At long last :)

This has been a fantastic week. On Tuesday I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Elder Hansen in his area which was pretty fun because the two of us started our mission together. We had a great time working together and later that night we called for empanadas, so that's always a great way to end the day.

Exchanges with Elder Hansen and empanadas

This week we found a lot of new investigators. Luis was one of them. He is the neighbor of a recent convert and is pretty excited about learning about the gospel and going to church. Unfortunately, he couldn't go to church yesterday, but he's got plans to go this coming Sunday.

This week we found an older couple, Waldo and Estella. They aren't married to each other. When we explained about the law of chastity and baptism they decided they want to get married. We are going to help them take out a date in the Registro Civil on Wednesday. It is actually pretty incredible how easily they accepted marriage. They also came to church all by themselves yesterday.

On Friday I got to go on exchanges with one of the zone leaders, Elder Bobadilla from México. He is really great and we had a lot of fun together sharing experiences, because we both served part of our missions in Pablo Nogués. He also made me tacos later that night, so that was nice.

Exchanges with Elder Bobadilla

The big news this week was Juan Domingo and Mónica getting baptized! Wooooooooooo!!!!!!! Juan had waited almost 2 months with all of the trials that he had to overcome, but he was so ready for his baptism yesterday. It has really been clear the conversion that he has experienced. Almost every day this week when we went to visit them they were at the table studying the Book of Mormon, the lesson pamphlets, and the Gospel Principles book. Juan is such an example to me of enduring to the end and staying positive when we have trials, as well as inviting neighbors to go to church with him. Adrián Rojas, a convert in the ward, baptized Juan and I baptized Mónica. It was a really special experience.

Juan and Mónica's baptism

I love you all and I trust you are all doing well. Remember, "If you let a hypocrite come between you and the Lord; the hypocrite is still standing closer to the Lord than you are." (Mark Scott)

Que la fuerza les acompañe,

Elder John William Garrett

"En muchos casos, los pequeños medios confunden a los sabios"

This was a pretty fun week. If you remember, Juan Domingo one of our investigators brought a neighbor friend to church last week. Mónica is pretty great and is coming through on all of her commitments. She came to church yesterday and is really excited to get baptized on Sunday. Unfortunately, her grandson Rodrigo didn't come yesterday because he was asleep and we couldn't wake him up... and he still hasn't gone to church yet, so he won't be getting baptized with his grandma. He's really excited about everything though. 

I don't know if everyone remembers, but Juan Domingo has had a lot of challenges and obstacles in his path to baptism. He's been wanting to be baptized since day one. He's been separated from his woman for 5 years but they're living in the same house in separate rooms. When he heard he couldn't get baptized because they were living in the same house he worked hard to find a new place to live, and then moved in with his sister. We were then preparing him to be baptized, but the day of his baptism his sister kicked him out because he was too hard to take care of, so he moved back to where he was living before. These past two weeks we've just kind of been sharing motivating scriptures with him to help him to be happy and positive. Last week we decided that we should probably just talk to President Ayre about the situation, so I wrote him a letter last week explaining to him the seriousness of his diabetes. Yesterday during lunch he called me and we talked for a while about Juan, about his situation and about his testimony. Juan is going to be baptized this Sunday. When we told him, he got really excited. He will be getting baptized at the same time as his neighbor that he invited to church.

This week was a little stressful in that a few really strong converts here in Pacheco were having some doubts and were having problems with testimonies and they wanted us to help them. I'm really grateful for the Spirit and that God is aware of His children. Just a few thoughts to share. In Alma 31:8-10 it states, "Now the Zoramites were dissenters from the Nephites; therefore they had had the word of God preached unto them. But they had fallen into great errors, for they would not observe to keep the commandments of God, and his statutes, according to the Law of Moses. Neither would they observe the performances of the church, to continue in prayer and supplication to God daily, that they might not enter into temptation." The Zoramites were once active members of the church, but they slowly slipped into apostasy as they were lazy with their daily prayers, their weekly attendance at sacrament meeting, and their obedience to the commandments. They are small and simple things, but as Alma later explains in chapter 37, "small means in many instances doth confound the wise." I encourage one and all to reflect upon your personal conversion. Are you growing closer each day to your Father in Heaven? Is what you are doing on a daily basis helping you to become more like our Savior? If not, it is time for a change. It is the negligence of the small and simple things that slowly leads us to fall away. Let us make a stronger effort to complete our part of our covenants with our Father in Heaven, because as we do, He will come through on His part. I know God lives and loves each of us. If you don't know that or are doubting it... it may be because daily scripture study, daily prayer, and weekly attendance at church isn't one of your top priorities. It's time to reorganize them. There is no better day than today. I know that as we come through we will be richly blessed.

Much love,

Elder John William Garrett

Well that's a change

This week was really great. We worked really really hard to find new investigators and we found a lot. Not all of them are progressing, but I know that if we want to find the people God has prepared for us, we need to talk with as many people as possible. As stated in Ether 12:6, "ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith." That is so true. As the Lord sees that we are doing all that we can to find people to teach, He will place them in our path.

We've got an investigator named Maria. She's pretty great. She read the whole Book of Mormon. She also made a huge chart that explains all about how the Book of Mormon came about, all about Joseph Smith, all about the 3 Witnesses and 8 Witnesses, and explains what is talked about in every book of the Book of Mormon including the people that are talked about in the books. When she showed it to us I was dumbfounded. I've never seen this in my mission. She's really great. The unfortunate thing is... she isn't married, and her partner doesn't want to get married, so she can't be baptized. No one is married here! Almost everyone we talk to tells us that they aren't married! 

José, our 15 year old friend is progressing pretty well and enjoyed church yesterday. The only problem is he told us that he doesn't feel ready to be baptized this next week. We'll be working with him to see how we can help him out.

Juan is doing alright. He really wants to be baptized, but now he's living with his ex-wife again, putting us back in our original dilemma. The incredible thing though was that he brought a neighbor to church, Mónica. She loved church, and when we visited her later in the day, her and her grandson both accepted baptismal dates. They're pretty great.

This past week was pretty exhausting, as I had my trainer's responsibilities added upon with the responsibilities of a district leader. It's a bit of a load, but it's fine. It's a bit intimidating though, when I was in the zone meeting, because in the zone is one of my ex-companions, and a bunch of Elders that all have been out longer than I have. The zone leaders asked me to teach a part of the meeting and do a demonstration and I was sweating so bad.  It was pretty crazy. It's fine though.

Once again, I hope that all is well wherever you may be! Que la fuerza les acompañe.

Love,

Elder John William Garrett

Temple and Conference

Well, this week was pretty great. On Wednesday we had to go to Retiro to do some paperwork so my companion can be legal here. We were basically there all day, which was pretty boring. The good part was that I got to hang out with Elder Popoca and Elder Cruz for quite a while.

With Elder Popoca at the despedidas

On Friday we went to the temple as a mission. We had to be there at 8 am... but we miscalculated how long it would take to arrive and got there at 6:50... woops. While we were waiting I ran into Hermana Shaffauser from my first area. We ate lunch at her house almost every Sunday in Constitución, she washed our laundry, and she always gave us ice cream. It was pretty great to see her. She told me that her son Julian always talks about me, so that made me feel good. Being in the temple was really wonderful. Being with a bunch of missionaries from all parts of the world is incredible to see that we really are all equal, it doesn't matter where we are from or what is our story. It was great to be there with so many friends. 

With my hijo at the temple 

Speaking of General Conference, wasn't it amazing? We watched the Saturday Sessions in a member's house in Spanish and the Sunday Sessions in the Stake Center in San Fernando in English. I actually took more notes in Spanish. It's a little weird... because as a missionary I get to watch 4 General Conferences... and I've already seen 3.

Well, all week we were preparing for Juan Domingo's baptism on Sunday, and everything was going great... until Sunday morning. I'm not sure if I mentioned that he has an extreme case of diabetes. Anyway, long story short he got really, really sick and almost died, but didn't, so that's good, but couldn't make it to be baptized. We're going to make sure that he's allright and see how we can help him.

Thanks to Juan Domingo we met the child of his niece, Ezequiel. He's 14 and practices mixed martial arts... so that's pretty cool. He's really great and came to General Conference with us, loved it, and wants to be baptized.

Today was transfer day, but I'm staying here in Pacheco with my hijo, Elder Lawyer. We're excited to be staying together and excited to work hard.

I love you all. Que la fuerza les acompañe.

Elder Garrett