March 25, 2015 San Nicolas

HEY MOM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sorry I didn´t tell you we went to the temple today, but we went to the temple today! It was amazing actually. I went in the temple with a question, and boy did I come out with an answer! Wow I´m just super stoked about that, i´ll write you a letter about that today. Elder J and I also discovered some of the mysteries of the temple, it was pretty incredible as well, because we were studying the scriptures together in the celestial room and one thing lead to another and boom...we definitely learned more than one new thing about the temple today.

Ok here´s a super cool experience that I had. We have been visiting this old lady named Sister F, she´s the mom of an inactive member. We taught her a lesson and after, she asked "Hey can you give a blessing to my mom? she´s super sick." Well sure, we go into this room and there´s this super old tiny lady stuck in her bed and all. Well, we gave her a blessing (I´m feeling alright about giving blessings in spanish now) and went on our way. The next week we came back to teach Sister F and she said "Hey ever since you gave my mom a blessing she´s been super good!" well what do you know but a little old lady shuffles out of her room "Hola elderes" shakes our hands and goes somewhere else in the house..."Wow Sister F, she really is better!" "What did I tell you?" When you think of Sister F, think of boopas but Mexican, she´s awesome.

another experience, we got a reference of a lady who is suffering from diabetes (here they say they are suffering from sugar) and she wanted a blessing. right now she has had two toes amputated and she has a lot of pain. Well after we left her and returned she said that she felt more peaceful and everytime that we were with her her pain wasn´t as strong, or it was much more bearable. I have seen a couple of miracles on my mission so far, it´s amazing. I have a firm testimony that Joseph Smith restored the Priesthood of God and that miracles still exist.

K is getting ready for his baptism this upcoming tuesday, he is super excited. We are super excited for him too. He´s a super lovable kid and he´s pretty funny too.

O´s Parents have been developing and developing and they are slowly getting there! They promised that they would fast to know for certain if they should get married and baptized. Oh I love them so much and I worry about O a lot right now. He´s doing super well though in everything and he should be in the middle of Mosiah in this reading right now.

GOOD JOB NATHANIEL! AWESOME! [On a track meet result.]

So much is happening mom I love being a missionary! It´s super hard but super awesome!!!!

I love you!

Elder Garner

March 16, 2015 San Nicolas

Hey Mom!

Ok first I got to tell you a SWEET bird story that I JUST HAD. We got up to go on a run, and we were running to this other park in our area that has a station for working out and stuff. We got to the work out area, and we were about to get super ripped, but then we heard a weird call. Elder J is now a birder (it always rubs off! it happened with Bryce, Deven got reactive in birding and now he´s gonna major in it or something, it´s super cool!) but he went over to the tree. The call we heard was just a great tailed grackle mating call (they were doing mating dances too) but we both found this one small plump bird sitting in the tree above. "What could this be?" walk around the tree a little bit, stop. the bird turns it´s head and MOUNTAIN PYGMY OWL!!!!! It was so cool! it flew over to another nearby tree and we followed it and just watched it for about thirty minutes, it called a little bit and cocked its head a couple of times. Elder J said "I´ve never seen an owl so tiny!" oh it was super cool. We didn´t work out, but we saw a super sweet bird. Life bird for me. I also got another life bird this week, Blue-headed Vireo. I´ll have to send you my mission bird list that I have up to now, it´s not very big.

Just in case you don't have your Birds of North America field guide handy, this is what these birds look like.  Owl photo from owlinstitute.org.

Anyway, this week was tough, but really we did super well. K is preparing for the 31st of March to be baptized and now the whole ward is going to be involved in preparing the baptism, which is great! We just need to make sure that it´s reverent. I´ve still been practicing the piano, and I´ve been getting better. This Sunday the pianist was sick and so the first counselor (pianists husband) asked if I could play...look at the songs...yes I know them all! I can play "All creatures of our god and king" now which I thought I could never learn. I love that song, but I´m pretty sure they don´t know it here (they don´t know a lot of hymns hahaha)

We found some super crazy lady this week, but we had a super powerful lesson with her too. She was talking and talking and we were able to take control of the lesson very smoothly and we delivered her a very spirit filled lesson of the  restoration. I realized in that lesson that I´ve gotten pretty good at speaking spanish. She told us that she could feel the spirit and understand that the things we were teaching must be...but she wasn´t willing to do anything about it. For some reason she couldn´t go to church and she couldn´t pray with us, hahahaha. She kept calling us guerito, which means little whitey hahahaha. Elder J and I have had a lot of great teaching experiences together and I´m glad that I have another change with him.

Good Job Nathaniel!  I´m still putting on sunscreen but now because there hasn´t been any sun for a while, it´s been rainy and cloudy hahahaha. I think it´s been like that more than it has been sunny for the time I´ve been in Mexico (5 months).  [Mom told Davis about Nathaniel’s track meet and to make sure he wears sunscreen.]

I love you guys! Keep going!

Elder Garner

p.s. did this picture send?

March 9, 2015 San Nicolas

2015.03.09 San Nicolas

Hey mom!

Guess what...I STAYED! [Meaning, Davis wasn’t transferred to a new area this time.] With Elder Jones too! I´m in the good ol´ward of Nicolas Bravo for one more change. It´s still a bit tough to be in the smallest area of the mission, but I´ve come to love the people here so much that it doesn´t matter. It probably means that I´m out of here in 6 weeks though.

I was thinking about the same thing this week. We have had two investigators that are youths, and they are good kids and they really want to get baptized, but their group of friends is not good and their parents don´t support them. Most of them just live with their moms or one parent, and their parents don´t care want they do or where they do. This leaves them to get into drugs and immorality and all of those bad things. It´s really sad.Iit´s really hard for them to make good decisions, even though they want to, because of the peer pressure and the lack of support. It makes me feel really blessed that I have you two as parents that have helped me with everything. One of the investigators just moved, but the other one is K, a 13 year old boy. He´s at the age where he needs the most support, the most help to stay away from the evil of the world. Fortunately, his mom supports him to be baptized and go to church. Unfortunately, his parents are separated and such, and it´s kind of a mess I really don´t know. Fortunately, we have a young couple helping us teach him and they are super loving and they´re starting to become his second parents to say. I really worry about these young boys, K and O. K is planning to get baptized on the 22nd of March. Sounds like you´re doing great out there, and don´t worry about the journals and stuff, I´m about done with this but I got a journal as a Christmas present from the mission that I´m using as a study journal so I can put my entries in there for a bit.

Sounds like California is super pretty, keep sending me pictures. The rain just cleared up this morning and all of the mountains looked super pretty. It´s going to rain more this week though.

Tell Thanny I say "Good luck!" [track meet this week]

Is there anything you want to know, maybe on the blog you could ask if anyone has questions and they could post them and then send them to me and I could answer them.

Oh also, Who got into BYU?

Love you,

Davis

¡Luchador!

March 2, 2015 San Nicolas

Dear mom

 

F didn´t get baptized...HE GOT BAPTIZZLED!  It was super awesome. Getting baptizzled is the same as getting baptized, but it just sounds cooler. His uncle baptized him. He had to do it twice since his foot shot up the first time. The font was super warm when we filled it up...but as always, it gets cold. Apparently it was super freezing! hahahha. F didn´t care, he was super happy. Oh his nickname is Pepin. Then he got confirmed on Sunday. MOM HE´´S SUPER COOL. He was talking about how he is probably going to marry this girl he is dating and if they do they´ll wait a year so they can get married in the temple. He invited us too, and said he was going to do it here in Monterrey, so if he actually marries her I might be able to go!!!

  

Well this change went by super fast. I´m really hoping I don´t leave this area yet. I love Elder J, I love the members, it´s awesome here. Of course you´ll meet Elder J; we have a list of things we are going to do together after our missions.

Elder J, Pepin, Davis, Pepin's uncle

I´m finding a lot of great things in my studies. I have finished the Book of Mormon for a 3rd time on my mission, and now I am reading through Christ´s ministry in the Americas again in 3rd Nephi. He gives them the Sermon on the Mount, and in 3rd Nephi 13 (Matt 6) he teaches that we should not put thought into what we will eat, what we will drink, what we will wear. If we have faith in our Father in heaven, and we live the commandments, he will feed us just as he feeds the birds in the sky (hopefully better hahaha) and clothe us just as he does the lilies of the field. I really like that song too, "Consider the lilies of the field" It reminds me of the simplicity of life, and that we shouldn´t strife, and instead trust in the Saviour. Another scripture was Alma 31: 37 and 38

Elder J jammin after the baptism with one of the ward members.

37  And  after  that  they  did  separate  themselves  one  from another,  taking  no  thought  for  themselves  what  they should  eat,  or  what  they  should  drink,  or  what  they should  put  on.

38  And  the  Lord  provided  for  them  that  they  should hunger  not,  neither  should  they  thirst;  yea,  and  he  also gave  them  strength,  that  they  should  suffer  no  manner  of afflictions ,  save  it  were swallowed  up  in  the  joy  of  Christ. Now  this  was  according  to  the  prayer  of  Alma;  and  this because  he  prayed  in  faith .

Selfie by O

All because Alma prayed with faith. If we strengthen our faith, then our worries will thin out, and with our fidelity to the gospel they can disappear completely.

Hey I´ve been a missionary for 6 months! Wow time flies! I feel really good with my Spanish already. Not completely fluent but I´m close!

Also, we got to see Meet the Mormons 2 weeks ago! It was awesome! The mission saw it because it came out in theaters in Mexico! We saw it before to animate the members and investigators to go see it (probably also so missionaries wouldn´t feel tempted to go to the theater because we aren´t allowed) Have you guys seen that movie? It really inspires us that even though we are all just normal people, we really can be great, and that we can share the gospel!!!!! YEAA!!!

Davis, Pepin, and Elder J

What else is going on...hmm. Thanks for the pictures of the beach and everything, I´m going to print them. Can you send me another copy of our whole family that I have in my photo album so I can print it and put it in my scriptures? There´s drug store where we can print photos that´s close.

I think that´s about it for now! I´ll send some pictures.

I love you!

Elder Garner

O and Davis with marshmallows