Mom! I got the package last week! Thank you very much! So that is a good way to send things, just know it will take about a month or two to get to me. Now I can use my electric shaver again!
So this past few weeks have been crazy for us in Pilar. We have proselyted I think 2 days in 2 weeks. (Sorry for any grammar mistakes or typos this week, junky keyboard) So it's a 1 day trip to the Bohol port in Tagbilaran, then 1 day trip to Cebu and back, and another 1 day trip back to Pilar. We had that meeting with Elder Holland, and we have another training meeting in Cebu tomorrow, so I'm in Tagbi now. And then every Monday is a 1 day trip to district meeting and back so all those are shot too. All the travel is pretty exhausting, but it's good too. Elder Holland's talk was really uplifting, and the speaker before him (nalimtan nako and iyang pangalan!) was really good as well. Elder Holland spoke about our duty and callings and our responsibilities as missionaries, and Elder Kwan, from the 70, spoke about the Apostasy. It was enlightening. It was also really good to see old friends from the MTC in my batch and my junior batch as well. I also met a lot of Elders from all over the mission I had never met. This brings up a pretty cool story. Well, an encouraging experience for me. I had Elders coming up to me from all over that I had never even seen before and saying "Elder Garver! How is Pilar? I hear that you are Bistak already! (fluent)" Everybody told me that news was spreading fast about my diligence and it's rewards. It was pretty humbling, because I still think I have a very long way to go, but it was encouraging as well. It's a good feeling to know people think highly of me, and it encourages me to continue to strive to live up to their expectations. On that note, I finished the Book of Mormon in Cebuano this week! It's a great feeling to be finished, and I really feel like the language is starting to click now. I'm really loving it here now more and more as the language barrier gets smaller and smaller.
So I have another full week of traveling ahead of me because of this training, so I kinda sorta am doing what Dad is. I'll be happy to finish this transfer, then I won't be a trainee anymore, so no more dugay training meetings.
I'm excited to hear how the move goes and what the new area is like and all that fun stuff! It is sorta weird still to me but it's kinda exciting too I guess.
I love you all!
Elder Garver
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Friday, October 21, 2011
October 20, 2011
Hey everyone!
Sorry I forget to tell you about me emailing a day later this week. I hope nobody freaked out or anything. I'm in Cebu City today to hear Elder Holland give us a mission address! I'm pretty excited to get to hear from an inspired Apostle of the Lord speak directly to me. So my day is pretty packed today so I don't have a ton of time. It's awesome getting to see the entire mission though.
Mom, thank you so much for getting my License renewed for me! I think I can print that out. Before sending anything to me again let me make sure I get that first package you sent. And to answer your questions, I cook every night, usually hotdogs and rice or eggs or something. Always delicious. And I don't have a shower like you all have. I have a bucket and a ladle, but it's just normal for me now.
I don't have too much to update about the work this week since it has consisted majorly of travel. My budget this week is completely shot because of travel expenses but that's why the counsel us to have back up money I guess. I can be reimbursed for some travel though so that's good.
I love you all! Tell Sarah congrats for me on the marriage.
Love,
Elder Garver
Monday, October 17, 2011
10-11-11
(In response to a letter from everyone in the family):
So Alicia! School sounds interesting. I can relate with the drawn out good bye thing. I like a nice clean break. So how was your Birthday? Medieval Times sounds so much fun! Who did you go with? I miss you tons too, and although I am loving the work out here, I am looking forward to hanging out with you again too before WE go to college. Weird... Love you! And I love your letters too. Why would I ever not want to hear from you? Walay Klaro...
Also, I love getting mail from Sam, but I just don't have time to answer all the time. Tell her thank you and that I send my love.
Rachel! It's been so long since I've heard from you I forgot how much of a nut you are! That is soo cool about you making choir! I seem to be cursed with companions who have terrible voices. It's good to be reminded that some people actually have talent. Singing is pretty big here even though nobody can carry a tune. We sing to begin and end just about every lesson, so that is interesting. Many times I go at it solo while my companion tries to figure out what he is doing. I actually feel sorta decent though, in comparison to the people here, so that is a change ;) I remember when we went to KD together with Dad. That was so much fun! Good times.
Sydney! Hola! Kamusta man ka? What's up with the spanish? It's cool though! You made me laugh about the groaning and telling you to get out of my room thing. That is definitely one thing that has changed a lot for me here on my mission. I absolutely LOVE the scriptures. I also don't have a problem getting out of bed anymore. Probably because I go to bed at the same time every night and I have a very important work to do that starts at 6:00am every single day. Speaking of the scriptures though, I have found that as I study every day, and pray before and after, sometimes during, the Lord quite literally directs me in my studies and I find so much support and many many answers to my questions. I know moving is tough. It makes me think of Nephi though. Think of his situation! He was asked to move just like you, except that he didn't have very supporting siblings did he? He also had to travel by foot through the wilerness! Maybe he had a camel, I'm not sure, but he definitely didn't have a nice car to speed around on a paved road to his beautiful new home. Nephi faced all his trials with faith though. He knew that The Lord had a plan for him, and The Lord ALWAYS provides us with a way to follow His will. If you want, start studying the very beginning of the Book of Mormon again, and watch how Nephi's story plays out. Then compare it to your situation, and see how you feel. I love the Spirit I feel as I study and pray, and I definitely know that the Lord knows us personally and supports us in times of need (adjusting to the Philippines was crazy hard for me). Try that out and tell me what you learn! Also, how is your ankle??? Are you ok? You didn't sound too worried. Almost proud... But I hope you are up and moving soon. I'll pray for you! I love you!
Parents :)
The work seems to be picking up here! It is very exciting. Our mission motto is "Success Through Obedience," and I never was a disobedient missionary, but this past couple weeks I really hyper-analyzed myself and I found a couple things that I may not be following 100% so I changed things I knew were off a bit, and asked my Mission President about the others. I can confidently say that I believe I am a 100% obedient missionary now, and I am seeing the blessing come already. We found some really good investigators while tracting these past couple weeks. One is Sister Ranas, who is an older widow, but she seems very interested in the church, and we found out this week that her late husband may have been a member! We are looking into that. Another is a young 14 year old boy named Jandi. He is good friends with many young women in our Branch and already believes that the church is true. We are teaching him the lessons now and helping him strengthen his testimony before baptism. We also have many other potential investigators that I hope to have more good news about later.
The work here is good, but very very different than what normal missionaries do I think. Our main proselyting days are Tue. Thurs. and every other Sat. Mondays we travel 5 hours to District Meeting and then do a FHE with the Branch here at night. Wed. is P-Day so we work for only the evening. Friday is planning day, and we also teach seminary and institute, so that day is shot. Every other Sat. we travel for a whole day into the city to pick up our support money and buy groceries, and Sunday we have church and other various meetings so we only can teach in the evening again. Also, everyone here goes to bed with the sun, so evenings are cut short quite often due to lack of electricity. Despite our many challenges here in Pilar, we are seeing success every day, and the area seems to be progressing. I learned that before I came, Pilar hadn't had a baptism in at least 7 months. We already have 2 baptisms, 2 investigators with Baptismal dates, and a couple more progressing investigators. I really hope this keeps up. The work is what keeps me going here, since it's definitely not the food.
I eat food here not to enjoy it, but just to survive. It's sad :( <--just like that. I feel a lot better health-wise this week though. Hopefully when I get transferred to the city there will be fewer bugs, more people, and better food. As for changes here, not much. My comp is with me until this upcoming transfer, and then I get a follow-up trainer for 6 weeks. That's the pattern anyway. Not really any new changes to the district either.
Well, I love you all! I hope you can figure out my license for me. I should also hopefully be able to pick up my package on the 20th when we go to Cebu to see Elder Holland. Fingers crossed!
Love,
Elder Garver
So Alicia! School sounds interesting. I can relate with the drawn out good bye thing. I like a nice clean break. So how was your Birthday? Medieval Times sounds so much fun! Who did you go with? I miss you tons too, and although I am loving the work out here, I am looking forward to hanging out with you again too before WE go to college. Weird... Love you! And I love your letters too. Why would I ever not want to hear from you? Walay Klaro...
Also, I love getting mail from Sam, but I just don't have time to answer all the time. Tell her thank you and that I send my love.
Rachel! It's been so long since I've heard from you I forgot how much of a nut you are! That is soo cool about you making choir! I seem to be cursed with companions who have terrible voices. It's good to be reminded that some people actually have talent. Singing is pretty big here even though nobody can carry a tune. We sing to begin and end just about every lesson, so that is interesting. Many times I go at it solo while my companion tries to figure out what he is doing. I actually feel sorta decent though, in comparison to the people here, so that is a change ;) I remember when we went to KD together with Dad. That was so much fun! Good times.
Sydney! Hola! Kamusta man ka? What's up with the spanish? It's cool though! You made me laugh about the groaning and telling you to get out of my room thing. That is definitely one thing that has changed a lot for me here on my mission. I absolutely LOVE the scriptures. I also don't have a problem getting out of bed anymore. Probably because I go to bed at the same time every night and I have a very important work to do that starts at 6:00am every single day. Speaking of the scriptures though, I have found that as I study every day, and pray before and after, sometimes during, the Lord quite literally directs me in my studies and I find so much support and many many answers to my questions. I know moving is tough. It makes me think of Nephi though. Think of his situation! He was asked to move just like you, except that he didn't have very supporting siblings did he? He also had to travel by foot through the wilerness! Maybe he had a camel, I'm not sure, but he definitely didn't have a nice car to speed around on a paved road to his beautiful new home. Nephi faced all his trials with faith though. He knew that The Lord had a plan for him, and The Lord ALWAYS provides us with a way to follow His will. If you want, start studying the very beginning of the Book of Mormon again, and watch how Nephi's story plays out. Then compare it to your situation, and see how you feel. I love the Spirit I feel as I study and pray, and I definitely know that the Lord knows us personally and supports us in times of need (adjusting to the Philippines was crazy hard for me). Try that out and tell me what you learn! Also, how is your ankle??? Are you ok? You didn't sound too worried. Almost proud... But I hope you are up and moving soon. I'll pray for you! I love you!
Parents :)
The work seems to be picking up here! It is very exciting. Our mission motto is "Success Through Obedience," and I never was a disobedient missionary, but this past couple weeks I really hyper-analyzed myself and I found a couple things that I may not be following 100% so I changed things I knew were off a bit, and asked my Mission President about the others. I can confidently say that I believe I am a 100% obedient missionary now, and I am seeing the blessing come already. We found some really good investigators while tracting these past couple weeks. One is Sister Ranas, who is an older widow, but she seems very interested in the church, and we found out this week that her late husband may have been a member! We are looking into that. Another is a young 14 year old boy named Jandi. He is good friends with many young women in our Branch and already believes that the church is true. We are teaching him the lessons now and helping him strengthen his testimony before baptism. We also have many other potential investigators that I hope to have more good news about later.
The work here is good, but very very different than what normal missionaries do I think. Our main proselyting days are Tue. Thurs. and every other Sat. Mondays we travel 5 hours to District Meeting and then do a FHE with the Branch here at night. Wed. is P-Day so we work for only the evening. Friday is planning day, and we also teach seminary and institute, so that day is shot. Every other Sat. we travel for a whole day into the city to pick up our support money and buy groceries, and Sunday we have church and other various meetings so we only can teach in the evening again. Also, everyone here goes to bed with the sun, so evenings are cut short quite often due to lack of electricity. Despite our many challenges here in Pilar, we are seeing success every day, and the area seems to be progressing. I learned that before I came, Pilar hadn't had a baptism in at least 7 months. We already have 2 baptisms, 2 investigators with Baptismal dates, and a couple more progressing investigators. I really hope this keeps up. The work is what keeps me going here, since it's definitely not the food.
I eat food here not to enjoy it, but just to survive. It's sad :( <--just like that. I feel a lot better health-wise this week though. Hopefully when I get transferred to the city there will be fewer bugs, more people, and better food. As for changes here, not much. My comp is with me until this upcoming transfer, and then I get a follow-up trainer for 6 weeks. That's the pattern anyway. Not really any new changes to the district either.
Well, I love you all! I hope you can figure out my license for me. I should also hopefully be able to pick up my package on the 20th when we go to Cebu to see Elder Holland. Fingers crossed!
Love,
Elder Garver
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
October 5, 2011
Hey!
I did NOT know you sold the house! That's awesome! Mom, I literally saw your email enter my inbox. It was kinda cool. Well congratulations! It's so cool that the girls are going to have such a new experience! Good luck to you all! I'm excited to see the house in person, in 2 years. Also Mom, I'm not sure what kind of Filipino food could possibly require a cookbook. So far, all I've eaten has been rice with hotdog, rice with pork, rice with chicken, rice with plant. There isn't much to it. I definitely miss American food, but once every couple of weeks we get to go to the city and eat McDonalds, so that's awesome. To bad its like P120 a meal. SO Expensive! like 3USD but a usual meal here for me is P20-P30. I'll look at the license thing after this, and tell you about it next week.
I did not get any of Sydney's emails :( Have her send them again for me! I also have not seen Conference yet. I will take a trip to the city this weekend to watch it with my Zone.
So this week is the start of my second transfer. I don't feel quite so green anymore, and it was a weird feeling to see friends of mine in my area actually go home after their 2 years. I feel slightly more like an actual part of the Philippines now. It's a good feeling. My sickness this week was not the typical cough and sore throat. I was basically paralyzed for a couple days with a totally stiff neck and pain in my ear and what not. We thought I might have Dengue, but I didn't and after I started taking medicine that literally tastes like poop, I feel a lot better now. We have been tracting a lot this week and have run into some really great families. We have taught some really good first lessons and I hope to have more good news about these families next week. Work here is really so different than regular missionary work, even in most places here, but it is good all the same. I also got my first chance to do a little Bible bashing with an old man this week, well more like I just answered some of his concerns out of the Bible. It was cool, but he wasn't actually interested in the Truth.
We have an awesome opportunity to hear from Elder Holland on the 20th of this month. He will be come to speak to us in Cebu with our area authority, I am very excited.
This has been a good week, and there are exciting things coming as well. Everyone here gets excited for Christmas super early, so we sing Christmas hymns all the time to start lessons now. It has made me think a little about Christmas though, and I have a little request. I don't know if I get any kind of gifts out here on my mission, but if I were to be so privileged, I would love money for a new pair of scriptures. Mine are heavy, and kind of starting to fall apart. I would love to be able to buy some mission scriptures to use proselyting. Just a thought. I think they cost about P2200 here at the distribution center.
Well I love you all!
Love,
Elder Garver
I did NOT know you sold the house! That's awesome! Mom, I literally saw your email enter my inbox. It was kinda cool. Well congratulations! It's so cool that the girls are going to have such a new experience! Good luck to you all! I'm excited to see the house in person, in 2 years. Also Mom, I'm not sure what kind of Filipino food could possibly require a cookbook. So far, all I've eaten has been rice with hotdog, rice with pork, rice with chicken, rice with plant. There isn't much to it. I definitely miss American food, but once every couple of weeks we get to go to the city and eat McDonalds, so that's awesome. To bad its like P120 a meal. SO Expensive! like 3USD but a usual meal here for me is P20-P30. I'll look at the license thing after this, and tell you about it next week.
I did not get any of Sydney's emails :( Have her send them again for me! I also have not seen Conference yet. I will take a trip to the city this weekend to watch it with my Zone.
So this week is the start of my second transfer. I don't feel quite so green anymore, and it was a weird feeling to see friends of mine in my area actually go home after their 2 years. I feel slightly more like an actual part of the Philippines now. It's a good feeling. My sickness this week was not the typical cough and sore throat. I was basically paralyzed for a couple days with a totally stiff neck and pain in my ear and what not. We thought I might have Dengue, but I didn't and after I started taking medicine that literally tastes like poop, I feel a lot better now. We have been tracting a lot this week and have run into some really great families. We have taught some really good first lessons and I hope to have more good news about these families next week. Work here is really so different than regular missionary work, even in most places here, but it is good all the same. I also got my first chance to do a little Bible bashing with an old man this week, well more like I just answered some of his concerns out of the Bible. It was cool, but he wasn't actually interested in the Truth.
We have an awesome opportunity to hear from Elder Holland on the 20th of this month. He will be come to speak to us in Cebu with our area authority, I am very excited.
This has been a good week, and there are exciting things coming as well. Everyone here gets excited for Christmas super early, so we sing Christmas hymns all the time to start lessons now. It has made me think a little about Christmas though, and I have a little request. I don't know if I get any kind of gifts out here on my mission, but if I were to be so privileged, I would love money for a new pair of scriptures. Mine are heavy, and kind of starting to fall apart. I would love to be able to buy some mission scriptures to use proselyting. Just a thought. I think they cost about P2200 here at the distribution center.
Well I love you all!
Love,
Elder Garver
Monday, October 3, 2011
September 28, 2011
Dear Family,
I saw the pictures of the house! Wow! I hope you are still there when I get back. That yard looks amazing! And see if you can convince the sellers to leave the pool table!
Alicia! You are almost 17! Stop growing up! Rachel and Sydney too. Stop it right now.
The mga binundo that have been happening in Manila have not really been affecting us much down here. We get heaving rain and winds but nothing damaging. The weather is actually not so bad here in the Bukid. It's actually kind of enjoyable sometimes.
Because we are so far out in the middle of nowhere though, the work is slow. I hear way different stories from my friends in Cebu, but I know I'm here for a reason. Right now we don't have many solid investigators, but we do have a few semi solid. Like a soquid i guess. The members are always nice though. I don't know if I have any real "favorites" as of now, but the District President is really smart and kind, and he feeds us every Sunday. Nanay Orapa is the member who we rent or apartment from, and she is really awesome too. She has a sense of humor, and is super nice. She also feeds us every Saturday and Monday. Can you see a pattern emerging? Hopefully I will be able to start really getting to know people better as the language progresses. I'm thinking that I'll really start settling in at the end of my next transfer period (6 weeks).
I haven't gotten your package yet, but that's probably just because I'm so removed from everything. It has to go to the Mission home first anyway, and after that it still could be weeks until I receive it. Patience is a virtue I'm being forced to learn here in Pilar. But thank you so much in advance!
I also need to renew my license soon right? Can you send me the info to do that next week?
I love you all so much! And I'm praying for you and the house every night.
Love,
Elder Garver
I saw the pictures of the house! Wow! I hope you are still there when I get back. That yard looks amazing! And see if you can convince the sellers to leave the pool table!
Alicia! You are almost 17! Stop growing up! Rachel and Sydney too. Stop it right now.
The mga binundo that have been happening in Manila have not really been affecting us much down here. We get heaving rain and winds but nothing damaging. The weather is actually not so bad here in the Bukid. It's actually kind of enjoyable sometimes.
Because we are so far out in the middle of nowhere though, the work is slow. I hear way different stories from my friends in Cebu, but I know I'm here for a reason. Right now we don't have many solid investigators, but we do have a few semi solid. Like a soquid i guess. The members are always nice though. I don't know if I have any real "favorites" as of now, but the District President is really smart and kind, and he feeds us every Sunday. Nanay Orapa is the member who we rent or apartment from, and she is really awesome too. She has a sense of humor, and is super nice. She also feeds us every Saturday and Monday. Can you see a pattern emerging? Hopefully I will be able to start really getting to know people better as the language progresses. I'm thinking that I'll really start settling in at the end of my next transfer period (6 weeks).
I haven't gotten your package yet, but that's probably just because I'm so removed from everything. It has to go to the Mission home first anyway, and after that it still could be weeks until I receive it. Patience is a virtue I'm being forced to learn here in Pilar. But thank you so much in advance!
I also need to renew my license soon right? Can you send me the info to do that next week?
I love you all so much! And I'm praying for you and the house every night.
Love,
Elder Garver
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