7-4-12

Rachel is wearing high heals?!!?!??!  Oh man.....  Life is going by so fast.

Hello Everyone!

Joceryl was baptized this week.  Her date was originally scheduled for the 7th but due to us having zone interviews this 7th it got moved forward a week.  The baptism was great.  I'll send some pictures next week because I forgot my flash drive/USB converter thingy this week.  After her baptism, Joceryl bore the most solid testimony I have ever heard, and in our next visit she told us that her boss at work found out she was baptized, was furious and threatened to fire her and take away her sponsorship for college if she continue coming to church (super Christ-like... How can someone feel so much hatred and still think they are "following Christ?"). Joceryl told us that this Sunday she is coming to church regardless, and is even praying that her boss follows through on her threats so that she can show the Lord her commitment and focus all her time on working with the relief society and preparing for her mission 1 year from now.  Joceryl is awesome.

I have a book to suggest to you all.  I want to extend a commitment to all of you who read this; Mom, Dad, Nuna, Papa, Grandma, Grandpa, siblings, cousins, friends.  Will you read "The Miracle of Forgiveness" by President Spencer W. Kimball?  I promise you it will change the way you think about forgiveness and righteous, happy living.  I promise you that it will enlighten your mind and guide you to true activity in the church. I'd love to hear your thoughts in your future emails as you read it.  It taught me a ton, that's for sure.

I'm low on time, but I love you all.  Good work on the Girls Camp, knee healing, testimony bearing, McDo working, and high heals wearing.  I'm always praying for you.

Love,

Elder Garver

6-27-12

Happy Birthday Dad!  Also, happy belated father's day.  I have absolutely no concept of time out here.  There are no seasons, no weekends, no vacation.  Just work work work, so I apologize for missing holidays and stuff.

I've been praying a lot for you all.  You are all going through challenging times, and I want to give my support as best I can.  I'm grateful you made it back ok Dad!

We had another good week out here in Valencia.  There were some really good talks given in sacrament meeting on Sunday, and then I did splits with Elder Manglicmot.  I'm really excited for next week because I'm doing splits with Elder Parkinson in Pilar.  I'm going back to my roots, and I'm super excited to see all the members again from my first area.

Joceryl is being baptized this Saturday.  That is very exciting.

It has been awesome this past couple weeks to write in my journal.  I have passed my 1 year mark now, which means that every night I write in my journal, I can look back at that date 1 year previous and see how much has changed.  It is fun to see how terrible I was at Cebuano and how my thought process worked back then.  I have really gained a testimony of being a record keeping people and of keeping journals out here on my mission.  Missionary work has become a true love of mine.  This has become the most fulfilling time in my life.  I wake up every morning excited to get out of the house and go to work, and I come back at night filled with happiness.  It is amazing to think of how many people in the world, many our neighbors and friends, who don't have the true gospel in their life, and a lot of times, don't even know what they are missing.  Thinking about missionary work, I recall the story of Aaron preaching unto King Lamoni's father.  In their conversation, before any teaching takes place, the king inquires as to the whereabouts of Ammon, the brother of Aaron.  Aaron could have said, "oh, he is in Middoni right now," or "he is staying with your son," but what he said was "Behold, the Spirit of the Lord has called him another way; he has gone to the land of Ishmael, to teach the people of Lamoni."  This response is a testimony in and of itself.  It is filled with the Spirit, and it prompted thought in the king and those around him.  I don't think that this sentence was anything out of the ordinary to Aaron, and I don't think that he thought really hard to word it right.  I believe that the Lord was such a part of his life, and who he was, that instead of stating a simple fact, in was in his nature to reference, and acknowledge God in his life and the life of his brother.  His normal everyday conversation testified of Christ, and missionary work was simply second nature, it just flowed out of him to whomever he spoke with.  I know that missionary life is different from "normal life," but does it really have to be?  What if we became as Aaron, and our conversations naturally always flowed towards and around Christ?  I have found that it really is not very difficult at all to sit down next to someone on a bus, and instead of saying, "I'm going to Pilar," to say" We are visiting a member of our church in Pilar to share a message about the restoration of the true church of Christ."  If we are constantly thinking of Christ, like we promise to every Sunday in Sacrament meeting, He seems to flow naturally into conversations because He is always on our mind.  I know this church is true, and our neighbors and loved ones around us every day don't know it yet!  They NEED this truth, and we can help them find it by simply allowing Christ into our conversations.

I love you all more than you know.  I am so blessed to have such an amazing family, and amazing friends.

Stay healthy, and stay safe!

Love,
Elder Garver

6-20-12

Hey everyone!

No way!  Dad got an iPad?  That's awesome.  Those are really cool... (hint hint)  Just kidding!  That's awesome though.  Now he is in the "in crowd" of all the old people haha jokes!  You're not THAT old.

This is a big sports season in the Philippines.  Manny Pacquiao  just fought his big match against Bradley, and lost, so the Philippines is in an uproar about that.  Now it's the NBA finals and Filipinos everywhere are glued to the TV 24/7.  It's hard to walk anywhere now without hearing American Commentators and crowds cheering.  Last I heard Miami was up 2-1.

Work continues to go great here.  My whole district is doing really well, with upcoming baptisms in every area.  Being a DL in Bohol is a challenge due to the distance between each area here.  Jagna and Duero are both a little over an hour bus ride away from Valencia, and Pilar is over 3.  So success in the District means a lot of travel for Elder Plandiano and me, but it is great to interview these people who are so ready to receive the gospel and it's blessings into their lives.  Being a DL is a blast.  Weekly workshops are also really great.  I learn so much preparing them and from the feedback from my District.  I have a very very obedient, spiritual district, and the Spirit is always present and active in our district meetings.

I have been inspired this past couple of weeks by the faith of Joceryl, our golden investigator that the Lord just handed to us one day.  She is the one we struck up a conversation with while waiting for public transport and she told us she wanted to be baptized.  In the recent weeks that followed, she continued to amaze us with her readiness for baptism, and Satan continued to amaze us with how much he does not want Joceryl to be baptized.  Joceryl's family is extremely against her getting baptized, and has told her if she is baptized she will not have a home to come home to.  Her boss at work is a die hard Catholic, and has told Joceryl that she will be fired if she joins the Mormon church.  Joceryl's sponsor for college is also Catholic and will cut off her support if Joceryl is baptized.  Nevertheless, Joceryl remains completely faithful.  She attends church every week and frequently bears testimony in our lessons.  She writes us notes about challenges in her life and ways the Lord is carrying her through them all.  She is sharing the gospel like a mad-woman.  We have to give her new pamphlets every time we visit her because she keeps giving them away to friends and acquaintances!  She is already preparing to serve a mission.  Her baptismal date is July 7, and I and the Lord are so proud of her.  Joceryl's faith begs the question in all of us, "what would we be willing to sacrifice for the Savior?"  Would we put our family, career, and schooling on the line if Christ asked us to?  Joceryl is.  The Lord has promised us, that if we seek first His kingdom, all else will be added unto us.  Why worry about tomorrow?  Do what Christ commands, and you will always be taken care of.  Faith precedes the miracle, and I cannot wait to see the miracles the Lord has in store for Joceryl because of her faithfulness.

Keep us all in your prayers, as you are all in mine!  I love you!

Love,
Elder Garver

6-13-12

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

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

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!

5-23-12

Good Morning from the Philippines!

This week is going to be a relatively short email because we have to get over to the church for Elder Nelson's address!

I still need to talk to President later about my exact release date but I still think that the 20th is going to be best.  I am thinking that a 6 day stay would be perfect, the 1st day being the day you land, and the 6th being the day we leave.  I think that it would be safe to bring the girls, even though that is a lot of money.

Work this week has been good.  We had another great Sunday where we got to do another caravan, and a good 30+ members attended.  We had a big FHE and had a great lesson with some innactives as well.  Included is a picture of the member who gave us a ride.  I imagine it will be kinda funny for you to see.  I just realized that it's so normal to me now...  Doesn't everyone fit 5+ people on one motorcycle all the time?  They do here.  We also had a lot of travel this week.  I'm off the main island again, which means it is a 3 day ordeal to get to where ever everyone else is for any events such as conferences or meetings.  Traveling is tough, but I'm excited to hear Elder Nelson speak.

I love you all!

Elder Garver