February 2, 2015

Hey mom! Seven months in the mish today!  Man the time is flying!!!!!!  

This week was rough... I came to the awful realization that I am the unfortunate victim of a parasite and that’s a major cause as to why I’ve dropped so much weight. 

Our investigators are doing pretty good. Juan, the gringo that is here for the next 6 months, SAID HIS PRAYER!!!!  We were very shocked about that.  Also, it was my companions birthday this last week on the 31 of January.  If you want to send him a happy birthday his email is leonardo.villasanti@myldsmail.net 

THE PATS WON!!!!  Sorry... had to get that out.  Their my team!  Otherwise, we’re doing very tranquilo as they would say here in Chile. 

Antonieta is doing awesome!  She bore her testimony this last Sunday and we had lunch with her during the week. She goes to all the activities and she couldn’t be happier!!! :))) 

This week we found a guy named Elvis.  He is trying to find a house and recently went through a lot of rough stuff in his life. He’s open to listening, wants to get baptized but just doesn’t know in which church. So I know this sounds weird but.... Pray for Elvis. Not the rock and roll king but the Chilean.  

English class has shown fruits. Some of our students have expressed interest in receiving the missionaries. I am basically doing what all my Spanish teachers did in school when trying to teach us by incorporating music into lessons to make it more interactive. Last week we did music from Tarzan and this week guess what?!?!      FROZEN. LIBRE SOY LIBRE SOY!!!  It’s going to be a good time.  

Studying this week, I really got into the final months of the Savior’s earthly ministry. He called the Seventy to go and preach to Jew and Gentile and He rejoiced when they returned after a job well done. I guess I can make the Lord of Hosts joyful by doing exactly what those men did thousands of years ago. And I`ll tell ya,  I am having a good time doing.  

Not terribly fun with a parasite, but we’ve already gotten that taken care of so.. no hay que preocupar!  

7 months has already gone by!  It’s going by way too fast for my liking.  

Love Garrett 

January 26, 2015

January 26, 2015 

Well ,this week was action packed towards the end of it. Yesterday, we were really busy and Monday through Saturday were a bit slow. We actually have a lot of work to do within the ward, but with investigators we are moving at a slower pace, but that’s changing!!!  Decent week as far as working with the ward. We got a plan of action put together by the bishopric and the elder`s quorum president to start reactivating the members of the quorum and the future elders who are also less active. We found a couple people this week.  One of which is Juan, the man with whom accompanied us to visit the church. We had given him a couple weeks to adjust to his new life without Mari and Ella, which is something he expressed to us he would appreciate. However, yesterday he called us and expressed he had been experiencing signs of depression and really wanted to meet. Hopefully he'll be more prepared now to listen with spiritual ears and not so much scientific curiosity.  

The missionary bear worked!!!!  We had a family home evening last night with the Muñoz family and their friends!!! I love it when a plan comes together. Elder Oso as the members lovingly call him is making his way through the houses now and is getting consistently better every week. You gotta give it up to him he's a great missionary after all.  

I got the birthday package. I will open it this afternoon when we get home from downtown. Thanks again for sending it.  

This week during my studies I came across something that applies to everyone. In 2 neph 28:30 it reads " 30 For behold, thus saith the Lord God: I will give unto the children of men line upon line, precept upon precept, here a little and there a little; and blessed are those who hearken unto my precepts, and lend an ear unto my counsel, for they shall learn wisdom; for unto him that receiveth I will give more; and from them that shall say, We have enough, from them shall be taken away even that which they have." 

We either keep learning, keep applying what we've learned or we say "I’ve had enough" and all that we've learned is kind of worthless. This applies to ourselves in not just our temporal education, but more importantly to our spiritual development.  We should always be striving to better ourselves and be in a learning state. If we complete a few things but not some, if we learn but only up to a certain point, if we only apply what is convenient for us, it is like we haven’t done anything at all.  

I encourage all of you to keep learning, spiritually and temporally. I know there is a lot out there I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out more about it. 

I love you, thanks for your prayers and your thoughts. I truly appreciate everything.  

Garrett

 

 

 

January 19, 2015

January 19, 2015 

Hey mom!  

So this week we had a lot of stuff going on. We had a ward family evening in the Chapel and it was a great time.  We played lots of games and everyone had a great time! I also got surprised twice for my birthday, once by a member from my last ward in Chillan with the coolest shirt ever and the other was on Saturday by the familia Munoz. They told us they had friends they wanted to introduce us to, every missionaries’ dream, and when we showed up it was a birthday party. I was very grateful.  

We did not actually eat birthday pizza. Instead of that , I used some of the money to go buy baking supplies to well... bake cinnamon rolls and snickerdoodles.  Why you ask. the ym and yw in the ward are going to their summer camps and are raising money so we figured we’d help out and donate baked goods to sell. We had a great time and only managed to eat a fourth of the finished products.... it’s really quite ridiculous how good we are at baking.  

 

Today we went and checked out the cemetary and the sepulchers near by. They don’t bury people here.  Everyone gets a slot in the wall.  There are so many.   It’s like the size of 70 football fields of just granite and bones. There’s this huge monument at the very end, and it looked very cool. I’ve been wanting to check it out since I got to this sector. 

We aren’t teaching any new people but Antonietta is really unifying herself in the Church. The Relief Society loves her and so does the rest of the ward.  

Not much time. it took a long time to get all the photos together but I love you and am so thankful for all the support. I had a fantastic 20th here in Chile. I’m really grateful for all the blessings I have in my life. Family, friends, and the opportunity to serve, but mostly for my big brother Jesus Christ, my Savior and Redeemer.  

Love you All, 

Garrett  

enjoy all the photos from this week!!!!