November 2, 2010 - Week 64

HAPPY LATE HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!

I had an awesome week recently. Man there is so much to say. I guess I will start off with Halloween. On Friday we had our wards Trunk or Treat. They had games and activities for the kids from 6-7 pm and then after that everyone went outside and people had decorated the trunk of their car and all the kids went around in the parking lot and got candy. It was great. One of our investigators and her 7 children came and they all had a blast. All the little kids were making friends with them. It was a lot of fun. Elder Prawitt and I switched tags, so I was Elder Prawitt for Halloween and he was Elder Garrick haha. Super nerdy I know, but what else could we do. We have a great ward. They love the missionaries and are pretty good about helping us out. On Halloween day we went over and had dinner with some other missionaries and the members they lived with. It was pretty fun because they had a ping pong table and a guitar. Oh man do I miss the guitar. As I played it I had a ton of songs just flood back into my mind, but unfortunately I couldn't remember all of them. It will come back I know. So that was pretty much our Halloween. Oh man I have to tell you. While we were with the other missionaries on Halloween, their members cat came up and sneezed in Elder Nillsons eye. Well guess what we found out about 10 minutes later. Elder Nillson is allergic to cats. He didn't even know. Maybe he is only allergic to cat sneezes. So his eye swelled all up. It wasn't too bad, but it was hilarious. Thank you to everyone who sent Halloween packages and letters. I have been stuffing myself with candy.

So I have some great news. We currently have 3 people on date for baptism! Cajia (pronounced Kaya), Brother Gonsalves daughter, decided that she finally wants to get baptized. I had the strongest prompting on Sunday to invite her to get baptized, but our lesson was just going a different direction. Topics kept on changing and it was all a little scattered. Whenever I would try and lead to baptism it would go a different way. I finally just thought, well I will do it next time. Well I guess Elder Prawitt had the same prompting because at the end he just randomly said, "So have you prayed about baptism?" She said that she had and she wanted to. It was a good lesson for me to always follow the Spirit, even if you're scared or it's not the ideal situation, you always follow the Spirit. This week I came across a scripture in my reading that really applied. 1 Nephi 1: 26-27. This is Lehi talking about Nephi. I thought it was really neat. We also had Stake conference. One of our investigators showed up. His name is Philip. We just barely started to teach Philip. On Tuesday we showed up and his son and daughter were there so we started teaching the whole family. Philip really just wants to change his life. We invited him to church and then realized it was stake conference, but we did it anyway. He came and we are hoping he liked it. It was 2 hours long which is really long for someone new to church, but I really hope he felt the Spirit, I sure did. One of the speakers spoke on following the Spirit. He talked about how prophet after prophet has come to the current living prophet in vision and told them to tell the people to have the Spirit of the Lord as their guide. He then talked about how if we get a prompting and we follow it and it doesn't go as planned, do it again next time you get a prompting. It is how you show the Lord you are willing to follow his direction. So that was really neat.

This week we met with Ian. Ian and his wife are someone that we have taught in the past and we thought were just golden, but recently we haven't been able to meet with them. They live with their cousins who are members of the church. Well Ian's back has been hurting so their cousins said that he could receive a Priesthood blessing. We went over there and talked to him about the priesthood and about blessings. It was only Ian, Elder Prawitt and I in the room with Ian's kids going crazy all over. We gave Ian the priesthood blessing and everything just went calm. As we finished Ian was crying. He said that he hasn't felt like that since he was a kid. He said he just had this energy go through his body and then he felt calm. We bore testimony that what he felt was the Spirit telling him that what we talk about is true. We then talked about how the Priesthood was restored to the earth and how by that same priesthood we can get baptized. We invited him to get baptized and he accepted. He then prayed at the end of our lesson and gave such a sincere and heartfelt prayer. He told God that he knew what we talked about is true, he prayed for his family, and then prayed that he could follow in Christs footsteps. We met with him again yesterday. We read with him. He said that the chapter we read apply so much to what he is going through in his life. He is going to come to church with us this Sunday, he just doesn't have a tie. So today we are going to go tie shopping and get him one.

Last but not least, we met with a lady named Rebbecca. She is the lady who I talked about in my last email. She is currently homeless, but is living with her aunt. We were able to meet with her late in the evening when her son was asleep. Man we had such a great lesson with her. She wants to start over. She has made a lot of mistakes and just wants to change. We again talked to her about baptism and she accepted. It's amazing what is going on right now. Elder Prawitt and I are working hard and seeing miracle after miracle. This week I have been focusing on my love for Heavenly Father. It changed everything I did this week. I want to be better, I want to help others, I have the Spirit with me when I love God. Charity is so important. I learn more and more about it all the time. Well that is it for me this week. Today we have to drive to Kennewick because we have an extending Zone Leader Council Meeting. Tomorrow people from the missionary department from church headquarters are coming to meet with us and give a training. It should be good. Hope everyone is doing well. I love you.

Love,
Elder Garrick