June 29, 2010 - Week 46

Hello everyone!

I'm sure you all started to get a little nervous that I wouldn't be emailing today. It was our Temple P-Day so we have been in Kennewick all day long. It was a lot of fun. I am exhausted though because we had to wake up early and Elder Wagner and I had to wake up extra early to drive from our area to Walla Walla. The Mullens drove us into Kennewick and Sis Mullens took pictures so I'm sure that you will be seeing those in the near future. I gotta tell ya, I still love going to the temple. It seems like every time I have gone to the temple on my mission I have had some type of problem that I just really need an answer to. Now I'm doing pretty good so today I was just able to relax, learn, and feel the spirit. I do that every time, but this time was just better for me. After we went to the church book store and I got a couple more talks on cd. I love them. I used some of my birthday money people sent me. Thanks again to all those who sent me birthday stuff. Then we went to Red Robin and guess what? I did not get the clucks and fries! I decided to get the Banzai Burger and it was really good. So ya, we've had a good p-day today. We literally just barely got back and now we are emailing.

Well not much has gone on. It is now official that President and Sister Belnap are back in Utah. President and Sister Greere are here. They are coming to Walla Walla tomorrow and we will be able to meet with them. Then I will be going on exchanges with our district leader, Elder Denny. So that should be fun. We are actually going on exchanges again on Monday because we missed one so I’ll go on exchanges the following Monday. I'm excited for it. I get to go to Walla Walla for both exchanges. It will be good for Elder Wagner to take the area for a couple days. It was good for me to take it over. We talked to the office Elders today and they said that with President Greere, there are going to be a lot of changes made. They said it’s not really President Greere, but it’s the First Presidency who are making the changes. We aren't sure what they are right now, but I bet we find out pretty soon. Maybe even tomorrow.

I thought that I would give you all an update on the people we are teaching. We are still trying to find people to teach. It can be difficult but we are trying. For the past two weeks we have been teaching this less active man, his non-member fiancée, and their best friend. They are so funny. They were actually a referral from the missionaries in Walla Walla. The less-active man thinks that he was excommunicated because he got tattoo's. That probably isn't the case, but he refuses to come to church. He really likes us though and he is a nice guy so I think we can get him to go in the future. His fiancée has some bad health issues and is in a wheelchair. She was told she wouldn't live past 18 and she would never have kids. Now she is in her 30's and their little girl just turned one, actually on my birthday. She doesn't understand why God would make her this way. She was also told by her past church that she is like that because of the sins of her mother. She has had some horrible experiences with religion, but she is really soul searching. She said that she has really been thinking about going back to some church and that’s when we showed up into her life. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said that for the first time in her life, she understands the scriptures. The best friend is very sincere. I know that he has felt the spirit. I have great hope for him too. Laurel is doing awesome. We actually set a date for her to be baptized on July 10th! That is right before transfers so I’ll be there for sure. Her husband is going to baptize her. It happened last night and it was great. She has been really nervous to get baptized so last night we went over the interview questions and she passed them with flying colors. I'm really excited for them.

Well I just found out that the library is actually closing pretty soon, so I better sign off. Sorry about that. Not a real long email this week. I hope everyone is good. I bet Bailee and Rylin's Birthday was a blast. Have a fun 4th of July. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Garrick