July 12, 2011 (Posted a little late!)

Ahhhh...  Hello Everyone!

 

This has been an interesting week.  I've experienced many new challenges, but I'm still very grateful to the Lord for all of them.

 

My Zone Leader duties aren't too bad, but they do take up a lot of my time.  Sundays are completely shot, since I have meetings starting at 7:00am going all the way to 10:00pm.  I'm in charge of organizing sacrament and priesthood meetings, and making sure everything goes to plan.  I'm also in charge of overseeing my zone, which is comprised of 4 Districts.  I am responsible for overseeing any problems that arise in the zone that the District Leaders present to me, and I am also in charge of teaching and orienting new missionaries who enter the MTC into my zone.  So my Wednesday and Thursday evenings are now set apart for this orientation, and my entire Sundays are taken up with meetings.  I do appreciate the assignment though, and am trying to fulfil my duties the best I can.

 

Mom, you asked me what kind of Book of Mormons I'll be handing out since the language is unwritten.  The church has invented an ingenious solution to this problem.  Essentially, they made up a system of writing for the Filipinos.  Many Filipinos speak English, and the educated can read it.  The Church has made the Book of Mormon into the Basahon ni Mormon, which contains the Bisiyan words spelled out in English letters.  This way, the Filipinos only need to know how to sound out the letter sounds and they'll know what it means because everything sounds exactly how it reads.

 

I've been sending letters to you, my family, like crazy this week.  You should be getting another letter with some writting on the back, very soon.  When you get this wait for the second letter that I sent today until you respond.  I want to be on the same page still, and since there is so much lag in the snail mail, I don't want it to get confusing.  I do still love getting all your dear elders, it really does make my day.

 

The older Cebuano district left for the Philippines yesterday.  They are still in the air now.  I am so so so jealous of their 36 hour flight plan.  Seriously.  I want to get out in the field so bad.  My teachers tell us that things have really changed since they were in the MTC.  Appearantly we know just as much Cebuano now, after 4 weeks, that they did when they went out to the field.  That means that I could survive going early, with the same knowledge they had.  The MTC is an amazing accomplishment of the church, and it's a great learning place, but I'm ready to go now.  This Saturday is our halfway point.  ugh.  I guess the more practice I get, the better though.  With the older district leaving, our numbers have also dropped by 6.  Now only 8/2500 speak Cebuano in the MTC.  Our lunch table is so lonely.  We get 22 new missionaries in 2 weeks though!  I'm very excited.

 

Misyonaryo ko sa simbahan ni Jesukristo sa mga Santos sa Ulahing mga Adlaw.  Nasayud ko nga tinuod sa simbahan ug pinaagi ni joseph smith, nagpahiuli ang Dios sa ebangelyo.  Nagpasalamat ko sa Dios para iyang gugma ug pagia niya.  Excitedkaayo ko para sa opportunidad sa magalagad sa mga tawo sa Philippines.  Nahigugma ko akong manluluwas ni Jesukristo ug Nagpasalamat ko para kaniya.

I'm a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I know that the Church is true and that through Joseph Smith, God restored the gospel.  I am thankful to God for His love and His guidance.  I'm excited, too, for the opportunity to serve the people of the Philippines.  I love Jesus and am grateful for Him.

 

Naa ko'y sa pinakamaayong pamilya sa kalibutan!

I have the best family in the world!

July 28, 2011

I'm glad you liked my last letter.  It's been fun to see myself get better this week.  It's sad though because nobody else in my district even tries.  I don't understand.  But like you mentioned, I just have two more weeks left and then I get another chance for a good companion and district.  Unfortunately, I don't get to see the other Cebuano district again.  They are going to a different mission than me.  But no worries.

I'm pretty sure the MTC has my Visa and stuff.  They give it to us when we leave so we don't lose them, I guess.  But I get my travel plans next week!  I'm so excited!  I've been here an eternity, it feels like.

Too bad I'll miss Robbie though.  Where is he going?

It was also cool to hear about your trip to NYC.  I love how you said, "we thought about sending you treats from FAO Schwartz..." but just left it at that.  Nice.  I'm really good on food now though.

Oh, do you know how much money is on my debit card?  I need to have enough for customs, ties, and new pants, plus whatever else I need out there when I arrive.  I don't know if I need more money, I just want to know how much I have.

So Sydney tells me that Alicia finally got her license.  Basta! (That's cool!)  Make sure she takes care of my baby while I'm gone!

Dad wanted to know the best way to contact me in the field.  I think, for now, just send me emails starting on the 15th, but you can also check dearelder.com.  I know dearelder.com delivers letters to some missions but I don't know how long it takes or anything.  I'll just have to wait and see.

Well, I love you!  The MTC has definitely given me a profound gratitude for righteous parents who raised me well in the Gospel.  Again, I love you!

Love,
Elder Garver

Groundhog Day 42

Hey everyone! 

 

The days are counting down!  Less than 3 weeks now and I'll be in the Philippines!  Unfortunately I'll miss Robbie by 2 days.  I fly out on the 15th.  Which reminds me.  Make sure you are home on the 15th family, because I'll be calling you that day from the airport.  I don't have my flight plans yet, sigh... but I know that's the day when I'm leaving.  Oh, and do you know how much it costs to go through customs?  I know I'm supposed to have money for any bags and what not.  I just want to be sure I have enough to actually get to the Philippines.

 

So this week hasn't been too different.  A lot more of the same.  It just barely finished pouring rain outside right now though; that was fun.  Oh, and the temple has been closed for a month for cleaning, but it opened up again today so we got to go.  I got to do sealings with my district, and it was really neat.  I love the temple.

 

I'm also loving my language more and more every day.  I've deffinitely gotten better by only speaking Cebuano all day.  Nobody else is really doing it but me, but it's been really fun to see how sentences seem to come easier and easier every day to me.  I'm super super excited for the field.  One thing I found out though, is when my call packet said to not bring nice ties, they meant it.  Apparently, it is so humid in Cebu, that silk ties simply shrivel up.  The good news, however, is that ties in the Philippines cost about 20 pesos each  (about 35 cents USD).  So not too big of a problem.  We learned how to barter this week in class so I'm all set.  The money exchange rate is so crazy there.  I can't believe that I'll be living off of 60 dollars a month pretty soon.  Wow.  But yeah, what would you like me to do with all my silk ties now?  Mail them back home or what?  And how much would that cost?

 

We didn't do anything to celebrate pioneer day here. at all.  Maybe because on the 4th of July, the MTC appearantly offended a bunch of foreign missionaries with the festivities and they had to publically appologize for that at a fireside.  Oh well.

 

Oh, one thing I do need to mention, is how delicious a glass of half minute maid orange juice, and half welches grape juice is.  It's pretty much the best drink I've ever tasted.  Maybe.  It's pretty good.  You should try it.  The food has been going up and down in edibleness here recently, some days it's amazing.  Other days, I have salad.  I do have more food than I can eat now at my residence though, thanks to all the care packages you have been sending, thank you for the cookies Nuna and Papa!

 

I don't really know of much else that has been interesting this week.  We do get another 2 Cebuano districts this week though so that should be fun.  We aren't supposed to speak any English to them at all, as part of the new curriculum.  Unfortunately I think only 3 people in my district are capable of that.  We'll see how it goes.  I'll send you another letter tomorrow Mom!

 

Nahigugma ko kaninyo!

 

Elder Garver

July 18, 2011

Thank you for writing me all your letters.  I liked them.  I've had many thoughts about the Atonement of Jesus Christ this week and I'm thankful for Him.  I decided to begin only speaking Cebuano this week.  It's difficult, but when I follow my commitment I have fun and feel the Spirit.  And, when everyone doesn't understand me, they don't argue with me!  I have many quiet days, but they're peaceful.  I think I'm becoming better at Cebuano.

Despite my many trials, I know my Father lives, and He loves me.  I'm thankful to Him (and my awesome parents) for the opportunity to serve my mission, and to teach the people of the Philippines.  I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.

Oh! I had the opportunity to see Crystal these past couple weeks, at the MTC.  It was cool!  Grandma wrote me about her wedding.  I probably won't get to see Crystal again for a long time now. 

I miss you all and I love you.  Thank you for your help and advice!

Love,
Elder Garver

July 22, 2011

I never thought I would write so many letters in my life.  Once a week correspondence just isn't enough though.  It has also been surprisingly lonely here at the MTC.  Even with so many people here, I feel very alone quite often.  My only constant is Jesus, and for Him, I am very grateful.  I don't think I was ever meant to have a life devoid of worry and stress, but I know that I am never truly alone.

I loved the family pictures you all sent.  I love you all very much.  My teacher told us that the people in the Philippines love seeing pictures of missionaries' families, so if you send me all the pictures you can/want of me and you all, and my friends, I'll show you off to my investigators!

That care package you sent me was amazing as well.  It was so clever!  The muddy buddies made everyone jealous.  I'll be sending a bunch of pictures home soon.  I hope you'll enjoy them.

I'm super excited to get out of here, and into the field.  I'll start translating my Cebuano for you as well.  Maybe I'll teach you some of the language so you can use it when you pick me up.

I love you all so much!  ayo-ayo (Good-bye)!

Gugma (Love),
Elder Garver

Groundhog Day 35

Kamusta Mo!

 

First off, I have the best family in the world.  Thank you all so much for writing me!  My sisters are all amazing and funny and nindot kaayo and my parents are the best parents in the kalibuton.  My grandparents are nindot as well and I love them Dako!  Shaelyn, you are awesome too.  Thanks for the letters!

 

So today is groundhog day 35.  Only 27 more to go!  I'm over the hump!  How exciting.  We begin our first all Cebuano TRC lessons this Thursday and I'm really looking forward to it.  I have all this vocab in my head, I'm ready to put it to some meaningful use.  My companion, who struggled a lot the first few weeks, has been getting much much better as we have studied together and he is really taken off.  We had a great experience early this week where I almost had to beat him to the ground (kidding) but after this experience he finally opened up to me and we had a great talk.  We have never been closer and this week has been fantastic.  The Lord never ceases to surprise me with His infinite goodness and wisdom.  I truly do have an inspired call.

 

The language is going well.  I don't really feel that I've improved much since last week, but as I speak more and more I am realizing that it is coming easier.  I've decided to speak all in Cebuano from now on.  Lisod kini, pero naghunahuna ko nga maayo ini.  Nag... just kidding.  I'll still type in English for all of you.  But I did commit to myself to cease speaking English.  This has proven difficult since half my week is filled with meetings with my English-speaking branch presidency, and various tours and training meetings with the new English missionaries.  Oh well.  It is a ton of fun to speak sa Cebuano when I do have the chance though.  I love this language.

 

Besides that, nothing much new has happened this week.  I really do feel like I've been here my whole life, but at the same time I, no.  I've been here forever.  Thank you all for keeping me a little bit attached to the real world.  I am very much focusing on the work, but I do love the little reminders of home when they come.  I just mailed a little package with a couple letters and some photos home so those should come to you soon.  It cost me a whole 4 stamps!

 

I love you all!

 

Gugma,

Elder Garver

Nindot Kaayo!!

Nagpasalamat ko kaninyo para sa mga dearelder ninyo!!  Thank you so much for writing me this week!  The mail room was closed on Monday and I thought I was going to miss the chance to reply to you all!  I just barely got them in time.  I apologize to you Mom, last week I didn't recieve your letter until after I had emailed everyone, so I waited until later today.  If you send me the letters on Sunday, that should be enough time for me to get them.  Feel free to send me little updates throughout the week as well.  I LOVE getting paper mail, and I only have 6 weeks left of it!  I'm just going to send this to you Mom, and can you make sure everyone else gets it?  Thank you!

 

So this week was was a pretty crazy one, lots of cool things happened.  We had an amazing 4th of July devotional, where we sang patriotic songs to celebrate our great God-given Nation (even yankee doodle) then some amazing speakers, and then, out of nowhere, we heard bagpipes, and a band marched in playing hymns followed by all the mission flags.  I got some pictures, which I'll send.  They aren't the best but they show a little bit.  Then came the best part, the president stood up and told us that they were lifting the curfew for the night so we could stay up and watch the fireworks for the stadium of fire from the MTC lawn!  It was pretty cool.

 

I also got to bear my testimony to everyone this past Sunday in Cebauno and it was really neat.  Only 14 out of 2500 people understood me, but I loved it nonetheless.  I'm truly loving my language and I am so grateful to the Lord for His help in my studies.

 

They other Cebuano district his heading off to Tacloban this Monday, which we are all very jealous about.  I want to go so bad!  This also means that the old Zone Leaders got released, and new ones got called.  Elder Taracena and I are now the new ZLs and it has been crazy already.  Being a zone leader means absolutely no free time on Sunday's, and much less throughout the week.  This is interesting because Elder Taracena and I had been kind of at each other's throats for a bit, and he needed all the study time he could get because he was struggling in the language.  But as soon as we called assigned to be Zone Leaders, he began picking up the language even without added study time, and we have been getting along great.  We are really bonding over our service and I'm loving it.

 

I am recovering from a little cold right now that just about took me out yesterday.  It's looking like a 48 hour bug though and I'm hoping I'll be better by tomorrow.  All things said, this was a pretty great week.  Time seems to be speeding up, and I'm getting along with everyone.  I'm also seeing tons of familiar faces every day.  So far I've met Calvin Fairbairn, 2 people from EFY, Connor Larson from AZ, Jeff (Holly Harris' Cousin), and a Sister from my mission prep class in VA!  I also get random people who call out to me as I'm walking around, who I don't remember, and I talk to them until they're satisfied and leave.  It's always quite interesting as I try to answer all their questions and comments about "back home" when I have no idea where "home" was.  But it's pretty fun all the same.

 

One last thing I learned last week before I go.  I asked my teacher how to say "pet" sa Cebuano, because I was thinking about CJ, and he said they didn't have a word for pet.  Any animal the Philippinos own is considered food, so they don't raise dogs as pets, they raise them as livestalk.  Pretty cool huh?

 

Nahigugma ko kaninyo!

 

Love,

 

Elder Garver

Feed Me!

Thank you Father!  I did recieve the Dear Elder, and I am so glad I did!  I thought that you guys hadn't been able to find it.  That is definitely the best way to contact me, because I can use my full 30 minutes to just respond to you all.

 

So I've been at the MTC for just about 4 months now... wait, it's only been 2 weeks?  Ugh...  Time moves so........ slow........ here..... but it's great.  I'm having a lot of fun with my district and my teachers are all great.  I'm learning the language so fast and It blows me away.  There is absolutely no way I could learn this fast on my own.  The food leaves something to be desired.  I'm getting 4 different plates of food for every meal just so I can find one that tastes decent.  It's really not that bad but I'm getting escited to go to the Pilippines and be able to eat real food there.  I'm so excited to get out into the field.  I am convinced I have the best mission and the coolest language in the MTC.  This week has actually sped up considerably since the first, and I think it's because things aren't so foreign to me anymore.  I want to wish Dad a very happy birthday and I love you.  I appreciate everything you've done for me and I couldn't have a better father.  Happy anniversary to you and Mom as well, I hope everything is going well now after camp and things.

 

This last week was a pretty crazy week.  We had 104 mission presidents and their wives in the MTC all week as well as 10 of the Quorum of the 12.  They blocked off half the MTC so these presidents could be trained and taught by the Quorum.  This would have made things crowded, without the influx of 600 new elders which arrived on Wednesday, so I've felt like a sardine all week.  I found out I'm getting a new mission president though, and my district and I got to meet him and talk with him and his wice for a while this week.  He is so awesome and he made me even more excited for the field.  I was floored when I learned that he and his wife (President and Sister Shmutz) had been taking Cebuano lessons for 2 months, and we all knew more Cebuano than them after just 1 week in the MTC.  I cannot get over how amazing the gift of tongues is.

 

I know the Lord has called me to this work and I know that I have been choosen to serve in Cebu because the Lord has prepared people there to hear me teach them.  The Gospel is true and this work is inspired.  I love all of you.

 

Love,

Elder Garver

 

P.S. If you read above about the food and felt any pity for me, I know a lot of Elder's and Sister's who recieve care packages quite frequently with snacks and such ;)  The work here is exhausting and I'm always starving!   I love you!

Learning the Language

Dear Family,

I'm sorry I got cut off during my email.  I only have 30 minutes and I have so many emails to read!  It would really help me answer all your questions and share much more if you all use dearelder.com.  I've been kinda lonely throughout the week while all the other elders get letters and packages. ;)

Like I was saying in my email, I'm loving the language.  I've learned the equivalent of almost two years of school language in 1 week.  It's been crazy too since Cebuano is an unwritten language!  We are just putting English letters to appropriate sounds.  The language is so much fun.

I was a little disappointed in my companion at first.  He seemed to be absent-minded and, therefore, slower at picking up the language.  He's the only member in his family as well, so he doesn't have such a religious background or vast knowledge about the doctrine of the church.  But!  I soon realized that I had been too quick to judge.  I can testify to you all that Elder Terecena and I were placed together through inspiration.  I have learned so much about patience and love for my fellowman by working with him on the language and the gospel during companion study.  He is an amazing Elder and I am very glad he is my companion.

I was really happy to get a letter from Mom this week.  Something about physical mail is just so exciting.  It's time for personal study now, but I'll be looking forward to your dearelders all this week!

Naghigugma ko kaninyo.  Naghigugma ko ni Jesukristo ug nasayud ko nga manluluwas siya kanato.  Nagpasalamat ko sa Dios para sa pamilya nako.  Maguban ang Dios kaninyo.

Love,
Elder Garver

First Letter!

So, holy cow!  I've only been here a week?  There is a saying here, "the days turn into weeks, and the weeks turn into days."  This is my 7th day so it still just feels like I've been here for months.  It's great here though.  My District is really fun to be with.  We have two Cebuano-speaking missions in my district.  My mission is full of awesome, diligent elders.  One really likes to goof off so it's really hard to study sometimes.  My companion, Elder Terecena, and I have decided to study in a separate room from now on so it can be quiet, and I'm excited for the better study time. 

The food here is pretty good, and there sure is a lot of it.  I'm trying really hard to eat well and work out every night, though, because I hear it's pretty easy to gain weight in the Philippines, which is interesting because I thought it would be the opposite.

My studies thus far have been mainly focused on language, with just a few hours of gospel study each day.  My schedule is pretty much, wake up, eat, language for 3 hours, gospel study for 1 hour, lunch, language for 3 hours, gospel for 1 hour, dinner, language study until 9, planning, bed.  It's super exhausting, but it's been an awesome experience for me.  I know the Lord is helping me because even though I'm working and studying harder than I ever have before, by following my schedule and mission rules, I'm always wide awake for my lessons.  When they're over, though, I feel like passing out.

Now for the language:  I can truly testify of the gift of tongues!  I've been here not even for one week and I'm fully praying in Cebuano, and testifying as well.  The language is so much fun, and I know my call was inspired.  I haven't even been to Cebu yet and I already love the people.  I'm so, so excited.  I love you all, and I apologize for not being able to answer everyone personally.  I just don't have the time.  I will be able to email throughout the entirety of my mission, though, so that will be nice.  I encourage everyone to write to me through dearelder.com.  It's free, and delivered the same day.  I'm out of time!  I love you!

Elder Garver