Awkward Dinner Dates (10/28/2013)

Everybody can let their baited breath out now. I didn't actually go on a date! I'm going to try really hard not to sound like a meanie in this update, because the experience I had was funny more than anything. For TL;DR readers, it's in the fifth paragraph.

Well let's start with everything that's happened so far. Last Monday was really fun. We went up to Pauls Valley to hang out with the elders up there, and afterwards we had dinner at the Hines' home. Sister Hines is a convert of about three years and LOVES to share the gospel! She used to live in the Ada Ward, but moved into Pauls Valley just around the time I showed up there. We've had dinner at her house a couple times, and last Monday was her "housewarming" where she invited friends and members from Pauls Valley as well as Ada. Okay, so THAT was a good dinner date. Not awkward! 

On Wednesday we had our Zone Conference up in Norman. That was exciting! It was Duncan Zone and Norman Zone there. President Walkenhorst and the APs were there and gave a really good training. I absolutely loved seeing people from my old zone! I got to catch up with Sister PFister and all the other missionaries that are serving in the Noble ward. They've had a couple baptisms since we've left, and the elders in Purcell are still working on some of the people that we picked up while I was there! In other news, Norman Stake had a huge boundary change. Blanchard branch became a ward (the elders serving there were in my district when I was in Noble/Purcell), and the Norman ward boundaries got shuffled around, and some of the elders/sisters serving up there have gotten swapped around, so that's been a mess. I hear the Noble ward gained members! Pauls Valley actually lost members, but luckily none of them were in me and Elder Kahawaii's proselyting area ;) Norman Zone is huge now. When I started there we had 17 missionaries. Now there are 27! Crazy. But the work is growing! 

We're still working with Tammy. We were supposed to see her an Tuesday, but she cancelled. We're encouraging them to have us come over more often so Tammy can start really progressing! We've invited her to church, so hopefully she can make it. Hopefully her mom as well! They're a great family, and we've really enjoyed working with them through all their struggles and challenges. Our area is definitely a roughneck area, that's for sure. Other than that things are as slow-going as ever. We are working with a member that lives in a nursing home named Teresa. She's got a couple friends she's working on. Teresa and her friends are a whole nother story in and of itself, so maybe next week I'll get to that story.

Thursday was interesting. That's when the awkward dinner date happened. We were taken to Pizza Hut by a member named Bro. Hill. He's an older guy that reeeeeeeaaaallllyyy needs company. Unfortunately he's single and not......close to getting remarried. He's had an interesting past with women. Regardless, we love him. He's desperately trying to get out of Sulphur and move to Moore or even Utah if he can. He tells us a lot of interesting stories about him in his youth before he was a member. Most of the stories are about women, so they aren't exactly appropriate to share with this audience ;) He's really knowledgeable in the gospel, but man he can talk your ear off!

When we were waiting for our food he kept yacking and yacking about fishing and women and the gospel and Hawaii and yodda yodda yodda. He really admires Elder Kahawaii because he's from Hawaii, and Bro. Hill used to live there. So whenever we visit him most of our conversations are about Hawaii and how much he misses it. Everytime we visit him, he always asks me, "Elder, have you ever been to Hawaii?" "Elder, have you ever gone fishing?" "Have you ever gone hunting?" "Do you know who [so-and-so] is?" I usually answer no to all his questions. You can tell we were raised in different generations. "Nope, never been to Hawaii," "I went fishing...once," "Never gone hunting, but I've shot clay pigeons," "Nope, I don't know who that is." Is my answer. Whenever I haven't done something he's done, he just frowns at me. He's asked me like, three different times if I've been to Hawaii, and when I tell him no, he says "Oh, you don't know what you're missing." Well GUESS WHAT. IT WASN'T MY DECISION TO MAKE. I didn't actually say that, but I wanted to! So I listened intently to his other stories about Hawaii, and at random he says to me "Elder, tell us about where you're from!" 

My reply was a little snarky... "Oh! You want to hear about Utah?!" 

"Well haven't you gone hunting there?"

"...No."

"But every guy in Utah goes hunting!" .......HUH?

"Not all the guys I know."

"What part of Utah are you from?"

"South Jordan, by Salt Lake."

On and on and on.... I love Bro. Hill, I really do. And I really appreciate the fact that he took us out to eat. I take it he really needed someone to talk to. We really were raised in different generations... but Pizza Hut was good!

Hahaha, well that's life. We get trainer calls this Saturday!

Love, Elder Garner

P.S. Please don't allow your next dinner date to be awkward, even if the food is delicious.

10/21/2013

Not much of an update... This week's been kind of a drag... But at least it started well and ended well. We had an AMAZING zone P-day in Ardmore. I got to meet the sisters in our zone, which was pretty cool. One of them is Sister Anderson, who was in Norman Zone with me in the July-August transfer. It was pretty cool to see her again. Our weekdays were the worst... Elder Kahawaii's been sick again. Not just that, but he hasn't been the most proactive about missionary work. I won't go into detail, but now that Thomas is baptized we really just have Tammy to teach.  It looks like she's gonna get somewhere, so I'm excited about that. We had our 2nd lesson with her yesterday, which turned out well. Hopefully that will keep us going some more. Elder Kahawaii actually said a couple things in the lesson this time! I usually teach 95% of the lesson when it comes to teaching people. Again, love his personality, just not his idleness.

LUCKILY

 

President Walkenhorst surprised all of us by coming to Pauls Valley for church yesterday!! I immediately requested an interview. President Walkenhorst must've been guided by the spirit to come down to Pauls Valley. He talked with President Burnett and all the missionaries about what we could do to get the work moving along in the branch. It was what the branch needed. It was what I needed.

 

Anyway, that's that. Hopefully some more interesting stuff happens this coming week. We tried a less active yesterday named Brian. THAT'S an interesting story! I'll have to tell you about it sometime. I found Buckle last week, but it was CLOSED. So we're gonna hopefully go down to Ardmore next Monday if we've got the miles for it. Anyway, I love you and miss you guys. 

 

Love, 

Elder Garner

I Feel Like a Zoo Animal! (10/14/2013)

After one month of working with and teaching Thomas he was baptized yesterday! We had an awesome baptismal service for him with lots of support from the branch. He had a lot of goofy things to say, like "I FEEL LIKE A ZOO ANIMAL!" when he got into the font...haha. You can tell that not very many baptisms take place here in Pauls Valley. The branch presidency basically left the whole thing to us, so we had to call people for the program and get it all put together by Sunday. It's kinda aggravating not having an active branch mission leader. I think the branch president is starting to realize that the missionaries here do exist and that we're doing something. He actually had no idea we were having a baptism until the day of.  We had a testimony meeting that day, and I decided to get up and share my testimony. The wards and branches in the Norman Stake are getting a boundary change, and we're actually losing people. None of it affects our area, but one town is going to another branch that's becoming a ward. I told the branch how grateful I was to be serving them and that the boundary change was the Lord's way of hastening his work! At least I think I said that . . . I don't know. I was kinda spluttering words by the end, hahaha. 

We had a slow week, but it picked up more towards the weekend. With the baptism and everything we've been swamped. You know that way less active lady named Michelle? The one we ran into at Walmart? We had dinner with her last night and taught part of the Restoration to her 15-year-old daughter! Her name is Tammy, and she even asked us in a previous visit that week if we could teach her about the gospel! She's looked around at other churches and wants to know which one has the truth! Those investigators are always the best ones. Getting her to church might be a hurdle, considering her parents would have to take her. Not really sure how keen they are on taking her to church. The mom's probably worried she might have to become active again. But we can fix that. ;)

 

We have our Zone P-day today down in Ardmore, so that'll be fun. The Pauls Valley elders got in a wreck on Saturday! Some drunk guy rear-ended them! It's pretty funny because that day their car hit 50,000 miles, and when a missionary car hits 50,000 miles it gets sold and the area gets a new car! But now they get a rental car until the mission gets them a new car. We've had to cart them around everywhere when we're up in Pauls Valley, so that's been crazy.

But here we are. It's raining/flooding a ton today. Let's pray a drunk guy doesn't come up and rear-end us in all this rain!

Love,

Elder Garner

People of Walmart (10/07/2013)

There was this funny video on Youtube I remember watching when I was a junior or senior in high school called "The People of Walmart." It's pretty hilarious! It basically shows people from all walks of life going in and out of Walmart. Not that that has anything to do with the people of Oklahoma or anything.....*cough* 

 

This week cooled down a ton temperature-wise. It's amazing how much the temperatures have plunged this past week! We've got lows of about 50 degrees, and now we have to wear suits in the evenings because it usually dips below 60 degrees. I hear Provo got hit with snow... Lucky I'm in Oklahoma! Regardless, I think Oklahoma's revving its winter engines. 

 

Transfers came and went. Lots of new areas opened, and a lot of companionships stayed the same--not just in our zone but in the whole mission as well. We got a new elder (who just so happened to be in the Worldwide Broadcast!) in our branch who came from Edmond, the place where they shot the broadcast. He said to us, "Sooo, I came from the most functional ward in the mission to the most dysfunctional branch in the mission..." Poor guy...haha. 

 

So the crazy story of the week comes from...Walmart. We went there this past Tuesday since we couldn't go on Monday. We were in there for a good couple hours getting our stuff and searching for the elusive HAND SOAP. Eventually we found it in the shampoo section...hahaha. While we were there we walked past someone that kept stealing glances at us. I saw her out of the corner of my eye and continued to walk past her with that usual antsy feeling a missionary gets when people stare at you. Then she spoke up and said, "so how long do you guys have left?" So Elder Kahawaii and I stopped in our tracks a little startled. We began talking to this lady, who introduced herself as Michelle. We came to find out she was a less active member in Davis whom we thought had fallen off the face of the earth. In every area you've got less actives that only have a P.O. box address or a bad number, so usually you can never find these people. That's what we thought about Michelle. Fortunately the spirit guided us to run around Walmart like chickens with our heads cut off looking for the hand soap long enough for us to run into this lady! We had a good conversation with her about why she fell inactive, and she even took us out to lunch afterwards! We had a great spiritual conversation, and she even gave us her address and told us to come by! We encouraged her to watch conference and told her that we love and care about her.

So speaking of conference, holy cow that was epic! I thought they would lower the missionary age to 17 and 18, but I guess not... *Sigh...* Oh well. The talks were pretty awesome, huh?! It's amazing how fast conference goes when you're a missionary! You surprisingly stay awake and don't want it to end! Probably one of my favorite things said was from Dieter F. Uchtdorf, who said, "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith." Ahhhhhh man if only all the less actives could have heard that!!! It was pretty incredible, to say the least.

Thomas and his mom and grandma even watched conference!! Thomas fell asleep through part of it, like most 13-year-olds would. Sharon and Wendy agreed that the talks were meant specifically for them, but they loved it nonetheless. Right now we're getting ready for Thomas' baptism next Sunday. I'm performing the confirmation the following Sunday, and Elder Kahawaii is baptizing him! I'm looking forward to it! 

I love you and all the Utah Walmarts,

Elder Garner

Shifting Seasons (09/30/2013)

Everyone can wake up now, September has ended! Sorry, I couldn't pass up that opportunity to make a musical reference being it's the last day of September. Sorry for the lack of an update last week. We really didn't have much going on. This past week hasn't been any better... I've been pretty sick, and we went a day and a half without proselyting because we didn't have any clean proselyting clothes! That was a boring day.....

 

Luckily, there's news to be heard this week. So what's been happening here in Sulphur? Ohhhhh goodnessssss let's see..... Our transfer calls came last night. Probably the most boring transfer doctrine I've gotten so far on my mission. Not very many changes. Elder Kahawaii and I are both staying in Sulphur, and one of the Pauls Valley missionaries is leaving. One of our Zone Leaders is going to Norman Zone, my old zone. Ada and Ardmore are both getting sister missionaries, so that's cool for them. Other than that, nothing's changing in our zone. My mom is certain that with nine new areas being opened up (two of them being in our zone) President Walkenhorst isn't feeling the need to move us around if things are already going okay in our areas, and that's probably correct! It's hard to believe how fast this past transfer's gone, though I have a feeling I'll be in Sulphur for a long time... I can see myself entering 2014 in Sulphur, Oklahoma.

 

It's gotten a little chilly here! Nothing below 60 degrees yet, but once that happens we gotta wear our suitcoats! My winter jacket also arrived, so I'm all prepared for winter! This next transfer goes until the 13th of November, so it'll cool down by then. Elder Kahawaii and I are hoping we'll be up in the city the transfer after this upcoming transfer so we can spend Thanksgiving and Christmas up in the city! Both holidays fall in the same transfer, so we're hoping to be in a good area for that! We'll see what comes of that.

 

Missionary work wise we're slowly but surely moving along. We might pick up another 13 year old named China (yes, like the country) whose mom and grandma are both members, but the mom is very less active. Kinda like Thomas' family... President Burnett wants China to get started on the discussions, so we'll try to negotiate that with her mom! Thomas himself is getting along pretty well. We've taught most all of the lessons to him, and we're working on getting a baptism program for him when he gets baptized on the 13th of October! So that's looking fine. We got to do some service at his house on Thursday. We did some lawn-mowing (my favorite!) and yardwork to help them prepare for winter. They were really grateful for that, and we've really got something going with Thomas and his family! It'll definitely be hard saying goodbye when the time comes.

 

I supposedly was going to speak this past Sunday, but I never did... That's happened twice now! I'm not too upset, though ;) The branch is moving along as well. We had six less actives at church last Sunday! That was definitely the highlight of the week. Our branch is making some progress, that's for sure. For conference weekend we'll be watching it at a member's home in Sulphur out in the middle of nowhere. Okay, Sulphur itself is in the middle of nowhere, but that's neither here nor there! I'm super excited for it! Lots of news on hastening the work and follow-up from the missionary age change announcements! Can you believe it's been a year since that announcement came out?!

 

That's it for now. I miss all of you very dearly ;) Hope you guys have a wonderful conference weekend!

Elder Garner