Elder Jared Garrick

December 28, 2010 - Week 72

2010-12-28T20:24:00.000-08:00

Elder Garrick during our Christmas Day Skype call.

Jared and Elder Prawitt with the Brown Family

Jared, Ian, and Elder Prawitt.

Jared at the Portland, OR Temple.

Elder Burgin, Nicole and Jared at Nicole's baptism.

Nicole's Family at her baptism.

Jared and Elder Burgin at a Christmas party with some of their zone.

Jared's Christmas - spoiled boy

Hello Everyone,

What a great week it has been. I hope everyone had a great Christmas this past week and are enjoying the time with family and friends. With my Christmas phone call I feel like there isn't a whole lot to talk about, but I will give you the updates from then until now. After our phone call together we went off to the Williams house. This is Ian and Nicole's cousins. It was so much fun to be with the Williams and with the Martins (Ian and Nicole) for Christmas. They did so much for us. They obviously already had their Christmas that morning and afternoon, so the night was completely dedicated to us. They had made our favorite treats and tried to make everything feel like home. They made a ton of my favorite potatoes. After dinner we played games. We had a blast. There were times when I was crying because I was laughing so hard. I feel really grateful for what they did for us that night. After games we opened up presents in which they had a few gifts that went along with some Christmas poems they had. A nail and an orange. They gave me cheese and crackers and some orange sticks. We then opened up the scriptures and read the Christmas story in Luke. Ian and Nicole are doing well. They seem to be doing a little bit better. We have held off teaching them because their lives were just so crazy and we started to become an annoyance to them. If the gospel ever becomes an annoyance, then something must be wrong, so we figured we would back off for a while and see what happens. Hopefully we can teach them again in the future.

On Sunday Nicole got baptized. The Spanish sisters had a baptism before us so they told us that they would fill up the font and leave it for Nicole's baptism. Usually it takes around 3 hours to fill the font. We arrived a little early, just to make sure everything was okay and to set up chairs. When we get into the Relief Society room we noticed that the baptismal font was draining and was almost empty. We quickly turned the water back on and Elder Burgin jumped in and plugged it back up. Ah!!!!! Baptisms never go smoothly! But it worked out like it always does. We were able to fill the font just in time for the baptism. Elder Burgin baptized her and then I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. The Spirit was so strong during the service. Nicole's parents and best friend came. Her mom was just crying the whole time. It was pretty big that they came because her Dad is kind of anti against the church. I'm sure they felt the spirit, hopefully we can talk to them some more. They were very nice people.

Well we also found out about transfers. Both Elder Burgin and I are staying. This is also Elder Burgin's last transfer so I will be sending another missionary home. Most likely I will stay for at least one more transfer after that, to train a new missionary to the area. That will make this the longest area I will ever have on my mission. I'm going on transfer #4 here and will probably stay for the 5th. Its great though. I love Vancouver. I love the people here and the rain is actually starting to grow on me. Elder Burgin and I went running on Monday. Yes I went running. First time I have ever done it on my mission. I usually just work out inside. But it felt so good to go outside and run in the rain. Its refreshing.

We continue to try and find new people to teach. We are finding more and more potential new investigators, but currently aren't able to get in the door with them. Yesterday we were finally able to see this couple that we've been trying for a while. We showed up to their house and they were actually home. The husband (or boyfriend) just lost his job. They are really struggling right now and have definitely been humbled. The girlfriend is ready to accept the gospel. She just wants to have something change. She even recognizes that money wouldn't solve their problems and they need something else. We had a great talk with them. By the end of our conversation they accepted to listen to our message and to come to church on Sunday. They were very grateful that we were there. I feel so blessed right now. The Lord always leads us to those who are willing to receive us and who need the help. It is truly the humble seeker of truth that is found. That's it for me this week. Have a Happy New Year!

Love,
Elder Garrick

P.S. Thank you to everyone who sent cards and gifts. I have some amazing family and friends.

December 22, 2010 - Week 71

2010-12-22T20:23:00.000-08:00

Good morning, Good morning, Good morning!

What a week it has been. We have had so many Christmas things going on it's ridiculous. We found out the other week that the Portland Mormon Choir were coming into town. They were performing at the nearest high school and the person in charge asked the closest zone leaders to help out and get everything organized for what they needed done. That just so happened to be us. We were in charge of setting up and ushering people during the concert. We also had tickets that needed to be dispersed among all the missionaries in Vancouver which is 2 other zones. It was pretty crazy and actually took a lot of time away from proselyting. It's okay though. The concert was amazing. The choir was so good and they had an orchestra there. It was like we were watching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. We had a few less-active members go to the concert and Nicole went as well, so I would say it was a success. The missionaries in the Portland mission got permission to come over too. I tell you what, ushering is not fun at all. People just don't even listen to what you have to say. They just sit down at the end of the aisle and refuse to move. There were a lot of non-members there, so we were told to just ask people, but if they don't move then don't make a big deal out of it and just try to be friendly and leave a good impression. Besides dealing with all the crazyies, it was a lot of fun. We also had our Wards Christmas party this week. It was the same night as one of the Choir performances. We thought, "Oh this is going to be so nice. We can just go to the ward party and relax and have a fun time with everyone." When we showed up we found out that the activities committee needed a few more people to help prepare and serve food. So the whole night, we were running around serving everyone. We finally were able to eat our food at the end. It was good food though. Prime Rib and Ham. At the end the Brown family put on a performance that was just awesome. It was about how we are from all over the world, but the message of the gospel and the celebration of Christ's birth is the same. They are such a cool family.

Yesterday was our Christmas Zone Conference. Man that was a ton of fun. We had a brief training at the beginning and learned more about the Savior's birth and the message of Christmas. We set our Missions Baptismal goal for the next year and President Greer spoke upon what we need to do as missionaries to find these people and help them receive baptism and the holy ghost. Afterwards, the office missionaries made a Christmas slideshow that was great. It was so much fun to see all the pictures of all the missionaries I have been able to know and serve with. Half our mission was at the zone conference so I saw many friends. Elder Olsen was there, Elder Williams, Elder Cashin. Many of the other Zone leaders were there that I have become good friends with. After we had lunch Sister Greer set everything up for a movie and we got to watch Toy Story 3. Best Movie Ever!!!!! It was so intense. That movie is hilarious too. I'm there with the Mak. I love Toy Story. So that was fun for everyone.

As for my missionary experiences for this week. Like I said we have been so busy lately that they haven't been a ton, but there are still some really cool things that happened this week. We had a lesson with the Gonsalves family this week. As we knock on the door, Brother Gonsalves answers and says, "Sorry boys, we can't do a lesson today." We were shocked that he would say that. He usually loves having lessons with us. He then says, "Come on in, your helping us meet our neighbors." We had a lesson with them a few weeks ago about doing missionary work and how hard it is to overcome that fear of sharing the gospel. We talked about the first step of missionary work is just developing a meaningful relationship with people. So as we walked inside his house, they had prepared about 12 Christmas bags with goodies and candy inside. They had a note from their family and then they threw in some pass-along cards. Then as a family, we walked from house to house and Brother Gonsalves introduced themselves and us. We wished everyone a Merry Christmas and went off to the next one. There was one widow that we stopped by who was so grateful and she was just so nice. Brother Gonsalves said, "That just makes this whole experience worth it." You really could feel the spirit of Christmas as we went around. It was a lot of fun. I was very proud that they decided to do this because they are a pretty shy family. They even said, "If you would ask me 6 months ago if I would ever go around from house to house with two guys in white shirts and ties I would say you were crazy."

The next experience is a finding experience. Elder Burgin and I are really struggling to find people to teach right now. We set a goal to talk with as many people as we could and actually have 10 meaningful conversations with people in which we could invite them to learn more. The entire day it seemed we were trying to find people. We found a trailer park and started knocking doors. Our time is so precious so we did only the doors we really felt that we should go to. We stop by one house and a kid answers the door. Turns out he is really searching for some type of purpose right now in his life. His mom died about a year ago and it has been really hard for him and has made him question a lot of things about life. We had a really good conversation with him and scheduled a return appointment. He said that he thinks his entire family would be interested. We went about the rest of our days activities. As the night approached we tried to see a few of our investigators. No success. We had about 20 minutes until our 8 o clock appointment and decided to do some more finding. We were walking down the street just looking. Then we felt as though we should go right into the next neighborhood. We knock on one door and talk to a lady who said that we don't really know anything and if we went out and sinned then we would have more experience and we would be happier with life. Hmmmm....interesting. Alma 41:10 So we brushed it off and moved on. I felt very strongly that we should go to the door at the end of the street. So we wasted no time and went straight there. An older man opens the door and is very friendly. Turns out his brother is a member who lives in Pasco. I actually think his brother lives in one of the wards I served in at Pasco. He said that he did a study on Joseph Smith and was amazed how an uneducated boy could write something like the Book of Mormon. He said he couldn't do it and it must have come from God. He said that he is one of those people who just never really got baptized because of a few things that bother him. We talked about it and he agreed to meet with us after Christmas. We walked away just smiling. Elder Burgin was jumping up and down. There really are people out there who the Lord is preparing, and if we listen to the Spirit, he will take us directly to them. I have come to know that is true each and every day I am on my mission.

Nicole's baptism is this Sunday. The day after Christmas. She is amazing. She has progressed so far. Before her baptismal interview she talked with us about how much closer she feels to Heavenly Father. She loves her little boy. She recognizes that she has made mistakes in the past, but she is ready to make that change in her life and start fresh. She has made friends with another girl in the ward and they are spending a lot of time together so we are really happy about that. That will just seal the deal for one of the greatest Christmas' I will ever have. Being on a mission at this time is so amazing. My gratitude for what the Savior did and the importance of Him actually coming into this World has grown so much. My faith that we can literally overcome anything through Him is so much stronger now than it ever has been. I truly believe that. We can overcome anything with the Savior. It gives me so much hope and so much joy. Merry Christmas to you all. Have a wonderful holiday. Thank you to all for your letters and your testimonies and love.

December 14, 2010 - Week 70

2010-12-14T20:13:00.000-08:00

Good Morning Everyone!

Well I just got my 12 days of Christmas package. I set up my tree and my presents and hung up all the ornaments of our family. That was so neat. I can't believe how much everyone has changed! We are all getting so old. It was great. I spent all morning putting it up and reading the notes.

Well this week has been a good one. My week always changes depending on how I feel today haha. We are still doing our best to find new investigators this week. Many of our current investigators just aren't progressing and for many, it is time to move on. It is always sad when you have to make this decision. We will still keep in contact when we have the time, but I don't know if we'll make them a priority. I went on a couple exchanges this week. One was with Elder Schneider. I went over into their area and guess what....its a biking area! Oh Gheez! The dreaded bike. You will not believe how many hills there are in Vancouver too. Nothing is flat. And to make things even harder, it was the rainiest day of the year so far. Elder Schneider and I rode as rain is just pounding us in the face. We were drenched! It was actually a lot of fun. Elder Schneider almost turfed it a couple times. We decided that after lunch it would probably be best if we dried off and walked. It was a good exchange though. Work in their area is really struggling right now. We weren't able to find many people, but I hope I was able to lift his spirits and help him. The members that they live with are actually related to the Eldridge's. They know Scotty and Chase. I think the wife is Scott's aunt. Yesterday I went on exchanges with Elder Torgeson. He is a new missionary this transfer. I brought him into our area. We had district meeting that day and then had to help some other missionaries with some service. I really wanted to go out and do some missionary work, but we only had about 2 hours until we had to exchange back. We decided that we would go find. I don't know what it was, but people were just not happy yesterday haha. Door after door was slammed in our face. One guy opened the door and then noticed there were missionaries on his doorstep so he tried to shut the door as fast as he could. It just so happened that his door came out and the guy was just slamming his dog in the door repeatedly. The dog was just yelping, but I guess he didn't notice because he was so worried about having to talk to us. I told the guy what he was doing. People are really funny sometimes. So I could tell that Elder Torgeson was getting discouraged. Man I'm just used to it by now. I thought it was funny. I told him that we just haven't found who the Lord is preparing. We went to a different neighborhood and tried some more doors. Still rejection. We see a lady out getting her mail and we go talk to her. Turns out, she is the care taker for an elderly woman in our ward who we have been meaning to go see. We walked with her to Sister Cole's house. Paula, the care-taker, has actually been reading the Book of Mormon and had questions. We explained to her what it was and shared with her in the Book of Mormon when Christ is about to be born and he announces his own birth to the people in America and they see the star. She thought it was amazing. She actually lives in a different ward, but she wants missionaries to come over, so we will pass her over to them. As we left we saw a man sitting at the bus stop. We talked to him a little bit about the purpose of our lives. He said he has always wondered what our purpose is. We got a return appointment for Saturday. As we walk away and back to the van, Elder Torgeson has a giant smile on his face and says, "Missionary Work is Awesome!" It was a good day.

We are still meeting with Nicole Gentry. She is the person who was referred to us by some members. She has a 15-month son and she herself is only 18 years old. She is doing awesome! She has come to church twice and got to meet President and Sister Greer. Sister Greer sat by her all of church and helped with her son. She is willing to do anything, because she just wants to change her life. Just like any investigator who makes this commitment, opposition always occurs. She recently found out that her best friend has cancer. We also met with her last night, and her parents have kicked her out of the house. She said it wasn't because of church, but that this happens frequently and she feels its time to leave for good. Her fellowshippers are her boyfriends parents. Her boyfriend is a member, but not very active and isn't too supportive of her at this time. It is amazing the type of faith that she has. We talked to her last night about tithing and how it's not really about paying money, but showing your trust in the Lord. Really the gospel is always about faith in the Savior. Everything that we do requires faith that we are willing to trust God, more than we trust ourselves, and then we hope that His blessing will come down on us and He will provide for us. Last night we talked about tithing, but it was so much more than tithing. Nicole is strong and is receiving help from the ward. She has committed to be baptized on December 26th and it will be a white Christmas for her.

I have been really studying about faith, hope, and charity. They are so important. Again I go back to hope, and the hope of eternal life. The Spirit truly does bless us with a portion of heaven. When we are close to Christ, we are touching heaven and we can feel and see that in our lives. Thank you for your talk you sent me from President Eyring and Christmas. To be bound together in love with our families and having that love last forever really is eternal life. The greatest gift we can receive. We open up the corners of this gift each day, more and more, as we feel of His Spirit, and share of His love. I hope you're all doing well this Christmas season. It is such a great time to think of the Savior and what he has done for us. I love you all and have a Merry Christmas.

Love,
Elder Garrick

December 7, 2010 - Week 69

2010-12-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone,

How is everyone doing? I feel like there hasn't been a whole lot that happened in this last week. It's literally been pretty slow for us. We have had some meetings and had to do a lot of planning. It seems like our proselyting time has been cut short and it sure is having an effect on us. I might as well give you an update on how things are going right now with some of our investigators. Ian's baptism did not go through once again. I really have no idea what is going to happen right now. They are going through a really rough time, and I think Ian might be embarrassed about everything. We haven't really even been able to meet with them this week. He is starting to work full-time again so it will be hard to catch him. It will be completely impossible to meet with Ian and Nicole together, so we are going to do it separately. Maybe this is all in God's plan. We talked to Nicole and she has a small testimony of the gospel. She believes it's true just from the way she feels as we come over and when she went to the temple years and years ago. Hopefully things will progress and we can help them. In other news, we have been teaching another girl named Nicole. She is the girlfriend of one of the members in our ward. She is about 18 years old and has a 1 year old boy. T
he little guy is the most important thing in her life right now and she was interested in the church because she saw how different her boyfriends family was from hers. We taught her a lot this week. She is reading the Book of Mormon and praying. She came to church on Sunday and loved it. She said that she was pretty nervous to come, but when she finally came into the building she was at peace. In our last lesson with her she told us that she believes everything is true. We set a baptismal date for her on Christmas Day. She is really excited for it. There may be some bumps in the future, but she is determined and ready to be baptized.

Really not a whole lot has gone on besides that. There are a lot of investigators that we have been recontacting just because it has been so hard to meet with them lately. We are doing a lot of finding, when we get the time. Last night I went on exchanges with a new missionary. His name is Elder Broadhead. Yes Elder Broadhead. He is the cousin to the Broadhead family in the 1st ward. He is such a good kid. He has a strong desire to do good and serve others. He is already way ahead of the other missionaries in his teaching ability and he speaks Spanish. He is a Broadhead alright, he looks just like the whole family and acts like them too haha. You'll have to let them know that he is in my zone.

That's it for me this week. I think this might be the shortest e-mail of my whole mission. This next week is going to be a good one. We are going to work our tails off. I love you guys.

Love,
Elder Garrick

Quote from Brother Steve Gonsalves, "I can find one thing in one church, and find something else in a different church, and try and piece it all together and come up with my own belief, but I don't want to do that. I want it all now! This is where the whole truth is. I have learned more in the past few months than I ever did in my entire life going to church."

November 30, 2010 - Week 68

2010-11-30T19:48:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

How is everyone doing? It is raining once again in Vancouver. In fact, it hasn't really stopped raining for the past couple of weeks I swear. It is all good though. I'm pretty much used to it by now. A few things happened this week. I better start off with Thanksgiving. I had a great Thanksgiving day. In the morning we did service from about 10 am to 2 pm. We got about 10 missionaries together and grabbed some rakes and garbage bags and went around raking peoples lawns in our stake. We did a lady's yard in our ward and finished up pretty fast. As we were driving to the next house we saw an older man doing his yard. He had a ton of leaves and hadn't really done a whole lot of it yet. So we pulled over and so did our convoy of missionaries. 10 missionaries came out with their rakes in hand and offered to help. His wife eventually came out and offered to give us some hot cider and cookies. We went in and they fed us while we warmed up. We talked to them for a while. It was really neat. We were joking around how they probably haven't had that many Mormons in their house at once. They are actually in our area so we are going to go back and invite them to one of the wards Christmas activities coming up. After service we went to our first dinner, the Maynes. It was great. That family is hilarious. They fed us a ton and we chatted and played some apples to apples. Literally right after that we went over to the Gonsalves house for our 2nd dinner. We loaded up there and met some more of the Gonsalves family. Brother Gonsalves and Cajia are still doing awesome. Sister Gonsalves is warming up too. I think she can really see how the gospel has blessed her family and she is starting to soften up. Last but not least, we went over to the Browns house for dessert. The Browns are the Samoan family in the ward who were recently baptized right before I came here. They fed us this dessert called pani po po. It's these rolls with coconut milk and brown sugar on them. Its kinda like a cinnamon roll. We were about to die at this point because we had eaten so much. As we finished up the pani po po, they bring out a big bowl of ice cream and a plate of cake. Oh kill me now. We ate most of it, but just couldn't finish it off. Elder Burgin and I weighed ourselves when we got home and we both gained 10 pounds just in one day. You know me though, it was gone in about 2 days. I just can't keep weight on. Oh well. Someday I will get fat.

The big downer to the week was Ian's baptism was put on hold for a while. The day before Thanksgiving, Ian's in-laws picked up their son and took him four-wheeling. Ian really wanted his son to be there for the baptism so we decided to do it this week. We talked to him about because it's just not a good idea to put off your baptism. The adversary really gets involved the last week of your baptism and if you put it off, it just gets even worse. But it's what he wanted to do and it's the way most of Ian's family and Nicole's family could make it. Ian said he would be okay. Now there are just so many things coming up that are making it even harder to do the baptism this week. Hopefully it can work out this Saturday. After so many miracles that happened in this whole process, you can see how Satan makes an attack and tries to stop it all from happening. I have confidence that all will work out, we just need to help their family as much as we can this week.

The work right now is slower than usual. I have been having internal conflicts with myself all week. I have just been struggling with how I could be a better missionary. You would think that after 15 months of doing this that I would be a pro. I recognize so much the missionary that I could be and sometimes it is difficult to know how to be that missionary. I have been praying and studying so much this week. With fervent prayer I have gained so many answers to my prayers, it is unreal. Today we went to the Portland Temple. Once again I thought that things were going to keep me from going to the Temple. We were giving a few missionaries a ride. One of the missionaries had a mis-communication problem and was super late. He ended up not even coming because he was so late. This of course made us really late because he told us he wasn't even going to come about 30 minutes after we were supposed to leave. We showed up to the Temple and barely missed the session. Our ride was able to sneak in at the very last minute, but we weren't. We didn't know what to do. We decided that we would do initiatories while we waited. We just did one each and then we decided that we would go to the later endowment session. Once again the Lord answered my prayer, because doing the iniatitories was exactly what I needed. The Lord works in mysteries ways. Elder Burgin and I are trying to work things out in our area and find some new investigators. We just taught one of the members in our wards girlfriend. It was a pretty good lesson, could have been better, but we figured out what we could do, once again through a lot of prayer and study.

It sounds like everyone had a really good Thanksgiving week. I'm always glad to hear that the family is doing great. Take care of yourselves and enjoy this time of year.

Love,
Elder Garrick

November 23, 2010, Week 67

2010-11-23T19:31:00.000-08:00

Good Afternoon Everybody!

This has just been one great week for me. A giant test of my faith, but everything worked out great. I don't even know where to begin. I guess I should start off with, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I can not believe that it is that time of year again. We are hitting all of the holiday seasons now. This transfer I will have Thanksgiving and Christmas. Then the beginning of next transfer is New Years, but that's never too fantastic when your on a mission. Well for this Thanksgiving we are going over to a members house in the afternoon. Their names are the Maynes. They are awesome and love having the missionaries over. We are going to have dinner at around 3 o' clock. Then we are going to go over to the Gonsalves family for 2nd Dinner. And then last but not least, we will probably go over to the Browns, the recent-convert Samoan family at night. In the morning we are going to do some service for people. We wanted to go to a homeless shelter and serve food and other things like that, but they are all full. I guess people only want to be charitable on Thanksgiving and Christmas. So instead we are probably going to rake some leaves and other yard work. That is if the snow melts away. Yes, it did snow in Vancouver. It really isn't bad at all, but people are just going crazy. They drive like turtles because they aren't used to driving in the snow. I guess on the east side of the mission, like in the tri-cities, it snowed about 7 inches. Crazy! It is getting real cold too. I broke out the warm clothes again and bundle up each time I leave the house.

Oh so my new companion is Elder Burgin from Kaysville, UT. He is awesome! He was actually my district leader in Pasco for a while. He has been out for 21 months and goes home next transfer. President is just sticking me with all these old timers. That's okay because I am able to learn a lot from them. He is definitely different from Elder Prawitt, just as each new companion has been different from the last, but we work well together and are doing great. He is hilarious and is always joking around.

So let me tell you about the miracle week that we had. In our weekly planning we set goals for how many lessons we want to teach, new investigators we want to find, people we want to have a baptismal date, and people to get baptized, etc. Well we have been teaching Ian as I have talked about for the past couple of days. His baptismal date is November 27th. That is this week. He has a lot that we haven't taught him yet and we weren't sure if we could do it, but we decided that we wanted to work towards it because it would be good for him to have it this week instead of pushing it back. Ian is just doing awesome. He loves coming to church and meeting with us. His wife, Nicole, has been really closed off lately and has stopped meeting with us for some reason. She has never come to church and is really worried about change and what people will think of her. So we stopped by Ians house and had a lesson with him. We taught him of the Word of Wisdom. He said that he already has quit all of his addictions. We told him we wanted to meet with him more often, like everyday, so we could help prepare him for his baptism. Then next day we talked about tithing. Oh boy tithing. Ian and Nicole are going through a BIG financial crisis right now. They are working with an attorney over something and may have to sell their house. Money is just a big deal right now and we knew that tithing would be a big obstacle that they would have to overcome. We taught Ian the importance of paying tithing, why we pay, what its used for, and the great blessings that come from it. We talked about how it is an act of faith, a way to show Heavenly Father that you are putting your trust in him to provide for you, by keeping his commandments. Ian's whole appearance changed from his usual happy and excited face to a look of worry. He said, "Oh I didn't know that tithing was a requirement for getting baptized." He said that he knows it is what he should do, but the problem is that he didn't know what Nicole would think. Nicole handles all the financial stuff. Ian was really worried. We told Ian to talk to Nicole about it, to explain his feelings and beliefs and then to pray for help. The rest of the week Ian was in our prayers. On Sunday we fasted for him. We didn't even announce his baptism in church because we weren't sure if he was going to be able to be baptized. Ian, of course, came to church on Sunday. He had a great time and learned a lot. After the meeting we asked him if he talked to Nicole yet. He said that he had. He said that he was just so worried that he kept on praying and praying for Gods help. When he talked to Nicole, she understood and allowed him to commit to paying tithing when he gets baptized. He also said that this has been incredible for him. Ian's boss has been extra nice to him for some reason. On Friday Ian's boss gave him two $50 gift cards to show his appreciation for Ian's hard work. Ian was interviewed on Sunday and passed with flying colors. He will be baptized this Saturday. I am so happy. The Lord truly provides. Ian said that the only condition now is that Nicole doesn't want us to set up any more appointments without her being there. I think that's great. It sounds like she wants to be involved again and hopefully she can follow her husbands footsteps.

On Sunday night we were planning for the next day. We are struggling trying to find people to teach right now. Most of our investigators are just falling off the radar like crazy. They either are going through something that makes it hard for us to meet with them, or they don't want to commit to do anything. We just have very few people we are actually working with right now. I have been doing a lot of finding. Finally, while we were planning I thought, "Man, I am just so sick of tracting on doors and getting rejected all the time. Is it okay to pray for God to lead us to someone who actually wants us to come, who is actually praying for missionaries to knock on their door?" E. Burgin and I discussed it and decided that we were going to do it. So that night and all of the next morning, we prayed for it. We went out to find. Every house we tried they just were not interested. The wouldn't even talk to us. Out of the whole morning and afternoon we talked to 1 person who would actually listen, and that 1 person was not interested. We finally decide to go somewhere else. We tried a potential investigator and no one was home, so we decided to knock a few more doors to find that person we were praying for. We see a house at the end of the street and we feel we should go there. When we knock on the door, a girl opens the door. She says, "Oh Elders! It has been a while since I have seen elders." She said that she used to meet with missionaries all the time. Her husband is an inactive member. She grew up with her foster parents who were LDS. She would go to church and went to a couple years of seminary in high school. She said that when she reads the Book of Mormon she gets such a peaceful feeling come over her. For the past couple weeks she has been getting a feeling telling her that she needs to go back to church, she needs to read her scriptures, she needs to pray. She has been getting these feelings for a while now. She wanted to go back to church, but didn't know where the church was. She had actually been praying about it that day. Then we knock on her door. She is going to come to church this Sunday. She said that she wants to get baptized. She knows it's true, there were just some things in the past that held her back from getting baptized in the past, but that have now been resolved. How amazing is that?

My testimony that Heavenly Father hears and answers specific prayers was confirmed and strengthened this week. Two amazing experiences that I wasn't so sure would happen, but decided I would try, were answered. I have always known that Heavenly Father listens to my prayers and He comforts me when I need comfort, but this week I know that if we actually ask Him for things and then trust in Him, He will give it to us. How incredible is that. My scripture for this week is 3 Nephi 18: 19-20 where Christ is teaching the people how to pray. I am thankful for a loving Heavenly Father who knows me and is aware of my righteous desires and hopes. I'm thankful that I'm not alone in this battle against life. I have been studying about the Savior recently. Not any thing different, but just the Savior. He overcame all things. Trials, temptations, and even death. It fills my soul with hope to know that through him, we can overcome everything too. Whether it be a test of faith in living a commandment, financial problems, or having to push through to improve the area you are serving in, if we put our trust in God we will overcome everything. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. There is so much to be thankful for right now. Enjoy that turkey dinner.

Love,
Elder Garrick

November 16, 2010 - Week 66

2010-11-16T14:34:00.000-08:00

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

November 9, 2010 - Week 65

2010-11-09T23:14:00.000-08:00

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

November 2, 2010 - Week 64

2010-11-09T23:04:00.000-08:00

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

October 26, 2010 - Week 63

2010-10-26T22:52:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Everybody!

Well another week in the Washington Kennewick Mission. The rain is finally here and I'm not sure if its going to go away now. It has been raining all week. I am sure getting good use of my coat. Well this week was Steve Gonsalves baptism. We met with him almost everyday to help him be prepared for Saturday. He is an amazing man. On Friday night we went and had a lesson with him. At the end of our lesson we read with him D&C 20:37 about the qualifications for baptism. Tears swelled up in his eyes as he realized the changes he had taken in his life and that he was truly worthy to be baptized. He just started to thank us. He said, "I hope you realize how lucky you are, to have grown up in the church. I would have been much better off if I would have had this in my life earlier. I know that my past is something that shaped me, but you are just so lucky to have had this. I want my kids to be like you. I want them to be able to not give into temptations." He then just started to sob. He grabbed the Book of Mormon in his hand and held it tightly. He said, "I know that this book is true. I know that it is true because it changed my life. It not only changed my life, but it saved my marriage. That woman (talking about his wife) means everything to me. She means everything to me and I want to be with her forever." What a great man he is. He has truly changed his life. You would not even believe what kind of life he used to live, and you would never have known it. He is one of the nicest men you will ever meet. He said that he is excited for his baptism because he can finally put his past behind him. It's buried in the water. He was even more excited for his confirmation, because he said that's when he becomes an official member of the church. He was so excited to receive the gift of the holy ghost.

So his father in law came up from Kennewick to baptize him. He got there the day of the baptism. We didn't know if he had baptismal clothes or not so we brought an extra white jumpsuit. They show up for the baptism and sure enough he doesn't have anything. We gave him the jumpsuit and he tried it on. Unfortunately it was super small on him. The baptism is supposed to start in 10 minutes. We are scrambling wondering what to do. We call the person who has all the clothing and she doesn't answer. Ah man! Time is drawing closer and we literally do not know what to do. Finally we see a guy just randomly walking in the church. He just so happened to have the same size waist as the father in law. So he ran home and grabbed his white temple pants. We started the baptism and had the talk on baptism. The pants still weren't there, so Elder Prawitt and I did a "missionary presentation." We stalled for as long as we could. FINALLY they show up with the pants and Brother Gonsalves father is able to get changed and we could proceed with the baptism. Holy cow was that stressful. I swear all baptisms are stressful. It seems like something always goes wrong at them.

Not much else happened this week. We were able to meet a couple new people and start teaching them. One is a lady named Rebecca. She is homeless right now and living with her aunt. She is so humble. I guess she had met with missionaries in the past and was going to get baptized, but her boyfriend wouldn't let her. She since has broken up with him and her whole life has just fallen apart. She has spent some time in jail and there realized that God was still there for her. Her life is still very hectic right now as she is trying to get everything figured out, but she wants to be baptized. She keeps on pleading for us to come back. We met with her yesterday and are going to see her again tomorrow. She really just wants to change her life. We also met with a lady named Rhonda. She is really cool. We have been trying to meet with her for like 3 months now, but she has always been too busy. She wanted her and her husband to meet with us, but they could never do it at the same time. Finally the husband said he just wasn't interested, so she said we could come by just to see her. We had a great lesson with her. We introduced her to the Book of Mormon and she said that she would read it. God has always been very important to her and overtime she just stopped going to church, but she realizes how much it helped her. She can see how her kids don't have the same thing she did and she really wants them to have it. This week we are having our Halloween Trunk or Treat. We are inviting everyone to it. Hopefully a lot of people show up. Guess what? We have to be in our house by 6 o clock on Halloween. BUMMER!!!!! I don't know what we are going to do. Hand out candy I guess. Oh well.

This last week we had interviews with President and Sister Greer. They are awesome. It was interesting because Elder Prawitt's interview was really short. They pretty much just asked him what he is going to do when he goes home. My interview; on the other hand, was a lot longer. President was drilling me with questions about the Zone and telling me things that need to get done. I guess they are preparing me for when Elder Prawitt leaves. All the responsibility will fall on me. Oh boy. Oh today we are going on a hike. There is this pretty cool waterfall that we are going to hike up to. I'm really excited for it and I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures. Well I think that's about it for me. Hope everyone is doing well. Talk to ya later.

Love,
Elder Garrick

October 19, 2010 - Week 62

2010-10-19T22:44:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!!

Well it is just another day here in Vancouver Washington. The sun is shining and the rain clouds are gone. This week has been pretty good for us. Not a whole lot has happened this last week, but I will hit some of the highlights. I conducted my first baptismal interview. It was an 11 year old boy, so it wasn't that difficult. And man he was rock solid. He has such a testimony of the gospel. I really liked interviewing him. It's amazing to see how much the gospel can really bring happiness into peoples lives, even an 11 year old. So I'm glad it went well. I was stressin out all week and studying up on how to conduct an interview and what I can do to help the person feel comfortable. As most of you know, interviews are usually stressful, and it is for the one doing the interview too haha. But it was not bad at all. Speaking of interviews, Brother Gonsalves had his this last week. We found out some information about him that needed to be taken care of with President Greer. Brother Gonsalves is an amazing man. I can't believe the life that he used to live. Growing up in Boston is rough. He has changed so much and now all he wants to do is do the right thing and follow Christ. Elder Prawitt and I love that guy. We had a long chat with him. He loves to talk. His baptism will be this Saturday and his father-in-law is going to come up from Kennewick to baptize him. I'm so excited for that day.

Really not much else has happened. We didn't teach as much as we usually do. There were just a lot of little things that we had to do. Its funny because we have just been so busy and we have been trying to cram in as much proselyting time as we can. We have put off some of our zone leader responsibilities because something else comes up and we have to take care of that and then we are already running behind on schedule so we just go to our next teaching appointment. We had a big realization this week that we need to slow down and get everything organized. We spent a good day just planning out what needs to be done and how we can do it. It was really good. Everything is working out now and moving smoothly. And now that we are organized we have more time to go proselyte. Its good. I came across this scripture and it really hit home Mosiah 4:27. I can't tell you how much that is true. Yesterday I went on exchanges with an Elder in our district named Elder Mcelhaney. He is such a good kid. Man does he work hard. He didn't have a lot of teaching appointments so we did a ton of tracting. He is a Spanish missionary so he did all the Spanish doors and I did all the English doors. We actually had a lot of success and got a lot of return appointments. I am realizing each and every day that everyone has their own personal conversion to the gospel. We talked a lot about how Heavenly Father gives us opportunities to grow and to learn. Many of these opportunities are things that we are going to struggle with for a while, but we can face those challenges and come out stronger, or we can blame God and just fall deeper into a hole. Elder Mcelhaney was diagnosed with cancer before he came out on his mission. He said that in high school he was doing some awful stuff. He said that he would party a lot. One day he was at the gym and noticed a small lump which he later found out was cancer. He immediately had to go through chemotherapy. He said that after that he changed his life. He should have died, but amazingly he didn't and now he is serving the Lord and doing his best everyday to make it up to him. He said that he is thankful that he got cancer, because cancer saved his life. He was going down the wrong road and now he is back on the right path. Well we had a great exchange. We had an awesome appointment with one of their investigators. Unfortunately it was all in spanish so I just sat and smiled. I could tell that it was good because the investigators were so excited to hear about prophets and the restoration. The spirit was strong too.

Well that's it for me this week. I'm not sure what we are doing for p-day today. I don't think anything special. Take care everyone and enjoy the fall.

Love,

Elder Garrick

October 13, 2010 - Week 61

2010-10-13T22:32:00.000-07:00

Good Morning Everyone!

I'm sure you all probably guessed that I had a meeting yesterday. For the past two days all the zone leaders and district leaders had training on these new fundamental missionary lessons. It was amazing. But that is why I did not email yesterday. This week has been hectic. Transfers were this week and boy does that take a lot of time. There was some confusion on housing so we had to get that figured out. One of the sister companionships left and they brought in two elders. What they didn't realize is that the sisters were living in a house with a single sister and the elders can't live there. So we did a lot of moving and calling around and finally got everything figured out. WHEW! There weren't a whole lot of activities or anything that happened this week but I thought I would give you an update on people we are teaching.

Brother Gonsalves is doing great. He is completely ready to get baptized and he knows this is all true. He wants to do everything he can to change his life and completely follow Christ. Its amazing. His wife; on the other hand, is already a member but does not want to come back to church right now. This kills Brother Gonsalves because he wants to do this together and he keeps saying, "I want to go to the Celestial Kingdom with you." Elder Prawitt and I both realized that it would be best to just move forward with Brother Gonsalves so we can prepare him for his baptism. Its the best thing right now.

We have been meeting with this Turkish lady for a while now named Seren. She is pretty cool. She is muslim and doesn't have a real Christian background. She always talks to us but has never really gotten into the things we teach or anything. We decided to change our teaching to fit her needs. The past two lessons we've had with her have been great. She is now curious and wants to learn more. She is excited and making efforts on her own part to learn. Its pretty cool. We also met for the first time with a guy named Jerry. We met him before and just talked to him, but this time we were actually able to teach him. Man this guy is so ready for the gospel. The questions he asks are just so soul searching and with every question, the gospel has an answer. He was really wondering where we come from and what happens to us when we die. We explained the Pre-Earth life and how we have a Spirit body and a physical body. He was amazing and it just clicked inside of him. It was a good lesson and we hope to continue onward. Lastly is Birry (prounounced Beeray). We tracted into this family just yesterday. They are from West African and have lived here about 13 years. We were talking to the wife, Birry, and she said that she was Muslim. She started talking about Mohammed (sp?) and how he was a prophet. We explained that God has always called prophets on the earth and he has again called another living prophet. Her response was, "What! Are you serious? A living prophet! When did this happen? Are you serious? There is a prophet on the earth?" We simply told her yes and asked her if it would be important for her to find out. She said, "Of course it would be. This is a big deal! Why have I never heard about this before? I'm confused, when did this happen? Did God just drop him out of heaven one day?" It was amazing. She honestly wanted to know. She couldn't meet with us then but we rescheduled for a latter time. She said, "Good I want to hear more about this prophet." So we are meeting with her tomorrow. I am really excited and will have to let you know how it goes.

Our 2 day training was great. We talked about Our purpose as missionaries and how important it is to truly love people and to rely on the Spirit. Its so important in everything that we do. We read from D&C 50:13-14 where it says, "Unto what were ye ordained? To Preach my Gospel, even by the Spirit." President Greer asked us when did we accept the call to do missionary work. One elder raised his hand and said, "When we got our mission call." Another missionary raised his hand and said, "When we got baptized." I then realized that I accepted my call to do missionary work much earlier than that. The spirit bore witness to me that this is why I am here right now. I accepted this call long ago and now I'm fulfilling my calling, that I was sent here. Its amazing. I can't believe how great this work truly is. To help people come closer to Christ, its the most rewarding thing I have ever done. I realize that more and more everyday.

Well that is it for me this week. I hope you're all doing fine. I pray for many of you everyday. I think for P-day we are just going to play some basketball. I have a lot of letters that I need to write that I probably won't be able to write. I love you guys.

Love,
Elder Garrick

October 5, 2010 - Week 60

2010-10-05T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Family,

Man this was such a great week. I have so much to say, but am unfortunately already running out of time. I hope that I can type fast enough. Well this week we had Zone Leader Council again. This is where all the zone leaders get together with the Mission President and discuss the needs of our mission and what we can do. We drove down with all the zone leaders on the west side of the mission on Thursday and the new zone leaders. And guess who is a new zone leader. Elder Buchanan! I hope that he does well in his new position. Also Elder Brinton got called to be a new zone leader. He is in our district right now and is a great missionary. At ZLC we always have a testimony meeting where President Greer usually asks the leaving Zone Leaders to bear their testimony. Those testimony meetings are the most spiritual meetings I have ever been to. There is such a great love for God, for missionary work, and for each other in the room. The past two ZLC's the Spirit has been so strong. It is such a great feeling.

Well I wanted to tell you really fast about Tim and Shilo. We have been teaching Tim for the past couple of weeks now. I think I talked about him in my last email. He has his own belief in God but he came to church with his recently activated girlfriend and we have been meeting with him ever since. We have had some good lessons with him. So the other day we show up to their house and Sister Carlson's, she is Tim's girlfriend, brother is there. He just got out of jail that day. As we sat down he immediately came over to us with a Book of Mormon in hand and started to ask us questions. He said that while he was in jail he went to their library and asked for a Book of Mormon. His grandma is LDS and he wanted to check it out a little bit. Well while he was in jail they took away all of his belongings. He literally had nothing except for the Book of Mormon. He considers it a sign that he should learn more. So we start to explain to him a little bit about the Book of Mormon. Then Tim jumps in and he starts teaching and testifying on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. It was amazing. Our investigator is teaching another investigator about the gospel! Shilo, the brother, had studied Native American religion. We told him how the people in the Book of Mormon are the ancestors of the Native American. He was completely amazed. We are now going to start teaching Shilo with Tim. It was pretty cool.

The Gonsalves family is doing pretty well. Brother Gonsalves is solid. He knows this is true and he is leading his family out and setting the example. He has changed so much. His wife is a less active member and has more doubts and concerns right now but we are going to work with her and see if we can help her. Their family is awesome. Brother Gonsalves said that he considers Elder Prawitt and I like his sons.

Wasn't General Conference amazing. Holy cow the first session was just mind blowing. I had so many questions that I wanted answered and most of them were answered in the very first session of General Conference. By the end of Conference, all my questions had been answered. It was so great. I thought it was so cool to see at the very beginning President Monson said that we need more missionaries. I recently heard that only 30% of young men are actually going on missions. As President Monson spoke I could tell that it wasn't coming from him, it was coming from Heavenly Father. My other favorite talks were from Elder D. Todd Christopherson about consecrating yourself. I have really been trying to do that lately with my mission. He gave some great guidance that I am going to try and follow for this next transfer. And President Uchtdorf, surprise surprise. He is still my favorite. His talk on focusing on what is important was so great. The simple things are what really matter. Our relationship with God, family, others, and ourselves. That was so great. And he gave a great talk on Pride. I have really seen how that is the great stumbling block for everyone. I have seen it in investigators, members, missionaries, and sometimes even in myself haha. What a great talk. There was another talk, I can't remember who gave it, but he spoke on faith and character. He said, "We become what we want to be, when we be what we want to become each day of our lives." I loved that. I'm focusing on that everyday. Well that's it for me. I love you guys. Hope you enjoyed General Conference too. I'm always glad to hear that everyone is doing good. I love you.

Elder Garrick

September 28, 2010 - Week 59

2010-09-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

Jared's current District at the Portland, OR Temple

Jared, Elder Prawitt, and the AP's having fun!!!

Hello Everyone,

Well this has been a pretty good week for us. Zone Conference was last week and it was so good. I can tell you what, it was not as enjoyable partly because I was the one giving the training for part of it. Usually it’s just a great time to sit back and relax and learn more about the gospel and how to be a more effective missionary. This time I was just stressin out until our training was finished, then I could relax. It went really well though. Elder Prawitt and I had been preparing for it for the past couple of weeks and somehow everything we each studied on our own came together when we planned it out. I got to see Elder Buchanan at zone conference too. He is doing awesome. That kid is a baptizing machine. They just baptized 7 people and have about 8 more on date. I don't know how he does it. President gave everyone a little bit of a rebuke. There have been a lot of problems with missionaries in this last transfer and President is just getting fed up with it. It was probably the best rebuke I have ever heard though. He said what needed to be said, he encouraged us to be better, and he did it all in the spirit of love. There are many exciting things ahead for missionary work and he said that if the missionaries cannot be more obedient than the work will never progress like it should. There is this new thing called, "I'm a Mormon," Where people are making profiles of themselves. It’s to show that members are a diverse group of people, but that they are all blessed by their belief in Jesus Christ and the gospel. They are really promoting it in some states like New York and Florida. I bet Max Johnson is having a blast right now. I believe his mission was one of the ones where it was really working good. People are able to get online and then talk to missionaries’ right on the internet and ask them questions. Some missionaries are even having time where they go to computer labs and just chat with people for a couple hours. President said that the goal of this is for missionaries to get off the streets to find. Anyway it’s super exciting and President is asking for a higher commitment of obedience so maybe in the future our mission might be able to do the same. This week was pretty fun because the AP's were on the west side of the mission almost the whole week. Elder Prawitt and I are their favorites so they stayed with us haha. It was a blast. We had such a good time. Elder Lavin is the senior AP and he goes home this transfer. He was pretty sad because he said that he wants to do this again when we all get home. He is a good kid.

Well I guess I will tell you just a little bit about a couple of people who we are teaching. Some things just don’t go the way you would have hoped they would. Many of the people we have been teaching, we weren't able to see this week. It’s kinda disappointing, but we will continue to try. We have been meeting with this guy named Tim. His girlfriend is a less active member who has recently been coming to church. They are in their 40's/50's. Well Tim has some very interesting ideas on religion and God. He came to church a couple weeks ago and so we have been meeting with him ever since. He has been warming up with us more and more. He always likes to feed us and he feeds us some weird stuff. This week we had shrimp pizza. It actually wasn't that bad. Well like I said he has some interesting interpretations on things but we are getting through to him. He is now reading the Book of Mormon where a couple weeks ago he refused. He is really starting to like it too. We asked him how he feels about things and he goes, "Well, I'm pretty sure the Mormons aren't of the Devil. This seems like the way I’ll probably go in the future, but there is still more I need to know." So he is doing awesome. Progress is slow, but there is progress. This week we also met with Brother Gonsalves. We had a great lesson with him. He just wants his family to be happy and he knows this is the way to do it. They have been having nightly scripture study and nightly prayers as a family. There is just a different spirit in their home. Brother Gonsalves said that this just feels like the right way to go. He has said for a long time that he will probably get baptized, but he just doesn't feel ready yet. This time, we invited him and he said yes. He is so on fire. He has so many questions about everything. When he comes to church he is participating more than the members and he is just so curious about everything. He said that he wants to become part of the ward family. We were so happy. He has a 12 year old daughter who has been coming to church. She loves Young Women’s. She is very shy and doesn't have a lot of friends, but the girls have really reached out to her and she loves it. She doesn't feel ready to get baptized right now, but it’s probably because she doesn't understand it very well yet. We are pretty confident that we can set a date for her to get baptized with her dad. Brother Gonsalves baptismal date is October 23rd, but we are thinking we might move it closer just because he is completely ready for it. There is no need to wait. We will have to see.

That’s about it for me this week. Kind of a short email. I want to try and send some pictures this week though. I love you all and hope everything is going well. I'm so excited for General Conference. It is such a great privilege that we can hear what the Lord needs us to hear. It’s a true testimony that the windows of heaven are not shut off. Here is my scripture for the week. D&C 21: 4-6. I'm understanding more and more how much our Heavenly Father loves us. He truly knows each of us separately as individuals. It’s amazing to think about how He has been in my life and influenced me. How the certain events that have transpired have helped me and blessed me so much in the future. And then to see that same influence and love in other people’s lives. It’s amazing. I'll give one more scripture, just because it’s my favorite. Alma 26: 37. Yes another scripture from Alma 26. But it is one of the best missionary chapters of all scripture in my opinion. Well I love you all. Take care of yourselves this week and enjoy Conference.

Love,
Elder Garrick

September 21, 2010 - Week 58

2010-09-21T23:09:00.000-07:00

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

September 14, 2010 - Week 57

2010-09-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

Well this has been another busy week. I tell ya what, it just never slows down for us. I am completely fine with that though. I enjoy being busy. Time is going by so fast. It actually makes me nervous sometimes knowing that it is flying by. Well I want to assure everyone that I am getting their letters. Seriously I just haven't been this busy in my life ever. It is very hard for me to write letters back. Even our P-Days are hectic and we are usually the ones who organize our p-days and get everyone together to do things. So it's even hard to write on p-days. I will try my best, it just may take a little longer than it usually does.

There isn't a whole lot of amazing things that happened this last week. President challenged the Zone leaders this week to have 10 OYM's (Open Your Mouth). This just means that each day he wants us to talk to 10 different people and teach them something and invite them to do something else. For example, stop and talk to someone on the street, teach them about the Book of Mormon, and then invite them to read and pray about the Book of Mormon. It hasn't been that hard. Elder Prawitt and I do this a lot anyway. It has been helping us to talk to everyone and focus on our purpose as missionaries. We are being blessed for it as well. We have a lot of potential investigators that we could teach in the near future. There are also people coming out from nowhere at church who just came with their aunt or boyfriend etc. Its really exciting. we are hoping we can meet with them and start teaching them as well. This week we also met with the Gonsalves family. The wife is the only member of the family. The husband and their 12 year old daughter are not members and the missionaries have been teaching them for a little bit. We had a great lesson with them this week on the Restoration. Brother Gonsalves is praying about a baptismal date for sometime in October. They all came to church on Sunday and really enjoyed it. We have high hopes for them. We have also been finding a lot of Russian people. I don't know if I told you all yet, but Elder Prawitt served in Ukraine for the first half of his mission. Because of medical issues he had to come home for a couple of months and now he has been serving in the Kennewick Mission for almost another year. Well Ukrainian is very similar to Russian so its nice because if they can't understand what we are saying then Elder Prawitt can translate it for them. Russians are very funny too. They are really nice and curious about the things that we teach them. We will see how it goes. As for our other teaching appointments, nothing too big. We had a few appointments cancel on us which was a bummer, but we keep trying.

This week we also went on exchanges again with two companionships in the zone. That was a ton of fun. I really like doing that because I am able to really get to know the other missionaries and talk to them closely. This week the AP's are coming to our area to go on exchanges with us. We will split up and do double the work for one whole day. It will be pretty intense though. I'm really excited for it. The AP's are really good missionaries and I am becoming good friends with them. This last week we also had a Sister's Conference for all the sister missionaries on the west side of the mission. Since we have 6 sisters in our zone, we were asked to come help and give training. It was actually a pretty good meeting. We role played and taught with the sister missionaries. It was definitely different from teaching with elders, but I learned a lot from them. On September 11th we did the Day of Service at the church's carrot farm. That was a ton of fun. The whole stake was there and we spent the day picking carrots, weeding, and cleaning the carrots. All the missionaries were there together too. I can't believe how many carrots we actually had. It was amazing. Probably 8 truck loads. All the elders had to load the carrots from the truck to the store house.

Well that's pretty much it for me this week. Very busy. I am learning more and more about sacrifice and consecrating my work to the Lord. President Greer said something at ZLC that has stuck with me. He said, "So many of the missionaries are still stuck in Utah, or Arizona, or wherever they may be." His point was that there are many missionaries who are still trying to live the lives they lived back at home. I'm doing my best to get completely lost in the work. And from Lyndsie's comments, I am doing a good job at it because she said I am now one of those weird missionaries. It is probably true, but this is the one time in my entire life where I can literally devote ALL my time and attention to serving God. It's an amazing experience. I know that it will be different when I come home, but I don't want it to be all that different. I want to do the things I am doing now for the rest of my life. I want to know the things I know for the rest of my life and live the way I am right now for the rest of my life. I take that back, I want to be a little better tomorrow and the next day. Today we went to the Portand, OR Temple. Man that is such a beautiful temple. I loved it so much. I went in today with a lot of questions on my mind. I had a lot more questions come up during the session. As I sat and pondered of these things in the Celestial room, I prayed and searched the scriptures. I came away with so many answers to my questions. We just barely got back. I think we are just going to go shopping now and try to get some sleep because we had to wake up really early. Oh I'll be honest, that probably won't happen. We will probably play basketball or frisbee. I'll will definitely write some letters though. Take care everyone. I love you all very much.

Love,
Elder Garrick

September 7, 2010 - Week 56

2010-09-07T20:47:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!

It has been a great week for Elder Prawitt and I. We did so much, I can't believe it has only been a week. I will probably only highlight a couple of the many events that took place. On Thursday we had Zone Leader Council in Kennewick. This meant that most of Wednesday we took our van, yes elder Prawitt and I drive a mini van, and some of the other zone leaders in the other Vancouver areas and drove to Kennewick. It was a blast. We picked up Elder Olsen and we got to talk and joke around the whole way down. That night we stayed at the AP apartment. It was fun. I got to talk with the 2 AP's and just get to know them. They are amazing missionaries. ZLC was great. It's where all the zone leaders in the mission get together and have a training from President and Sister Greer and the AP's. We reported on how well our zone is doing and discussed the needs of the mission and how we could improve. The best part of the meeting was at the end. President Greer asked a few missionaries to bear their testimonies. There were a couple who were going home this transfer. They told of experiences they have had, especially with teaching from these new lessons. Teaching People, Not Lessons. Its truly amazing. By the end of the meeting there was a great spirit there. We all sang, "If You Could Hie To Kolob," and there was great power in the song. We prayed and the meeting ended. Everyone just sat there. I feel so privileged to be a part of all of this now. Many of the missionaries who were there have been my leaders. They have been the ones that I have looked up to my whole mission, and now I get to work with them. I saw many of my friends there and made some new friendships. It was such a fun time.

There is a lot of reporting that we have to do as zone leaders. Its definitely something I am not used to. This week we have been working on our Stake Report on how well the missionary work is going in the stake and what improvements we would like to see. On Sunday we met with the Stake President and his councilors, President Greer and his first councilor. Man talk about spiritual giants. I felt like a little boy sitting inside of that meeting with them. They are so loving, but have a sense of power too. President Greer is hilarious too. He was cracking jokes the whole time. That was really neat. I guess I'll be doing a lot more of that in the future.

Whit you talked about in your letter how the missionaries in your ward explained how referrals work. And Lynds you said a little bit about your neighbors you just moved in. I want to tell you a story about how important members are in missionary work. Last week we talked to the the Browns in our ward. The Browns are the Samoan family who just recently got baptized. We gave a lesson on missionary work and asked if there were any neighbors they had they could invite over for family home evening. They said their next door neighbors. They didn't really know them, but they thought they would be good. We asked Brother Brown if they thought their neighbors would come. He said, "Don't worry Elders. We have faith. They will come." So the Browns went over the next day and invited them over. We had dinner on Saturday with both families. It was really fun. After we shared a message on families. Eric, the son who is preparing to go on a mission bore his testimony on how much the gospel has blessed his family. Then Sister Brown told them why she invited them over, because she wants the same thing for their family. The young couple was touched. They talked about how God is very important to them and their family. The Browns invited them to come to church this next week and encouraged them to take the lessons from the missionaries. The couple accepted. It was great. They did such a good job. So this next Saturday we are going to have a lesson with the couple and they are going to come to church with the Browns on Sunday.

Another instance of members inviting their friends. There is this new young couple who moved into the ward. They are living with their non-member cousins right now. The ward helped them move in last week and ever since their cousins have been asking a ton of questions. So we talked to them and scheduled a time we could have dessert and get to know them. We went over and started chatting. The non-member husband, Ian, was talking to us about his religious background. He said that religion has always been an important part of his life. He feels there has to be more to life than what he is doing everyday and he is searching for something. We talked about our purpose in life. We shared scriptures with them and introduced them to the Book of Mormon. We then explained that we teach people more about the Plan of Salvation and asked them if we could share more of this message with them. The wife then piped in, "Ya we want to learn more about your beliefs." They are completely ready for the gospel. They want to have God in their kids lives. We are going to start teaching them this week as well. So this week has been great. We are getting a lot of referrals from members and are working closely with them. Whit and Lynds, that is why members are so important. I can't tell you how many doors I have knocked and only a few will listen. Those who do listen, its so much harder to teach them, because they don't have a friend to help and support them.

Another fun thing you get to do as a missionary is help the companionships who are struggling. Oh boy is that fun haha. This week we had two sister missionaries who just are not getting along. We found out some information and had to resolve it. We sat down with both the sisters and talked about their companionship. What they liked about each other, what they disliked, what they could change, how they could help each other. Man I have never had to do something like that with sister missionaries. It was really good though and they are getting a long more. Last night I went on my first exchange as a zone leader. I went with a new missionary who came out with Elder Williams. It was a lot of fun. It was nice not to be a zone leader for one day and to just help this young missionary out. He had a lot of questions on missionary work and how to work with his companion. It was like I was training again. We had a good day. We found some new investigators and had great lessons with the ones we taught that day.

Well I am running out of time. I hope everyone has a great week. Hope its sunny there, because it is raining today. The rain is coming and it soon will not stop.

Love,
Elder Garrick

August 31, 2010 - Week 55

2010-08-31T20:27:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone

Well I am now in Vancouver, Washington. As I email you all at this very moment, it is already raining outside. Summer is drawing to a close and the rain is already coming. It is very beautiful here though. It is so green. The city is definitely bigger than little 'ol Dayton. It has been a little difficult getting used to that. What I love is that there are so many people everywhere. I can talk to literally everyone I see, because I have no idea who they are and they probably don't know about the gospel. Its pretty cool. Life as a zone leader is a very humbling experience. I think our phone is almost constantly ringing. We are constantly planning and keeping forms up to date for the Mission, and then on top of all of that we try our best to actually do missionary work. We are very busy. My new companions name is Elder Prawitt. He is from Springville, Utah. He is one of the best missionaries I have ever served with. He actually served for 1 year in Ukraine, but then he had to come home for a bit because of medical reasons and now he has been serving here. He only has 2 transfers left, but we try not to talk about that haha. I am learning a great deal from him. Our zone consists of 18 missionaries. 12 elders and 6 sisters. It is a lot of fun. You get to know everybody in the zone because we are always talking to them. Mostly our role as zone leaders is to help the zone in any way possible. We teach them, encourage them, and unfortunately we have to correct them. That is definitely something I do not like to do. It has never been something that I wanted to do as a missionary, to get mad at someone because they aren't doing the right things, but it is something that needs to be done. I have decided to talk to people instead, figure out why they are breaking the rules, and then follow the spirit from there. Yup, there are a lot of new things for me. I am back in a giant ward. The members are really great though. They are really supportive and love to do missionary work. My mind has just been racing lately trying to remember all of our investigators names, members names, missionaries names, along with what we are doing with all those people. The members that we live with are the Renigers. They are so funny. They are really nice too. We have the whole basement to ourselves. Its pretty good. We have our own bathroom and couch and desks. We even have our own weight set, so maybe I can actually get buff now haha.

Well unfortunately I am in a library now where we only have 1 hour to email so I will have to be somewhat brief. I wanted to tell you about a couple of really cool experiences I had over this last week. Elder Prawitt is big time into tracting. He likes teaching a lot more, but pretty much if we aren't teaching a lesson, we are tracting. Man, I will tract, but it's definitely not my favorite and I like to do others things than that. But we don't have much else to do right now so we have been. We have A LOT of potential investigators. We are setting appointments up with them, but when we show up to teach them, they aren't there. We will sometimes have 5 or 6 lessons in a day and not teach any lesson, because no one is there for our appointment. We try calling them in advance, we try swinging by, writing the appointment down, and still no appointment goes through. It has been pretty hard on us. Thus, we have been tracting when those things go through. So yesterday, once again the person we had an appointment with was not there. So we said a prayer and asked god to direct us as to where we should go. We just started walking. There were some houses that we walked by and Elder Prawitt asked if we should start there. I just didn't feel right about it so we moved on. We are walking and I see a house that looks perfect. I point to the neighborhood and Prawitt says, "That is exactly what I was thinking." So we go and knock on the first door. The lady is completely not interested. So I say to myself, "okay, Heavenly Father has prepared someone here, otherwise I wouldn't have been directed here. That lady is not the person the lord wants us to find right now." And then we move on. We see two guys unloading a truck, so we stop by to see if we can help. We start to talk to them. One of the guys starts talking to us. We asked him how faith in Christ has helped him. We got on a great discussion, where we were able to talk more and more to him about the gospel. The man studies religion a lot. He knows all about the Apostasy and has even studied a little bit about the American Indians and their belief on God. We had such a cool talk with him. We told him about the Book of Mormon and invited him to read it. He said that he definitely would. He was really excited. The only problem is that he is going on a road trip with his family and won't be back until the end of September! Its okay though. We did what the Lord wanted us to do and who knows what Edward (the guy we talked to) is going to do.

The second story I wanted to tell you was about this recent convert family in the ward. They are from Samoa and are one of the greatest families I have ever met. The father, mother, and two younger daughters just recently got baptized. They moved here almost 10 years ago from Samoa. They have 3 sons who lived in Samoa during that time and have only come to America in the past couple of months. They have a great story. Their 3 sons actually joined the church in Samoa and the oldest one is on a mission in the Phillipines. The parents actually came in contact with the missionaries because they saw them walking a long the street and had a question about their sons mission. The first day I met them, they sat me down and told me their conversion story and then said, "You are now part of our family. You are my brother." Well their 2 younger sons are now in America and they come out with us a lot to do missionary work. On Sunday we were at church and the 2nd hour ended. It was a combined meeting with the young men and young women this week so we decided to stay. Eric, the middle son, sits down. I start to talk to him just a little bit. I can tell that he is a little nervous or something is wrong. He says, "Elder Garrick, can I ask you a question? I have wanted to go on a mission my whole life. Today I have a meeting with the Bishop. I just wanted to ask you what has been the hardest part about your mission." I could tell that he was very nervous about the decision that he was about to make. He explained to me how there have been so many things lately that have been trying to keep him from going on a mission. The biggest one was fear. I talked to him about how I felt. I remembered the night that I was set apart as a missionary. I will be honest family, I was really nervous that night because I knew that it was the beginning of a lot of things I was afraid of. When Daniel gave me his tie and tag I had an overwhelming feeling come over me. I knew that I could serve a mission, because my family had too. I talked to Eric about this experience and how his brother was also on a mission doing the exact same things that he would do on his mission. A smile came across his face and he just started to nod. After church he came out with us. The whole rest of the day he was saying, "I am just so excited to go on my mission. I can not wait." While he was with us he helped teach and bore a strong testimony on faith in Jesus Christ. It was great.

Those are my two stories for the week. Teaching has been really different lately. These new missionary lessons are really, really, really, focused on teaching investigators and not lesson's. It requires that you love, listen to both the investigator and the spirit, and know the doctrine of the gospel very well. Elder Prawitt seems like an expert at this right now and he has been helping me to understand how to do it as well. The missionary lessons are no longer teaching a set lesson, they are talking to an investigator, getting to know who they are and what they want, what they believe in, helping them come closer to Christ. Every single lesson will always be different. Its amazing. Tonight from 6 - 9 pm we have 6 lessons. 5 of those lessons are with people we have never taught before. We have so many people to teach tonight that we are going to have to split up and go with another priesthood holder in the ward. It will be an amazing experience though. I am so excited for this next transfer and the things that I am about to learn. The week has definitely not been easy, but man has it been fun. I hope everyone is doing well. I love you all so much.

Love,
Elder Garrick

August 24, 2010 - Week 54 - Oh Gosh, Holy Cow!

2010-08-24T00:34:00.000-07:00

Jared and Elder Williams at transfers on August 25th.

Good Morning/Afternoon everyone,

Well I have some massive news for everyone. For a while now we have been trying to find another place to live. Our members granddaughters have been staying with them and we can't live with anyone who has young girls living at home. There is literally no one in the ward who can house the missionaries. We have asked everyone. We have been searching for apartments, but the only ones they have are for low income requirements or they are renting out houses. On Thursday President Greer called me and said that he wanted to talk. He said that he has been working with the Stake President in Walla Walla trying to figure this out and they have decided that the only thing that they can do is to pull the missionaries out of Dayton. I was devastated! He said that we would leave at transfers and the Walla Walla missionaries would get our car and take over the area. They would come out probably only 1 or 2 times a week and come to church probably only once a month. That was a major bummer for Elder Williams and I. We have found so many new people to teach right now. This last week we also had an amazing lesson with James and Danika and we set a baptismal date for them on September 11th. I will talk more about that later though. President Greer said that he has been really proud of all the work that we are doing. He then said that he wanted me to be a Zone Leader in the Vancouver West Zone. And that took me by surprise. All I could say was, "A Zone Leader?" He said yes and asked if I would accept the calling. I told him that I sure would. I did not think that would happen. Usually missionaries are District Leaders for a few months before they become a Zone Leader. I am very excited but super nervous at the same time. My new companions name is Elder Prowlitt. He actually served in the Ukraine, but had to come to the states for some reason. He has been serving in this mission for a little over 6 months. Everyone says that he is amazing. President Greer said that he expects a lot out of us. I believe Elder Prowlitt goes home soon which means that he will probably train me to be a zone leader for the next 1 or 2 transfers and then I would take over the area and become the senior zone leader after that. I seriously don't feel ready for this right now, but I guess Heavenly Father thinks I am. Without trials we can't grow right. I think I will be doing a lot of growing the next few months haha. I have been told that I will be over 6 sister missionaries. That will be different. I haven't really even served around sisters and now I am going to be a zone leader over 6 of them. I'm not sure how many elders are in our zone either. I figure there will be around maybe 14-16 missionaries in our zone. I will find out for sure tomorrow. And I am going to the big city of Vancouver. People have been showing me pictures and I had no idea that it was that big. I guess its a suburb of Portland. So I will be around a lot of people. I think there is a lot of work to be done over there. Wish me luck everyone and keep me in your prayers. I am going to need it.

Well with the sad news that the area is closing down we have been doing a lot of preparations so that the Walla Walla missionaries can take it over. We have done a lot of updating and paper work. Packing has been horrible. I sent a small package home with some of my old letters and my jazz hoop. I have never played with it so I figure I'd just send it home. For our last Sunday we wanted it to be the best Sunday ever. We invited James and Danika to church and we picked them up. We also had Ashley and Anthony Razzolini come (John Janovichs daughter and son-in-law/Trisha Razzolini's cousin). Did I tell you guys that we have been teaching them too? It has been going really well with them. John was a church by himself on Sunday because his wife was feeling sick. The Razzolini's came in late and they sat by John. He got the most surprised and happy look on his face. It was so great to see that. So they all came to church and it was perfect because it was the Primary Program. The ward has been so sad lately since they heard we were leaving. We have been going around saying goodbye to everyone. I literally love everyone here. It has been great serving here. I have gained so much experience and so much knowledge. I have gotten to know everyone in the ward and almost the whole town.

Well like I said I would tell you about James and Danika. We went over there with our ward mission leader and had a lesson with them. We talked to them about the plan of salvation. I was pleading to Heavenly Father that I would know what to say to them. And then I had something come to me. I explained that we are on this earth to learn and progress. We are separated from our Heavenly Father's Presence. I then said, "James and Danika, How do you think Heavenly Father feels that we are no longer with him? Have you ever thought about that?" They both replied no, but then they started to focus. They were really starting to think. We talked about how we are separated from God, but he loves us so much he has provided so many ways for us to get back to him. We then talked about the Atonement and Baptism. We then asked James how he feels about the plan that Heavenly Father has provided for them. He said, "It is the greatest plan I have ever heard." We then talked about how even Jesus Christ was baptized and we asked if they would follow His example. They said yes. Danika was all teary eyed and she said, "We'll be to church on Sunday." It was so great. They came to church and enjoyed it. I hope that they can continue to progress after we leave.

Saying goodbye to everyone has been really rough. We stopped by the Janovich's. Their whole family was there to see us. We talked to them for a while and then we had to go. Sister Janovich gave me the biggest hug as she always does and she said, "If we get married in the Temple in a year, will you come back for it." I told her that not "if" but "when" they do I will definitely be there. They are so great. That family is truly amazing. Last night we met up with the whole Huxoll family, Caysie, Lorns, and a few of the Huxoll's friends. We went to the park to see Hank skate and then we said goodbye to everyone. Caysie was just crying. I felt so bad for her. I hope that she can realize what she needs in her life. We said goodbye to the Huxoll's and that was heartbreak #2. We went and said goodbye to Trisha and Destiny Razzolini. They have changed so much in the past couple of months too. They are doing so well. We took pics with them and left. Heartbreak #3. Then last night we went over to Jim Bob and Laurel Bloomfields place. We talked to them for a long time. They gave us a pamphlet for Bloomfield Beef to remember them by. As we left big Jim Bob gave me the strongest hand shake and rapped his arm around me. I went to give Laurel a hand shake and she just hugged me. Ah killer. We left there house. Heartbreak # 4. It has been so hard. I literally haven't felt this way since I left home and had to say goodbye to the family. I was searching the scriptures and found these. It describes exactly how I feel. Alma 26: 15-16 and Alma 29:17. I have been thinking about that a lot lately. It will be a great day.

Well I love you all. Take care and have a wonderful week. I will talk to you next week and give you all the new things that are happening right now.

Love,
Elder Jared Garrick

August 17, 2010 - Week 53

2010-08-17T00:20:00.000-07:00

1 Year Shirt Burning

Elder Williams

Hello Everyone,

Hows it going today? It has been an alright week this week. It is the last week of the transfer and we get our transfer calls this Saturday. Everyone thinks that I will finally be leaving. I'm kind of bummed because I don't want to leave. At the same time, it would be a good change for me. I have no idea where I might go. I think I could stay for one more transfer though. That would be good. I guess it's wherever the Lord needs me. Yesterday was Zone Conference and we had Elder Ringwood from the Quorum of the 70 come. It was an awesome experience. Elder Ringwood talked to us about some of the coolest things. He would open things up to questions too, so missionaries could ask him any question that they had. I was trying to think of a question to ask him, but just nothing came to mind; although, after our meeting my mind was full of questions. Eh I guess I will have to ask the next time I meet a general authority and they let us ask any question we want..... It was such a great meeting though. Elder Ringwood talked a lot about a missionary and the steps that we take to become a great missionary. There is a process that missionaries go through along with investigators. Many people first have a desire to learn the truth, then they put it into action by studying and praying etc., and then they receive a witness from the Holy Ghost. He said that many missionaries first have a strong desire and hope to do good, they sacrifice 2 years of their lives in trying to do good, they then receive the fruits of the Spirit which are love, peace, happiness, etc. He said that this is fantastic and what so many missionaries actually achieve, but he said that there is a different plane of desire and hope that not too many people achieve. He himself said that it is something he only achieved a couple times during his mission. It is a more excellent hope and desire for a better world, then the missionary literally devotes his whole heart and soul into the Lords work, then as a witness he receives the gifts of the spirit. I realized, and as I have talked about in some many of my emails and letters, that I am currently in the stage of my mission where I have received the fruits of the spirit. I am so happy right now. I have gained so much peace and understanding about life and what I should do in the future. The gospel has brought me so much happiness, but there is a more excellent hope. I decided that I want that in my life. It's something that will be difficult to achieve, but I want it so bad. I guess this is a pretty deep conversation for my emails haha, but it is something that really stood out to me and something that I have been thinking about a lot lately. Well the zone conference was great. I got to see many of my friends there. Its so crazy because A LOT of the missionaries go home today. Their missions are over. Time has gone by so fast. I remember when I met a lot of these guys and they had only been out a year. Now they are going home and I am in their shoes when I met them. My trainer, Elder Smith, is going home today too. He got the permission to go home 7 weeks early to go to school. I saw him yesterday and we had a nice chat. I introduced him to Elder Williams, his grandson haha.

This week I did hit my 1 year mark. Thanks again for the packages everyone sent and the letter and emails. I can't believe it has been a whole year. That night was one of the busiest I've had too. We had 4 appointments for the day. After our last appointment we went over to our ward mission leaders house and I whipped out my shirt and we did the 1 year burning. Man it lit up fast. It must be all that sweat that has seeped into it haha. Now I am just on the down hill. I feel like I'm moving onto the next stage of missionary work. I'm no longer the new guy or greenie, but I'm the missionary that has been out a while now.

This last week we didn't have as much success as we would have hoped for our new investigators. We did have a lot of appointments to meet with our potential investigators, but many did not go as planned. One person was not interested, and 2 canceled on us. We did meet with Steve and Nancy, the people in the trailer park, and that went well. I don't think they understood a whole lot, but they understood enough. They did understand what the Book of Mormon is and that they should pray about it. That is a good first step. We are hopefully going to meet with them tomorrow. They were going to come to church on Sunday, but unfortunately their ride canceled last minute and they couldn't come. We are going to provide a ride for them this week. It will be especially good because it is our wards Primary Program. Steve and Nancy's kids are really excited to come to church. I guess they talk about it almost everyday. Oh cool story. On Sunday, Trisha Razzolini came up to us and said that she has been hearing stories about us. We were confused and curious so we asked her about what. She said that she was at her work the other day and there were some people talking bad about the Mormons. They were saying all of this bad stuff and then one of the guys stops everyone and he says, "Hey there are two really good guys who are helping my friends Steve and Nancy and they are Mormons. That's good enough for me." Pretty cool huh. We have never even met this guy before. All we know is that his name is Tom and that he is friends with Steve and Nancy. We are going to ask Steve about it tomorrow. Its crazy the influence that we have on people and you don't even know about it. This week we also met with John Janovich's daughter. We have talked to her a few times, but not a whole lot. We decided we would just go over to her house and talk to her. She is married to a Baptist, and he is a real nice guy. We talked to them for a while and then we showed them a short church video. I talked to Ashley, Johns daughter, and asked her if she would like to take the missionary lessons. Ashley is a member, but hasn't been to church in a long time. She said that she would love too. We then asked her husband Anthony and he said, "Well you know that I am a Baptist, but I know that this is really something that is important to my wife so I will do it and do it with an open mind." SWEET!!! They are both really sincere too. We set up an appointment and Anthony goes, "We'll see ya on Wednesday." I have great hopes for them. So we are still just truckin away. Things are going really well. I haven't been able to record my recent converts stories, but I am going to do it this week.

Mom and Dad, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!!!! You guys are just awesome. I hope you had fun time to celebrate so many years of marriage. Well I hope everyone is doing great. Have a good week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

August 10, 2010 - Week 52

2010-08-10T00:03:00.000-07:00

The Field is White for Elder Williams.
The Field is White for Elder Garrick too.

Hello Everyone!

This has been one rollercoaster of a week for me. Many ups and many downs, but it has ended very good. I guess I will start off with what has been going on with Caysie. As I said in my last email, Caysie was not able to come to church. We were going to push her baptismal date back, but when we went to go see her she told us that she is just not ready to get baptized right now. She is so stressed out with being a single mother that she just can't do it right now. We tried to explain to her that the gospel is the best thing for her family right now, but she didn't understand. She also informed us that her friend Lorns is now going to church with his mom and will no longer be attending our visits with them. Caysie did say that she wanted to still meet with us. She said that she likes it. Usually at this point we would stop teaching somebody if they don't even want to commit to progress, but I really feel like she needs our help right now. With our new training we have been getting we have really been focusing on loving the people we teach and seeking to understand their beliefs and figure out how we can help them. This week we just had a nice talk with Caysie on how she is doing and what she really believes in. We feel like we understand where she is at in her faith right now and we can really meet her needs and help her. Hopefully all goes well with her. We meet with her tonight.

So that was a big downer for us. We met with James and Danika and did a similar thing, trying to get their expectations and their beliefs. It went okay. Our teaching pool is dwindling. This whole week we have been trying to find more and more people to teach with no success. Asking anyone and everyone for people we could just go meet. We finally go to a recent converts house that stopped going to church shortly after his baptism. His mom is pretty active, but his son is really rebelling right now. We spoke to him and his mom and brother. We had a really good discussion with them. He usually doesn't take anything seriously, but we were asking him questions and he was sincerely answering. His brother is a non-member and he was there for the whole thing. We asked him if he would want these blessings in his life. He said it couldn't hurt. His brother has a hard time talking because of a stroke he had. We are going to teach him this week and get a whiteboard for him to write a response. We asked the family if they knew anyone who could use the gospel. He goes, "Well I’m sure all the people in the trailer park could use it."

So we head down to the trailer park. We knock on the first door and all these dogs start spazing out and barking. No one is home. We move onto the next trailer. There is a 3 year old boy standing outside. We ask him if his parents are home and he just points inside his home. We look inside and knock, but we don't see anyone so we move on. We go to the next trailer and all these dogs start coming out. So we turn around because we don't want to be attacked by 6 dogs. We notice that the little boy is now following us and so is his little dog. The dad comes out finally and starts calling for him. We bring the boy back and start talking to the dad. He isn't interested in our message, but he asks us what church we are from. We tell him the LDS church...or the Mormons. He goes, "Oh my Grandma is a Mormon." We talk to him a little bit more and find out that he and his wife have been thinking about coming to a church. His wife is anti religious, but is warming up to the idea. We stop by again the next day and meet the wife. She is very hesitant, but warms up to us. They agree to have a lesson the next day and are very excited. Even the kids say they want to go to church.

Well the next day we are walking to their house and two ambulances pass us. We think "oh no I hope someone is okay." Sure enough they pull into the trailer park and right in front of the trailer we were going to. As we walk up everyone is outside. They pull the wife out on a stretcher and haul her into the ambulance. The husband just doesn't know what to do. Right as we are supposed to teach them this happens. We play with their kids to try and distract them so they don't see their mom. We stay for a while and talk to the husband. With tears swelling up in his eyes he says, "It was all looking so good when you guys came, and now it looks all bad." We assured him that there is still hope. Thankfully we saw them yesterday and the wife is out of the hospital and everyone is okay. We are going to teach them this week.

The same day that whole accident happened in the trailer park, we stopped by to see Tammy Lerue and her daughter, the one we gave a blessing too. Tammy was there with her brother and his wife, Jeff and Sophia. We talked to them for a while and checked up on Sami. I guess Sami is doing really well. It’s definitely going to be a struggle for her to have kids in the future, but it is possible. She is very healthy though and is not in danger. We had a good visit with them. We have been trying for so long to get in with both of these families. They are great, but for a while never really showed an interest. We thought we would stop by and just chat with them, let them know that we love them. It starts to get late and we tell them that we need to leave. Tammy then goes, "Well we are going to be gone Tuesday, but you guys could come back on Wednesday." We just sat there. "You...You mean for a lesson? Would you still be interested?" She said that she would. We ask the brother and his family and he said that he would too. So we are going to teach both families in their home together. It’s going to be so great. I'm so excited. It’s amazing how the Lord works to prepare people. We didn't even do anything. It’s all these people are just being placed in our path. On top of all of this we are going to start teaching Sara Huxoll's mom. Sara asked us to go see her. She is the nicest and sweetest lady ever. We talked about how well Sara is doing and asked her if she would want the same blessings. She also said it couldn't hurt. So things are really looking up for us. We technically haven't taught anyone of these people yet, but we have plans to teach all of them this week. Hopefully it goes well.

For those you don't know, I HIT MY ONE YEAR MARK THIS WEEK!!!! I can't believe it has already been a year. It went by so fast. And I always hear that the next year goes by faster. Most of my friends are getting really close to coming home. It’s amazing. The mission is an amazing experience. It is one I will never forget. I have enjoyed so much this last year and want to enjoy every moment of the next. Take care everyone. I hope you all have a great week and enjoy the summer.

Love,
Elder Garrick

August 2, 2010 - Week 51

2010-08-02T23:54:00.000-07:00

Hello Family and Friends,

Its always good to be able to write to everyone. We are so busy it is so hard for me to write letters. I know that before I left on my mission I always said I wouldn't be the missionary who was too busy to write people, but you can get so busy sometimes. Literally working from 10 am to 9:30 pm and then we have to plan and update our records. Many nights I rarely have time to even write in my journal which is something I have really been striving to do. Many nights I just come home, plan, update, and then go to bed. I promise that I will always write back, it just may take a couple months haha.

Well this week we had a new training. There are a new set of 8 missionary lessons to help missionaries become more effective and really to strive to help our investigators. The training was so good. Probably the best I have ever had. There are new Preach My Gospel DVD's that depict the lives of 8 missionaries. Its kinda like reality tv for missionaries, but you get to see them actually teaching people and planning for the week. Its just real life. Its good because the missionaries take the training and apply it into their teaching and you get to see how much better their lessons go and how their investigators really feel the spirit and become converted themselves. There was a big focus on addressing the investigators needs and asking them questions so that we can understand them and understand what they believe so far. If they have any concerns then we can immediately address their concerns and teach specifically to help them. This has always been the goal of teaching, but there is just a higher emphasis on doing it and ways to rely on the spirit. It was good. We have zone conference in a couple weeks and I'm sure we will get the 2nd lesson for this new training. I am really excited about it. I know that it will really help our investigators.

Well we met with Caysie on Tuesday. She wasn't able to come to church again. We talked to Sara Huxoll and she said that Caysie has a lot of questions that she is asking her now. We are going to try to meet with her again even before our next appointment. That is why I titled this email the way I did. I can not believe how hard missionary work can be sometimes. To truly help investigators be converted to Jesus Christ and the Restored Gospel is not an easy task. I realize more and more everyday how important the spirit is because I do not know what I would do with out the spirits help in my teaching.

This week we also had dinner with this less active couple that we have been working with. We haven't been teaching them anything, but we have been trying to just fellowship them. We had a great dinner with them. We decided to teach them about the gospel: faith, repentance, baptism, and the holy ghost, and enduring to the end. We had a really good lesson. Sister Lowe, the less active woman, is from England. Both her and Brother Lowe are hilarious. Well we are teaching them and we start talking about the Holy Ghost and how we are happier when we have the influence of the holy ghost in our lives. I ask Sister Lowe, "What can you do to have the holy ghost more in your life." She goes, "Well we can go to church!" Completely took me off guard. I thought she was going to say pray or read scriptures or something. So we invited them to church. Unfortunately they didn't come. I guess everyone has their free agency. But we did give them both a brand new copy of the Book of Mormon and committed them to read it everyday. We followed up and they said that they have been reading. It was good. I hope we can still make progress with them.

It was kind of a hard week for us. We had that great training and it got us really excited, but it was just rough. We had a lot of appointments cancel and we didn't have the best lessons with our investigators this week. We are struggling to find new people to teach. Once again, this is not easy. For some reason I have full confidence that things will start to work out for us. As long as we are trying our best and doing what the Lord wants us to do then it will work out. I don't know why I feel this way, but I do. I guess it's my faith in Christ. I guess that leads me into my scripture for the week. Its D&C 68:5-6. Just keep moving forward. It brings a whole new meaning to enduring to the end. Well I hope everyone is doing well. Hopefully your enjoying your summer. Take care.

Love,
Elder Garrick

July 27, 2010 - Week 50

2010-07-27T23:42:00.000-07:00

This is me at "Make a Difference Day." That's the swing set we painted at the women's shelter.

Hello Everyone!

I don't know if anyone knows this, but since I came into the mission at mid-transfer, I will probably leave a little earlier than I am supposed to. I will leave at the end of the transfer. So my leave date will probably be July 27, 2011. That is one year from today. How weird is that? I cannot believe that in one year I will actually be home. Time has gone by so fast for me. Even though I will be home in 1 year, I have not yet hit my year mark. That is still August 12th, so I am still an 11th month missionary. That is something I promised myself - is that I would not say I have been out longer than I actually have.

This week was not completely exciting so I'm not sure how long this email will be. We are still trying to find new investigators. It is very difficult. Our ward is fantastic. They support the missionaries so much. They feed us and are so grateful for the work that we do. They are happy to fellowship new people that we are teaching and do a great job at it. We have been tracting and trying to find people on the streets. Elder Williams and I are still working hard. We have faith that more investigators will come through our own efforts and hopefully we can find more through the ward members.

We had an alright lesson with Caysie this week. She is on date for baptism, but she is not willing to come to church right now. We actually had Sara Huxoll come out with us and bear her testimony on coming to church. We are going to continue to work with her. Lorns is doing great. That is Caysie's friend. He promised his mom that he would try out her church. He said that he was going to try it out, but if he didn't like it he would be happy to come to our church. I guess his moms church is highly anti-Mormon, which I think is a good thing. Lorns is really learning a lot from us and he really likes it. His faith is increasing greatly. I think he will go to that church and if they say anything anti against the LDS church, he will recognize that it is not true. Hopefully we can have Lorns come to church as well.

On the 24th of July they had a thing called, "Make a Difference Day." The whole stake got together in Pendleton, OR and did a ton of projects through all of the town to fix it up. We first went to this women's shelter and painted their swing set and benches and patio. It was really a lot of fun. We got a tour of the womens shelter after. It was a nice place and I'm sure a great place for those women to go to when they are in danger. Later we went to the animal shelter and fixed some stuff up there. There was the cutest puppy. He was a mix of a husky and something else. Man if I was not on my mission, I probably would have bought him. Then we did work at the cemetery. It was a great day. The Huxoll’s and John Janovich also came. They really enjoyed it too. It just goes to show that service does strengthen us and is so important for long time members and new converts.

Last night Sister Janovich gave us a call. Sister Janovich has had cancer for a while now. She has gone through her treatment and it has been a large trial in her life. Well she called to tell us that her cancer is gone and that the doctors have found no trace of it anywhere in her body. She was so happy. She has received many blessings from us. She then asked if non members could get blessings. We told her yes. She said her friend Tammy would like one for her daughter. We have actually met Tammy before. We were going to start teaching her and then something came up with her kids and we weren't able to. Tammy was just never really interested after that. Well her daughter has been having some health problems. It has been causing her a lot of pain and the doctors think it could harm her chances of having children in the future. She is only 12 years old. We explained the priesthood and what blessings are. We then gave her a blessing. Sister Janovich was there and she bore the most pure and sincere testimony on the power of the priesthood and on blessings. Tammy and her daughter leave for Spokane today for some testing. Hopefully all is well with her and that we can share more of the gospel with them.

I thought I would answer a couple questions the family had. Lynds I have not gained any weight. I lost a bit at the beginning of my mission. I have put enough back on that I am at the weight I was at before I left on my mission. I have been working out pretty hard lately. I think I'm definitely getting stronger and more toned, but as for the weight gain, no dice. I'm workin on it though. I needed to go Spanish speaking or to Hawaii where they feed you a ton. That just doesn't happen a whole lot out here. Elder Williams is doing great. He will be a great missionary. He does not have a lot of confidence right now in his teaching, but he does pretty well. Out of the new missionaries in our district he is definitely doing the best. We are getting along really well. We have become really good friends and are already talking about life after the mission. He is going to be my St. George buddy and we are going to go to concerts in Vegas. I am going to be his Salt Lake buddy and we are going to go to concerts in SLC. He is learning. I'm really trying my best to help him. Dad I read your scripture you sent me in 2 Kings and it made no sense to me haha. Was it in 1 Kings instead? Because the one in 1 Kings is really good and applies to what you were saying haha. I am serving Elder Williams as much as I can. Training has been really good for me. I realize how much I actually know about the gospel and about missionary work. It also helps me focus on other people, especially my companion, rather than myself. All the news about my friends is exciting. Good to hear everyone is workin hard.

That's pretty much it for me. Next week our p day will be on Monday because of some training going on in the mission. So it will be on August 2nd. After that we should go back to normal p days on Tuesdays. I keep on hearing that there are new lessons. There will be 8 lessons. I'm not sure if this is for the missionaries to teach investigators to, or if the 8 lessons are for mission leaders to train missionaries. I have heard both. I guess I'll find out sometime. Anyway, have a great week everyone. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Garrick

July 20, 2010 - Week 49

2010-07-20T23:28:00.000-07:00

Elder Wagner, Laurel and Jim Bob Bloomfield at Laurel's baptism
On the way to the Bloomfields house with Elder Wagner

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing well this week. It was a very big week for me. We finally had our transfers and Elder Wagner left for Vancouver for his very last transfer. It was really fun serving with him. And there at the transfer site was my "son," or my "greenie." Whatever you want to call him, his real name is Elder Williams. He is from Hurricane, Utah and graduated in 2009. This kid is great. He is fairly tall and a little bit heavier than me. He has such a desire to work and do all he can. It is so funny because it just reminds me of when I came out into the mission field. He keeps saying, "Man you have been out for so long. You are so experienced. I can't even imagine being out for as long as you have." It really has flown by so fast. It seems like just yesterday I was coming to this mission. He is a lot of fun to work with. We get along great. He is really down to earth and just wants to have a good time. He always says, "I am your ball of clay, so just mold me." I just tell him that is Gods role not mine haha.

It is a lot of fun being a trainer. I feel so knowledgeable right now. All the greenie's just have absolutely no idea what is going on. Its fun to be able to help them and practice things with them. We had our trainers meeting this week as well. President Greer said that one of the biggest compliments that a mission president can give his missionaries is to have them be a trainer to a new missionary. He said that he trusts us to get these missionaries started right, because it will have an impact on them for the rest of their missions.

We met with Caysie again this week. Her friend Lorns was sick so we weren't able to teach him. I think that she is so stressed right now with her daughter and her house and her fiance. I feel so bad for her. We have set a date for her to be baptized on August 14th. We set it out a little further because there is a lot that we still need to teach her. Sarah Huxoll actually knows her very well so she is going to come with us tonight to help teach. Its really cool that we are able to bring some of our recent converts out to teach our new investigators. Sarah has missed church the past couple of weeks because of vacation. I was really starting to worry about her, but she came last Sunday and when we talked with her she said that she missed church so much. She just felt so much better when she got home.

We have a couple new investigators that I don't know if I have told you about them or not. There is a couple named James and Danika. James is actually blind. He has cancer and he has some problem with his feet. They have kids together, but for reasons unknown to me right now, they have been taken away and are currently living with foster parents. One of their kids is being adopted this week and will be moving some where on the east coast. They are pretty sad about it. I guess the adoptive parents are LDS and they thought that they might as well learn more about it. We found them while we were just walking on the street and we stopped to talk to James. Even though he is blind he gets around. He has memorized the town by how many steps and turns he has to make. We have taught them a couple of times. Yesterday we had Danika pray at the end of our lesson. She said in her prayer, "I'm thankful we could have the missionaries come over and teach us more about the Mormon church. It is different from what I have been taught, but it sounds like it is the truth." Darn right its the truth. I love hearing investigators pray. It is always so sincere.

We also found a new investigator named Sam. There is an older lady in our ward that we were going to go see. They live in a retirement community. Her neighbor was out sitting on his porch so we went up and started talking to him. He said that he lived in Utah for a while. We talked to him a little more and asked if we could come back another time to meet with him. He said yes. Well Elder Williams did not have a lot of hope for Sam. He kept on saying, "Ya we can try Sam, but I don't know if he is really interested or not." I just told him you can misjudge. So we went over to his house one night. He of course forgot we were coming over but he invited us in. We talked with him for a while and then started to teach him. Poor Elder Williams forgot the first vision. He was teaching it and he goes, "And then Joseph Smith saw God and Jesus Christ. Ummm.....Elder Garrick do you want to explain what happened?" So I took over and taught the rest. Man I love being a trainer. The spirit was very strong and we asked him to read and pray about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He is going on vacation this week, but hopefully we can meet with him again next week. We told him that he now has reading material for his trip haha.

Well that's about it for me this week. Have a great week everyone. Hope to hear from you sometime. Take Care.

Love,
Elder Garrick

July 13, 2010 - Week 48

2010-07-13T23:02:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone!

There is so much to write about today. So much! I will start off with transfers. I am staying in Dayton once again. This will be the longest that I have ever been in an area. It will have been about 6 months there at the end of the transfer. Surprisingly Elder Wagner is already leaving. He is going to the west side of the mission to serve there for his very last transfer. It’s been good working with Elder Wagner. He is very laid back. He didn't really talk a whole lot so I kinda had to take charge most of the time, but he definitely prepared me for my new assignment. That is right, I will be training a brand new missionary. I am getting a greenie. In our mission we call our trainers Father and the trainee is the Son. Our trainers trainer is our Grandpa. Really stupid I know. I thought it was so dumb when I first got here, but I've gotten used to it. So I am going to have a son haha. Man I am really excited for it though. I think it will be really good for me and also for the new elder. I can train him right and help him as much as I can. I was thinking how I can finally be the missionary that I always wanted to be at the beginning of my mission. This new guy isn't going to know anything except for what I show him, so I plan on working hard and anything that my old companions disagreed with before, we can try it out now at least. Anyway I'm real excited. It will be a new challenge, but it will be great.

On Friday, we had Laurel Bloomfield's baptism. It was probably one of the best baptisms I have ever been too. We set everything up perfect and weren't in a rush. We didn't have to worry about anything. They have had a lot of involvement with the ward so all the speakers were members of the ward. Her husband baptized her. That was the coolest part of the baptism. Both Laurel and Jim Bob were both very nervous about the baptism. They are both don't like a lot of attention. Jim Bob has never given any blessing before, let alone baptized anyone. Elder Wagner and I got to be the witnesses. So they step into the font together. And rush into position. I thought they were just going to do it and I had to stop them so everyone could come into the room and see. Then Jim Bob starts to say the prayer. He is reading it on the wall so you don't forget. He is so nervous he actually forgets to say Laurels name, but he quickly realizes and stops. Then he closes his eyes and takes a big breath. It was like he was praying for help in that moment. Then he slowly says the prayer for the ordinance with his eyes closed. The whole time Laurel is looking up at her husband and smiling. He then immerses her in the water and when she comes out they hug each other. It was so amazing to see those two take that step together. They are both on the path together now and because of that night they helped each other come closer to God and to eternal life. It was amazing. The following day Jim Bob confirmed her and we got to be in the circle during the confirmation. It was so great. We had a lot of people at the baptism and many of the recent converts came out to see her get baptized. I'm sure it was a good reminder for them of the step they took to be baptized not that long ago.

This week we also taught Caysie and Lorns. They are friends and Caysie is actually engaged to a member named Darrold. Caysie and Darrold live together and have a 1 yr old daughter together. Lorns is their best friend and is always there so we have been teaching him too. Well this week we go and see Caysie. She is just sitting on the floor crying. We ask what is wrong and she said that her and Darrold got into a fight and he left her. Caysie has muscular dystrophy and is usually in a wheel chair. We sit down and start to talk with her. She said that ever since we came into her life, things have just been going great. She is reading the Book of Mormon and she said that nothing has ever made so much sense to her. She has been praying a lot and felt like this was the right thing to do. That night she was planning on telling us that she wanted to be baptized and she was very excited about it. That was before Darrold left. She said that she is questioning her faith now. She doesn't know what to do and she can't take care of her daughter by herself. She is not able to physically, mentally, and spiritually. Gosh, I felt so bad for her. We read the scriptures together and talked. We went to Ether 12:6 and talked about how this is just a trial in her life. It is a way for her to confirm her faith, not to doubt it. We then turned to Ether 12:27 and talked about weak things becoming strong. The spirit was very strong. We then gave her a priesthood blessing. She said that after the blessing it was the most calm she has ever been since the breakup. She then said, "You know, I still want to be baptized." We are meeting with her tonight again and we will probably sit down and set a date for her to be baptized. She has been talking to Darrold again, but she doesn't know what is going to happen.

I guess these two experiences I have had leads me right into the scripture that I wanted to share with everyone this week. I have been studying Matt 19 this week and I have been reading Jesus the Christ and this chapter hit me so hard. It’s Matt 19: 3-6, 13-15, 27, 29-30. I know that is a lot of scriptures, but they are all one to me. The Pharisees come to Christ and ask when is it okay to "put away your wife." Christ talks about the sanctity of marriage. He stands up for women and shows how important they are in the great eternal plan of Heavenly Father. Women then bring their little children to Christ and he blesses all of them. This shows how important the family is. Jesus Christ knew how important the family was. It is what brings us together and keeps us safe. Our families help us to return to God someday. Later Christ talks about giving up all one has and following him. He says that it will be easier for a camel to enter into an eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of god. The apostles wonder at this and ask what they will receive. They have left their families and all their possessions and followed Christ. That is where verse 27, 29-30 come in. I have seen this in my own life and I know that it is true.

We haven't heard a whole lot about the changes that will be taking place here. I do know that we will only have Zone Conference every other transfer now. There are new Preach My Gospel DVD's for us to watch and be trained by. We are actually having Elder Baxter of the 70 come to our mission this next transfer and give us the new training on missionary work. That should be really exciting. That’s about all I know. That’s it for me this week. I hope everyone is okay and safe. I am going to try and write some letters this week. Hopefully I can. I love you all. Take care.

Love,
Elder Garrick

July 6, 2010 -Week 47

2010-07-06T14:30:00.000-07:00

Here is the Walla Walla Zone with our new Mission President, President and Sister Greer
Me and Elder Buchanan next to the Welcome to Dayton sign
Me trying to do the Jolly Green Giant pose. I guess Dayton used to be the place where the Jolly Green Giant would make all his peas.

Hello Everyone,

Well I had a pretty good week last week. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. Ours was pretty good. Well I guess I'll start off talking about our new mission president. On Wednesday we drove down to Walla Walla and met President and Sister Greer. It just seems so weird to me because they don't know anything about me whereas President and Sister Belnap knew everything about me. They were really nice though. They told us of their MTC experience. They were only there for about 3 days. They said that for the first 2 days they were with at least 1 member of the 1st Presidency all the time. They were trained by almost all of the Quorum of the 12 except for 2 of them. On Sunday they had sacrament meeting and the whole 1st Presidency was there. They said that there was such a power when they all walked in. You could feel the spirit as the prophet and his counselors walked in. That would be an amazing experience. Well President and Sister Greer told us about themselves. Sister Greer is awesome. She is very outgoing and funny. President Greer is great too. I think he was just on a spiritual high from the MTC because he was very emotional haha. He will be great for this mission. They did tell us that there were going to be some changes that were going to take place that are coming out from the 1st Presidency. Unfortunately, they didn't tell us what any of those changes are going to be. There is a rumor that the Mission home and office might change to the west side of our mission over in Vancouver. So if that were to happen I wonder if they would change the name of the mission to the Washington Vancouver Mission?

Later that day I went on exchanges in Walla Walla with our district leader, Elder Denny. It was way fun. We work well together. We had a good talk that night too. And I just barely finished my exchange with his companion in Walla Walla, Elder Sabe. I don't know if I ever told you guys, but Elder Sabe went to Cottonwood. We didn't know each other, but we know all of the same people. It's pretty crazy. We had a way fun time last night. Its always fun to go to a new area and be with a different companion for a while. Plus you get to see how other missionaries do missionary work.

Well stuff that has been going on lately,.....hmmm......we have been doing a lot of service. Its been really good though. Missionaries are always asking if there is anything that they can do for someone. People generally are just like, "hmm.....no I think I am okay." Well we know that there are a few people who have been needing some help around their house and yard. So we decided to go with a more direct approach. There is this less-active lady that we have been trying to meet. Her 5 year old son has epilepsy and it has been really hard on her. We want to help her, but every time she has just said, "no I'm doing fine." So the other day we go up to her and say, "Hey your dad told us that you need your drive way dug out. We have Thursday open and wanted to come help, could we come do that for you?" She was much more willing when we actually brought something up and told her we wanted to do it. So we have done that with a couple other people and it has been great because it's people that we have wanted to get in with and haven't been able to. We are able to actually talk to them while we work too. So I hope that we can get some good results from it. In other good news, Laurel Bloomfield is getting baptized this Friday!!!!! She finally made the decision. Last week we went through the baptismal interview questions and she knew everything and said that she would be willing to live all the commandments, because she already does. Her husband will be baptizing her on Friday. I'm so happy for them. They have come to church every week for all 3 hours since we met them. They have been great. I'll definitely take some pictures and send them to everyone.

Our 4th of July was pretty good. We had church that day. We had dinner with a less-active couple. Its actually the parents of the lady who's son is epileptic. They cooked us steak and salmon. It was way good. We have gotten to know them really well. The wife is having a real hard time with her grandson going through all of this. She just can't understand why god would do this to a young innocent boy. We have talked to her about it a lot. The doctors have tried everything they can for him and he just doesn't get any better. Well we were having dinner with them and we usually leave a spiritual thought. I was planning on leaving something that would strengthen their faith and give them encouragement, but I had the strongest prompting to talk about obedience to god's commandments. I talked about how they have done everything known to man for her grandson and right now they need Gods help. I brought up all the commandments and invited them to church. I pretty much called them to repentance. I have never done that on my mission before. I just had the strongest prompting that I knew I couldn't back out from it. I was pretty dang afraid to do it. Man I hope they do come to church. They really need it right now, they just don't realize it. I told how I love them and their family and how I just want the best for them. I think she started to get a little offended, but then I explained what I meant and everything was alright. Pretty intense though. Since it was the 4th of July we had an early curfew. We had to be in by 8. they were doing fireworks all over in Waitsburg so Elder Wagner and I got on our members roof and watched them for a little bit. It was pretty fun. Made me miss the fireworks back at home though.

Well we find out about transfers this Saturday. Since we have a new mission president no one knows what is going to happen. It has been that on Saturday President Belnap would send a voice message to the whole zone telling everyone the changes that were going to take place and then we would leave on Wednesday. Now it could be so different. He could tell us the night before if he wanted to. So we will have to find out. I have no idea what is going to happen to me. We always have transfer predictions in our district and everyone predicted that I would be leaving and going to the west side of our mission. I kinda hope that happens. I haven't been on the west side yet and I heard its really cool. If both Elder Wagner and I stay then I would probably be there the following transfer to get someone new going into the area. That would be about 7 1/2 months in Dayton! That would be crazy. I'm hoping that I go to the west side, but who knows. Well that's it for me. I hope everyone is doing great and having a fantastic summer. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Garrick

June 29, 2010 - Week 46

2010-07-05T00:49:00.000-07:00

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

June 22, 2010 - Week 45

2010-06-22T00:41:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

How is everybody? This may be a short email this week because it was just pretty uneventful for me. Not a whole lot happened. It has been kinda rainy here lately so it seems like the town has just been shut down. Not a lot of people are outside. We did have Zone Conference this week. That was really good. Since it was President and Sister Belnaps last zone conference we got the going away talk, except it’s not us leaving, it’s our mission president. So we were told what to do when we get home from our missions. I now know why missionaries come home and get married so fast. They drill that into our heads. President Belnaps advice was, "If the shoe fits, there is no point in trying on other shoes." He also said that we should marry a woman who will someday be, "A Bishops Wife." Sister Belnap talked about "Becoming the perfect spouse, before finding the perfect spouse." It was pretty good advice I guess, but it’s a while off for me. It was sure sad to see them go. Everyone was just bawling. I'm not going to say if I cried or not, you can decide for yourselves.....jk I cried. President Belnap has done so much for me since I have been out on my mission. He truly does love all of the missionaries here. One of the Assistants to the President said that besides his dad, he looks up to President Belnap more than anyone he knows. I think that this is the same for me. At the end of the zone conference the Belnaps and their councilors lined up and all the missionaries went up one by one to say goodbye. I gave Sister Belnap a hug and she said that she is so happy that I came to this mission. Then I went to President Belnap and thanked him and gave him a hug. He said, "Elder Garrick, the Lord has many paths that he can take us on. Some take longer than others to get to their final destination. I am so happy that the Lord brought you here." They leave next week and President Greere will come in to meet us on Wednesday. I'm excited to meet him and serve with him. I do not have any info on him except that he is from Arizona and is a lawyer too. So ya that’s about it for me. Not much else has been going on. We are still just working away. I've really been focusing on having the faith to find new investigators. I want to do more to have some members invite people to hear the missionaries too. Hopefully we can get something going this week. I heard a quote from President Hinckley that I love. He said, "Faith is not a feeling, it’s a decision." That is true.

Oh they had a thing in Dayton called, "All Wheels Weekend." It was really cool. It is one of the biggest car shows on this side of the state. There were a ton of really old and remodeled cars just lined up on Main Street. They closed everything up and just had cars parked everywhere. It was awesome. They also had lawn mower drag races. People have actually taken their lawn mowers and put new engines in them and then they race them. It was the coolest thing ever. Stuff like that only happens in good ol Dayton. It was funny because we were just walking around looking at all the cars and all these members from like Walla Walla or the Tri-cities would stop and talk to us. It was fun. I forgot my camera, but I'll have to send some pictures next week. I don't know what we are doing today for p-day. Probably just hang out. There is a bike trail that we might take. Other than that, that’s it. I hope everyone is great. Have a great week and I'll talk to ya later.

Love,
Elder Garrick

June 15, 2010 - Week 44

2010-06-15T00:29:00.000-07:00

Jared and the Walla Walla district before transfer day

Elder Garrick, Elder Olsen, and Elder Buchanan on transfer day.

Jared giving his new companion, Elder Wagner, a haircut. Poor Elder Wagner.

Hey Everyone,

This has been a pretty good week for me. My birthday was fantastic. I am trying to send out some thank you letters so everyone be patient with me. They will come. The backpack is awesome and is working great. I wrote about it in my letter to you guys that I will try to send off tomorrow. You guys can go ahead and keep the warranty. The levi's are great too. Everything was seriously perfect. Thank you all for everything. It was a great birthday. So for my birthday we had lunch and then we went bowling. I am happy to say that I got a new personal record of 160! That’s good for me. It was really fun and I'm pretty sure I beat everyone haha. Later that night we went over to some members home for some birthday cake. It was great. Elder Wagner and I are working great together and we are working hard.

Well I don't think that we will be moving out of Waitsburg. There just isn't any place in Dayton that we could go to. It’s good at the Tolmans too. They are great people. I have absolutely no idea who this lady is who is always at the transfer site. I was at transfers, but I guess since she doesn't know me and I don't know her, there are no pictures. I'll look for her next time. Well not much else is going on. We are talking to everyone on the street and having really good success with that. People are so friendly here that they don't freak out when missionaries come to talk to them. In the past week we have gotten 5 new investigators which is really good. The average is about 2 a week and the goal for the mission is 4 a week. We have a few appointments with people that we are hoping will turn out good so that we have more people to teach. Everyone is doing great. We are meeting with our recent converts. The Razzolini's are doing great and Trisha (the mom) is already wondering when she can go to the temple to be sealed to her daughter. We met with John the other day. We asked him about his feelings on the Book of Mormon. With sincerity in his voice he said, "I can't describe how I feel about it. It’s hard for me to describe my feelings, but I just know that it is true." That is one of the greatest testimonies I have ever heard from anyone. We met with Laurel Bloomfield last night. For those who can't remember her story, her husband is a member who hasn't been to church since he was probably 19. They are both in their early 30's now. Laurel felt it was important that they pay their tithing to some church and they decided they would do it to Jim's church (the member husband). That same week our elders quorum president called everyone in the ward to see if they wanted home teachers. He called Laurel and she told him that she was not a member. He then asked her if she would want the missionaries to come over. She accepted and we have been meeting with her ever since. She is awesome. She believes in everything that we do. She said that she know it’s true, she just doesn't want to rush into things and fall away if her parents say anything to her about joining the church. She is so close! She is actually fasting today to help her make a decision on what she wants to do.

Well that’s about it for me. I hope everyone is doing great. To all you Fathers out there, have a Happy Fathers Day! I bet everyone is happy that Whit is home and will everyone please give Brit a big hug for me and tell her that I love her and congrats. Take care everyone and I will talk to you next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

June 8, 2010 - Week 43

2010-06-08T20:04:00.000-07:00

Subject: ITS MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Hello Hello Everyone!

How is everybody doing? I am having a fantastic day today. I woke up and Elder Wagner cooked me pancakes that were awesome and then I went downstairs and opened up all my birthday presents. Thank you all so much for everything. Everything fits and everything is perfect and I love it all. You guys are right, I bet it is hard to buy stuff for a missionary, but you all did a fantastic job haha. It was all great. Ya it seems really weird to me that I am not home to celebrate my birthday with the family. For some reason it seems even more weird than Christmas or something else. Being 20 is cool I guess. I just feel like the same ol person. It’s weird though because I can remember when Nick and Lyndsie turned 20 and I thought that they were so old. That’s probably what Aaron and Cassi think of me now haha. Well the rest of today is going to be pretty good. We picked up some other missionaries in our district and they gave me a birthday present. It was some left over candy and an old dirty tie that they got from one of their investigators. Oh and they gave me a reused birthday card haha. They are awesome guys though, but I would have to say your presents were much better. I think today is just going to be a normal p-day. We are probably going to go to lunch and then I think bowling. Later tonight we are having dinner with one of my favorite families in the ward. It’s going to be a lot of fun.

Well I guess a lot has gone on since I last emailed. I am now with Elder Wagner. He is an alright guy! Definitely different from serving with Buchanan, but he is a good missionary. He has been out for 21 months and Dayton will most likely be his last area. It is a good area to go out on. He is from downtown SLC, but his family moved to some place called Bennington, Idaho. He is a really sincere kid. I will have to send you guys a picture sometime. Sorry I don't have one of him yet. Well Buchanan left this area straight out dry. We really only have 2 investigators right now and really only one of them is progressing. I still feel like this area is prepared to receive the gospel. We have been doing a ton of street contacting, well as much as we can in our little town. It’s crazy because I know a lot of the people in the area. We will just be walking and I'll see somebody I have already met so we go talk to them. I have realized that I can talk to anyone now. It’s really not that hard at all. I like to just talk to them and get them to feel comfortable around me and then our conversations always turn into a gospel conversation somehow. It’s awesome. We are meeting with a couple good people this week that hopefully we can start teaching. As a district we are doing a thing called 10 x 10. This is where we go 10 hours of tracting a week and we talk to 10 people a day on the street. I don't know how that’s going to go here, because if we really do this I will have talked to probably the whole town in 2 weeks haha. I'm really excited for it though and I know we are going to get some new investigators.

Not much else is going on. We are teaching Laurel Bloomfield still. She has come to church 3 weeks in a row for all 3 hours and she really likes it. We just introduced them to another young couple in our ward and they hit it off great. Laurel said that she just keeps on expecting to find something completely crazy with the church, but she just can't find it. She is doing great and she is currently praying about setting a date for June 26th. I have a lot of faith in her. We have been meeting with a former investigator of ours. Bobby Jo Strickland! He is the black guy from Mississippi. We have been helping him cook some food for a BBQ one of the members was doing. We helped him marinate his ribs and chicken, and oh boy were they good. Probably some of the best ribs I have ever had. He is a great guy, he is just comfortable with the church he is in now. Right now we just want to show him that we are his friends and help him out in any way that we can. We are surprisingly staying very, very busy. We are finding new ways to find people to teach. Missionary work is definitely not just tracting and teaching. I'm loving it right now. It’s great to just be able to talk to people about the gospel of Jesus Christ. Well thank you all for the wonderful birthday. I hope everyone is doing as good as I am. Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Jared Garrick, the 20 year old missionary!

June 1, 2010 - Week 42

2010-06-01T22:23:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

Wow! There has been so much that has happened in this past week. It was probably one of the busiest and most stressful of my entire mission. First we had President Belnap come down from Dayton to interview Trisha and Destiny. Everything went great. It was good to be able to talk to President afterwards. He took us out to lunch. He said that what we have done with this area is amazing. He said that we need to always remember that there have been miracles in this town and we should never forget them. I got a picture with him. He now only has about 4 weeks left in the mission. It is so weird to me that he is finally leaving. It seems like he has been such a large part of my mission, but I will actually have President Greere for longer than I had President Belnap. I will miss him a lot though.

On Saturday Dayton had their annual Dayton Days Parade. The police officer who was leading out the parade is in our ward so we got to ride in the cop car with him and we threw out toy badges to everyone and bracelets. It was way fun. We saw so many people that we know. I think everyone was confused to look into the cop car and see two missionaries. Later that night we had Trisha and Destiny's baptism. It was decided that I would baptize Trisha (the mom) and confirm Destiny (the daughter). Elder Buchanan baptized Destiny and confirmed Trisha. So the whole night goes great and the spirit is really strong. We go to baptize both of them and Destiny goes first with Elder Buchanan. It goes great. Then it is my turn to baptize Trisha. She was really, really nervous. She steps down into the font with me and I go to baptize. Just as I’m dunking her in the water, an arm shoots out and grabs my shoulder. I bring her back up and she struggles to get up. Elder Buchanan jumps down and helps me support her. We talk to her and we do it again. Her arm shoots out of the water again! This next time, the 3rd time baptizing her, I have her put her arm right by my hand. Elder Buchanan gets on the other side. As I am bringing her down into the water, Buchanan grabs her wrist and shoves it into the water. Other than that it was a great night. Trisha and Destiny are doing fantastic.

Also this week we found out on Wednesday that the speakers for sacrament meeting cancelled and we got a call asking us if we would speak in sacrament this Sunday. We asked who was speaking with us and they said no one. So we had to speak for 20 minutes again. We worked hard on it though and the talk actually went really well. I will send it to you. That same Sunday we had a member fireside called, "Be the Investigator." It was so members can understand how investigators feel as they are going through the process and how they can help them and fellowship them. It went really well. We had a good discussion and it actually helped us more than it helped the ward. It worked out great. So that is why this was one of the most stressful weeks of my mission. President Belnap visit, 20 minute talk, baptism, fireside. Oh and to top it off, it we got our transfer calls this week.

I am sad to say that Elder Buchanan is finally leaving Dayton. He has been in this area for 7 1/2 months! We all pretty much knew that this was going to happen but nobody wanted it to. I am getting Elder Wagner. I have met Elder Wagner before at a zone conference. He has been out for 21 months so he is really close to being done with his mission. Everyone thinks that he will end his mission in Dayton now. I have no idea what is going to happen with me. By next transfer we will have a new Mission President. If I stay with Wagner another transfer after this one then he would go home and I could possibly stay another transfer to train someone to the area. That would be 7 1/2 months in Dayton for me too! Ah well, I don't know what is going to happen. I will miss Buchanan. He is going clear over to the other side of the mission in Longview. I'm sure that we will see each other again. We were a great team. We had 5 baptisms together. Pretty cool huh. He will do good where ever he goes.

Well I think that’s about it for me. Grandma, I got your package and I haven't opened anything yet since you wrapped them. I figured that I'm supposed to wait. Mom my pant size is 32x34 just to let you know. I tried to send a letter to you guys, but I waited too long. Sorry it will go out today and it is completely outdated because I just updated you on everything in this email haha. I told Pete Happy Birthday in my letter, but obviously it didn't go out. So, HAPPY BIRTHDAY PETE! Hope you had a good one. I will talk to you all next week and let you know how everything is going. Take care and I love you all.

Love,
Elder Garrick

May 25, 2010 - Week 41

2010-05-25T20:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone!

K so our p-day has been really crazy today. We usually email at the college in Walla Walla and we go in our p-day clothes because we didn't know if missionaries were allowed to email there. We always just sign on as guests. Last week we were challenged to wear our church clothes to email. We really didn't want to because we didn't know what would happen and also we are there with a bunch of kids our own age. I guess we wanted to blend in. Everyone was pretty nervous about it, but we all did it. It was crazy because we had so many students come up and start talking to us. It shows that you are a missionary all the time, even on your p-day. So this week we go to email in our church clothes and we are all actually excited this time and we are told that we can't email there for a while because finals are going on and the computers are reserved for the students. BUMMER!!!! So we go to the church and see if we can email at the family history center and the internet is down. BUMMER!!! Finally we are now at a different library that opens up at 12 and I don't have any of my stuff so I can't send any pictures or anything. BUMMER!!!!! It’s okay though. At least I was actually able to email this week. I was kinda getting nervous for a while.

Well this past week has been pretty good. To let everyone know, my ankle is completely fine. I rolled it about 1 month ago and it hurt for like 1 day. Don't worry, I’m fine. We find out this Saturday about transfers. I think there is going to be a big change in our district this transfer and President Belnap told E Buchanan and I to expect a change. We are pretty sure that E Buchanan is leaving because he has been in Dayton for 7 1/2 months. Everyone thinks that I will be training because I’m at perfect training age in the mission and now that it is summer, there will be a lot of new missionaries coming into the field. Who knows what will actually happen.

Because transfers are coming up, we asked Trisha and Destiny if we could bump their baptism forward. They are progressing great and we felt it would be okay and so did they. So this Saturday they are going to get baptized! I'm so dang happy for them. I am going to baptize Trisha and Elder Buchanan is going to baptize Destiny. Then on Sunday I am going to confirm Destiny and Elder Buchanan is going to confirm Trisha. It should be pretty cool. They are great. Trisha (the mom) has had a pretty hard life. She has done a lot of things in her past that she is not happy about and hasn't told anyone about except for us. She has lived with the guilt and shame for 20 years now. She said that she has completely changed her life. She moved from California to Dayton, Washington to start her new life, but she said even with all that change she still feels like something is missing. I talked to her about how she recognized that she was doing wrong things and she lined her life up with the commandments even before she knew about them. Now all that she needs to do is forgive herself and be lifted from the burden of her past life and how that is possible by the atonement of Christ. She is so excited for her baptism. I think that this is going to be one of the most special just because she has truly offered a broken heart and a contrite spirit. I know I talked to you all about sending scriptures, so here is mine. I don't know exactly what verse it is because I forgot my notebook where I wrote it down, but it is in Luke 7, the lady who washes Christ feet with her hair. This reminds me so much of Trisha. Destiny is really excited too.

In other news, we probably had the best day at church on Sunday. Sara and Hank Huxoll stayed for all 3 hours of church for the first time. We have been really nervous about Hank going into primary because he is almost 11 and he is pretty mature for his age. We didn't know how he would do with all the singing and stuff. We went in with him and sure enough he was bored out of his mind, but this only lasted for a few minutes. For singing time they played a game where the kids got to spin in a chair and whatever number their feet pointed to they would sing a song. Hank was the first to go and immediately a smirk came across his face. For sharing time we played another game where Elder Buchanan and I were the Holy Ghost and the world and one tried to lead a kid to the plate of cookies while the world tried to lead him to the plate of sticks. Hank really liked that too. We were way happy. John Janovich also received the Aaronic Priesthood and he is now a home teacher. He is doing so great. He is still reading the Book of Mormon for the 2nd time and is now reading the gospel principles book too. We had an investigator and her member husband come to church for the first time and they stayed for all 3 hours. Trisha and Destiny also stayed the whole time. Everyone loved it! The ward was so friendly to everyone and made everyone feel so welcome. Things are going great right now.

You guys also asked about Lynne. Unfortunately we haven't been able to get in with Lynne for a while. She works at the hospital and they are short staffed so she has been working 6 days a week for like 12-14 hours each day. On her day off she just stays home and sleeps for the whole day to rest up for the week. We talked to her and she is still very interested and she always talks to her daughter about it, but she is just busy and we will have to be patient with her right now.

Well I really don't know what else there is to tell you guys. I wrote down a bunch of things so I’m trying to remember it. If I can't remember then I will find out and write a letter to ya. I have no idea what my pant size is so I will look that up too and tell you in my letter. Oh you asked about the weather. First off, I can't believe that it snowed in Utah. That is so crazy!!! It warmed up here for a while. It actually got pretty hot and then the next day it got cold again and it has been pretty rainy the past few days. We had one day that it was way windy, like 70 mile per hour winds and it was storming like crazy. The rain was coming in sideways, the wind was blowing so hard. It’s a nice day today. I think we are going to play Australian football. It’s pretty cool. It’s like a mix between soccer and rugby. You guys should look it up. It’s called Australian Football League. We obviously don't tackle like they do, but it’s still fun.

K, hope everyone is doing great and I will talk to you next week. I love you all.

Love,
Elder Garrick

May 18, 2010 - Week 40

2010-05-18T20:18:00.000-07:00

How is it going for everyone today? This week has been pretty good for me. It’s been crazy because for some reason we had 3 exchanges this week and I stayed in my area for everyone. It really makes me feel like I could take over the area. It wouldn't be as hard as I thought and I think it would actually be a good thing for me. Who knows what is going to happen at transfers though. It is still a good two weeks away. First I want to just say that I got Jo Ann's package. Tell her thank you and I will be writing her a letter here pretty soon. Have you guys gotten my package yet? It should be there by now.

So yes we have had another miracle in Dayton. John Janovich's son-in-laws cousin was at his baptism. She really liked the baptism and wanted to learn more. The next day she came to John’s confirmation and enjoyed church even more. We talked to her and asked if we could talk to her more about the gospel and if she wanted to learn more. She said yes. Her name is Trisha and she has a 14 yr old daughter named Destiny. So we go over to their house on Friday and they are way excited to see us. They said that they had been looking forward to our lesson all week and had been thinking of questions for us. We taught them the first lesson and it went great. She said that she has always believed in God, but never knew which church to go to. She understood everything. Does this sound familiar to you....? Well we get to the end of the lesson and she asks, "Well, what do we need to do to join the church?" We talked to her about baptism and we set a date for both her and the daughter to be baptized!! Just like Lynne! This is the second time this has happened this transfer. It is so amazing. There are people who truly are ready to hear the gospel and are searching for it. God always provides a way. So we currently have 3 people on date to be baptized right now. We really are being blessed. Unfortunately Lynne was not able to make it to church this week. She is still progressing and interested, but we are going to have to bump her baptismal date back. I hope that I can still be here for it.

We are teaching another person tonight that is doing fantastic too. It was while I was on exchanges and I wasn't able to be there for the first lesson but Elder Buchanan said it went great. I'm excited for it. Other than that not much else has happened. Guess what? I finally learned how to complete a rubix cube. I know I know, not missionary related, but I was pretty excited about it. Our district leader showed me how and now it’s a piece of cake. Now I'm working on the 5x5.

Last night I went on exchanges with our district leader. He is actually from Australia. He is a really cool guy. It’s nice because we were able to get some good things done yesterday. Last night we were able to see a couple of the people who we had been discussing and we had great lessons with them. They are mostly less-active families, but they are now going to start to take the missionary lessons and hopefully we can help them out. It’s been really cool for me to look at the things that have gone on in my mission. I am able to relate a lot of the experiences I have had with my companions, with my areas, and with my visa to the people we are teaching. I guess there was a reason for me to go through all of that haha. Anyway I'm doing great right now. Hopefully I’ll have more to say next week. And don't worry about me. My ankle is fine. It has been for the past 2 weeks now. No biggie. I love you all and I'll talk to ya next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

May 12, 2010 - Week 39

2010-05-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

How’s it going everybody? It was really good to talk to everyone on Mothers Day. I love calling because it always gives me a good charge. Some missionaries get a little home sick and don't want to do any work, but I just get excited and want to go out and work even harder after I talk to you guys. Since I talked to everyone on the phone I probably won’t have much to say, but I will give an update for those who I didn't get to talk to and the stuff that has gone on since the phone call.

On Saturday John Janovich was baptized. It was my first time actually baptizing someone and it was amazing. I don't know if I have told everyone John’s story before but I'm going to do it anyway. John's wife is a member, but he was not. 20 years ago he started to take the missionary lessons, but he was offended by one of the missionaries. Well John kicked the missionaries out of his house. For 20 years he never had any missionaries or even members of the church come over to his house. About 6 months ago John’s wife was diagnosed with cancer. Her Brother-in-law suggested that she get a priesthood blessing from the missionaries. So Elder Buchanan and Elder Parlogean went over there and gave her a blessing. She decided that she needed to start coming back to church and E. Buchanan and Parlogean started teaching her. When I came here we sat down with John too. John had never participated in the lessons, but he finally liked the missionaries again. My first night in Dayton we talked to him and asked him if he wanted to take the lessons. He said that it couldn't hurt. Ever since then, he has progressed more than anyone I have ever met. He understood everything and committed to live all the commandments. He finished the Book of Mormon before his baptism and now he is reading it again. It was a great privilege to baptize him. It was a great baptism and very spiritual. On Sunday E. Buchanan confirmed him and gave him the gift of the Holy Ghost. John is doing great.

We taught Lynne again on Monday. We found out that she struggles with some word of wisdom issues. We taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ and then we taught her about the word of wisdom. She is so great. She is the female version of John Janovich. After we talked about baptism she asked us, "What do I need to do to be baptized?" This led perfectly into the word of wisdom. Lynne understood it all and she said it makes sense to her why god would give us this commandment. She committed to live it and she is still progressing towards her baptismal date of May 29.

Yesterday we had our last interviews with President and Sister Belnap. I guess they are actually going home June 27 or 28. It was really sad. I love President and Sister Belnap. They have helped me out so much on my mission. In my interview with President Belnap he talked about my whole mission so far. He said that I struggled with some in the beginning and that I really felt like I didn't know what to do. But then he said that it has all come together for me now. I was amazed that he remembered all those things about me. That is exactly what has happened on my mission so far. President told me how happy he is that I was able to come to the Kennewick mission. He asked me if I would do one thing for him. I asked him what and he said, "Missionaries like to be led Elder Garrick. They may not think so, but deep down inside they do. Will you always be the example to the other missionaries and be a leader." I told him that I would be. It was pretty cool. I talked to him about psychology and law school too. He got really excited when I told him I was thinking about doing what he did. He gave me a lot of good advice and he said that law would be a good thing for me to do. He said I have the determination, the discipline, and the right attitude to go into law. I still have a while before I have to decide, but law sounds pretty good to me. President said that he is really proud of the work we are doing in Dayton right now. He said that he wants to clone us and spread us across the mission haha. I guess he told Elder Buchanan to expect a change at transfers. I'm pretty sure that Buchanan will be leaving. He has been here for such a long time. It will be good for him and the area, but I sure will miss him. It’s okay. I still have 3 weeks with him and we are going to enjoy it. And who knows, President could change his mind. I was talking to Elder Parlogean (Buchanan's old companion) and he said that he thinks I am going to train next transfer. He said that this is the time of year when a lot of new missionaries come into the mission and I am at perfect training age. We will have to see.

Last night I went on exchanges with Elder Sabe. He actually went to Cottonwood High School and was in the grade above me. It’s really weird because we both didn't know each other, but we know all the same people. It has been a lot of fun to talk about everyone from high school and all the teachers and stuff. He is actually dating a girl I went to junior high with. It was really good. Today is our Zone P-Day and I think we are going to have a sports tournament between each district in our zone. Should be fun too. Well I'm happy everyone is doing good. Sorry but I forgot my cord to hook my camera up to the computer, but I sent home some pictures in my package so you should be getting that soon. Hope you like it. I will try and send some next week. Love you all and have a great week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

May 4, 2010 - Week 38

2010-05-04T21:30:00.000-07:00

Subject: BEST WEEK EVER!!!!!!!!

Hello Hello Everyone,

So this definitely was the best week I have ever had on my mission. I have so much to tell you all this week it is crazy. First I will start with the cool stuff that just happened around town. On Saturday we went and helped out a member in our ward because he was doing a project for some lady and he was fixing her pool. Turns out that the house is where Adam West grew up when he was younger. Yes, the Adam West. The mayor on family guy and the original Batman. How cool is that. There ended up not much happening there because the pool was something minor, but we got pictures in front of Adam West's house. No I’m not in California, I am in Waitsburg, Washington haha. So that was pretty cool. Later that day they had this crazy medieval thing going on at the park by our house. It was a bunch of people who would dress up in medieval dresses and clothes and set up tents and they all just pretended to be medieval knights and stuff. We had to check it out so we went over and everyone was calling us "Mi Lords." It was pretty cool. The knights actually dress up in armor and have swords that they fight with. They are of course dull and they stick a thing on the end so they can stab each other. It was pretty intense. It was kinda weird though because everyone talked like they were born 800 years ago. "Mi Lord and Mi Lady," Everyone told us to take "Honor and Chivalry." But I got some good pictures of this too. Later that night we went to the feast they had. Guess what, like half of the people were already LDS haha. Everyone was really nice to us and the King and Queen were LDS so they talked to us a lot. I think it made everyone else mad haha. It was cool though. They gave us a bead of their Kingdom and I put it on my keychain.

Well last week we had zone conference and that was really cool too. It’s really weird because President and Sister Belnap will be leaving in the first part of July. I will miss them a ton. I have no idea what is going to happen with the new mission president. Everything could change or everything could stay the same. Who knows. It was a really good zone conference and we got great training that Elder Buchanan and I have been incorporating into our lessons and it has made our lessons so much more spiritual and everything just flows better.

Alright so the coolest thing that happened this week and possibly in my mission was a lesson we had. There is a member here who is in the hospital. She is doing a ton of missionary work. We have like 5 potential investigators from her. She gave a Book of Mormon to one of her nurses and I guess the nurse came back and said that she has read all the way to 2 Nephi. We have been trying to get in with this lady since I got to Dayton, but she has been kinda scared to meet with us. Her name is Lynne. Finally Sister Austin, the member in the hospital, talked to her again and Lynne said that she would meet with us. We drive out to her place, and she lives completely out of town in the mountains, and we sit down with her. We get to know her a little bit and then jump into teaching her. As we finish saying the opening prayer she goes, "Let me tell you where I'm coming from. I am recently divorced. I have always believed in God, but I have never known how to know which church is the right one, so I just never went to any. I have known who the Mormons are my whole life but never really talked to any. I have noticed that Mormons are just really happy. Family is really important to me and I have tried to raise my children with a little God in their life. My daughter lives in California and she is also recently divorced. She has lost her job and is really struggling right now in her life. I finally decided that I needed some God in my life and that’s when you two came into my life." The day sister Austin gave Lynne the book of Mormon Lynne went home and read it. The next day she got a phone call from her daughter telling her that she found a job. Lynne was so surprised and she thought it had to be from reading the Book of Mormon, so she kept reading. In what Lynne first told us it all just fell perfectly into teaching her. We talked about how the gospel blesses families and how many people, such as Joseph Smith, wondered which church is right too. It was the best lesson I have ever had. Our questions were perfect, her questions were perfect and the spirit was so strong. We asked her if she would pray to know if the Book of Mormon was true. She told us that she already knew that it was true and she just has a feeling inside of her, like she is closer to God. Everything was perfect, so we briefly taught her about baptism and then we asked her if she would be baptized on May 22nd. She accepted! It was amazing. After that she said, "I have a question, my daughter is really struggling right now. She needs this in her life. Can missionaries come to her house too?" We told her yes and that we could contact them right away. It was so great! That is the type of thing we practice in the mtc and in our zone conferences, but they never actually happen that way. It never goes that perfect. Elder Buchanan and I drove down the Mountain screaming we were so excited.

We also met with a part member family last night. They are really cool too. The guy is a member and he is a straight out cowboy. His wife said that she has been thinking about investigating the church. We had a good conversation and we will be teaching her soon. We got 2 new investigators yesterday and it’s funny because we stopped teaching 2 other investigators. It’s amazing how the lord can bless us. We have been praying to find some more people to teach.

John Janovich is doing great! His baptism is still on schedule for Saturday and I will be baptizing him. My first time in the font. We went over last night and we read our favorite scriptures to him. Then he took us by surprise and he read his favorite scripture to us. It is in 3 Nephi when Christ comes to America and says, "I am Jesus Christ, I am the light and the life of the world." I'm not sure exactly where it’s at but I know it’s either in 3 Nephi 11 or 10. He said that the scripture just stood out to him so much. Lynds thanks for sharing that scripture with me. I hope you are continuing to read everyday. I was actually thinking about how if anyone truly desires and seeks for the truth, they will find it. That’s exactly what 1 Nephi 10:19 says. I marked it in my scriptures and put your name by it. Isn't it awesome how simply reading can change your whole day? Dad thank you for that list of scriptures Dee gave out in Sunday School. I wanted to share with you my favorite of those. It is the "Why is life so hard" question. Mosiah 23: 21 -22 the lord truly does try our patience and our faith. And if we put our trust in him we can be delivered and then it leads straight into Mosiah 24, Whitney's favorite scripture. Pretty cool eh.

Well thank you guys so much for that package. I can't believe you sent me so much stuff. That was like a birthday package. The gps is awesome and the towel is great. I'm going to give Sarah and Hank the tie and book tonight. I think they will love it. Everything you sent me was just awesome. From the keychain to the rice crispies and York pieces. Thank you so much. I don't even need anything now for my birthday. Well I guess I better get going. Have a great week and I will talk to you on Sunday!!!

Love,
Elder Garrick

April 27, 2010 - Week 37

2010-04-27T20:40:00.000-07:00

So I titled this email, "A Talk to Remember" because I had to speak in sacrament meeting this Sunday and also because I know that "A Walk to Remember" is Dad's favorite show haha. Work in this area is really different from my past two areas. There aren't a whole lot of active members here and everybody knows everybody. Many people no longer come to church and we meet with a lot of inactive members. Usually, in my past two areas, working with the members when we teach investigators and less actives is so crucial. It still is here, but there just aren't a lot of people to choose from. Also many people have been offended by some other members and it just isn't good. Elder Buchanan and I have really tried to become friends with a lot of people in this area and we definitely have. People love having us come over and spend time with them. Many of the less actives do not want to come back to church right now, but enjoy spending time with the missionaries. We decided that we needed to do something to get these people to start coming to church. We decided that we have such good relationships with them that if we spoke in sacrament on Sunday, we could invite them to come and if they still didn't feel like it we told them that, "We could use their support." So this whole week I have used my personal study time to write a talk. We found out that we were the only two speakers. Since there aren't a lot of people who come to church, partaking of the sacrament doesn't take very long, so E. Buchanan and I both had to speak for 20 minutes. It was the longest talk I have ever had to give!! We put a lot of preparation into our talks and somehow I actually spoke for the full 20 minutes. It was on Avoiding Temptation. I used an example in Alma 47 how Captain Moroni was preparing his people for war both physically and spiritually and how his faith was to "resist iniquity." I talked about how no matter where we are in our lives right now, we can begin to follow Jesus Christ and get on the path of righteousness. It turned out really well and I had the same experience like I had when I gave my farewell talk. I wrote out my whole talk, but I practiced it a few times. When the time came for me to give the talk, I barely even looked at my papers. It was pretty cool. The spirit was really strong during the meeting. Elder Buchanan did a great job as well. What was even better was that we had an investigator there for the first time, Bobby Strickland. Bobby is a big guy who has had some bad experiences with church in his past. He really liked it and said that he wants to come back next week. We also had John Janovich there with his whole family and we had two other couples who haven't ever been to church come. I could tell that they felt the spirit during the meeting. We hope to follow up with them and move them towards the next step whatever it may be. I might make a copy of my talk and send it to you guys, but I warn you it’s a long one. We've had a ton of members compliment us and tell us we should send our talks into the Ensign haha.

Well Dad you asked about my bike. Right now I am not even using my bike. This area is so small and wide spread that it is pointless to use our bikes. We have our car so we can drive to another part of our area, but then the actual town is so small that we walk around to save miles. It’s also better for us to walk because then we can talk to more people. I have my bike for when I leave this area and go to my next one. We might ride it here if we feel like it. It will definitely be nice to have my own bike. My whole mission I have had to find a used bike and they have all been really bad ones that are about to break down at any moment. My bike is good and will be a lot easier for me to ride. What else....Oh Lynds all the pictures you sent me were awesome. And I like Mak's letter he sent me. I especially like the one of Mak in his bow tie and of Dan with his mustache. Your family picture is great too. The fat baby twins are so big now. I see baby's out here who seem so big, but they are actually younger than the twins. It’s weird for me to think about. That’s fun that your friends got to meet Elder Kilpack. Man I feel so bad for him. He is 1 1/2 hours away from home, crazy!! He said that he sees his grandparents all the time because they live in that mission. I bet he is doing great though. I reread that talk they gave in General Conference about how missionaries are assigned to their missions. Honestly when they gave that talk, I just got super depressed instead of feeling happy about my call. I decided to reread it and it brought so much understanding to me. It said that President Eyring would look at the picture of the soon-to-be missionary and greet them. He would then picture where the missionary would FINISH his mission and that would help him decide where to assign them. It truly is inspiration and ever since I saw my reassignment letter signed by the prophet himself I have felt so good about my service here in Kennewick Washington. It doesn't matter where I go as long as I am doing my best out here.

Well in other news we got a new zone leader. It is Elder Morse. I don't know if I have ever talked about him before, but he served in Kennewick with me. When I first came out he was just a young missionary and now he is a zone leader. Pretty cool huh? It will be fun to serve with him again. And guess what? Both Elder Cashin and Elder Smith are district leaders right now. I hope they both are doing good. I think Elder Smith is just about done with his mission. He only has a couple transfers left. How weird.

Well that’s pretty much it for me this week. I hope everyone is doing well. I love hearing from all of you. Have a great week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

April 20, 2010 - Week 36

2010-04-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

Elder Parlogeon, Elder Buchanan, Hank and Sarah Huxoll, and Me.

Hank Huxoll, Me, and Sarah Huxoll at their baptism.

Elder Parlogean (Buchanan's old comp and Cashin's current comp), Elder Buchanan, and Me with Hank Huxoll.

Me with some goats. The Bishop raises them and we got to go see them and play with them. They are like little puppies.

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone is doing great and having a great week. To start off I'll just let everyone know that transfers came and both Elder Buchanan and I are staying together in Dayton. I am so happy about that. I love this area and I love working with Elder Buchanan. Some really amazing things are happening right now. Well the biggest thing to happen since I last emailed was the baptism of Hank and Sarah Huxoll. It was so great to see them make that step in their lives. They are so much happier now and they have that bright countenance about them. The light of Christ is really shining through their eyes. It’s weird because I have worked with a lot of people and whenever they get serious about the gospel and have that change of heart, you can see it in their outward appearance too. I have seen it with so many people. It truly shows that living the gospel does bring you happiness that most people do not have in their life. I have even worked with people who were happy with their life, but now are shining even brighter than before. On Sunday I was able to confirm both Hank and Sarah and give them the gift of the Holy Ghost. They both said that after they were confirmed they felt even better. They went over to a friend’s house and they were smoking and just talking bad about other people and both Hank and Sarah said that they wanted to leave, so they did. They are progressing so much right now.

Sarah's daughter, Celita, has a boyfriend. The guy is hilarious. He loves us for some reason. He calls us up because he just wants to hang out haha. He is usually over at the Huxoll's house whenever we have a lesson with them. He came to their baptism and he really felt the spirit. His eyes were all teary and later he said that it was a really great experience. That same night we talked to him about it a little more. He said that he is just so confused as to what church is best for him and which one he should go to. We taught him about the restoration right there. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he said that night, instead of going home and watching "prison break" he was going to read the Book of Mormon. We are going to start teaching him this week. We haven't even really taught him yet and he said that for some reason he has less of a desire to chew tobacco. We have only briefly talked about the word of wisdom too. I'm really excited for him.

There are great miracles happening right now. There are experiences that I feel I should not write in this email, but I want to say that the priesthood power is so real. Experiences and miracles that Jesus Christ himself and his apostles performed I have seen in the small little town of Dayton. There are many people who have exercised their faith and been healed by the power of god. These people are completely converted to the gospel now. The faith precedes the miracle, but the miracle confirms ones faith.

Well we have been trying to get into teaching John Janovich this week. We usually see him a lot throughout the week and for some reason or another we just couldn't get in with him. On Thursday we go over to his house because we have an appointment with them. We knock on the door and nobody is there. We notice that there is a piece of tape on the door with the writing of "5: 15-10" We were wondering what in the heck it was. It looked like a scripture so we look up John 5: 10-15. We were expecting he was playing some joke like we would look up the scripture and it would say, "And they knocked and nobody was there" or something like that. It didn't say anything and we realized that it said 5: 15-10 not 5: 10-15. We had no clue what it meant and they weren’t home so we just left. Then on Saturday we decide to just drop by their house. The piece of tape is still on the door. We were actually able to get in with them. We are walking through their house and there is another piece of tape with the same numbers on their closet door, above their TV, and also on their wall. The whole family has been wondering what the tape and numbers mean. John wouldn't tell anyone and he said he wanted to wait until the missionaries came over. So we asked him about it and he said, "The numbers aren't a scripture, they are a date." We have been asking him about setting a baptismal date forever now. Elder Buchanan asks, "Is it a baptismal date?" John replys by, "It sure is, May 15, 2010! That’s when I want to be baptized." It was awesome. We were so happy. We have actually taught him everything and he is willing to commit to live all the commandments so he might even bump his date up earlier. Possibly next week. This man has come so far. He started reading the Book of Mormon about 2 weeks ago and he is half way done with it now. This man is amazing.

Oh P.S. I talked to Elder Cashin and he is being transferred to an area where they cover 2 singles branches and he is going to be a district leader there. I can't believe it! I'm really proud of him. He has come a long way and this will definitely be a challenge for him especially since he is afraid of girls haha. He will do great though. Just a side note for everyone

It has been a while since I have sent a scripture to everyone. I was reading through Jesus the Christ and got to this part in the New Testament. Matthew 16: 24-25. I learned so much from these two scriptures. Christ tells us that if anyone wants to follow him, they must take up their cross. Don’t we all have our own crosses that we have to carry? This life is not going to be easy, but it was never easy for our Savior. The trial that He had to face never went away, but He humbly accepted the will of our Father in Heaven and received strength to carry out His task. So it is with us. Our trials may never go away, but we can receive that strength as we accept the will of the Lord. I have seen that in my life as I have served in the Kennewick Washington Mission. I can't explain how happy I am right now. In verse 25 Christ tells us that those who lose their life for His sake shall find their own. That is so true.

Have a great week everyone. I love you all and still cannot wait until the day when we can all return together.

Love,

Elder Garrick

April 13, 2010 - Week 35

2010-04-13T22:55:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

So I sent a letter home to the family about what has been going on around here, but I will update everyone else. This week has been a rough one for us. It was the week before everyone’s baptisms and things were just crazy. First we met with Warren, he is a 50 yr old guy with schizophrenia. This guy has been progressing so much. He said that he has never been happier in his whole life. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and the Gospel Principles book. He actually quoted something from the Gospel Principles book while we were teaching him. We decided to bump his baptism date for April 17th. We figured that he is progressing so much, and we committed him to live the word of wisdom, so he could really use the gift of the Holy Ghost as he tries to quit smoking and drinking coffee. He was all up for it and we set up his interview for baptism and everything. Then he gives us a call and says that he is going back to his anti-Mormon girlfriend and he just can't do this right now. It was a major upset for us. Then we talked to Larissa and she doesn't want to get baptized anymore too. She said that she is only 19 years old and she doesn't want to give up drinking and tea. She said that she doesn't want to get baptized and not be fully committed. That is exactly how it should be, but instead of not doing those things, she still wants to do them. She said that she probably will someday, but just not right now. Luckily we are still going to try and teach her so hopefully we can talk to her.

The Huxolls are the only ones that are doing great. Summer has dropped off date, but Sarah and Hank are still good to go. They were interviewed for baptism and all is well. Their baptism was changed to this Wednesday because the funeral for Sarah’s ex-boyfriend is going to be on Saturday. Elder Buchanan will be baptizing them and I will have the opportunity to confirm them and give them the Holy Ghost. I'm really happy for them. Sarah is going through such a hard time right now. She was very depressed for a few days, but after her interview for baptism she has been so happy. I will have to take some pictures and send them home. So our 5 baptisms we had on schedule have now gone down to 2. We still have some investigators that we are working with and we are hoping that all goes well with them. The roller-coaster life of missionary work. What is amazing is that even with all of this happening, Elder Buchanan and I are having a good time. I can't describe it, but one day I just woke up and I was the happiest I had ever been. I really thought about the things our Savior did for us. I thought how happy I will be to meet him one day, and just that thought brought so much hope and comfort to my soul. It sustained me during this week and helped me to keep moving forward. I should have been completely depressed this week, but I wasn't. I counted my blessings and felt so much better.

So right now I am on exchanges with one of the zone leaders, Elder Chavez. It’s been good. I think they are having a hard time in their area right now. Elder Chavez doesn't really like to talk about it haha. It’s okay. I know exactly how he feels. Even zone leaders have hard times on their missions. Last night we went to family home evening with the young single adult branch. It was pretty fun. We had cake for people who had birthdays in April and then we played big booty (first time ever playing that game, and I’m horrible at it) and then we played catch phrase. As usual I rocked at catch phrase, but we still lost. I can't believe it! It was a lot of fun though. Still don't really want to go to a singles ward when I get home though haha.

Let’s see, what else has gone on this week....... We will find out about transfers this Saturday. I'm hoping that both Elder Buchanan and I will stay together for at least one more transfer. We work really well together and are having a blast at the same time. So I don't know when I am going to do it, but I’m gonna send a tape home to you guys. It will be "A Day in Dayton." Its gonna be awesome! Well I really don't have much else to talk about. I love you all. Have a great week and enjoy life.

Love,
Elder Garrick

Pictures from a member in Walla Walla

2010-04-12T18:15:00.001-07:00

A woman in Walla Walla befriended our family on facebook and posted a ton of pictures of Jared. We are so grateful to great families like hers!

Jared needed a bike so the members took he and his companion and a few other missionaries to the bike shop.

The Mullen's also took the missionaries to the temple. Jared is able to go to the temple quarterly in Kennewick which he is very grateful for.

They also took the missionaries to Red Robins. We are glad that even though Fatty is on a mission, he still gets his favorite Clucks n' Fries

The Mullens

Jared's companion is Elder Buchanan, apparently he found a street named after him!

Thanks for the pictures Ashley, you inspire us to be better to the missionaries in our wards!

April 6, 2010 - Week 34

2010-04-06T22:46:00.000-07:00

Hola Everyone!

So as you can see from my title, this has been the craziest week of my entire life. I will just start from Saturday because that is when all the craziness started. We wake up and we are getting ready for the day. We are super excited because its General Conference and we have been waiting for this day for the past month now. I jump in the shower and I'm literally in there long enough to get all soaped up and E. Buchanan bangs on the door and says that there is an emergency at the Huxolls and we need to leave right now. I wash off and jump out as fast as I can. We are driving over and I'm getting dressed in the car. The Huxolls stepdad died last night. Hank is just crying and the first person he asks for is the missionaries so that's why we went running. We did our best to comfort them and we prayed with them. It was good because we were able to speak to Hank and Sarah about the plan of salvation again and where we go after we die. The Huxolls are doing much better now. We gave Sarah and Hank a blessing too. I gave Hank his blessing. It was literally the coolest blessing that I have ever been a part of. The things that Heavenly Father wanted him to know were amazing and it was the most in-tune to the spirit I have ever been. Every time I give a blessing my faith in the priesthood strengthens and I see those blessings come to pass. Well Hank is for sure on date for baptism on the 17th and Sarah is too. She said that she doesn't even have a desire to drink coffee anymore. She said that the other day she hadn't made a pot of coffee until 3 o'clock. She took a sip and it made her sick so she threw it out. Awesome huh. There are so many miracles happening here, it is amazing. I am so blessed to be a part of them right now.

So we missed a lot of General conference because of the Huxolls and a bunch of other crazy stuff, but we are going to watch it through out this week so hopefully I will be able to catch up. What I did see was great though. Dad that's too bad you missed the Priesthood Session. It was so good. I received so many answers to my prayers that session. President Monson also said that it was the best Priesthood Session that he has ever seen. You'll have to watch it sometime or wait for the Ensign to come out for it. Easter was great for us. Our members gave us a little Easter basket with candy in it. We just watched conference and then some investigators from Walla Walla that our members are working with came up and we watched a little bit of conference with them and had dinner with them. It is actually the grandma of someone that E. Buchanan baptized in Dayton. It sure didn't feel like Easter though. I'm used to painting eggs and waking up to see what the Easter bunny brought. Not this year.

Thank you so much for the package though. I love it all, the food, tape, pin, shorts and shirts. Its all great. I wrote you guys a letter and its actually pretty long so I hope you like my Easter present to you. I'm not done with it yet, but I will try to send it out soon. Oh and thanks for the extra tape, that is definitely a "wink, wink, nudge, nudge" haha. Don't worry I will send you guys a tape. I will make it a good one too. I get to call home soon anyway. I'm excited for that. I can't believe that it is time to call home again. I only have two more General Conferences now and two more phone calls after this one. How crazy is that? Time sure is flying by. This transfer is almost done. I have no idea what is going to happen but I sure hope that I don't leave and that E. Buchanan doesn't leave either. I think we are both pretty safe, but you never know. So did I tell you guys about the "Reflection of Christ" DVD's? I just bought both of them today at the church book store. They are amazing. I suggest that you guys buy them too or at least look them up on youtube.

Well I love you guys so much. Take care of yourselves and I will talk to ya next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

March 29, 2010 - Week 33 - Dog Week

2010-03-29T21:44:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone,

So today has been crazy with email and stuff. Tomorrow is interviews so our p-day will be on Wednesday. We decided to email today like we usually do but when we went to the library it was closed because the librarian was sick. So we are emailing at the church right now and I literally only have 30 mins which really stinks. So I will have to hurry this week.

So I called this email dog week because dogs have just been crazy. The first thing I will tell you is about Larissa Janovich. She is on date to be baptized on April 17th but the biggest hold up is her job. She works on Sundays and she can't go to church. She and her husband are very young and just had a baby so their financial situation is really hard right now. She spoke to her boss and she told her that because they are staffed so low right now she can't get Sundays off. We really didn't know what to do for her and had been praying about it all week. We decided that she would just have to make the sacrifice and quit her job. We stopped by her house to say hello one night and she goes, "OH I’m so glad to see you guys! Guess what? They just hired a new girl at work and she needs to have Tuesdays off so I switched with her and now I have Sundays off!" It was a miracle! So now she can be baptized on April 17th and she will be able to come to church every week. We were so happy we were laughing. We are walking home and its way dark and then we come around a corner of a street. We are still way excited about Larissa, but then this dog comes out of nowhere. It was a mix between a Rottweiler and pit-bull I swear. It just starts charging at us and snarling. I'm about to take off and then Elder Buchanan grabs me and we just stand there. Then the dog just stops running and sits there. We turn around and slowly walk away. It was crazy! We got home and from the news about Larissa and the dog our adrenaline was pumpin and we could not go to sleep.

Then this whole week it seems like we have been running into so many dogs. We haven’t been chased by any but there have definitely been times where we walked a different way because we saw a dog in the distance. But then the last thing was we have Hank Huxoll. He is 10 years old and is on date to be baptized April 17th too. He needed to come to church on Sunday or he couldn't be baptized then so it was huge. He just got a new dog because his old one got hit by a car so he is really nervous about leaving him alone. We talked him into leaving his dog for one hour and coming to church. So we go to his house on Sunday and we are going to meet him and his ride we arranged for him just before church. We knock on the door and his sister answers, but then his new dog goes darting out the door. E. Buchanan and I start sprinting after the dog and we can’t catch it. Then we see Hank running as fast as he can yelling "Don't run after it! Walk towards him!" So we start walking but the dog is still running and he starts running towards the highway. We are just praying, "Please heavenly father, make sure this dog doesn't get hit today, please" So he runs up to us and in desperation hands us the leash and says, "You have to run as fast as you can." We are like okay, for you Hank, and we start sprinting. Then his ride pulls up and we just jump right in and start yelling "Go go go turn left." The ride is so confused but does it. We finally find the dog and get him home. We were 10 minutes late for church but we got Hank there and all was well after that. So that’s my crazy dog week. It’s definitely been a good one.

In other news, I am proud to say for the first time on my mission I got sick. I went 7 1/2 months without getting sick. And it wasn't even bad. I just had a cold I think but we thought it would be best if I didn't go out so I didn't get other people sick. But I’m doing fine now. I have a little cough and stuffed up nose, but I'm doing pretty good. What’s also cool is we put another person on date to be baptized. He is schizophrenic and has a big problem with smoking so its gonna be a tough one, but with the Lords help we can do it. We have 5 people on date for baptism right now! We are leading our zone! The whole zone collectively has 9 and right now we have 5 of those. The people in this area are just ready for the gospel. It’s amazing. We are working with a few other people who are looking really good and are really progressing. I can't think if anything else happened this week. We are just working our butts off right now. We always say to each other, "We are going to be 100% obedient" and then whenever we don't want to do something really pointless, like backing out the person in the car when its pouring rain, we just say to the other one, "Oh it’s okay I guess we'll be only 99.9%. I'm sure the lord will still bless us." Then we feel bad and go do it. But we really are doing everything we can do be 100% obedient. It’s really hard for missionaries to do. I love it.

Well you guys had a few questions that I will try and answer right now. There are a few towns that are nearby Dayton and Waitsburg. We drive to a few of them, but a lot of time we don't do much. I guess E. Buchanan and his old comp tracted out a whole town in an hour one day. We don't have a lot of miles on our car because we have a limited amount so we have been driving to Dayton and then parking it and walking the whole day. We are trying to not go over our limit which will be the first time since anyone has ever come to Dayton. Our living place is really nice. We have the whole basement to ourselves and can do our laundry and stuff. We share the kitchen with the members but that’s fine. Thanks for that March Madness thing. That’s so funny. How’s it going anyway? Am I winning? Probably not. I had all the number 1 going to the final 4 and I hear a lot of them got knocked out early on. I just can't have Jesus or Heavenly Father losing. Come on. And I put myself going pretty far too. Did you see that?

K time is short we have a dinner appointment with an investigator. Umm. With the gps just make sure it has a car mount and a car charger. You can send dads cell if you want. That’s a good idea. I’m good with my pants. I will write you guys this week okay. I love you guys so much. Sorry if I can't respond to all of you. I will do my best. But when I’m busy that means time goes by faster, I’m happier, and I’m having success so that’s good. Love you all. Take care.

March 22, 2010 - Week 32

2010-03-22T21:34:00.000-07:00

Hello Family!

How is everybody doing? So first I wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!!! And don't think that I forgot. There should be a letter in the mail. Maybe you already got it. I just didn't want you to think that I forgot about you. Thanks for the reminder dad, but I didn't need it haha. That's how good of a son I am. So Mom you had some questions for me. Yes this area is super small. I do feel like I am in Ephraim right now. Its awesome. The people here are so great. They are big time hicks. It's hard for the LDS kids though. They are some of the strongest (spiritually) kids I have ever met. Everyone around here does drugs and drinks and smokes and sleeps around pretty much starting from age 13 or 14. Crazy huh. So the kids really have to be strong in their values and it really makes it hard for them to make friends. Not a big selection for them. I will have to take some pictures of downtown Waitsburg and send them home to you. It is literally a street. It's way small. There is not a Walmart here, but there is one in Walla Walla so we go down there every Monday for district meetings and sometimes for p-day. Sometimes we can't even meet up with the other elders so its just Elder Buchanan and I. We haven't had to do it yet, but may have to tomorrow. We are still fed by members almost every night. We eat with a lot of less active members. It is the best way for us to get in and there are miracles that are starting to happen. One man that hasn't let home teachers in for 10 years and missionaries in for 20 years is now taking the lessons. Pretty cool huh. Things are going great with Elder Buchanan. Its been a little different for me to adjust too, because with Cashin I did most the talking. Now I have to pipe up just to get a word in because Buchanan is a talker. It's fun though. Like I said he reminds me a lot of Elder Olsen. And he actually said that I remind him a lot like his best friend back at home. It's fun. Most nights we go to bed because we are up talking forever. Not too late, don't worry. We're trying to go to bed on time, we just have to shut our mouths.

Well I thought that I would let you all know whats going on right now. Yesterday we had an Invitation Sunday where people invite nonmembers to sacrament and the sacrament is tailored for nonmembers where the speakers talk about our basic beliefs and stuff. It was supposed to be huge, but with only a tiny ward, we only got 2 nonmembers there. That was kind of a bummer. We are doing this intense schedule this week where we are trying to find as many referrals as possible and teach them. We were hoping to get a lot at invitation Sunday and then go get more if we could. Well we haven't gotten too much so that means we are going to be out tracting. It's okay though. I still think that there are a lot of people who are prepared and ready to hear the gospel. So that guy I was talking about earlier (the one who hasn't taken the lessons in 20 years) is doing great. We are actually teaching his less active son and the sons nonmember wife. Their names are the Janovich's. They are all amazing. Larissa Janovich (the nonmember wife) is on date to be baptized and Cole (the husband/son) is trying to get the priesthood so he can baptize his wife and maybe even his dad. John (the dad) is really open to us. He had some really bad experiences with missionaries a long time ago, but he really likes and trusts us. He is really open to everything we say and knows most of it from when he took the discussions 20 years ago. We also have a family on date to be baptized. Their name is the Huxoll family. The Huxolls have a long way to come but we are working with them. We decided to do a church tour for them so they could feel more comfortable coming to church and to actually see the baptismal font. We set and planned everything. They didn't show. We waited and they still didn't show. 45 min and still nothing. So we decided to say a prayer. I ask God that the Huxoll family will find a way to come to the church tour. Right as I say the words, the door swings open. I just say amen as fast as I can and we stand up and they walk right into the doors. Its like in the Best Two Years when they are praying for a phone call. It was pretty funny. So that's pretty much it for this week. Thanks for all of your letters. I feel so bad that I haven't been able to write anyone back. I will do it tomorrow though. I promise. Thanks again. Oh, tell JoAnne thank you for her package and letter. I will write her too. And thank you for the March Madness bracket. I will send mine and E. Buchanans home. That was awesome. Earlier this week I realized that it was march madness and I about died. Man I'm missin that. Ah well. K love ya guys. Talk to ya next week.

Love
Elder Garrick

March 15, 2010 - Week 31

2010-03-15T19:52:00.000-07:00

Elder Cashin and I with the Henry's

Hey Everyone!

Hows it going? So as you know I got transferred to a new area. It is a way old town in the middle of nowhere. Our library isn't open on Tuesdays so we have permission to email on Mondays. So I'm emailing today. I guess I didn't get any emails from you guys because you probably thought I would email tomorrow. So my new address is:

210 E. 7th Street
Waitsburg, WA 99361

Yup that's where I'm living now. Waitsburg. The area is called Dayton, but we cover 6 little towns. Its mostly Dayton and Waitsburg that we spend most of our time in. The other towns have houses that are way spread apart and there are only like 12 houses in some haha. Its crazy here! The area has been closed down for 5 years and they have only recently opened it up about 4 months ago. So I am the 3rd missionary in this area since about 2005. Let me tell ya what, Dayton is completely different from Kennewick and Pasco. There are a lot of people who don't come to church so we do a lot of reactivation work. We have a few really good investigators that we are teaching. So I just found out that we only have 30 minutes in the library I am at. Wow that stinks! I think we might try another library where hopefully I have more time because that is ridiculous. Well my comp is Elder Buchanon. He is from Centerville, Utah. The kid is awesome. He has only been out 3 weeks longer than me. I found out that we will probably go home together. We are having a way fun time. Things are going good. Thanks for everyone's emails and letters. I will definitely write you guys this week okay. Sorry its a little late. Okay maybe I have a little more time. Well we live with members again. Their names are the Tolmans. They are pretty cool. Oh we work a lot with the seminary. We actually teach every Monday and then we go and help out on Fridays. So next Monday I am teaching the lesson. Pretty cool huh. I'm a crazy seminary teacher. Next Sunday we are doing this crazy program that we will be working on for the rest of the transfer. We have been promised too that we will have a baptism by April 17th if we do it. So we scheduled the font for April 17th. We have no idea who it will be but we are going to find them. Next Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday we are going to go out on double exchanges and tract from 6-9pm. That will be fun haha. This is gonna be good though. Oh ya we have a car so that's been nice. Hopefully I can get fat while I'm in this area. So ya its fun here. E. Buchanan and I are having a blast. And the people here are just crazy so we come away with a lot of funny stories. Oh I have to tell you about this referral we got. There is this member lady who is in the hospital. We have been visiting with her and she is giving out Books of Mormon to all of her nurses. Well she found out that one of her nurses read the Book of Mormon for 2 days while she was on vacation and then she took an extra day off to just read the Book of Mormon straight. She has read about 250 pages in 3 days. We briefly saw her and she said that she likes it and she would want to learn more. We are going to try and set up an appointment with her. That will be pretty cool. K I guess I better go. Sorry its short again. I love you guys and expect a letter okay.

Love,
Elder Garrick

So ya a computer opened up and now I have more time to email. Things feel so weird to me right now. I feel like I am just barely starting my mission now. I don't know how to describe it but things are just completely different for me. I know I'm not going to India anymore. Where before I was thinking, "Wow I have only been out for 7 months" now I feel like "Wow I have 17 more months to go." It just feels weird. I finally realize that I have a while before I come home. I'm not homesick though and I'm sure that time will go fast still. So with this area Elder Buchanan and his old companion just won the trust of a lot of people. They really made it so these people who have been closed off forever are starting to warm up. We are gonna do this area some good. There are hardly any members here too. Last Sunday I was shocked. Literally there were probably 30 people at church. It is so small. And they all knew about me before I knew anything. Everyone is super old too. We have one young family in the ward and that is about it. They are dying for some younger friends in the ward. Whats really nice about this area is that they haven't had missionaries here for a long time so I think people will be more accepting of us. A lot of people think that we are cops, but I haven't run into one anti person since I've been here. Really thank you for your emails and letters. Those helped me out a lot. Its funny because whenever I go through a hard time I can't wait to receive comfort. You all know how impatient I am. So I pray and I have always received that comfort through the scriptures and through the holy ghost. But your emails and letters give me that extra boost that I need. It still feels crazy to me that I am actually a Washington Kennewick Missionary. Elder Olsen and I were talking about how we have been thinking about India for about a year now. It has been our whole thinking and life, and now it is just gone. But its not the end of the world for me. Its different, but I can get through it. I hope you guys are doing fine. I'll respond to your letter in my letters okay.

love ya. elder garrick

Oh p.s. I probably need a bike. One of the missionaries in Pasco said his trainer is going home and was going to give him his bike. He said that I could have it, but he has no idea what his trainer did with it. He thinks it's at the mission office. I'm having the AP's look into it for me, but I don't know if they have it, so I might have to buy one. Bummer huh. Oh well. Also my missionary credit card got taken away in the atm. I was dumb and typed in the wrong pin too many times. Ya, I don't wanna talk about it. I'm an idiot. But the office is getting me a new card, but I might need to use my own credit card until then so if you could make sure that I have plenty of money on it. Thanks.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010 - Week 30

2010-03-09T19:52:00.000-08:00

Dear Family,

I know that you have all heard the news, but for those of you that have not, I have now been permanently reassigned to the Kennewick Washington Mission. President Belnap called me yesterday morning and told me. I am very disappointed. But I am going to serve the people of Washington to the best of my ability. As I am now staying in this mission I decided that I would probably need some more things. Yesterday I went out and bought another suit. It's just a one pant suit. I also got another coat. It looks about the same as dads, but it is a dark color and is warmer inside. Hopefully that should do me. I might try and get a backpack. I have used the one Mark and them gave me. Its great, but it it's difficult to ride a bike with. I only had a bag like that because I thought thats all you could have in India. I might try and get a backpack and then send this one home, because I'd like to use it when I return. Also I may eventually need a bike, but for right now I am okay. Mom and Dad if you could check the balance on my card and make sure I have enough money on it. I bought my suit and jacket with the cash I had for my plane ride to India. I want you all to know that as this is very hard for me, I am not going to let it affect me. I will go serve and do the very best that I can. I will be fine.

On other news I am being transferred from Pasco. My new area is Dayton in the Walla Walla zone. Yes it is called Walla Walla. I am going to be in farm country! I guess the town is really really small and the area has only been open for a short time. My new companion is Elder Bucannon and Elder Olsen knew him and said that he is awesome. I guess the town is really poor and like half the people live on welfare. And the best news.....I WILL BE IN A CAR!!! Man I'm so excited for that. That is why i don't think I need to worry about a bike right now. When that comes up i will worry about that but for now I'm fine. So I leave tomorrow morning. I have gone around and said good bye to people. Man it is so sad. I said goodbye to Adrian and his family last night. I said bye to Larry and Gage Smith. And I said bye to many members. the Henry's (the members we live with) are taking us out to Red Robin tonight. That should be fun. I'm really sad to leave. Even though this area has been hard i have met a lot of amazing people. Well this week we also started to teach this less-active guy named Neal Middleton. He has just recently started to come to church, but he literally knows nothing about the church. the bishop challenged him to take the missionary lessons. We taught him twice this week. The first time we had a really good discussion. He has had a big problem with drugs and alcohol. We talked about it and I committed him to start living the word of wisdom. I had never done that in a first lesson before, but it felt right. This guy is great. The next lesson we had with him (only a couple days later) he shows us and there is just a brighter countenance about him. He seemed so happy and cheerful. Usually he is the old grumpy guy at church. I said goodbye to him on Sunday and thanked him for the opportunity to teach him. He goes, "Oh man, Your awesome!" I just started to laugh. Its amazing to see how the gospel really can change lives. No matter how hard your life may be it can change. Well I will send you my new address when I get there. Love you all and thank you again.

Love,
Elder Garrick

Tuesday, March 2, 2010 - Week 29

2010-03-02T19:42:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

So just to let you know, I did send a letter to you. It took me forever to write, but I just sent it out yesterday. Sorry it took so long. I did talk about a lot of things in it though and I did talk about transfers. I will just tell you now. We will find out this Saturday if we will be transferred or not and then a week from tomorrow we will actually be transferred. I have no idea what is going to happen with Elder Cashin and I. There have been a few instances of a 4 transfer companionship, but it is rare. I doubt that would happen. We have been thinking about it and Elder Cashin has been here the longest, so he might go. But then if he goes and I get a new companion and then I leave to India, it will pretty much be like having 2 missionaries in an area where they have no idea whats going on, so I might leave. We really have no idea. I guess you will find out next week huh. Its okay you sent your letters to my house, but for next week you better send it to the mission home or until I tell you whats going on with transfers.

There is not a whole lot that went on this past week. I got Lyndsie's letter so I will answer a few of her questions. We have not met with the lady with her two daughters lately. Her name is Angela. She is so hard to get a hold of. We finally got an appointment with her and will teach her tomorrow. I never thought it would be so hard just to get appointments with people. That's like the hardest part about missionary work. Many people are just so busy and it's hard to follow up with them or even teach them because they are so busy. When we teach Angela we just need another Priesthood holder or sister in the ward to come out with us so we are not alone with her. To answer your question Lynds, Orinda is the girl the Bishops family has been working with. She is doing great. She came to church this Sunday! She got permission from her mom and Orinda really enjoyed church and wants to come again next week. She is doing great right now.

Our P-day last week was a lot of fun. We had steak and my favorite potatoes. It was so dang good. We just played basketball and then went inside and played a few games like signs and other ones. And I will work on taking more pictures. I stole one from Elder Cashin and got it on my camera so I will try and send that today. And I will try and take more pictures, there just isn't a whole lot of cool stuff to see in Washington. Everyone says its like southern Utah, without the red rock.

After P-day I went on exchanges with another companionship. It was with the Distict Leader and his companions (they are in a tripanionship) The district leader came into our area with Elder Cashin and I got to go to the other with the other two missionaries. It was a blast. That night they had an appointment with a 13 year old boy. He is so smart and had a lot of great questions. It was so easy to teach him. I didn't want to over step my bounds, but he just seemed so ready, so I committed him to baptism. He said he would! It was great. They are continuing to work with him. The next day we played basketball for our daily exercise and then did service and stuff. It was good. Our District Leader was with Elder Cashin all day.

Also this week we met with a lady in our ward and she showed us how to do genealogy work. Its pretty cool. Ya you guys are right, Dads side is pretty much done and there is absolutely nothing done on moms side. It was fun to see though. Right now we are trying our hardest to work with our wards. We are going to meet with both of our bishops this week and tell them of our concerns and ask how we can help. There just is not much going on in one ward, . The other ward is doing a ton better, they have the fire, but are lacking in how to put that fire into action. Hopefully we can help both wards. Well there's not much else going on. I go on exchanges with the zone leaders again this week, but I think I'm staying in my area. So no etoli for me again. no bueno. Well I guess I'll talk to you all next week. I hope you all enjoy having Whit back home for a few weeks. That will be fun for ya.

Love you guys,
Elder Garrick

Tuesday, February 23, 2010 - Week 28

2010-02-23T20:02:00.000-08:00

Good morning everyone!

So thanks to everyone writing and asking questions I actually have stuff to write about again. I have a few things that went on to so maybe this email will rival the last in length.

Thank you so much for the package that you sent me. The mac n' cheese is amazing! It isn't as big as the box stuff, but it tastes the same and I just have two at a time. I have decided to save the orange sodas for a special occasion. I don't know what that occasion will be but I'm waiting for it. And thank you so much for those cd's. I have started to listen to the Lectures on Faith. That is an amazing thing. I love it. I have really wanted to study faith lately and this has helped me so much. I'm excited to get to the other one too about Joseph Smith. So as usual I wrote down a list of things I want to talk about so I will probably just go straight down the list.

This last week we had interviews with President Belnap. I talked to him about how I felt I was never trained. He says, "Elder Garrick, what your saying is that you would like to be trained is that right?," I said yes, "Elder Garrick you don't want to go back to that. You know what you should be doing and now it is just a matter of doing it." Ah, he is right. I know what I should be doing I just have to do it. Sometimes I still don't feel like I know HOW to do it, but I am learning and I think I much better because I have had to learn on my own rather than someone hold my hand through everything. It made me think of the scripture John 7:17. I love this scripture and try and live by it all the time. That is not my scripture for the week though. I will send it in my letter to you guys. I was just gonna add it to the end of my email, but I guess I will send you a letter....if I have to. I also asked President if he heard anything about my visa. He said that he had. He said that normally if a missionary has not left for his mission by 5 or 6 months they get reassigned to the mission that they are temporarily serving in. He said that the church does not want to do that with us. I guess the Indian Government is just making a fuss over things. The church thinks that if they reassign us then the Indian Government will think that they don't ever have to do anything, that if they continue to put it off, the church will eventually go away. So I guess it’s good news that I won’t be reassigned, but it kinda stinks that it is taking this long and I still have no idea when I will leave. I am not sure if Elder Olsen and I are the only visa waiters here in this mission. I do know that they get a lot, but they usually leave within a couple weeks or a transfer at most.

That's cool you got to hear Elder Wright speak. He is a very good missionary. He is very sincere and he knows his stuff. That's very cool what the ward did. And he has probably been with his companion as long as I have been with Elder Cashin. This is our 3rd transfer together. That is 4 1/2 months together! It has been nice. We have fun. Yes Lynds it will be kinda weird to get a new comp but it might be a good change for me. Who know, I could possibly be a senior companion or a trainer next transfer. Oh boy! Oh and you asked me if I knew I was supposed to burn a tie at my six month mark. I did know that. I wanted to really bad, but Elder Cashin wouldn't let me. Party pooper. Maybe I will have to do it later.

Now I just wanted to update you on some of the cool lessons we had this week. Last Tuesday night we had another lesson with Larry Smith. We watched the Restoration DVD about Joseph Smith. It was really good. Larry is really starting to open up to us. I think he respects how I took his, let’s say yelling at me, very well and how we continue to come. He is a good guy, he is just concerned about his family. Gage has not been sitting in on the lessons lately. He was sick before and then he had a lot of homework to do. Hopefully he will tonight; although, I won’t be there because I am going on exchanges with some other missionaries tonight. We are teaching another lady. She is a single mom with two girls. She has been talking to a guy in Utah about the church and she went to temple square to meet him. She was a media referral and that’s how we found her. She is doing great. The guy she talks to has been giving her stuff to read in the Book of Mormon and she has questions when we go over. We taught her the plan of salvation and she understood everything and thought it was great. The problem is she is very hard to set an appointment with and we can’t do it right after the lesson because she has to check her calendar at work. She loves having us come over, she is just hard to get a hold of. Also we are teaching Orinda, who is 12 years old. Things have been kinda shaky with her, but she is doing her reading. On Sunday we taught her about the gospel of Jesus Christ (faith,repentance, baptism, holy ghost). She understood everything. I just felt like I should ask her if she would want to be baptized if she thought this was true. She said she would. After that the spirit was just booming in the room. I probably would have committed her to being baptized but I didn't want to do it without her moms permission. We have the lessons over at the bishops house. Instead we invited her to church. She said she would ask her mom. The bishops wife was just bawling, it was funny. But then I asked her if she would give the closing prayer. She didn't want to because she felt uncomfortable. I re-explained to her how to pray and she decided she would. She gave a beautiful prayer. I realized that is how you help people. To invite them to do things. When they actually do it, they feel the spirit. It reminds me of the time when I asked Adrian to pray too. That was 2 weeks before he was baptized. The day of his baptism he said he knew he wanted to two weeks ago, when he prayed. It’s amazing.

Hey tell Alex Anderson congrats on the call. Mexico, that will be exciting. The weather here is getting really warm. We still are supposed to wear our jackets but it is getting so dang hot. Oh by the way, I think I might be the only missionary in the whole world who has a tan jacket. Another missionary always jokes around with me and says, "Hey that is not a dark conservative color." I tell him that if he sends me to India I will get rid of the coat. Its a good coat though and it has worked out great for me. So Lynds I thought I would explain what I meant by "Taking it to the Grove" for my slow sister...jk. If someone has a concern or a question with something then what their real concern is that they don't believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet and that concern they have is because they think it was some man-made idea or commandment. If someone truly believed that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, then they would know that the commandment or truth is of God and that it will bless their life. It requires faith and prayer. So when I mean, "Take it to the Grove," I mean that person really needs to pray and ask God if Joseph Smith was a prophet and if the Book of Mormon is true. It all depends upon that. Hopefully that explained it better.

Well today we are going to a members home again. We have been there before, but their place is awesome. They always cook us food. Last time we had hot dogs and my favorite potatoes and chili and stuff and then we went outside and played basketball and volleyball and sat around a fire they made. It was fun. So we are going to do that again. Unfortunately I forgot my camera! We are going on exchanges right after p day so I have my other bag today and my camera is in my other bag. Blast! Maybe I'll have Elder Cashin take some pictures for me and I can steal them from him. Also the sister missionaries want to scrap book and teach the elders how. We were supposed to bring pictures but I forgot those too WHOOPS! Ah well I can have my seesters show me how later. Or I can have them do it for me right. So I don't think you have to send your email through g mail every week. This email is pretty good. I don't think there will be problems. Thanks for all your letters and support. They really do help me out a lot and brighten up my day. I will try to send some this week, but I'm not making any promises. If I do they might be really short. I try to write most of my stuff in my emails. I think this email might have surpassed the last email in length. New record! Well I hope everyone is having a great day today. Sorry no pictures, but maybe next week. Love you guys and I'll talk to ya later.

Love,
Elder Garrick

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 - Week 27

2010-02-16T20:17:00.000-08:00

Lunch at Sister Pierces. She is so wonderful to forward pictures to our family when Jared has been in her home.

Hey everyone,

Sorry I couldn't figure out how to get into my e-mail for the longest time. So I don't have a whole lot of time today. I will be very quick.

To answer you questions:
The first family the bishops wife found for us is only a 12 yr old girl. Her mom was going to take the lessons too but hasn't. She is doing okay. Its very hard to teach kids sometimes because sometimes they really don't care, but then other times they are really receptive and more open to the things we say. It is going along good with her though. The other family we have not yet taught. The girl came to church last fast Sunday and bore her testimony. She is asking for reading assignments from the Book of Mormon from her Sunday School and YW teachers. We will probably be teaching her soon.

I have been back on the bike since about mid January. It's good. We still walk a lot though because we aren't really in a big rush right now. And we are more able to talk to people on the street when we walk. There are 7 people in our district right now because when is a tripanionship. Usually there is from 4-8 in a district. There are 19 in our whole zone. It covers all of Pasco and is split geographically into areas. I have a lot of contact with the district leader and zone leaders. I see them at least twice a week and talk to them on the phone a lot with questions or if we need some info and stuff. We do report our weekly numbers to the district leader. Usually it is how many lessons we taught or referrals we received, new investigators, lessons with members. Our mission goal is to get 20 lessons a week with members, less actives, investigators. Right now we are only getting about 10; most of them not being the missionary lessons but lessons to less actives and members. We really need the help of our ward and we just aren't getting it. We have interviews with President tomorrow and I am going to talk to him about that tomorrow....along with some other things.

I have been out long enough that I could actually be assigned to be a senior comp or trainer. Elder Olsen emailed the other missionaries going to India who are in SLC right now. One is a district leader, and one is training, and one wants to go home. I'm not sure about Elder Wright, the one you guys met. Elder Olsen called me on our 6 month mark and we had a nice chat. He said we are like the red-headed stepchildren of this mission. Its kinda true. Both Elder Olsen and I have kinda got the areas that need fixing. I'm hoping that our visas come in soon. That's cool about the new mission president for India. President Funk. That's awesome. Well I guess they are planning on him going in July. Maybe I will too. I would hope it would be sooner though. Elder Olsen said he went into the office one day and overheard president Belnap talking to one of the office elders and he said to the office elder, "I was expecting the visa waiters to leave this week and you could take their place, but they haven't so you'll have to stick around the office for a while." So maybe he was talking about us. I'm not sure.

In other news, this week has been okay. Like I said we only taught 10 lessons this week and we should be teaching 20. But the good things that happened are that we actually made some headway with Larry (this is the guy who is questioning everything and his son wants to get baptized). We had a good talk about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. For the first time he wasn't asking weird questions and trying to think it out. He was really listening to us and pondering over things. He applied it to himself too which is great. So we teach him again tonight and hopefully it goes well. Then yesterday we were out tracting. We knock on this door and this guy steps out who is probably in his late 20's. He has tattoos all over his arms and stuff. We talk to him for a whil and he invites us in. We talked a lot about the restoration and the Book of Mormon. It was awesome. This guy is ready for the gospel. He told us of his past. He was addicted to crystal meth and ran over a guy in his car one day. He spent a lot of time in jail, but he found comfort in the Bible. We are going to teach him again. Hopefully it works out.

Okay time is almost gone. I love you guys. Have a nice week.

Love
Elder Garrick

Tuesday, February 9, 2010 - Week 26 - 6 Months

2010-02-09T19:44:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone,

So thanks for everyone’s letters and questions. I actually have some things to write about this week. Thanks for the package you guys. Between that and the one Jo sent I have a ton of junk food again. I still haven't gotten all the way through with the stuff from like Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. But I was low on the stuff you sent me so it was great. Thanks.

So I wrote a list of stuff I wanna talk about so I'll just go through that so my email may be all scattered. Oh well. First off, what the heck! You guys got palm phones with internet! Dad refused to get any when I was home. I have a brick of a phone that I share with Elder Cashin. I usually have him use it though. He never had a phone back at home so he likes it. Did you guys get the virus on the computer fixed? That’s pretty cool that the Saints won the super bowl, eh. Even though you say they are jerks dad, that’s pretty cool. Pretty crazy that Toshio is finally on his mission. He is probably enjoying his time in the MTC haha. I miss that place. Sounds like his farewell was great.

Good luck at physical therapy mom. Hopefully your foot will start getting better and you can get out of the boot. So Gran, you talked about Preach My Gospel. Yes that is what I use every day. I would pretty much be lost without it. If you want to get a feel for what I actually do every day, just read Preach My Gospel. I live by that book. I have also learned so much from it. Especially about basic doctrine that I think a lot of members just over look because they want to go into the deep stuff.

I'm glad everything is working out at Topeka for Whit and Pete. I can't believe there are so many LDS people going to law school there. That’s fun. Whit said I might be close to being a senior comp soon. Unfortunately she is probably right. I could possibly be one next transfer. I don't know though. I have pretty much been the senior companion since I started my mission. I tell you what, I have learned a lot from all of my mistakes. I'm starting to figure things out. And I cannot believe that Benton is a District leader. Man that’s cool. That’s pretty early to become a district leader, he must be doing real good.

So to answer your question about my weight. I have no idea how much I weigh these days. I'm thinking I'm about the same. I don't see a drastic change in the way I look or anything. But I don't have a scale to actually see. I'm at a healthy weight though so don't worry. And yes Cashin does seem to be rubbing off on me as you could tell from those pictures. The weather here is really warm for it being winter. We had those couple weeks were it was just bitter cold, then we had snow and ice, but lately it has warmed up. It still gets cold, but I don't wear my sweaters as much and I don't have to double up on my coats. I still wear gloves and earmuffs or a hat though.

So Whit, Belle is such a little copy cat. Just from the things you tell me she says, she sounds exactly like you. And I can just picture her saying it too. And I don't know if it was just that picture, but she looks so different. She is changing so much. And Burton, talk about roly-poly. He's a chunk, but he sure is cute. Thanks for your letter and pictures too, Lynds. I will answer your questions later. But those were cute pictures. That’s a sweet hat Mak had too. I want one. And the twins are skinny? They look chunky to me, but I guess they can always get chunkier. Oh and as for a cd, when I get home I will probably have forgotten how to play guitar and I will probably listen to my old cd I made and hate it and make everyone throw it away haha. But we will see.

So you asked about Adrian and if I ever see him or teach him. Normally we would teach the new member lessons to new converts, but it’s just a review of the lessons. We taught him some of the new stuff for converts, but now we are done. We still see him a lot though and they have had us over for dinner twice in the past two weeks. He is doing great. You also asked about how my other lessons and investigators are doing. Well...not so well. Man we are teaching Larry and Gage Smith. Gage wants to be baptized (he's the son) but Larry is just not progressing and we are pretty sure he is looking at anti-Mormon stuff. So a couple weeks ago in desperation we tried to get Larry’s permission to baptize Gage. He pretty much chewed me out and yes it was only me because Elder Cashin was too scared to say anything. He said Gage needs to talk to him. But I don't think he has yet because Gage is afraid to talk to his dad about it. We talked to Gage yesterday about it. I feel so bad for the kid. We have a lesson tonight with them, but I'm not sure how it is going to go. I just hope and pray that Larry’s heart will be softened.

Not much else is going on with investigators. This past week we didn't teach a lot of lessons because everyone was busy with stuff. It’s hard sometimes. But this week we are pretty slammed so it should be good. Oh I have to tell you the funniest story. So last week we visited this family that was potential investigators. We had the best talk with them. They aren't really willing to change, but they are actually Christians. They are good people and active in their church and actually doing good things. Most people we see who claim to be Christians tell us they already believe in Christ and then they yell at us and slam the door (not very Christian like). But our lesson with this family was really good and they said they respect us they just don't believe in the same things. They said they could really see that we love them and care about them and are only talking to them because they can see we think this is so important. It really makes me think about what you said mom, that there are a lot of really great people out there they are just missing the truth. If only they could look past things and see it. So we are about to leave and shake everyone’s hands. They have a pretty cute 17 year old daughter. Elder Cashin goes to shake her hand and she goes, "come on I need a hug after that." Elder Cashin goes, "uh, umm, uh, I, uh I can't sorry." Then he says, "I promise if I weren’t a missionary I totally would." Haha when we left I was laughing so hard. I told him that completely defeated the purpose when he said he would. It was funny though. I've been going around telling everyone that Elder Cashin hugged a cute girl. He is pretty proud about it.

Wow so I gotta hurry time is running out. To answer your questions:
I usually have a bologna or pb sandwich, Ramon, chili, chicken sandwich, or nachos for lunch. We go out to eat on district meetings and p-days. The weirdest or worst food I had was fish that was not cooked and had a ton of seasoning on it. That’s pretty much it though. On p-days we still go out at night and teach and see people. And we still make calls and stuff. If we don't know an answer to someone’s question we "take it to the grove." Really people’s real question is if Joseph smith was a prophet. If he was then that usually resolves their question though. I have been writing down the questions and studying them on my own time though. With tracting, we still do it, but we are running out of areas to tract. That’s why we are trying to do so much member work. But we still do it. We bike and walk half and half. Since it’s warmed up we are able to do so. Oh and yes I would love to have that Lectures on Faith talk. I keep on hearing amazing things from that. Could you send that please? :) Lynds I can't believe you are less active haha. I understand though. As long as you can make it to sacrament. That is the most important thing. And your family home evening sounded like so much fun. FHE really is so important. It must be if the apostles council us to do it so much. Oh and I am hitting my 6 month mark. Crazy huh. Time sure is going by fast. I'm 1/4 of the way done already!

Last but not least, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!! I hope you have a great birthday and I love and miss you very much. Sounds like you have a great day in store today and later when the family gets together.

I love you guys and I will talk to you later. Oh I might get a new e-mail address because ldsmail is updating. I will let you know. Bu-bye.

Love,
Elder Garrick

Wednesday, February 3, 2010 - Week 25

2010-02-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

If you notice my pants are tucked into my socks. See how nerdy I am?

The Columbia Temple at night. Well hope you enjoy the pictures. Hopefully I make Lyndsie proud. I'll try and take more.

Bonjour Everyone,

So it is another week that I am emailing on a Wednesday. This week we had zone conference so that is why I’m emailing today. Was everyone nervous about it? Zone conference was really good though. I saw a lot of missionaries from Kennewick. Oh guess where Elder Olsen is serving now. In the Kennewick park and Meadow Springs area in Kennewick. That is my old area! I knew that President Belnap wouldn't send us far from home base haha. So Elder Olsen was companions with Elder Smith for a transfer. Also President talked to us about our visas. He said, "The visa process has been a long journey, and it is going to continue to be a long journey." Eh I figured it would be. I kinda thought I might be leaving either this transfer or next, but it doesn't seem to be looking that way. Ah well. I was thinking about how much I’m learning here and I'm just figuring out how to do stuff the way I should so I actually don't mind serving here. I'll actually be pretty sad when I do leave to India.

So thanks for your letters and stuff. Jo, I got your package. Thanks, that shirt is awesome. I'm wearing it today. It appears that our area is looking somewhat better. We have been contacting some former investigators and we actually got a referral from the MTC. This lady has been talking to a return missionary who went to Russia. I think they are like online dating. He lives in Utah so she recently went to Temple Square to meet him and she has a lot of questions. We met with her last week and she actually seems like she is searching for something. She is really soul searching and I hope we can help her find what’s missing in her life. We also have some promising members who are going to invite their friends to take the lessons. Things are looking good, they're just not all the way there yet. But I'm pretty excited for it. Hey Dan, thanks for your advice too. You’re completely right.

I've really been focusing on the spirit again. It is just so important to everything. When everything feels overwhelming to me, I just realized that if I rely on the spirit, it will work out. Now I'm focusing on inviting the spirit and helping our investigators recognize and feel it.

So it sounds like Dad had a good Birthday. I bet you guys had a lot of fun. I was thinking how I was missing the weeklong celebration. It’s probably still going isn't it. I think that’s awesome that Belle and Mak are just like their uncle Gee. Belle with the hotdogs and Mak with power rangers and stuff. And welcome to the world of facebook mom, haha. Just don't get hooked on it like the rest of the world.

That’s crazy that Toshio is leaving tomorrow. And Maximus is already out in the mission field. Crazy. Tell Tosh good luck. It’s probably too late for that, he's gone. He'll do good though.

Well that’s pretty much it for me today. I will try and send some pictures. Also they are doing a new myldsmail. Hopefully it’s better than this one so we won’t have so many problems. So I gotta do that real fast too. I don't have much to say these days. Tell me if you wanna know more, I just don't know what to talk about haha. Well love you guys and I will talk to you all next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

January 26, 2010 - Week 24

2010-01-26T18:41:00.000-08:00

We received the above two pictures from Sister Pierce. She wrote the following: "Your Missionary had brunch at my house Today!! We had a P-day Brunch today at our home here in Pasco! It was the day before transfers! So there were a few goodbyes! We love your missionaries too!! From a fellow missionary Mom. I have a son serving in Layton Ut / Ogden Mission!"

Hello everyone,

So guess what happened with transfers?..... I am staying in Pasco! What's even crazier is that Elder Cashin is staying too. This will be 3 transfers together. Right now that is the longest companionship in the zone. It's not uncommon though. Elder Cashin was really hoping he would get transferred to the west side in Vancouver. I really didn't care. I was hoping I'd get transferred to India haha. Our district leader is being transferred and his new companion is going to be in a tripanionship. Another elder is leaving and he will be a district leader in his new area. They are awesome guys. They're so funny. I'll have to get a picture with them so you can see them. So everyone can still send their mail to my same address.

What is good about all of this is that both of our wards are really happy that both of us are staying. Last week I talked to the Stake President and told him about how hard it has been in these two wards. I'm pretty sure he talked to both bishops. but last Sunday we challenged the auxiliary leaders to do some missionary work. We created a packet thing and presented it to them and challenged them. We then talked about missionary work the rest of the meeting. It was great! The whole ward is very excited, especially the Bishop. I think we have really gained the trust of our Wards. Lynds and Dan you're right, there are the referrals where you go try someones neighbor and there are referrals where they invite to teach their friends in their home. That is what we are searching for and that is exactly what we are getting.

The Bishops wife is amazing. Her daughter has a friend that has been coming to Young Womens. So Sis Swanberg, the bishops wife, invited her and her mom to learn more from the missionaries. The mom declined, but she said she would let the daughter come. So last Sunday we had a great lesson with the daughter at the bishops house. The girl is 12 years old and I really think she felt the spirit. The problem is that the mom is allowing her to take the lessons, but doesn't want her to get baptized until she is 18. We will see. Then this morning Sis Swanberg called us again because she has another nonmember girl who has been coming to Young Womens. She again invited her and the parents to come to church. So we will probably start teaching them too. What is crazy is that all this week we have been praying to find a family of 3. We have tracted and searched for this family and we haven't found them. Then today Sis Swanberg calls us and tells us of this family of 3 she wants us to teach. AMAZING! That's what happens when you pray in faith.

So that is literally all that has happened. And this has happened in the past couple of days. If it wasn't for the past couple of days this email would probably be even shorter haha. Just not much went on last week. Oh something that did happen, Elder Cashin broke our shower haha. He felt so bad. I have no idea how he did it. But right now we are showerless so we stink. Haha Just kidding. Our members have let us use their shower. Hopefully it can be fixed soon though. Yup that's it.

Dad I want you to know that I haven't forgotten about you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLD MAN! I hope you have a good one. I'm gonna try and write ya a letter today so you will probably receive it sometime this week.

I love you guys. Talk to ya next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

January 19, 2010 - Week 23

2010-01-19T18:30:00.000-08:00

The Elders with Santa

Hey Everyone,

Sorry I couldn't think of what to title this email so.....ya. Well not much has gone on this week. This may be a shorter email. As you probably saw in my last email, things are pretty rough. And they just keep getting harder and harder. Many of the people we have been teaching don't want to take the lessons anymore and even some that we are teaching just aren't progressing. I tell ya what, Americans might be some of the hardest people to teach. Everyone thinks that Mormons are just crazy and they all have false views about us that their preacher tells them or that they read on the internet. And most of the time people don't really listen to us, they just disagree with us and try to convince us that we are wrong. There are very few people who actually want to listen. We have been trying to contact some old potential investigators that no one has seen and even try some old former investigators who stopped investigating a while back. We got some appointments so hopefully all goes well. We also have been trying to work with our wards. It's really tough because our ward mission leaders aren't really doing much and when you live in a state like Washington, everything really depends on the ward and the ward mission leader. We have a great Stake President here. He just took our whole zone out to lunch at the Red Lion. I talked to him about it and he was very concerned. He said he is going to talk to the bishops and see if something can change. He is a great guy. I have never seen anyone, literally anyone, who works with missionaries as much as he does. He is already busy with being the stake president, but then he does all this extra stuff because he knows how important it is to spread the gospel.

So that's pretty much what has been going on. Pretty hard, but it can and will get better. On brighter news, I just thought that I would tell you a little bit more about Adrian Sandavol. Last night we had our first New Member Lesson with him. He is awesome. Ever since he got baptized he has been studying the scriptures and he sat by me in church last Sunday and he was looking up all the scriptures and answering questions. The bishop asked him what made him decide to get serious and how did you know this was true. He said it was because Elder Cashin and I actually got down to business. I guess the other missionaries just kinda hung out with him and never really taught him much. But Elder Cashin and I actually went in and taught him, and he liked it better that way. He also said that he found out it was true because he was actually open to the spirit this time. He said the spirit is what made him join. I know that it was when we had that great lesson with him about God appearing to Joseph Smith the same way he appeared to Moses. That was one of the greatest experiences I have ever had. So when we met with him I asked him how he felt. He said that he feels complete, he feels whole. He said that there was something missing in his life, but not anymore. He said that he is a lot happier now too. He just got the Aaronic Priesthood this Sunday. We talked to him about Missionary Work and he got all excited. He wants to share it with his friends and his family. He said, "I can baptize now right?" We told him yes and then he said, "I need to find people to baptize now!" He is great. Him and his wife actually bought Elder Cashin and I a couple of ties. They want to have us over for dinner before transfers.

So speaking of transfers, we will find out this Saturday if we are leaving or not. I'm pretty sure that I will be staying but you never know with President Belnap. I'm pretty sure our District leader and another missionary in our district will leave because they have both been here about 10-11 months. Elder Cashin thinks that he will be leaving too. So if you need to send me anything, then you better send it to the mission office. I will let you know by next p-day if I'm leaving or not. And hey mom I already got the Band of Bros. Andy's mom sent it too me. If you see her tell her thanks for everything. Also I got Anne, Leon, and Kaylene and Hailee's (I hope I spelled everyone's names right)card and thing to McDonalds. Tell them thank you for me as well. I have just been so busy with things lately I haven't had time to write. It takes us forever to plan for some odd reason and I have been getting to bed really late. Late as in like 11:30. That's not really late, but for a missionary it is haha.

Today we got to go to the Temple. Boy was that great. I miss going to the temple every week. I really needed it today. I also thought that if I go to India pretty soon that this could be one of the last times I get to go to the temple for a while. And with my visa to India.....I am willing to go if the Lord wants to send me there. I know last week I said I was gonna write India off, but I just can't do it. I know I'll get there someday. Well I hope everyone is doing good. Thank you all for your support and your letters. I will try to catch up on them today, but I can't promise anything. Love you and I'll talk to ya next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

January 13, 2010 - Week 22 - First Baptism

2010-01-13T18:15:00.000-08:00

Elder Garrick with Adrian Sandavol and Elder Cashin

Adrian Sandavol and his family, wife Angie, his little girl Bella 3 yrs. and Jaron 1 yr.

Hey everyone!

So I sent that letter to the family, but for everyone else who doesn't know, I got my first baptism on Saturday! It was Adrian Sandavol. He has been investigating the church for years. His wife is a member and he has two kids. But we started to teach him shortly after I got to Pasco. He has changed a lot and he is a whole new person. We had some amazing lessons with him that I know I have talked about in past emails. Well 2 Sundays ago we put him on date for January 23rd. We met with him again on Wednesday and he asked if he could be baptized this Saturday. We said he could so we got everything planned out and it all went great. He was baptized by a friend in the ward who is a major reason why he was baptized and then he was confirmed by his father-in-law. Elder Cashin and I got to be part of the confirmation. It was great. I sent some pictures of us with Adrian and of his family. They are amazing people. Adrian's family isn't too supportive of this, but his sister did come. I don't what else to say about it haha. It was just amazing and it felt so good to see that someone who I have been teaching has changed so much and has made this commitment to God. He is so happy now and so is his family.

Well in other less good news, this week has been pretty rough for us. The Storms, one of our best progressing investigators, decided that they want to try some other churches for a while and not continue meeting with us. It is too bad. They were doing so well, but I think they found out about the Word of Wisdom and he said that he is not ready for that commitment yet. We hope that they will come around sometime. Also another investigator dropped us this week. We are doing all that we can and things just aren't working out. We decided that we need the help of our ward. We have made plans to help members start doing their own missionary work and find people for us to teach. We are also going to try and get as many referrals as we can because tracting is not productive. We met with our bishop last night and he said he will support us. I think it will work out. Another family we are teaching just found out that their grandpa has cancer. This is really stressing the dad out and I think is going to hinder us meeting with him. I don't know maybe this is what he needs so he can finally turn to God. Maybe he'll find his answer now.

Yesterday we had interviews. That's why I did not email yesterday. Today, Wednesday, is our p-day for this week. It was a really good interview and I learned a lot from the training we got. I finally met with President Belnap. He said that he considers it a blessing that I am in the Kennewick Mission. I guess Elder Cashin told him that I have helped him a lot. President also said that he has spoken to many members of our wards and they all see that we work hard. He said we are gaining their trust. Its nice to see that people actually recognize the work we do. I talked to President about my visa. He hadn't heard anything. He advised me to not think about it and to just serve. He's right, it does distract me. It's like I have a girlfriend waiting for me and I'm just waiting for the dear john letter saying that I'm not going anymore. So I have decided to write India off. It's sad, but its something that I should do. I'm not even going to think about it from now on. My mission is the Kennewick, WA Mission. If I get my visa then that will be a nice surprise, but for now I'm done with it. Hopefully I can now focus and not let this distract me.

Well Dad you talked about teaching your Sunday school class. If I could just give any advise it would be to bring the scriptures to life for yourself and for the class. Paint a picture in their minds and then apply it to them, especially with the Old Testament and the Book of Mormon. Listen to "Get an Attitude" by John Bytheway. That may help. It sure has helped me. So about a book to read....Jesus the Christ is amazing. I can't believe you gave up on it. I hear The Miracle of Forgiveness is also amazing, but you have to read the whole book straight through or you will just feel horrible about yourself. But if you get to the end, then it's the best book you can read.

Everyone's New Year sounded fun. I missed all the food and games. Oh hey mom, stay off your dang foot! What are you thinking. Its a big deal! Its better to be laid up for a little while then to have surgery. The Christmas cards that I sent were Elder Cashin's. He actually drew them. I only made a few copies and it was after I had sent most of mine anyway so I only sent a few. But he's pretty good huh. Hey Lynds your funny about the TV. I will probably watch TV when I get home. I definitely don't want to watch as much as I did before my mission though. If you listen to "Turn off the TV and get a life" by John Bytheway you would understand. Those were a good Christmas present if you couldn't tell haha. But I'm sure that the flat screen is pretty cool. And now your an HD snob huh. I still can't tell the difference. Hey Dan you're the Ward Clerk! Sweet! That's a big job. I bet your pretty busy now.

Well not much has gone on. As you can see from this email, there are a lot of high ups and a lot of low downs on your mission. And you can have both in the same day. It's really weird, but we are going to continue to work hard and hopefully we can start teaching more people in members homes. That is our goal. Next week we get to go to the Temple so that will be nice. Today I think we are just gonna hang out and play basketball or something. Next week will be our last week of transfers. How crazy is that. Elder Cashin and I aren't sure what will happen to us. Pretty much anything could. E. Cashin is thinking he might leave. I think I might stay, but who knows. Well I love you guys and hope everyone is doing well. That reminds me, how are you doing Whit? How is the family doing? You'll be okay. Well love you all and I'll talk to ya next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

January 5, 2010 Week 21

2010-01-05T14:40:00.000-08:00

Hello!

So I am starting off because I'm so excited and I can't wait to tell you. And no I have not gotten my visa. By the way, have you heard anything about my visa? They told me probably sometime after Christmas. That is very general, but it is sometime after Christmas now. They will probably tell me sometime after Valentines next. Okay the good news. Adrian is now on date to be baptized on January 23rd! Heck ya! The guy is awesome. We asked him if you wanted to and if he would prepare himself for that date. he said yes and his wife started to freak out. She was just in shock. She kept on saying, "Seriously? Are you serious this time? What does this mean?" He just sat there so I piped up and said, "I think he is saying he wants to be baptized." Anyway it was really fun and they are really happy and really excited about it all.

Other good news, I am going on exchanges with our district leader today and tomorrow. He will be coming into my area and Elder Cashin is leaving. But we are going to try and set a date for baptism with another family, the Smiths. It’s the father and his two sons. So hopefully that goes well and we might get at least one more on date, hopefully 3 though. So ya, things are going real good right now.

Last night I went on exchanges with the zone leaders and went to their area, Spanish area. We were in a threesome because there was an Elder from Murray, Utah who was going home today. I didn't know him though. He is also Spanish speaking so I just kinda hung out. It was fun though.

So how are things going with everyone back at home? Hey Whit and Pete, how is Kansas? I guess your all moved in now and getting used to it. How’s the rest of the family holding up back at home. So Lynds and Dan, how many times have mom and dad been over to your house this week haha. Well I hope your all okay and its only a short time.

My New Year was not the best. It was just a normal night for us so we went out and tried to see people but everyone was either gone or busy with family stuff and parties. This whole week has actually been really hard with the holidays. A lot of people cancelled and everyone said to come back after the holidays. So the holidays are over now and I'm hoping we can get back into the swing of things.

That’s pretty good the Utes won their bowl game. I guess they did okay this season right? And ya, I had no idea Urban Meyer was retiring. That is interesting what he said. I wonder what religion he is....

So you had a question about transfers. A transfer is 6 weeks. We are on Week 4 right now. This transfer will actually end January 24th. We get a call on Saturday and find out if we are leaving or not and then the next Wednesday of week 1 we get transferred. So we still have a few weeks until the end.

Well that’s pretty much it for me this week. I hope you’re all doing great. I was thinking that now I don't want to leave until after January 23rd. I have to see Adrian get baptized. But we will see. I’m hoping that with the new year the Indian government will start to get rolling on signing our visas. Take care everyone and I will talk to ya next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

December 29, 2009 Week 20

2010-01-05T14:38:00.000-08:00

Me just walking in the cold. See how I'm all bundled up?

Hello everyone,

Well I talked to the fam on Christmas so there's not much to say. But I will tell you all a little about my Christmas since I know that mom forwards this to other people. Oh by the way, I want to thank everyone for all the gifts and cards they sent me. I wish I could personally thank all of you, but time won’t allow it for a missionary. We stay pretty busy. I am very grateful for everyone’s love and I truly hope that you all had a great Christmas and that your New Year will be the best you've ever had.

So on Christmas day we woke up and opened all the presents that everyone sent to me. Man did I get a lot. I thought that as a missionary I would only get two or three presents. I was wrong. I got about the usual amount as when I was home. Everything is great and I love it all. Then we went upstairs and had brunch with the members that we live with. Their whole family was over, and they have a big family. It was a lot of fun. We ate and played games with them. Then we kinda hung out some more and tried to figure out some of the stuff we got, like that metal puzzle thing you sent me Jo and the Rubix cube mom and dad gave to Elder Cashin (which he has played with constantly, he can't put it down). I also tried to play with that finger skateboard you guys gave me. Let’s just say I'm not fit to be a skater or a finger skater, but it’s still fun to dink around with. Later we went and had dinner with a family and it was good, but after that we went over to another member’s house. Here I got to talk to the family and they can tell you all about that. Then we played Are you Smarter Than a 5th Grader and ate pie. Yup that’s my Christmas day.

Then the very next day, we went out as usual and got back into the swing of things. It was so nice to relax and talk to everyone. Missionaries need that every so often. I guess that’s why they do it every 6 months.

So not much else happened. We were going to set a baptismal date for someone on Sunday, but they had to cancel. We are going to meet with him this Friday or Sunday so hopefully all goes well there. Oh the Storms came to church on Sunday and I think they had a good time and they felt the spirit, except for the husband because he couldn't hear any of the speakers. He's kinda old and his wife said he is too stubborn to use hearing aids.

Yesterday we had district meeting and the Assistants to the President came. My district leader wanted one of the AP's and I to teach lesson 1. He gave us 5 minutes to prepare. So we prepared and we actually taught a really, really good lesson.

Well I love you all. I just realized that I end my emails like that in almost every email. But it’s true so I'll keep saying it. You should read my Journal haha. I think everyday starts out like this, "So today..." Ah well. Thank you again everyone and have a fun New Years. I have no idea what I'm doing for that. I'll probably be sleeping, how sad.

Love,
Elder Garrick

December 22, 2009 Week 19

2010-01-05T14:31:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas everyone!

I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and Markie and Tara a Happy Birthday. I hope everyone has a great holiday season this year. Well from my subject of my email I hope I didn't get you guys too excited. I have not gotten my visa to India yet, but I did get a small taste of what it is going to be like. I will tell you all later in the email.

First I'll start with my usual answering a few questions I got and stuff. Mom how is your foot doing? When do you think you will be able to get out of that dang boot? And yes Ninja Warrior sounds even more intense. I'll have to watch it in ummm... 20 months. Whit, were you able to find a house? And that story about Dad and his belt was hilarious.

Thank you everyone for all of the cards and letters you have sent me, from family, friends, and ward members. You are all Fantastic. Thank you very much.

Hey mom thanks for the package. I'm set on thermals now. I'm probably good on the long sleeves. And as for a wool coat, I can probably last with the one I have now, but if you get reassigned somewhere else or here, hopefully I won’t, I think I would like one. So we will hold off for now. When I do go to India, I will have a lot to send back. And guess what you were right about the Murphy's law. Now that you sent me all that warm stuff, I didn't get my visa to India, but it warmed up to about 55 degrees yesterday. Great, everything does go wrong. But I'm pretty sure this is odd weather and it will cool back down again.

Dad you asked about how I get money. Well we usually have credit cards that they put our monthly allowance on. I used that for a while but church headquarters called the office and took it away from me because I'm a visa waiter. They now put all my money on my companions card and in January they are only going to give me half of my money a month and do that until I leave. I guess that’s a good sign, hopefully. But it’s kinda dumb so I just go to the bank and take all my money off of E. Cashins card and I use cash. And I don't have to pay bills. So you asked about how to feel the true Christmas spirit. You know what I'm not sure how to feel the Christmas spirit, but I feel like I know how to feel Christs spirit. Every sacrament meeting I go through the baptismal interview questions to myself. I ask myself, "Do I believe in God as our Heavenly Father and that Jesus Christ is my Savior and Redeemer of the World? Do I believe the gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith? Do I believe President Monson is a prophet of God? What does this mean? Do I feel like I have truly repented? Do i actually promise to take upon myself Christs name, obey His commandments, and always remember Him?" These are the questions I ask myself. Every time I do I give a little testimony in my heart and every time I have felt the Holy Ghost confirm to me that these things are true. That’s how I feel Christs spirit every week. Try it out dad.

So you also asked about our investigators. We are still teaching Adrian, the guy who I gave the Moses explanation thing in my last email. The guy is awesome. I asked him if he would get baptized if he found out this was true and before I could even answer he said he would. I think we are going to set a date for him next time and figure out what we need to do to prepare him. I don't know if I told you too but I kinda put another kid on date. He takes seminary and knows everything. He said that he wants to be baptized. We are teaching his dad too and he wants to be at our lessons from now on. He thinks we are pushing his son into it, but his son wants to do it. So we are getting real close with him too. Vien has again decided to stop taking the lessons. She is getting a lot of pressure from her family and her other church. I think she is getting a lot of misinformation from others. We will still try to keep in contact with her. We taught this family this week. The father tries to think of stupid questions to try and stump us. He said it’s to make us better teachers. He went off on our all the original 12 apostles were Jews so why aren't they now. I explained that God gives his priesthood to any worthy male who he can trust. I said some more too, but the guy was confounded. It was awesome. He couldn't say anything. He sat there for like 10 seconds with his mouth open and then he said, "Oh that was a good response." It was pretty cool.

Okay so for my taste of India. Last week we got picked up by a member lady. She said, "Oh elders I'm so happy I found you. Our neighbor across the street is Hindu and from India and they want a blessing for their wife who is pregnant. She is sick and I think it will be a great missionary opportunity." So we jump on it, especially me, and see them. Well it turns out that the wife is doing pretty good. She is actually Catholic and not Indian, but the husband is Hindu and from India. It was his idea. I said he just wants a blessing and it’s something he wants to do. He wants to invite all his family over to the church so they can see something different than Hinduism. We try to explain to him about Christ, faith, priesthood, and blessings, but he just doesn't get it. He keeps on saying, "ya it’s all exactly the same. The things you guys do, we do to, it’s just with a different name for god." We try to explain that it’s not the same, but he still insists with this same response and he actually starts to get mad. Well he knows the 1st counselor in the Stake Presidency so we call him up and he says he would be glad to do it. When the day comes, they show up probably 40 min late (which is Indian standard time I guess). They bring about 10 of their family members to the church, half of them actually visiting from India and going back in a few days. President Libbert tries to explain these same things to them but they don't listen again. There is a big commotion with President trying to explain and the husband translating into Hindi. It was crazy. So we start the blessing. I start to anoint the wife with oil and they all pull out their cameras and take pictures. We had to stop and explain this is sacred and no pictures, but you can have pictures after. President gives the blessing and they are talking in Hindi the entire time. He finishes and they ask if he will bless their sister’s baby too. He agrees, luckily he was there because we can't do that without permission. So he gives the baby a name and a blessing. Crazy, huh? So that was the crazy thing that happened to me this week. And that is how it’s going to be in India. It is going to be a completely different experience when I go there. Teaching, culture, the people, everything will be so different.

Well I love you guys. I gotta go. We are having our p-day with the Stake President. He is going to take all the missionaries out for lunch and then we are going back to his house. It should be fun. Love you all and have a merry Christmas. I'll talk to some of you soon!

Love,
Elder Garrick

December 15, 2009 Week 18

2009-12-15T14:11:00.000-08:00

Hello Everyone!

How is everyone doing this week? Well its pretty good here. It has finally snowed and we only have a few inches here, but people have no idea how to drive in the snow. They drive like crazy still! But it's been a pretty good week.

I am currently on the 2nd day of the 12 days of Christmas you guys did for me. Thanks for that. Its awesome. I love the 1st day too. A bunch of stuff I don't need haha. I actually could use some of the stuff though. I have read your letter Whit, and Markie and his families letters. They are great. Hey by the way, Happy Birthday Big A. How was it? I think that's awesome you are starting to play the guitar now. I was close to your age when I started too. You're gonna be a pro when I come home and I'm going to be horrible. You'll have to reteach me. And Cassi you will have to write me a letter in cursive some time. You guys sound real busy. Oh hey I will still send you a picture of my investigators I just have to get the baptism first.

Speaking of that, yesterday we started to teach one of our investigators sons. He was taught by other missionaries in the past, but then they changed the boundaries for missionaries to cover and he kinda got lost and forgotten. Well we taught him yesterday and he is awesome. He is about 15 or 16, but he goes to church every Sunday with his friends and he goes to seminary too. He pretty much knows and believes everything already. So I kinda put him on date to get baptized for January 2nd. He said that he would want to. The problem is when his dad got home he was pretty mad and stormed upstairs. We are hoping it wasn't because of us. We are actually teaching the dad today and I hope all goes well with him. But the son is going to talk to his parents about baptism and if they approve then he is good to go.

Also we had another great lesson with Adrian Sandavol. Our exchange was one of his best friends and it went really well. Adrian was really happy and last night he said, "I'm actually learning guys!" We committed him to read the Book of Mormon everyday. I hope he does it. That's the only thing holding him back right now. If he can gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon everything else will fall into place. But he is so close to being baptized. If all goes well we might try and set a date for him to be baptized too.

So we missed the Christmas Devotional this week. Our members recorded it and we were going to watch it with them but one of their grandkids was playing with the tv and it didn't record. I think it replays and they rerecorded it, but we have no time to watch it now. I heard it was really good. We did have a dinner with the Stake Presidency this week because we exceeded the Stake goal of 70 baptisms. We got 73. So they had all the missionaries in Pasco over for dinner. It was really good and a lot of fun. I think next week the Stake President is going to have all the missionaries over for Christmas on P day. That should be great too.

Not much else has gone on this week. Unfortunately many of the appointments we had set from last week canceled on us. It just goes to show the up and downs of missionary work. One week can be the best week of your life and the next week it can all go shooting down. But this week hasn't been that bad and we are still teaching. Another big downer is Vien kinda dropped us again for the second time. Her family is just giving her the hardest time about things and I think that's the reason she doesn't want to meet with us. She is still friendly and hopefully her neighbors can keep in close contact with her.

We have also done some tracting this week, as usual, but this week we have run into a lot of Anti-Mormons. They answer the door and we introduce ourselves, but then they all almost say, "Oh we know who you are." and then they slam the door on us. We also tracted into a guy and we said we are sharing a message about Christ. He then said, "Ya well I believe in Christ, but not the same one you do." We then asked him who he believed in and he didn't know what to say so he just slammed the door. Hopefully you guys don't feel bad. I think its funny. I am actually starting to enjoy tracting. We have some funny experiences with people. We can also have some great conversations with people right there on the door step. But referrals are still better than tracting.

Hey Lynds I did hear about that new church geneology program the church has. I heard its great. I want to get into that when I come home. Just a side note I guess. Ya that's pretty much it for me. I didn't get transferred and neither did Elder Cashin so we are here for another transfer. Still no news on my visa. Any news from you? Oh and I got a letter from Mavis Wright and the Hylands. I will be writing them today. Tell them thanks for me too.

Well that's it. I love you all and have a great week.

Love,

Elder Garrick

December 9, 2009 Week 17

2009-12-09T14:00:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

How is everybody doing this week? I hope all is well with everyone. So let me start with the usual of the letter then I'll get into the good stuff. I have not yet gotten my swine flu shot haha. Seriously it is just really hard to get it. We don't have any stores in our area and no way to get there. And I have been asking everyone and they are all telling me that the shot made them get the swine flu and I'd be better off not getting it. I pretty dang healthy right now. I don't even have a cold.

Hey Congratulations Nick and Bonnie! A little boy thats awesome. And his name is Grant? Is that right? Well I like the name. You'll have to send me a picture of him. And thats so good that Pete got into Washburn. It seems like everything is falling into place for you guys. Those are the blessings you get for staying faithful you guys. I'm sure the fam will be sad to see you leave, but at least its the best program for ya.

So it is so so so cold here. It has been in the single digits all week and the high sometimes gets up to 20 degrees. A member in the ward gave me a coat that I wear underneath the coat dad gave me. So that keeps me pretty warm. That scarf is a life saver and the ear muffs I got. Ya I wear ear muffs and a scarf. Never thought I would until I came out on my mission. But I am going to get some thermals today at wal mart because my legs are freezing. Unless that's one of the presents you sent me :)

Speaking of presents, thanks so much for the packages you all sent me. I got all 3 packages and I also got JoAnn's Christmas package and I got her chip package last week. You guys are awesome. That tree idea was great. We hung it up and put all the ornaments up too. Thanks for all the great notes everyone made in them too. We took a picture and we will send them off to you sometime this week. I do have some questions/comments on the presents though. First off thanks for the CD player and Josh Groban CD. It's so good. We have listened to it everyday since. So I guess I have to wait to open all the presents until Christmas huh. Except for the 12 days of Christmas ones. I already listened to that tape. That was great, thanks guys. I didn't know if I should listen to it now or on Christmas but I figured I'll talk to you on Christmas so I might as well listen to it now. The kids are talking so well now. Thanks for that picture you guys sent me too. The twins have changed so much. They look exactly like Makai. Its like you have triplets, just one is bigger and a boy, but they look exactly like Mak. That pictures great though. I hung it up in my room.

Okay so yesterday was zone conference. It was a lot of fun. We had a little talk from President Belnap and then we did a Christmas program. The assistant president of the mission and his wife did the Christmas story and there were a few missionaries who sang and played instruments and stuff. Then we had a slide show that a missionary put together. then we had a great lunch of ham and potatoes and other good stuff. And then we got to watch Forever Strong. It was a really good movie. I had never seen it before. And ya I saw a couple people that I knew, especially Dave Cole. He's in like every scene. But it was a ton of fun. We got a letter from the 1st presidency, a copy of the slide show on CD, and a picture of the mission with Elder Holland (although you can't see anyone in the picture because we are all so small). It was great. I also got to see a lot of the elders from my old district and zone and I saw Elder Olsen and Elder Smith. Elder Olsen is doing pretty good.

Alright so onto the best part of this email. 2 Sundays ago Elder Cashin and I decided to do a fast for our investigators and just for our missionary work. And the blessings just poured out to us after that. I will name off everything that happened. First was the Storms who we tracted into and then he came back and apologized and told us to come in. We taught him again and he is really interested. We also met a former investigators family and they want to learn more too but after the holidays. We had an awesome lesson with another investigator and the spirit was way strong it was amazing. He doesn't believe that Joseph Smith saw God and Christ face to face. We talked about Moses and how he did too. He got really emotional and said he will pray about it. Huge progress for him. Then we went to see a potential investigator. When we showed up he was really excited and we taught him for 3 hours! We have another appointment with him this week. Vien wants to take the lessons still and she came to the Christmas party. She is also going through a really hard time and we had a fantastic lesson with her too. She was just bawling during our lesson, but we were able to help her through the Book of Mormon. She doesn't get the concept of prayer so we taught her that and she is going to do it. We called the people who went to Elder Holland and two of the members are working with the people. We found out there is a part member family and the wife who is a non member wants to take the lessons. I got a coat on the coldest day of the year so far. At church a lady called us up and said she wants to take the lessons again. We have no idea who she is. Ya this week has been way good. I didn't even think about it until recently but I know its because we fasted. Anyway I hope everyone is good and that they are having a fun and happy holiday season. I love you all.

Love,

Elder Garrick

December 1, 2009 Week 16

2009-12-01T13:27:00.000-08:00

This is me at the Columbia River

Me and Brother Raul Diaz. He is a member and is awesome. We visited him regularly. He is great.

Hey everyone,

Wasn't sure what to title this one so I just did Dec 1st. Clever, eh? Well I thought I would just go down my list of things I wanted to talk about and answer for ya. Thanksgiving was a lot of fun. We couldn't do anything the whole day so we had a 3 hour personal study time. That was nice because I feel like one hour is never enough. Then we went over to the church and sat in the library and watched church videos. We got invited to a Thanksgiving dinner with one of our part member families we are teaching, the Sandavols. They are an awesome family. They have a little boy who is 1 and a little girl who is 3. We had it with their whole family and it was over at the church. The food was great and then after we all played volleyball. Then we went with another member family and they took us to the buffet. Holy Cow! By then I was so stuffed. I felt so sick. I felt like I was going to burst. But that was about it. We have leftover’s from the Sandavols so I have been eating that. How was everyone else’s Thanksgiving? How about Lynd’s b-day and JoAnn's surprise b-day?

So hows the snow? It hasn't snowed yet in Washington. It is getting really cold though and it is always foggy. Plus the sun goes down at like 3 o clock and it gets colder after that. I'm not yet sure when we will call on Christmas. Our zone conference is on Dec 8th and I'm assuming we will find out then. I heard the U lost to BYU. Bummer! Guess it was a really good game though. Over time right?

There is a kid in my ward right now who just got his call to Salt Lake City South. So you may see him. His name is Venou. He is a convert of about 1 year and his parents kicked him out because he got baptized and is going on a mission. Pretty amazing huh? So this week at church I had to pass the sacrament and then speak. I guess it was kinda crazy with the holidays because a lot of people were out of town. So they didn't have enough people to pass the sacrament so they asked me. When we got done passing the bishop gets up and says, "Well I guess one of our speakers isn't here. Elder Garrick will you come up and speak to us." So I ran up and spoke. It actually went pretty well. I talked about Alma and learning from our experiences. I always think of a few things I could speak on if I ever get called on like this. Another thing that was pretty cool was yesterday in District Meeting. Our Zone Leaders came and sat in with us. We practiced doing role plays and listening to the spirit to try and resolve people’s concerns. One person had a concern and the person teaching just had to ask questions and listen to what they should talk to them about. The zone leaders went and it was amazing. Then it was my turn. I won't go into detail with everything but everyone answered the other person’s questions and concerns without even knowing what they were. Crazy huh? So I was on some spiritual high after that. We went back to our house and prepared to go out. I gave a prayer and asked the Lord if he would help us find someone new to teach who is searching for the truth. I kept a prayer in my heart the whole day and I was searching for this person too. We contacted a few people who had previously taken the lessons. No success. Then we decided to just tract. We knocked on this guys door and talked to him a while. He didn't seem too interested so we left him with a card a moved on. We do about 2 more houses and then I drives up behind us and says, "I'm sorry that was very rude of me. I should have invited you in. I'm in a program that was founded by Glenn Beck and I remembered that he is Mormon too. Would you like to come in?" Pretty cool huh? So we talked to him and his wife. This program thing Glenn Beck made is about keeping God in our constitution because people are trying to take Him out. The Storms, this guy and his wife, have the exact same beliefs as we do. Like seriously, exact same. So we are going back tomorrow to teach them a little more. What an answer to our prayer. Just goes to show that if you ask with a sincere heart, God will answer.

So you guys had a few more questions I will answer. My teaching is pretty good I think. My personal teaching goes pretty well. There are 3 main lessons we teach: The Restoration, The Plan of Salvation, and The Gospel of Jesus Christ. There is a lesson 4 on Commandments and we try to combine that in our first 3 lessons. Sometimes we teach it separately. Then lesson 5 is for after people are baptized. It’s actually supposed to be the ward who teaching lesson 5 but people don't really know what to do so we end up doing it too. I have given another blessing. Only one though. It went good. And our service has been slim lately because there is not much to do for anyone anymore. We always ask people but they have nothing for us. I have 2 more weeks until the end of this transfer. It ends Dec 13th I believe. But I'm thinking I will stay here for another transfer. Rarely do you stay in an area for only one transfer, that only if you are having major problems with your comp. Hey I thought I'd wish Cassie and Sue and Beckey a Happy Birthday. Also thanks for the card Spence and Beck. Yup I guess that is it for me this week. I hope everyone is good and I love you all. Until next week.

Love,
Elder Garrick

November 24, 2009 Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-24T16:27:00.001-08:00

Hey everyone!

Hows everybody doing this week? So I wrote a letter to the fam and I just sent it off today. Mom I answered many of your questions that you wanted me to answer but there were a few that I thought you might want right away so I'll answer them now. Q3 It does get pretty cold here. There is no snow yet, but I think they expect some soon. The biggest killer is the wind. There is such a cold wind chill here. And it blows way hard against you. I have been wearing that scarf that you sent me and I pretty much wear those sweaters everyday. Q4 ya my razor is still working. My facial hair is coming in nice haha. I decided I'm not gonna shave when I come home so I can be a grizzly man. Q6 my shower sponge is still good and if I need another I can get one at Walmart Q7 things that I might need....well if I could get some thermals that would be nice. My pants are really thin and don't really keep the cold out. Ummm...I have been using the Perfect Pushups that Elder Cashin has when I work out. They are awesome. But maybe if you wanna send me those for my Christmas gift. Maybe some shoes too because my nice Sunday shoes are getting torn up. And if there is any way you could send talks on cd by like John Bytheway and maybe even a cd player. You could just send one of the old ones that are in my room. But music is also pretty lax here. As long as its uplifting its approved. So we can have lyrics and all. Some missionaries stretch it to normal music, but I might want to stick to church music still. But if its uplifting, send it on over. Ya the Josh Groban cd would probably be good. Also chips are always a plus. So I think that answers the questions that I didn't answer in my letter. And you don't have to send me all that stuff its just ideas. But the thermals are probably the most needed.

Well for Thanksgiving we are going with some members to a buffet. So we are going to pig out there. We got asked by one of our part member families if we want to come over for dinner too. So we might go eat with them before the buffet. I think we will be okay. Don't worry.

Hey tell Glenna Bird I got her letter and I sent her a letter back. Also tell JoAnne I got her letter and she mentioned something about a package. I haven't gotten anything from her yet so I don't know if I just haven't received it yet or if she hasn't sent it out yet. I'm gonna write her today.

How was dinner with Elder Wright? Is he doing okay? I wonder how it would be to serve in slc. I guess he is in a companionship instead of a tripanionship now huh. That's good. Well this week was a little taste of ethnicity for me. I went on exchanges with the zone leaders and they are Spanish speaking. I went with elder Godinez in his area. It was way fun. He's a cool kid and he is actually the only one going home this transfer. But we went around to a lot of his investigators and I just sat and watched because I had no idea what they were saying. At the end I would bear my testimony and he would translate. But it was cool. He is a great missionary. We went and saw one of his investigators who is going to be baptized soon. He had to leave, but we talked to his parents who are both members but haven't come to church in a while. The mother was distraught. I guess her dad lives out of the country and he is dying and she doesn't know if she will be able to see him. But E. Godinez talked to her and she was just bawling the whole time. I asked what happened when we left and he said that she needed to come back to church because when things like this happen you need a reservoir of faith and right now she is dry. Pretty bold huh. Well she agreed and said that she would come back to church and she and her husband are going to take the temple prep classes so they can go to the temple. It was crazy because I could feel the spirit the whole time we were there and I had no idea what was going on. It goes to show that you can feel the Holy Ghost even if you don't know what's happening. But we went to some Mexican store that some members own. They gave us Etoli, I think that's how you spell it. I bet Daniels had it. I thought it was hot chocolate. It tastes like you have tortilla's, beans, and corn all blended into liquid form. It was okay, not the best thing to drink but it warmed us up. So ya that was exchanges.

E Cashin and I realized from our exchange that we need to shorten our visit times with people and make them more frequent throughout the week. That way we can help people keep the commitments they say they will keep. Well the other experience we had was on Sunday. There is this Vietnamese lady who speaks very little English. She has been taught in the past, but she just doesn't understand everything. But a kid in the ward just got back from his mission in Texas speaking Vietnamese. He got all excited when he heard there was a Vietnamese lady in our boundaries. So we went and taught her. Again he pretty much talked to her and elder cashin and I just sat in confusion. But it went really well and she understands things a lot better with him there. So those are the two things that happened this week. Our work here is kinda getting tough. The investigators we have don't really want to do anything to find out the truth. I don't know if they really care. Many have been investigating for years, so we have to approach things a different way so they have a desire to learn and also a desire to do things. Oh hey E Cashin does have good family support so you don't have to worry about him. I guess you could send something small, but I think he'll be good for Christmas. Also I don't think your pictures went through on your email Lynds. It was all weird when I opened it up. Guess I better go. Love you guys and have a great thanksgiving.

November 17, 2009 - Week 14

2009-11-17T16:28:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone,

Well we had breakfast with President and Sister Belnap today because our zone is doing really well and we are having a lot of baptisms. So that's why I am emailing so early today. It usually wouldn't be this early. I haven't gotten any emails from you guys yet but that's okay. Again time is short but I am going to try and write a lot. I'm a fast typer. I got all your mail and it all came at once so Thursday was like Christmas to me. It sounds like Halloween was really fun. I want to see that pumpkin Daniel carved. Did it turn out okay. It also sounds like the AutoRx party was fun too. Remember when I got second place haha. And then everyone thought my shoes were part of my costume. Nope they were just my regular shoes. Crazy that was only a year ago. Can you believe that Thanksgiving is next week? I'm still talking about Halloween. Hey dad your costume sounds great. I hope you guys took a picture of that too. I'm sure Lyndsie did.

That's kinda sad that Christmas will be changing this year. But I guess it has to happen some time and a good time to do it is while I'm gone because it's going to be different for me. Mom you sound real busy. Hows your feet doing? The kids sound like they're changing so much. Just from the letters you write me I can tell that they are talking a lot more. Weird. Alright the U is tearin it up too. The TCU game will be pretty big. If they can beat them then the U will probably rise pretty high. Thanks for the updates. How are the Jazz doing this year?

Well this week has been pretty awesome. On Saturday Elder Holland came to the mission and spoke to us. It was so cool. We got a mission picture with him and they are going to print it off for all the missionaries. Sister Belnap said she might just send it home for Elder Olsen and I if we are gone. Then we walked into the Gage building (my old area) and we all got to shake his hand. It was awesome. Also Elder perry of the 70 came and Elder Neilson, President of the 1st Quorum of the 70 came as well. They were all great talks and they really hit hard on teaching with the spirit and then living up to the covenants you have made even after your mission. Elder Holland said that we should not even think about going back to "Real Life" after our missions. We need to take everything we get from our missions and take it home with us. He said a mission is as close to real life as you are ever going to get. It really made me think about life in terms of eternity. Our life here on earth is such a short time compared to the overall picture. And once we pass away from this life we have so much more to do and learn. And it will all be centered around the things I teach and learn on my mission. So the mission really is the closest thing to real life, in terms of my eternal life. He also came and spoke at the Pasco's Stake Conference so we got to hear him twice. They blocked off the whole chapel area for investigators. There were over 100 investigators who came to hear Elder Holland speak. What a miracle. E. Holland said three things about the church. He talked about in Acts where Peter heals a lame man. The man stands up and rejoices and starts leaping and jumping for joy. Then he also talked about when Christ healed a blind man with the clay. And when people came to talk to the blind man he said in my own words, Once I was blind but now I see. From these two examples he said 1. you can't deny the truth, the man simply said, "Once I was blind but now I see." You can't get anymore truthful than that 2. the blessings keep coming. Those who are faithful in the church, the blessings just keep coming, just like the lame or blind man. 3. then he said that this is God's truth and it will never go away. People thought if they could get rid of Jesus it would all go away. Others thought if they could just get rid of Joseph Smith it would all go away. But Christs church is still on the earth and it will never go away. So those are 3 powerful things Elder Holland talked about to over 100 investigators. The spirit was so strong and we are going to capitalize on this event because those 100 investigators had to of felt the spirit.

Well also during this week we had some great lessons with two of our investigator families. One is the Raddy's. Actually since I last emailed we have taught them twice. The last time was last night. We have had two fantastic lessons with them. We read about the tree of life last night and asked them if they want this love for their whole family. The dad said that with work he can't make it on Sundays. Elder Cashin for the first time listened to the spirit and read 1 Nephi 3:7 and promised him that God gave us a commandment to go to church and He will provide a way for it to happen. He said he would pray about what he should do. They are a great family. They have 4 daughters and they all want to be baptized, its just the parents holding them back. The oldest daughter bore testimony in sacrament and she also expressed that she wants to go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. She is 14. Our other lesson has been with this lady named Vien and her son Michael. Vien was previously Buddhist and has just converted to Christianity. She currently goes to a baptist church, but knows very very little about Christ. We have had to take things really slow. But we talked about a lot with her and she said that she has never felt the spirit. So I shared Moroni's Promise with her and I asked her to look for what Moroni has promised us. When she read it her eyes got real big and she said, "OH!" She said that she would pray to know if the things we taught her are true. She is doing really well. Her Son is incredible. He is only 7 but he sits with us and participates and asks us questions. He said he would pray too and he asked his mom to read the scriptures and to pray and then he told his mom he wants to come to church with us. She was kinda of hesitant so we are doing a church tour with them this week. I think it will go very good. So those are my big things for the week. The work here is great. Like I said, last night was the first night Elder Cashin has taught with the spirit. He told me last night that he has been so worried about being senior companion that he hasn't really focused on the spirit. Hes a real good kid. He is really shy and he said that I'm a really good teacher and he wants my help. So like I have said in past emails I know we can learn a lot from each other this transfer. And my high hopes for the area are actually getting higher.

I hope everyone at home is doing well. I'll try to write some letters today. Its been hard because planning has taken so long I haven't had any free time. Today we are going to play basketball and soccer too. It should be good. Well I have like 10 minutes left and I want to email some pictures home so I guess I'll send this off. Love you all and have a great week.

November 10, 2009 - Week 13

2009-11-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Hello hello everyone,

My time is short now. We only have an hour to email now and I have actually spent a lot of time writing other emails to people. So I will have to be really fast and brief. I guess I better write more letters now. So the mission office sent all the mail you sent me to Benton City. My old district leader calls me up and says, "Do you know an Aeiko Nakamura? Do you know a Whitney Klc?" So I really have no idea if I am ever going to get those letters you sent me. I think Roy Bird sent me a letter too. And Lyla sent me a letter that I got. Tell them thanks, but tell Bro Bird that I haven't gotten his yet.

So I have no idea whats been going on at home. How is everyone? I actually do not have the address of the house I'm staying at right now sorry. I will get it and I'll try to send out a letter to you tomorrow so you can have it. But for now send it to the office. They straightened everything out so it should come to me now, but I'm a little worried about the other letters if I will ever get them. So Pasco is great. Everyone is really nice and more open to listen to us than in my other area. This is E. Cashins first time as a senior comp and I think he was having a lot of problems with his old comp and they didn't do much work. So we are just going around trying to meet everyone and determine what we can do for them and where they are at in their progression, if there is any at all. E. Cashin seems to be very shy so I am going to try and help him with that. It's good because this transfer I want to be super bold. I've come to realize that I don't have to be scared of anyone. Who cares if they turn me down. Who cares if someone thinks I'm wrong. I've been reading a few talks about being bold and I'm going to apply it to my work. Oh that book Danny Bird suggested about becoming a bold missionary, our members have it so I'm reading it and it is so good. Our members are awesome too. The house is really nice. We have the basement to ourselves and everything is really nice. And the wife does our laundry haha. She is really nice. Ya I really like this new area. E. Cashin and I just have to work at being bold together. We don't have much of the same interests, but he is a nice kid and he wants to work hard so he is fine with me. I think we can both improve and grow a lot this transfer and hopefully work some miracles.

Oh by the way, I'll tell you a little about E. Cashin. He is from Platcity, Missouri, but he lived in St. George Utah for 14 years. So he is pretty much a Utah boy like most missionaries. He did not do any school before he came out because he was working to save up for his mission. I really admire that. He made some big sacrifices to come out. He is the oldest of his siblings and is the only boy. We are kinda opposites. I'm the only boy but the youngest. But ya he stresses out about a lot of stuff and I just have to calm him down. I'm a little more laid back than he is haha. But ya we are teaching a few people. I haven't really taught any yet. Most of our appointments are for this week so we are going to be really busy. We did teach a lady who used to be Buddhist and is really unfamiliar with Jesus Christ. We taught about the plan of salvation, but we only had 30 min and rushed it. We probably shouldn't have, but we set up another appointment and we are going to take it a lot slower and answer her questions and focus more and more on Christ. We should do that all the time anyway.

Oh Elder Holland is coming on Saturday. He is speaking to the Pasco stake too so I get to see him twice. I am really excited for that. It sounds like there is no new news with my visa huh. That is good news that the 12 wouldn't permanently reassign that other elder. I really want to get there. I saw Elder Olsen at transfers and we had a good talk. His comp just went home and now he is getting a new one. I hear that his new comp is kinda hard to work with. He wants to get to India too. He sent me an email that his mom sent him. I guess they are trying to work with the Indian govt as best as they can but it didn't say much else.

Well I love you all. My time is running out soon. I hope everyone is doing good and hopefully your letters get sent to my right address from now on. Sorry if I haven't replied to some of your letters, but I want to get them before I write back. Maybe I can when we go see Elder Holland. But that's on Saturday....OH boy. I guess I'll have to wait for those too.

Hey those Halloween pictures were really cute. All the fat babies were really cute. I can't believe you let Mak and Isabelle paint pumpkins. That's a big risk haha. How'd that go? Well gotta go. My time is really low now. I'll send this out and make sure it gets to you. If I have time I'll try to send some pics. Love you all and until next week

Elder Garrick

November 3, 2009 - Week 12

2009-11-03T20:52:00.000-08:00

Well ldsmail did it again. I had a huge emailed typed out and ready to send and something happened and it got lost. So now I'll have to be fast. Sorry about that.

So the story on transfers. I have been transferred. On Saturday President left a message and said I would be going to Benton City with my current District leader Elder Bart. I was super excited because he is a great missionary and Benton City is total farm country and I'd stay in the same district so I'd have unlimited time to email. Then yesterday (Monday) president calls again and tells me my transfer has changed. I'm going to Pasco with Elder Cashin who has been out 6 months. I guess E. Cashin has been having problems with his current comp so prez decided to make a change. Elder Smith is really happy these days and excited about working. Maybe that is why I was assigned to serve with him. He just needed that fire brought back into him. Hopefully he stays that way.

Well Halloween was okay. We did nothing really. Tracting was forbidden and we ended up going to the Halloween party and then over to a members house for dinner.

Have you had dinner with E. Wright? I wonder how he is doing? I guess E. Olsen has had a great trainer, but he is going home now so Olsen is getting a new comp. He is really anxious to leave too. Any news on my visa? If the first ones haven't gone through yet, I doubt I'll leave in January. This visa thing is killing me.

That's cool about your new Bishopbric. You can tell the ward that I approve. All those guys are amazing and our old one was great too. Sounds like the U is still tearing it up. How about the Jazz? Mom I haven't gotten my swine flu shot, but I have gotten my seasonal. I guess they're all out of the swine flu shot. I think I'll be okay. Havent gotten sick yet.

Well today I'm getting a haircut and then we are going to play a little basketball and then go bowling. So it should be a pretty fun day. Well seriously my last email was so much better, but I have to go now. I don't know how the email will be in Pasco so this might be my last time I get to email the whole day. I hope everything is good though and I love you all.

Love,

Elder Garrick

Tuesday, October 27 - Week 11

2009-10-27T20:37:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone. I guess I'll jump right into things. Thanks for the sweaters and scarf and candy mom. They are great and they fit perfectly. I don't think I'll be needing any more, just the two you sent are great. I don't need any levis. I brought some with me when I came out. They are getting a little hammered, but that's how they should be.

Dad that's hilarious that you slept out. Always trying to prove a point and then you can't ever seem to follow through with the sleep out. It got pretty cold then? I can't believe its snowing already. The weather here was pretty warm for a while, but it has been raining like crazy! And the wind is way strong. When we were biking yesterday it was like I was constantly biking up hill because we were against the wind. Man I was so tired by the end of the day. My legs are killin me today.

So dad you asked if I do any service. I have done a lot of service here. I have painted a house, stained multiple fences, raked leaves, helped people move, moved a piano, and I laid sod one day. So even though I don't do yard work at home, I'm still getting my yard work in for the year. That's awesome that the U is doing so good this year. I didn't think they would with a lot of their seniors leaving. I hear TCU is doing awesome too. Well it looks like you had a fun Halloween. All the kids looked so cute. Mak looked like he was hating his costume haha. Isabelle looked like she loved hers, and the twins costume was funny. Holy Cow Burton's big. Ya he looks like a Klc to me. Oh I like Maks haircut. Its sweet, real stylin Mak.

So I gotta tell you my story this week. We were at the AP's house still and President Belnap calls us at like 7 in the morning. I answer it and he says he wants to talk to me about my visa and he's at our house right now. I explain to him that we aren't there and we are living with the AP's. So he says he'll be right over. So I'm freakin out. I throw on my clothes and put in my contacts. I'm just thinking, "oh my gosh I have been reassigned, they're not going to approve my visa." Then I thought, "maybe some miracle happened and I got my visa. No its way too early, I got reassigned." So my hearts pumping and President finally arrives. I go and sit in the car with him and he goes, "Elder Garrick I'm not so concerned about your visa as I am about your companion." So he asked me how Elder Smith is doing and I let him know and then he says, "Okay well thanks for the update, see ya later." And he leaves. So it was nothing about my visa, it was just a way to get me out without Elder Smith thinking of anything. What a dirty trick huh?

So I'll update you guys on E. Smith. We have been working hard which is good. He seems happier. Yesterday we had a pretty heated discussion because I want us to work with the ward more and he just wants to knock on doors. Ya nothing came of it.

I know that whatever is in my way I can emerge victorious (I liked that letter you sent me Whit, and I read the talk, did you read the one I suggested to you?). But I know there is a great work out here for us and I want to do every thing I can to share this gospel with everyone. I've been reading in the Book of Mormon about Ammon and Aaron. Wow I want to be like them. Well this email has turned into something I'd write in my journal haha.

Oh some other good news. The Elder Jeffrey R. Holland is coming to speak to our mission on November 14th. How cool is that? I'm so excited for that. He is one of my favorites. Hey Lynds don't worry I get all of your letters and I love them all. Sorry if I don't respond to them all, but I at least try to in my emails. Well I love you guys and have a Happy Halloween. Oh I'll find out on Saturday if I'm being transferred so if you send me anything this week you better send it to the mission office. I'll let ya know by next p day if I'm being transferred or not.

Love you guys,

Elder Garrick.

Tuesday, October 20 - Week 10

2009-10-21T16:11:00.001-07:00

I can't remember if i ever sent this one of us mini golfing. that was a few weeks ago. Like my second week here I think. And then that's the street I live on Sherman Ave. Sweet huh.

Hello everyone

Well I really don't have much to say this week. Things are still really slow and we haven't found anyone to teach. We got dropped by another investigator. I actually have never taught her, but since I've been here we have been trying to set up an appointment. I thought we should have dropped her a long time ago, but Elder Smith wanted to keep trying. So on Sunday we went to visit her and she wouldn't answer the door and then her boyfriend walked by and we asked him if we could speak to her. He came back and said she really doesn't want to meet with us. So I was fine with it. I figured that was the case anyway, but Elder Smith was crushed. He fell into super depressed mode.

Our visits with people are going better and I'm able to listen and teach by the spirit more easily. I had an awesome experience the other day. We went out on exchanges with a member (exchanges are pretty much where a member drives us around at night) last Friday. We stopped by another members house the bishop just wanted us to check on. They were sick so our exchange suggested we go across the street and see a lady he home teaches. She is less active and hardly ever goes to church. So we visited with her. Her mom was there too so she thought she had called the missionaries over. We explained we just thought we would drop by and no one called. Well we found out that her son committed suicide about a year ago and she has been really down ever since. We thought we would share a little message just about hope to cheer her up. So we went to the great chapter in Moroni 7 about Hope. As Elder Smith was talking I had the strongest impression to go to Alma 28. We talked about this chapter in our comp study that morning. At the end it talks about how the people mourned because of the loss of their people in war, but rejoice because they are made a live through Christ. So I flipped to this scripture and shared it with her. I told her that I knew this scripture was meant for her. Tears filled up in her eyes and all she said was, "What time does church start again." I guess he was recently baptized for the dead last week so it was perfect timing. And she came to church the next Sunday. It was so cool. Its funny how the Lord works. That scripture really was meant for her, but we never would have shared it with her if we had never talked about it in comp study and if our first appointment didn't fall through and if our exchange had been someone different. So ya that's my cool story for this week.

Now for my funny story. We were out on another exchange with a member and we thought we would stop by this family and see if we could get a referral. Its a young family and they have a four year old son who is sitting in the dads lazy boy. He was happy and nice and was talking with us. So we start to give our little lesson and we are at the end. Elder Smith bears his testimony and then I bear mine. As I'm bearing my testimony the kid just starts to breath really hard and groan, but I just keep talking. I get to the end and I'm about to ask for the referral when the kid just pukes all over the chair. I stop talking and just say, "Oh, Oh, Oh man." Then the kid threw up two more times in the chair and we just sat and watched the whole thing. Our exchange held their baby as the mom and dad cleaned up the kid and the couch and Elder Smith and I just sat and watched. Oh man it was so awkward, but I thought it was so funny. I was laughing about it the rest of the night. Needless to say we ended up not asking for the referral, we didn't feel it was the right time. So ya those are two stories from this week.

Hey that's awesome the U beat Colorado St. I told E. Smith about it and tried to rub it in but I guess he likes the University of Colorado or something. Hey mom sorry I may have been unclear but I still have my meds I was just wondering in the distant future if I need to refill them. I'm fine now and I'm sorry if you got some more already. Hopefully you haven't but I guess it wouldn't hurt to have more. Dad that's cool you went and saw your great grandma and grandpas graves. It really is amazing that they are pioneers and they are only your great grandparents. Lynds and Whit I sent you both a letter yesterday. Sorry I wrote them on like Friday, but forgot to mail them until yesterday. And Gran I'm working on one for you right now. Thanks for all the news on my visa. I have just dealt with the fact that I'm going to be here until January. I hope I'll at least be able to go by then, but I pushed away the idea of a miracle happening and my visa comes in tomorrow. Oh I forgot to tell you, the members we live with redid their wood floor so the fumes from the stain and finish are way strong so we had to move out for a couple of days. I'm staying with the AP's and office elders so that's been fun. So maybe the office elders can just bring my package home when it comes in. Ya mom thanks for going ahead and just sending me the sweaters we are pretty busy. The two should do me. Oh ya and today is zone p day so our whole zone is getting together and I think we are playing walker (its soccer but you can only speed walk, supposedly its really fun. Sounds kinda weird to me) Well I hope everyone is doing good and I love you all. Oh and I think its your turn for the scripture right. If not let me know and I'll send a good one to you. Oh ya and if there is anyway you could send me the March 2008 Ensign I would love it. It is amazing! Thanks. Mom you said Whit was going to email me today but I haven't gotten one yet. Maybe I'll check back later.

Love you guys,

Elder Garrick

Tuesday, October 13 - Week 9

2009-10-14T14:15:00.000-07:00

So this is a golf course that a member made. There are like 4 houses with the golf course surrounding it and going in between the houses. There are 5 holes, but 9 different places to tea off at.

In this picture I chipped it in from probably like 40 yards out. It was pretty sweet. The other picture is one of Elder Smith. I had to add it because he was SO BAD at golfing. Man it was hilarious. I'm going to start carrying around my camera so maybe I'll take more pictures. We'll see.

Well Hello Everyone!

So I can not believe that Whit already had Burton. I'm so glad everything went well and that both she and Burton are healthy and safe. I have just been assuming that he would be here in the next two weeks. What a shocker that was for me to hear that he had already been born. He's a cute little guy. Thanks for the pics. And it happened on the day the twins got blessed. What a crazy but fun day. The twins looked so cute in their dresses. And seriously I am always amazed at how big they get with every new picture I see of them. Even Mak and Isabelle are looking bigger. Well it sounds like you all had a big eventful day on Sunday. I was just sitting in meetings thinking, "I wonder how the blessing is going."

Well on to the things I wanted to talk about. You guys asked about April, our one investigator. Ya she was SOOO CLOSE to being baptized. We were late to one of our appointments with her and when we got there no one was there, so we thought it was our fault. But we spoke with a member who was going to be there and she said that she too never saw April show up. So we are trying to call her and can't get a hold of her. She is in the singles ward, but lives in the apartments that the other elders in our district covers. So they are going to see if they can look her up because a member owns the apartments. We want to drop by and see her. I really don't know what is going to happen now. We also can't get a hold of Raymond, the guy we tracted into and met on his front steps. So we are probably gonna drop him and move on. Dad, you wanted to know what a typical day is like for me. Well at 6:20 I wake up and start to work out. I do that push up and stomach routine I got before I left. Then at 7-8 I shower and eat breakfast, from 8-9 I have personal study and then from 9-10 I have companionship study with my comp. I have suggested that we take 30 min everyday to read Preach My Gospel and then take the other 30 min to prepare lessons for the people we are going to teach. That has been working out really well. Then at 10 we are supposed to go out and proselyte. We actually haven't done it too much because things have been crazy with service, meetings, bike problems and stuff. Then lunch at 12 which is usually a sandwich and chips. Then the rest of our day consists of going to the appointments we have and dropping by some of our referrals or less active homes. At about 5 we usually have dinner with a member and then we share a spiritual thought. Then at 7 we try and get an exchange to take us around for the rest of the night. Then 9 we plan for the day and 10:30 I pass out.

Wow, I can't believe what happened to Spence. Tell him that I love him and hope he is okay and that I pray for him every night. I'm glad you went to the BYU game, dad. That sounds like a lot of fun. Ya the BYU fans are annoying. Everyone here complains about the bad calls they had during the game too haha.

So I really have no idea what you can put into the ward news letter. That I got reassigned and am working my butt off. I guess that's what you can put. Oh and its fun, that too. That's awesome about Toshio and Max. Man they are going to be great missionaries. Tell them to good luck for me and to enjoy everything. Hey mom thanks for your letter this week. I will be sending you another one this week and probably send along with it one to Jake. So could you give it to him for me? I want his home address and email.

Okay so the BIG news about me this week was we had interviews with President Belnap. We had some great training and while that was going on Prez would take missionaries in one by one and interview them. I was the last one to get interviewed. I pretty much told him everything and did not hold back. He said he felt impressed to tell me that this experience will shape my the rest of my mission and my life. His advice was to just be positive about everything. So at 6:30 I wake up Elder Smith and we work out together. And like I said we now study from PMG everyday and we are praying together more. I told E. Smith that I believe we can turn things around we just need to have faith and obey the mission rules with exactness. He agreed with me. So we have only done this a couple days, but it seems to be working. Yesterday I went on exchanges with the Zone leaders. I went with a different Elder Smith. He is a great missionary. I really enjoyed last night and it was a lot of fun. So during my interviews I talked to President about my visa and he said the same thing to me that you guys said. I will probably be here until January. With the new news you guys gave me it is sounding highly likely that it will be January with how busy the ambassador is and everything. But at least we know I will be going to India and not have to worry about being reassigned to a different mission. I'm so thankful for that.

So it is getting BUTT FREEZING COLD HERE! Sorry for the non-missionary language but really it is. Dad your jacket is great. I went out and got some gloves and today I got some ear muffs. If possible could you send me some sweaters to go over my white shirts? Most of all my shirts are short sleeves and the cold air rushes up my suit coat. Or should I just buy them here? Oh and a scarf would be nice. I decided that for Christmas I want another pair of walking eco shoes. I wear my nice church shoes every other day because that's all I have. It would be great if I could keep those nice for interviews, meetings, and church and then have 2 pairs of walking shoes for the rest of the week. Oh hey mom I have not gotten the flu shots yet. I will for sure get the regular flu shot, but should I really get the swine flu shot too? I heard its been more harmful than just getting the flu. Let me know what you think. Eh from your email I'll just plan on getting both. Well I love you all. Give lil Burton a kiss for me and I hope to hear from you guys soon. I'll try to send out some letters this week if I get time okay. Oh and my scripture for this week is 2 Nephi 4: 33-35 this is where Nephi puts all of his trust in the Lord. Its such an amazing thing. Hey I'll send some pics of us golfing last week too. That was way fun. Okay love you guys. bye.

Tuesday, October 6 - Week 8

2009-10-08T13:56:00.000-07:00

Oh wow so from reading all the new emails I guess I got my answer to my first question today. Any news on my visa? I can't believe I'll have to wait that long. I really had some hope I'd be leaving by the end of this transfer, but I guess not. So ya Elder Wright was in my district in the MTC. He was a good guy. He really wants to be a good missionary like all the elders in my MTC group. He was a nice kid and he definitely is out for the right reasons.

So how'd everyone like General Conference. I would say my favorite talks were Elder Scott on the Saturday morning about the spirit, Elder Uchtdorf about the Love of Christ, and Elder Holland with his amazing testimony on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. I want to see someone deny the Book of Mormon after that talk.

So dad how's your diabete's? Any results from the Dr. I'm glad you and mom are really putting forth the effort to eat well. How about your back? I heard its been pretty bad lately. Take it easy man. Your not super man.

How was Whits shower? You had it already right? Oh so I think there is some confusion on my food. I eat at members house every night so don't worry about me and food. I have been losing weight because we have been walking so much, but I'm getting used to it and I was actually starting to gain weight.

We are actually on bikes now and let me tell you, I HATE BIKES! I can not do it. There are these way steep hills everywhere we go here. I never thought it was that bad when we walked, but biking up the hills is horrible. And of course we live at the bottom of all the hills so everyday we have to bike up. And the hills go up and then down a little and then back up. So now I know what people mean when they say they had to walk in the snow, uphill, both ways.

It has gotten really cold here and it hit in like one day. We are now in suits full time which is a bummer. The first night it rained I didn't have my jacket and my suit just got drenched. I guess the Lord wants me to experience rain even though I'm not in India. Ya I did not hear about all the floods there. That's crazy. I wonder if that will delay my visa too. I'm never going to leave Washington!

Hey has Pete gotten any results on the LSAT? It sounds like both Belle and Makee are getting to be some real goofs. Your guys stories always make me laugh. Whit your getting close. How's everything going? You about to pop yet? Hey Lynds the twins seriously get chunkier and chunkier every week. They're gonna be little fat balls by next week. And heck ya their uncle kicks butt. I like that shirt. Dan how's your shoulder doing? Is physical therapy helping any? Its good to know that almost all missionaries have a rough time with their companions. I'm trying my best with him. I have found that the more I stay busy, the happier I am. When we actually work I feel as though I'm doing my duty and even though we have no success, we are at least trying our best.

Well today we are going to go golfing. I guess a member owns the course and we get to go for free. So I'm pretty excited about that. Hey tell Gran about it and tell her I'm working on a letter for her right now. Ya so things are really slow right now. We only have one investigator, April, and we haven't met with her in a while and can't get a hold of her. I really hope we can sometime. She was so close to baptism. We don't have anyone else to teach so we have been working with some less actives and meeting with members to try and get some referrals. We have interviews with President Belnap this week. I'm going to see how things go with biking and with Elder Smith this week and if both don't improve then I'm going to talk to President about it. Biking is seriously ridiculous and Elder Smith is slowly improving, but I should not be the one to tell him what to do. I'll try and get everything resolved this week. Well it sounds like everyone else is doing pretty good. Stay happy, stay healthy. I love you all and I'll talk to ya next week.

Love,

Elder Garrick
P.S. sorry no pictures this week. I'll try and get some golfing today (and I'll be in some okay Lynds)