November 21, 2011

Hey,

I love Pehuajò. It's officially my favorite area so far. In Bahía Blanca the people are really cold and stiff. It's sort of a rich city. And I don't know, more than that, the people are just really closed. They like their house and their ideas and minding their own business. It's like the Dursley's. Everyone in Bahía Blanca was like the Dursley's. Here in Pehuajò, we asked a lady who was mowing her lawn, the name of a street and she turned her lawn mower off, walked over, said hi, gave us directions, and sent us on our way. It was incredible. I was so used to Bahía Blanca I got very confused that someone could be so helpful and kind! And not just her, everyone!

Long story short, I like it.

Elder Arias and I are working really hard here too. On Saturday, it rained all day. Somehow, in my hurried rush to pack and leave, I left my rain coat and my umbrella in Bahía. So I got soaked. Drenched. But we worked anyway and I at least had my winter coat. And it turned out to be the most productive day in my mission!!! We found 5 new investigators in one day, had 3 other lessons with members present and taught 9 lessons overall. It was incredible. But the whole week was that way. We also had lunch with the members every day! And there are only like 10! Hahaha. But things are changing. We are training our Branch President. The other elders tried to confront him and point out his flaws. But he only got defensive and they lost the Spirit, fighting. Elder Arias and I realized quickly, though, that President Uriona knows absolutely nothing about the Gospel. And even less about being a Branch President. He was called just as they were about to close Pehuajò because he was the only Priesthood holding, active member!! We started by having a meeting with him and his counselor and the family that recently moved in from my old area who are the Branch Secretary and Relief Society President. We explained what needed to change and that we are all in it together to support one another.

It was interesting because we talked about little things like saying hi to everyone at church, arriving on time and stuff like that. But President Uriona got so animated, it was great!

Yesterday at church there were 19 of us instead of 13. President Uriona did all the little things we asked him to do and the environment was so much different. There was so much more order and the spirit was so strong that our investigator Rosa, who has known about the church here in Pehuajò since 1994, said she had never felt what she felt in church yesterday. And went on for like 5 minutes about how nice it was that the "director" came up and said hi to here and gave her a beso (kiss on the cheek, it's what they do here).

So things are changing slowly. God does the same with us. He pushes us through hard times so we can struggle and grow. But he never makes us overcome that which we don't have the ability to overcome. He does it because He loves us and wants us to progress. He is doing it with me, with Elder Arias, with Branch President Uriona, and with each one of us. His plan is so huge and perfect; it's literally incomprehensible for us. We just have to trust in Him and trust that He has our best interest at heart.

Elder Arias has already been my most influential companion so far. He has baptized more people in his 11 months here in Argentina than any other missionary in the mission. He is about to break the record of most baptisms in the mission and he isn't even half way done. He has baptized almost every week of his mission. Yet he does it because he is incredibly humble and has the deepest love for the people: he desires nothing more than their salvation. That is the pure love of Christ. Christ suffered and died to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. He desired nothing more than our salvation and for that He gave His life. I, on the other hand, am struggling with that but for that reason, I am grateful to be with Elder Arias because he helps me by pushing me to grow and learn.

Thank you so much for always writing and praying and helping! Happy Belated Birthday, Mom, you're 29 again! I love you all and will be talking to you on the phone very soon! Weird.

CHAU!

 Elder Ryan Garrison 

November 14, 2011

Life is crazy in the mission.

On Friday, I was stressing hardcore about the packages I send weekly because I didn't have enough boxes of the Book of Mormon to send to everyone who wanted them (not that Elder Howard didn't have the money I needed to send the shipments anyway he needed to go to the bank) and thinking about the investigators in my area, Villa Mitre Alto. We were working hard with Rodolfo and involving the members as much as possible so he could find his desires to progress by coming to church. But then, at about 3 in the afternoon, Elder Johansson, the secretary and my District Leader, got off a phone call and shouted, "emergency transfers!!" He looks at me and says, "Garrison, you're headed to Pehuajò with Elder Arias, go buy a ticket in the terminal, teach Elder Sancho how to work with Materials, and pack your stuff. You're leaving. Tonight." And just like that, I was gone. I literally did all that in hours and hopped on a bus at 8:00 to go to the tiny city of Pehuajò, Argentina.

Pehuajò (Pay-wa-ho) probably has about 40 to 60 thousand people I would guess. It's a ton like Balcarce. And beautiful. The only thing is, there is no church. They rent a tiny little house and currently have 10 active members. The church here is very fragile, the attendance is quite low, and they were going to close the area completely about a year ago but Elder Aidukaitis of the Seventy felt the prompting to not close it. But what happened this week is that the missionaries here had an argument with the Branch President and President took them out and was going to close the area. But instead, he decided to send Elder Arias and me here.

Elder Arias is amazing. He has two more transfers than me but is on the verge of breaking the record of baptisms in the mission. He was a zone leader in Bahìa Blanca just recently and got pulled out like me before the transfer ended. He has incredible faith and determination. As well as a full understanding of his purpose as a missionary. He loves the people with all his heart and is the most obedient companion I have had. He is humble and wants to succeed so that the Lord's church here on the earth can grow. He is 24, from Chile, and studied Law before the mission. And he is hilarious. We are going to be great friends.

We are going to change Pehuajò, though. We plan to triple the attendance by the end of the year. And we are going to work as hard as possible to do it, too. Oh and the one strong member family that lives here, happened to move here about 4 weeks ago FROM Villa Mitre Alto. So I already know them very well!

Anyway, I'm already out of time because I took so much writing President, but I am super excited to be here even if I will miss the office. I know the Lord has a purpose in everything and He is constantly involved in this work. Because it is His work. I may be here for a while but I am going to do all I can to constantly serve to my best ability so that the church in Pehuajò can grow. Thank you all for your letters, I'll do better at responding next week. I love you all!

-Elder Ryan Garrison 

November 7, 2011

HEY

So I went to get all the mail downtown with Elder Howard on Thursday. I always drive. It's legit. Anyway, Elder Howard is in charge of money but was running out so he only brought 300 pesos. Turns out we got 14 packages in the mission!! Which was going to cost about 2000 pesos and take hours to pay for, etc. (Everything is super slow in this country) So, what did we do? We paid for mine and left the rest for another day! Hahaha. So yes, I got my package. It only took like 3 weeks, mom! That's what I thought anyway. I think I should have explained the tax system on packages though...They make you claim the price of the contents like you did. Then they convert it into pesos and make you pay half the price as a tax. So I now owe the mission 202 pesos. But I don't care because that package was the best thing I ever got!! And I am really impressed with the ties you picked out, too. The other office elders were really jealous of them. So thank you so much for everything in it and for getting all those letters together! :D I realize that's my birthday present but I don't mind opening it early. Every day is the same here. On the other hand, I WILL wait for the Christmas one so no worries.

As for the news thank you for that too, mom. The Argentines always ask us about politics for some reason when they find out I'm American. I am still going to tell them I know that I don't discuss that as a missionary but I like knowing some of what is going on!

As for this week, it was super hectic with office things like normal but it's really fun. All the leaders came into town for big meetings and as the materials missionary I had to give a presentation. I mostly liked seeing all my friends though. As for the investigators, Rodolfo still didn't come. I don't understand. We managed to teach his girlfriend who is equally as smart but knows nothing about religion except her own with is Catholicism. She understood well and we tried our best to apply the message to her current needs and struggles. So we were hoping that instead of being an impediment to Rodolfo that she'd actually help him get there. But nope, he'll come to anything we set up during the week but somehow it is impossible for the guy to get out of bed and come to church on Sunday mornings!

Our other investigators are this couple that one of the ladies in our ward introduced us to named Cesar and Miriam. She is so determined to help them that she is going to help them get married so they can get baptized! It is quite the miracle! The woman is amazing too and always gives us food. 

Well that's all I've got. Thank you so much for the letters and the package and the support. I know what I am doing is right. I love you all!!

-Elder Ryan Garrison

October 31, 2011

Happy Halloween? They don't celebrate that here. Sad.

Thank you all for the letters!!  Thanks for the emails from Tanner too! He still is Tanner and still terrible at writing letters. Hahaha. You can send me the rest too that'd be cool. All the others manage to write me though so no worries.

This week was cool. We did divisons within my district with the focus of finding new investigators. Our district leader wanted us to all stay in divisions until every companionship had found a new investigator.. My district is all the office elders and the assistants. So I was with Elder Acosta from Mendoza, Argentina. He is the new assistant to President because the other one, Elder Bills, finished his mission. Elder Acosta is really cool. He is a fantastic missionary and super obedient. And super Argentine haha. The way he speaks is awesome; his accent is very Italian sounding. I liked working with him because he's smart and he helped me a lot with ideas for my area, ideas for becoming better personally, and is a great example. I do like being in the office a lot because I get to know a lot of the missionaries like that and I get to be around a lot of leaders which is fantastic. Tomorrow, all the leaders in the mission come in for their monthly conference with President and the Assistants. It's going to be another hectic week in the office.

Our investigator Rodolfo is awesome though. He reminds me of Martin who was baptized in Balcarce. He is rather timid and struggles to express himself a little. But he understands everything and always retains the information (unlike most people that we teach). I think he is very prepared. The only problem is his girlfriend, Romina. She has a tight hold on him and she is very catholic. They don't live together (BIG surprise in Argentina) but she seems to be around a lot. I'm worried that she might continue holding him back. He didn't come to church again this Sunday and when we passed by to see if we could acompany him, guess who answered the door? Her. Ugh. Pray for Rodolfo if you could. It's going to be tough.

Other than that, we don't have very many people to work with. The area has been beaten to death by other missionaries and the members are colder than ice to us. Not sure why. But we're trying our best to show our love for them and to motivate them to get involved! In Balcarce, the members asked US when they could go out with us to teach investigators! I had no idea back then that that was a huge blessing.

Well, that's all I’ve got. Thanks for all the support! Send more pictures, though!

As Tanner said hahaha, chau vagos!

-Elder Ryan Garrison

October 24, 2011

HI.

So yeah. This Sunday was election day in Argentina. It was strange to me because in America, people always talk about how few people turn up to vote for our President even though everyone complains about the political/economic situation of the country. There is a lot of political ignorance and there are far too many people who like to talk and do nothing about it. Well in Argentina, it is the law that each citizen must vote in the elections. Or they get nailed with a huge fine. Yet these people are a hundred times more ignorant than Americans!! They just go and vote for whoever they want because the government is so corrupt, it's all the same to them. That's just a random thing I noticed this week.

This week was a blast though. Being in the office, I get to see all the missionaries who go home as they leave, and then all the new missionaries as they come in and begin the next 22 months of their lives. The week was relatively stressful though because we were busy non-stop all day long making sure everything ran smoothly with all the meetings, meals that were fed to the new missionaries, taking care of luggage as it was delivered in vans, explaining procedures and rules, and dealing with the trainers and all their requests all while managing our own assignments in the office. And then we spent all of Thursday moving houses. (We left the dark, dim, dirty old house we lived in before to live in a brand new house that belongs to a member of the church that currently lives in Cordoba. We're renting it now because it's huge and has space for new missionaries/leaders that come into Bahia Blanca each transfer for meetings). So on Friday I had only a few hours to get 20 boxes ready and shipped off by 5 o clock to all the zones in the mission! I am sure you all find this super interesting but that's all I did all week!

As for teaching the gospel, we found some cool investigators this week but most of them have already told us not to come by anymore for some reason or another! And as for Rodolfo, the man we have been teaching for a week or so, he could not come to church because he had to go vote (which is a complicated matter here I suppose). But I'm sure he'll continue progressing and investigating because he actually went to Institute on Wednesday night! Just not church on Sunday, like I said.

Elder Araya and I continue learning a lot together about how to teach, how to live together, how to study and learn from each other. I have really learned the importance of good planning each night for the following day, and the importance of doing our daily practices to improve our teaching. We try to help and motivate each other as often as possible (and trust me that's necessary with the circumstances in our area) because we know that we can have success no matter where we are. Its interesting living with a whole new set of people at all times. It allows me to really see who I am as a person because I have to learn to react in new situations away from the comfort of home and those who I already know.

As for driving stick shift, I've got it down. I like it a lot actually, it's really fun. And Mom, you would be scared to death were you to drive in Argentina. It's basically void of traffic laws. Except one: don't get hit or hit anyone else. So yeah, I'll be able to return and drive the Mustang with no problem at all :D :D :D And hey, it's good to hear that Angela's chocolate business is going well. Tell her to send me some, that'd be super cool of her. And Christian's email made me laugh a lot because I hear the same thing all the time from the Argentines!! "Chicos, I'm currently bathing my baby!" Lies. Oh and that reminds me, Mom you haven't managed to forward any Tanner's emails to me in months! If you could, that'd be great. I would like to hear how he is doing. I wrote him but he's Tanner so he has yet to respond. And if you could also get a hold of Jordan Wheeler's address for me, I'd like to respond to the letter he wrote to me from the MTC. But now he's in Mexico I'm sure.

Anyways, I am done with this letter now! Thank you for all writing me! And thank you for reading. Chau!

-Elder Garrison

October 17, 2011

Dear everyone,

Well here I am in the office. There are currently 18 missionaries here waiting to go to President's house to have a BBQ before they head off to Buenos Aires and then go home. It's been a hectic day. And tomorrow, 18 more missionaries come in from the MTC to take their spots. Every transfer (or 6 weeks), this happens. Normally it's not so many missionaries at once but this group is huge! It is super interesting to see the old missionaries and their attitudes and behavior. I can tell which ones have worked hard and which have not.

But this week has been good. Elder Araya and I had some pretty good lessons with our investigators. So we're very excited to see how they progress. One of them is this man named Rodolfo. He's super cool! He is about 30 years old, lives alone, works in an office Monday to Friday, 8AM-4PM, and has a tiny two month old golden retriever. We found him in the street in front of his house last week and gave him a pamphlet. He told us that he had a Book of Mormon already and had read some of it. The second time that we passed by, he couldn't attend to us but asked for another pamphlet because he liked that first one. So we talked a bit. Turns out, this guy didn't read just some of the Book of Mormon; he read almost all of it! He's been studying theology in his own time for about 5 years now. He's probably the first person I met here actually educated on religion. So anyway, we told him that we're always in the church building if he wanted to pass by after work any day of the week and see the building on the inside. And he popped up on Thursday! He liked it and then we taught him on Friday. But not after my companion and Elder Howard saw him in the bank and talked to him for two hours while waiting in the huge Argentine bank lines. The lesson later on went super well. I have never taught someone who understood so well the first time.

Unfortunately, he could not come to church Sunday because here in Argentina it was Mother's Day. But he's coming this Sunday! I'm super excited for him and we're going to try and pass by tonight.

I'm struggling here to find more to say. I swear I have nothing to talk about because I'm always in the office! I suck at driving stick shift but I'm getting better. The other day I drove in downtown traffic and had to get the car moving over and over because we were in stop-and-go traffic. I killed it a lot. Oh, and we had Mexican tacos with a member family the other day because Elder Howard told them he had taco seasoning. They were soooo good.

Alright, thank you all for writing! I'll try to have a more interesting week this week so I can say more in my email!

Bye!

-Elder Garrison

October 10, 2011

Dear everyone,

Thanks for all the letters! I like hearing what's going on at home. Sometimes I forget that there is life besides missionary work. Speaking of missionary work, I don't think I was ever under the impression that it would be easy, but now that I am actually doing it, it turns out to be sort of hard. We get laughed at a lot. And yelled at. And people don't treat us like human beings. Half because they hate the United States and half because they don't want to talk to us about religion. But it reminds me of a talk that we watched in the MTC one day. Hermano Gneiting, my MTC teacher, was explaining a point he reached in his mission in Buenos Aires West when he was doing everything possible to be obedient, work hard, and seek the guidance of the Spirit. He explained that he was so down, kids were chucking rocks at them, it was raining, and he just felt like crap. But as all that happened, he thought of this very talk. It was a talk that Elder Holland gave in the MTC. He told the missionaries to never dare even think about going home. To not even dare complain before thinking about what Christ had to do for each one of us.

We had interviews with President Detlefsen this week (the man is amazing), and he said something similar to me. That even the Son of God was rejected. He was perfect, did everything He possibly could have, and they killed Him for it. I am very grateful to be able to even relate to Christ in the very smallest way possible. He really did everything for us and all because He loves us.

Lately I've noticed how aimless and lost the people here look. Their life goal is literally (and I am honestly not joking here) to build their house. Everyone builds their own house here and they are ALWAYS doing construction. They work their whole lives to feed their family and buy supplies, which are then used to continue building or expanding their house. Then they die. That's pointless!!! I want to help them so bad but they just shut out the chance of being happy! It's unfortunate because I really have seen the Book of Mormon change people's lives in every way possible.

But I know there are people out there waiting. I just have to reach them. God's test for us is whether we will open up and be humble. We have to understand that we don't know everything! He does. Like it says in Mosiah 4:9.

That's all I've got. The week flew by! And now the transfer is about over! I am stoked for all the newbie missionaries to come in. And I get to see all the old ones leaving before they go. I need to meet more missionaries here. Everyone I know keeps leaving!

Well, bye!

-Elder Ryan Garrison