What happened this week?

 December 9, 2017

Either I am having some memory loss right now or literally nothing happened. Let´s see if I can remember something:

1. Ok so first thing that I do remember is that I have a ton of packages waiting at the mail office for me to pick up. You can really tell that the Christmas season is starting because everybody´s family are sending packages to their missionary. But the thing is is that the mailing office is being super stubborn with their working hours. I have already tried to go there twice and they are just always closed and it kinda stinks because the place is super far from the office and I need to be able to plan my schedule out the be able to take 3 hours to go there. *tis the season to be jolly, falalalalalalalala.*

2. Me and Elder Hidalgo went down to a place where we can buy a bunch of stuff for super cheap. Being on duty in the office I went down there with the intent of buying stuff for the new missionaries that will be coming in after next week. But Elder Hidalgo had to go there because Hermana Amato wanted us to get a fake Christmas tree for the Christmas activity that is coming up this week. After we got back he set it up downstairs and put a bunch of contact cards on it. I mean I really haven´t felt any kind of holiday spirit this year but after he did that it just made things feel a little better. 

3. Oh yeah! I almost forgot. So being the operations secretary I am in charge of making sure everything works in the office like it should be. So this week the printer stopped working. So I tried to contact the place to see if we could get a technician out to help us out but as of now nobody has answered me. So I started to try to figure the thing out myself. I got it to work once for some reason but after awhile it stopped working again. So retracing my steps I ended up figuring out how to fix it for a bit but I found out that it would stop working was because the factory sent us a bad ink cartridge which I was pretty mad about. So I was (still am) pretty proud that I figured that out.

Well it took me awhile but it looks like I did at least something this week. But I think that the highlight (which was the only thing that stuck out to me in the beginning) was the Christmas party that the ward had this week. We really haven´t had any luck in finding people recently but we just had faith that somebody would show up to the party that we could contact. We saw a ton of miracles that day. Not only had ours prayers been answered about finding people but we had an old investigator who was super close to being baptized not only show up but also sat at the table with the area presidency (Elders Carlos Godoy, Falabella, and Montoya) and in the end the elders were able to get an appointment with him. The activity was super great and I think that everyone there was glad that they came.

love you all tons,

Elder Garbett

The Week of Nightmares!

 December 2, 2017

So this week was super tiring for the office. So let me explain:

1. So you can really start to tell here in the office that the Christmas season is starting. I have already received around 13 packages that I think are for Christmas. But the thing is also that tons of letters have come in saying that in the main mailing place there are currently 6 packages waiting for me to come and pick up and based on their weights they are supposed to be huge. That is going to be one exciting trip to go out and get it. 

2. So ever since President Godoy has showed up, some stuff has changed around here. For example, now after every single leadership counsel we have there are going to be multizones where mainly the Zone leaders teach everything that was taught to them during the leadership counsel. But the thing is is that we had three multizones this week to do that from Tuesday to Thursday and then after that we had our leadership counsel for December. So I was running around like crazy this week trying to get food for breakfast, lunch, and to try to do at least something in the office this week. So that was a complete mess.

Well this week went by super fast but at the same time it was super painful because I was running around almost 24/7. It was just super tough to make sure everything was right and perfect. Which actually all happened thankfully. But I will just say it was probably one of my most stressful weeks I have ever had.

 

miss you all tons,

Elder Garbett

MOST CRAZY WEEK OF MY LIFE! (oh yeah and happy Thanksgiving!)

 November 25, 2017

So this week was super crazy and a ton of stuff happened. Lets get down to the kool stuff:

1. So first off we had this 2 week training for the new missionaries. So I had to go out and buy breakfast for them (which is pretty normal) but also I had to get lunch. So we decided to call up a member in our mission to do it but when I called him up he said that he was out of town and he couldn't do it. So in that moment my companions had the crazy idea for us to cook the lunch but the thing is that they didn't want president to know. They wanted it to be a surprise that we were going to make sloppy joes. Plus I had to give a training during the meeting so I could not see the process the entire time. But before the end I got to help a little bit in setting up and during that time I was super nervous. And when president walked in he had this super shocked look on his face and I was all like we are dead. But then I heard sister Amato speak up and she said "DANNY! Look! the secretaries cooked! And its awesome!" and after that everyone loved the food. So we can actually cook for 50 people. 

2. So last week there was a face to face for the Young single adults with Elder Oaks and Ballard and before that happened they asked if the missionaries could attend it. So we were all planning on going to see the face to face. But what ended up happening was that a missionary had to go home for some reason and he had to be at the airport right when the thing started. So I missed out on all of that but I ended up getting to at least listen to it while I have been working here in the office and it was super awesome. There were some inspiring answers and impressions that I received during that.

3. So for some reason a bunch of the missionaries phones have been dying on them. Luckily for me I had enough temporal phones to get to every area that has needed a phone and I had to go and take all of the busted ones to the area offices. It was super kool because I got to meet the technician and he did a run down with me on how he knew if a phone has been abused or if it just was a straight up horrible equipment. So that was really eye-opening.

Well a lot of stuff happened here in Lima this week and you all probably are wondering how was thanksgiving down here in Peru. It actually was a pretty normal day. We knew that it was going on because some lady came to the offices to drop some packages off for some missionaries. But we ended up having to stay in the offices late and then we received this text from our pension saying that we need to be there at 8:30 with some scriptures ready to go about marriage. So we are all freaking out thinking that our pension is thinking about divorcing and we show up and he says that we needed to stay outside for a moment longer because the bishop was there and things just got super silent. After about 5-10 minutes they open up and we walk in expecting to see bishop there but all we see is a giant table full of food ready to celebrate thanksgiving. I mean first off we were all super relived but it was also a super touching experience because we all thought that it was just going to be another busy day at the office but that just turned everything around. I mean I didn't cry but I did get teary for a moment there. But I will just say that I am thankful for my wonderful pension who is absolutely amazing. 

Love you all,

Elder Garbett

transfer 2 in the office

November 18, 2017

Well this week was pretty interesting:

1. Well first off we got to go and plan for the Christmas activity that we are going to be having soon and I got to meet some orphaned children. While my companion was talking to some ladies about the details a little girl about 7 years old walks up to me and asked me what my name was and just stared at me for like the longest time but it wasn't like a weird stare. It was one of those stares where there was that fault of love for that child because well she is an orphan. All that I can say is that after that I cannot wait for this activity to fall into place because it is going to be awesome.

2. We actually had time this week to where when we did go to proselyte we actually had a lesson and it was super kool because these people might actually progress. They were super attentive and just wanted to keep learning more. Like I know that when you tell people that Jesus actually visited the Americas they get interested but like these people went crazy and wanted to know how and everything. It just shows me that when we are putting everything into the work of the Lord that there are people waiting for you that will just accept the gospel. 

Well this week has been pretty interesting, as you can tell. I keep learning things right and left while being in this position as a secretary to president. Like for example the other night I received a call from a missionary who was talking to me about giving more call time on all of the missionaries phones because his zone has been running out of time a lot recently. This was in the middle of the night when I couldn't do anything so I just told him that it is something normal and that if they are running out now it´s just that they are wasting some time calling people and that they could be a little more efficient. Then he got super offended and started to say things like what is more important, salvation or less call time. And I just ended up having to tell him that there is just an order to everything just like the church and that I will look into that when I am in the office. Now that I am in this position I need to have a lot of patience with people and when people get like that it just frustrates me sometimes. I mean I thought I had a good amount of patience but now...... yeah I need a lot more. 

love you all tons,

Elder Garbett

I finally got a camera!!!

**but it didn't last long so he's without a camera again for a while  :-(

Just one word: LIFE

 November 11, 2017

Just to sum up this week, it was super stressful:

1. Well this week was the first week of transfers so that meant that we had a group come on into the mission and it was a super huge group. I will just say like 15 new missionaries came on in. So that meant I had to get a lot of bags ready and buying food for the new missionaries and the trainings. aka a lot of running around. 

2. So my companion got his new replacement next transfer and is training him right now. So that means that I am in a trio and Elder Dahl (Elder Hidalgo's replacement) is going to be my new companion. Elder Dahl is like super cool and he is from Oregon. He´s got 15 months in the mission and he is super into computers. Like some of his projects right now (besides his training) is to program something that will make his job a lot easier. Super Bacanasaso! 

Well let me explain a little more in depth on the title. So a lot of things have been going down since I came in here. Like no other Operations secretary has done what I have done and I especially don´t like it. Like just to be on the low side I think that I actually fired my first guy and also I told off some missionary´s family because they were being super super super rude with us (which wasn't missionary conduct. Don´t do that on your mission. Trust me). But pretty much this week I was feeling pretty bad about those last two things that happened. But I got the chance to talk to President Amato about it and pretty much he told me that what I did was rational. Now was there something else that I could have done to make it better than it turned out to be? Obviously. But I think that one thing that he told me was pretty much "Welcome to Life." So I feel better about it and it just looks like I need to adapt to some stuff, which I am kinda excited to learn.

with tons of love,

Elder Garbett

official operation secretary in the house

 November 4, 2017

Well I think this week just like established that I am the new Operations secretary,

1. Well we thought this last Sunday that we were going to have a smooth week where we would have tons of meetings but where we would get everything done and ready for the next transfer. Well turns out that president went full sparatic on Monday and decided to change all of the meetings around to different days during the same week. So the week went by super fast and super stressful. Like it was good and everything except for the part that you forget it was Halloween up until the little kids start knocking on the office door saying "trick or treat!" and then you send them off with little pass along cards because you just ran out of chica morada candy in the office. 

2. Like I said we had tons of meetings but I think that the main one that we had was the leadership counsel. Right there I got to show my stuff as an operation secretary. We have recently been having some problems with contacting referrals that we receive as a mission and so I had to get up and give a training about what was going on and then conduct like a seminar kinda thing to get ideas from all of the leaders in the mission on how we can fix the problem. It went so good that my training for 15 minutes turned out to be 45 minutes. 

Well it actually turned out that the office had interviews with president this transfer and mine was pretty interesting. I don´t know how he did it but for some reason when I was telling him about my past companions he found something that I needed to work on and it was humility. He began to tell me about it and he gave me a talk from Ezra Taft Benson that is titled Beware of Pride. It was super interesting to me because I usually always have humility on my mind and try to improve. But this talk just took it to another level. One thing that stood out to me the most was that when we are prideful we "pit our will against god´s.... Our will in competition to God´s will allows desires, appetites, and passions to go unbridled." It made me think a lot about that, really if I want to be humble I need to continue doing the will of the lord and to not go against or think against his counsel. 

miss you all tons,

Elder Garbett

**Mom note:
Rowan does not have a camera currently, but we discovered that it truly is a small world because I received a text from my dear friend, Marjorie, letting me know that a senior couple serving from their ward (Bro. and Sis. Henry) ran into Rowan. I guess they are in the same ward in Peru. So they took a picture and sent it to Marjorie, who sent it to me. I am grateful to see his happy smiling face and the Henry's too

well long time no see?

October 28, 2017

Well it´s been awhile since I have gotten on hasn't it? I think that I am going to just write this differently this week.

Well the office here is pretty cool. This last week my trainer, Elder Flores, left the office and so I pretty much took over everything. I mean before I knew how to do things but if something popped up and it wasn't something that was in like in the handbook I just dropped it off to him and was like I don´t know how to do this. Now that he is gone I have to just pick it up and do it myself which I really love doing. I think that is one thing that I am going to learn here in the office because like I'm not always going to have someone to tell me what exactly I need to do so I like how I am like learning a bit more of initiative. 

Well this week (because my trainer left) we went to the airport to send a missionary home who decided to leave a week early and this missionary was my first companion in the mission field. My father! Elder Salazar was my first missionary that I took to the airport and it was super sad. We stood there for like 5 minutes hugging each other and I think everyone thought that we were gay but it probably was the saddest moment I will ever have on my mission. 

All in all the office is doing great! I am doing amazing with my first gringo companion (who is also from Arizona). I am literally running from place to place putting my whole heart into it and I am loving every single second. 

miss you all tons,

Elder Garbett