He´s all grown up

September 10, 2018

Well this week was pretty amazing:

So this week we had a activity in the family group. It was pretty much just a family home evening and we did some activities. I took over in the message and I talked about how everyone has talents and how we need to use them and make them grow so that our talent capacity can grow and God can give us more talents and we can help the work move along.

But also I think that the Highlight this week was that we had a bunch of new missionaries from the CCM come to our area this last Saturday to contact. We had an Elder Ellworth (yes he is related to President Ellsworth) and a Elder Foutz with us. These missionaries had like no fear in contacting people they even got excited when people would reject them ("Did you see how she didn't even look at us?!", "Yeah Man! That was awesome!"). They were so confident with themselves that they were contacting anybody. They even got my own companion super confident and so then they started contacting on their own. It was so kool that I couldn't help not taking a picture. The three of them all with less than 2 months as missionaries and they are already contacting on their own. He´s all grown up. 

miss you all,

Elder Garbett

IT´S A GRINGO!!!!!!!!!

September 3, 2018

Well this week was super busy but awesome!

Well like it says in the email, I got my Third Child and he is a Gringo straight from Texas! Almost all of the group (which I am also going to send the picture) came from the MTC from mexico and so the actual transfers were a bit different. So we had P-day like normal and then Tuesday I had to get on the transfer bus to La Molina and we didn't get there until around 2 ish.Then we had the trainers meeting with president (first time there as an actual trainer), and then we pretty much played games with everyone waiting for the rest of the group to show up and then we found out who our companions were, introduced the areas and then we didn't leave until around 7:30 ish. Then we had to go back the next day so that all of the new missionaries could receive their 1st day training. 

So pretty much a ton of new things are going on here. So pretty much Amauta is the groupo familiar with the most potential in all of the mission. But the thing is is that there is a ton of work to do. When we focus on meeting with members, the attendance goes up that week. When we work on trying to find new investigators the attendance goes down that week. So this last district meeting our zone leaders came up to me and asked me what I thought about putting two more missionaries into Amauta. I thought that that was a pretty good idea and so our zone leaders talked to president about it and we had a meeting to make the limits. So right now in Amauta the work is continuing to roll forth and there are two more missionaries to help with that roll. So exciting!

love you all tons,

Elder Garbett

New Missionaries and my new companion from Texas

 Room full of Gringos!!

President must have a lot of trust in us.

Left to right: Elder Lewis (in his second transfer), Elder Staats (in his third transfer), Elder Armstrong (in his first transfer), Elder Garbett (I´d rather not say the time) [last transfer]

Final Round

August 27, 2018

Well this week turned out to be pretty good.

1. This last Thursday we had an activity that turned out to be pretty delicious. We called it noche de postres (dessert night) and we had everybody bring some sort of dessert that they wanted to share. My companion and I decided to jump in on it too and so we made crepes (sorry I didn't take pictures). But the purpose of that was so that the groupo familiar could all get to know one another. And afterwards we saw a bunch of people talking and friendships being made so I think mission accomplished.

2. Well last night was transfer night and while we were eating dinner we received a call from Presidente. I answered it and president gave us the news that my companion was leaving to train a missionary in Matazango (part of Monterrico. MY OLD AREA!) and that I am going to be training also this transfer!!!!!! I am going to train somebody in the same area that I was trained in! 

3. So as a farewell to my companion and another missionary in our room we decided to get up today at around 6 to go climb up the hill with the cross on top. It was cool to go back up again but I found my mark I made in the wall up there. It´s disappearing and it was kinda tough to see but it´s still surviving. 

Well this week turned out to be pretty good. But I think that the highlight for this week was that as we were going to the church building to have ward council, we were stopped by a member who had a reference for us to visit who had attended church that day. So we talked to her and took out an appointment. We ended up stopping by and we visited with Rosita. She told us about how she had recently gotten really sick and ever since then has never really felt peace. And so since then she has been searching for God to have that peace. She had tried to go to other churches but she hasn't felt the fullness of that peace. As we spoke with her the spirit was so strong and Rosita felt that she was getting closer to that peace that she is looking for. She accepted a baptismal date and is super escogida! MILAGROS SE ESTAN PASANDO!

miss ya,

Elder Garbett

 

 

They´ll be coming round the mountain when they come!

August 13, 2018

Well this week turned out to be pretty normal. We had a ton of lessons but most of them have been in the hills. Looking back in my agenda right now we only had like 3 lessons where we didn't have to climb any hills. But besides teaching and preaching I think that another good thing about climbing those hills is that I have been losing some weight.

But this week I think that the Highlight was that we had the zone conferences this week and it turned out to be pretty different (except for not ending until about 5) But we pretty much learned about how to get investigators to do their commitments so that they can progress and learn more. 

Sorry about the shortness of the letter but this week was a pretty good normal week. 

miss ya tons,

The service that fell through

August 6, 2018

Well this week was pretty good. Not much happened but we had somethings happen. So for the last couple of weeks we found this family who went in-active and then got converted to another religion. Little by little we have been helping them to come back (Yesterday was their first day coming back ) But last week we had asked the family if there was anything that we could do for them to help and the father said that they had a bunch of dirt that they needed to be moved (dirt for construction). So we planned a day to go up the gigantic hill that they live in to move a ton of dirt from one place to the other. So on Wednesday we got up early to get ready to move all of the dirt, found some youth that would help us, and then climbed up the hill. When we finally got up there the family got some chairs out for us to sit down and rest (because the climb is long and steep and the sun had decided to come out that morning for some reason). After talking for like an hour and a half

my companion asked if we could start moving the dirt. Apparently the father didn't really take us seriously about doing the service and told us that he needed to do some stuff first before we move the dirt. So, in conclusion, we didn't do any service that day. But we did get a kick out of my companion`s face when the father said no. 

Also this week in the Family home evening that we did in the groupo familiar we decided to teach how to read the hymn book and the importance of the hymns. After explaining a bit of the importance we decided that I would play the keyboard a bit and we would sing a couple of hymns. For the last couple of weeks I have been trying to pick up the guitar so that I could play in sacrament meeting and we could sing to some sort of music. So as closing song I picked up the guitar and we sang I am a Child of God. First time performing in public and it was super amazing. The spirit was so strong in that moment. 

miss you all tons,

Up and down and up and down

July 30, 2018

Well this week was also another spectacular week:

1. Well first off this week  we had the interviews with president. But because we are here in Vitarte where there are 28 missionaries, and president usually takes about 20 minutes to do the interviews our district didn't get to have interviews with president. Hopefully we get it this week. 

2. But this week we did another Family home evening in the casa capilla (we forgot to take pictures). But we had an attendance of about 30 people there in the house (about half of the congregation). We talked about reading the scriptures and played some games and then got some masamora poured on my shirt (right after getting it from the wash). 

Well this week turned out to be pretty good. We have found tons of people both new and less active, had baptisms, and have gone up the hills and gone down and then up again because we forgot something and then back down. But this week during the family home evening one of the members brought a family that has gone less active. We talked to them and found out that though confusion most of the family had changed religion. But as we visited them we felt the need to take down their information and go to their home to visit them. After climbing to the top of the hill (and then realizing that a bus passes by there) we finally found the home and we had the opportunity to visit the family for a while. As we spoke and used the scriptures (mainly the bible this time) we could feel the spirit of the Lord and his love for the family. 

miss you tons,

 Bird Pics (luckily he didn't do his business on my head)

Baptism Pics

First week back

July 23, 2018

THIS WEEK WAS ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!!!!!!!

1. First off I am going to give a little background on what things are like here. Amauta before was San Gregorio 2. But now it has been split and there is a grupo familiar going on here (it´s a official group where the Bishop has given permission to do all of the regular church meetings) and the plan is that this grupo familiar can become a branch. The week before I came here there was a attendance of 44 people. This week we worked hard and had an attendance of 63 people! I´m hoping that I will be able to stay here for my last transfer because I have already done my goals and Amauta will become a ward before I go home. There are a lot of less active members (and I mean a ton) up in these hills and we need to work miracles to be able to find them because they aren't in the directory anymore. 

2. We had an amazing family home evening here in the grupo familiar. We all decided to scale the tallest hill in all of Amauta and do the family home evening. At first I didn't think a lot of people would want to climb the hill. But we had an attendance of about 20 people there and it was absolutely amazing. 

3. We also had a baptism this week. Her name is Deisi and she is escogidaso. We did the baptism in the stake center because there was a stake activity right after the baptism. Also the Elders from San Gregorio had 2 baptisms and so we decided to do it with them. 

Well first day back in my birth area my companion pretty much had plans that we would go visit my converts and other people that I knew. At first it was cool. But then I started to realize that all of these people are active and pretty strong in the church. So I started to wonder why I was here and in the meantime I started contacting (something that I never really did here in my training. Oops!). In the plans we had put that we would find 2 new chosen investigators but we really didn't have anybody planned to become those 2. So as we were door visiting one of my converts, somebody passed by us and I got this feeling to contact them. One of them was kinda a "no pasa nada!" and the other seemed pretty interested but I wasn't sure if she was a chosen or not. So I took out a appointment to visit her another day and we split. After about 2 minutes she returned and asked if we could visit her that day. Our schedule was pretty packed but I said that if any of the lessons fell through we would call her and visit her. Well after that all of the appointments fell through and so we decided to visit her. We eventually showed up and even though we were almost late to the room () we found 3 new investigators and 2 with a baptismal date!

 

 I´ve got a couple of pictures to send from the last week also. With the cake is my old companion Elder Serrano. In the baptism is Elder Sáenz, Elder Lewis (new missionary from this transfer) and my companion now Elder Marino (Argentino). Elder Marino doesn't have the "che" accent but I am trying to get that out of him right now. 

 

 

CALLCITO!!!!!