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