August 15, 2011

Dear everyone that I love,

Thank you all for the letters. It was nice to hear from all of you! It’s weird being here and hearing about everything going on back there! That's crazy that Russell York already completed a year in the mission. But then again, I have already been a missionary half a year!! Elder Guzman, who lives with me, also completed a year of the mission a week ago or so. We burned one of his shirts haha. And good luck to Kevin! He leaves tomorrow then and reports to the MTC on Wednesday. Tell him not to hate the food. He'll miss it the moment it's gone! And did Ashley Zuniga go to BYU in Provo? Tell her to find my friend Carly.

Anyway, this week was tough! You know that kid I talked about last week? Juan? Thursday we went by and it was AWESOME. He understands everything and had read what we left him and continued in the book! However, we went by Saturday and his mother, Perla, told us that Juan would not be going to our church and that he was going to continue going to hers instead. Her evangelical pastor had a dinner with him and everything. She told us we could still come by and "share a little bit of the word" but when we dropped by (because we wanted to talk to Juan himself) and only the little daughter was home, we received a text message later telling us not to come by anymore. Nice people. I just wish they could be open minded, allow God to answer their prayers instead of allowing some pastor who has no authority to tell them that the Book of Mormon isn't true, and instead use their agency, or in other words their ability to choose, and not choose the easy way out (avoiding us through text messages). But all we can do is pray that someday they'll find the need to change that and really humbly seek the truth. Because whatever feelings of peace and happiness that Juan received will soon be forgotten.

The 6 people we found this week did not come to church either. The only person that did was that crazy man Eduardo that just appeared two weeks ago!! He is hilarious! I love him. We went by him this week with Martin Figueroa (our recent convert) and I think Martin was a little taken aback by Eduardo's extravagant behavior but it's all good because Martin realized he's a little weird, and Eduardo came to church!

Speaking of Martin though, he gave a talk in church and it was awesome! He also blessed the Sacrament for the first time because he received the Priesthood! I think I forgot to mention that. But yeah, he's awesome, and has never even missed church. He said in his testimony at the end of his talk that he loves coming to church, loves learning in the classes, loves going out with us the missionaries to visit people, and has a strong testimony of the gospel and the happiness he now has in his life as a result of the change he made and the knowledge he's gained. I have never felt happier than I did hearing those words come out of his mouth in front of the whole ward.

And because of that, I know that what I am doing is the right thing and that our Heavenly Father loves every single one of us so much we cannot even comprehend it. He wants the best for us but he wants us to work for it so we can really show him that we are willing to follow His Son, Jesus Christ, and the example He set. They both want us to have the happiness that Martin has received and they have given US the ability to CHOOSE it. All we have to do is do our part. I would give anything for all the people I have taught to just understand that. But they can only realize it once they take a leap of faith and go for it. After all, we receive no witness until after the trial of our faith.

Let me know what our new address is as soon as you know. And try to stay in AZ at least. Hahaha. Because I keep telling people, "Um...I'm moving." But I guess there is Facebook!

I'm praying for everyone!
I love you all!

-Elder Ryan David Garrison