2-29-12

Hello Family!

This has been a weird week filled with a bunch of meetings and splits and stuff again, but we did get in a good amount of work as well.  One thing that we learned this week, was that when people say they have a testimony in Jesus Christ, you have to follow up with them on that.  So many people say they love Jesus, so much!  But then can't answer a question like "What did Jesus Christ do for you?" or "Why do you love Him?"  We have been teaching the atonement for almost all of our entire lessons this week and I think it has been going well.  People are starting to realize that Jesus is not "Ginoo Gihapon" or "Jesus just the same as always.  Most people here see Jesus as some mythical man who did something (not sure what) and they are told by their priest to say a recited prayer to Him once a week to gain exaltation.  Their understanding of the Truth is so lacking.  This is the reason why so many people here have fallen away, and why so many people just don't feel the drive to come back.  Through teaching of the Book of Mormon with the Bible, we have been able to bring the Spirit into many hearts this week, and though it may be a somewhat slow process helping these people to gain a true friendship with their Savior, we are definitely on our way.

We also found some more great members this week who we are going to visit tomorrow, and they have some nonmember family members who are interested as well.  We are continuing to see great success through speaking to everyone we see.  We don't go tracting anymore, but Elder Shelley and I have made it a goal to speak to everyone we pass, and this has been bringing in great blessings.  We are able to teach so many people just because we open our mouths and say hello.

We met a really funny woman yesterday while doing just this.  We were walking from one appointment to the other, around 5:00pm, and we saw this woman who was probably in her 50s standing by herself under a waiting shed (a bus stop with an awning).  I walked up to her and said "Nanay!  How are you?"  She put on a big smile and then just exploded speaking 1,000,000 miles a minute, going on about how she was married and her husband worked in the city and made such and such money every day and she was waiting here in the waiting shed, not to ride the bus, but to wait until the sun went down and the mechanic shop across the street would close she she could hop the fence and sneak in so that she could sleep on the benches there because she didn't have to pay for a house that way.  She finally finished her 5 minute shpeal and we asked if she did that every day.  Yep!  She said.  She wasn't poor-looking at all.  She was clean and dressed well.  She was just trying to save some money by breaking into a mechanics shop every night to sleep.  She said she waited at the waiting shed every day so we are planning to go back to teach her and give her some company pretty soon.

One last cool thing that happened to Elder Shelley and I the other day.  We were joking around with each other about who was more Gwapo, and I decided to end the argument and went up to a little girl (probably 7-8 years old) by the side of the road and asked "Excuse me.  Could I ask a question?  Who of us is more handsome?"  She looked at us for a second and then answered, "All three of you are handsome!"  Elder Shelley and I looked at each other.  There were only the two of us.  I then asked, "Three of us?"  She nodded and then ran off to play with some friends.  I looked at Elder Shelley again and we both gave each other a high-five.  It's good to know that we have the companionship of the Holy Ghost and Angels in our work, and it's also good to know that our looks are on par with celestial beings.  :)  I hope that's not blaspheme...it was sure cool to hear.

We're still working hard and going strong out here!  Thanks for all your prayers and support from back home!  I love you all!

Love,
Elder Garver

2-22-12

Hello sa tanan!

 

My English has hit an all time low this week.  I guess that's a good thing, but Elder Shelley makes fun of me all the time for it.  Just yesterday I cooked dinner and then told Elder Shelley "its putted in the fridge."  Freaking Bisayan.  I love it though.

 

So more great success this week.  I am loving life right now.  My companion is awesome.  He is learning really fast, and is always there to let me know when I make a mistake or have something I could improve on.  It's fantastic.  We are also seeing tons of success in the work.  We committed 2 people for baptism this week and have another planned 5-6 for next week.  We should hopefully be baptizing around 10 people in March and maybe April.  That's our goal.  I wanted to share a little story with you this week.  Just an example of how the Lord is leading us wherever we go.

 

I want to share with you about a golden family, the Borlau family, we were led to while looking for a member about a week ago.  We stopped by a house inquiring about some members and after we talked for a bit with the father and mother of the house we were at, we asked them if we could come back to share a message with them.  They accepted and gave us a date we could come back.  When we arrived on our scheduled date, they were eating, but upon seeing us, they all (family of 10) immediately cleaned up their dinner, ran into the back and put on fresh clothes, cleaned the floor of their hut and rearranged the house to accomodate us.  I was astonished at their reverence for the messengers of the Lord, even before they really knew much about us.  We had a great first lesson and then when we came back for the second lesson they weren't there.  We left a note at the house telling them we would come back a different day, and when we did, they were waiting for us.  They all said that they felt our message was true, and the the father said he heard God speak to him when he prayed.  We left them with a Book of Mormon and promised to bring them more the next visit.  When we went back for our appointment we were very disappointed when a couple of the kids told us their parents weren't home.  We were ecstatic, however, to learn that they had left us a note!  On the note was written this:  "We are very sorry that we aren't here Elders.  We had an emergency come up and will be out until Thurs.  We are so thankful to you Elder Garver and Elder Shelley.  We love you.  Love, Brother and Sister."  That note made our day.  We are going back to see them tomorrow and will be commiting the entire family to baptism.

 

I love the Philipino people so much, and my heart has been filled with charity as I have seen the Spirit work wonders in their lives.  I'm loving the work so so much, and am so greatful for all the support from back home as well.  Thank you for everything!

 

Love,

Elder Garver

 

P.S.  Dad, the people here usually only have enough money to buy a bit of rice and put some leaves on top of it to give it some flavor, but every single time they see you they gesture you over and invite you to share their meal with them.  The love and generosity of the people here is amazing, but due to the poverty, we usually leave them to eat for themselves and eat on our own.

Mom, honestly, my favorite food is... rice.  It's just super good.  I don't really mind what's on it, as long as it's hot.  I guess one of my favorites is mungos, which is a kind of bean soup mixed with pork.  But the BBQ here is really good too.  Thanks to Elder Shelley talking about food all the time, I am now craving pizza really bad though.  I don't suppose you could get some Dominos delivered to the Philippines could you?

2-15-12

Helloooo!

So many miracles this week!!!!  I love Elder Shelley.

We have been tearing it up over here this past week.  Elder Shelley came to work, and that is what we are doing.  We have been going from morning into the night working like crazy every day.  We actually got to eat our first dinner in a week yesterday because a member fed us.  We have been working through meals and not even realizing it.  We reallocated our budget yesterday though so now we can eat out every day for dinner.  This way we can grab something to eat real quick for maybe 10 min and head right back out to work.  I am loving this.  A new companion who follows my lead and wants to work just as hard as I do is such a blessing.  We have seen the Lord just pour down blessings this week.  Inactive members and new investigators are just coming out of the woodwork everywhere we go.  We have found nearly 20 new investigators since Mon.  So 2 days.  Also, the Spirit has been so so strong ever since Elder Shelley got here.  With him, we are able to be completely 100% obedient and the Lord has showered us with blessings because of it.

This was really cool.  Yesterday, we were teaching an inactive member and there was a neighbor of his that was listening in.  We were focusing on the member, and after our lesson we committed him to come to church.  After he committed, his neighbor spoke up and said, "Elders, can I come too?  I have work on Sunday but I'm going to change my schedule so I can start coming every week."  Yes you can come brother!  We later went around with those 2 people, Junjun and his neighbor, and committed pretty much the whole village to come to church on Sunday.  Miracles are happening in Bogo.

So this is the happiest I have ever been on my mission.  100% obedience, diligence, and success.  Elder Shelley doesn't know the language hardly at all, but he has progressed from not being able to put a sentence together on day 1, to being able to lead the first lesson on day 4.  I have been filled with inexpressibly amazing joy this week as we have worked together and seen so many people draw nearer to their Savior.

We also got tons done in the Branch on Sunday.  We got tons more callings extended, organized a Branch Council, PEC, and the startings of Home teaching and Visting teaching.  Things are on the move!  The only sad thing is that our new Tagalog member wasn't there on Sunday.  He travels a lot and won't be able to go to our branch every week because sometimes he will be in Cebu.

I didn't even realize it was Valentine's day yesterday.  I'm glad you all had fun!  Mom, when I get back I'll teach you how to cook porkchops.  I've become pretty good at it out here.  I make them a lot.  Dad, I love my mission President.  He is amazing.  He is super spiritual and personal with all the Elders.  I get to see him at Zone Interviews and workshops and things, and now also at our training meetings.  I am loving training by the way.  I could do this the rest of my mission.  It feels so great to be teaching a new missionary so much, but really cool as well to be learning so much from him in return.

Well I hope everything continues to go great for you all back home.

I love you!

Elder Garver

2-9-12

Hey Everyone!

Sorry if I scared anyone with my being a "father" in the mission.  It is just the way we refer to the trainers and trainees.  My mission President actually encourages it.  We have a greater sense of responsibility and love for those that we love, and a "child" really brings that out.  You want a righteous and powerful posterity in the mission, and therefore, you raise your greenies well so they can carry on your legacy.  I think it's awesome.

So out of all the new guys, there were 9 Filipinos and 1 American.  Guess who I got?  My companions name is Elder Shelly from Arizona USA.  Crazy!  The bad part is that I haven't actually met him yet.  He got a finger infection at the MTC in Provo (no idea how) and got postponed a week.  He should be getting here in the next couple days.  President said he will text me the itinerary when he gets it, hopefully later today.  This week has not been too much fun.  I've been working with Branch missionaries and it just isn't the same as having real companions.  There have also been a bunch of meetings called this week so I haven't been able to work as much as I would like.

We did a lot a member finding this week though and I was amazed at how hard-headed some people here are.  I was also somewhat surprised at how much I still love them and how determined I am to help them realize the blessings that they are missing out on.  We had a new guy move into our branch this week which I think is going to turn out to be a miracle.  He is an active, priesthood holding member and will hopefully be a great help in the leadership of the branch here.  The only problem is he doesn't know cebuano.  He only speaks Tagalog.  This is no problem for the natives, they all speak it too here, it's just me who can't communicate.  I'm going to start studying Tagalog pretty soon though.

We did feel the Earthquake here, and it was awesome.  It was right after District Meeting in the church.  I thought my body was just being weird at first but then it got stronger and stronger and we all realized what it was.  It was strong enough to get the fans attach to the ceilings swinging quite a bit but nobody got hurt that I know of.  It was just cool.

Hopefully Elder Shelly will get here by next week and we will be able to get some good solid work done.  I hate these weeks that are just full of travel and meetings and what not.  I learn a lot but I'm here to help other people learn too, not just myself.  I'm excited to get back to work.

Thanks for your love and support.

Love,

Elder Garver

1-31-12

Hey everyone!  My companion went home this week and then I found out
that I am training!  So freaking awesome.  I don't know who my "kid" is
yet but he gets here tomorrow.  There are 6 Filipinos and 1 American
so it's probably going to be a pinoy.  I am so excited it's
ridiculous.

That's pretty much all the news this week though.  I've been in the
city since Sunday because we had an emergency meeting called and and
then I couldn't go back to Bogo without a companion so I just worked with
the APs all week.  It was awesome to see how that works and see what
they do.  It was also great to work so close with President Schmutz
all week.

The little time I did spend in my area was pretty good this week
though.  We blessed 3 children of less active members that have come
back to church (the Randy Sanchez family), and I got sustained as 2nd
counselor.  It was good to start working even more closely with the
Branch President.

Now that I have my very own "kid", Polambato is just going to explode.
My anak is going to be the most obedient diligent missionary in the
Philipines, and we are going to work miracles.  I am kinda happy right
now.

Thanks for your updates as well.  You are always in my prayers.

Love,
Elder Garver