Good and Bad

I feel like my e-mails just keep getting worst and worst. so for that, i apologize.

We had a really good week, no one came to church :/ but just have to try even harder this week.(btw next weeks are transfers so don't sent any packages this weekend). We had some pretty sweet lessons this past week and we've had some lessons where i just want to get up and walk away. one of our new investigators Basilio was studying with the Jehovah witnesses but then got turned off, hmmm. wonder why? and he is still open to religion so it is a perfect opportunity for us to teach him. he was taking notes and stuff during our lesson i was so excited.  i just wanted to have a little giggle...seesh. he is super cool.

On the other hand we had some people let us in from "the real life church" and the only real thing about them is the physical chapel and sign outside. when we brought up prophets etc their argument went like this- a quoted scripture that they didn't know where it was in the bible but apparently says that unless a prophet dies in Jerusalem he is not a prophet of God, then he quoted some other scripture that talked about Paul, then he told us Paul's conversion story, then he transitioned into talking about the unic and Philip and how he was baptized then he moved to baptism quoting like a million scriptures.. matt 28:19-20 acts 2:37-38 etc etc. 

Then he starts talking about in whose name we should baptism.. he/they belief that God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost are literally one being. and that "God" does not have a body but is a spirit.. All scriptures that testify that God and Jesus Christ are separate beings he takes metaphorically, and all the the other metaphorical ones he takes literally which makes no sense at all!  You have to understand that we only got in a couple words while he went off in that little tangent. Listening to someone with shotgun thoughts and twisted ideas is not the most fun thing to do but we affirmed our testimonies and tried to have US end with the prayer.. but he prayed.. and it was, sad.. he said Senor about 50-60 times and was practically yelling.

I am well and happy, hope everything keeps going great down there,

June 3, 2013

Splits went alright with Nate, we only got into one house but it was good. may i make a side note while I'm thinking about it, today i actually got sunburned!! From playing soccer, it's only happened a couple times since I've been out, the sun is nice. 

Elder Murdock went to Peru this morning, we dropped him off at the mission office last night. he is a great guy and i am glad that i was able to be his companion for these past four weeks. Ana Gaby's baptism went really good, we had A TON of people come, we almost went to the chapel. 

I'm just thinking about it right now and i realized that I've sung a lot in front of people on my mission, A LOT. In sac. meeting or baptisms or other meetings.  We threw together a song right before her baptism and it went really good. i honestly feel like what we heard coming out of our mouths is not what everyone else was hearing, the last couple of  times I've sung with people at baptisms everyone says we sound like angels. Do I think we sound like angels? NO, not at all but it's cool. I never would have thought that i would be singing so much. Anyways our week went really well, don't have a lot of time but we have some sweet people that are going to get baptized soon, do we know the exact dates? no, but soon!! i love you guys so much and am grateful for all of your prayers. 

Feels good

This week was pretty good, like always it could have been better but some neat stuff happened. we found this less active/part member family a couple weeks ago and they came to church yesterday..miracle!

It's been a really long time.. they didn't know or forgot about D&C and basically everything... the word of wisdom, what the priesthood is etc etc. Which blows my mind, how you can forget so much stuff after being active for at least 5 years?  I guess I can understand it. 

 

Anyways, they came to church! Their goal is to get their daughter baptized so we set a date for the 12 of may, oh ya! we are pretty pumped we also finally entered and taught another really less active member, her name is Blanca and none of her kids are baptized. She is pretty awesome so we are really excited for her too. It just feels so good to be part of the rescue, and the gathering too. I love it.

elder garlock

April 15, 2013

This past week was great.  we passed by one of our members and they gave us a referral! we set up a lesson without him (Gabe) knowing.. we were "knocking" and one of our members was hanging out with him. it was kinda weird (because of the member) haha but it went really good. we had two more lessons the next two days and we committed him to baptism the 5 of may. quote of what Gabe (an 18 year old boy) said after he prayed about the BOM.. "i feel all giggly inside" or something really close to that. it was awesome!!

Unfortunately he couldn't come to church because he went out of town with his family. so we might have to move the date back, but that was pretty awesome.  we are also teaching a part member less active family and their goal is to get their daughter baptized! I'm cool with that, but first they need to get active! haha. it's a little weird, they are super pumped for their daughter but they are being a little hypocritical in their actions as well. they are just a little lazy in getting back into the groove. we will fix that... conversion!!!

It feels so good and satisfying to see people convert and/or come back! I sometimes have to remind myself that I am not the one changing them and that I shouldn't seek personal gratification. i feel like all i need to do is be obedient and work hard then "sit back" and watch the Lord do his thing. giving Him the credit and thanking him for giving me the opportunity of being able to witness his work move forward.

 

love you guys lots

elder garlock

Conference

Can i just start off by saying that conference was super awesome.. i beat myself up every time for not listening or paying attention in the past years. i feel like they just get more intense every time, one minute I'm on the edge of my seat and the next about ready to fall back on the ground. personally i liked..well a lot of them but elder L Tom Perry's talk was super good. oh good heavens to many things to say about conference.

before i forget.. Dad-did you really wrestle Chuck Norris in high school.. if i recall you told us a story of how he visited your school and for an assembly, he demonstrated how to wrestle? or something like that? and you were chosen to be the "opposing opponent" because you were on the wrestling team. am i just making all of this up? but i would like a confirmation on that.

Anyways, this week was, well pretty slow, we didn't teach a lot but that doesn't mean that the week was bad. it was good. no stories or anything super exciting.. i cant help but to ponder on the simple fact that God IS my father in heaven and that He loves me. it is manifested to me every day and it never gets old. that seemed to be one of the subjects that were touched on during conference.. I'm not going to lie. i don't really like it when the women get up and say stuff like " God is your loving heavenly father and you are his children".. mostly because of the way they say it etc.. don't ask me why, but it kinda bugs me. but the words spoken have an infinite meaning. that concept is kinda mind blowing. i liked in the priesthood session. I cant remember who said it but it was something like " when you see your little toddler try and walk for the first time and he/she falls, you don't punish them, but you lift them, help them, encourage them.. we are but toddlers" its pretty awesome just to meditate the concept of our heavenly father and His feeling towards us. i love this gospel, and am astonished every day at the new enlightenment that is received on the fact that Jesus Christ is my Savior  and what that means.... the mission is so good.. God is good.

elder garlock

A rant

this week went really well, especially because the weather has been glorious! around 60-70sh.. i forgot what it looked like without having any clouds in the sky, just magnificent. less actives are popping out of nowhere. we could possible be getting another one this week. the English sisters are passing by a less active who is going to the English ward. but he doesn't really speak English so they are kind of fed up with him. but we don't know for sure what will happen. but we will see.. its kinda funny how these past 3 or so weeks we've doubled our less actives. that statement is usually bad but in this case its great. and now we are going to reactivate them.... i cant help but to express my (cough) hatred for the catholic church. I'm just sick of it, it is destroying peoples lives.. destroying their view/relationship with God. hardening their hearts, ahhhh.. ash Wednesday etc..  side comment. it is good to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.. but it can be taken too far sometimes. don't get me wrong.. i love the people but i loath the church and the things they teach.. is that even good to say?..i think yes. and my reasoning; since when was the Virgin Mary our advocate people? since when was it ok to pray to the Virgin to heal your son or daughter?...I'm sorry i just had to vent for a sec. its been building up for awhile and I'm just kinda tired of it... i guess you could say it gives me motivation to correct these false cynical doctrines and do all in my power to help these awesome people to know of the truth, and help them receive this gospel.

Elder Garlock

Ana's baptism date

We set a baptismal date with Ana Gabi on Wednesday. On Tuesday we had a lesson with her, her friend (Casidee) and her parents. Half way through the lesson their home teachers come and gave an awesome testimony then out of the blue started to spit out all of this false doctrine!  They just kept talking saying stuff like.. " oh ya. it took me 6 months to get baptized and him 5 years" or "yeah a lot of people think that Jesus suffered on the cross, but that is not true because we know that he suffered everything in the garden of Gethsemane" and then they said some weird stuff talking about crosses and how great the catholic church was.. i wanted to slap him in the face... is that mean to say? 

He was studying to be a priest in the catholic church and apparently he still has a love for it. When I touched the subject of the apostasy basically saying that all other churches lack something (the authority) and have added or taken things away ( I was not specific to any churches). I was very blunt about how there is only one true church/gospel and the member got all defensive saying how he didn't like when people are "ballsy" saying that.  I was angry.  There only can exist two churches... so if we don't belong to the true one then we should still have respect for others beliefs.   We shouldn't be mormoncatholics, it just doesn't work like that.  

The important thing is that she is excited for her baptism on the 17 of this month! Everyone is excited. This week was by far the trunkiest week of my mission, i hated it so much. EVERY single dinner we go to and the members ask how long I've been out they always say.. oh your almost home.. you better start packing your bags (it ticks me off).  Then with the announcement of Daniel getting married, then going to the Temple, then Lisa coming home soon (which is crazy!).  Then I found out that one of my other friends is getting married.  It scares me..I try and soak up every moment as a missionary.  It does not effect the work. I love the work!