After-Christmas Blues (12/30/2013)

Some people think that spending time with their families is far more important than visiting with missionaries. Well I am here to tell you that that is FALSE! 

I promise that last statement was a joke...

 

But that pretty much sums up our week. We've had numerous cancelled appointments from investigators, and it makes us wants to curl up in the corner of our apartment and cry ;( Our holidays were crazy fantastic though! We got fed TWICE on Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and even BOXING day! But the food caught up to us and made us verrrrrrrryyyy sleepy... We spent lots of time with members and got to hang out with them. I had an AMAZING visit with my family on Christmas morning! I even got to hear my dad say a blessing over the breakfast that I didn't get to eat! I really enjoyed hearing from them... 

 

My companions and I are continuing to plug along with our energetic enthusiasm to make it through this holiday season! My 2014 will be entirely consumed with missionary work! Can't think of anything more exciting than that! I'm excited to see what comes, and I'm looking forward to a fresh new year!

Happy New Year,

Elder Garner

The Methodical Methods of the Methodists (12/23/2013)

This week was plagued with sickness and affliction! Turns out my cold didn't go away... It came back just before Christmas to spite me. Luckily it's going away, and I hope to feel 100% better by Christmas. Is anyone happy that it's Christmas Adam today???? 

 

Last Monday I got to go with the Zone Leaders to Ada, which believe it or not was actually pretty exciting. It costs an arm and a leg on our miles to go somewhere outside our area, so exploring a new town was lots of fun. Plus Ada is four times the population of Sulphur, so there's an actual civilization over there. We did some window shopping at Hibbett Sports and later on went to Ada's LDS building to hang out with the Ada missionaries. Ada's church building used to be a Methodist building, and the layout is very different from a usual LDS building! It's got two floors, and the handicap bathrooms are upstairs.... I wonder whose brilliant idea that was!  

 

Wednesday we got to go watch one of Tammy's middle school concerts! That was fun, and it was a good way to break up our usual morning routine. It kind of reminded me of my middle school days.... Ha, those were some awkward days. The students weren't Bingham High School Madrigals or Jazz Choir by any means, but they still did a good job :) We confirmed Tammy yesterday, and the branch sustained her as a new member of the church! Her parents were pretty excited for her! 

 

Thursday was when the sickness started setting in... bleeehhhhh but on Friday we had our Christmas Conference up in Norman! Like all other conferences, this one was awesome. We had an awesome lunch AND dinner made by the Relief Society of the Norman Stake! We had some good representation from Pauls Valley up there! It was good to see some missionary friends up there. We even had a singing portion where we sang Christmas hymns and heard other missionaries sing solos! Great spiritual atmosphere!

 

Sunday was by far the most entertaining day this week. The other elders in Pauls Valley had one of their investigators get baptized yesterday, which was good for them. Later on that evening we went to a Methodist church in Sulphur that a lady we know invited us to. Since our church conveniently starts at the same time as her's, she invited us to one of her "healing sessions" later on that night since we couldn't go to her service. Needless to say it was an interesting experience... hahaha. We were the only guys there, and the rest of them were old ladies! SWEET old ladies! Hahaha. They were super friendly though, and very sincere people. I've heard that Methodists have very similar beliefs to the LDS church. For their healing session they brought oil and even laid their hands on people! The lady that invited us, Bobby, even let us pray a couple times for people in the congregation. Kinda exciting and scary at the same time! It was interesting to see how these people practice their beliefs. They praised us for the work that we as missionaries have done, and they even prayed for us! I definitely hope our example brought down some barriers and let them know that we're good people spreading a good word! 

I hope all y'all have a wonderful Christmas. I'm sure looking forward to mine! Always remember what the Savior's done for us and His atoning sacrifice, and the precious gift that God has given to all His children. 

 

Elder Garner

Seven Months for Six Baptisms (12/16/2013)

This title would be SO much cooler if it was seven baptisms! Oh well.... You theater people will hopefully understand this reference. This week was a lot more productive than last week! Our weather's been much more favorable, and all the ice has been melting throughout the week! Everyone is looking forward to Christmas and the holiday season! But not the ice storms....

On Tuesday we went exploring in a new town called Dougherty (pronounced Darty) several miles south of Davis. I'd never gone there before with Elder Kahawaii, so the three of us decided to check it out. We did some tracting there and found some awesome people just living the secluded life down in no man's land! The drive down there reminded me a lot of Utah for some reason.... Lots of hills—something pretty uncommon in Oklahoma! On Wednesday we got to go caroling with a couple members at the Veteran's Hospital just south of Sulphur--another place I'd never visited before. It was SWEET! The nurses and the patients were so grateful for having us there singing to them. Some of them even got emotional! Awesome experience....

The big events of the week happened over the weekend. We had our branch Christmas party on Saturday. The turnout was astounding! There were less active members I'd never even met before! Tammy and her family showed up, and they had an awesome time there. Elder Fairbourn even got the branch to stand up and play Simon Says. Now mind you, he's a retired school teacher, so he knew ALL the ways to stump his students and end up making them lose! Guys, get this, I WAS THE LAST PERSON STANDING. AND HE EVEN GAVE UP ON ME BECAUSE I DID EVERYTHING SIMON SAID TO DO! I basically felt like a boss. 

But here's the moral of the story: When we do the things that Simon (the Lord) tells us to do and not the things He says not to, we will not fall. If we remain obedient, we will stand tall and not have to sit down in shame from messing up. The best part? Simon's commands are simple, so it makes it possible for everyone to obey them! The Lord doesn't give us more than we can handle! 

Last of all, Tammy's baptism was incredible. At seven months of serving a mission, this was definitely the best way of "celebrating" it. We cleared several hurdles that her mom had. Through the spirit we were able to resolve conflicts with her family as well as help build their faith. It was an incredible experience for the whole family to be there and to watch her. Tammy will be such a light to her family.... Her mom is changing and wanting to be more of an inspiration for Tammy. And this time, the water was filled up enough, so I didn't have to perform the baptism twice like I did with Carol back in July! Haha, for real though, there's nothing like watching people changing their lives to seek the blessings of the gospel.

I hope y'all have the BEST holiday season ever!

—Elder Garner

With Santa at the branch Christmas party!

With Tammy, their investigator that was baptized this past Sunday.

Elder Linam (left), Tammy, and Elder Zeyer.  The three elders are in a threesome companionship right now.

BORED Games (12/09/2013)

We're all having a holly jolly Christmas in Sulphur,Oklahoma! We just passed "Trainer Call Saturday" to find out that none of us will be training this next transfer. You know what that means, right? Transfer calls come this Sunday! Out of the five full-time missionaries serving in Pauls Valley Branch, I've been here the longest, so we're all thinking I'm getting transferred. You'll find out next week what the results will be. For now I've held off on giving friends my mailing address because I don't want letters to get sent only to have to possibly move out on the 18th! This transfer, like every other transfer, has gone by super fast—partially because it's only 5 weeks long! 

 

This week was kind of a flop due to all the weather we've gotten. We had a fantastic zone p-day in Ardmore with everyone before the snowstorms hit us. We got to play Ultimate and flag football! On Tuesday we had an awesome miracle! We went tracting in the north part of town and ran into a guy who let us pray with him and even teach the Restoration! Whenever we go tracting we usually just pray with people and set a return appointment, but this was the first time in my mission I'd ever knocked on someone's door and taught them the Restoration in their home on the spot! The guy, Joseph, was already so happy with what we taught him and invited us back to teach his family! He told us how much joy he'd felt from us being there and teaching him! Probably the best miracle of the week....

 

Later on that night we got to eat with Tammy's family and help them set up their Christmas tree! Her baptism is this Sunday on the 15th and WE'RE SO FLIPPIN STOKED!!!!!! I'm performing the baptism! We're super excited for her and for her family. Tammy's faith's gotten so strong. She's gotten everything thrown at her, yet her testimony's super strong! As long as Tammy's baptized, I won't feel too about leaving Sulphur if and when it happens. 

Thursday was when the storms hit us.... All the cars in the OKC mission got grounded, and the zone leaders told us to stay inside since the roads were really bad. Friday wasn't much better... Our district meeting got cancelled, and we were confined to our apartment for most of the day. We were only allowed to set appointments with people if they were within walking distance. Luckily the Vineyards, our investigator family, lives close to us! So we got to spend time with them/teach a discussion to them. They gave us Monopoly and Battleship to curb our boredom. Sooooooo what did we do once we waddled like penguins back to our apartment? You got it. Saturdaywe got permission to go to one of Elder Linam's old investigator's baptism up in Seminole. Probably not the best idea... The roads were COVERED with ice. Luckily our Corolla survived the roads and we made it back safely! Later on that day we went to a member's home and taught her granddaughter and made wreaths out of hangers and garbage bag shreds! Trust me, it's more entertaining than it sounds, especially when you have nothing to do in your apartment. Church was cancelled on Sunday--or so we thought--and all of our appointments fell through, sooooo what did we do?

 

We played 138 rounds of Uno for almost 8 hours. 

From sunup to sundown. It was RIDICULOUS! We even forgot to eat dinner! We calculated 18 rounds of Uno per hour... We even took a tally of how many times we won, and we came to find out that there is little strategy in Uno, because all three of us won nearly the same amount of games. Look at us statisticians! Anyway, that's our week. The car ban has been lifted only for driving on main roads, which doesn't really make much of a difference in our area. We've heard more storms are coming in, so we'll see what happens! Stay tuned for transfer calls next week!

Elder Garner

 

P.S. Oklahomans cancel school whenever it snows... K, Utah didn't even cancel school when there were BLIZZARDS. Oklahoma snow is nothing compared to Utah snow! 

Okie Thanksgiving (12/02/2013)

Sulphur is covered in fog today. Kinda cool but kinda sketchy at the same time. This fog is perfect timing, because I really feel that we missionaries just need to hide from everyone in Sulphur right now. We had an interesting week...

Shortly after I emailed last week, I was approached by a man named Jeffrey, who's supposedly a member and hasn't been to church in years. He was desparate for company. He talked to me like he was on the run or something! He sounded pretty emotionally unstable. We gave him the church address so he could come on Sunday (which he didn't). He said he wanted us to "be [his] witnesses..." Interesting stuff. We tried visiting him yesterday, but his neighborhood is gated, and we don't have an access code. We haven't seen him since.

Tuesday was another interesting day... Remember the member I told you about that fed us Pizza Hut??? The awkward dinner date??? Well, his son and daughter-in-law, named Mark and Lori, also happen to live in Sulphur. They are both less active. Last Saturday we visited them and talked about eternal marriage with them. They've been working on quitting bad habits and going to the temple to become sealed--and honestly it was the most progress I'd ever seen with them since I've been here in Sulphur. So the three of us were SUPER excited for them! Then three days later, this past Tuesday, things took a nosedive. We were done for the day, in our apartment, and changed into regular clothes when Mark's dad, Charles, called us and asked us to call his son. Apparently Mark and Lori got in a HUGE fight and didn't want to get sealed anymore. We called Mark, and he told us to go to the Shell Gas Station (where Lori works) and talk to her. Okay, we aren't supposed to get involved with personal issues like that. We told Mark that it wasn't right for us to get involved with their marriage. Long story short, he got super upset with us and hung up. He called us three more times complaining about how he's never treated right by the church and how "missionaries tried to choke him" and yada yada yada. He yacked and yacked for 15 solid minutes and wouldn't give us a chance to speak. See the correlation here??? So at 9:45 we disdainfully put our proselyting clothes back on and went over to Shell to talk to Lori. When we got there she seemed really upset and didn't want to open up. We tried comforting her and helping her out as best we could. After that we went home and went to bed!

The next day was a little better... Lori called us and wanted to talk to us, and she told us everything. We listened to her (something we hope Mark will do too!), and we came to find out Mark was drunk when he kept calling us... He even went over to our apartment to try to talk to us! Except we weren't there at the time... Anyway, long story short this place is full of drama, but it's full of people needing the gospel! On Wednesday before we talked to Lori the five of us sang at a funeral for a member that had passed away last week. None of us knew her, but the funeral was good. 

So now Thanksgiving... It's kinda weird that I did less on Thanksgiving than I did on Tuesday and Wednesday... For Thanksgiving we ate at the Fairbourns and had turkey, rolls, mashed potatoes, and the like. It was so good... Closest thing to home, that's for sure. We couldn't proselyte, so we played board games all day at the Fairbourn's. It was a super fun day!

Sunday was of course fast and testimony meeting. Tammy and her parents came. Her mom got up and bore her testimony in who knows how long, but she has come SUCH a long way since we've been meeting with her family. She was in tears, and I almost did too! It felt so amazing to hear her testimony and how much she loves us and her family! Probably the best thing that's happened this week! 

Today, I'm just coming off a cold I've had for a few days that started just before Thanksgiving. It's not fun being sniffly and sore throaty while being a missionary! But the Lord provides, and He watches out for us. We have zone P-day in Ardmore today. It's going to be a great week!

Love, 

Elder Garner

PS— You can NO LONGER send me letters and packages to the mission office address. You can still write to that address, but the mission office can't forward mail anymore. The only way to have anything sent to me is if the zone leaders pick it up. SO, effective IMMEDIATELY you must now send stuff to my apartment address in Sulphur, so here is the address:

 

Elder Chad Garner

1826 W. Muskogee Ave. Apt. 7

Sulphur, OK 73086

. . .  at least until the next transfer - haha!