November 16, 2010 - Week 66

Hello Friends and Family,

Man what a week it has been. This was Elder Prawitt’s last week. You would think that for a missionaries last week in the field, he would be blessed with miracle after miracle. This week was not so much that way. We were able to see a miracle happen when Cajia Gonsalves got baptized. That was something really special. The young women really put the whole thing on. The Spirit was so strong there. Cajia had to get baptized twice because her head didn't go all the way down the first time. Her Grandpa baptized her and he brought his own clothes so we didn't have to deal with another clothing fiasco. Everything went really well for this baptism. The young women sang a really cool song called, "He knows me." It was really good.

We have been struggling really hard lately to find people who we can teach. People are very busy and it seems as though the people we are teaching are just falling off like crazy. One of our really progressing investigators is having problems with her boyfriend and is trying to figure things out. She is getting all ready to move out. This will either be a blessing or it could be bad. If she wanted to get baptized she would have to move out sooner or later, or get married, so maybe this is what needs to happen. Although, it is making it very difficult for us to meet with her. She has a lot of kids that she has to deal with. I told you last week about Rebekah and how she is living in a homeless shelter. She hasn't yet left, because her aunt just doesn't have the heart to kick her out. We actually met with her aunt this week and had a lesson with both of them. Her aunt is really wanting to go to church. Her husband passed away recently and she just hasn't been able to get over it. Well after the lesson we thought things would work out and we just found out that Rebekah is going to leave sometime to go to the homeless shelter again. Needless to say, many of our investigators are just disappearing and the adversary is making it hard for us.

We have been blessed to be able to help Ian. We had our movie night on Friday. It went really well. We had about 40-50 people show up. Most of them were less-active/recent-converts and there were a few active families there. There were a lot non-members there. Ian showed up with his son. We were so excited to see him. We got a big popcorn machine and Ian helped us make all the popcorn. The only mix up we had for the movie was the light in the projector was burning up. We of course tested everything out before hand and it all worked. The video was going and the sound was great. Then we actually start playing it and the color is all messed up and once in a while the screen will just go dark and made it hard to see what was going on. It worked out though. Elder Prawitt went into the next room and said a prayer that everything would work. The picture was never the best, but you could still see the movie and the Spirit was there. That is what we wanted. We just wanted people to feel the Spirit and learn more about who Joseph Smith was. After the movie I got up and bore my testimony. It was a good night. Ian really liked it and the other missionaries’ investigators really liked it too. After the movie Ian asked his son what he wanted to do tonight and he said that he wanted to pray. It was really neat. His son was going crazy because there were so many missionaries there. He was going around counting all of them.

Well with all that said let me tell you about the week Elder Prawitt and I had. My whole time with Elder Prawitt he has been focused on the work. These last few weeks we have been talking about home more and more which is just normal. We worked so hard. Since all of our investigators have been falling off, we have been doing what we should be doing, finding more. Yesterday was his last day here. He left Vancouver at 1:30 pm so we had from 10am - 1pm to work. We decided that we just wanted to find some new investigators. We went tracting. We didn't have much success for a while. We knocked on a few doors and no one was home or not interested. We finally see this lady getting into her car. She says, "Hey you guys are missionaries right? I have to go get my son from school right now, but maybe you guys can come over for dinner sometime. My Sister-in-Law is Mormon." We told her that we would love too. So sometime in the future we will have dinner with this non-member lady and her family. Pretty cool huh? After that we had an appointment with a new investigator. We knock on the door and she is not home. Of course she is not home. That would have been Elder Prawitt's very last lesson. So we go to the next neighborhood. We knock on a few doors and then the 3rd one we get to opens up. This Indian lady answers the door and is very friendly with us. She says that her husband has met with missionaries before. They are Hindu, but like learning about other people’s faith. They used to live in California across the street from one of the Temples. She invited us in and we taught her a lesson. It was so great. We are going to try and see her again with her husband sometime this week. The Lord provided for us. The time was 1 o'clock and Elder Prawitt decided that he would end on a good note. We grabbed something quick to eat and went over to the church. Man I miss that kid a lot right now. It was so sad saying goodbye. We gave each other a big hug and then he just looked at me. He said thank you and I thanked him as well. I don't think I have ever been this sad to say goodbye to a companion. Maybe it’s because he is going home and I realize that I won't see him again in the mission. We were great friends. I know I haven't said much about Elder Prawitt because we have just been so busy. He is the best companion I have ever had. It was a privilege learning from him and working side by side with him. We had so many miracles happen the past 2 transfers. And I tell you what, I have never worked as hard on my mission as I do now. I have never grown so much as I have now. I understand the true purpose of missionary work and I understand how to do it. That doesn't mean I know everything and that it's not hard anymore, because it is and from seeing this last week for Elder Prawitt, it always will be. But now I know that diligence, faith, pure love, humility, hope, and the guidance of the Spirit are what I need to become a great tool in the Lords hand. Since working with Elder Prawitt I have come to love missionary work, not because it makes me happy and I feel the Spirit, but because I want to do the Lords work and make other happy and feel the Spirit. I love doing missionary work, because I love bringing people closer to Christ and their true relationship with their Heavenly Father. I don't know if I ever told anyone, but Elder Prawitt served in Ukraine for a year then had to come home for health reasons. He was sent to Washington for a purpose. He has always strived to be the best missionary he can be, even when his companion didn't want to. He and I have a lot in common. At about 4 o clock today he will be home with his family. I can't believe it. It’s amazing how fast time goes by on your mission. One day that time will come for me and it’s probably closer than I think. Right now I'm ready to move on and to keep working hard. I thought that for this week I would share Elder Prawitt’s favorite scripture and one that I have come to love as well. Helaman 3: 35. May God bless all of you this week. Take care of yourselves.

Love,
Elder Garrick