And here comes the stress

August 21, 2017

Well this week just changed my entire mission. Let´s start with these:

1. Well I showed up to my Area this week and found my first child. The first thing that I thought about him was that he looked just like Payton. Super tall and super lanky. Pretty much everything that he does is just like Payton. Sometimes I just sit there and laugh so much because they are so familiar. I am never going to forget about my first child. 

2. Well the ward isn't doing so well here. I showed up this last Tuesday and my companion told me that I had the best opportunity this week. Naturally I asked what is it and then he told me that I was going to give a talk this sacrament meeting. Well during the week I was trying to decide what I was going to talk about and during the week the ward mission leader didn't show up to correlation, and only the relief society president and the bishopric showed up to ward counsel. So naturally I got up and started to talk about ´´What does it mean to be a disciple of Jesus Christ.´´ 

Wow like I told my last companion, this transfer is really going to test me if I can be a true missionary. First off I have to train a newbie. So that means if we screw up in something the blame naturally falls on me. Plus this also depends on how my new companion´s (Elder Ledezma) mission is going to turn out. Second is that the Ward here is truly going down the drain. There really isn't any excitement here in the ward. But I think that is why President sent me here. I am known as the animator here and I try to live up to that title. Really even though the ward here is crap, it just keeps giving me more motivation to keep on going. I truly want to change this area and make this transfer the transfer that I will never forget.

 

I love you all tons,

Elder Garbett

I'm going to have a kid!!!!!!

 August 14, 2017

I know the title is a bit extreme but it describes how this next transfer is going to be.

1. My companion went to a training this week to prepare him for returning home. Well we have a term here in the mission for missionaries who are thinking about home a lot and that term is that the missionary is tronky. and I will just say that my companion was super tronky after that but I think he paid for it because he got super sick the end of the next day. 

2. We had a weekly planning session as a zone and for breakfast we all made hamburgers!! Hamburgers and juice! Now that is how we do it as missionaries! Also we got these super awesome shirts as a Zone. 

3. We had a special conference this week that included all of Perú and Bolivia. Elder Cook, Elder Uceda, Elder Godoy, and sister McConkie spoke in it. It was super awesome and I loved the talk by Elder Uceda because he talked about how we need to keep our Celestial Traditions (Reading the scriptures, Praying often during the day, and Attending the temple). 

Well yesterday we received our transfers and well I am finally leaving Monterrico. I have literally spent almost half of my mission here and it hurts to leave here. But now I am going to leave and I am going to train my first missionary. I can´t believe that I am a trainer now. Now I need to take everything that I have learned and need to teach this new missionary how to do things. Really I don´t know if I am ready to do it but apparently the Lord thinks that I am ready so I will give it my all. 

Love you tons,

Elder Garbett

 

 **No I am not using glasses now. I was just using them from a missionary just for good looks. 

 

 

 

Miracles

 August 7, 2017

Well I keep wondering if the miracles will ever stop. But I really like them so here they are:

1. Well first off we had a returned missionary call us the other day. And she told us that she needed us to give a blessing. apparently there is this family in our area that she is nannying and the baby has some sort of sickness or disease or whatever you want to call  it. but the point is that the baby is almost 2 years old and has a problem developing fast enough. We were told that the baby was really sensitive and doesn't like random people touching him so we had no idea how we were going to do the blessing. But as we began to give the blessing the baby calmed down and pretty much accepted our giant hands on his tiny head. It was super spiritual and the Family ended up accepting our message and we are going to continue working with them. 

2. One day (I think it was last Saturday) we received a reference from Temple square. (we only knew it was from them because it was super official and in English) But about a hour later we received a phone call from a sister missionary from there and it was kinda funny because my companion tried to communicate with her but ended up passing the phone to me because he couldn't understand her gringo Spanish. but pretty much what she told us was that we needed to call this reference right there and then. So we called and set up an appointment and found out that she really wants to learn more about us. Super!

Well this week was pretty much full of miracles. After we baptized the last family we pretty much had nobody to work with. We have been looking and looking and looking for somebody. Pretty much it was if we couldn't find anybody this week we probably weren't going to baptize this month here in my ward. But as we do what we need to do the Lord will fill in the rest. And this is exactly what happened yesterday. We were walking by one part of our area and my companion decided that we should go look for old investigators. and thinking of the area I thought of one that Elder Martin and I dropped about 2 transfers ago. Pretty much she was super close to being baptized. The only thing was that she was living with her husband who she divorced. But we dropped by and shared a message with her. Well we found out that all of her problems (i.e her husband) had gone away and she and her child were ready to be baptized. So we put a date on her and she is just ready to do  everything she needs to do to prepare herself. Really this was a testimony builder to me because like I said when we do what we need to do the Lord will fill in the rest.

 

I miss you all tons,

Elder Garbett

I do belive in miracles! I do! I do!

August 1, 2017

Well this week was super awesome. Sorry for not emailing yesterday but I will explain that here:

1. Well we went to the temple today. Super awesome and I got to see a bunch of people there. First off I saw a bunch of newbies from the CCM. "Me: Hey Nuevos! Gringo: Eggs? Me: No! Nuevos! Gringo: Why are you calling us eggs???" After that I saw President and Sister Moore from the CCM. I can't believe that after 7 months out of the CCM Sister Moore actually remembered me. I think it was because I lost all of my suitcases for the first 4 weeks in there. 

2. I went on splits with the Zone leaders again. So once again it was two gringos walking down the streets of Peru preaching a gospel that was restored in the United States in Spanish. We got some interesting looks. 

3. One of our investigators had her birthday this last Friday and her family planned a surprise birthday party. So as missionaries we went and helped set up and surprise her. But it ended up that she never showed up in the time frame that was allowed for us and so we left. But the next day we went and visited her and we found out that she was about 4 hours late and she didn't show up until 11. And sometimes my mom thought that I was late sometimes. 

Well this week was super great. We had a baptism this last Saturday and we actually baptized an entire family. I mean I have heard of missionaries baptizing families before but I never thought that I would have the chance to baptize one. Their names are Juber, Marybell, Juber Jr., and Gianella. I'll just say that it was super amazing and great to see them take that step in their lives. But I think that my companion gyped me there. We each were going to baptize two of them. But when he found out that we weren't going to have hot water for the baptism he decided to let a different member of the church baptize one of his people. So he ended up being in the water for about 3 minutes while I had to stay in there for like 10 minutes.  I am surprised that I didn't catch hypothermia. 

I miss you all tons,

Elder Garbett