Tengo 20 años‏

Hello people living on the other side of the world.

 

I had a great birthday this year. I am now 20 years old. I got to spend my birthday with a lot of really great people that I have really grown to love... members Ana Vasques, her daugther-in-law Priscilla, and investigators Graciela Rocco, her children and niece, and the Aburto Navarro family. I was surprised with three birthday cakes. I sent some pictures... that´s why I don't have tons of time... sorry. But enjoy the pictures.

 

We had a great week with lots of great experiences. In church on sunday, Graciela's son Tomas kept yelling "¡Mormones!" and Graciela told him that she thinks they are going to be mormones. He said "¿Yo?" and she said "¡Si!". It was really great. I have loved watching the changes in the lives of the investigators, and the happiness that it brings them.

 

Thank you for the birthday wishes and all the prayers.

 

Cuídense

Elder Garrett

 





Lunch on my birthday

 



Cake #1 during lunch

 

Cake #2... blowing out the candles





Cake #3

New tie

En mis tiempos como joven......

Well, on Wednesday I will turn 20 years old. That's pretty crazy, right? My investigators laugh when I tell them stories from my youth and I say "when I was young" or "In my times." They get a kick out of it. 

I don't have tons of time left today, but I wanted to thank everyone who wished me a happy birthday. I will try to write you back next week. 

Lots of great things have happened, but I'll just share a short story.

We are teaching a really awesome family. I'm pretty sure the mom already has a testimony, and the dad, too, but he's more stubborn. He keeps coming up with lots of doubts. They recently had robbers try to break into their house during the night, and the children are a little disturbed. The other day the mom told us that she was dropping off her 10 year old in town, but he was really worried about her safety, because she'd be home alone. He said "wait!" and bowed his head and said a prayer and then told her that she would be safe, and he ran off completely content. She went home and cried because she was so touched by his faith. She thanked us, because she said that we have helped her children develop much more faith than they'd ever had before. I felt that I should share a scripture in 3 Nefi 11 when Jesus says that unless we get baptized and become like a little child, we cannot enter the kingdom of God. We talked about how much faith their child has and how as adults we confuse ourselves with too much doubt, and we need to have the faith of a child. It impacted the dad very deeply. 

Que podamos volvernos como niños pequeñitos y poder vivir con nuestras familias para siempre

Elder Garrett

La Noche de la Batalla de las Cucarachas

 

Well I guess the big news this week is... we got a new fridge. It's much bigger, much colder, and much appreciated.

The other news would be that I have a new companion. I am still in Los Andes, but I have a new companion, Elder Glazner.

The other night, we found a cockroach in the house. We expelled it from the house, to find about eight more outside of our house. We searched them out in the backyard for quite a while to get rid of all of them. Then we had an invasion of ants that ate the dead cockroaches. By the next morning, there were only a couple coackroach shells. Pretty exciting right? 

Also, yesterday during the sacrament, a baby that was something like one and a half years puked. It sounded like someone dumped a pitcher of water on the tile floor. It was quite exciting, and several people almost had to leave the chapel because of the smell. I was at the piano, and couldn't quite see it or smell it. But I sure heard it. 
 
On a more spiritual note, the Aburto Family came to church yesterday for the first time other than the baptism. They also brought one of the neighbor boys with them. Afterwards, they told several members they would be there next week, too. It was fast and testimony meeting. Something happened that I don't think I've ever seen before. Only men were bearing their testimonies. They were really great testimonies, but I was starting to worry that the mom of the family was going to feel uncomfortable and think that women were not allowed to speak at the pulpit, as no woman had spoken during the whole meeting. Maybe I was just being silly, but I prayed and asked Heavenly Father to touch the heart of some woman so that she would feel the need to get up and bear her testimony. When the man who was speaking finished his testimony, three women basically jumped out of their chairs to share their testimonies.

This is one of the many examples of answered prayers I've had this week. One of our other investigators was really happy that her daughter (14 years old), of her own free will and choice, was starting to listen to us. She really wanted her son to listen (about 10 or 11 years old), but he was disinterested. She asked us what se could do, and we told her the only thing we could do was pray. So together we prayed that God would touch his heart in some way so that he would feel the desire to listen to us. Two days later, my new companion arrived, and her son has been joining us ever since, participating actively, and is excitedly reading the Book of Mormon. Not only was it a testimony to me that God answers prayers, but to her as well. She knows with certainty that God answers prayers.

We were teaching an investigator, who felt a weight in her heart when she would try to pray. She was very frustrated and confused. I felt prompted strongly to ask her a specific question, explain something, and share a personal experience with her. Afterwards, she told us that night she started praying, and she felt her cargo just leave her.

Sé que la expiación de Jesucristo es algo tangible. Como seres humanos no lo podemos entender completamente. Pero lo he visto en las vidas de investigadores, obrando en ellos. Lo he sentido en mi propia vida. Jesús vive. Él es el Hijo del Dios viviente. Dios nos habla. Sus palabras jamás cesarán.

Cuídense
Elder Garrett

It's a Wonderful Day in the Neighborhood

Hola familia, amigos, y conocidos.

So today I found out that Mari got baptized yesterday. She was the first person I taught in Chile, my first day in Renca. Granted, all I did was say the closing prayer, but things got better after then. I was very happy to read her name in the email the mission sends every week. We worked very hard with her for a long time. I am very content to know that she was able to stop smoking and make the covenant of baptism. I can imagine she is very happy. I wish I could have been there, but I'm happy to know that I was able to take part in her process. I think that's the most exciting thing that happened.

Last week I cut my hair. The lady basically buzzed my hair really short, and then asked me if it was how I wanted it. What could I say at that point?

On sunday there were two gringas in church. The daughter was a missionary here a couple years ago. Her mom took a picture of us and emailed it to Mom, so you've probably seen my lovely haircut. They also had a lot of gringo candy that they passed out to everyone, but especially us. I had Swedish Fish and Twix . I shared the Swedish Fish with all of our investigators.

 



Elder Crossley and Elder Garrett



I also recieved Chex mix from Grandma Garrett. I was surprised at how well it held up in the mail, and it was still fresh. I have enjoyed it immensely. I also recieved packages from Grandma Gingell and the ward. All three arrived a month after Christmas, because the office has been a little slow. But I guess I'll forgive them... haha. 

We did a family home evening with a family we are teaching in which we taught the kids how we can be courageous when our friends want us to do things we know we shouldn't. We shared the story of Elisha and his servant in 2 Kings 6. "No tengas miedo, porque son más los que están con nosotros que los que están con ellos." I don't know what it says in English, you'll have to look it up. We taught them that in the end, Jesus is going to win the battle against Satan, and we have to decide for which side we are going to fight.

I guess that's it for this week. Que les vaya bien.

Elder Garrett

Slight Change in the Weather

Well, this week we had to go to Santiago twice. While we were in the doctors office, a woman passed out. About thirty doctors rushed in to pick her up and put her on a stretcher. Her husband hardly even reacted... he just bent down and adjusted her shirt a little bit to cover her stomach. It was a little bit exciting.

Elder Riches is in Santiago, and for now we are no longer a trio. But, in the next week, we might recieve a new companion.

On Sunday, Leontina was confirmed, and received the Holy Ghost. She is having some really hard challenges in her family right now, but she understands how the gospel and the Holy Ghost can help her to endure her trials. Her life is not easy, but she is so happy anyway.

Today, we've had a little bit of rain, and it has cooled off significantly. On one side, it's really great because it's not so hot, on the other side, with rain, we have to ditch the bikes.

We have an investigator named Julio that we found through the English classes we do. He was able to go to the baptism, and when we taught him the first time, he told us he could feel peace in his heart when she got baptized. He said he could feel it in our church, and he could feel it in that very moment with us. He is really awesome.

I guess that's about it for this week. Hope you are all well.

Elder Garrett

Transfers

 

Well... I guess the big news is that today we had transfers. And I'm still here in Los Andes, the hottest city in Chile (so they say). Elder Verón left this morning for Colina. Luckily, Our new companion Elder Crossley, another gringo, from Roy, was in San Felipe, which is about 15 minutes from us, so we didn't have to make the 3 hour roundtrip to Santiago. Elder Verón went with some other elders to Santiago. 

So we are still a trio, with Elder Riches and Elder Crossley. 

But the most exciting news... Leontina got baptized yesterday. I would send fotos, but this computer has issues.  And another exciting thing... we had many, many investigators there. Leontina is having some hard trials with her family, but she told us she is so happy with her baptism. We found out afterwards that she had fasted all morning before her baptism, without us suggesting it or even talking about it. We are so happy with her progress. She understands and wants to take her covenant with God seriously. We had a short lesson last night, and at the end we asked her to pray, and she started sobbing during the prayer because she was so grateful for the change she's had in her life. She is so happy and is inviting her friends to listen to us and come to church with her. 

Hope all is well. I'll try to send fotos next week.

Elder Garrett

Happy New Year!

We postponed the Baptism for this coming Sunday. Leontina is excited and ready to make this big step in her life. She has already had to stand up for her beliefs in the face of opposition.

It was really hot this week. New Years Day was really.... really.... long.... we only taught one lesson. Everyone in Los Andes leaves when they have the day off, and those who were in their houses that day were either in the pool, or sleeping until late in the day. So we basically rode around on our bikes all day.

We had 4 investigators in church this week, which was really great. We had some great help from members to help answer their questions and help them to have a good experience.

Well that's about it, I don't have tons of time today.

I know that our Heavenly Father helps us when we ask Him for help.

Elder Garrett