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!

Master, the Ice Storm is Raging (11/25/2013)

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

Passive Aggressive Punks (11/18/2013)

Transfers were AMAZING. So many changes took place this past Wednesday! Lots of missionaries going home, and lots more coming out. One of my buddies named Elder Hale went home, which was kinda sad. He was in my first district out here. We had a ton of visa-waiters come into the mission. Only two new areas opened up, so there are now several trio companionships throughout the mission—mine being one of them! Elder Hoddy finally left his first area and got transferred to Choctaw and replaced Elder Hale. The new elder that replaced me in Purcell three months ago is now going to Edmond. Lots of crazy stuff going on.... Much to my dismay (and at times relief) I am no longer the designated driver of the Foxy Wagg... Elder Zeyer is.... At least I don't have to be in charge of miles anymore! We've had to rearrange a lot of furniture to fit three guys. We had a get a bed set, a table, a chair, yada yada. Our bedroom looks so ridiculous... our beds make a U shape, Elder Zeyer can't even open his closet door all the way, Elder's Zeyer's left arm practically touches my head when we're asleep, and Elder Linam's feet almost touch my right leg. We had to move all the study desks out into the main room and put all the recliners in the other bedroom. It's really squishy in there, but it's lots of fun with three of us. 

 

Lately we've been doing lots and lots of tracting. On Thursday we knocked into five Spanish-speaking houses in a row! They all kinda looked at us and just smiled because they didn't understand anything we were saying, but at least they seem to like Jesus... haha. We've picked up a former investigator named Brian. His girlfriend got anti'd, but when we called him and taught him earlier this week we found out he wasn't with her anymore! He told us he wasn't interested in changing his ways, but then he told us later on that he wanted to be baptized. Jackpot! So we'll see where that goes. Tammy and her parents came to church yesterday!!! That was the best part of our Sunday. It's about time they did! A few days ago we tracted into an awesome family! It's a soon-to-be-single mom with three kids named the Vineyard family. Pretty appropriate name for such a Christian town.... Lots of doors slammed in our faces and lots of prayers said with the people of Sulphur.

 

On Sunday we got cussed out by this guy because our bikes were locked up at the street sign on his street corner, and he totally tried to pick a fight with us. He thought we were trying to steal stuff from his house.... Luckily nothing happened, but dude, come on... you'd go three against one? Please... just put that cranky attitude away and go play with your legos. When we left his yard—without any confrontation—he started following us in his car and waited at the gas station and watched us! He was totally creeping on us! Pretty sure that's more wrong than us locking our bikes to the street sign! If you even consider locking our bikes up wrong at all! Anyway, nothing bad happened to us.

But the guy doesn't know I memorize license plate numbers ;)

Love, 

Elder Stalker Elder Garner

The Three Stooges (11/11/2013)

Since we have transfers coming up this week I'll just give you all the news right now! I have now hit six months on my mission. I'm one-fourth of the way done. It's so weird to think about... And it's really weird that I've been in Sulphur just as long as I've been in Purcell. But here it is: Elder Kahawaii is going one whole area over to Duncan! He's opening up an area with a newer missionary, and he's in a bike area (SUCKA!). I will be staying in Sulphur and going into my third transfer there. I am now getting my third... and fourth companion. That's right. I'm in a TRIO! Words cannot express my excitement for next transfer. Trios are so AWESOME. Trio companionships get things DONE! Their names are Elder Zeyer (ZIE-urr) and Elder Linam (LINE-um). I know a little bit about Elder Zeyer, but not much about Elder Linam. Elder Zeyer actually came out with me in May, and he did a year at BYU kinda like I did. Some of my friends at BYU actually know him and told me about him before I came out. Elder Linam's been out for three months, so he's a newer guy. This next transfer is only going to be five weeks instead of the usual six! Other than that there's been a lot of changes! With last transfer staying pretty much the same, lots of changes needed to take place. Another newsflash is that Pauls Valley is now the Zone Leader area! The three of us now share a ward/branch with the Zone Leaders! That makes 7 missionaries serving in the Pauls Valley Branch! I'm telling ya, guys, this work is GROWING! 

 

So here's a little tally of my mission so far:

Transfer Date:         Area:                             Companion:

(1) June 3rd-             Noble South                    Elder Evans

July 14th                  (Purcell)          

 

(2) July 15th-            Noble South                    Elder Evans

August 26th             (Purcell)

 

(3) August 27th-        Pauls Valley South          Elder Kahawaii

October 6th              (Sulphur)

 

(4) October 7th-        Pauls Valley South          Elder Kahawaii

November 17th         (Sulphur)  

 

(5) November 18th-  Pauls Valley South          Elder Zeyer & Elder Linam

December 22nd        (Sulphur)

Now for the regular exciting stuff about missionary work... We've been getting fed TONS this week by members! Like almost everyday! It's made for some very happy missionaries in the Pauls Valley and Sulphur area :) We had our primary program this Sunday. Super cool. Super adorable. Our primary is all of seven kids. It's awesome. Our investigators are making progress, and we've had some awesome lessons with them. Tammy unfortunately didn't make it to church this Sunday, so her baptismal date's dropped... BUT. That's going to be changed. Michelle is going to have a COW when she finds out Elder Kahawaii's leaving, so we're kinda scared about that... Tammy is really solid though. Thomas is loving church. He was ordained a deacon last Sunday, and his Grandma is so happy for him to have the priesthood! 

 

This transfer has flown by so quickly... but I'm excited for next transfer! Especially for Thanksgiving and CHRISTMAS!

 

Over and out, 

Elder Garner

Trick or Testaments (11/04/2013)

This week was EPIC! The four of us had an amazing Halloween and a really productive week! I dressed up as a missionary. Hoohah. Elder Beus did exchanges with me and Elder Kahawaii from Thursday to Saturday. I was with him on Thursday and Friday, and he was with Elder Kahawaii on Friday and Saturday. We got a lot of things done in our area, and we even picked up a new investigator! A 13-year-old. She's awesome. Her name's Chynna. She's the daughter of a less-active member and the granddaughter of a member--kinda like Thomas. Elder Kahawaii and I are basically recruiting the young mens and young womens in the branch... Tammy's doing really well too. She has a date for the first of December, so we hope that goes through. Her mom, Michelle, told us we were the best missionaries she's ever had, and she loves having us around and feels super comfortable with us! Elder Kahawaii and I both agreed that we're really starting to gain their trust. Michelle, the less-active mom, had a cow when Elder Beus came to teach them. She thought I got transferred! She flipped out and almost started yelling at Elder Kahawaii and Elder Beus for not telling her that I'd 'left!' Luckily that all got sorted out without anyone's head getting cut off. It was really touching at the same time... I've really enjoyed being with this family and the chance I've had to be able to help them out. 

The trip to Ardmore on Monday was AWESOME! I got to wear a sumo wrestler suit! If I get fed enough here I could be as big as the suit without having to wear the suit! The ten of us missionaries had an awesome day. During this week the Pauls Valley elders and the two of us got to have SLEEPOVERS! With permission from President Walkenhorst of course. We had one on Thursday night and Saturday night! It'sreally unfortunate that the Pauls Valley elders don't have a car... It really forces us to be together all the time. On Halloween night we had a branch trunk or treat, which was super fun! I took seven containers of Play-doh! I even got to go from car to car and get candy! Holidays as a missionary are so much fun. I'm really excited for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The trunk or treat turnout was really awesome. We had tons of families and less-actives from both our areas show up. We had to stay over at the Pauls Valley elders' apartment since all the mission cars had to be parked at 6:00. We didn't have a way of getting home, so we had a movie night and watched... THE TESTAMENTS! Halloween night was awesome... Missionaries just need to let go sometimes. 

Well, things have settled down now that Halloween's over. We're getting in as many lessons as we can with Tammy before one of us potentially gets transferred. The news comes next Sunday, so stay tuned! I love you all very much :)

Elder Garner

The missionary math equation:

Active grandma + less-active mom + non-member teenager = A HAPPY FAMILY!