November 7, 2012

Hey

Sorry I didn't write the other day. We had a leadership meeting. We usually have this meeting once a month and it is usually on a Tuesday. But this time, we had it on Monday and Tuesday, two days long. It is really needed because we have a lot of missionaries. I think more than half the mission has less than a year in the mission. We jumped from 160 to 216 and it keeps climbing. With the age change for missionaries, President and Sister Parreño said that we are expecting to hit 250 within a few months. So almost everyone is new. I almost don't even know anyone anymore. 

Sadly, since May, we've been scaling downward in success. And really it's not the fact that there are tons of new missionaries because even a new missionary can have success right off the bat. But the mission has changed a lot. I got to my new zone and there were some big problems we had to resolve with some missionaries. However this leader meeting was super powerful. It kind of hit us all when we saw the graphs and the need for improvement. The assistants talked about what needs to be changed and one of those things is our efforts to find new people to teach. So they challenged us all (about 60 leaders) to go and find 2 new people that night. So from 4 to 9 on Monday we all went to work here in Bahìa Blanca. We found 92 new people in 5 hours (Which usually took the 32 of us in Santa Rosa a week to do). Then on Tuesday we all shared experiences and several missionaries who are headed home were asked to bare testimonies (Elder Arias included) and it was super spiritual.

Elder Forbes and I then had the job of setting up a Zone Meeting here in our zone to teach the whole zone all that we had been taught and to inspire and motivate them the same way. We had to plan last night and this morning starting at 7 but it came out SO well. We had a meeting with the district leaders and then one with the zone. Some of the sister missionaries just burst out crying at the end, it was a super special meeting.

Anyway, we're all super stoked because we want to achieve our goal of 20 baptisms this month in the zone. And 1000 baptisms in the mission by year`s end. And I also had long talks with Elder Arias about achieving my personal goal so there is a lot of work to do!! The worth of every soul is great in the eyes of God.

This week, Elder Forbes and I are going to baptize three people that are named Adela Varela, her daughter Micaela Robinson, and another girl named Gabriela Bonomo. They've had their trials but they have overcome them. They already had their interviews as well and so they'll be getting baptized on Saturday!!

Another miracle that happened this week was that Elder Forbes and I had to take a bus to our area (because we live SUPER far away) and while on the bus I gave every single person a pass-along card. Then at 4 that day, this lady called us over in the street and thanked us for the card I gave her on the bus. Turns out she used to live with a member family and used to go to church with them. She never believed because she was a Jehovah’s Witness but now she believes and wants to get baptized!! She went to church on Sunday which was Stake Conference in a faraway church building but she went alone anyway, on the bus, and was there the whole time!! She is getting baptized next Saturday, the 17th.

Anyway, I love the area. We found 25 new investigators this week so we're on fire. Elder Forbes and I get along super well and I have a feeling that we are going to have a lot of success.

Thanks for the support and the prayers! I know that this is the work of Jesus Christ. He lives and directs His church upon the earth through living prophets and apostles who have been chosen by Him and ordained with His Holy Priesthood power. Thomas S. Monson holds all the keys of that Priesthood just as Peter did thousands of years ago. Nothing has changed. And even if men with all their might try to change God and His sacred scriptures, He will not change. The Book of Mormon is evidence of that. Read it.

Love,

Elder Garrison