8/10/15 Miracle!!

It's been going pretty well in our area as well for the most part. We are seeing people start to progress, both investigators and less actives. One of our less actives has taken that last step, and she was able to receive her temple recommend yesterday!!!! After at least 5 years, she will be able to go back to the temple this week :D  We hope, and are pushing, her husband to follow her example. Another of our investigators that I've been working with for 6 months, finally talked to her husband and they are both coming to church this week! Two of our investigators are golden and ready to be baptized, but are going to college this week, but we'll pass off their info and see they are taken in by their new missionaries. We are working on finding. Hopefully with school back in, more people will be home...

I tried a fig for the first time yesterday! Apparently there are figs trees all over the place here, and I had never noticed! They are a lot smaller than I thought, but they are really good! Sister Blair described it perfectly. It tastes like a mix between a peach and a banana. Sorta. But kinda. 

You know who are the hardest people to teach? Less actives that think they are active. Seriously. They still believe in everything, and have a testimony, but they don't act. They may still believe and pray, and some even still read the Book of Mormon on a regular basis, but they don't come to church!! That is where the sacrament is, where fellowship and support is, where learning and inspiration is strong. It is a COMMANDMENT. And then other things start to slip: what they watch and read, their language, FHE, how they dress, scripture reading, regular prayers, etc. Yes, I know it's your one day off from work, your kids have sports all day, you want to spend time with your family, someone insulted you, a times people are hypocritical, and it is really early in the morning, but when the Lord commands, DO IT. You can't pick and chose commandments. Sorry, I'll get off my high horse there, but it bothers me. I know so many blessings come from keeping the Sabbath Day holy and going to church, even when it's really really hard.

Miracle!! So 6 months or so ago, Sister Kang and I were tracting and found this sweet little Russian family. They wanted to learn English and invited us back. We were thrilled and came back, only to find they JUST wanted English, no gospel at all. Period. We looked on our map and found they were out of our area anyway (oops) and so we dropped them. The months later, we get a phone call from someone with a thick accent asking for us to come teach, but when they gave us their address it was in another area so we passed her off (by this point, I had completely forgotten about them). Last week, on exchanges, I found out the Russian family I had found and so easily dropped six months ago, was the lady who had called and asked to be taught, and now she was being taught, progressing, wanted to be baptized, and had just moved into my area! It completely blew my mind. And it really built my testimony that the people we contact and testify to are really being prepared by the Lord, no matter how nonreceptive they may seem at the time. We plant seeds without even realizing it. Without them realizing it. I was just blessed enough to be able to see this little miracle and watch the Lord work in His own time.

Love ya'll! 

Sister Garver

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.