2016.02.15 Huasteca

Hmmm... Huasteca'n you so long to snap the picture?

Hey Mom,

This was a super good week! Ah it was a super good week! wow there was so much that happened that I don`t know where to start! I`ll just tell you a little bit.

Elder S

Fun Fact. My Companion knows Cousin C [who on his mission in Germany]. We were talking about Cross Country and I mentioned that sometimes I went up to utah and I ran with the ogden team, and he asked if I knew the guys, well I did, and he remembers Cousin, so that`s super cool.

Hey we did a bunch of cleaning today too, it was super cool, but I did not have that cleaning song to listen to that I liked when I was a little kid. "Sweepy sweepy sweepy, sweeping up the floor...till there aint no more." At least my little dungeon room will be all nice and cosy...cosey?...cosie???...comodo. ahì està.

This week was super duper because of the quality of work that we were able to do. We were able to work really well with the ward, such as doing splits with the priests, getting refferals and being introduced to people by the members, as well as seeing the kindness and love that the members show to the new people at church. that`s really awesome. We also were able to experience the sweetness of responding to the still small voice various times each day, and we were able to be part of the answer to someone`s prayer. As President Monson has described, that is probably one of the most rewarding feelings there is. One of the amazing experiences that we had was with a past-investigator that Elder S had, and that always loved listening to the missionaries but never wanted to go to church. We visited her, and after so many times of trying, Elder S was kind of tired of trying to invite her, but since he had a new companion he wanted to try it again. She was telling us about how she invited the Lord in her home, and the things she did so that there could be peace at home, it was quite a cute lovely home. We mentioned that it was wonderful that she invited the Lord to her home, and started teaching about how the Lord invites us to his house, to "Supper"with him, and we taught about the sacrament and the last supper. She was almost convinced, but said that she wanted the Lord to come and extend his arm to her to bring her to church. Then Elder S shared something very inspired, which was quite clever because I had heard it as a joke before:

Huasteca is a valley.

there was a man on his rooftop during a rising flood, who was praying to god to be saved. A speedboat passed by and the man said "Hey get on and I`ll save you!" and the response was "No, I`m waiting for God to save me."  The flood rises and another speedboat arrives, and offers the same, but he rejects the offer with the same response. then up to his waist in water, a Helicopter comes and says "This is all we got, grab the ladder so we can save you!"..."No! I`m waiting for God to save me!" Well the man drowns, and goes to Heaven, and there he asks God "Why didn`t you save me?" Then God responds: "I sent you two speedboats and a helicopter, but you didn`t want to be saved!"

Cerro de la Silla in the distance.

Well then Elder S mentioned, "We are true representatives of Jesus Christ, are we not his hand carrying you to church?" She thought for a moment, and said "You`re right, I`ll go to church with you...but next week, so I can bring my daughter as well." Well she was so greatful, she told us to come by her house right before we went home so she could give us some tamales! She lived really close to our house, so right before going home at 9 we got a bunch of super hot tamales. Awesome.

I love you mom, keep being my mom,

Elder Garner

2016.02.08 Huasteca

Dear Mom,

 This area is super cool! it`s about an hour from where I was (in bus) and it is in this giant valley between a bunch of mountains. Pyrrhuloxia, Loggerhead Shrikes, Merlins, and many kingbirds and Kiskadees can be found here, so it`s kind of like an Arizona-ish climate, so to say.

The worst part is that my new Companion, Elder S, threw me in the smallest room possible, so I have to study and sleep there, and it`s the worst. I feel like Harry Potter, dang it. Whatever, I guess that means I get a dwarf thing [Dobby] who tells me not to go to school, so that`s all good. 

Davis in the Harry Potter room.  At least there is a cool falcon drawing.

As a zone leader we started out on tuesday with a small presentation of the zone after the district meetings, and put the baptism goals for the change. We check all of the district meetings (there are three districts in the zone) and we have a lot of contact with all of the district leaders, and with the Assistants to the President (By the way, my old companion Elder T is the newest assistant, so that`s pretty cool.) We went to the Leadership counsel this past friday, and we talked about the challenges about the mission and how to overcome them, and also reviewed the responsibilities we have as leaders. We also ate lasagna (sweet.) We also have meetings with the Stake President and Mission President every month to talk about how the members and the missionaries are working together, we are going to do a zone conference at the end of february, where we will give a presentation on how to help investigators keep commitments. We do divisions with the district leaders, and call many more people than I did when I was a district leader, but it`s ok because each of us has a phone. Elder S is a super good missionary too, and he has just 3 months left in his mission. he has quite a bit of time here in Huasteca, but it is possible that I`ll be his last companion. 

I saw elder G at the counsel, and we made fun of each other, so I think we will be ready to room together [in college].

There are so many people here that want to listen to the gospel, and the ward here is really big and they are doing a lot of things to get the missionary work going. The youth are on their toes with inviting people to church, so I`m really excited to work here. We had two people in church yesterday, and two other kids came with their friends, saying that we could meet their family soon. (they were two boys 10 and 11 in Dodgers sweatshirts, so they`re already pretty awesome.) I`ll let you know soon how the work goes.

Love,

Elder Garner

 

2016.02.01 Letter from Mission President

THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAYS SAINTS

                                         February 01^th, 2016

Dear Elder Garner´s Family:

It is my pleasure to inform you of a recent leadership assignment given to your son, Elder Garner, He has been assigned to serve as a zone leader in the Mexico Monterrey West Mission. Elder Garner has been a wonderful example, demonstrating fine leadership qualities and a strong testimony of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

A zone leader has a great opportunity to build the kingdom of God by serving, helping, and teaching the other missionaries. A zone leader sets an example for the missionaries in his zone though his obedience, hard work; proselyting skills, study of the scriptures and the gospel, and other aspects of missionary work.  He carries a full proselyting load in his assigned area, and strives to baptize weekly.  He supervises, teaches, and inspires the missionaries during zone meetings, companionship exchanges, and visits to district meetings.  He demonstrates effective planning and teaches how to work with local priesthood leaders and members.  He also holds the missionaries accountable for their proselyting efforts.  He works with the district leaders and other missionaries, teaching proselyting techniques, planning zone activities, and keeping the missionaries in his zone supplied with the materials they need.  He reports pertinent mission data, successes, and problems directly to the mission president, and receives training from the President in zone leader councils. Our zone leaders are essential to the success of our mission.  I trust that Elder Garner will carry on in this assignment as he has in others, working diligently and showing great faith.

Sister McArthur and I appreciate Elder Garner, for his efforts to carry forward the work of the Lord in this new assignment. We express our appreciation to you for having raised such a fine young man. One who loves the gospel, loves the Lord, and serves him with all of his heart, might, mind and strength.  It has been my pleasure to get to know him and to work with him in this great and important work of the latter days.

May the Lord bless you while your son is away serving in this marvelous work.

Sincerely,

       President Daniel D. McArthur                   Sister Bunny K. McArthur

    Mexico Monterrey West Mission                   Mexico Monterrey West Mission

New Zone Leader training

                                       

2016.02.01 Independencia

Dear Mom,

hahaha that´s awesome! Thanks for sharing that! [He's laughing at a tragic story about his brother getting a terrible case of poison oak.]

 

Hey don´t worry about me not having a car for a bit in college. I got a bike.

Well this week was pretty awesome, but it seems that you guys are going to be wondering where I will be, so let me put that to rest first. I had this experience yesterday and it was really unexpected:

So about 6:00pm yesterday we had just visited a less active member and were were walking down the street to go visit some contacts that we had done. I recieved a call, and it was from President McArthur. He congratulated us on the baptism that we had earlier in the day and he apologized because he wasn´t able to attend (he had told us that he wanted to go but had a previous engagement to attend.) He said "Elder Garner, you´ve been in Independencia for a long time, and I need you as a zone leader in Huasteca with Elder S. I need obedient faithful missionaries who can be leaders, and you´re one of them, right?" I responded yes. Then he described to me that they would be announcing changes on sunday night so that there was more time to prepare, so now you won´t have to wait a week to know where I´m going. So I will be in the Zone Huasteca, in the Area Huasteca (ward) and my next companion will be Elder S (from Utah.)

This was a great and crazy week! It snowed on the mountains here on wednesday because it was super cold! then the next day it was blazing hot and all of the snow melted!

Snow on Cerro de la Silla

Also, Y and E were baptized! And what is even better, their Husband/Dad baptized them. They are a remarkable family with eyes on the Temple, so that they may have the blessings of an eternal family. J L was inactive for a long time, but after so much time, he had the impression that he should return to the church, with his family. With the help of the relief society president, who knows the wife, and putting them in contact with the missionaries, they were able to prepare to make sacred covenants with God. Y and E were both super excited to be baptized, and they were filled with happiness and joy.

Baptism of Y and E by hubby/father.

Also, yesterday, my companion dared me to eat some super big chili and I did and I turned red and started sweating and crying and he thought it was super funny and we aren´t friends anymore...ok that last part isn´t true, but yea it was pretty funny.

Anyway, I´ll send some pictures really fast.

¡Les Amo!

Elder Garner

2016.01.25 Independencia

-"You´re right little guy, nunca es demasiado tarde para cambiar." (It's never too late to change.)

He looks a little like a ragged angel.

Hey Mom,

When the second counselor gets up to conduct the sacrament meetings, do they play the peter gunn theme? Or when he´s walking in the Foyer or when he´s in the ward activities? That´d be pretty cool. Hey so that means I´ll see Mark (Hawkins) in the high council report thingy, neat-o.

Today was a super cool week, we have had a lot of work to do. Elder T and I have been working really well together, and the ward has been working hard as well, and that is pretty dandy. There´s the joke in the ward that I´m going to finish my mission here in Independencia, or that I´m in the Mission México Monterrey Independencia. It´s kind of true, but it´s fine with me, we´re still finding people that we´ve never met before, so that´s good. Elder T says that it´s my last week here, since changes are coming up next week. I thought I was going to leave last change and I didn´t, so I´m just going to hold my tongue this time.

One of the experiences that we had this week was with one of the young couples we are teaching. We had an appointment arranged for saturday in the evening. They have a 1 year old baby boy, who has ashma. They couldn´t accompany us to the ward family home evening because they had to take their baby to the clinic. So when we arrived, the father mentioned that we porbably wouldn´t be able to share a message that day because their baby was pretty sick. We offered to say a prayer in their home at least, and they let us come in. When we came in, Elder T had the idea to offer to give the baby a blessing. So we talked to them about it for a little, and they agreed and thought that it would be a good idea. I had the opportunity of giving the fussy little boy a blessing. When we finished, the little one calmed down and looked up at us in wonder, and in that moment the spirit filled the room. His parents really didn´t know what to say, neither did we! They showed us their gratitude for our service, and after about a minute and a half of silent peace, the boy jumped off of the lap of his mother and went to play with a balloon. They weren´t able to come to church yesterday, but I know that the blessing that we gave to their little child and that peaceful moment was something that impacted their life, and I´m very greatful that I could be there for it.

Today we didn´t do anything special on our preperation day, we cleaned the house and bought groceries and such. So there was a lot of time for me to study and write, I drew a bird (sick dude) and I studied some more. I got through the Book of Alma again, so that feels good. And I´ll just say that the Book of Alma is a great book in the Book of Mormon full of worthwhile teachings and lessons, even in the last chapters that deal with the wars and contentions. But after 63 chapters of Alma, it always feels good to be in Helaman. But, I did like this verse in Alma 61

14 Therefore, my beloved brother, Moroni, let us resist evil, and whatsoever evil we cannot resist with our words, yea, such as rebellions and dissensions, let us resist them with our swords, that we may retain our freedom, that we may rejoice in the great privilege of our church, and in the cause of our Redeemer and our God.

It is much easier to resist temptation if we acknoledge that we are part of the cause of Righteousness, like Pahoran and Moroni did. We can fight off evil with Our righteousness and the Power of God as it mentions in 1 Nephi 14. (I don´t remember the verse, and I can not look it up because, hilariously, the pornography filter blocks me from reading 1 nephi 14 in lds.org, and I imagine it is because it says the word whore in the chapter. hahahahaha, don´t worry filter the Book of Mormon looks down upon those things too.) If we resist all evil, we can exile it, and fill light and truth in its place. I know that this is true.

Well, I´ll talk to you guys next week, I´ll send some pictures now.

Love,

Elder Garner

Plain Chachalacas

2016.01.18 Independencia

Mother Dear, (I love you so, your happy smiling face, is such a joy to look at, it makes home a lovely place.)

[click above to hear the song he's quoting]

First of all, there´s something that I didn´t tell you concerning last week in chipinque. Some newspeople thought it would be a great idea to interview some foreign missionaries to publicize monterrey and the park, so they interviewed me and the zone leaders. Well not a big deal, but the next day in our district meeting, a sister missionary from the other district in the zone got a call from a member saying "I saw Elder Garner on the news!" And I replied (as Charlie Brown would): "Good Grief!" After that many members, investigators, and a couple of people in the street told us that they had seen us on the news. hahaha! Well I hope me accent was alright, I just talked about birds nothing new. After they interviewed us we talked to them about the gospel so maybe it was worth it. But here´s the link:

News interview in progress.

multimedios.com/telediario/local/visitan-chipinque-varios-paises.html

Sounds like it was a cool basketball-martin-luther-college-70s-stake week (what?) This week and a half was a blast. I don´t know why, but the Holy Ghost has been working really hard in our area and we are just trying to keep up. I like to think that it´s the Lord doing the work, and not us, because that´s how it really is: It´s the Lord´s work and he gives us the opportunity to be instruments of the Holy Ghost, and The Holy Ghost can use as instruments better than I could play oboe (bad) or clarinet (much better than the oboe.) Hmmm. There were many amazing experiences that we have had, but I´ll share just one. This sunday we had a very spiritual service. The Sacrament meeting was full, a young women bore a solemn testimony right before leaving on her mission. I played piano and didn´t make any errors (I´ve been the pianist for more than 2 months now, but this time I nailed it...now there´s a member who moved into the ward that plays piano super well and so I don´t have to play anymore, good way to end.) Our investigators were able to learn a lot about the Savior and his atonement in the gospel principles class, and M.A. recieved the Aaronic Priesthood. At the end there was a baptism of a young girl and many of her inactive family members, with whom we have been teaching, were able to feel the strength and warmth of the spirit that they needed to rekindle their testimony. It is true what the Savior says in Doctrine and Covenants, that the ordainances of the Gospel testify of the divinity of the Lord (not correctly quoted, and dont remember where the scripture is but that´s ok.)  I just feel super happy to be able to be here and help everybody love the Gospel as I do. President Eyring once said that as we help others come unto Christ, we come even closer unto Christ, and that is a special blessing that I can feel here in the mission field.

Davis and Elder H, a former companion who is headed home.

After the Temple today, we watched a worlwide missionary transmition from the missionary department, which included talks and discussions from apostles, seventies and other general authorities. It blew my socks off (Don´t worry I put them back on.)

Well sometimes I feel kind of bad because I have a lot to share but no time to do it, but I guess that  it´s a good thing that I have a journal. But I recently found a scripture that helped me find a more clear way to teach of the atonement and how we can accept it and apply it, Alma 34:15-16

15 And thus he shall bring salvation to all those who shall believe on his name; this being the intent of this last sacrifice, to bring about the bowels of mercy, which overpowereth justice, and bringeth about means unto men that they may have faith unto repentance.

16 And thus mercy can satisfy the demands of justice, and encircles them in the arms of safety, while he that exercises no faith unto repentance is exposed to the whole law of the demands of justice; therefore only unto him that has faith unto repentance is brought about the great and eternal plan of redemption.

We can be in the Christ´s arms of safety, if he have the faith that leads us to repentance. We can all have that faith. Even if we don´t now, a Prophet in the Book of Mormon promises us that if we have the desire to have faith, Heavenly Father will help us plant that seed and let it grow, so that we may taste of his goodness and grace (Alma 32:27,42)

Being a Missionary is awesome, I love you all.

Elder Garner

2016.01.11 Independencia

Davis at the lookout point in Chipinque park.

Hey Mom!

sounds like everything is normal up there, I guess that´s cool (I´m kind of tired right now bare with me, I´ll explain why in a little bit.) This week was super awesome. We taught a lot of people, found a lot of people, a lot of people came to church, and a lot of people are feeling the spirit and the truth of the things that we teach. This area has really changed since I arrived here, and my attitude has as well. I guess even in places where there would seem to be no hope, something can be planted and can grow into something grand. I think about the scripture found in Jacob 5:20-22

20 And it came to pass that they went forth whither the master had hid the natural branches of the tree, and he said unto the servant: Behold these; and he beheld the first that it had brought forth much fruit; and he beheld also that it was good. And he said unto the servant: Take of the fruit thereof, and lay it up against the season, that I may preserve it unto mine own self; for behold, said he, this long time have I nourished it, and it hath brought forth much fruit.

21 And it came to pass that the servant said unto his master: How comest thou hither to plant this tree, or this branch of the tree? For behold, it was the poorest spot in all the land of thy vineyard.

22 And the Lord of the vineyard said unto him: Counsel me not; I knew that it was a poor spot of ground; wherefore, I said unto thee, I have nourished it this long time, and thou beholdest that it hath brought forth much fruit.

The Lord Knows his vineyard perfectly, the servants don´t. They work with all of their might, but they don´t perfectly understand the will of the Father. That´s probably why the Lord puts missionaries like me in a tough area for a long time, so that I can become more patient and understand his ways a little bit better. Now I´m not saying that this is the worst area in the world, neither that I was the one who changed it to being a good area, nothing of the sort. Let´s just say that this missionary wasn´t awfully fond of staying in the area for more than 3 months back then, but now he can look back and show gratitude towards the omniscent Savior. I always remember something that Elder Oaks shared once, or who was it? anyways, it´s that we often don´t, or can´t recognize the blessings we recieve or that we have until we press forward, keep progressing, and then look back to see that the Lord was always there blessing us.

Elder T at Christmas

The Christmas package made it!

Bird calendars for Christmas

Also, Hno. M. A. was confirmed yesterday and he was super excited about that. That was awesome.

Davis, Hno M.A and Elder T

Ok here´s something super cool, and why I am kind of tired right now. We had a district activity today and we went to Chipinque Ecological Park! What does that mean?...BIRDWATCHING! Wow that is super cool Elder Garner. Yea I know, wanna hear what birds I saw? Yes I´d love to. (I don´t know who I was talking to just then, but it was someone who was interested in birds.)

District activity at Chipinque.

 

Well I didn´t see that many species, but for someone who hasn´t gone birdwatching in almost a year and a half, they´ll be happy to see a mourning dove (ok not really, those are pretty sad birds)

anyway I saw

Mourning Dove

Band Tailed Pigeon

Black Crested Titmouse

Mexican Jay (new)

Audubon oriole (new)

Canyon Wren

Spot Breasted Wren (new)

House Wren

Turkey Vulture

Black Vulture

Hepatic Tanager (new)

Black Headed Grosbeak

Crescent-chested  Warbler (new)

Black and White Warbler (new)

Hermit Warbler

Painted Whitestart (new)

Rufous-capped Warbler (new)

Blue Gray Gnatcatcher

Hutton´s Vireo

Hairy Woodpecker

Acorn Woodpecker

Green Jay (always cool)

Elegant Trogon (new, bird of the day)

An Elegant Trogon

Cerro de la Silla in the distance

So a member dropped us off at the look out point and we went exploring for a bit and then went down the mountain, it was a super cool place, kind of chilly but nice weather overall. There were some giant rock slides we went down, that was pretty cool. There were a bunch of mexican jays, they´re pretty big and noisy like most jays. All of the new warbler species were really neat, and two of them are species that are very rare to find in the US, so it was nice to see them here. We got down to the visitor´s center and I was looking in one of the local birding books and it said that chipinque was the best place in Nuevo Leon to find Elegant Trogons, and I thought "Dang I was not even looking for them." and so we left and we were going to go down the street to grab a taxi, and then I saw some green Jays, and I had told everyone that I would find them some green jays (cuz they´re pretty cool) so we were looking at them. Then to the right of the tree were the green jays were I saw a red breasted bird...Elegant Trogon! Now that was definitely a miracle, because it is a super good looking bird. I got a really crumby picture of it, and we went down and got a taxi to take us to a buffet, and that was pretty sweet too.

Anyway that´s my week. I haven´t sent photos for more than 3 weeks, since Christmas, so I ´m going to try and send a lot of photos right now. It seems that we might go to the Temple next wednesday, so it might be that my preperation day will be next wednesday and not the normal monday.

I love you all so much!

Elder Garner

Sharing a soda with Hno. M.A.