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.