Hello Everyone!
I'm praying for all of you and your various challenges and trials that the Lord is blessing you through. I love you!
So this week has been an awesome, awesome one. My new companion is amazing. His name is Elder Plandiano. He is from Luzon, Philippines, but his father was a US Navy officer, so he is half white, half Filipino. This is only his 4th transfer, so he just got out of training, but because of that, he still has Preach My Gospel ingrained in his mind. It has been great working with someone who is first, fluent in the language (the first comp of mine who has been in 6 months), second, strictly obedient and very diligent, and third, an awesome friend. We have been doing great together this past week.
District Leader is awesome as well. There is one district leader per district. Districts can be anywhere from 2 to 5+ companionships large. My district has 3. My responsibilities are to teach weekly workshops to my district in our weekly district meetings, interview investigators for baptism, and go on splits with other Elders in my district to provide support and guidance. My district is amazing, and being their leader is very humbling and very satisfying. I have to say that I absolutely love my mission.
Yes I am back to washing my clothes by hand, cooking for myself and my companion (except for dinners. The members feed us all the time here!), and showering out of a bucket. Rainy season has begun again, which was beckoned in by the biggest, loudest thunderstorm I have ever experienced in my life. It was so cool! I wish Chris could be here. He would go nuts. I love the rainy season here. Awesome storms, cool breezes, constant cloud cover, and everyone is always hiding in their houses, which means they have nowhere to run when we come to their door! Work is great and so is life. We have a golden investigator, Joceryl, who is set to be baptized July 7, and her friend will follow her soon after. We also found another golden investigator, who described his feelings as we shared the message of the restoration as being, "so good that he did not know the Cebuano words deep enough to describe it." He will be moving back home in July though, so the elders where he is going will get to baptize him.
I love you all so much, and you are always in my prayers!
Love,
Elder Garver
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
6-6-12
Hello!
That is really cool about your calling Mom! That is kind of funny how the roles of church leadership have just completely flipped in our family. Leadership can be really challenging, but it is even more rewarding. Just remember that when everything builds up and seems to be too overwhelming, the Savior is there to lift those burdens off your back and sort them out for you so you can handle them all. Dad, I'll be praying for your knee.
I actually do get to keep in somewhat frequent contact with Chris and Kyle and Scott. It has been awesome sharing mission experiences and seeing each other grow. These three have been better friends to me than I could have ever imagined. They shaped my life and helped me get to where I am today. I think it is so awesome that we all are on missions serving the Lord and that afterwords, we too, as with the sons of Mosiah, will meet up again and rejoice in each others success.
Transfer calls came in this morning! Elder Tolentino is transferring, and I am becoming District Leader in Valencia. Transfers are always super exciting. We get Christmas every 6 weeks here in the mission. It's awesome. I'll fill you in on my new comp next week.
This week was really good. We taught some really great lessons with our investigators, and they also came to church. We also saw tons of less active people come back to church and we organized our Branch PEC and Branch Council. This weeks goal is to get home teaching worked out and really restarted. This area has so much potential, and I am so happy to be here.
I don't have a ton to say this week, but I would love to here more from Alicia about work and Rachel and Sydney about school and stuff. If they can get their emails through to me.
I love you all!
Elder Garver
That is really cool about your calling Mom! That is kind of funny how the roles of church leadership have just completely flipped in our family. Leadership can be really challenging, but it is even more rewarding. Just remember that when everything builds up and seems to be too overwhelming, the Savior is there to lift those burdens off your back and sort them out for you so you can handle them all. Dad, I'll be praying for your knee.
I actually do get to keep in somewhat frequent contact with Chris and Kyle and Scott. It has been awesome sharing mission experiences and seeing each other grow. These three have been better friends to me than I could have ever imagined. They shaped my life and helped me get to where I am today. I think it is so awesome that we all are on missions serving the Lord and that afterwords, we too, as with the sons of Mosiah, will meet up again and rejoice in each others success.
Transfer calls came in this morning! Elder Tolentino is transferring, and I am becoming District Leader in Valencia. Transfers are always super exciting. We get Christmas every 6 weeks here in the mission. It's awesome. I'll fill you in on my new comp next week.
This week was really good. We taught some really great lessons with our investigators, and they also came to church. We also saw tons of less active people come back to church and we organized our Branch PEC and Branch Council. This weeks goal is to get home teaching worked out and really restarted. This area has so much potential, and I am so happy to be here.
I don't have a ton to say this week, but I would love to here more from Alicia about work and Rachel and Sydney about school and stuff. If they can get their emails through to me.
I love you all!
Elder Garver
5-30-12
Hey Everyone!
I got the pictures of Bambi. That's cool!
Our conference was good with Elder Nelson. We do get to shake the General Authorities hands when they come, and Elder Holland also told us in October that when they look us in the eye they are really giving you a personal spiritual interview. They see into your souls... So I have gotten to shake hands with, and be interviewed by 2 of the 12 on my mission. Pretty neat. When Elder Holland visited he talked for like 2 hours, but with Elder Nelson, he only spoke for about 15 minutes. I learned that words don't need to be spoken to still learn. When the Spirit is present, He can teach you anything, whether on topic with the speaker or not. It was a good trip.
This week was tough. We spent many long hours traveling from Bohol to Cebu, and then I got sick when we got back. It was just sip-on, or a filipino cold, but it took all the strength out of me and my nose was freely flowing during all our lessons. It was super tough to teach between coughs and blowing my nose and whatnot, but everyone was super understanding, and we committed a Golden Investigaor to baptism on the 23rd of June. We met Joceryl while waiting for a hable-hable (motorcycle) to take us down the mountain. We started talking about the church and she said something like "Oh yeah! I was taught by the missionaries when I was younger but my dad wouldn't let me get baptized, but now that I'm 18 he says I can choose for myself. Can you guys baptize me?" Umm... yes we can! She is changing her work schedule so she can come to church on Sundays, and is doing great. We only get to teach her once a week because of her work, but we are mostly just reviewing what she already learned before, so it should all work out.
I'm not driving yet, and it will probably still be quite a while before I do, if ever. There are only 3 areas in the mission with cars, so It might never happen, but it is good to be prepared.
I love you!
Elder Garver
P.S. Mom, did I ever tell you how awesome that photo album/book you gave me was? It is. Way Awesome. Thank you!
P.P.S. Just wanted to let you know that your words inspired a room full of Young Single Adults here in Valencia, and is spreading to others all over through text message as we speak.
We were teaching about marriage, which is usually looked down upon here in PI until the couple is around 30 years old, because of financial reasons. I recalled something you told me a long time ago and I repeated your words to them. "If you wait until you can afford a family, you'll never have a family." That impressed them all quite a bit and they asked me to write it down for them so they could text it to all their friends. So, good work mom :) Your parenting is helping people all over the world.
Love you!
I got the pictures of Bambi. That's cool!
Our conference was good with Elder Nelson. We do get to shake the General Authorities hands when they come, and Elder Holland also told us in October that when they look us in the eye they are really giving you a personal spiritual interview. They see into your souls... So I have gotten to shake hands with, and be interviewed by 2 of the 12 on my mission. Pretty neat. When Elder Holland visited he talked for like 2 hours, but with Elder Nelson, he only spoke for about 15 minutes. I learned that words don't need to be spoken to still learn. When the Spirit is present, He can teach you anything, whether on topic with the speaker or not. It was a good trip.
This week was tough. We spent many long hours traveling from Bohol to Cebu, and then I got sick when we got back. It was just sip-on, or a filipino cold, but it took all the strength out of me and my nose was freely flowing during all our lessons. It was super tough to teach between coughs and blowing my nose and whatnot, but everyone was super understanding, and we committed a Golden Investigaor to baptism on the 23rd of June. We met Joceryl while waiting for a hable-hable (motorcycle) to take us down the mountain. We started talking about the church and she said something like "Oh yeah! I was taught by the missionaries when I was younger but my dad wouldn't let me get baptized, but now that I'm 18 he says I can choose for myself. Can you guys baptize me?" Umm... yes we can! She is changing her work schedule so she can come to church on Sundays, and is doing great. We only get to teach her once a week because of her work, but we are mostly just reviewing what she already learned before, so it should all work out.
I'm not driving yet, and it will probably still be quite a while before I do, if ever. There are only 3 areas in the mission with cars, so It might never happen, but it is good to be prepared.
I love you!
Elder Garver
P.S. Mom, did I ever tell you how awesome that photo album/book you gave me was? It is. Way Awesome. Thank you!
P.P.S. Just wanted to let you know that your words inspired a room full of Young Single Adults here in Valencia, and is spreading to others all over through text message as we speak.
We were teaching about marriage, which is usually looked down upon here in PI until the couple is around 30 years old, because of financial reasons. I recalled something you told me a long time ago and I repeated your words to them. "If you wait until you can afford a family, you'll never have a family." That impressed them all quite a bit and they asked me to write it down for them so they could text it to all their friends. So, good work mom :) Your parenting is helping people all over the world.
Love you!
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