8/3/15 MLC & Georgia Peaches

Yay for peer pressure! After a lot of...friendly pushing...by your
truly, Sister Blair got her ears pierced! It was an exciting day last
Monday and she still gets excited every time she touches her ears :)
My only recommendation, would be that you don't go to Walmart to get
your ears pierced, especially if you are absolutely terrified. Oh, and
don't let someone who has never done it before practice on you. Sister
Blair was not too thrilled about that, especially when the gun got
jammed in her ear...

I went to the Japanese Sunday School class yesterday! That was so
cool! One of the Japanese members had brought a friend, so I got to go
:) I love Japanese! All I know how to say is "hello," "goodbye,"
"thank you," and how to introduce myself. One day though, I will be
fluent :) We talked, well, everyone else talked, about the Holy Ghost.
The nonmember hadn't grown up religious at all and said she had never
felt it before. It was a really basic, yet really good lesson. One of
the members translated for me once in a while. And than at the end,
the teacher gave out there sticky rice cakes with red bean in them.
Yummy! Too bad it was fast Sunday and they had to sit in the back of
the car all day.

Going on exchanges is a lot of fun, but at the same time, not so fun.
I miss out on a lot of really good, really powerful lessons with our
investigators because I'm gone for a number of lessons. It's been
amazing though, because the sisters who come when I'm gone seem to be
the perfect teacher for those they meet that day. I have seen those I
teach just grow so much and it's been a testimony builder to me that
the Lord knows what he is doing and he is the real teacher. I know
that this really is His work, not mine.

We just had MLC, which is a Mission Leadership Conference. 
All the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders get together with
President once a month and talk about the mission and how to help us 
progress. So much fun! The Spirit was sooo strong and I really learned 
a ton! Generally, the mission is struggling with getting investigators at 
church and keeping them coming. This is where we have to get members 
involved. If an investigator makes a friend at church, someone to sit next to,
exchange numbers, go to classes with, ask questions, the investigator
is going to want to come back and can progress so much faster. If the
problem is a ride, members can help with that too! If it's kids, well,
members can look after them, and help take care of them during
sacrament meeting. So really, MLC was about how to get members
involved. We also talked about how by just doing what we are supposed
to do, we can make a huge difference in the world. We all came out
super pumped and super chastised. It was awesome :)

You asked about food here: I hate to disappoint, but everyone here 
agrees that the peaches from South Carolina are much better than the 
ones here in Georgia, despite it being "the Peach State." I have had some 
though, and they were really, really good. I love fruit :) Why is it so 
expensive though? It is so much cheaper to eat unhealthy. For instance, if 
we get fed, we eat baked ham, mashed potatoes, fruit salad, steamed 
green beans,peach cobbler, ice cream... The works. If we feed ourselves, well, 
the other day I had a bowl of canned corn and 5 pieces of beef jerky. Or a
bag of fresh cherries a member gave us and a can of chili. It is too
hot to cook and we don't have a lot of time. And with being fed so
rich and so much most of the time, I've kinda stopped liking food. But
fruit, and peaches, are really yummy :)

Chinese food is pretty good. I really like rice, especially white
rice. The beef and broccoli is really good, as is the tofu and bamboo
salads, and the soy hard boiled eggs, really most everything. They
don't generally have one main dish, but a lot of small dishes and a
bowl of rice, and you eat some of everything. We don't spend too much
time outside. Well, maybe total outside would be 4ish hours, but only
an hour or so of tracting. I don't know. It really depends on the day.
Long enough to feel nasty and sweaty. Lots of car time. The traffic
here is terrible and the drivers insane.

Transfers are in 2 and a half weeks. On the 19th. I would love a
letter. Email are wonderful, but I really miss written letters. Sister
Blair gets at least one a week and it's been a while since I got one
:( I would also love pictures!

Next Monday, all the sisters and I are going to go bowling for sisters
P-Day!...wish me luck.

In the words of Elder Freeman: The church is true, the Book is blue,
and God loves each of you!

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

7/27/15 A Full Week

This week has been fun! Zone Conference, exchanges, Chinese Costco,
roaches, teaching a Greek lady, learning to french braid, and miracles
at church!

Zone Conference was awesome! Especially because the High Councilor who
was asked to speak talked forever and a half, so half of our training
was cut out completely and the other half we were asked to do in 3
minutes. 😊 But both President and his wife spoke, which was amazing
and the Assistants gave a great training as well. The emphasis right
now is really focused on finding and obedience and just loving being a
missionary.

Exchanges were a ton of fun! I love going on exchanges with other
sisters because we get to see the way they teach, learn from them and
miracles always always happen.

One of the Chinese members took us to Great Wall, or as Sister Blair
aptly puts it, Chinese Costco. Super cool and a ton of fun! The walls
are lined with restaurants and they all look...different. So I tried
lamb for the first time. I kinda wanted to try the whole fish or the
wonton soup though. Or the milkshake bread bun. Hmm, choices, choices.
Next time :)

Roaches in our apartments is a given, but this time the elders were on
speaker when we saw one. That was fun :) I think they both just about
died laughing. But roaches are NOT allowed in my kitchen thank you
very much.

And I'll just skip to the last one. We were planning on two
investigators coming to church today, and were burned when neither
came. However seven less actives showed up instead! Two of them were a
family that we've been working with for a long time, but lost contact
with for three weeks. And they just showed up! And stayed for all
three hours for the first time! AND they invited us over for dinner
and FHE tonight!!! Happy missionary :) The best times on a mission and
the most successful times, are really when we don't do much. The Lord
just plops all the perfect people into our laps :)

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

P.S. I thought I might share the cutest picture of a puppy peeking through the window.

7/20/15 Amazing

So I have finally learned a lesson that the Lord has been trying to
teach me my whole mission. I have gone on a ton of exchanges and every
single time, what I got out of it was: talk to EVERYONE! And I was
always like, yeah! I'll do that! That is so amazing! Miracles galore!
And then, nope, doesn't happen. But, seeing as I have to give my very
first training during Zone Conference as an STL tomorrow on finding, I
decided to finally give it a try. And oh boy, but I've learned my
lesson. After 6 MONTHS of struggling to find new investigators, or
help them progress, this week we've found six. Six! In one week! We've
found so many with great potential and we've talked to tons everyday.
It has been amazing! True, we talked to a ton who were not even
slightly interested, and met a few...interesting people (grown men
should not wear panties, let alone answer the door wearing little
else), but the Lord led us to such awesome people as well.

This week has been so hot!!! 98 and humid is not a lot of fun, even
for a cold blooded human such as myself. All the Georgians have the
right idea: go on vacation,or live in the pool. Every neighborhood had
a community pool, and everyone lives there from sun up to sun down.
However, us poor missionaries must only look longingly on as we sweat
and burn.  The only ones who are flourishing in the heat is the bugs.
Sister Blair and I agree that my legs look like I have a serious case
of chicken pox. We've killed several cockroaches inside of our
apartment in the past few weeks and they are everywhere outside in the
evenings. We so the world a service as we tract, because we have made
it part of our work to destroy all spiders and webs around the doors
we knock, some of which are nasty. But we press on, drink as much
water as we can, strive to be obedient, talk to everyone we see, step
on anything that moves, and we are starting to see success.

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

P.S. We even found a melted crayon on someone's driveway. So, yeah, it's hot.

7/13/15 Jack's Bean Stalk and Crazy People

I've had a fun week. Meant both seriously and sarcastically.

I'll start off with a miracle. The first investigator Sister Blair
ever taught was finally getting baptized in her old ward. However, if
we wanted to attend, we had to have both a ride and an investigator
for our area. Do you know how HARD that is?! Nigh impossible. And on
top of that, the baptism was on Friday at 3 in the afternoon when
everyone is working. And we only had 3 days notice. I was convinced we
wouldn't be able to go, but Sister Blair was desperate to go, so we
did all we could think of. We called every one of our investigators
and a good chunk of potential and former investigators. We called most
of our part member families and asked many of the people that we
tracked into. Nothing. No one could go. We did have one investigator
who could've gone, but she only speaks Korean, and every single one of
the Korean speaking members who could've translated couldn't come. It
was devastating for Sister Blair, but there was no way we could go. She
was heartbroken. Why didn't God answer her prayers? Then two hours
before the service started, and the place is an hour away, when we had
no hope of going, we get a call from a former. "Oh, you have a
baptism? I've wanted my kids to see one. Come on over and we'll drive
you there." No. Way. Mind. Blown. The Lord really does hear and answer
our prayers and He cares about what is important to us. It was such a
testimony builder to both of us.

Now the bean stalk story. We went over to this one member's home for
dinner and then service. And parking in front of the house, we knew
right away what the service was going to be. I have NEVER seen a weed
that big in my entire life, either through experience or even on
screen. No joke, that thing was as tall as their two story home. The
base was around a foot and a half thick and the main stalk was as
thick as a Costco muffin. This looks so out of place too, as we are in
the middle of a well kept neighborhood and the rest of their lawn
looks fine. And then boom. Jacks bean stalk. Challenge accepted. And,
long story short, I won :) The neighbors tree took a little bit of
damage when it came down though. Oops.

And now for the fun part. Crazies. Note to self, going on team ups
with recent converts from a very, um, different religious background
might not be the best idea. Imagine all the gung-ho, fire and
brimstone, passionate, Baptist type, Jesus-loving people you can
imagine. That was her. Now imagine tracting into a loon. A legit,
probably-should-be-in-a-mental-institution nut. Now put the two
together. Yup. That was fun. 45 minutes later, long, long after both
Sister Blair and I wished to be somewhere far away, we managed to part
with this man. We decide to knock one door at least, only to have it
open to a crazy 80 year old Catholic lady. I have never heard someone
rebuke the devil in the name of Christ before because they misplaced
their glasses. She also told us that she had read the Book of Mormon
before because it was in the Bible. Oh boy howdy. Great Sabbath Day,
huh?

Three good things did happen that day though. One: meetings were
canceled. Yay! I got to lay in bed for an extra 20 minutes. Two: Sister
Blair gave an AMAZING talk in Sacrament meeting on the Book of Mormon.
Three: one of our less actives we've been working with for a long long
time came to church. She and her husband have both decided it is time
to come back. They want to be temple worthy again. It makes everything
we do and go through worth it :)

Love ya'll!
Sister Garver

PS this picture is of our last sisters P-Day. One sister had brought a
bunch of cool glass bottles a member had decorated to use as vases and
one sister had the great idea of us posing with them...