This week we had a special zone conference with Elder
Zeballos from the Presidencia del Área Suramerica Sur. It was a really great
conference. He mentioned that if you can speak English and Spanish, you can
communicate with 80% of the members of the church, and if you speak English,
Spanish, and Portuguese, you can speak with 90%. Good thing I've got my
friend Scotty, who can teach me Portuguese. I think what I most liked about the
conference was something that he and his wife talked about. They cut an apple
open and asked us what half an apple has to do with missionary work. When you
cut an apple, it is when you can see that an apple has seeds and you can count
them, but you will never know how many apples can be grown from the seeds of
the apple. It's interesting that in missionary work we can see and measure some
of the results of our labor, such as the number of lessons we teach, how many
investigators come to church, or how many baptisms the Lord allows us to
participate in. However, we will truly never know the impact that our small
actions may cause. The Lord uses small and simple things to accomplish His grand
purposes. I feel like a very very small and simple thing as a missionary. It
amazes me that the Lord trusts so much in an imperfect, small, simple 19
year-old like me. It is such a privilege to serve the Lord full-time.
This week the Ramirez family has helped us a lot with the
work! They invited their friend Brenda to their house to listen to us. She is
20 years old and has a 2 year old child named Jazmin. She is progressing really
well and has a baptismal date for the 14th of March. We also met Juana, the
mother of Brenda, who we feel will soon
accept the message. We still need to contact Nico, Guadalupe's 14 year-old friend, and his family. The Ramirez family is progressing so well in the
gospel. Julio blessed the Sacrament for the first time yesterday and it was so
humbling for me to see. We met the family almost 2 months ago, and Julio has
already blessed the Sacrament, they are doing family history work, and they are
inviting their friends to come to their house and learn about the gospel. They
are a very special family and hold a very special place in my heart.
Saturday was an interesting day. Elder Vasquez and Elder
Jones called us because Elder Vasquez had had a problem and needed to go to the
hospital, but they were supposed to have a baptism in a few hours. Elder Fabila
ended up going to the hospital with Elder Vasquez and I went with Elder Jones
to the small Lima Branch. When we got there, the pool (because they don't have a
church, they meet in a house) was only half-full, and the water wasn't coming
out of the hose. We ended up having to fill up the pool with buckets of water.
Then it was 7 o'clock and the investigators were no where to be found. We
waited and waited and finally went out to try and find them. We found them and
got back to the church at 8 o'clock. Laura (28) and her daughter Sabrina (8)
were baptized. Elder Vasquez was going to baptize Sabrina, and so Elder Jones
asked her if it was alright if he baptized her. She didn't want him to. She wanted
me to. So I ended up baptizing her. It was a fun experience.
Muchísimas gracias a todos por lo que hacen por mí. Les amo
mucho y siempre los tengo presente en mis oraciones. Cuídense mucho.
Con amor,
Elder John William Garrett
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