September 21, 2010 - Week 58

Good morning everyone,

Ah there has been so much that has happened in this last week. I don't know where to begin. I guess I will just start off on how the week went. We had a lesson with a man named Kenny this week. He was a referral from some members in our ward. Kenny works with one of the members and one day Kenny came up to him and started to ask him questions. Kenny's daughter is a recent covert to the church and just got married in the Temple. Kenny was really confused and kind of angry that he could not go to his first daughters wedding, so he asked one of his co-workers who he knew was LDS. They had some really good talks with each other. Kenny started to ask more of his co-workers who he knew were LDS. To make a long story short, they did a great job explaining everything to him. They bore their testimonies to him and he felt the spirit. They described what he was feeling and that the spirit was leading him to the truth. When we showed up to teach Kenny he was holding a Book of Mormon in his hand already with the testimony of one of his coworkers on the front cover. We had a great lesson with him. As we taught about the First Vision he said, "I have that feeling again. The feeling I had when my friend talked to me." We bore testimony that it was the spirit. He said that he already knows that all of this is true. We asked him if he would be baptized and he said, "Of course I would." It was so great. But here is the catch. Kenny lives in Portland, OR so we will have to pass him on to the Portland missionaries as soon as possible. He is a great guy and completely prepared for the gospel, a golden investigator.

Next we went on exchanges with the Assistants this week. It was great. Actually a lot of our appointments fell through so we did a lot of finding. I went with Elder Baker. He is a great missionary and I learned a lot about serving in a leadership position and also better ways to find people. While we were together we had a lesson with Ian and Nicole. They are cousins to some members in our ward and they are all actually living together at the moment. They are great too. As we were teaching them we were about to commit them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. Everything was going pretty good and then we hear this bang. Ian jumps up and rushes out the door. We hear crying from their little boy. I guess he tried to do a jump on their front porch and fell. As he came down he bit a hole right through his tongue. There was blood everywhere. It was so crazy. They rushed him off to the hospital as fast as they could. Needless to say, the lesson didn't go as we had planned. They are really cool though. We checked up on the little boy and he is doing fine now. They are trying to come to church, but are having difficulties with his work schedule.

Ah the next day we had some more Sister drama. This time there was an elder who was involved. Two missionaries, an elder and sister, have kind of gotten close to each other. They spend a lot of time together because they are both Spanish speaking and all the Spanish missionaries have dinner together, go to church together, and even teach lessons together. Well it went a little too far this time. Nothing serious happened, but it needed to stop. The Assistants were still in Vancouver so they came back to our zone and we had to sit down and talk with both companionships. Unfortunately the elder in our zone was emergency transferred to Pasco and will be there for the rest of the transfer. There were a lot of tears involved. President and Sister Greer came up on Sunday to settle everything down. Man life of a zone leader, not as fun as everyone would think sometimes. We were pretty sad too because the elder that got transferred is a good friend and missionary. He really just wanted to help the sister missionary out, but his feelings for her got to close. I hope he does well. So because of all that our zone has been pretty crazy. I think with a new mission president a few missionaries are thinking they can get away with some things. President is pretty mad about it and he is cracking down on it. Our mission is actually really good. Missionaries are more obedient and diligent than they used to be, even a couple years ago, but even the most minor things are not acceptable. So that was a bummer for us this week.

The Gonsalves family is still doing fantastic. They came to church this week for all three hours. Their 12 year old daughter is really shy and doesn't have a lot of friends. She was so nervous to go to Young Womens. The whole time she was saying to her mom, "Why do I have to go? Please don't make me go!" They told her that she did. Right before the 3rd hour of church was about to start they thought they would go get her and take her home. At this point she was talking to the rest of the young women. Her dad asked her if she wanted to leave and she ran off with her new friends to the next class at church. They had a great time and Brother Gonsalves said that he really enjoyed church and that a lot of his questions were answered. We are meeting with them more and more during the week. Bro. Gonsalves said that he is really jumping into this with both feet. They are having nightly family prayers together and are studying the scriptures together too. They are great. We also have started to meet with another members niece. Her name is Cailynn and is from New York. She lived kind of a crazy life and she came here to live with her aunt and uncle to straighten things out. She is really open to learning more about the church though. She has already come to church twice and is really excited when we come over. There is a girl in the ward who is about the same age so they have been hanging out together literally almost everyday. It is really good. We had a pretty good lesson with her yesterday and she said that she is excited to learn more now. We are hoping that everything goes well for her. She loves to read so she said that she would start reading the Book of Mormon.

Well other than the crazy stuff that has been going on in the zone, I am doing really well. It seems like things are finally starting to pick up for us. We have some really solid people we are teaching right now who are sincere and want to learn more. I'm really hopeful for the future. This week we have zone conference and I will be giving my first official training as a zone leader. I'm really excited about it though. It is about recognizing and relying on the Spirit in conversion. Elder Prawitt and I have been working on it for the past few days. It's going to be great. We are working really well together. Elder Prawitt is awesome. We are very similar to each other. We like the same music, pretty much have the same personality, and the same desire and drive for missionary work. We are hoping that we can stay together for his last transfer in the mission. Well hope everyone is doing well. I love you all. I'm so happy that I have so much support and love while I have been out. Take care everyone.

Love,
Elder Garrick