutest puppy. He was a mix of a husky and something else. Man if I was not on my mission, I probably would have bought him. Then we did work at the cemetery. It was a great day. The Huxoll’s and John Janovich also came. They really enjoyed it too. It just goes to show that service does strengthen us and is so important for long time members and new converts.
Last night Sister Janovich gave us a call. Sister Janovich has had cancer for a while now. She has gone through her treatment and it has been a large trial in her life. Well she called to tell us that her cancer is gone and that the doctors have found no trace of it anywhere in her body. She was so happy. She has received many blessings from us. She then asked if non members could get blessings. We told her yes. She said her friend Tammy would like one for her daughter. We have actually met Tammy before. We were going to start teaching her and then something came up with her kids and we weren't able to. Tammy was just never really interested after that. Well her daughter has been having some health problems. It has been causing her a lot of pain and the doctors think it could harm her chances of having children in the future. She is only 12 years old. We explained the priesthood and what blessings are. We then gave her a blessing. Sister Janovich was there and she bore the most pure and sincere testimony on the power of the priesthood and on blessings. Tammy and her daughter leave for Spokane today for some testing. Hopefully all is well with her and that we can share more of the gospel with them.
I thought I would answer a couple questions the family had. Lynds I have not gained any weight. I lost a bit at the beginning of my mission. I have put enough back on that I am at the weight I was at before I left on my mission. I have been working out pretty hard lately. I think I'm definitely getting stronger and more toned, but as for the weight gain, no dice. I'm workin on it though. I needed to go Spanish speaking or to Hawaii where they feed you a ton. That just doesn't happen a whole lot out here. Elder Williams is doing great. He will be a great missionary. He does not have a lot of confidence right now in his teaching, but he does pretty well. Out of the new missionaries in our district he is definitely doing the best. We are getting along really well. We have become really good friends and are already talking about life after the mission. He is going to be my St. George buddy and we are going to go to concerts in Vegas. I am going to be his Salt Lake buddy and we are going to go to concerts in SLC. He is learning. I'm really trying my best to help him. Dad I read your scripture you sent me in 2 Kings and it made no sense to me haha. Was it in 1 Kings instead? Because the one in 1 Kings is really good and applies to what you were saying haha. I am serving Elder Williams as much as I can. Training has been really good for me. I realize how much I actually know about the gospel and about missionary work. It also helps me focus on other people, especially my companion, rather than myself. All the news about my friends is exciting. Good to hear everyone is workin hard.
That's pretty much it for me. Next week our p day will be on Monday because of some training going on in the mission. So it will be on August 2nd. After that we should go back to normal p days on Tuesdays. I keep on hearing that there are new lessons. There will be 8 lessons. I'm not sure if this is for the missionaries to teach investigators to, or if the 8 lessons are for mission leaders to train missionaries. I have heard both. I guess I'll find out sometime. Anyway, have a great week everyone. I love you all.
Love,
Elder Garrick
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