November 9, 2010 - Week 65

Good Afternoon Everyone,

Well there have been some good things going on right now in the Washington Kennewick Mission. After my email last week we immediately drove down to Kennewick for our 2 day training. It's about a 4 hour drive that we have to make each month and because Elder Prawitt and I drive the soccer mom van, we are the ones who drive the rest of the zone leaders down. I tell ya what, road trips to St. George will be no problem for me when I come home. The training was really good. 2 men from the mission dept came and spoke to us. They talked about some of the new fundamental lessons again. We learned about the Doctrine of Christ for the 18th time. They are really trying to drill this into our heads. It really is so important though and I can understand why they are giving so many trainings on the same lesson. Many missionaries are not understanding this one concept. We talked about how we are to invite people to be baptized on the very first lesson. By the second lesson we should invite people to set a specific date for baptism. That's pretty intense, but it will help the missionaries and investigators out a lot. We also found out that we have the privilege of texting now. HOLY COW!!!! We had the longest discussion about it in our zone leader council. Right now we are going to start it off with the zone leaders and see how it goes. Eventually we want to have the whole mission to have texting. Its pretty exciting though. It will help out so much in missionary work. We can follow up with reading assignments, see if people are coming to church, verify appointments.

Well let's give an update on what is going on shall we. Ian is doing fantastic. We had a church tour with him. The guy has just changed so much ever since we gave him a blessing. He has always had great anxiety and ever since our blessing he hasn't had that anymore. He came to church on Sunday and had a great time. His wife is still very nervous about coming, but we want to talk to her about it as well. Things are really shaky right now with Rebekah. She is the one who was homeless for a while and is now living with her aunt. Well we just found out that things aren't working out at her aunts house and she will be leaving today to go to another homeless shelter. The only place available is one that allows people in at 7 pm every night, but then kicks them out at 7 am every day. She will then have to wander the streets for 12 hours with her 3 year old son. Our ward mission leader gave us a stroller so that she can push him around in it and hopefully he will stay inside it and not run away. Its pretty horrible. We are working with the Stake President and also the Bishop to see what we can do for her. Last but now least is Cajia Gonsalves. Her baptism is this upcoming Saturday. I am so excited for it. Cajia is still really nervous and doesn't want a lot of people there. We are going to have the young women put it on. It will be like a young women baptism. They are going to sing a song and the speakers are going to be the YW leaders and the prayers by girls in the ward. Last but not least is Philip. Philip is progressing really well right now. He continues to read the Book of Mormon. This last lesson we talked about prayer and Philip gave the closing prayer. It was really neat. Hopefully things will continue to work out for him.

This Friday we are going to do a movie night with the missionaries. Mom, you told me about this a while ago and we finally decided to put it into action. I am so excited for it. We are going to project "Joseph Smith: Prophet of the Restoration" onto the big screen in the gym. We are going to have popcorn and drinks and other goodies. We are telling everyone about it and people seem like they are excited for it too. A young man in the ward said he wants to get all his friends and have them ask non-member girls to the movie. PERFECT! I want to start doing one activity like this every transfer where we can find more people to teach and do it in a different way than just knocking on doors. Well this is Elder Prawitt's last week. Man I can't believe it. Do missions really end? It's so weird to me to hear that many of my friends are now home. I remember thinking that when that day came, I would not have long left on my mission and that it would probably fly. Elder Prawitt has served a great mission. He is the companion that I have wanted my whole mission. We work hard, we teach, we find, he is a powerful teacher. It has been so great being able to serve with him. Next week I will have a new companion and I'm sure he will be great too, but serving with Elder Prawitt has been amazing. It's the first time I have been able to serve with someone who has my same desire and determination for missionary work. Well that's it for me this week I hope everyone is doing well. Enjoy the sunshine, because its always rainy and dark here in Vancouver. I'm getting used to it though. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Garrick