9/8/15 A Week of Miracles

So many great miracles this week! Thank you for all the prayers sent
our way for both Sister Kinser and I as well as for those we're
teaching. We have seen the blessings come from them.

Since we've gotten here it's been a bit difficult for us to get into
the normal teaching mode because we've just been focusing on finding.
And this week we found. We had the best lesson with our one solid
investigator! She has been so prepared and is so ready and elect, we
come out of her house just on cloud 9. She loves to study and to pray
and to know for herself. She listens to us even after her friend told
her all this anti  stuff and she was very open and frank with her questions
about it. We are meeting with her again today, and we're so excited!

The elders have been sending us referrals like crazy for single
sisters, and almost every time we get a hold of them, we have great
lesson and they become new investigators. The people here are so
ready! And I am happy to let the elders to all the finding and us
doing the teaching :) The only hard part about it is that the elders
aren't always great at recording the addresses fully or putting
anything about them before sending them to us, so there are times
we've gone to general area we think it might be, and we (miracle)
either find them or even if we don't, we find someone else to teach or
bear testimony to. This next week will be busy!

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

PS Included is a picture of yours truly cuz it's the only other picture I've 
taken in two weeks, as my picture loving companion has been left behind in JC.

8/31/15 Spoiled Rotten

So Lawrenceville Ward likes their sisters. There are two sets of
elders. They got fed twice this week. We got fed daily. And two
families brought us goodies at church. And another gave us half a
chocolate cake. And another told us they were going to make us a
personalized wooden pen each. And every member I've talked to have
told us that they prefer sisters. Elders are great and all, but....
Yup. I'm starting to feel very loved, very chubby, and very bad for
the elders.

The ward is trying to get us daily team ups to do whatever with us
that we need. Sometimes that is awesome and just downright wonderful,
sometimes it can be a bit uncomfortable for them (like tracting with
us, they don't like that. I love tracting though); or sometimes they
can be very uncomfortable for us. Take last night for example. Please.
A team up is to fellowship, bear testimony, and, when invited, to
simply and clearly teach a point. We are the teachers, and have been
set apart and trained to be so. Please be careful how dominating, how
deep, and how bold you are on team ups. Be careful what you say. Team
ups are something we both long for and are fearful of.

The weather has cooled down a ton this week. I heard it was supposed
to go back up again, but this week has been that perfect autumn
weather. Stunning. We could tract all day in this! Which is awesome,
because that is most of what we do. Still in the finding phase of the
work, but the elect are out there and we will find them!

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

8/24/15 Lawrenceville

Lawrenceville seriously is a place of miracles. No joke.

On Wednesday, I got a ride to the mission office with Sister Hanks
(fancy seeing her again😊) and both of us picked up our daughters. 29
missionaries came in this transfer! That's insane! Half the mission is
training! Well, slight exaggeration, but still. 10 new sisters!
Afterwards, my beautiful baby, Sister Kinser, and I got our new car,
new keys, and new address and drove off the Lawrenceville. So both the
car and apartment had been owned by elders before. Yeah. It wasn't
pretty. We spent pretty much the whole rest of the day cleaning. There
was no way the Spirit could be in that apartment.

The next day we got to work. We had no ward list, no map, no idea of
the ward boundaries, no former investigators to work with, so we
tracted. All day. And the Lord saw fit to bless us for our effort.
This past few days I have taught more lessons and found more
investigators than I have any other full week of my mission. We have
found so many of the elect. Sister Kinser is already such an amazing
missionary. And in all honesty, she reminds me a lot of myself. Which
is a bit odd. And a bit awesome.

Two miracles of the week:

We tracted into this lady on he phone. She obviously was occupied and
wasn't in the mood to talk to us. We handed her a pamphlet, asked if
we could come back in two days, got a hurried, "sure," and left. We do
this a lot and it hardly ever actually happens. Two days later, we go
back. She opens the door and doesn't even recognize us. Not
surprising. But we introduce ourselves again, and she goes "oh! You
left the book!" and lets us right in. She had read it several times
and had plenty of questions. We had the most amazing lesson and she
accepted to hear the rest of our lesson because she was looking for a
church and she really liked what we taught of the priesthood
authority. So amazing!!

That evening, we got a text from the elders telling us they had set up
an appointment for us the next day. So the next day, over we go. Whoa.
The door opens, she ushers us in, and proceeds to say "the elders gave
me this book, asked me to read 2 Nephi 31, which I have done three
times to make sure I understood, and asked me to be able to answer the
question of 'Is baptism necessary'? Of course!" She then continued to
teach us the rest of lesson 3, then stopped and added, " I've also
read the introduction and the testimonies in the front, but I don't
understand. Could you explain who Joseph Smith is and what the Book of
Mormon really is?" Why yes. Yes we can. Such an amazing lesson. Modern
prophets and priesthood authority and further scripture blew her mind,
but it all made sense. She agreed to pray and read daily, and once she
knew for herself, to be baptized. I left on cloud 9. Sister Kinser was
practically dancing. Actually, she was dancing. It was kinda fun to
watch how the Spirit and teaching others really brings you so much
pure joy. Has been a good week to say the least.

The ward is a lot smaller and not quite as diverse as Johns Creek, and
a lot more southern, which is a ton of fun! But they are so amazing
with supporting the missionaries. They try to give us team ups every
single day, which is mind blowing for me! I LOVE it! I have a feeling
I'm going to love it here😊

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

PS my new address is 9102 Holland Pl, Lawrenceville, GA 30043

PPS Sister Kinser likes frogs. So we found one :) And please don't
mind my P Day appearance. It's my one day to look however I want :)

8/17/15 I'm Getting Transferred!

Transfers are on Wednesday, and I am leaving Johns Creek. I have
officially been released as a STL (Sister Training Leader) and I will be 
heading to Lawrenceville! And training! Again. Annnd I'll be whitewashing! 
Whoa.

For those who don't know, "whitewashing" means I will be opening up a
new area. I will be starting from scratch. No investigators, no
formers, nothing. Yay tracting! There are already two sets of
missionaries in Lawrenceville, and me and my new daughter will be the
third set. That'll be interesting. Not sure of my new address yet, but
if anyone (meaning Mom) is thinking about being so wonderous as to
send my poor hardworking missionary self a letter, please hold off
until next week when I can get that.

This week has been a great one! We found 4 new investigators and, as
prompted by the Spirit, put one on date! She is someone that was
referred to us months ago, that we had taught one awesome lesson with
and then had lost track of her due to serious issues going on in her
family. But our set lesson fell though and we were in the area so
decided to stop by. No one answered the door. It was hot, our member
team up was bored, but we waited. Then a few boys came around the
backyard of the neighboring house, and I felt like I needed to talk to
them. So I did. The two told us that she often went across the street
to visit her brother. So off we went. Knocked. Rang. Knocked. Waited.
And knocked again. And the door opened and there she was! Yes!
Persistence :) We were able to get in and teach her such an amazing
Restoration lesson. The Spirit was so strong and she asked such good
questions, paid attention the whole time and at the end committed to
be baptized on the 19th of August. She told us that she still
remembered what we had taught her 3 months ago about the Plan of
Salvation and she knows that it is true and that the Book of Mormon is
the word of God, because her therapist is Mormon and has been helping
her through the Book and through the teachings of the Church. Members
really do make such a big difference, and they don't even know.

We also found another golden lady this week by following the challenge
and promise of the mission president about working with and tracting
around less actives and part member families. This one lady we tracted
into was super friendly and talkative from he moment she opened the
door, but the first thing she told us was that she was Methodist and
wasn't interested in changing. But we were able to get inside and, by
listening to a grandmothers stories were able to teach about eternal
families and about what happens to us after we die. By the end of the
lesson, she had committed to read the Book of Mormon, pray about what
we talked about, and had a return appointment for Tuesday. It has been
a week of miracles :)

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

Pictures of one of my favorite families, and other fun shots :)