12-7-11

Hello!

It's me. That stinks about the mold problem. I hope it doesn't cost too much to remove. Is drywall really that expensive? I'm super happy to hear that you guys are all moved into the house now! Maybe not unpacked, but at least living in the new home. Can you send me the new address and phone number when you get it so I can relay it to my Mission President? Speaking of houses, if it turns out it's just super expensive to remove that mold, you can always just move out here. A really nice house out here, the same size as our house in VA would cost you about P700,000 to get custom built here (less than $17,000) and the bill for AC each month would only be around P2,000 (less than $50), so yeah, it's always a possibility.

This week has been super interesting, and I felt like I worked super hard with a lot of success, so it was definitely good! This new focus of ours is helping already. We spent the week finding and getting to know these inactive members all over our area, which meant lots of walking, but there was always a happy face at the end of our hikes to greet us. The members here are all so willing to welcome us in and talk about their lives, and what is holding them back from coming to church. I found it really uplifting this week to hear the testimonies of these inactive members. When we began to talk about the church, every single one of them told us they still knew it was true, and spoke of how much they missed the peace and happiness that flows from it. We had many people tell us right away that they would come back, some who had a few problems they needed help with to work out, and only 2 who said they couldn't come back due to problems in their lives right now. So in just one week's time, we made a lot of really amazing progress. To illustrate, we have consistently been seeing about 20-30 people come to church each week for sacrament meeting. After this week's work, nearly 50 people were at church! This number will hopefully just continue to grow as we start giving out callings and working more with ward members. We will also be able to reach even more people, currently inaccessible, once we get our bikes. Hopefully this next week or two. So the work here is super exciting right now.

In other news, Christmas is now in full full full swing, and I still have the Christmas Spirit, even though celebrations started in Sept. and I hear, don't end until Feb. One thing I'm missing actually is Christmas music. We hear it on radios in houses, but all we listen to in the apartment are hymns and EFY music. I think I'm going to buy a Christmas CD today if I can find one.

Well that's it for me this week! I love you!
Elder Garver