We definitely hit winter in Oklahoma, and it's NOT fun. The temperatures have plummeted down to the 20s! I've put that winter coat to good use and plan to use it some more!!
Crazy news this week... We had our mission tour this week with Craig A. Cardon of the Seventy. We had a training by him and President Walkenhorst on Thursday for most of the day. I had to privilege to see a ton of missionaries and visit with them about their areas. Very few people haven't left the areas they served when I first showed up in the mission. Most missionaries have moved on to different areas and different companions and have a whole bunch of new stories. A lot of people in my first zone are gone now. It's now been six months! As tradition requires, you have to burn a tie to honor six months in the mission. So Elder Zeyer and I, both being at six months, burned one of our ties. Don't worry mom, it wasn't a good tie anyway! Back to mission tour. Elder Cardon shared a ton of insights and taught us how to invite investigators to pray without asking them to pray hoping they'll say yes. He talked a lot about being bold when teaching investigators, and he discussed training yourself to feel the spirit and differentiating between your thoughts and what the spirit is telling you. It was an excellent meeting!
On Saturday we rode up to Norman with the Zone Leaders and attended the adult session of Stake Conference. Again, Elder Cardon was there. This time he emphasized member missionary work and gave special notice to the fact that missionaries were invited to attend the adult session this year when they normally aren't invited to do so! There were some excellent talks given and some amazing stories shared. If I had more time I would share some of them! It was lots of fun to see people from the Noble ward, and I even got to see Brother and Sister Komers, the parents of the three kids we got baptized in August and September! Good stuff... That night we had another sleepover in Pauls Valley so we wouldn't have to use miles. We were iced in on Sunday morning! And all the missionaries in the mission were grounded from using the cars! So the five of us got picked up by a member, and all five of us got stuffed in his tiny Ford Focus hatchback! At least we didn't have to worry about sliding all over the road from everybody's weight holding the car down! We made it to church at 10:30, and only 15 people were there. Not very many people braved the ice storm. Norman got a new stake president, President Saturthwaite (?) I can barely pronounce his name, much less spell it. Anyway, that was exciting. Luckily the mission president gave us permission to drive back to our area when all the ice had melted so we could get back to work.
Those have been the main events of the week. The trio is working out fantastically. So far, the benefits are far outweighing the burdens. Lots of good things are getting done here. The Vineyards love us, and they're filled with questions about what we do and teach. Tammy is finished with her lessons, so we're reading out of the Book of Mormon with her and getting her ready. She is totally stoked for baptism. And I'm totally stoked for this transfer. Bomb. Diggity.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Love, Elder Garner
Me and Elder Hale just before he went home!
Our beds all pushed together...pretty ridiculous!
Elder Zeyer and I burned ties for our 6-month anniversary...haha
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