September 21, 2011

Hey!

I'm so glad you found a house!  I want to see it!  Can you try sending me some pictures again?  How is the ward out there?  Is there a big youth program?  How are the Laurels...? 

So I have kind of gotten in the swing of things, and I'm enjoying my work in Pilar, which is slow, but somewhat steady.  I have now officially been in my area 1 month!  That's exciting.  I got to celebrate by taking the long trip to Cebu, which was awesome.  I got to see all my MTC buddies again, and I found out I'm not terribly behind on the Language.  Phew!  I'm seeing definite improvement.  I'm actually able to hold conversations now and I understand a lot more.  My companion says he thinks I'm going to train after this next transfer which is scary but kinda cool to think about.  We'll see what the Lord wants.  If I was to train a Filipino I think I could do it.  Given 2 more months of practice.

I hope you got my pictures last week, and I hope I can receive your pictures too, next week!

Dad, I'm praying for you and for the whole family.  I love you so much!

Love,
Elder Garver

September 14, 2011 Pictures!

 This is a picture of me being awesomely tall, and a beast at basketball!  :)

 There is a joke here in Pilar about the majority of our investigators being CARABAO.  It's almost true.

 This is the gorgeous view from outside the restaurant I eat at every Monday after District Meeting.

 Another view from the restaurant window.

One more gorgeous scene I encountered one day.

September 14, 2011

So I'm in Tagbilaran (the city) this week so I can send you pictures!  I'm on my way to Cebu for a training seminar.  I'm super excited to see all my MTC buddies again.  Thanks Mom, for sending me that package.  I didn't get your sarcasm at first about the $110 and I freaked out a bit in my head.  I'm glad you didn't spend that much on me.  So I teach seminary once a week, and I love it.  The kids are amazing here.  As second counselor I pretty much just lead meetings, count tithing and whatnot, and help the BP with whatever he needs.  I am learning a whole lot, and I'm loving.  I really love the ward here, the are beyond nice.  I really love our investigators too though.  I have started to be able to understand a lot of what is being said to me, and so I can now more fully participate and actually teach according to needs, which I am ecstatic about.  I'm really excited about one of our investigators, si Ronnie.  Ronnie is golden, he prays and reads and has very good discussions with us every time we meet.  As soon as he receives his answer that this is the true church, I'm positive he'll be baptized.  His family lives up north though, because of the military or something, so hopefully he can have them move down with him soon.  So the work is pretty good.

I'm very happy that you sent me pictures of the family.  People here LOVE looking at them.  On that note however, Sister's of mine: You are NEVER allowed to come to the Philippines.  Sorry.  Every single one of you, Alicia, Rachel, and Sydney, have had many fingers pointed at each of you individually and been deemed, "Oh! Gwapa!!"  Nobody believes me when I tell them how old you all are either.  Sydney, I had to fight off a 30 year old man a couple days ago that wanted your phone number!  So, you can't ever come here, sorry.  You are all just too good looking.

It's sure interesting hearing about your trials and experiences back home.  I'm pray about you every single night.  And I know that the Lord is watching over you.  Padayon sa pagkugi!

I love you all so much!

Love,
Elder Garver

Sept. 7, 2011

Hey everyone! This has been a great week! I really decided to try
and lose myself in the work this week and I have found great happiness
in doing so. The language is coming along slowly. My success in that
regard is that I have begun to be able to understand most of what my
companion is saying when we talk to each other in Cebuano. Well, I
get his overall point anyway. I'm still pretty lost when it comes to
anything outside a discussion, but I have faith it'll come with time
and dilligence. I heard from a lot of people that there was a talk
given, where someone said, if you read the Book of Mormon in your
mission language, by the time you finish, you will be fluent. I've
really grasped on to that promise. I'm almost at page 400 in the
Basahon ni Mormon! There is a total of 802 pages so I'm almost half
way to fluent! Hopefully. Could you look up that talk for me and see
if it's real? Or who gave it? I have also begun to really appreciate
the beauty of the Philippines. I'll try to send another email with
some pictures I took for you this week. I have found a great
love for teaching my Seminary and Sunday School classes here as well.
I try to teach them completely in Cebuano but it doesn't always work
out. Luckily everyone here is like 200-lingual with all the dialects
and various languages here, so they understand English well enough to
help me out when I need it.

I have developed a great love for the busses here! I love
traveling! We take various 2-6 hour round trips here multiple times
a week for meetings and such, and I absolutely love them! Mom would
absolutely flip driving here. Rules of the road, if they exist, are
just guidelines here, as are the lines and dividers painted on the
ground. There are motorcylces weaving in and out of both sides of
traffic going both ways, and busses hurtling through towns, overtaking
other busses around blind corners, over narrow bridges, and dodging
the millions of dogs and cats everywhere here. It's SO fun! I love
sitting in the very front with the huge window acting as a widescreen
TV, windows down, wind in my face, and occasional music blaring(they like
80s music here!). It's just awesome.

It's great to hear about your progress with the house. I pray for you
every day! About my scripture for the plaque again, I don't know how
long it can be, or if I can split up verses or anything, but this
would be awesome. DC 84: 77,79,88 If you could string those three
together, perfect. If not, just 77 and 88 would be ok. Or even just
77. Thanks!

I also have one more thing that would be great to include in that
package if possible, could you slip in one of my 8 gig flash drives? I
need a place to store all my pictures that I'm taking here, for
backup, because my 2 gig memory card is going to run out pretty
quickly. If I missed any questions, I'll answer them in my picture
email.

I love you all so much!
Elder Garver

8-30-11

Hey Family!
 
This has been one of the craziest experiences of my life!  Dad, like
always, you were right.  I should be careful what I wish for.  Also,
you were right about culture shock.  I'll admit, this week was
extremely challenging for me, but only in a mental way.  I've been
blessed with pretty solid health.  As of now though, culture shock is
just about gone.  I'm starting to enjoy it here, even if washing
laundry by hand every night is a pain.  So sorry for my lack of time
last time to explain my pictures.  Yes, that is my house, and my
kitchen.  The bag is full of eggshells which we give to our neighbor
to feed the pigs.  I live with my companion only, and we are learning
to get along.  The Branch is great here.  We meet for 3 hours like a
normal ward and we have about 45-50 members who usually show up to
worship on Sundays.  I actually am the 2nd Counselor here, as well as
sunday school teacher, and seminary teacher.  So I have a lot on my
plate all the time.  I love all the members though, and the people are
so nice.  We found 3 new investigator families this week and I'm very
excited to continue teaching them.  I get laughed at pretty much all
day every day, but it doesn't really bug me.  Seeing an Americano here
is super rare for these people in Pilar, so little kids stare with
huge eyes and girls point and giggle.  Mostly I hear, "Hey Joe!"  I'm
excited to be able to communicate better.  And yes!  I think we are
getting bikes!  We'll probably find out this week.
 
My scripture for my plaque.  I actually can't remember the exact
reference, but In Doctrine and Covenants something, I think maybe 84.
 Christ calls us his friends, and says it is expedient for us to come
unto him so that we may be called his friends just as His disciples
were his friends in days of old when they walked with Him.  Could you
find that and use that for me?
 
That is so crazy that you got hit with an earthquake and typhoon!
It's the second coming!!  So cool.  But we didn't feel any affects
here too bad.  It rains pretty much every day but nothing out of the
ordinary down here in Bohol.  Except!  I heard the craziest thunder of
my life yesterday.  I was teaching a lesson when all of a sudden I
heard what sounded like a firing squad of 20 soldiers, or literal
cannons right in the room.  BOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOM BOOOM for , not
exaggerating, at least 30-45 seconds straight.  I thought the island
was being torn in half.  It was so awesome!
I'm glad you are all safe and sound out there.
 
Also, Sisters of mine.  I love you so so much.  Thank you for helping
the family out and being so wonderful.  I know that the Lord is
answering my prayers for you through your service and dilligence.
Thank you for all your prayers.  I know they are helping me every day.
 I pray for you all the time as well and it makes me so happy to know
that they are being answered.  Keep up the amazing work over there and
I'll strive to do the same here.
 
I love you all so so much.
 
Love,
Elder Garver