Año Nuevo

Well, today is New Years Eve... a normal day for us basically. We have to be back in the house at the latest by 10:30. 

It was fun to do a Google Hangout with the family on Christmas. We ended up eating "lunch" at about 7:00. Then we visited Leontina briefly, and headed back to the house. 



David Memmott picked us up and gave us a ride.  David is the brother-in-law
of my former voice teacher, Jeannette Memmott.  It's a small world.
 

Speaking of Leontina, she will be getting baptized on Sunday. Feel free to keep her and our other investigators in your prayers. 

Great things are happening here in Centenario. We have found some great people that have been prepared by the Lord for us. 

This family I told you about last week, the Aburto family is awesome. We joke that the dad is going to be the next bishop here. We taught the Restoration to the daughter and the dad, and their main question was how to know for sure that it is true. We know the dad has already started reading the Book of Mormon. The daughter called us the other day and told us she wanted to introduce us to a friend... when we got there, she had about 5 friends. She had told them about us and then they invited us over. They asked us questions about what we teach and stuff... and Vania (the daughter) taught them about the Spirit World. This family has spent a lot of time talking and searching about religious things. They really want to find the truth as a family.

The other day, all three of us had prayed for help in finding people, without the other two knowing. I prayed that we could be the answer to someone's prayer. Almost five minutes later, this lady with arthritis let us in. We gave her a blessing, and taught a little bit of the Restoration, and she felt really good. We'll be going back this week.        

We were knocking doors the other day, and I was a little frustrated. I had knocked about 20 doors, and only talked to about 3 people. But my companion was setting up all kinds of appointments. When we arrived for one of the appointments, the lady let us in, and we talked for quite a while. We asked why she'd let us in. She said she had prayed for direction from God for her life, and when my companion showed up at her door, rather than reject him as she probably normally would have, she just let him in. We were the answer to her prayer. 

I have learned that God really does prepare people for us. We have received countless blessings these past two weeks. I know that this is His work. 

¡Que tengan un buen año nuevo! 

Elder Garrett

Feliz Navidad

 

Well... today is Christmas Eve. That's pretty nuts. 

Today when P-Day ends, we have permission to spend time with members and to eat with them. We are allowed to be out until 12:30, and we get to sleep in until 9 tomorrow. So that's pretty sweet, and then tomorrow we get to call home, well, with google hangout, which is even better. My english might be a little bad, Jake might have to translate. Haha...just kidding. We're teaching Elder Verón English, so we do speak a little English.

So this week was a little crazy. We went down to Santiago on Wednesday. When we got off the Metro (subway) in Santiago, the clouds were seriously dumping on us. We got soaked running to the bus station to catch a bus north. That is very rare here, especially this time of year. We were stuck in Santiago in traffic for an hour, and then had another hour in order to get to Los Andes. When we got to Los Andes, it wasn't raining, but about 30 minutes later, it started pouring. We had to ditch the bikes and walk with umbrellas. In a lesson, the power went out. We sang "La Luz de la Verdad" in the dark... which is supposed to be funny... This was the 20th, so we joked about the end of the world beginning. We started walking home in the dark, but all the lights came on after a while. 

The next day, the clouds cleared, and there was snow in the Andes. I sent a picture. About 3-4 hours later all of that snow had melted. And it turned hotter than ever. We had two days where it was cold... which was awesome... but we're back to full out summer. 

Snow... first day of summer... end of the world. But down here

we only had rain... lots and lots of rain.  

 

So we have good news. Leontina is getting baptized in two weeks. She is really excited. She has started inviting family and friends, and is talking to people about her new beliefs, and inviting them to listen to us. That is really exciting for us. 

The other day, I knocked a door. A girl opened the window. I introduced myself, and asked her if she'd ever met missionaries before. She didn't answer the question, just told me to come back the next day. 

So we went back the next day. We taught her and her mom, Vannia and Laura. They told us they are baptized Catholics who are no longer Catholics. They are really, really great, and very receptive. We gave them both the pamphlets for the Restoration and for the Plan of Salvation. 

We went by again last night. We figured her husband would be there... we were a little worried about what he would be like, if he would be supportive or not. And then we got there and turns out he's super chill. They had read the pamphlets and said they had no questions, it was all clear. The husband... can't remember his name... invited us to come back and eat with them... they said he almost never invites people to eat. So that was sweet. Unfortunately, due to mission rules, we can't eat dinner with them, only lunch. 

Also... We were going to take the bishop's daughter with us to this appointment. She couldn't go, but it turns out this family is friends with the bishop and his family.

We have a lot of hope for them. 

Anyway, Merry Christmas. I will see some of you tomorrow. 

Elder Garrett   

Four days left to live...

 

With the 21 of December approaching, we will be baptizing by the minute. Haha no not really. 

It seems like every other person we talk to asks us about our beliefs regarding the 21 of December and the Second Coming. Everyone tells us they don't believe anything will happen... and yet... it seems like the candle making industry has had a boom due to the three days of darkness we're going to be seeing this week. 

Anyway. If we do survive the 21, we are hoping to have three baptisms in January. We will be working a lot with these three people so that they can be ready. One of them has already quit drinking... now we've just got to work on the cigarettes. They are planning to get married and baptized in January (Luis and Alejandra). Leontina will also be getting baptized in January. 

We had a little Christmas party in the mission home this week, which is a 3 hour round trip from Los Andes to Santiago and back. The problem is that it was really hot... so we couldn't sleep very well on the way back. They served us a lunch and we sang Christmas songs and watched some videos about the life of Christ. 

Cool experience. One day, we were knocking doors... and no one was home. We were getting frustrated because we felt like weren't doing anything. I left a passalong in the gate of one of the houses that had an offer for a free DVD of The Lamb of God. Two days later, we were riding our bikes, and two women ran out in front of us and stopped us. It was the lady that lives in that house. They wanted the DVD, but the number on the card didn't work. So we set up an appointment to bring them a DVD. We had a great lesson with one of them on the Restoration. At the end, I asked her what she would do if what we had taught was true, if she knew that the Book of Mormon is true, Joseph Smith was a prophet, and the Church of Jesus Christ was restored to the earth. She said that first, she would learn everything she could, then she would follow it, and then she would share it with everyone she knew. That was really exciting to hear. 

I was not expecting anything to happen with that passalong card... kind of a miracle. 

Well, merry Christmas. Enjoy the four days you have left before the 21st.

Elder Garrett

Los Andes

We had 4 investigators in church on Sunday... that's new for me. I'm not used to that.

Luis and Alejandra have made great progress. Luis has stopped drinking, and is working on smoking. We have noticed great changes in him and his behavior. He has also noticed this. He is much happier, and is spending more time with his family. We are very excited for them, and hope that they will be able to get baptized in the coming weeks. 

Both of my companions, Elder Riches, and Elder Verón (de Paraguay) had their birthdays this weekend, as well as Alejandra, so yesterday we ate lunch with Luis and Alejandra, and we made a birthday cake that was sent to Elder Riches last week. Fun times were had by all. 

Leontina really wants to get baptized, but wants to ask forgiveness from some family members before she gets baptized. She is working through the repentance process to prepare for baptism, which we think will be in the first little bit of January. 

I guess that's about it. Oh... there's a Burger King in this city....

Feliz Navidad 

Elder Garrett

 

Goodbye Renca Hello Los Andes

Well, I guess the big news is that I got transferred. I'm now in Los Andes, about as far away from Santiago as you can get. It's a completely different Chile. It's not smoggy, and it is a lot hotter than Santiago. It will be a fun Christmas. Lots of sweat. It's not a big city here... there's a lot more country. And you can see the mountains, unlike in Santiago because of the smog.

We took a bus for about 1 hour and 15 minutes to get here...

I'm in a trio now.

A lot of cool things happened this week, but If I have a little more time I'll write a little more.

Oh yeah, I contacted a nun the other day.

Elder Garrett

Well, today we hiked to the top of el Cerro Renca, where there's a huge cross. We woke up at 5 AM to go hike it before the sun came up so it wouldn't be so hot. We went with Elder Villagrán and Elder Huaratapayro. Elder Villagran had hiked it before... but he decided it would be faster to go straight up. It was a lot steeper than I think anyone thought it was going to be. And I'm not sure we're going to be able to walk tomorrow, especially Elder Kelson with his almost, but not fully, recovered knee. We'll see what happens. We are pretty much dead now. And we already took a 45 minute nap.  I'm hoping to send pictures, but we'll see. 

Last week we ran into a guy who was on his way to a funeral, wearing jeans and a white collared shirt without a tie. He was a little drunk. He stopped me and asked me for my tie. I kept telling him why I couldn't give him my tie but he just kept asking. I think he was partly joking, but also partly serious. "Ya po hijo, déme tu corbata." We saw him again the next day and he told me he still needed my tie. "Ya po hijo, necesito tu corbata." 

Sunday was bittersweet for us. We were planning for Mari to get baptized next Sunday, but she didn't go to church yesterday, so it will have to be changed to the next week. We have changes next Monday, so it's possible that one of us or both won't be here for her baptism. 

However, after almost two months of working with them, Eduardo y Sandy came to church. We were very happy. Sandy is a member. They are two Peruvians that love to have us visit, but struggled to do the things we asked of them. However, two weeks ago they started reading the Book of Mormon. And Eduardo is actually pretty excited about it. We will hopefully be doing a tour of the temple with them this Saturday. We did a family home evening with them the other night, and they fixed us food from Peru. It was really good, and a lot spicier than Chilean food. 

The other day we saw God working in the life of Mari. She told us that for a long time she had felt like we were trying to sell her something, and then she realized we weren´t selling anything. We visit people all day trying to give them a free gift.  She had a cool experience reading the scriptures. The word and idea of obedience really stuck out to her. She realized that all of her life she has run from obedience, telling people that she's only accountable and obedient to God... but she really wasn't obedient to Him.  Although her blood pressure went up when we first extended a baptismal date two weeks away the first time, this time she told us she realized she could be ready and that she could also stop smoking, where before she really didn't believe that she could.  It has been cool to see the huge change in her life already. She's a lot happier now and has a lot more hope. 

Last night we had a cool stake activity. The stake president felt impressed to have a meeting for all the members who had been baptized in the past two years. They sent out invitations and everything. It was a really spiritual meeting to help them feel more comfortable and strengthen their testimonies. There is a huge push to work with recent converts by both the missionaries and the members to help them feel more comfortable in the church.

We forgot about Thanksgiving until Friday, but I guess we kind of had a Thanksgiving lunch... if you count eating a dry rotisserie chicken and some mushy rice as Thanksgiving. Haha. 

I hope you're all enjoying the cold weather... because it's not even close to being cold here. 

Elder Garrett

 

Bienvenidos a la nueva casa de Renca 2.2...

This week, we moved into a new house. We no longer live with Elder Villagrán y Elder Huaratapayro. We still see them almost every day at lunch though. We found this house about three weeks ago or so. Missionaries had been looking for a new house for months here, because the apartment we lived in in the Huamachuco 2 was 30 minutes away from our sector on foot.

The house is very new and clean and too expensive, but with the amount of missionaries that will be coming to our mission soon, President said to sign the contract right away and we moved in two days later. It's right in our sector and the mission bought us almost all new stuff.  So pretty sweet, right?

They will be turning the mission home into housing for North American Missionaries at the MTC here. The mission home will be able to house something like 40 missionaries. I believe they'll be coming straight here. Our ward will be gaining another set of missionaries, so it will have 6. A branch in our stake will have about 5 sets... 10 missionaries... in a branch.  Pretty sweet.

This week, we had a lot of members in church. The attendance was about 130. That's pretty sweet.

We finally set Mari with a baptismal date. She's been investigating for 4 months and really would like to get baptized. She just needs to stop smoking. She was the first investigator I met that first day in Chile... a little more than 2 months ago. We are praying for her a lot. She is recently divorced, and we just found out that her boyfriend is a less active member... and he told her she should get baptized, so it helps to have that support, because some of her family doesn't support her.

There is another investigator named Giselle that has met with the missionaries for probably over a year. Her mom wouldn't give her permission to get baptized, but she has decided to get baptized on her 18th birthday, when she no longer needs permission. That's in three weeks, and will be really awesome.

We are in a different place for internet today, and I can't send any pictures... sorry.

I'm assuming Thanksgiving is coming up... so enjoy.

Thanks for your support.
Elder Garrett  

Muchos intercambios

Hola.

Bueno.

Elder Kelson has gotten better very quickly and we are walking faster and taking less taxis. His bike is still a little messed up, and we haven't had much time to fix it yet, so we have to take the Micro (bus) to the sector every day.

Elder Kelson is district leader, so we did a lot of exchanges this week. On Wednesday I worked with Elder Huaratapayro in my sector. I directed the sector. Then again on Thursday, I worked with Elder Estiva in my sector, directing it again. Then on Friday, I went to another sector and worked with Elder Lawson. We arrived in Chile at the same time, two months ago yesterday. I was very happy that I was able to read a chapter from the Book of Mormon, understand it, and explain it to one of the families we taught. AND, they understood me. It was a very happy moment for me.

We have an investigator that was going to get baptized back in April, but then she moved out. She recently returned, and we started teaching her again. She seemed to have forgotten everything and returned back to the person she was before. The first time we met with her, she asked us why we believe in God if we can't see Him.

We've taught her about four times, and we can visibly see the changes in her already as she is recognizing what she knew several months ago. Her attitudes and language have changed. She committed to going to church, and told us that she knows she needs to get baptized. It's amazing the change we've seen in her in only two weeks. Her boyfriend and her little sister also told us they'd like to be baptized.

Last week we had a great experience I think I forgot to tell you about. We have an investigator named Mari that has been taught for probably four months now. But we've had problems helping her stop smoking and getting her to church. Seriously, every week for four months, something popped up on Sunday. We stopped visiting her for two weeks, and when we returned last Saturday, she realized how big of a difference the message we bring has in her life and committed to going to church, and she went last Sunday, and loved it.

I don't have much more time, so I guess that's about it.

Les Quiero
Elder Garrett

There was... a little accident this week... involving a bike, a cement post, and a bus. Don't worry, I'm alive.

So I was riding my bike really fast, and I hit something and the front tire popped up and I lost control. 

Ok just kidding.  It was Elder Kelson, and I was on exchanges, so I didn't even see it happen.

So the front tire pops up, and when it hits the ground again, it was turned, so the bike swerved really sharply, directly into a cement post. So he hits this post with his knee, and flies off his bike about 4 meters. A bus was driving by at the time, and it stopped and all of the people ran out to ask if he was alive or not. He scraped up his arm a bit and messed up his knee. They called every member they knew that has an auto, and one of them came and picked them up. A doctor told him he would not be able to walk for at least 15 days. 

It was a miracle that he didn't get hit by a car or hit his head. 

He was not even able to get out of bed to walk to the fridge or the bathroom all that day.  

He was given a priesthood blessing. And guess what we did the next day? We took a taxi to our area and worked for about 3 hours, walking around without crutches. The next day we got crutches so he could walk a lot faster and more comfortably.  He is improving rapidly.  It really is a miracle. 

I'm running out of time now. We're going to make some cheese empanadas...

We've been told the mission is probably going to increase from 200 missionaries to 280. That's going to be nuts, there will be wards with 6-8 missionaries.

I've been here for two months now. Time flies really fast when you are always really busy. And there aren't enough hours in the day to do everything we would like to do. I'm feeling more and more comfortable with Spanish. It's crazy to think I started learning it 4 months ago, and now I'm speaking it almost exclusively all day. It helps that I live with missionaries from Guatemala y Perú.

Voy a comer empanadas de queso.     

Elder Garrett 

 

We saw several miracles this week.  

We have an investigator named Raquel, who is probably in her 60s. She has therapy every day for her knee, so we haven't been able to visit her much. We've visited 3 times but never been able to actually sit down and have a lesson with her. The first time, we talked with her through the window and left The Restoration pamphlet. She had many questions about all sorts of things and was very interested. The next time, she told us she read the pamphlet and believed Joseph Smith was a prophet, and wanted to know how much a Book of Mormon cost. We laughed a little bit and told her we couldn't sell her one, and she was a little disappointed. We gave her the book for free, of course. We were thrilled! After about a week, we stopped by yesterday to see how she was doing with the therapy and such. She had already read through First and Second Nephi! I can't even think of a word to describe our excitement. This sweet little lady is going to have the Book of Mormon read completely before we can even teach the first lesson. 

We have another investigator named Gerardo who's been hard to visit, as he drives a taxi during much of the proselyting hours. He has been very faithful about attending church every week for over a year, and many members think that he already is a member. Around 4:00 we were walking to an appointment far away from his house, but we ran into him, and he said he had the day off, so we could come visit. Our other lesson fell through, so we were able to go to his house very soon after. We had a great lesson with him about keeping the commandments and following Christ, and he accepted the extended baptismal date. At the end he prayed, and in the prayer he recognized that there had been a miracle, that God really must want him to continue in this path. He had had the decision of two roads in which he could take, and he had felt like he should take the one he doesn't usually take, and there we were! We are working with him to get him off of the 60 cigarettes he smokes every day, I will let you know how that goes.  

There's never quite enough time.

Elder Garrett

Ok, temblor. 

In the states we would've called it a fairly big earthquake, here they just called it a slightly big tremor. It was like a 5 something. We didn't even feel it, because we were riding our bikes, but all of a sudden everyone came out of their houses, all of the dogs started barking, and all of the car's alarms went off. Don't worry, there wasn't any damage. I survived, without knowing there was something to survive. 

We found out about cambios Saturday night. Elder Kelson and I are still here in Renca 2.2, and Elder Villagran is also staying. His companion, Elder Shelley got transferred to Conchalí. In his place is Elder... Huaratapayro... I don't know if I spelled that right, but I promise I can pronounce it right. He is from Peru, and is really short. He was Elder Kelson's companion a while back. So basically, not much changed around here.

However, the mission is already changing rapidly, due to the lowering of age requirements. In anticipation, we've already created two new zones. Most of the wards here will likely be receiving at least one more set of missionaries. 

The missionary department has been absolutely flooded with applications.  Currently 63% of the missionaries in our mission have less than one year, and 45% have less than 6 months of experience. And, we will have a huge surge of missionaries probably starting in January. It is going to be nuts.  

President just found out that they will be moving into a new mission home in a few months and many North American missionaries will come directly to their home as part of their MTC training rather than going to Provo. 

Ok, Elder Bednar came. It was really sweet. There were also 3 seventies and all of their wives. He came to meet with officials in Santiago about something, and decided to pay us a rare 3 hour visit. He later told President that due to the growth of the church, personal visits by Apostles are going to be increasingly rare. 

It was a really cool meeting, but very different than you'd expect. He really didn't stand in front of us and give a prepared speech. He had us study two talks about asking in faith before he came, and then we just discussed them. He asked questions and volunteers answered, then we were given the opportunity to ask him questions. So that was really sweet. He said if anyone asked him where the sword of Laban is he'd make them sit down and he'd tell them he doesn't know and really doesn't care. He told us not to ask questions that we could find the answer on our own. It was very interesting, and very cool, and the spirit was very strong. We didn't get to shake his hand, as he was in a hurry to get to another meeting in Santiago and there were probably 400 missionaries. It is very cool to hear the testimony of an Apostle.

He said when you teach someone, you should teach them like an agent who has moral agency, instead of like an inanimate object, hence the different approach to the meeting. Ultimately, the Holy Ghost is the teacher, as chances are good the people you teach will not retain the information you tell them. The Holy Ghost carries the message unto their hearts when they invite the spirit in by exercising their faith and agency. If you don't let them participate, it's hard for them to invite the spirit. 

It was a blessing to have a prophet, seer, and revelator in our midst and to feel of his spirit and hear his testimony of Christ.

We have a great ward mission leader in this ward, and on Saturday night, we worked with him and he introduced us to all of his neighbors. He had already given out several copies of the Book of Mormon to some of them. We were able to teach two lessons, and get one of his neighbors to church with him on Sunday. It was really amazing. He opened doors for us where we probably would've been rejected if it had just been the two of us. 

We've had many amazing experiences working with members. They can open doors and open hearts that we have worked with for weeks. We had a lesson with an investigator where we didn't say a word, only her and the member talked, and at the end, she committed to going to church on Sunday. 

We are working with him and the support of the bishop to put together a gigantic month-long plan/activity to get the ward and especially the young men and young women excited about missionary work. We hope that it will generate more collaboration between the ward and the missionaries. I will let you know how that goes. 

I was asked to bear my testimony at a family home evening we did with the ward on Thursday. I will share that same testimony with you. 

I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father, and we are brothers and sisters. When we really understand this relationship, we will have a desire to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with our neighbors, friends and acquaintances. I know that when members and missionaries work together, we can help our brothers and sisters access the Atonement of Jesus Christ, find peace and happiness in this life, and live with their families for eternity. If it's important to you, extend the invitation to them to find out why it is important to you. 

I'm out of time, so enjoy winter.  It's getting hot in Chile.  My first Christmas in the summer is right around the corner. 

Elder Garrett

 

Queridos amigos, 

Wow. Fasting works.  After fasting and praying a lot yesterday, we almost immediately witnessed the blessings/miracles.

We met a guy named Luis yesterday, who let us in, and we taught lesson 3. At the end, we extended a baptismal date, and he accepted it. We asked him to say the closing prayer. He started the prayer with "Padre Celestial," which is normal. He began to sob. He thanked God for the tranquility that he could feel right then. The spirit was so strong, and we know he realized this is what he needs in his life. He gave a beautiful prayer. He thanked us so much for coming and we will visit him again later this week when he has more time. 

We've visited this Peruvian couple a couple of times. She is an inactive member, and he is a nonmember. They are not married and they have a son together. Eduardo is very interested in the church and always asks a lot of questions. Sandy wants to come back and to have an eternal family. Elder Kelson felt strongly impressed that we should end the visit yesterday talking a little bit about the law of chastity, and leaving the pamphlet with them. At the end, Eduardo jokingly told us to get them married tomorrow. We were so happy how it turned out, and will be making plans for getting them married and baptized shortly. 

There's so much more I could write, but I'm completely out of time.

I'll just bear testimony that fasting and prayer truly works. The things we prayed for are happening in this area. 

Elder Bednar will be here on Saturday, which is going to be very awesome. There will be something like 400 missionaries, at least. We are excited to have him here in Chile. It will be a great blessing.

We have transfers this week, although they're being delayed until Monday. At this point we don't know what will be happening. 

Elder Garrett    

We have had quite a bit of rain the past three days. Luckily, we also had conference. Yesterday we rode home from a session on our bikes in the rain. We were soaked and had to change our clothes before we left again. But how about General Conference? It recharged our spirits. I understood most of what was said. I think most of the translators were Mexican, much easier to understand. Elder Scott prerecords his talks in Spanish, so that was cool. We are very excited that Elder Bednar will be here on the 20th.

How about that announcement Saturday morning? There is going to be a surge of missionaries in this mission come next year. And we already have 200, more than half of which have less than one year in the mission. We are very excited. We have to let President know this week if the wards we’re in can handle two more missionaries. Sounds like John could be out in under a year. That´s pretty crazy. We were so, so excited. I am very excited for John, should he decide to leave earlier. The most important tools a missionary needs are 1. A testimony, 2. The Holy Ghost, and 3. The Book of Mormon.

Today while we were on a bus (the drivers are absolutely nuts!), a lady got mad at the driver and yelled at him and hit him with her purse 3 times. It was super funny, and yet we should've been scared for our lives.

This week was a little rough on us, but conference made us feel so much better. The spirit was so strong, and I received personal revelation through the Holy Ghost.

Sé que hay un profeta de Dios. Dios le habla y el profeta nos habla la palabra de Dios. Jesucristo restauró Su poder y autoridad, y llamó José Smith. Thomas S. Monson es el profeta de Dios hoy. Puedo sentirlo cuando habla. Compartan el evangelio con sus amigos!

 
Elder Garrett

Top of Form

We had a really great week this week. But before I get to that, I have a cool story about a missionary in our mission.

He is either from Ecuador or Paraguay... not sure. He and his whole family were Jehovah´s Witnesses his whole life. He says he didn´t like the Mormons. But one day when he was 17 he decided to let the Mormon missionaries talk to him. He felt the spirit and wanted to keep meeting with them. His parents refused to let him meet with them in their home. So, he would sneak out of his bedroom window, which was on the second floor, in order to meet with the missionaries in a park. He decided he wanted to get baptized, but his parents refused. As he was under 18, he needed parental permission to be baptized. He stayed up all night one night practicing his mom´s signature, signed the paperwork the missionaries gave him and didn´t tell them he´d forged it.

His parents were very upset, maybe even furious, that he chose to get baptized. He snuck out of the second story window every week for church. His Bishop told him he should serve a mission, and he decided he wanted to. He gathered all of the clothing and other things he would need, and he and his Mormon friends would sneak them into the house through the second story window. He didn´t tell his parents he was going on a mission until the day before he was going to leave for the MTC.

When he told them, they were furious. They told him he didn´t even have any clothes to take, at which point he showed them the suitcases and clothing he´d bought on his own. His mom told him, "If you go, don´t come back." He was completely rejected by his family.

Now we get to the cool part. Four months in to his mission, he got an email from an ex-girlfriend. The Lord softened the hearts of his family. Not only did his parents get baptized, but, in one day, 32 members of his immediate and extended family got baptized.

We had a very busy week this week. We decided we really wanted to complete our goal of 140 contacts this week (10 each, every day). But, because we were so busy, there were days where we didn´t quite get them done. Yesterday, we did 42 contacts. We made it. There were even times when I was talking to one person and Elder Kelson was talking to another. That was a little tough, but I did alright. We knocked so many doors and talked to everyone we could. We were very much blessed to find several really good potential investigators.

The Bishop had asked us to focus our efforts on two certain streets. I have no doubt he was inspired, because we found a lady who has clearly been prepared by the Lord. Her name is Mariela. She attended a certain church with her family for about 7 years. She had some concerns, though, and talked to the pastor about them. She was concerned that it seemed like because she didn´t have much money she wasn´t really accepted there. Also, she was concerned because the pastor didn´t exactly practice what he preached. She brought this up. He told her that she was a child of the devil and that she was going to hell. She was shocked. Her family sided with the pastor and completely rejected her from the church, and from the family.

She told us she didn´t want to believe him, but was still worried nonetheless, not only for herself, but for her children. She really opened up to us and talked for quite a while. We taught her a little bit about the restoration. Not only did we give her the restoration pamphlet, but we also gave her a Book of Mormon, because she really likes to read, and really needs some peace and comfort in her life. On top of that, she asked us what her purpose in being here is. So, we also gave her a Plan of Salvation pamphlet.

She is so meek and humble and she really wants to know where the truth is. She´s been investigating churches and reading the Bible to try and find it. We are very excited to work with her.

Other cool experience. We contacted this lady who told us we could pass by a certain day. She then told us she was actually Mormon. But she was inactive and had a bunch of weird ideas. She wanted to convert us to her ideas about God, and wanted to argue with us the whole time. We were patient, and started with a prayer. The Spirit seriously flooded the room. It was so strong that as we shared the message of the Restoration, she couldn´t argue, because she could not deny that she could feel the Holy Ghost. It was a really incredible experience, and we were invited back.

Watch general conference.

Elder Garrett

¡Hola!

So many fiestas. I mean, we´re talking about people who know how to party. For an entire week. It has been pretty crazy.

I received my first kiss from a drunk guy last Monday night. Congratulations, right? It was slobbery and it took a while to get the feel of his scratchy beard off my cheek. And we were trying to teach a lesson in this 15 year old’s doorway. On the 19th we encountered Juan Carlos, a very talkative drunk, whom we could not get away from for 30 minutes. We were almost late getting home. He wanted to accompany us, so we said we had a meeting first. And since he was going the same way as us, we ran like there was going to be no tomorrow down a side street so we could get home long before he could see where we live.

Yesterday we encountered a very angry drunk. Usually they´re pretty nice to us when they´re drunk. They just talk forever and ever or give us big wet kisses. This guy was so mad at us for being in his country, and thinking that he´s poor, when his shoes were a nicer brand than ours. He scared off the old lady we were talking to, which made us a little mad. We honestly thought he was going to hit us, and both were tempted at times to just run away from him. But we waited it out. Elder Kelson pulled a fake phone call, but the borracho told him to put the phone away. He took the fake call anyway thinking we could both get away, but instead, I was stuck speaking with a drunk man who was speaking a language I hardly know, just praying that someone would come along to distract him away from us. He told me I should stay away from my companion because he´s a bad influence on me. Haha. Another drunk guy distracted him and he let us go. He was nuts, though. Fun stuff. We are definitely watched over, I will say that much.

We had a huge ward activity with the 18th. We had tons of great food and played tons of games and such. Tons of empanadas con queso, which are my favorite.

We had a couple of really great experiences this week (Other than the adventures listed above). We found this really amazing evangelico who really tries to live what the scriptures teach. He was incredible, and we left him a Book of Mormon. We really think he will actually study it and pray about it. He told us if the book is true, we will meet again. We really think God will put him in our path again.

We got a great reference from one of the members. The wife is inactive, and the husband and children are not members. The wife was really excited to have us visit and wants to do a family home evening with another family in the ward. She said if she asked her husband to go to church he would. And she´s having problems with her 13 year old daughter, for which we prescribed church, and young womens. The young women in this ward are really supportive and friendly towards investigators. We will be doing a family home evening with them tomorrow with a family from the ward, for which we are excited.

Last night we set a date for the baptism of Eric and Marjorie. The missionaries have met with them for a long time. We bore testimony and left 2 Nephi 31 with them to read, and pray about it. They said they want to get baptized but want to get married first, which is convenient, because we need them to do that anyway. We are going to take them to visit the temple, hopefully, this weekend so they can see the great blessing of an eternal family is in their future. They have a daughter who is two or three.

Things are starting to pick up around here, for which we are very grateful. The fiestas were good, but I´m glad they´re over now....

Elder Bednar will be speaking to us on October 20. We are stoked for that.

Pray and rely on the Lord every day. Don´t forget Him.

 

Elder Garrett

 

 

 

 Elder Garrett and Elder Kelson in front of the Mission Home, which used to be an Embassy.

 

 

Stake activity for 18 de Septiembre, national dance.

 

 

Barbeque on 18 de Septiembre

 

The family we ate lunch with on the 18th. They have a son serving a mission in brazil. Elders Shelley, Villagran, myself, and Kelson. 

What a week it has been! Sometimes when I wake up freezing in the morning to the sound of wild dogs barking like mad, I look out my window, which is barred, and I ask myself, "where in the world am I?," at which point I remember I am in Chile. It's so weird to think that a little less than a week ago, I was sweating in the heat of summer in Utah. We've actually worn jackets quite a bit this last week, because it has gotten pretty cold the past few days. When we wake up, we pray on top of our beds, underneath three thick blankets and a sheet, and then roll out of bed and immediately start exercising in the hopes that we will warm up a little bit. The good thing about this mission is that we don't have to wake up until 7:30... we go to bed at 11:30 though. It's because a lot of people work later, so our best proselyting time is between like 5-10.

So far I like it. I hardly understand anything people say to me, but other than that, it's great. They say I'll be able to understand them better in like two weeks. I really hope so haha. 

September 18th is Independence Day... really the only big holiday here. Bigger than Christmas. And they celebrate it all week long. I have seen more red, white, and blue in the past couple of days than I think I have ever seen in my life. It's bigger than the 4th of July, I'm telling you. The Chilean flag is everywhere. I have also seen and will see more drunks than I've ever seen before. It's always fun when we're talking to someone and a drunk comes up to me and tries to communicate with me. It's hard enough for me to understand these people when they're sober... We're not exactly sure what we'll be able to do tomorrow, as everyone will either be drunk or partying (or both) all day long... but it will be a normal day for us. A lot of our investigators are out of town with the holiday. There was a huge stake activity on Saturday celebrating the 18th and there will be a huge ward party this Saturday.

 

Our ward is Renca Dos. Oh, by the way, I'm serving in Renca right now. I can't exactly tell you where that is... because I'm really not sure... I just know I'm to the north of Santiago. Let's just say it's a very good thing Elder Kelson knows this area. If I was in charge, we would probably accidentally be halfway to Buenos Aires by now. Oh, by the way, my trainer is Elder Kelson. We're hoping after the holiday we can have a little more success, when people might actually be home so we can teach. 

We live with two other elders, Elder Villagran (de Guatemala), y Elder Shelley. 

We eat a huge lunch in members homes almost every day. So far I've had some good food and some food I've just choked down out of politeness. We've had some good empenadas, completos, choripan(?), and something we just refer to as "Jackie Chan." 

A lot of times we talk to people about how when Christ organized his church it had a prophet, 12 Apostles, Christ at the head, and His authority (priesthood). We explain when they died, it was lost. They agree with us that the true church needs all these things, and that baptism is not valid without the authority. Then we tell them all of these things have been restored but when we ask if we can teach more, they say they already have a church. It gets a little frustrating some times. 

On a funny note, I contacted a Pastor Evangélico and his wife the other night on our way home...they were not interested. I also knocked a door wherein lived a bunch of nuns. They were also not interested. 

It's so great to be out here. It really is a great feeling. I may not be able to communicate very well with these people, but I'm having a good time and learning to rely on the Lord. 

I hope you are all doing well in the states. I'm getting more comfortable here everyday. I do have some blisters, and my feet hurt for several days, but it's better now.

Elder Garrett

 

 

I am safely in Chile.  I got in a couple power naps during the flight... maybe 30 minutes tops.  As soon as I'm done writing this, I get to go take a nap, so...

The missionary next to me and I got to talk to this lady named Gaby, who is from Chile/USA.  At first, she didn't want to hear about our religion, but about 3 hours of talking about random things and learning about her, she asked us to teacher her.  Actually, she used the word debate, but it was more like a conversation.

We talked a lot about agency (albedrio).  We shared scriptures, then she closed the book and decided to open to a random page.  Guess what opened?  Index page with "Albedrio".  She loved it and found great scriptures.

She told us how bad her day and week had been, and how she wasn't supposed to be on that flight with us, but she felt like we were angels and she felt a lot of peace.

I think we made a great impression on her and cleared up a lot of her concerns.  And we taught the law of chastity... bizarre, but she loved the pamphlet and it did actually fit in with her concerns.  It was an amazing experience and the Spirit was so strong.

Elder Garrett

So, we got our flight plans last Thursday.  We fly Delta the whole way. Flight 985 from SLC to Atlanta 12:50 PM to 06:28 PM on September 11. Then Flight 147 from Atlanta to Santiago 10:35 PM (Sept 11) to 09:10 AM on Sept 12.  We leave the MTC at 8 AM and have a four hour layover in Atlanta, where we'll eat some real food and make some phone calls.

A week from now I'll be preaching the gospel in the streets of Santiago. How cool is that?

I've got one more week to practice my Spanish before I enter a world where I may only be able to communicate in Spanish. But hey, I can talk about Joseph Smith's First Vision pretty much fluently, what else do I need?

It's amazing how strongly the Spirit testifies every time we teach that story. Because we are testifying that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that He and His son, Jesus Christ are two separate beings, and that the heavens are open in our day. We too can receive personal revelation. For example, during a lesson, I was acting as an investigator and I was reminded of something my dad once said, and prompted to ask the missionaries who were teaching me that if they are happy because of the gospel, why I could not see it when they taught it. It was a great lesson for me especially, and I have been trying to show the joy that I have when I'm teaching. Through personal revelation we have all become much better teachers.  

Also... I've been really sick since about Friday or Saturday, but I'm getting better every day and hoping by September 11 I'll be better, as I will be on an airplane for something like 17 hours.

I'm so excited that I will finally be teaching people, and bringing something they desperately need into their lives. The Lord has blessed me so much in my life, and especially now with Spanish. I know it will be several months before I can really communicate comfortably with people, but the amount I've learned already is incredible! The Lord certainly takes part in the preparation of His missionaries. I see His hand in my life every day.

Yo sé que Jesucristo vive y es mí Salvador. Él sufrió por mís pecados y todos de mís affliciones y dolores. Quiere ayudarme porque sabe todas las cosas que siento. Y sé que tenemos un profeta de Dios por neustro día. Jesucristo restauró su Iglesia por medio del profeta José Smith. Tenemos la opportunidad usar la expiación cada día.  

I know that this is His work, and I cannot wait to get out there and help people to follow Him. "For I do know that whosoever shall put their trust in God shall be supported in their trials, and their troubles, and their afflictions, and shall be lifted up at the last day." (Alma 36:3). Know in whom you should trust, and trust in Him, because He wants to help you and guide you, and I promise you that He will, because he is doing so for me. "And I have been supported under trials and troubles of every kind, yea, and in all manner of afflictions; yea, God has delivered me... and I do put my trust in Him, and He will still deliver me." (v. 27)

God be with you 'til we meet again

Elder Garrett

Well, we've only got two weeks left now. That's so fast. It's crazy to think that in two weeks I'll be teaching my first lesson with a real investigator.... and that they probably won't understand me. And I probably won't understand them... Exciting, isn't it? We are so excited, and are trying really hard to keep working these last two weeks. They're actually thinking of shortening MTC time by two weeks or so, and they almost observed our district because our teachers taught us at a faster pace. That would be nice, but I'm grateful I've got two more weeks to get more language skills down before I get dropped off in Santiago.

We had to say goodbye to both of our teachers this week, which was really rough. I wish you could've met Hermano Sheide. He's Jake's age, and his three years of teaching here were up. He was so awesome. He has more faith and enthusiasm than anyone I've ever met. When I think of Joseph Smith, I think of Hermano Sheide. I think we will all be better missionaries because of his influence on us. He didn't only teach us Spanish, he taught us how to be missionaries, to be the best missionaries we can be. I may be able to send pictures today... we'll see if that works out.

Dad would've liked what one of the seventies who spoke on Sunday said. He told us to "remember the dignity of our call" and "don't lapse back into stupidity."  He also said that the sun comes up every morning and we can start over, and become better every day.

He wanted us to memorize the last words of Nephi, which were: "for thus hath the Lord commanded me, and I must obey. Amen." I know through my obedience, Heavenly Father has blessed me with the Spirit abundantly, and it's such a blessing for me and the people I teach. We had a great experience teaching one of the other missionaries who was acting as a less active friend. The spirit prompted me to bear a very particular testimony, story, and scriptures. Up to this point he had been unresponsive to us. The spirit was so strong, and I could see in his eyes that the Lord finally provided a way to get through to him, because we were finally listening to the spirit and the investigator.

Heavenly Father only gives us a witness after the trial of our faith. In Ether 12:6,12, Moroni says that "faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.... for if there be no faith among the children of men God can do no miracle among them; wherefore, he showed not himself until after their faith." It's crazy how much my faith has grown in the past month and a half. Jake sent me a quote that I can't quite remember, but it was something along the lines of how day by day we don't think anything is changing, but if you look back over a month, everything has changed. If we have any fear or doubt, we cannot work miracles, only through faith.

Well I'm done now, but I have a scripture to share. In Alma 26:37, it says "God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever." I testify that that is true and that God is mindful of all his children. I promise that if you will ask in faith, sincerely, and really intend to act on the answer, God will answer you, because He answers me.

Elder Garrett

What an eventful week it has been. So, we finally had an Apostle speak last night. Elder Neil L. Anderson spoke to us. It was awesome. It was also Pres. Monson's birthday. He told us when he was with him earlier that day, and told him he would be speaking to us, President Monson said to tell us how much he loves us and thanks us and that he prays for us and sends us his blessing. Elder Anderson had us sing for him and then his talk was mostly about his teachings and his life. It was really cool. But I'll get to that in a minute.

In our District Review after the devotional, this elder in my district, Elder Faught, got up when it was his turn to speak. He stood there for a minute, thinking, and then said: "It's always a blessing to be taught by the feet of an Apostle." Three of us immediately busted up laughing, and he had no idea what was going on. He was so confused and so he went on speaking. Afterwards, we asked him if he knew what he said, and he said: "Yeah, it's always a blessing to be taught at the feet of an Apostle," at which point we explained the important one word difference. He understood, and laughed accordingly.  

There are many things I could share with you that he said, but I've only got fifteen minutes left, so I'll have to only pick a few.

He shared some of his favorite things President Monson has said. One of them was: "The Lord will shape the back to bear the burdens placed upon it."

He said to never ignore a prompting from the spirit so the Lord will know He can trust us. If you are not sure if it is the Holy Ghost or yourself, take a chance on it, and within a couple of days you will know whether it was or not. And then they will come more frequently and you will grow up in the spirit of revelation. It was really awesome and the spirit was so strong.

My most favorite part of his talk was at the end, when he bore testimony that Christ lives. I wrote down the exact wording that he used because it was so powerful to me. He said:

"I testify with absolute certainty that He rose the third day, that there is life after death. I testify that He lives, I witness that He lives. I am His witness."

The spirit bore a powerful witness to me that this was true and that this man is one of His special witnesses for us on the earth today. Not only did the Holy Ghost bear witness of the truth, but also gave me several promptings during the talk.

He said we have the light of revealed truth. Our pain will be swept away because Christ will lift it from us. Our pain will be swept away by peace and relief. He has felt your pain and can and will give you His peace. He lived a perfect life and gave a perfect sacrifice for us. While we cannot fully comprehend the Atonement, we can know that it is real and that it works.

During one of our classes yesterday, I felt prompted to share something that we talked about. We were talking about the power of the spirit in conversion, but our teacher felt prompted to take the lesson in a different direction that he had not planned on. It was something I had never thought about but that made perfect sense to me when I did.

We do not have a monopoly on the spirit. The spirit testifies of truth when it is spoken. You can go to any church and feel the spirit. When people testify of truth, the spirit backs them up. However, when they testify of a false statement or the tampered truth, the spirit will not testify.

For example, if someone testifies of three things:

1. God is our loving Heavenly Father

2. Jesus is the Christ
3. And the Bible is the only book containing the word of God.  The spirit will testify of the first two statements, but will flee when the third is stated, because there are several other books of scripture, especially the Book of Mormon.

The beautiful thing is that we have the complete truth. Other churches have only some of the truth, and can therefore only feel the spirit at times. We complete the truth, not change it.

I hope that made at least a little bit of sense. I'm out of time now, so I'm off to do laundry. Thank you for your support.

Elder Joseph Garrett

One of the biggest things I've learned this week at the MTC is that we're not teaching lessons, we're teaching people. And we're helping people. Not only do we ask them to repent, we actually need to help them change their lives. You have to make sure they know you want to love, not lecture, that you want to help, not interview. Otherwise, it will be hard for them to give up everything they know and change their lives completely.

This does not only apply to investigators.

There are many approaches to inviting people to come unto Christ. The most effective way is to help and love them.

Pray for opportunities to help other people, and they will come. Put your fears aside and do not be afraid to open your mouth. You don't always have to say something profound. Recall that Alma the younger found one of the greatest missionary companions of all time simply by asking him for a bite to eat. It doesn't matter what you say to people as long as you say it.

I've had a lot of experiences this week with prayer. Every time I pray, I get an answer. Sometimes not in ways you would expect.

There was something I never understood about the church. I pondered and prayed about it, and during gym, I saw that a talk by Elder Christofferson was on one of the TVs. I felt strongly that I should go watch it. So I went to the bike right in front of that particular TV and plugged in my headphones. To my surprise, the question I had was eloquently answered. He talked about when Peter was given revelation that the gospel should then be preached to the gentiles. I felt that Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost truly guide this church and instruct the Prophets and Apostles what we need and when we need it, even when a change in church practice is therefore needed to accomodate revelation.

I testify that the heavens are open in our days. The Apostles and Prophets receive revelation for the whole church and the whole world. And if we pray, we can receive personal revelation for ourselves. I know that He answers prayers, because He answers mine every day. He will answer if you ask sincerely, and if you intend to act on the response.

I know that Jesus Christ suffered for us so we wouldn't have to. He died, and was resurrected. He lives, and will come again.

Elder Joseph Garrett

So the big news is we are getting two brand new roommates in our room. I don't know where they are going to put their stuff, as their are four desks, four closets, and all the space under the beds are full with suitcases. So this will be an adventure. We are going to pretend like we are not allowed to speak English at all. It is going to be so fun.

We watched a video that Elder Holland made, and one of my favorite quotes in it was that "if you love them today, maybe you can teach them tomorrow." He was referring to unresponsive Primary kids, but I think it applys to all of us. He reminded us that if we don't testify throughout and at the end of a lesson/class, the people will leave wondering what we thought about it. Testimony truly invites the spirit. We can see that everyday as we are teaching our roleplay investigators.

The other night I prayed for a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon. For the next two days, the Book of Mormon is basically the only thing we talked about. We talked about it in class, in workshops, and then in the devotional last night. It was a really good experience for me about the power of prayer. The more our prayers are answered, the more our faith builds.

Our big focus the past two days is that you don't need to solve every doubt (your own or an investigators), because if they will read the Book of Mormon, ponder about it, and pray about it, sincerely, with real intent, they will gain a testimony that it's true, and then nothing else matters. Because then you know Joseph Smith was a prophet, that the church is true, and most importantly, that Jesus is the Christ, the Savior of the world. There is no greater resource to teach of Jesus Christ.

I also decided something this week. Most of it comes from something Andra Thorne once said to me about directing. The way to lead is not to force, but to lead. To set an example and encourage others to follow. Don't drag. Dragging creates resistance and contention. Just something I've observed this week. Also, I believe this is the way Jesus Christ leads. We have our agency, he set an example and asks us to come unto Him and follow Him. If he forced us to, we would never progress, and we'd probably resent Him for it. This is why we chose to follow God's Plan of Salvation as opposed to the other proposed plan.

Don't rely on logic and statistics. Rely on the spirit.

This month has gone by so incredibly fast. So many good experiences.  Thank you for your prayers and support.

We listened to a talk by Elder Holland, and he said that as missionaries, our work is the same as the Father and the Son, "to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man," by "inviting others to come unto Christ through faith in Jesus Christ, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost,and enduring to the end."

In the devotional last night with Rex D. Pinegar, a main theme was the question "Why am I here?" It was a great talk that we had a good experience talking about afterwards. Jesus said that his "work is to do the will of Him who sent me." It is the same for us. We are here to serve God and do everything he would have us do. If you want results, do the work. Commitment brings success. He wants us committed to it all, even every rule, because when Jesus Christ was doing his work, He was completely committed to every rule to fulfill the will of His Father.

There are some Elders here who don't know why they're here or are here for the wrong reasons. I want you to know that I do.

There are many things I don't understand. I don't know how the world was created, or where Kolob is, or everything that will happen in the second coming. As a mortal I don't fully comprehend eternity. I don't know why every commandment or rule has been made. I don't know all the mysteries of God.

These are nice things to think about, but in the end, it really shoudn't be very important to us now. I believe we should focus on one main goal: living the gospel of Jesus Christ by faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. Rather than getting caught up in how long the seven seals are, we should strive to become like Christ, even to become perfect even as He is perfect. As we live the gospel, we should be becoming more like Him, or we're not doing it right. I think the biggest chunk of knowledge we are meant to gain on earth is how to be like our Heavenly Father through Jesus Christ. If we prepare now, we will be ready when He comes again.

While I know we can't be perfect as mortals, I know if we strive to develop Christ-like attributes every day of our lives, one day as resurrected beings we can become perfect through Christ's Atonement.

While I don't know everything, these things I do know:

1. Jesus Christ is my Savior and through his atonement the gap has been bridged between mortals and God. Our sins have been paid for and if we will do the neccessary work, Christ's grace will get us there. Through his Resurrection, our bodies will be reunited with our spirits after death.  

2. The Book of Mormon is true. It is the word of God, and the most true book on Earth. It was translated by the power of God.

3. Joseph Smith saw our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.

4. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, as is Thomas S. Monson. God Speaks through the prophets and Apostles to guide us.

5. Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ (Not Joseph Smith) restored the fulness of the gospel and its ordinances on the Earth for the last dispensation (through Joseph Smith.) They did this so we could have full access and availabilty to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.

6. We are children of our Heavenly Father and He will communicate with us as we pray with real intent. Real intent means we really intend to act on the response. He has a plan for us so that we can have joy.

Thanks so much for the letters (keep them coming). I'm sorry I had to miss the birth of my first niece, but I know this is where I'm supposed to be. I hope Jake and Hannah get some sleep and are doing well.