Good... oh. It's not morning anymore. Good afternoon!
We just got back from a pancake brunch that the senior couple here had for all the missionaries in the zone. It was so good!
We get to go to the temple once a month here on island. The service is in English, but they also have translating headset things for those who request them. I, of course, listen in English. The temple here is beautiful, and I'm really excited to go with you Mom and Dad!
This week was pretty crazy again. More meetings, and now, President Schmutz wants to find a way to put sister missionaries in our zone again so we are trying to find an area for them. We also still need to close out the contract on the previous house the sisters moved out of and find them a new one, so that, combined with more companion exchanges means another week of travel. Time is flying by faster than I can keep track of here. It's almost time for us to be planning week 4 this transfer. We are already more than halfway done! I just barely got here! It is scary, in a very real sense, to think of how little time I have left here in the Lord's Vineyard. At the same time though, the work doesn't stop once I get home. We read from the red handbook of instruction for the church the other day in Comp Study, and I am super excited to be a home teacher again.
I got to go on splits this week with an Elder who doesn't have the social skills that most do. I was really looking forward to my time with him because I could see right off the bat how special and pure his spirit was. I was nearly overwhelmed with the Spirit as I stayed with, and taught with him for a couple days. The pure goodness of his spirit is amazing, and I felt the Lord's love for this Elder more powerful than I have felt of any other missionary I have met. It was a fantastic spiritual experience to help guide him and teach him how to overcome his personal weaknesses and do the work of the Lord. I testify of Christ's love for all us, and that He is always there with assistance when we come to Him for it.
I have been learning a lot as a Zone Leader about just about everything. I did not expect this, but as I have grown more and more on my mission, and have acquired more and more skills and talents, my weaknesses have become more and more apparent. I learn something new every day because of mistakes that I make, and It causes me to wonder at the glory and grandness of our Father's plan for us. We are all so weak, yet the Father sent His Son so that we could learn and grow from these weaknesses. Mom is seeing this change and shape her as she realizes some weaknesses with public speaking, takes it to the Lord coupled with her diligent effort to overcome, and is now seeing her talents and ability flourish. Ether 12:27 is known to just about everyone, but the truthfulness, and perfection of it is often missed, and many don't grow as much as they could, because they aren't taking the initiative. Weaknesses are awesome.
Thanks for your emails, I love every one.
Love,
Elder Garver
Thursday, September 20, 2012
9-12-12
Merry Christmas everyone!
The long awaited Christmas season has finally arrived! There are references to Christmas now in church, they are celebrating on the TVs and there is Christmas music playing on the radio and in the malls. Oh what a joyous, and insanely early, Christmas season it is! This will last until February.
Note about the Christmas package. I was made aware this week that I actually am in need of quite a few new things. My shirts are becoming see-through due to rigorous hand washing and bleach, my pants are in need of replacements, and I am out of space on the memory card for my camera. All these things can easily be bought here, and so as to not waste money on postage, the most practical and helpful gift would be to just put some money on my card. I know that this isn't as much fun for you guys, but I would very very much appreciate it. I would be very very happy even just to get a personal letter from each of you on Christmas. Letters and Pictures sound awesome. I'm actually going to need to pull out some money pretty soon to that I have some clothes to wear. I also need to get my shoes resoled...
This was another crazy week. We had an emergency transfer in our zone and we moved one companionship out into a different zone and are welcoming in their replacements tommorrow. We had more meetings and exchanges with Elders in our zone and we have Leadership Training this Friday. We are so busy! In the midst of it all, however, Elder Barcellano and are were able to pull of mission standards (25 lessons and 100 contacts in a week), finishing up the week with 27 lessons and 105 contacts. So Mom, we do a ton of working with the missionaries and teaching workshops and attending meetings and such, but we do as much missionary work as we can as well. We have a great zone.
To answer your questions, Yes, we have sisters in our mission, No, we don't have a car. We still ride buses and PUB. We have a senior couple in our zone who get to use the car. If they weren't here, we would get to drive, but it's all good because senior missionaries are miracle workers. We need miracles more than cars to drive. Again, I am out of time...
I love you guys all so much. Mom, just a last piece of advice. I have found that listening to conference talks at the apartment as opposed even to hymns brings such a great spirit into the house. If you are feeling stressed, try listening to Conference talks during a day and see if that helps you at all. It has helped with stress in the mission. I'm pretty sure you can download them off lds.org.
You guys are all amazing. Make sure you keep on reading and praying as a family every day. Satan is super kugihan. (ask Alicia what that means) We all need all the heavenly help we can get to stay above all this junk in the world.
I'm praying for you all!
Love,
Elder Garver
ps. Dad, how are your knees?
The long awaited Christmas season has finally arrived! There are references to Christmas now in church, they are celebrating on the TVs and there is Christmas music playing on the radio and in the malls. Oh what a joyous, and insanely early, Christmas season it is! This will last until February.
Note about the Christmas package. I was made aware this week that I actually am in need of quite a few new things. My shirts are becoming see-through due to rigorous hand washing and bleach, my pants are in need of replacements, and I am out of space on the memory card for my camera. All these things can easily be bought here, and so as to not waste money on postage, the most practical and helpful gift would be to just put some money on my card. I know that this isn't as much fun for you guys, but I would very very much appreciate it. I would be very very happy even just to get a personal letter from each of you on Christmas. Letters and Pictures sound awesome. I'm actually going to need to pull out some money pretty soon to that I have some clothes to wear. I also need to get my shoes resoled...
This was another crazy week. We had an emergency transfer in our zone and we moved one companionship out into a different zone and are welcoming in their replacements tommorrow. We had more meetings and exchanges with Elders in our zone and we have Leadership Training this Friday. We are so busy! In the midst of it all, however, Elder Barcellano and are were able to pull of mission standards (25 lessons and 100 contacts in a week), finishing up the week with 27 lessons and 105 contacts. So Mom, we do a ton of working with the missionaries and teaching workshops and attending meetings and such, but we do as much missionary work as we can as well. We have a great zone.
To answer your questions, Yes, we have sisters in our mission, No, we don't have a car. We still ride buses and PUB. We have a senior couple in our zone who get to use the car. If they weren't here, we would get to drive, but it's all good because senior missionaries are miracle workers. We need miracles more than cars to drive. Again, I am out of time...
I love you guys all so much. Mom, just a last piece of advice. I have found that listening to conference talks at the apartment as opposed even to hymns brings such a great spirit into the house. If you are feeling stressed, try listening to Conference talks during a day and see if that helps you at all. It has helped with stress in the mission. I'm pretty sure you can download them off lds.org.
You guys are all amazing. Make sure you keep on reading and praying as a family every day. Satan is super kugihan. (ask Alicia what that means) We all need all the heavenly help we can get to stay above all this junk in the world.
I'm praying for you all!
Love,
Elder Garver
ps. Dad, how are your knees?
Thursday, September 6, 2012
9-5-12
Hey Everyone!
Great question, Mom, about the Christmas package. My pants are going to need replacing soon so I could use some money for that, as well as a new towel and a couple other things. Other than that... Chocolate is always a favorite of Filipinos since there is not any good chocolate here. It's always a blast to share that with them. I definitely want some more pictures of you guys, and maybe a stick or 2 of Old Spice: Swagger deodorant. There are some more cool souvenir things here in my new area too so a little spending money would be awesome so I can get all of you some Christmas presents too!
We baptized Mike Acero last week, right before I transferred. It was a great service. Lots of people showed up and showed support. We combined it with a couple of children of record. (Children that are getting baptized whose parents are already members of the church.) I'm attaching some pictures. Mike is the younger man and the older man is Bro. Sandoval, who baptized the children. It's funny here because every single person who puts on the baptism jumpsuit comes out of the bathroom making ninja noises. Filipinos are such children at heart, and even the older ones crack a joke or too about being promoted to black belt at the next baptism. So that is the reason for the ninja picture.
SO! Toledo Zone! First, being a Zone Leader is awesome. This is my favorite calling by far. Our zone is great. It is filled with really good missionaries who are all doing amazing work. We are seeing tons of success in this Zone. We got to interview a couple of the District Leader's baptismal candidates on Saturday, who were then baptized later that day. We also went to ZLC (Zone Leader Council) yesterday in Cebu City. All the Zone Leaders from the mission meet once a month with President Schmutz to receive instruction, and discuss the zones and needs of the mission. We also get fed a home cooked meal from Sister Schmutz, which was real Italian spaghetti, garlic bread, and cake and ice cream. SO AMAZING... You don't know how blessed you are to eat real food every day over there in America. I had forgotten how good real food tastes! Tomorrow we are holding Zone Training where we will relay information and teach our zone the things we learned and discussed in ZLC. I love teaching workshops so I'm very much looking forward to that tomorrow. We also have Leadership training in the CIty again next Friday. Elder Barcellano and I are also in charge of keeping everyone safe and happy in our zone, which means we buy them new household utilities when they need them, reimburse expenses, and travel to different areas to conduct exchanges and interviews when they are needed. The life of a Zone Leader is super busy, but it is such a great satisfaction to get to work with and help so many missionaries.
So like I said, my companion is Elder Barcellano, from Bicol, Philippines. He is in my batch to go home so we are at the same point in our mission. We were in the same district back in Pilar, so it is cool to be with him again. We are assigned in Toledo 1 which is bukid again, but it is more city-ish than any other area I've been assigned in before, so that's cool. We have a mall near us and we always have rides to our appointments whenever we need them. We also live literally 4 steps away from a carenaria (eatery) so we never have to cook. We just open the front door, sit down, and eat, then go back in for studies or head of to work again. No cooking is awesome, because it opens up more free time in the mornings to study. Our house is also AMAZING. We live with two other Elders, Elder Verano and Elder Rose. We have an air conditioner, and hot water. What? Yeah, you heard right. So awesome.
I'll have more news on the work here next week. It's been a pretty busy last week, full of meetings and whatnot. Good luck to all the girls in school!
I love you!
Elder Garver
Great question, Mom, about the Christmas package. My pants are going to need replacing soon so I could use some money for that, as well as a new towel and a couple other things. Other than that... Chocolate is always a favorite of Filipinos since there is not any good chocolate here. It's always a blast to share that with them. I definitely want some more pictures of you guys, and maybe a stick or 2 of Old Spice: Swagger deodorant. There are some more cool souvenir things here in my new area too so a little spending money would be awesome so I can get all of you some Christmas presents too!
We baptized Mike Acero last week, right before I transferred. It was a great service. Lots of people showed up and showed support. We combined it with a couple of children of record. (Children that are getting baptized whose parents are already members of the church.) I'm attaching some pictures. Mike is the younger man and the older man is Bro. Sandoval, who baptized the children. It's funny here because every single person who puts on the baptism jumpsuit comes out of the bathroom making ninja noises. Filipinos are such children at heart, and even the older ones crack a joke or too about being promoted to black belt at the next baptism. So that is the reason for the ninja picture.
SO! Toledo Zone! First, being a Zone Leader is awesome. This is my favorite calling by far. Our zone is great. It is filled with really good missionaries who are all doing amazing work. We are seeing tons of success in this Zone. We got to interview a couple of the District Leader's baptismal candidates on Saturday, who were then baptized later that day. We also went to ZLC (Zone Leader Council) yesterday in Cebu City. All the Zone Leaders from the mission meet once a month with President Schmutz to receive instruction, and discuss the zones and needs of the mission. We also get fed a home cooked meal from Sister Schmutz, which was real Italian spaghetti, garlic bread, and cake and ice cream. SO AMAZING... You don't know how blessed you are to eat real food every day over there in America. I had forgotten how good real food tastes! Tomorrow we are holding Zone Training where we will relay information and teach our zone the things we learned and discussed in ZLC. I love teaching workshops so I'm very much looking forward to that tomorrow. We also have Leadership training in the CIty again next Friday. Elder Barcellano and I are also in charge of keeping everyone safe and happy in our zone, which means we buy them new household utilities when they need them, reimburse expenses, and travel to different areas to conduct exchanges and interviews when they are needed. The life of a Zone Leader is super busy, but it is such a great satisfaction to get to work with and help so many missionaries.
So like I said, my companion is Elder Barcellano, from Bicol, Philippines. He is in my batch to go home so we are at the same point in our mission. We were in the same district back in Pilar, so it is cool to be with him again. We are assigned in Toledo 1 which is bukid again, but it is more city-ish than any other area I've been assigned in before, so that's cool. We have a mall near us and we always have rides to our appointments whenever we need them. We also live literally 4 steps away from a carenaria (eatery) so we never have to cook. We just open the front door, sit down, and eat, then go back in for studies or head of to work again. No cooking is awesome, because it opens up more free time in the mornings to study. Our house is also AMAZING. We live with two other Elders, Elder Verano and Elder Rose. We have an air conditioner, and hot water. What? Yeah, you heard right. So awesome.
I'll have more news on the work here next week. It's been a pretty busy last week, full of meetings and whatnot. Good luck to all the girls in school!
I love you!
Elder Garver
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