1/12/15 Train Museum

I know. Four months is not much to brag about but it still makes me happy. So you can all pretend to be happy for me. Yay!

This week has been both amazing and frustrating. Amazing because we are now teaching two new families, both referrals from members in the ward, and they are both so open and receptive to us and the gospel. We always ask for referrals, but members are not so great at giving them. I wasn't either, so I can't really talk. But now, as a missionary it seems to easy that I don't know what I was scared of. Inviting someone to FHE or church, saying prayers and reading scriptures before sleeping at a sleepover, or even just talking about gospel topics with friends. Seriously, all girls talk about boys and what they want their husbands and weddings to be like. How hard would it be to slip in eternal families, temples or return missionaries? I don't know what boys talk about, but I'm sure you can figure something out. Anywho, what we've found with investigators, is that those who have been referred from members are so much stronger and grow so much faster than ones we find by ourselves. They have a friend-base to build on. They have someone they can sit next to, ask questions, and look to as an example. They already know quite a bit just by living around them and watching them. No pressure or anything.

We get to go to the temple this Saturday! Ryan and Esmeralda get to go through the temple for the first time and we get to go with them! We're getting together with them later today and going over Family Search so they can both take a name or two with them. I really hope this will be a spiritual experience for them and that they become the influence that their families need to bring them to Christ. That has been the frustrating part. We have two investigators that have been taught all the lessons and have a testimony, but just don't want to make the commitment. They are stuck, and there's not much more we can do. But we love them too much to just give up, because they do have that testimony. Well, the Lord can do what we can't.

Oh, right. So there's not much in Kennesaw, but there is a train museum. Hold in your excitement please, I know, I know. But it actually was pretty interesting, and we got to watch a movie about The Great Train Chase because it's historical. I admit I was too Northern to really enjoy the Southern victory and annoyed some people by my opinions, but it was fun. Hilarious, actually. The acting was terrible. But the gift shop was fun :)

Love you all! I'll be emailing on Tuesday because Monday is Martin Luther King Day.

Sister Garver

1/5/15 Four Months!

Happy New Years!

New Years Eve wasn't that special for us. We still were home by 9 and up at 6:30 the next morning. We still tracted and taught. The only things that made that day different was a birthday party for a member in the ward turning 80 who invited us and 8 nonmembers for us to meet and do our best to convert, and having a very southern dinner of black eyed peas, collared greens, rice and hot sauce. Apparently everyone down here eats it on New Years Eve. The black eyed peas are for luck and the collared greens are for money for the upcoming year. For those of you who know me well, spicy/hot stuff is not really my thing, but just a little mixed with the rice, greens and peas was actually surprisingly good. Oh, but the greens by themselves are nasty. Don't eat them.

Since getting back in with Rosemary, things have been going great! She actually fed us and we had a movie night with her! We watched 17 Miracles and pretty much all cried through the entire thing. Well, except those parts with that extremely sappy couple. Then we just laughed at them. Afterwards we were able to teach her all about temples, eternal families, missions, and service. We're going to have another movie night either this week or next and watch Ephrim's Rescue. Have any of you seen Legacy? Is it good? How long is it?

We also got in with Jimmy after his month long vacation visiting his son. Miracle! We thought we were going over there to get dropped because he wasn't answering our calls or messages or anything, but we got there and he said "So about getting baptized, when are we doing this?" Sister Hanks and I were both flabbergasted. Plus, church is now at 9 instead of 11:30, so he can actually come to church. YES! So excited! So we set the 17th as his baptismal date and are starting to make plans :D

Love you all!

Sister Garver

P.S. Thanks for the best Christmas ever!

12/22/14 Christmas Week

Sorry I didn't send out an email last week! The computer crashed mid session and wouldn't let us back on. Problems.

This past week has been pretty fun, and a bit rough at the same time. But lets start with the fun.

Temple! As a Christmas present, the president let all the missionaries go to the temple! All the sisters went on Thursday. I've missed it, and it was amazing to be able to go again. There were so many sisters that we took up three sessions. We also had a missionary Christmas program/party that we put on that went pretty well, and I got to see and talk to all the elders that had been transferred from Kennesaw, as well as my entire district from the MTC! We chatted with them pretty much the entire time. They were all so surprised when Sister Hanks and I told them we were companions again :) 

And more fantastic news, we got in with Rosemary again! I cannot tell you how thrilled I was when we stopped by, just one more time, and then she let us in! She told us that it had been really hard since she had stopped meeting with us and that the little love texts we had sent her every once and a while had made such a difference and that she knew that we loved her. She wants to meet with us again!!! We are going to proceed slowly, not at 100mph like we were last time, but my adopted grandma and I are together again :D Nuna, thank you so much for the little letter you sent me, it really helped.

I got two packages from you and one from Nuna and Papa. I can't wait until Christmas! It is SO hard not opening them! That beautiful wrapping paper is soooo tempting. I'm glad you got mine though! The presents aren't much, but I wanted to remind you that I love you :) Plus, Christmas is coming up and I get to Skype home this week!!! I cannot wait! Emails are great, letters are awesome, packages are thrilling, but skyping...I can't stop bouncing just thinking about it!!!! Mom, Dad, Rachel, Sydney, possibly Andrew and Emily if you can figure it out...I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE YOU!

The rough part was that I got sick this week. I got an annoying little cold. I was blowing my nose throughout the entire temple session and made singing in the missionary Christmas program a little more difficult. But I persevered and it turned out alright! I'm still coughing a little bit, but I should be right as rain come Christmas and all the caroling we have planned.

I love all of you so much and wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Sister Garver

12/8/14 Transfers!

I'm staying in Kennesaw! Yay! Sister Stout is not. Boo. But guess what? My new companion will be Sister Hanks, who was my MTC companion three months ago! What are the odds of that happening?! It'll be super cool just to see how much we've changed in two transfers in the field. It'll also be kinda scary because both of us barely finished training ourselves. But the mission president and the Lord know what they're doing, so it'll be alright. In fact, it'll be great! I'm determined.

It's been a pretty rough week. Or three. Rosemary, my adopted grandma who had a baptismal date, hasn't met with us since Thanksgiving, won't answer our calls, and dropped us over a text today. And we don't know why. But I am not the type to give up, and I never give up on those I love, so we will get in this week! I love her so much. We will do all we can, for her, and to find new contacts, and the Lord will bless our efforts. I know it.

We are making progress with several of our less actives, and with Jimmy and Araceli. Araceli's son was baptized last Saturday, which was super exciting! Sister Stout and I were asked to do a musical number, which I thought was not so exciting. We sound pretty good together and our voices blend really well (she's a alto and I'm soprano) but singing in front of a bunch of people, and having a solo? Not so much fun. Very scary. I don't recommend it. Plus, the president and his very musically inclined wife were there. I'm pretty sure everyone heard my voice wobbling, but the Spirit was there and that's what matters. The baptism itself went without a hitch. This boy is the one who didn't want to be taught by girls, so we passed him to the elders. They worked with him and we worked with all the girls in the family, and now four of the five are members. Araceli is getting there, but something is holding her back. But we're getting closer to the problem and hope to put her on date this week or next. And with Jimmy when we asked him about being baptized, he told us he had been waiting on us! What! The only thing is he's only come to church once, so once that happens more frequently, there'll be no problem.

Love you all!

Sister Garver

12/1/14 Bit By the Christmas Bug

The season has definitely begun. Lights and trees were going up even before Thanksgiving. And now there are decorations everywhere and Christmas music is played constantly. Georgia really knows how to celebrate. I am going to be so much more festive when I get back. Sister Stout and I even got a tree from a member, and we have lights up in our apartment, because I have the Christmas bug pretty bad :) We've even started caroling for our investigators and less actives that are sick and don't want or can't have lessons. Plus, I don't know you all of you know about it yet, but the church came out with this thing called He is the Gift. It'll be on YouTube and Facebook, Twitter and all the other media sources whose names escape me at the moment. They made a short Christmas video and it is going viral! Ah, I'm so excited! It is making missionary work so much easier, because the site it's played at is christmas.mormon.org and once you watch the video, it is so hard to get off that site. Christmas is so easy to share. I don't want to say too much more because this is being spread by missionaries all over the world, and the missionaries in your area will probably want to share it with you. But yay for Christmas!

Thanksgiving was a bit slow because so many people were out of town or had family over and didn't want to talk. But the lesson we did have were awesome! Jimmy, Araceli, Annamaria, Lisa; everyone here is so amazing and receptive to the Lord. There is nothing like seeing the Lord work and seeing the lives of those you love change. Nothing like it. When their lives change, so do yours. When my investigators turn to Christ and grow their testimonies, my testimony grows as well. I love my job!

Transfers are a week from Wednesday and Sister Stout is going to be transferred. Okay, so it's not official, but because she's been here for 7 1/2 months, we practically know she's leaving. I wonder what will happen next?

Love you all! Happy Thanksgiving and merry Christmas!

Sister Garver

11/24/14 Thanksgiving

First off, an update on Trenton. Thanks to everybody's prayers, he is no longer in danger. He is out of critical and actually going home today. However, he will have to go back every two weeks for the rest of his life to get a medicine injection. But it was that or be on dialysis for the rest of his life. But thank you for your prayers.

This week was pretty good. We found two new investigators, a husband and wife from Puerto Rico, so they have a bunch of fun stories to tell us :) Rosemary, my adopted grandma, went from smoking a pack a day to zero within a week and a half. Yes! There was a missionary fireside yesterday, where all the missionaries in our ward spoke on whatever the Spirit moved them to (I spoke on callings from the Lord and the power of the Gospel in changing lives) and then it was opened up to a question and answer panel. I was suprised. I was expecting the usual: what is the weirdest food you've eaten, worst companion, etc, but the questions asked were really good. What were the hardest things about being on a mission? Where you looked down on if you don't go? What do you do if you get homesick? And funny stories :) It was amazing. We got in with a less active member that hasn't let anyone in for months. Turns out she has cancer, is nothing but skin and bones, and can't talk any more. So we sang her a few hymns and had an awesome talk with her caretaker, who is herself a "missionary" and loves going on missionary trips all over the world. She sang us a few of her hymns and they were really cool and African (she being originally from Africa).

I don't have much time today either, sorry. We are serving a member that needs help packing. Which I have a bit of experience with. 

Love you all!

Sister Garver

P.S. That's so cool about the snow! While we didn't get any out here, it was a cold week, with an average of maybe 40 or 45, though it did get down to 32 at one point during the evening. I admit I have been following Sydney's example with Christmas music, hot chocolate, and decorating the apartment a little. Much to Sister Stout's dismay, seeing as it's not December! But I manage to slip in a few things :)

Yes, we get to eat at member's homes all the time. Some weeks, we eat over maybe 3 times while others we eat over 6. We are well fed! We have one set of elders in our ward (whom I love, they're awesome) and one set of sisters that are in our area, but they are based solely on the university campus and the YSA ward. We helped out once on campus, and I quickly found out that that was not my thing :( 

I've only ridden my bike once for exercise one morning, and I found that I've lost all the skill that I acquired in Arizona. I'm all wobbly and weak and, well, it was not enjoyable. I hope I don't get assigned a biking area any time soon. As for my days, they're all different, but there are a few things we always do: get up at 6:25, pretend to exercise for a half hour, get ready, personal study, comp study, and then during the day we visit less actives, recent converts, teach lessons, and try to have 2 hours of tracting. Then daily planning and bed. 

11/17/14 Trials, Blessings, and Signs of Being a True Missionary

This week was a tough one. We had the girls' baptism on Friday, and I'm pretty sure the Adversary did not want that happening. We didn't get any new investigators, and it seemed like we were constantly stressed and falling short on goals. The day before the baptism, we were told an ice storm would be coming the day of, and we might have to push it back. The day of came, and our pianist told us she couldn't come, and no one we called could fill her place. The church didn't have clothes in the right size, and the member who promised to lend her old temple dress couldn't find it. We didn't have a back up. When we went tracting, every single door either didn't open or was shut in our faces mid sentence within 10 seconds of opening. Then to top it off, we were on our way to the church a half our before the baptism to meet the family, when they called and asked when the baptism was, because they forgot if it was today. Ahh!

But the adversary could not stop the work from progressing. There wasn't a cloud in the sky all that day. Our ward coordinator found a pianist an hour before the baptism. When we opened the door to the baptismal clothes closet, I am positive there were more dresses in there then there were before and we were able to find outfits for all three girls that fit. The entire family arrived 20 minutes early, even the brother, and he told us he wanted to get baptized too. There were a ton of people there to love and support them. It was amazing.

And then yesterday, they received the Holy Ghost, and the Spirit was so strong. There was an almost immediate change in the girls, and their mom mentioned it to us later that evening. We read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with the family, and they loved it. The Spirit testified it was true, and the mom promised that they would read it together every night.

Rosemary is doing fantastic as well! We taught her the Word of Wisdom on Tuesday, and when we next saw her on Friday, she had thrown out all her alcohol, and was donating her unopened boxed of coffee and tea. She had also reduced her smoking to half. She has such a strong testimony and love for the Father and His word, it's inspiring to me. We were able to commit her to baptism on the 20th of December. Ah, I love her so much!

Sister stout told me there are a few signs of becoming a true missionary and that I was starting to show them. I was so excited! Let me share a few of them with you: admiring doors and wreaths, making scriptural jokes, scriptural words slipping into your vocabulary, a shoe tan, finding rejections funny, and finding hymns are your theme song. I was working on the shoe tan, but doubt that one will fully come into effect until spring, seeing I am on full boot mode.

I love you all!

Sister Garver

PS There is one thing that I feel I need to ask your help for. An 8 year old boy in our ward caught a rare form of fever on Wednesday. Yesterday, he was in the hospital with kidney failure. There is not much the doctors can do. If you could include Trenton in your prayers, he needs them.