San Nicolas, April 13, 2015

Hey Mom!

This week has been super awesome! so much happened and yet it went by so fast!

firstly, no it was the other toe, thank goodness, and it is a ok. [Ingrown toenail report.]

The mural stayed around for about 4 days before rain washed it away, it was awesome. We would see people walking super slowly by it, and then they´d stop to read hahahah. I can send you all of the steps of it so you can post the whole thing. The time lapse should be really cool.

So I will probably get transferred tomorrow, I´ll find out where I´m going and with who tonight (but you´ll have to wait till next Monday)  but I´ll be able to write letters to O and Sister F and K. E literally disappeared, kind of upset about that, but it´s good that I´m leaving this area because if I found him again I would probably yell at him(no not really)

I just got an email from CS and from RW [high school running buddies]. CT writes me now and then, I get emails from JB, SE and MB, CN writes me, I talk to Elder KS [serving in a different part of Mexico] and Cousin Garner [serving in Germany]. Elder GK [serving in Lyon, France] is too happy-go-lucky in his mass emails so I haven´t gotten a reply from him yet. hahaha.

Thanks mom, I´m actually going to go get a haircut right after this, so I´ll get something nice. I think I have a pretty modest haircut as a missionary, but I use gel now so it doesn´t bother me, should I go without? [Mom says yes.]

Anyway, K GOT BAPTIZED FINALLY. And let me say it was a LOVELY baptism. Let me give you the story:

So in the morning there was a youth conference for 2 stakes, and it was a missionary activity that we participated in. We did little workshops about Preach My Gospel and Elder J and I taught about chapter 5: The Book of Mormon. We did a fun little activity and the youth got super excited about the book of Mormon. I also saw Elder L [MTC companion] at the conference too! After it finished at about 12pm. We prepared for the baptism. Since all of the youth was still there, all of the youth from our ward stayed and then some for the baptism. I played some prelude music on the piano and it was super reverent! When we moved from the chapel to the baptismal room for him to get baptized, everyone was very quiet. Once K came out of the water, we was beaming and super happy. Everyone moved back to the chapel and to keep the reverence, Elder J played an arrangement of hymns on his guitar. Then, O gave a super awesome talk and shared his baptism experience! When it ended and people were eating cupcakes, K´s mom, M, came up to us with tears in her eyes, she was so happy to see K get baptized and that everyone in the ward loved him. The spirit truly touched her heart. Now she wants us to teach her. It was such a wonderful experience for me.

K's baptism

Davis, Happy and wet K, Elder J

 Anyway, that same day around 8:15pm, we were buying crepes and a lighting storm strikes! Raining super hard, lightning struck super close and the power went out for a minute hahahah. We finished our crepes and booked it for the house, WE WERE DRENCHED! The roads were almost 9 inches full of water! And then the next day it cleared up and was sunny and bright...until 8 o clock, It was an even bigger storm! Lighting was super strong and the thunder was way loud, the power went out in our area for about 2 hours, probably because it actually struck a electricity box this time, super windy. It was super cool. It´s sunny right now...but who knows what it will be tonight. We were safe thought because we were in our house and we said a prayer. 

Soaked by a thunderstorm.

 I have had such amazing experiences here in Nicolas Bravo, and with Elder J, but we´ll see what happens tomorrow! hahahah when I told the bishop´s wife that I was probably going to get changed, she said "¡No se vaya!" (Don´t Go!) and invited us over for lunch for today hahahah. It´ll be a little sad to leave the people in this ward.

I´ll try to write my grandmas and grandpa. Do you think you could ask grandpa if he could find me a "New Testament" alone in spanish, as in it´s just the new testament nothing else. [I thought he had the whole bible in Spanish; not sure why he’d need just the New Testament”]

I love you guys!

Elder Garner

sorry, I shouldn´t be sending so many pictures, But I´m not sure if I´ll have a safe ciber in my next area, so if I don´t I won´t send pictures to you ok.  love you,

San Nicolas April 6, 2015

We´re still having a bit of commotion with K, I still don´t know if he will be ready to be baptized tomorrow, he needs to have the interview. Fortunately he still desires to do it and so we´re gonna make it happen. 

I was also thinking about you and dad during that one general conference talk that mentioned that "I can teach you the dance steps, but you need to hear the music" I´m very grateful that I have you two as such wonderful parents getting skin cancer and noses chopped off...uh I mean I am grateful for you teaching me the dance steps, teaching me the gospel, through example, taking me to church, wholesome and funny family home evenings, dad helping me with my priesthood duties, and all of the love that you have for me. I was definitely able to hear the music for myself. I´m glad that you would yell at me when I wasn´t doing what I was supposed to, I guess I wasn´t very rebelious because I´d eventually do something(except clean my room...sorry) and I´m thankful for all of the wonderful encouragement I received for everything.

I want to tell you all of the things I am thankful for, but I don´t have all of the time in the world.

There is a sister missionary in my district who is finishing her mission this week and she is returning home to Long Beach CA, she said that she has a lot of room in her suitcase and she can send some of my things to you. I´m probably going to send my journal that I finished, so you can read it and see my thoughts and all, and some other things like letters, ties for dad, shirts for thanny, whatever else.

 Oh, another thing. This morning Elder J

and I did a mural of the plan of salvation in the park with chalk! It is awesome and a member let us borrow his GoPro to make a time lapse of it. I´m going to send you the micro SD chip and ask nathaniel to figure out how to make the Timelapse, tell him to put a good song to it, maybe just some classical music

I love you so much,

Elder Garner

San Nicolas March 30, 2015 (email delayed a week)

Hey I forgot to tell you that I got ingrown toenail!!!! Guess I can´t play in the turkey tornament again! [Note to reader: Davis had an ingrown toenail in middle school that prevented him from playing a Thanksgiving soccer tournament.  He was very disappointed.] Nah it´s ok cuz I just got it cut out and it was super fun! I got the shot and blood and everything. I got a funny video. Now my toe kind of hurts, oh well.

Davis at the doctor's office fixing his ingrown toenail.

K´s baptism got postponed because he hasn´t come to the past few lessons we were going to have with him...bummer. It´s ok though he still wants to get baptized, but I think we´re going to try to do something special to animate him, because honestly...I bet the missionary lessons are a bit boring for a 13 year old kid. We´ll figure it out. I usually just eat a banana and a ham sandwich, for both breakfast and dinner. I´ve been eating a lot more fruits and such.  We only eat lunch at 2 with a member.

Sounds like Nathaniel is doing very well. Hey he´s using my backpack! I said that right when Elder J said Hey my brother is using my suit! hahahaha.

I spilt chocolate milk on myself two nights ago...I still have the curse.

Chocolate milk on his shirt.

O already wants to be a missionary! so he has been going with us to a couple of visits, especially this boy named L. He´s 12 and he understands everything that we teach. He´s the one with the mom that has the foot problem with diabetes. We took him to church this sunday and we was all ready in a shirt and tie. He could only stay an hour because he had to go back and take care of his mom (I love you mom) but after sacrament meeting he said "next week I want to go to all of the classes so I can learn more" Awesome! Well next week is General Conference and I´m super excited for it, although it´s not as fun to here the dubbed over spanish because you don´t get the authenticity of their voices. no matter. I´m going to try and watch with a question in mind. I invite you and dad and nathaniel...and everyone that reads the blog as well. LDS General Conference

Elder D from San Diego.

Hmmm, there were quite a few things that have happened this past week, we had a zone conference, where we talked about the importance of baptism in life  and how to really be an excellent missionary by always inviting everyone to do something that will help them get closer to christ and strengthen their faith. I have been super stoked and my desires to serve the lord and just help people find the truth has skyrocketed!

Do you have any more questions mom?

I love you!

Elder Garner

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