Week 69 Lot's of pictures

My week was so great!!!

Like I had told you last week, I got transferred to Danli again! And I just love it so much here! But it was sad having to say bye to everyone in Choluteca. I honestly really loved it there even though it was like 100 degrees every day and it probably gave me skin cancer from so much sun. But I sent all of those photos of all of the people I loved in Choluteca. I would say that the hardest person to say bye to was the guy in the Purple shirt because he was just so cool. His name is Mohonri... yes he is a member haha and he speaks fluent English so we would always just chit chat in English. then everyone else I will miss so much too. Just a really cool ward out there in Choluteca.

But now I am back here in the east! Back in my territory Danli!! It is so cold!!! I dont remember it being so cold!! at night i sleep without a fan and I still have to put on a sweater and pajama pants!!! I love it though! I decided I hate the heat and I want to move somewhere cold for all of my life and then just go to vacation to warm places. But I love it here. There are a few people that I already know! And the ward here is so strong! We received 13 references this week! That's more than I have gotten in my whole mission haha all of the youth go and contact people throughout the week and they tell us the positive ones. And my companion is a beast when it comes to baptizing so hopefully with the help of the ward we should be able to baptize a whole bunch here!

A really cool thing that happened this week was that Elder Oaks from the quorum of the 12 came and gave us a talk!! It was so funny!! He started off just roasting the presidential candidates! the whole audience was just dying of laughter!! He then proceeded to get super serious and say, but i hope you all know the difference between when I am serious and when I am joking...... and right now I am not joking!! The whole building erupted in laughter again haha he really taught us some great things! A huge point that I loved was that us as missionaries think that we are trying to convert people to The Church of Jesus Christ when in reality we aren't. We are converting people to the gospel of Jesus Christ. and through that they will then learn to love the things of the church. It really opened my eyes and made me kind of change the way that I teach people. Rather than freaking out if they like the church or not, I need to make sure that they have a testimony of the Book of Mormon or of Joseph Smith. It was a great talk. Then at the very end he said that he will bless us to remember everything that he has taught us, as if he was personally laying his hands over our heads. It was just so awesome!!

And I think we killed our song! So it was a double win!!!

Over all I am just so happy to be here. I would prefer that there were more elders than sisters but its fine. I can manage eating fancy food for Pday...... ugh. Also, we are like 5 days in the transfer and we are already having problems with a companionship.... being Zone Leader is a lot harder. Like it is just a whole lot more of responsibility than before!

I love you all!

Elder Garry

Zone Leader!! And pictures

So the song we are singing for Elder Oaks will be "I know that my Redeemer lives" and the arrangement is hard haha and after all of those seminary choir sessions, I thought I would be ready for this next level mini Mormon Tabernacle Choir dealio.... I was wrong. Not easy at all hahaha needless to say that my lack of ability to read music makes me the weakest link but I am trying and listening and singing my little missionary heart out!!

And this week came all of the transfers! And the sad news is that Elder Santacruz and I are being separated... its not even like the bird is leaving the nest... the dad is leaving the child haha once again I will be taking my talents to Danli!!! Which is going to be so fun because i already know the zone! and i will get to see all of my recent converts again and see how they are doing!! it should be so fun!! and my new companion is elder Avila from El Salvador and I am already really great friends with him! so i am really looking forward to these next few transfers! and another new thing is that i am no longer the District Leader but now i am the Zone Leader!!! So I have like 20 missionaries to take care of. AND I recieved a calling as the Young Womans President apparently because there are 20 missionaries and 14 are sister missionaries!!! hahaha I guess I need to start practicing the "As Sisters in Zion" song to participate with them! So there goes all of my hopes and dreams of playing sports on P-Day because now I have to make 14 sister missionaries happy but on the good side, I will probably become a master chef!!! #lookingforpositives

This week was really great though. My companion and I realized that we are best of friends this week and now we are getting separated... its really sad honestly. But he is going to get a really great missionary so I'm not worried!! He will be fine!

Alright so in total. The choir song is hard, I am a Zone Leader, and I'm sad I wont be with my kid. But a great week!

I love you all!
Elder Garry

Baptism of Carlos #endingthedrought

I taught a small child how to tuck in his ears.... gotta pass down the legacy

The zone #zonacholuteca

Pretty sunset 

The newest addition to the Iberia team

The choir squad!! #tenorgamestrong

Week 67 Baptism

Alright my week was great! I am proud to say that after about 6 months of waiting and walking and knocking on doors and hundreds of lessons, we were finally able to end our drought and get a baptism! The baptismal service stressed me out so bad!! We announced several times to the people that we were going to have a baptism at 11 o'clock on Saturday and that we want as many people as possible to be there. So when 11 o'clock came around, it was us and Carlos who was going to be baptized and no one else. not even the Bishop who had a talk. not even his family members who also had talks. I was furious! I had to call everyone and they all just said "oh don't worry we are on our way" we had to start the baptism at 11 30 with only the bishop his counselor, some member who is just so excited to do anything, an investigator, and basically the whole primary because they were there practicing some songs. so i decided that i wanted to just shave the whole ward for being unsupportive. But I decided not to because I figure if I do that, they will all hate me and i dont want that. But I do have one week left so I will probably address the problem next week before i leave this area so they can hate me if they want, but that should never have happened. The elders quorum didn't even show up. Not one of them. It was ridiculous honestly. But the baptism its self was great! I was able to baptize him and after wards he was really emotional and was just saying "thank you Lord" over and over again! I loved it! He is just such a great person and I am so grateful to have been apart of his journey to baptism! So great!

Also we received some great news this week!! So next week our mission and the mission Comayaguela will all have the privilege of listening to Elder Oaks!! He is coming to Honduras to give us a talk and I am so excited!!! He will be the third Apostle that I will be able to hear in real life! I am hoping that we all get to shake his hand because just doing that is so edifying. It is like the story of the sick lady in the Bible that sees Jesus walking by and she knows that by just touching him, she will get better. I feel like that when I get to shake their hands, that all of my problems will just go away. It is so amazing that we will get the opportunity of hearing a real life Apostle of the Lord.

So basically this week was just full of spiritual experiences. I know that it is fun getting to hear fun stories about me getting stung by scorpions in the middle of the night but this week was just full of blessings and hard work! My companion and i are just wearing holes in our shoes from all the work we are doing. We were able to have some great lessons with our investigators. In one of the lessons we were able to really show our investigator Jason(he spells it Yeyson #hondurasspelling) that the Book of Mormon is true! And it was so awesome getting to see him realize it. His eyes got all big and was just in awe. Then right after wards he goes "I think I can feel the Spirit right now". we taught him about the Holy Ghost but only using the Book of Mormon. and the lesson just worked out so great! then we had another lesson with our investigator Gesenia (whose brother died) and we brought an RM to the lesson and we taught about the story when Christ was on the boat with his Apostles and there was a big storm and then Christ just stopped it. Then related it to the storms in our lives and how we too need the help of Christ. It was a very powerful lesson!

And last but not least. Today I watched a 3 hour movie called Charly. If you haven't seen it, watch it. It is a church movie and it had me in real man tears at the end. It really makes me think in an eternal perspective now and not just thinking about today or tomorrow. But thinking about the eternity. A really great movie. Watch that for Family Home Evening. A great lesson on eternal families. Bring tissues.

I love you all! I am just in love with this work. I know this is all true! I really do!

Elder Garry

Week 66 Pictures!

This week was so fun! I mean like always it is so hot, it rains a ton! and the light likes going off on a regular basis, especially at night so that we suffer more, but this week was good!

So lets start off by talking about the investigators! We have been going through a dry streak as we all know, but i am glad to say that soon, the drought will be over on Saturday! Finally we will be getting another baptism of our investigator Carlos who lived in the states for like 15 years. So through this whole process, i have been able to teach in English! Its harder than i thought it would be! haha but he talked to us on Saturday and just said that he was ready and that he wants to be baptized this Saturday at 11! And we had 5 investigators in church on Sunday and all of them liked it! I can just see all of the hard work that Elder Santacruz and i are doing every day is paying off! It is a very satisfying feeling. This whole giving salvation thing is a lot harder than i thought it would be! But liked Elder Holland said that if salvation wasn't easy for Christ, then it shouldn't be easy for us. But it is nice to know that i get to be apart of giving salvation.

Another fun thing is that once again we were out working and suddenly like a hurricane comes out of no where and we get completely soaked. But it is fun because when that happens, my companion and i just start trying to push each other into the big puddles. Everyone looks at us like we are crazy as we are just casually walking back to our apartment in the storm because we are just smiling so hard. You just gotta find the positives in all of the negatives. The only positive you cant find in the negative is when you are getting sun burnt in the scorching sun, but it makes us walk faster and we are then able to do more in every day!! There's a positive right!

What else...
For lunch today, a little abuelita invited us over for her birthday. So we are there and she literally gives us like 3 lbs of food and I'm just like oh no.... ate it. She saw something special (shout out to Joey from Friends). And when we were there her daughter was also there and she is a Jehovah Witness and so I had some genuine questions for her. She has been a member for like 20 years and the last time I saw her I was able to ask some questions about what she believed and today she had a missionary answer all of my questions. And what I learned out of it all, is that I am so glad to be a member of the TRUE Church of Jesus Christ. The gospel that we teach doesn't have any holes where as other religions do. With every question that I received I was able to answer it with a scripture and testimony and the Spirit was just so strong. We didn't contend at all because I told her at the beginning that I don't want to contend. After all today is my day off! And so I just said I will ask a question and then you can. And I just left this lesson feeling so happy. I look at my companion and he says the same thing. It was just such a great moment where I left feeling like my testimony had gotten even stronger.

I love seeing the type of person I am becoming. I love how when we put the gospel first in our lives, there are just so many blessings and life is so much better.

I love you all!
Elder Garry

Week 65 Conference Weekend

Hey guys!  What a great conference week we had!  I remember being back at home watching conference as I was secretly teaching myself to sleep with my eyes open.  Now I really have a huge understanding of the importance of conference and I honestly love it so much.   I would say that my favorite talk for sure was given by Pres. Uchtdorf but I don't remember if it was just Saturday morning or afternoon.  But the talk that he gave had a really great quote to it that really changed the way that I think.  He said that he went to like Ireland and there he read something and it translates to something like (and sorry if it isn't exact because I don't have my notes) "What shall we give in return for so much?" What will I be willing to do for the things that God has done for me.  It just really made me that much more appreciative to be here on the mission so that I can give back for all that my Heavenly Father has done for me.  So in the future if I don't ever want to magnify my callings in church, do home teaching, or share the gospel with a friend, I will always just remember that talk. Shout out to Pres. Uchtdorf for always having such good talks!

So other than conference my week was pretty normal.  We really only had like 3 days to work because of conference and because I had to go and help the sisters in my district move houses.  Their suitcases are ridiculously heavy.  But we were able to do some good visits.  I guess our investigator Gisenia, is still really shaken up.  I thought that she was handling the death of her brother well but she really opened up and just cried her eyes out.  We were able to just talk to her and remind her of the love that Heavenly Father has for her and that through Jesus Christ´s atonement she will be helped. I know that she just wants to see her brother but that is really the best we can do for her.  It is sad for sure.  A great thing that happened is that our investigator Carlos, says that he wants to be baptized! So we will probably put the date for this Saturday.  I am really hoping and praying that it goes through to end the drought! haha

I hope that next week I will be able to tell some fun stories and fill you in on the baptism as well!
I love you all!
Elder Garry

Week 64 good week

So this week was actually really great.  We weren't able to get the baptism because we had a big conference in the morning and then the womans conference at night.  Because Gisenias brother died a while back all of the family is taking turns taking care of the mom and this week she was gone like allll week with the mom.  She didn't even get to go to church because she wasnt even down in choluteca.  It is all just so sad with sister gisenia.  I just dont know what to do to help her because I haven't ever had an experience like that one.  So I am really relying on the Spirit to guide the lessons so I can know what to send her.  But the thing is that she still wants to get baptized so we will just do it later on.

But the week was good.  It was really really quick.  I really love all of my investigators that I have.  We have a total of 10 investigators that are progressing.  And of those 10, they have all gone to church!! So we just really have to get into the phase of baptizing! haha  a really cool thing that happened this week was that we had 2 investigators really open up to me and my companion.  One is named Lincoln and he is a dude that didnt want anything at first.  We found him like in the first week with Elder Santacruz and I was just trying to show him how to try to put an appt even with people that dont want anything.  and because I was stubborn with him, he is now someone that has a little testimony builiding!!!  he opened up to us on like Thursday and told us, "Elders, in the past, i have been visited by so many missionaries and I always listened to be nice.  But the truth is that i didnt understand why they were there.  They told me about Joseph Smith and baptism but i didnt understand why that was important.  and then you guys came to my door and I honestly didn't want anything, but now because of you guys, i understand why this is important.  You are the only ones that really are teaching me and not just throwing the lesson in my face".  It was such a great moment.  It just shows that we really gotta get to know the investigators so we can know HOW to teach the investigator.  Because the lessons are easy to teach but they are even easier if we know how to teach it to teach their needs and problems!

then our other investigator Carlos, we have been teaching him since the days of Elder Hernandez.  and he just wasnt ever really progressing but goes to church with us and everything.  We would always put baptismal dates but he wouldnt get baptize.  We realized that maybe he just didnt understand the Resoration yet.  So we watched Joseph Smith movie with him and right after he just looked at us and says "I think it is time to get baptized" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he told us that this whole week he has wanted to get baptized and then he was nervous because of it so started dodging us.  Then he called us to invite us to come over and then we watched the movie and boom! A super awesome investigator!!!

This week was just so great!! And really wet! It rained really hard all week again.  Like honeslty, it rains everyday all day.  im either sweating form the heat or just soaking wet from rain..... its all about the experiences though right!!

Well I love you all!

Elder Garry

Week 63

So this week was just thrilling!! mostly because of what is happening with our golden investigator Gisenia.

So we had planned to visit her on Thursday but that Saturday before, her brother was kidnapped. So she calls us Thursday and tells us that on Wednesday, her brother was found murdered. I guess what had happened is like 3 years ago, he was offered a lot of money to kill his best friend and said no. And the dude told him, well that's fine if you don't want to do it, but now you know and I will kill you if you tell anyone. So he didn't tell anyone and nothing bad happened to his friend. But a few months ago, I guess he told his friend about it. And now he shows up murdered. So now our investigator is really sad and an emotional wreck. We went and visited her and she just opened the door, looked at us, and started crying again. It was really sad. But it was a perfect time to teach her the plan of salvation. She told us that in the message, she was just full of peace. That she didn't forget her brother died but that she just understood better that it is all part of the plan that God gives us all. It was a really spiritual time. We told her that the plan that God made is perfect and that there are no mistakes. That people die when they are supposed to die. She asked me why some people die in worse ways than other people. and i just told her I don't know, but that we just need to put faith that this wasn't an accident but that this is all part of the plan of God. She was so amazed at the message and the new information that we had taught her with her own bible, that she just realized that this was the True Church of Jesus Christ and that she needed to be baptized in his church. She still doesn't understand the whole Joseph Smith thing but we are working on that and tonight we have another movie about the prophet Wilford Woodruff that talks about being baptized again by the correct authority of God. So we hope that it all goes well.

Right now while I am typing, there is a bird pecking at the window trying to get in. Should i let it in???

Anyways, a fun thing was that we are finally seeing all of the fruits of our work. This Sunday we had 7 investigators in church! and they are all people that we are actually teaching and not just friends that people brought to church. But real people that could really be baptized. I am really hoping to be able to have all of them get baptized within the next 3 weeks because that would be amazing. We work hard every day and now we are finally seeing it. I think the blessings come from working in the super hot sun and the pouring rain. Whatever you throw at us, we are still out there talking to people even though they think we are crazy for walking in the streets when the rain has overflowed everything and it is now up to like our calves. I tried taking pictures but i didn't want to ruin my camera so i figured you could just take my word for it. After all, like it says in St John 20:29. It is better to have faith than seeing to believe. But it was incredible how hard it rained this week. Our whole area was just flooded because it rained for a good 3 hours straight. but wicked hard rain. It felt like hail was spiking me in the face. And I don't know why, but Choluteca is super hot, but the rain is FREEZING cold.

This week I ask that the people who actually read this, pray that Gisenia can get baptized this Saturday. This is a big moment and we all know that Satan will be working against her. So i ask that everyone will pray and pray so that she can get baptized this Saturday. It should be really fun because Elder Santacruz will be able to baptize her. And it will be his first time! I love seeing that little guy grow up! I remember his first couple steps and now he is going to baptize someone!


I love you all!

Elder Garry