October 22, 2012

Dear family and friends,

So this week was great! Our investigators are doing awesome. Federico Herrero is actually doing so well that this Friday is his baptism. It is going to be complicated because we have Zone Conference that day but we couldn't baptize him on Saturday because this week is Stake Conference and there is a Priesthood meeting at 4 and a general adult meeting at 7. So we couldn't have a baptism while the whole stake is absent. But Federico is super excited. The cool thing was that this week he showed up to church with his wife! She hasn't even listened to us once because she works ALL DAY EVERY DAY. And her only day off is our day off. So it was cool because she went to church with him. Federico is super funny. Elder Howard and I love him a lot. He always reads and always prays and gets so excited when we teach him. He loves the church and the movies we show him and it's been a blast. Lucas Santos, a 19 year old that is going to the Buenos Aires Norte mission next month is going to baptize him because he has gone with us a few times to see Federico.

As for Estelia, the lady we taught at her door, we set up an appointment with her this week and taught both her and her husband. They need to get married but when we talked about it, they were all for it. We had seen the husband a few days before and commented that we would help and he got excited. He is a hard working guy that has a scruffy beard and whose hands are always dirty. He drives this horse drawn carriage around town and hauls stuff for people. He didn't go to church like he promised but we'll get him there sooner or later. Regardless, Estelia did go and she was all dressed up in church clothes when she showed up! She loves it. All the other Relief Society sisters helped her around, sat with her, etc. She already wants to be baptized and pay tithing so she is progressing well. If she can get married in less than two weeks, she'll be baptized immediately after.

As for the missionaries that we had met, we haven't seen them.

As for our converts they are on fire!! Marcos Herràn gave the class in Priesthood yesterday. We had gone by to help him prepare it and it came out GREAT. He did a very good job and all the other brethren helped by participating and commenting on the topics that he was sharing. It was a blast to be taught by him who we have been teaching. He feels great too and is so very humble now. He is a very different man. As for Mariano Romero, he is actively participating with the Young Men`s program now and goes to church and the Young Single Adult activities all on his own. He goes to Institute each week, stake choir, and everything. This week Elder Howard and I gave him a picture frame with his baptism picture in it. We also helped this 15 year old, Gabriel (the son of Mònica that we baptized which means he is the nephew of Marcos and Marìa) he had to give his first talk. We helped him prepare it and the kid spoke for 12 minutes about service! It was great. Federico and Estelia loved the talk.

So that was my week! I love Santa Rosa so much. It is very satisfying to see the ward grow and change. The stake is growing a lot and all the youth are super excited about going on missions. It is a great atmosphere. I love it. Transfers are this Sunday so we'll see what happens! I have been here almost 6 months I think. I bought some souvenirs today just in case. I never buy stuff in my areas!

Thank you for your support and for your prayers.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world. He was and is and lives. He is the Great Creator of this earth and dwelt on it during His personal ministry, establishing His church and doctrine which, once lost, have been restored and once again can be found in their fullness in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. If we establish ourselves upon that rock of our Redeemer, we will not fall. The Book of Mormon is the proof and evidence that our Heavenly Father has given us to know that that is the truth. I know it is true, and I invite all those that do not know to ask God in the name of Christ if the Book of Mormon is true. He will answer.

Love,

Elder Garrison

October 15, 2012

Dear Everyone,

 

This week was great!!

 

1. On Monday night, we received a call from this kid named Daniel who said he had meet Lucas Santos (a 18 year member heading to Buenos Aires Norte in a month) and they wanted to learn about the church and participate. So I set an appointment for the following day and when we got there, it turns out that Lucas wasn't the first contact he had had with the Church. He and his friend Victor had a copy of the Liahona magazine from General Conference last year. They had read it and marked it up and everything. We were very surprised to meet someone like this. Well, it turns out they are from Córdoba and they are from a Christian foundation that they had been sent to establish here in the province of La Pampa. So, they are missionaries. But full of questions and very interested in what we believe and why! We aren't sure what their true intent is in meeting with us, but after the first lesson, they accepted the challenge to be baptized in the Church of Jesus Christ and since then have been reading the Book of Mormon. They attended church this Sunday and enjoyed it a lot so we'll see what their real desire is when we see them again on Tuesday. Regardless, if they feel the Spirit (which they definitely felt at church) they can become converted and come to know that the Church is true.

 

Once again, however, the Lord is giving Elder Howard and me investigators with knowledge of the scriptures and I feel like He is doing this because we are studying the Bible very well and connecting it with the Book of Mormon. It says in the Book of the Mormon that the two books will grow together to confound the false doctrines of men. And that is what our goal is. For example, these two thought Jehovah (in Spanish it does not say "Lord" in the Old Testament, it just plain says "Jehovah") anyway, they thought that Jehovah was the Father and not Christ (a Jehovah’s Witness doctrine). So when we taught them the Plan of Salvation they got a funny look on their face when we said that Jesus Christ created the earth under the direction of the Father. Well once we showed them John 1:1-3 and Hebrews 1:1-2 and Ephesians 3:9, they realized that it was that way. The lessons with them have been very spiritual and interesting.

 

2. Federico Herrero is progressing a ton! He is reading the Book of Mormon and is on chapter 8 already! We read with him and he also reads on his own. The other day we taught his brother-in-law because he was over at his house when we showed up. His name is José. When José got super interested in what we were teaching, Federico felt excited and realized that what he is doing is a good thing. He even helped José to pray, encouraging him and everything. Federico had trouble getting to church because his motorcycle broke the day of!! He had left to buy parts for it and wasn't there when we went by to walk with him to church. But about 10 minutes into Sacrament meeting, the last hour of church, in he walked!! Elder Howard and I are excited for him. He should be baptized next week.

 

3. We contacted this lady named Estelia. She answered her door and we were on the sidewalk, behind the wall of her front yard. When she opened the door, she stood there glaring at us hahahaha. So we began to talk to her and after a few minutes, we had her in front of us, showing her scriptures, asking her questions and getting to know her. Turns out she has never been baptized in any church! So we gained her trust and helped her feel the Spirit and challenged her to come and participate in our church and to be baptized if she felt it was right. We gave her a pamphlet and taught her to pray and left. Saturday when we went by she said "Don't get mad but I didn't read! However I AM going to your church tomorrow." So we stood and talked to her, once again just outside her house, and got to know her 14 year old son. Once again the Spirit was present and we helped her to realize that if she showed her faith, the Lord would bless her even more than he currently does. She promised to go to church, said a prayer with us and yesterday showed up to church with her son, Agustín!! She loved it SO much. She said she will be coming to church every week and left with a big smile on her face. Turns out she knows María Gutierrez, our convert.

 

So Elder Howard and I are very excited because with our investigators and those of the other two missionaries, there were 10 new people in church yesterday! And the attendance boosted up to 68. AND it was testimony meeting. So the Spirit was very strong and all those present felt it. I know that if each one of the new people can allow that Spirit to guide them and direct them in life, they will feel that the Church of Jesus Christ is the true church of God upon the earth and they will be motivated not only to get baptized but also to continue onward to receive all the blessings that our Heavenly Father wants to give them.

 

Mariano Romero is now first counselor in the Young Men’s Presidency and he and Marcos Herràn are going to receive the Melchizedek Priesthood in two weeks after Stake Conference!! So they are progressing very well. Marcos is giving a class this next Sunday, his wife María is a primary teacher, Mónica Gutierrez got up and bore her testimony on Sunday and so they are all progressing very well! Our Bishop is doing a great job with that.

 

On the downside, we did have to drop Sergio because he would not progress. He wouldn't read the Book of Mormon and was always drunk. It was very sad for us to do that because we had come to love him so much. Someday, he will accept the gospel. We had a VERY spiritual final lesson with him in which we read Ephesians 4:11-14 and 2 Nephi 33:9 to the end. We were straight forward and loving and on our way out, he looked at us and said, "Onward soldiers. Those of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will always be welcome in my home."

 

Anyway, that is how the work is going here. Thank you for the letters! I love you all. Please pray for our investigators.

-Elder Garrison

October 8, 2012

Dear Family and Friends,

 

So this week was great. The First Presidency has asked us that every time we have leadership meetings with our mission president, that the following district meeting should instead be a zone meeting given by the zone leaders so that everyone could receive the same information that we receive in the meeting, applied specifically to the zone’s needs. So the whole zone got together in the stake center on Tuesday, and Elder Howard and I taught all 30 of the missionaries. It was fantastic. We taught about what President Parreño and the Assistants had taught us and applied it specifically to the zone. We used D&C 11:21 (which is also something that Elder Viñas had spoken about) and mixed that with what President Parreño had taught us. He taught us that God has given us many tools to be able to do this work. He took out of context a verse from the Book of Mormon which is Alma 60:21 and explained that we cannot "sit on our thrones" and expect the Lord to bless us if we do not make use of those tools he has given us. So using that, Elder Howard and I talked of two tools that the Lord has given us to effectively teach our investigators: the scriptures and Preach My Gospel. No one in our zone is using the scriptures well in their lessons. We invited all to study them with the purpose to help their investigators and make use of them in their lessons. Every one of them needs to be able to convince a person that our church is the true church using just the Bible. And then, with that knowledge, introduce the true and FULL doctrine found in the Book of Mormon. How can we expect them to believe us and understand the doctrine if we can't back it up with the scriptures? Preach My Gospel helps us develop necessary teaching attributes and contains the doctrines, principles and commandments that we are to study, believe, live, love, and teach. That is how we obtain the word of God. Then we spoke of obedience and companionship unity which allows the Spirit to be with us and add clarity and power to our message. If we seek first the word of God and are worthy of the guidance of the Spirit, we will then have the power to convince men (Doctrine and Covenants 11:21).

 

That was a workshop on how to achieve Doctrinal Conversion with an investigator. Then we hit Social Conversion, which has to do with working with local members and leaders so that, as Gordon B. Hinckley said, each new convert can have a friend, a responsibility, and be nourished by the good word of God. We talked about how important it is that they collaborate with the members so that the investigators can fully convert to Christ and His church and have a lasting conversion as they develop relationships with the other members of the church.

 

I really liked the meeting because as zone leader, I really don't have time to directly teach the missionaries in the zone. And I love to teach. Elder Howard and I normally only teach the district leaders so that they can convey the message properly. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen. We taught them during the hour before the zone meeting and spoke of that using 3 Nephi 19:5,8 when the 12 Disciples of Christ among the Nephites teach the gathered multitude all that Jesus had spoken the day before without changing even one word!

 

Anyway, this week we didn't have much success teaching Sergio unfortunately. We had trouble finding him, and he has stopped progressing very much because he has just hit a wall. He has no true desire; it appears, to stop drinking even though he might say it because he does not fulfill his commitment to read the Book of Mormon. He sticks it in the cupboard and does not read it. We haven't seen him for 4 days now, and he isn't in his house ever and always seems to be busy when we call. He did not show up at church like he said he would.

 

However, last Sunday we started teaching this guy named Federico Herrero. He is awesome! We have taught him almost every day since. He just got married to this girl that works in the grocery store across the street from our apartment called La Anonima but they aren't getting along too well. He wants to up and do something extravagant like move to France or join the army or something because he truly is not happy. As we have taught him, he has come to realize that he really isn't happy but what we have helped him see is that even were he to change his surroundings and circumstances, nothing would change. He himself needs to change, and he needs to find God. Now he understands that as he repents and follows God, the guilt will go away and he will find true peace and happiness. He is reading and praying and progressing very well. Using the scriptures and verifying his understanding with questions we have helped him learn the doctrine which we then apply to him so that he can see in what way knowing all that we teach him will benefit him. He has felt really good and his prayers are improving a lot. They are sincere, and heard. He came to the last session of General Conference and didn't understand much of anything but he said he liked hearing the prophet speak. He is recognizing the Spirit and if he continues as obediently as he is doing so, he will be baptized on the 27th of this month! PRAY FOR HIM!

 

I LOVED conference. I saw some other themes as well, mom. The work is VERY urgent. Many of the talks were about missionary work and sharing the gospel, service, and protecting the family from Satan’s advancing attacks. The Prophet was very straightforward in Priesthood Session about sharing the gospel. He said, "Brethren, this is OUR responsibility." And with that, closed his talk. I read in a talk that Elder Ballard gave at BYU recently that nothing that existed in Sodom and Gomorra is not happening among us today. And then yeah, many talks were focused on becoming truly converted and changing our nature to be more like the Savior. I especially liked Elder Holland’s talk. He gave that exact talk to missionaries in the Provo MTC in January of 2011 before I entered. President Detlefsen showed us that talk my first week but it was translated, and I did not understand it. Then, Elder Arias showed it to me in Pehuajò, and it changed my mission. It is an amazing talk. This one he gave had a slightly different angle taken, seeing as it was for the whole church and not just the missionaries, but it was just as powerful.

 

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored upon the earth. His Priesthood keys are held by President Thomas S. Monson, a living prophet, and each one of his counselors and Twelve Apostles.

 

Thank you for your prayers and letters!

Love,

Elder Garrison

October 1, 2012

Este...

This week went by super fast. Elder Howard and I went to Bahía Blanca for a Zone Leader meeting and lost two days in our area because we left Monday morning and returned Tuesday night. Then on Friday, we had to travel to General Pico to do a baptismal interview. We were trying to have as much time in our area as possible so we left at 3 in the afternoon in a bus, got there at 5:30pm, Elder Howard did the interview, and then we took the 6:10pm bus back, arriving at 8:40pm. We were cutting it all super close but we needed to get back to Santa Rosa! We spent 5 hours on a bus just for the interview but regardless it was all worth it because she had an amazing testimony of the gospel and was able to get baptized the next day! It is an amazing thing to interview a person for their baptism and hear them explain the changes in their life as they came to know the restored gospel. So the stake here in La Pampa is on fire because in total, 18 people were baptized this month and that means 106 people have been baptized this year. The stake goal was 80 so everyone is super excited, seeing as we already passed that and still have three months to go! The members are excited because they have the hope of spitting the stake in two. The Church of Jesus Christ is growing here.

We worked a lot with Sergio this week even though we lost a lot of time in the area. He is progressing well. He trusts us a lot and recognizes that we are servants of God. The first time we taught him he told us, "I see a lot of light in your eyes." He has so much knowledge and love for the Bible; however, it has been hard for him to accept the Book of Mormon as the word of God. But Elder Howard and I are slowly but steadily showing him parts of it, reading it with him, and explaining the background of the book so that he can have that desire to know if it is true. He made it to church this Sunday and I think he liked it. Of course, it was nothing like he expected seeing as he is used to lots of loud singing, shouting, clapping, hallelujahs and amens, and pastors "casting out demons by the laying on of hands" as they are such fans of doing here in Evangelist churches. We explained to him beforehand the importance of the Sacrament and the importance of reverence. He felt good and everyone said hi to him and shook his hand and introduced themselves. He was caught off guard by the changes I am sure but with time, he will feel that it is true if he has not yet felt it.

We are working with him so that he can overcome his desire to drink. He is an alcoholic. And is always drunk. Of course, that would stop him from feeling the Spirit very much at all and will hinder him from really feeling that the church is true until he can sober up. We are praying constantly for him so that he can stop, inviting him to read and pray constantly. He is a little stubborn but we are bold, yet loving, so that he can understand how important the Book of Mormon is and how much it will help him to overcome his addiction.

Pray for him!! He is awesome and I truly hope that he can make it to his baptism on the 20th. This week is General Conference so he'll be able to see how big the church truly is and that there are prophets and apostles on the earth today.

This week we also found tons of other investigators that we are going to be teaching and hopefully they will make it to church on Sunday! Thanks for the letters and support!! I love you all.

Chau,

Elder Garrison

September 24, 2012

Dear Everyone,

This week was good! Like I said, Mònica Gutierrez and Mariano Romero got baptized. They were super happy. We had a big Family Home Evening on Monday with the Gutierrez family and the ward mission leader and his wife. Elder Howard and I taught them about the importance of daily prayers individually and as a family, the importance of reading the scriptures daily as well, and the need to keep the Sabbath day holy by going to church. Then they gave us a ton of pizza and soda to take home. Awesome. On Wednesday we went to teach the restoration to Marcos and Marìa again and it went super well. We did an activity to show them how the Great Apostasy happened and then they gave us two cakes to take home. Awesome.

Mariano has gotten super involved in the church too. He goes to the Young Single Adults activities and Stake choir too. He loves it. Yesterday, the bishop has his first interview with him and Mariano asked him if I could confer the Aaronic Priesthood upon him. So for the first time ever, I conferred the Priesthood upon someone. He is now a priest and will be able to serve, prepare, and bless the sacrament as well as baptize! He is on fire.

However, seeing as Elder Howard and I had no more investigators after baptizing them, we got to work this week and found a ton of people this week! The area is very small, half of it is downtown, and the Zone Leaders have been in it for years so basically no one lets us in. So I remembered what Elder Araya and I had done in Bahìa Blanca: offer free copies of the Book of Mormon at people's doorsteps. No one says no to free. We did that and tons of people let us in this week!

We found this one guy named Sergio Ramirez who basically has the Bible memorized. Good thing Elder Arias got me studying it though because we were able to take all the knowledge this man has and help him realize that the church is true. Also, he is a member of the Pentecostal church. Like the Llaupi family from Viedma. So I knew exactly what doctrines he had confused.

However, he didn't make it on Sunday!! He wasn't home before church when we dropped by so we left in the middle of church to go by his house again and this time found him. He said, "I can't go because I have to go NOW but I have to talk to you guys about your church. Today." So we met up at 6 in the church and HE asked US when he is getting baptized after we taught him the plan of salvation. He already knew it without having the restored gospel!! Most people think: Earth life, death, Heaven or Hell and that's it. But this guy knew what he was talking about.

So please pray for him!! He needs it. And will be an incredible member once baptized. And pray that Elder Howard and I can find more people waiting for the gospel. Like families.

Thank you for writing!!

Elder Garrison

PS - Carly I wrote you but today I got the letter back with a "Return to Sender" sticker. Cool.