1-30-13

Hey!

Tell me where Shay is going!  Letters take so long to get here...

Perhaps one day if I step down from being Zone Leader I will be able to send you a good, quality email.  But alas, ZL duties remain ever present.  I spent a long time emailing President today so I'm out of time today.  Please forgive me.  Alicia, I loved the email.  Thank you.  How is whats-his-face doing?  Grant, no?

This week has again been filled with revelation for my zone and mission.  It has been as though the Lord and I have been having a progressing conversation this transfer and miracles are being wrought.  I will hopefully have time to tell you more next week.  Sorry, I know that's kind of lame.  Please bear with me.

I have to go meet up with my zone again now at the mall.  They are waiting on us.  We are conducting our zone activity today.  It's going to be awesome, and I'll tell you about it next week... haha

I love you!

Love,

Elder Garver

1-23-13

Whoa.  Time is flying so fast...

Well, hello everyone!

Mom: Sure, I'd love to do summer classes as well if I have time.  I wouldn't mind staying in the same place as last time.  That would be cool actually.  Just whatever is cheapest.  I'm pretty sure anything that passes the health and safety code in America will be way better than what I'm used to.

Dad: I think what's going to happen is that these next 2 transfers almost every sister will be training.  We are getting a net gain of 31 new missionaries so it's going to be a ton.  Then the newly trained sisters will probably turn right around and immediately train to accommodate the next waves.

I'm quite jealous that you get to go visit CT again.  I want to go back to... Cherry St., was it?  I miss that cemetery, and Ann and her Oreos.

This transfer has been one of intense revelation for me.  Elder Rogers and I have been receiving revelation after revelation for our zone, which I spoke to President about in my interview with him last week.  He is receiving the same guidance for the mission.  It is such a great testimony that revelation is congruent and consistent, because it's all coming from the same place.  We have converted our missionaries in the Talisay zone (they were already extraordinary to begin with), and are now beginning to convert the church leaders.  If the bishopric and auxiliaries in a ward aren't completely obedient and diligent in daily scripture study or home and visiting teaching, we are never going to be able to retain the new less active members coming back.  We're also learning how to teach these people better, and have felt a new spirit enter the zone.  Things are happening here, and I feel that this is much more of what the Lord wants.  Work is fantastic here.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Garver

 This is just a funny picture I saw.  So true...

 This one was an "inday" or little girl.  The little kids here are so cute.  I'm thinking about adopting an inday in the future.

This is a hanging bridge that Elder Rogers was scared to death to cross.  That's him holding the sides and freaking out... 

1-16-13

Good Morning Everyone!

Thanks for the advice on the college application Mom.  I'll start that later today.  I'll email you again with an update later.

A little bit more info about my new area; I am still a Zone Leader, and My Zone consists of 20 Elders and Sisters.  My companion is a boss, and my area is sweet.  We teach a lot of less and inactive members here, which I love because it allows us to boldly proclaim repentance just like the great prophets of old.  I love proclaiming repentance. 

We are going to see the huge influx of sisters this next transfer.  I think I heard there are 30 that are coming in this transfer alone.  7 Filipinas and 23 American Sisters.  Things are about to get crazy...

So this week was good!  I got a little stomach virus last Saturday but I've almost completely recovered. 

We went to ZLC and taught another awesome Zone Training about the Spirit World and how great or how awful that is going to be, and how to teach that more effectively to our Less Actives.  It's pretty simple.  If we were offered a trip to Disney World for a week with free lodging in a super nice hotel, and all we had to do was fulfill some little requirements like going to church once a week for a couple hours, think of how easy it would be!  We can see what we want, and in comparison, the requirements seem trivial.  In the eternal perspective, if we can just get our less active members to understand how wonderful spirit paradise will be and then the celestial kingdom, they would do anything in order to obtain that.  Then once they also understand how awful hell will be in the spirit prison followed by eternal damnation, it's not even a question anymore as to whether or not the sacrifices in this life are worth it.  I realized this week just how bold we are in our teaching here.  I don't know about other missions, but here in the Philippines, we are direct and bold.  Really bold.  Now of course it's with love that we say these things, and I have yet to have even one person take offense to what we've taught because we teach through the scriptures and speak through the Spirit.  I wonder though if we would teach the same way in English.  Probably.  It's the exact same way the book of Mormon missionaries taught.

We also got invited to teach in a college this week; that was awesome.  We stood in front of a little under 100 students and taught them that we had the only true church on the face of the Earth and that we had a living prophet and the priesthood of God.  It was great.  We were invited to come back next week as well so we are super excited to teach more.

This week is Sinulog, the huge fiesta that Cebu is famous for, and I am pretty close to the main city where it is held.  I don't know if it'll reach here but I hear it gets pretty crazy.  I'll tell you about it next week.

Love,
Elder Garver

1-9-13

Hello!

The city is awesome.  My new area and new companion are great.  Elder Rogers is my batch to go home so we are right at the same place in the mission.  We both know what we are doing and the work is fantastic.  Our strengths and weaknesses seem to compliment each other perfectly.  I couldn't be more happy with a companion.  The area is amazing as well.  The city is fast-paced and exhausting, but all with good work.  We get fed quite a bit, and there are quite a few wealthy people that like to take care of us.  We even get American food cooked for us a couple times a week!  Our Bishop is awesome, and he is American!  He is pure Filipino but was born and raised in America for 28 years before moving here for a job opportunity.  He speaks fluent English and some Cebuano as well, but not as well as a lot of the American missionaries.  He is really loving, and has lots of drive, and the ideas that I brought from my last branch has seemed to light a fire in him about helping our small ward grow.  We are pumped to be working together.  The mission is just awesome right now.

I'm super happy over here.  It's good to hear that you are all doing well over there too!  I loved hearing about Crystal's reaction to her trail and the faith that she is showing.  She really is an inspiration.  I shared my testimony about her in a lesson to a inactive brother and his family this week and the Spirit witnessed very powerfully about true faith, which makes us happy to sacrifice anything for the Lord.  Their entire family was at church on Sunday.

I talked with my mission president about school at ZLC yesterday.  He said I could fill out my college application whenever I needed to.  What do you think I should do?  I don't have a ton of money right now for college.  Would it be smarter to come home and work until winter and then apply in October?  That's what Chris is doing.  I would be better of financially wouldn't I?  If you think I should do it immediately though, you can start my application for me this week and do everything you can without my help, then email me and I'll finish up the rest next Wednesday.  I don't know anything about phone numbers or SS numbers or addresses or past schools or anything anymore so you would definitely need to do that for me.  The mission veil has caused me to forget everything.  Just let me know in your next email.  I'll follow your advice.

I love you all!  Included are 2 pictures.  The first is of Elder Rose jumping a river on our way back from splits in his area in Toledo last transfer.  The second is after a lesson in my new area with Elder Rogers.

Love,

Elder Garver

Chris:  I don't know if they'll edit this out but I asked my parents what I should do about schooling.  I don't have a ton of money saved up for school so I'm thinking it might be better to work a little bit as well before going off to school.  I'm super pumped to room with you up there.  We just need to request each other when we sign up for schooling or housing or what ever.  How much is gas over there per gallon by the way?  It's around $5 here...

1-2-13

Hey Family!

It's amazing how strong the Spirit can be carried even through email.  Thanks for your's Mom.

This week has been one of a lot of learning for me.  Elder Fudge and I spent many hours this week diving deep into the problems and challenges we face here in the mission field, in specific regards to the culture.  We received much revelation about the Filipinos and have been able to implant many new ideas into the branch which is going to help it grow, and have re-tuned our teaching as well so that we are quickly able to perceive the true needs of each person we visit.  It has been a great experience.

This experience is coming to a close now however, at least with Elder Fudge anyway.  I'm transferring tomorrow to Talisay!  My new companion is another Filipino named Elder Rogers.  I'm very excited.  Elder Rogers is a great Elder, and this will be the very first time for me to be assigned in a city, as well as be in a stake!  I remember President Uchtdorf's talk a couple conferences ago; it's going to be nice to get out of the little piper plane for a couple transfers and be part of a much more sophisticated and hopefully well oiled machine.

We are doing our district activity today as a farewell to such a spectacular Zone Leader (jokes ra bitaw!).  We are going to play some basketball and good ol' American football.

I would love to be able to hang out with the Parkers again.  It's going to be a lot different than what I'm doing now.  Talk about culture shock...  I'm a little scared to go home!  I still got plenty of months left though.

One last question; how is the economy doing out there?  I hear that things are supposed to tank sometime in January.  Is that true?  I'm thinking about investing in land and kandings (goats) when I get home. Sound like a good idea?

Love you all!

Elder Garver

P.S. Chris I love you.  Anything crazy happening with the economy over there?  Do you see a lot of goats?  I'm definitely buying at least one when I get home.

12-18-12

Hey ya'll! (my comp is from Texas...)

This is going to be super short.  I apologize.  Yes, I'll be getting on skype on Dec. 26 at 9am my time.  I'm super excited to see you again.  Our limit is 1 hour for skype so prepare you scripts and learn them well so we can stay with in our time limit!  Funny?  Probably not.  I can never tell any more.  Filipino humor is so weird and now I'm a part of it.  I'm never going to be able to get a girlfriend now...  Anyway, we are going into Cebu for our mission Christmas devotional and talent show this Friday.  That'll be awesome.  I think I'm doing a song or something with Elder Banzon, one of the APs.  We'll see what I get thrown into.  I'll let you know more when we skype!  Love you!

Love,
Elder Garver