January 13, 2010 - Week 22 - First Baptism

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

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

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

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

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

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

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