4-24-13

Hey Everyone!

This week was transfer week and it was an interesting one!  We had our two area mates pulled out so one could train and open a different area and the other could step up to Zone Leader on Bohol.  This leaves Elder Steiner and me to take care of the entire branch here in Tutay.  This is proving to be quite the undertaking.  I received amazing revelation for my district this past transfer that we needed to basically drop everything and completely focus on training our leaders.  We have been visiting every auxiliary leader for the past couple weeks and training them individually on each of their responsibilities.  They currently can't do this without us because the red and blue handbooks of instruction for the church are not in Bisaya and nobody here can understand English enough to study them and understand, and nobody knows what their doing in the first place so there isn't anybody with any clue on how to do anything more that attend church once a week for 3 hours.  We have been carrying the handbooks with us everywhere and teaching out of them, and we are seeing huge success.  I can honestly say that I have seen more success this last transfer than I have my entire mission.  It feels so good to have each entire day packed with crucial appointments, and then to see immediate success as the leaders begin to implement presidency meetings, PEC and branch councils, visiting and home teaching, calendaring, interviews, and more.  I am loving this area, and am excited to finish up strong.  We scheduled it out after we found out the other elders were leaving, and we found that with training Elder Steiner, visiting each auxiliary once a week, the presidents twice, and the branch president 3 times, we are left with 3 hours a WEEK to teach our progressing investigator, Mae Ann and her family.  We are slammed!  It is so fulfilling.  This place is going to be the best organized branch in the Philippines by the time I go home.  All the leaders are so willing to learn and want so bad to do their part, they just haven't known how.  I'm loving it.

Gosh these kids here are so loud!  ugh.  There is only one computer shop in my area and it's summer break so all the annoying little teenagers come and play DOTA (a video game) and just SCREAM and YELL at the top of their voices at each other.  Too bad there aren't any libraries in the Philippines.  Filipinos don't read...

Anyway, I've got some more pictures for you!  I hope they all make it.  

1. me on the front of a motor, taken by Elder Croxton next to me on their motor. 

2. me again on the front with our driver behind me. 

3. The Negros Valcano.

I love you!  Don't get too trunky Dad!  At least you're do a pretty good job of covering it up ;)

Love,

Elder Garver

4/16/13

Hello!

Before I forget, this is important.  I need that waist size of both Dad and Papa. Don't forget to send that to me!

This week was great!  I received more awesome revelation and the work has just clicked.  We are finally doing lasting good.  We are visiting all our leaders and working with them to get their individual auxiliary meetings going, and the are all responding to the call.  We are also teaching in small 10-15 minute increments each day so they don't lose focus.  The people have very short attention spans here so instead of teaching all of lesson one in an hour, we are teaching them one principle like the Godhead for 10 minutes, leaving them a study assignment, and coming back the next day to review, and then move onto the next portion of the lesson.  It is working wonders.

To answer Dad's question, I am doing just fine physically.  I don't know how great of a shape my teeth are in, but we'll just have to worry about that when I get home.  I think I've got some pretty bad gum recession.  We don't have to walk at all in this area because we have a member that takes us literally everywhere we go.  It is so awesome.  He has a motorcycle that he drives right up to the door of every appointment we have.  We are so spoiled.

Elder Steiner is doing great, and we think that Elder Chamberlain is going to be training this transfer once Elder Croxton transfers so it'll be cool to have 2 kids in the apartment.  I included a picture of me and my goofy comp for you guys.

Love you all!

Love,

Elder Garver

4-10-13

Hello!

This week has been really good out here in the bukid!  I got some awesome revelation for my district and introduced it in District Meeting on Monday.  We are now completely focusing on the leaders in our branches out here.  We are visiting them multiple times each week in order to first convert, and then train them on the individual callings.  We are seeing tons of success already and the Spirit it beginning to flood into this district of branches.  I love it!

That's really all this last week summed up in a paragraph.  Training is going well, the apartment mates are a blast, dinner appointments are existent, we still have a personal driver... life is great.  I'm loving it.

I got some more pictures for you.  Check out this tree!  It fell down a super long time ago but it's still got enough roots deep enough in the ground to keep it alive.  I bet there is a gospel principle that we could relate that to...

I love you all!  You are all the best.

Love,

Elder Garver

4-3-13

Hello Everyone!

So I started to make that list of food I missed and ended up just throwing it away.  I like rice.

This week has been really good but a little crazy too.  We are getting a lot of work done in this branch and are really starting to see the light of hope shimmering through the darkness.  This branch is going to be up and running before I have to leave it.  Elder Steiner is doing great as well.  He hasn't gotten sick yet and is doing well adjusting to the food.  He is improving really rapidly at the language as well.  The hardest thing here when you're new is understanding the natives when they speak.  There are no rules in Cebuano so you just say things basically however you feel like and it takes a long time to get used to that as a greenie.  He is doing well speaking however and can get his point across well.  This area is a ton of fun.

So now on to the more crazy part.  This past week was Holy Week, and like Dad is hoping for, I've got some stories.  I wasn't anywhere where I could see anything big last year, but this year was different.  We had a conference in the city on Friday and on the way back we got to see some of the parades and things that the Catholics put on here.  There were THOUSANDS of people swarming the streets pushing homemade floats with all their saints and Mama Marys and Jesuses perched up top.  They had candles and were playing drums and stuff all over the island.  We sat in traffic for 3 hours waiting for the masses of people to pass so we could go back to our area.  They also did a pretty crazy parade in Toledo right by the Zone Leaders' apartment with thousands of people following a man who represented Jesus on the road to Calvary.  There were people dressed up as Jews following a big group of Roman soldiers who were escorting a man in boxer shorts who was supposed to be Jesus.  Their Jesus was carrying a real cross down the road and up their hill of Calvary while literally  being whipped and beaten by the men dressed as Roman soldiers.  Their Jesus was drunk out of his mind so he didn't feel the pain so much and was stumbling as he ascended the hill.  It was past our curfew so nobody got to see the actual crucifixion on the top of the hill, but I did get to go back the next night and got a couple pictures with some kids who were playing up there.  Super messed up.

                                              

The next picture I included also has a little explanation :)  The Catholic Church here seems to only care about money, and so they charge their members fees for everything that happens.  They sell baptism, blessings, marriages, forgiveness for sins, burial sites, and more.  I don't know much about cemeteries in America, but here, all the cemeteries are owned by the Catholic Church.  If you aren't a Catholic, the church refuses to let you be buried in their cemetery, and if you are a Catholic there is a rent charged on your grave.  If your family can't afford to pay the monthly rent on the grave one month, the church digs up your body, and throws whatever is left in a pile in the cemetery to free up space for someone who can pay.  We passed through a cemetery this week and a got a couple pictures for you.  Again, super messed up.

Well, I hope you are all having a great week!  You are really lucky you get to listen to conference this week.  We'll be listening to it next.  I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Garver

3-27-13

Hello!

Wow, what kind of phone do you have Mom?  That's super cool you can just talk to it and it writes stuff for you.  I saw an Ipad mini for the first time the other day and it made me laugh super hard.  Apple is ridiculous.  They just keep making the same thing in different sizes and people still buy them!

I don't have my flight plans yet, but I'll let you know when they come in.  Holy cow... that should be some time this transfer.  I still can't really believe this mission is ever going to come to an end.

This week has been good.  We got the apartment organized and are getting into our area pretty well now.  We had to open it up so it was a little different as we spent a lot of time going around finding members and things but we are just about into the full swing of things and only have a few more families we need to find.  Elder Steiner is doing well and is a hard worker with a great attitude at all times.  We are having a blast in this area with the two other Elders who stay in the same apartment with us who are both very good friends of mine from previous areas.  Our branch is small and weak but we are working together with the Branch President to get things up and running.

That's pretty much it for this week.  I'm including pictures again as promised.  The first is obviously me and my companion, and the second is a picture I took looking out of a window in our apartment.  We are living right on the beach :)  I still haven't forgotten the advice Papa gave me about not taking sunsets for granted.  That one's for you Papa.

                                                            

I love you all so much!

Love,

Elder Garver

p.s.  I was talking with my companions here while we ate lunch earlier and we decided that since you'll be saving money on not flying out here, we could use a little of that on some food that I haven't gotten to eat in 2 years.  They told me it would be a good idea for me to put together a list of foods that I want to eat first when I get home.  I'll send you a little list next week.  The first one I can think of just off the top of my head is muddy buddies :)  I love you all!