This is it, fellas. My last transfer of the mission officially begins this week. Elder Tanner is staying with me in Ada, so I will be finishing my mission here! And what a blessing that is....because I can't take anymore surprises.
But here's one for you: Oklahoma got tornadoes this week! But good thing none of them hit Ada. One touched down in Moore near Oklahoma City, and another one hit somewhere southeast of Tulsa. We were told to have a tornado shelter and keep in contact with members of our ward so we'd be aware if a tornado was coming. On Wednesday, Ada received heavy rain, lightning flashes, and high wind speeds, but nothing close to a tornado. It was pretty entertaining watching all the Okies standing out on their porches looking at the clouds. Okay, we were doing the same...
Aside from all the crazy weather, we have transfer news! Y'all already know I'm staying in Ada to finish my mission, but everyone else in Ada stayed the same as well. We had six areas in my mission close... Sad news. The missionaries of the age-change era are leaving! We were all pretty nervous about one of the Ada areas closing, but the Lord shed His mercy all over Pontotoc County.
This week we did a lot of service. I got to help paint a large wooden work table with shelves, about as big as my entertainment center back home. All the paint was lumpy, was when it dried there were lumps all over the work table #PaintClots And then on Thursday we helped one of the sister's investigators paint the domed section of his wall that touches the ceiling. There were nicotine marks all over the walls. Fortunately the entire room is covered in cabinets, so we only had to paint the section of wall that was between the cabinets and the ceiling, but it took a lot of work to cover up those stains. All throughout service I was being taught a spiritual lesson about forgiveness and repentance, and I wasn't even realizing it. I thought about how we can remove our sins without having to cover them up. I kept thinking, "Is there a way that these walls can be washed? And then have them repainted in white?" Though it may be appealing and convenient for us to simply cover up our sins, at one point or another those sins will show up again, weather from memory or from temptation to do them again. The white will most likely disappear and you will need to do it all over again. Wouldn't it be so much easier just to get rid of the sin once and not have to keep covering it up over and over again?
And lately Elder Tanner and I have been attracting all the town drunks. We got two new investigators this week. We met them a week before last, but we finally taught them on a day that they didn't happen to be wasted. So now I'm taking a look at the Addiction Recovery Program that the Church puts out. I've never looked at it before, but just from the little bit that I've read, it's powerful even for those that don't have an addiction. The closest ARP class the Church has around here is in Norman, so we want to teach it to people here to the best of our ability. We'll probably get the Lemmerts involved since they're older and are more mature in these matters :)
And for the most part, Ada is only 100% amazing, and so is this work. It's time to wash away our sins and not just cover them up.
Elder Garner
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