9/1/14 And She's Off!

In October of 2012 we were watching General Conference when President Thomas S. Monson announced a policy change to the age at which missionaries were able to serve. Young men could leave as early as 18, and young women could leave as early as 19. Excitement exploded among young people everywhere, including our house, when Alicia shouted, "I'm going on a mission!!" That excitement continued, and after one year of college at BYU, Alicia submitted her papers and received a call to the Georgia Atlanta North Mission.

Shopping was one of her least favorite things, so that was the hardest part of getting ready, but all the women in our family loved helping her.

Then lots of hugs and well wishes from everyone, hoping to squeeze enough love into her to last until we were together again.

And then, just like that, she was off for the adventure of her life. We love you, Sister Garver!

9/10/14 Welcome to the MTC

This first week started off super slow but by the end its been going by really fast! 

I'm loving my time here! My whole zone is from Utah, and now I see what people mean when they talk about Utah Mormons being a bit different. Their standards and way of life are a bit different than of those from the east coast. They are still really fun and awesome though! My whole district has become good friends and we have a blast together in class. 

The food here is almost identical to what they serve at BYU, so it's pretty good. Meaning I have to work at not eating dessert with every meal! I'm doing pretty good at it though. The Spirit here is amazing and I can feel myself growing so much! I feel like a totally different person than I was last week. And I know by tuesday when I leave I'll be that much more than I am now. 

People here constantly talk about how hard it is and how much they miss their family and how they all thought at one time about going home, but I have never felt that way. Yes, it was exhausting the first few days, but it was also so much fun! I never thought it was hard, just tiring. But it was so worth it, I didn't want to change anything. Why would anyone want to leave this amazing Spirit? I'm having a blast!

I do admit though that I was a bit sad today. I opened up my mailbox, and the only thing in it was a letter from Rachael from California. I miss you guys! Email me! Mom, I know you just missed me, but I wouldn't mind emails from the girls too. Oh, and can you send Nuna and Papa, Andrew, and Kevin's emails? Oh, and Grandma's too? That would be fantastic. 

I love you so much!

Sister Alicia Garver

2/4/16 Home

 Leaving home to serve a mission for a year and a half requires a lot of sacrifice. So much change, learning, and growth happens when you give your life so completely to the Lord, allowing him to guide you and shape you into what he knows you can become. Serving a mission is such a unique time of life, and an opportunity like no other.

For those waiting at home, it is a privilege to witness the growth of the missionary, and offer support through letters, packages, and many, many heartfelt prayers.

We are so proud of you, Sister Garver, for giving your all, over and over again, and sharing your love so freely. We love you, and are so happy to have you home!

Love,

Mom and Dad

2/1/16 I Wouldn't Trade it for the World

 This past week has been BEAUTIFUL! And the coming week promises on

being so as well. Sunny, clear skies, and temperatures ranging from
the 50's to the 70's. I'm wearing short sleeves :) Welcome to January
and February in Georgia. The weather jumps from freezing and windy and
biting one week to stunning and warm the next. People are starting to
get sick because their bodies don't know how to handle the massive
changes. Even the plants are confused. I saw a tree staring to bud
today. Poor thing is going to get frostbite in two weeks.

Everything is ready for transfers on Wednesday. I'm almost all packed
and Sister Tanner got called to train and be the only STL in the whole
zone. Single STL and training? That poor greenie is going to have to
go on exchanges more than once a week and have her first exchange two
days after she gets here, so Sister Tanner can go to MLC. Poor dear.
But it'll be good. She'll grow really fast.

Couple of awesome miracles this week. We had prepared for the day and
were just finishing up companion study when, one after another, our
potential investigators call and cancel their appointments. Yay. But
then, literally 30 seconds after they hung up, a member called and
asked us if we wanted a milkshake. Um, what? They were getting
milkshakes and then thought of us and gave us a call. No one ever does
that. So we ended up going over to their house and eating a milkshake
and doing service cleaning their house for those two hours we just had
had open up. It was so cool, because they have been in a hard
situation and she's been homebound with a tiny daughter born 2 months
early, and we've been trying to get in to help out for several weeks.

Then the other night, we had stopped by a less-active member that was always
home, and that night they weren't. We started knocking a few doors
around them and found Camille! She opened the door barely a crack and
told told us to come back later, that it was too late. But we kept
talking and asking questions and it was cool to see that door slowly
open wider and wider, until it was wide open and we were laughing and
talking and she was telling us about her job, and her kids, and her
worries about them, and her culture, and her dog. She started out
telling us she had heard about Mormons and none of it was positive,
but by the end we had a return appointment and she wanted to find out
for herself what was true and not just go off of rumors, and that she
was actually looking for a church to start going to.

I'm going to miss all of this.

I love you all and thank you for all of your prayers and support while
I've been out here in Georgia serving and learning and working in the
Master's vineyard. It has been the best experience of my life. I
wouldn't trade it for the world.

I love you all so much!
Sister Garver

1/25/16 Worldwide Missionary Broadcast!

 This week has felt kinda off. That happens when you mess with the

normal flow of things. Preparation day on Tuesday instead of Monday,
district meeting on Wednesday instead of Thursday, throw a 2 hour long
broadcast in there, and then change church from 9am to 8:30. Yesterday
felt like a Thursday when we all went to church to for some reason. It
threw off my groove.

But it was a fun week. The worldwide missionary broadcast was so much
fun! It was the first one in over a decade and had a lot of really
good stuff in there. It was mostly based off of Preach My Gospel so
they weren't new ideas, but the Spirit they were taught with, and the
way they were taught, really opened my eyes. They taught us that we
were the tools and the Spirit was in charge, not the other way around.
They taught us not to be afraid of invitations, and to not back down
when an investigator makes excuses. It was so good! It felt like an
extra session of conference :) Plus, what made it that much better,
was one of the senior couples took us out to Steak n' Shake for lunch
after. I love Butterfinger shakes! Of course after, they went and
inspected our apartment...but we passed, so it's all good.

We had a lot of little miracles. Sister Joseph is slowly getting
closer to baptism every week. She agreed to live the Word of Wisdom
this week. She had dinner with a member family and had a fabulous
time. She spent an hour doing family history at the family history
center and had the time of her life. At church on Sunday, the RS
president even approached her about becoming a visiting teacher and
she said yes! She's such a dry Mormon!!! It's okay. She'll get
baptized one day.

We stopped by this one less-active member again who had slammed the door in
our face and nearly set his giant dog on us three weeks ago. Because
we could. And felt like we should. I was still super doubtful and
skeptical about getting in, but we stopped by just to let him know we
weren't scared. When we pulled up, Sister Tanner said, "Alright so if
we get in..." and I said "I would be very surprised. But IF we do,
maybe just try and sneak a principle in." And lo and behold, the door
opened to a smile and an invitation in. He had thought we were
Jehovah's Winesses before and apologized. We taught him a lovely
lesson and he was open and very receptive. Well. I was very surprised.
Cool.

We also got a new investigator and put him on date for baptism. His
name is Joseph and he thinks he's 22. He thinks. And he has the
ugliest dog. I really don't like pugs. They are not fluffy and they
are slobbery and make weird noises constantly. Dogs must be fluffy.
And not slobbery. Or smelly. Just sayin'. But Joseph is a good guy. We
might pass him over to the YSA elders soon though.

And fun fact about Sister Tanner: she has played tennis since she was
6 and has a scholarship at Weber State playing tennis. For the first
time in 7 months, she got to play again today. An older man from the
ward called us up this morning and asked if she would play with him!
I've never seen her so excited. Well, except when it snowed on Friday.
But they spent an hour playing today and it was fun to see her play :)

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

PS Our version of the snow storm on Friday was a light dusting that

                             was gone by Sunday. And now it's 56 degrees outside. That's okay. You
                             got hit pretty hard in Maryland so I'll go play in that stuff next
                             week. Ew. Next week.

1/19/16 An Eternity and a Half, and the Blink of an Eye

 I've said it before, and I'll say it again: time stopped behaving

itself when you put on a badge. This week, these past weeks, have
taken an eternity and a half, and have gone by in the blink of an eye.
We had zone conference on Wednesday, which is always fun. We only have
one every three months. Sister Tanner and I had to give a 45 minute
training on everyone's favorite subjects: goals, planning and
accountability. Yup, just like you might suspect, heads shot up with
excitement as we began. Sister Martinez fell out of her chair, she
could hardly contain herself. I think Elder Cannon had to be taken to
see the nurse, because he passed out he was so thrilled. Yay. Longest
45 minutes ever. Well, it did help to have President Bennion jumping
in and taking over for the last 15 minutes. He gets pretty excited
about accountability. He started this new accountability email he
wants everyone to email him, the zone leaders, district leaders and
sister training leaders every week, so he wanted to explain that and
answer questions. But the food was good. The Spanish branch made us
all a baked potato bar and a billion desserts to choose from :)

We also had a multi-stake broadcast from Salt Lake on Sunday to all
the southern states. We got a ride from Sister Joseph, our
investigator (she will be baptized one day and become the best RS
president ever), and got to hear from Elder Hales, Elder Rasband, one
of the 70, and one of the RS councilors. It was pretty good. Lots
about temples, families, children, and charity. Keeping your eye fixed
on the compass. How to keep your family and children strong in he
gospel. Sister Joseph really liked it. The stake president came up to
her afterwards and talked to her for a bit about what she thought,
what she was learning from us, and about the Book of Mormon. Before he
left, he made her promise to invite him to her baptism. She is so
special. She is going to be the strongest, coolest, most awesome
loving member in the history of ever when she decides to be baptized.
I think he could feel that :) I just need to be patient :/

We have had a couple cool miracles this week. We got in again with a
less active we found a while back. She is super cool. She is now
strong in the Methodist faith, and she let us know that, but she said
she wanted to take the discussions again to see how she feels about
them, to refresh her memory and to see if things have changed. We'll
take it. She told us her entire life story (she loves us🙂) and it
boggled my mind. I mean, don't get me wrong, I love to hear how
couples met and how they feel in love and how he proposed and
everything, but every 16 is kinda young to get married. Especially
when he is 24. I just picture my dear sweet little sisters, and my
brain rebels. It's don't date until you are 16, not don't get married
until you are 16! Sydney, don't even think about it. Anyway, they are
still happily married 50 years later, but still.

We've been getting a ton of requests for Bibles from mormon.org
lately. We stopped by this one lady we had called and set up an
appointment with, but she wasn't home. So we go to knock a few door
around her and meet Al-Dajsha. When we told her we were looking for
her neighbor to give her a free Bible she had requested, Dajsha said, "A
King James Version? Do you have an extra?" She had been praying for
one because she couldn't afford one and here we were! We were able to
share the restoration with her and give her a Book of Mormon as well
and she was so excited about us coming back to teach her more. I love
how God leads us to the right people!

Like, we were just checking out at the store today, and the register
lady comes over to us and asks if we have any small books for
children. Seeing our blank looks, she said it was so she could help
her grandchildren learn to thank God for everything. We gave her a
mormon.org card and told her to check out the website and videos on
it. Cool.

We found some cool service this week as well! We'd been doing little
things like helping out at the Salvation Army food pantry and picking
up trash from the side of the streets (Georgia is gross) but didn't
really have anything weekly. We found a extended care center (thank
you google maps) and were able to start helping out there weekly. So
cute! Everyone in there seems to be at least 90 and everyone is in a
wheelchair. We painted nails, helped them exercise (hahahahah!!!!),
and then just sat and talked to them. Not everything made sense, but
they were so cute and excited and fun to chat with. Best 2 hours ever.
One lady told Sister Tanner she liked her skirt 5 times in 10 minutes.
It was great :)

This week is the world-wide missionary broadcast with Elder Anderson,
Elder Bednar, and Elder Oaks. I'm so excited!

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver