July 23, 2012

HEY,

This week was fantastic. We are teaching this family called the Lucero family. The mom is named Marta and her children are Nicolle (18), Mariano (17), and Ivon (9). They are AWESOME. Elder Howard and I love them. We have been slowly improving our lessons together and now are teaching together even better than ever. We've had some great lessons with this family and finally, each one of them has offered a prayer to end a lesson and they are reading the Book of Mormon together. We are excited. This week we worked really hard to get them pumped about going to church so they got there on Sunday and loved it. The week before, they had slept in and we were super bummed about it. So now we are hoping that they will get baptized in a few weeks. The only problem is that their mother lacks the motivation which is sad because she just admitted that her father in Còrdoba is very sick and could die. And not even that drives her to seek help from God. Sadly, her children went to church without her yesterday. But we'll get her there. Regardless, she loves us and has no problem with her children going to church and getting baptized if they want, etc.

It is kind of funny though because we met them because Mariano and his friend shouted at us in the street in English...Kind of like in Viedma with Agustìn. So we talked to them for a while and wrote down their addresses. When we showed up to their house, Nicolle walked up with this girl named Astrid who is a member of our ward! Not chance. So Mariano is awesome. He always has a light in his eyes when we teach him. 

The other miracle we had was that two weeks ago, we did splits with some of the older members in the stake for a few hours. Elder Howard went out with Lucas, the kid that always comes with us to lessons, and they contacted this man named Marcelo in the street. He has no house. They invited him to church and the next day he showed up. Last week we couldn't find him, however, because he has no house and lives in the streets. So he didn't show up at church. Well Lucas ran into him and lovingly called him to repentance for having not come to church. So THIS Sunday he showed up again!! Awesome. He is going to get baptized for sure.

And the other miracle was with Catalina, who I have been teaching since I got here. She goes to church every Sunday in a skirt and everything. So she looks like a member but has never wanted to get baptized! But this week, after the baptism of Marìa and Marcos, who are her aunt and uncle, she decided that she wants to do it. So she expressed her desires to her mother and grandfather and this Saturday, will be baptized! Her grandpa invited us over and told us the news and Elder Howard and I were super stoked. So we have planned everything and it's all ready to go. This week we will finish teaching her and she will have her baptismal interview on Friday!!

The other Elders in our area also had investigators in church on Sunday so the Bishop was pretty happy and the members got very excited to see the fruits of our labors.

Plus, Marcos received the Priesthood. He came up to Elder Howard and I and said, "It's been a very long time since I put a tie on...You two may be young, but you taught me many things that touched my very soul and have changed me. I thank you for that." We gave him and his wife hard cover triple combinations and a framed picture of the baptism and they were speechless. So great.

As for my new mission president, I left that out! Two weeks ago, Elder Howard and I traveled to Bahìa Blanca for the Zone Leader conference and met him and his wife. They are great, I really like them. I won't lie, I really really miss President Detlefsen. I constantly remember the things he taught us and try to apply them to my life. But President Parreño is also a very inspired man with an incredible story. He is from a smaller city near Alicante, Spain where he first went to church with two members and four missionaries. They were the only ones there. He was the third baptized member in his whole city. All because he saw a light in the eyes of the missionaries when they talked to him in the street and he wanted to be like them. Since then, many stakes have been formed in his city and he has served as Bishop and Stake President.

This week, they came to Santa Rosa and we had our Zone Conference and interviews with him. There were 37 of us there and Elder Howard and I had to set everything up, organize lunch, and I conducted the meeting. Crazy.

Anyway, thank you all for your letters and support! I love you all! Please pray for Catalina, Marcelo, and the Lucero family so that they can be okay! I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer. He lives and has restored His church in these last days so that each one of us can come to know the true points of His doctrine and be saved and perfected through His atoning sacrifice.

Adios,

Elder Garrison

July 16, 2012

Hey,

So this week was a fight. After leaving the internet cafe last week, we went to visit our investigators Marcos and Marìa. It was a tough lesson. We taught the last few commandments, using the scriptures and testifying a lot. It was very spiritual. And then we got to tithing. There are many verses about tithing in the Bible which we used. In Genesis 14 and 29, as well as Malachi where it asks, "will a man rob God?" They seemed to be quite sure about not robbing God, but at the same time, VERY against paying a ten percent tithing.

It is interesting because "tithing" in Spanish is "diezmo." It has the word "ten" in it. That makes it super easy to teach because it is quite obvious that God requires a ten percent offering. The problem was, they didn't want to. And they got very mad at us. We stood our ground though, telling them that the commandments of God cannot and will not be changed. They accused us of wanting nothing but their money to build our church buildings and temples, etc. And were so angry, they kicked us out of their house, telling us to leave and that they were not getting baptized.

As we left, without even closing with a prayer, I asked Marcos if I could hug him. So I did and we left.

I felt confused. We had prayed nonstop for days, we had made a lesson plan to know what to share and how to teach them well, we worried all day long and it looked as if it had blown up in our faces.

But we continued faithfully thinking, "they will get baptized."

The following day, Marcos called us during our lunch. Elder Howard and I went outside and he explained to me that they had repented and prayed all night long. He said that he had had a change of heart and desired so much to permanently change and be a better person that he and his wife were going to pay their tithing and be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ on Saturday.

So they got baptized!!! It was fantastic. Their eyes were shining when they came out of the water and were so happy it was incredible. Marcos even cut his hair off and showed up all clean cut. They both looked so changed and happy; it was a testimony to me of the power of God in our lives if we humble ourselves and choose to obey His commandments. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is true.

I'd send pictures but these computers don't have SD card slots.

Thank you for your prayers and support!

I love you all,

Elder Garrison

July 9, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

Steph tells me that there are six missionaries in her ward! That is insane. And they are apparently having a lot of success if people are frequently getting confirmed in church on Sundays. I can hardly remember convert baptisms in our ward. Ever. When was the last time there was one?

We are going to have a baptism this week though! If our last in an hour goes well, that is. They are named Marcos and Marìa Herràn. They are the parents of this kid named Enzo that Elder Sanchez and his last companion baptized. They have been going to church weekly now for a good 2 to 3 months and have been progressing slowly toward baptism.

Last monday, Elder Howard and I left the internet cafe and went to teach them in their home. They shared an experience of last week that they had had and we applied that to our lesson which was about how God calls prophets to guide us and teach us His will. Marcos had admitted the week before his doubts about whether Joseph Smith had really been a prophet. He said he felt great in church and had seen significantly big changes in his life starting the moment that they began going to church but that he couldn't really accept the whole Joseph Smith thing. Well we taught about prophets, using the Bible and the Book of Mormon, and then explained that we'd like to show them a short video about Joseph Smith. He then started to explain that no movie would change his mind and that all the churches were good and that we all worship God in our own individual way (a typical ideology here in Argentina and probably everywhere in the world) and that God will save us all in his kingdom at the end (I still wonder where they pull that out of the scriptures).

So I told him, "No Marcos, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the ONLY true church on the face of the earth. And any other church that professes to be a church of God without His divine authority is blaspheming before God. We respect them for the service they do and for bringing many to believe in God, but frankly, they are false." He then just wanted us to put the movie on haha because the Spirit was testifying of the truth and he knew it. However before doing so, we expressed our love for them and our desire to help them. THEN we put the movie on. It was very spiritual. And at the end he looked up and asked, "What was my baptismal date again?" When we responded, he said, "I am getting baptized."

Since then, the only problem we found is tithing. Today we are having a second lesson about it and a member is coming with us. Pray for them please! Thanks for your letters! I love you all! I didn't have too much time today because it was a holiday and everything closes in this country on holidays. Thankfully the internet cafe opened up anyway but late.

Chau,

Elder Garrison

July 2, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

So this week with Elder Howard was great. He and I found some really great new investigators. One is named Alicia Aguirre and we have been teaching her and her children Sebastian, Cinthia, Micaela, and Alfredo. The other family is the Comoglio family who we found when, while doing a door contact with this old lady named Victoria, a man and his work buddy walked by pushing a wheel barrow in the dirt street. He shouted at us, "it doesn't say anything about the Mormons in the Bible!" Well first off, it doesn't say anything about the Catholics, Jehovah’s Witness, Evangelist church, or any of the others either. I didn't say that, I just said "se lo muestro" which means "I'll show it to you." I study the Book of Mormon every single day but I also have been reading the Bible for the past several transfers and it is incredible how one can find evidence of the truthfulness of our church just looking in the Bible! The Book of Mormon then confirms it all. Well once we finished talking to the old lady, we followed the other guy home and knocked on his door. His friend came out super annoyed saying he didn't want anything and that we could talk to the other guy but not him. Then in the background we saw a woman so I called to her and asked if we could give her a pass-along card. It was the wife of the man who had yelled to us and she was actually very friendly. Well, finally the guy came out and we started talking and he opened up about a lot of things. His name is Dario and her name is Margarita and he was actually a really nice guy and we committed him and his wife to baptism right then and there and they said yes! Hahaha. So we set up an appointment for the next day and passed by with a member to teach the both of them with their children and it was great!

I like being with Elder Howard because it helps us to see changes that have taken place in us during our missions. It has actually been really great teaching with Elder Howard and our lessons have been fantastic, something that with Elder Sanchez, we had trouble achieving. The lessons have been very spiritual and our investigators have understood our lessons very well so we are very excited to work together. The ward got very excited when there were four of us in church too! There were a lot of people there for fast and testimony meeting and the Bishop asked the three new missionaries to bare their testimonies first. So I am hoping that now that there are four missionaries for the first time ever in the ward, that things are going to get moving very quickly. That is what happened in Viedma. The members got very excited and involved in the missionary work very fast.

I am going to give a shout out to Robert Youngberg who found my blog online looking for information on the cities where he had served his mission. He served in Pehuajò for 8 months and then was sent from there to Viedma, Rama America just like me! Thank you for the letter that was one of the most impactful things that has happened to me while being here! I wrote you a letter and will send it to your home address!

Anyway, thank you all for your letters and support! I love you all and hope you can pray for our investigators so that they can get baptized and be happy in their lives! I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church of Jesus Christ. I know that He lives and that He loves us. If we keep His commandments, He will bless us in our lives and we will see miracles. I invite all of you to look for personal missionary experiences and that not only can you share the gospel with others, but that you can invite them to meet the missionaries!

Chau,

Elder Garrison

June 25, 2012

Dear Everyone.

Dad, thanks for letting me know about Brother Walters. That is super sad.

We had transfers again! Elder Sanchez left me :( He was super a great missionary and we had such a good relationship; it was hard to say goodbye! He had been Zone Leader almost a year though so he was sent to train a new missionary in a little town called Coronel Suarez surely until he ends his mission in October.

But none of you will believe who my new companion is.........ELDER HOWARD. Hahahahahahaha. Not a joke. We are definitely companions again. So not only were we companions in the MTC and then in the office together, but now we are Zone Leaders together!! This is his first time as Zone Leader so I am training him. We are super excited for this transfer and I know we are going to have a lot of success. And this transfer, we are no longer 28 missionaries in the zone, but 32. The other cool thing is that President sent two more missionaries to our area so now there are four of us! I am excited because the ward members are going to get very excited about the missionary work now that there are 4 of us. This is the first time ever that there will be 4 missionaries assigned to their ward.

Yesterday I played the violin in the Ward Conference. I played this song called the Olive Tree with this member named Lissette Paradiso playing the piano. It was super cool. The Stake Presidency was there too and the Stake President talked a lot about the changes that are going to happen and how it's a huge blessing have 4 missionaries in the area so I think the members are going to be really excited to help us out more this transfer. I have a lot of ideas of how to work together with the other missionaries that we can have a lot of success together like the four of us did in Viedma.

Anyway, thank you all for your letters and support! I know that this is the true church of Jesus Christ and that He lives. This is His work and His glory and each one of us can come to know Him as we follow His divine plan and keep His commandments.

I love you.

Elder Garrison

June 18, 2012

Dear Everyone,

Well this week was tough. No one went to church because it was Father's Day and every single person in the country was eating Argentine steak. So, of the few faithful people that actually arrived, not a single one was an investigator. Which was a downer because last Sunday we had 7 investigators in church! I gave a talk, too, mom. About covenants. The bishop asked me on Thursday to give it and I think it went well.

The other tough thing was that Yarco told us not to come by anymore. He lives with a part member family, the mother of which is not member, and does not like us to come by. He said he doesn't want to go to church anymore either. Apparently he had a tough week, people were talking bad about him for going to church, and now no longer has any desires to continue. He wouldn't tell us exactly what happened though so we had trouble helping him with his doubts and problems.

Elder Sanchez and I did, however, find some really great new people to teach which was a blessing. I have a lot of hope for them that this upcoming Sunday they'll make it to church. Also, this other lady we have been slowly teaching since I got here, named Daniela, was basically teaching us last night and it was fantastic. She is definitely progressing a lot because apparently reads the Book of Mormon every day. She seems to be really prepared so now we're going to shoot for daily contact with her to be able to help he progress faster. She now has much more confidence in us.

This transfer is already ending though! This Friday the assistants will call with transfers and we'll see what happens. It's pretty likely that my companion goes because he has already been here a while in the area. And I'm predicting that he'll be the new assistant because one of the current ones is finishing the mission. Who knows, we'll see!

Chau,

Elder Garrison