Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
I'm really starting to realize how terrible I am at writing and answering questions in my emails, so before I forget, Thank you so so so much for the scriptures! They are amazing and I am so happy to have a smaller set now. I also have gotten to go though and study the unmarked pages which has been awesome. I have received so much new revelation through it and it's been great.
I had an Idea for anyone who wants to find Pilar on Google Maps. LDS.og has a google earth section when you click on find a church close to me. Just type in Pilar Bohol, and hopefully our church building will pop up.
I also want to give a special thanks to Grandma Hansen. Thank you for all the dearelders! It's still such an awesome feeling to get mail, and I love reading your letters to me. I love you Grandma!
This week was fantastic up until Thursday. I got sick again and so I had to stay within sprinting distance of the bathroom for a couple days. That was not fun. I hate being sick on the mission. I'm almost all better now though so the work can progress! We are still working on Sister Florez's papers for marriage but that should be finished pretty soon. We also committed an 18 year old kid named Jaison to baptism this week. So as long as he keeps coming to church he should be baptized in Dec. We got an awesome new investigator this week that moved here from Davau. We have taught her just the first lesson so far but she has so much faith in God. She will feel the truth of the Restoration as she prays. We're meeting with her again tomorrow.
So the work is pretty good right now, and it's just getting better all the time. So guess what? BIKES! They finally cleared with the area presidency, and we are getting more info at Zone Conference on the 28th.
The Americans in my zone are throwing a little Thanksgiving party today. We are buying stuff for mashed potatoes and, if we can find it, turkey... We may just have to settle for sliced sandwich meat or hotdogs. I'm super pumped for the potatoes though. Hooray for no rice!
I love you all!
Elder Garver
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
11-16-11
So, my new companion is named Elder Culango, from Davau. He is a step down zone leader and has 5 months left on his mission. Also, he is a boss. I'm leading Pilar now since he is brand new to the area, and things are going great. I think I was sorta trained to think that Pilar was this "outer darkness" area (that's what the missionaries call it here) and it was so hard to change anything with my old companion. This new responsibility,and privilege to lead the area has completely opened my eyes. Pilar is great! I got to write out the new schedule for us this week, and in 2 days with Elder Culango, we did the same amount of work as I did with my trainer in a whole week. I'm feeling super good about this companionship, and I know the area is about to explode with success. I love love love working hard.
We are still working on Sister Flores' marriage stuff. She is super uneducated so we have to do everything for her pretty much, and so the process is pretty slow. I was a little nervous when I started to take over the area because I didn't know how I would do with all the legal stuff in a new language, but I have been blessed and I'm understanding and negotiating things alright. I've really felt the Lord pouring out His blessing on me, and the area this week.
You asked how big our boundaries are. If you look on a map, Pilar area starts in Alicia, Bohol, and goes all the way to Loboc, Bohol. People here are die hard catholics, so that can be good or bad, depending on how gahi their mga ulo are. (hard heads) They all have a belief in Christ though, so it's a good base.
My budget is about $70 every two weeks. P1044 for transportation P250 for utilities and the rest for food and emergency savings and personal hygiene items. I have bought some new lighter weight pants which were custom made for me for about $6, and I've bought a couple ties for 25 cents a piece. Tie collecting is big here among the elders so I'm wanting to jump in too. They have awesome little ukay ukays here, which are little markets that buy bulk clothing shipments with random unwanted american and asian clothes, and they sell them for super cheap, so sometimes you can find amazing stuff hidden in the piles of clothes. It's fun.
I'm happy to hear you are all doing well in NJ, and I'm excited to SEE you this Christmas! We can skype here, so make sure you have a camera and mic and a skype account all set up by the 25th!
I love you!
Elder Garver
We are still working on Sister Flores' marriage stuff. She is super uneducated so we have to do everything for her pretty much, and so the process is pretty slow. I was a little nervous when I started to take over the area because I didn't know how I would do with all the legal stuff in a new language, but I have been blessed and I'm understanding and negotiating things alright. I've really felt the Lord pouring out His blessing on me, and the area this week.
You asked how big our boundaries are. If you look on a map, Pilar area starts in Alicia, Bohol, and goes all the way to Loboc, Bohol. People here are die hard catholics, so that can be good or bad, depending on how gahi their mga ulo are. (hard heads) They all have a belief in Christ though, so it's a good base.
My budget is about $70 every two weeks. P1044 for transportation P250 for utilities and the rest for food and emergency savings and personal hygiene items. I have bought some new lighter weight pants which were custom made for me for about $6, and I've bought a couple ties for 25 cents a piece. Tie collecting is big here among the elders so I'm wanting to jump in too. They have awesome little ukay ukays here, which are little markets that buy bulk clothing shipments with random unwanted american and asian clothes, and they sell them for super cheap, so sometimes you can find amazing stuff hidden in the piles of clothes. It's fun.
I'm happy to hear you are all doing well in NJ, and I'm excited to SEE you this Christmas! We can skype here, so make sure you have a camera and mic and a skype account all set up by the 25th!
I love you!
Elder Garver
Saturday, November 12, 2011
11-9-11
Hey Family!
It's good to hear you are all getting into things in NJ! Rachel and Sydney thank you for the emails! I love getting emails from you guys!
So news from Pilar! First, I'm still here. There are no such things as addresses where I am, but I can be a tiny bit more specific than before. I am in Kasabas, Pilar. My house is right next to the LDS church, which is across the street from Bagumbayan Elementary School. Maybe you can find it now on Google Earth. The city we travel to in order to buy groceries and email is called Tagbilaran City. It's in South Bohol. This week is transfer week and I'm almost into my third transfer! I'm losing my trainer (Elder Santia) and being follow-up trained for 1 more transfer period before I'll be getting transferred to my second area (most likely). It is exciting to see change happening in the mission, but sad to see so many friends leaving as well.
I am excited to be getting a new companion though, because it will allow us to break from our routine and hopefully discover some new investigators. We have been traveling a lot to Sierra Bullones to work, which is a 20 min bus ride away, and therefore, many people have a hard time committing to come to church because they don't have enough money for the bus fare. We have 2 really good investigators there so we will keep visiting them, but hopefully now we can start proselyting a little closer to the church. Sister Florez still is planning on marriage and baptism, so we are still working towards that goal. There is a lot of paper work to be done, and we are doing it all for her because she isn't very well educated. Hopefully we will see success there soon.
Sydney, yes I still eat pretty much only rice. My diet is rice and a can of pork and beans in the morning, rice and hotdogs for lunch, and sometimes spaghetti, sometimes rice and more beans or hotdogs for dinner. Occasionally I make pancakes, but they are kinda expensive so that is a treat. I hear that the food is a lot better everywhere else, so hopefully after I transfer I'll be able to gain some weight again. Amazingly enough though, I'm still alive here in Pilar. I still think it's a miracle. Thank goodness for vitamin supplements, and thank goodness for the many blessings of the Lord.
I love you all! Good luck with the House this week!
Love,
Elder Garver
It's good to hear you are all getting into things in NJ! Rachel and Sydney thank you for the emails! I love getting emails from you guys!
So news from Pilar! First, I'm still here. There are no such things as addresses where I am, but I can be a tiny bit more specific than before. I am in Kasabas, Pilar. My house is right next to the LDS church, which is across the street from Bagumbayan Elementary School. Maybe you can find it now on Google Earth. The city we travel to in order to buy groceries and email is called Tagbilaran City. It's in South Bohol. This week is transfer week and I'm almost into my third transfer! I'm losing my trainer (Elder Santia) and being follow-up trained for 1 more transfer period before I'll be getting transferred to my second area (most likely). It is exciting to see change happening in the mission, but sad to see so many friends leaving as well.
I am excited to be getting a new companion though, because it will allow us to break from our routine and hopefully discover some new investigators. We have been traveling a lot to Sierra Bullones to work, which is a 20 min bus ride away, and therefore, many people have a hard time committing to come to church because they don't have enough money for the bus fare. We have 2 really good investigators there so we will keep visiting them, but hopefully now we can start proselyting a little closer to the church. Sister Florez still is planning on marriage and baptism, so we are still working towards that goal. There is a lot of paper work to be done, and we are doing it all for her because she isn't very well educated. Hopefully we will see success there soon.
Sydney, yes I still eat pretty much only rice. My diet is rice and a can of pork and beans in the morning, rice and hotdogs for lunch, and sometimes spaghetti, sometimes rice and more beans or hotdogs for dinner. Occasionally I make pancakes, but they are kinda expensive so that is a treat. I hear that the food is a lot better everywhere else, so hopefully after I transfer I'll be able to gain some weight again. Amazingly enough though, I'm still alive here in Pilar. I still think it's a miracle. Thank goodness for vitamin supplements, and thank goodness for the many blessings of the Lord.
I love you all! Good luck with the House this week!
Love,
Elder Garver
Sunday, November 6, 2011
November 2, 2011 Pictures
Friday, November 4, 2011
November 2, 2011
Good Morning Everyone!
So Halloween is pretty different here. First, there are no noticeable changes in the seasons so it doesn't even feel like time really changes here. As for the traditions, people don't go door to door, at least in the bukid. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE goes to the cemeteries, and they sit on the graves and eat food for like three days. It's pretty awesome. The cemeteries consist of hundreds of coffins all stacked on top of each other like building blocks, so kids and parents alike climb atop them to feast. It's pretty neat. Dad you would love it here. Despite Halloween, Christmas has been is full swing for about a month here. There are lights, Christmas music all over the radio in the buses and malls, and there are coundowns in all the news channels as well. A little early don't you think? It's a pretty big deal here.
As a members of the branch presidency, we are starting a big push to reactivate the less active priesthood holders in our area. It would sure be nice to have more than 2. So that is our main focus for the time being. Of course we still have our investigators as well. We are facing challenges with commitments in our area. For some reason everyone, no matter how golden, seems to have an excuse for not committing to church. They'll read and pray and know it's true, but they don't want to take the next step. We're working on it. We do have one baptism coming up on the 19th though so that is a great success. Sister Florez has been an investigator for about 3 years but has never been able to be baptized because she and her husband are not actually married. That is a very common thing here since divorce is nigh impossible. They have a family with 3 kids now though and they both are finally getting married! We are all very excited for them.
It's so great to here that my family can finally be together again! I'm very happy for you, and slightly jealous of your free food. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Garver
So Halloween is pretty different here. First, there are no noticeable changes in the seasons so it doesn't even feel like time really changes here. As for the traditions, people don't go door to door, at least in the bukid. Everyone, and I mean EVERYONE goes to the cemeteries, and they sit on the graves and eat food for like three days. It's pretty awesome. The cemeteries consist of hundreds of coffins all stacked on top of each other like building blocks, so kids and parents alike climb atop them to feast. It's pretty neat. Dad you would love it here. Despite Halloween, Christmas has been is full swing for about a month here. There are lights, Christmas music all over the radio in the buses and malls, and there are coundowns in all the news channels as well. A little early don't you think? It's a pretty big deal here.
As a members of the branch presidency, we are starting a big push to reactivate the less active priesthood holders in our area. It would sure be nice to have more than 2. So that is our main focus for the time being. Of course we still have our investigators as well. We are facing challenges with commitments in our area. For some reason everyone, no matter how golden, seems to have an excuse for not committing to church. They'll read and pray and know it's true, but they don't want to take the next step. We're working on it. We do have one baptism coming up on the 19th though so that is a great success. Sister Florez has been an investigator for about 3 years but has never been able to be baptized because she and her husband are not actually married. That is a very common thing here since divorce is nigh impossible. They have a family with 3 kids now though and they both are finally getting married! We are all very excited for them.
It's so great to here that my family can finally be together again! I'm very happy for you, and slightly jealous of your free food. I love you all!
Love,
Elder Garver
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)