Grand Tours of the Sooner (05/27/2014)

This week was seriously the crowning week of this transfer in Mustang. So many great experiences I'd love to repeat. I would not be upset if President kept me here for a while longer. I hope I stay here till September! 

Monday. WOW. Brother Hulsey, a non-member from a part-member family, took us to dinner in downtown Oklahoma City. My first time there! Oklahoma City, the heart of my mission. Elder Bolan and I experienced OKC for the first time. We ate at a restaurant converted from a garage port to a burger joint! It was epic, and we had a great visit with Brother Hulsey and got to know him better. Afterwards he took us on a tour of all the sites in Oklahoma City. He took us to the Devon Tower, the Capitol building, Bricktown, Deep Deuce, the Arts District, the Boathouse District, and the old mansions north of the capitol. Oh my goodness... so much to see. It reminded me so much of Salt Lake. A temple would make it all complete! I will definitely take my parents to visit there one day.

Wednesday was our apartment touring day with the OKC mission housing couple. We spent the morning and part of the afternoon looking at apartments getting ready for the sisters to come into the ward. After touring all the apartments we wanted to look at we put it to a vote, and at the beginning of June we will be moving to The Park at Westpointe in Yukon. The apartments are seriously so classy. We will be living in 5-star luxury! With a pool and everything...oh just kidding missionaries can't use the pool ;) Me and my new companion (if Elder Bolan leaves) will be moving up to the new apartments just before transfers in two weeks while the new sisters stay in our old apartment to run out the lease. Once the lease is up (about three weeks after transfers) they will move up to the new apartments with us--in a different apartment of course! In any case, look for a change of address in about two weeks. 

Friday was when the torrents came. We're supposed to be getting rain for a solid week. It's even raining right now. Our stake is doing a fast next Sunday for the drought in Oklahoma, and it seems as if our prayers will be answered early! The Tuttle elders happened to be up in Mustang and while they were driving their power steering on their Ford Fusion died! So Elder Bolan and I had to rescue them and shelter them from the rain. Later on that night we had our ward game night! The Bennetts came! And the ward fellowshipped the absolute daylights out of them! They loved the game night! Success! 

And to top off the week we had some great lessons with our investigators this week. We met with Brother Bennett and his less-active wife on Thursday and Sunday. His growth is incredible. He loves meeting with us, and he always asks what we'll be talking about next! His wife's even taken an interest in listening to us! We had a great connection with Brother Bennett in the last lesson, and he's making some progress in the gospel! We also met with Whitney and taught her son, Wyatt, the plan of salvation. So far so good. He seems to understand everything. She even came to church on Sunday, but just not our ward... :/ We even got to meet with Alex and got back into contact with Sister Griffin, who had went to Utah for a few weeks. We taught Alex the Word of Wisdom and the 10 Commandments. Elder Bolan and I got somewhere with our investigators this week, which pleased us greatly :)

And yesterday. Since we couldn't email at the library with it being Memorial Day, the four of us went to member's house and played a game called "Killer Bunnies." Anyone here heard of that game?? That game is the most hilarious and aggravating game I've ever played... It's insane. We played that for six hours....ya. But after that we got dropped off at the Park at Westpointe to do some contacting. We visited our recent convert, Sister Taylor, and found out she's smoking again... :/ sad day. But then the biggest miracle happened. Seriously it was so inspired. We walked around the apartment complex--our future home--and tried a referral named Ashley. She knew a family from Utah that's been here since March. She said we was interested in wanting to meet with us and wanted to throw a surprise barbeque for the Utah family for when they leave. We got invited, and we've on board to meet with her and her husband! Heck yeah! Then she dropped like five referrals for us to go try! While trying them a kid named Caleb walked by us, called us "elders," and then we found out he was from Utah! Boom. Sweet miracles.

The Park at Westpointe is hopping with Latter-day Saints. And soon it'll be hopping with missionary moments of sharing the gospel! Y'all can bet you'll have that to look forward to in the next few months! 

Elder Garner

Crossing the Line (05/19/2014)

I don't think I've ever done so much service in one week! Other than tornado cleanup last year, of course. We had several opportunities this week to help out the community and ward members with individual needs. We get called upon almost everyday this past week to help out with one project or another. We helped shovel dirt, move sheetrock, move a family out of the ward, and give blessings to the sick. 

On Monday we had an incredible specialized training from our zone leaders about the costs of discipleship in reference to Elder Holland's talk this past General Conference. The sister training leaders gave a training about Alma and how the Anti-Nephi-Lehies chose to bury their weapons on war. Earlier on, they had merely set them on the shelf with the thought in the back of their minds they could potentially wield them again at a moment's notice. They eventually chose to bury their weapons altogether. It made me think about things I had that needed to be moved from the shelf to the ground. The sisters gave us a challenge to find something we as missionaries were holding onto and to burying that thing--abstract or concrete. It sure can be tough making sacrifices, but it's all out of love for the Lord.

Tuesday was a little unusual for a missionary. We spent most of the day apartment hunting... That just gave me a scope into the future! *Scary* The housing couple at the mission office told us to start looking for apartments to make way for the sister missionaries that are coming in to Mustang 1st this summer. This Wednesday the housing couple will come out with us and tour apartments with us and talk about the options. Our niche of living with three other elders will soon come to end... 

On Wednesday we met our "baptismal referral's" mother, Whitney. Wyatt is her 8-year old son that she wants baptized. She is very less-active and does not intend to give up smoking, although she loves the teachings of the church and the gospel. She very much wants her son to be baptized. The real test for commitment, however, is getting her to come church with her son. We had a lengthy chat with Bishop Robertson, the bishop of the Mustang 2nd ward, who told us everything to watch out for with Whitney and Wyatt. Whitney's mother lives in 2nd ward, and Whitney insists on going to 2nd ward so she can be with her mom...even though they live in 1st ward. So now there could potentially be a feud between the Mustang 1st and 2nd wards... It's been a rather interesting situation. The members tell us one thing about Whitney and Wyatt, but then when we teach Wyatt they act totally different than what everyone else is telling Elder Bolan and I... Everyone says Wyatt is "special needs with a capital 'S'" and that Whitney is "non-committal and hot and cold." On Saturday we taught the Restoration, and they seemed opposite of everything people told us about them. 

So now we hold our breath and proceed. We are praying for the power to handle Whitney and Wyatt's situation gracefully! Thursdaycame and went. One year came and went just like that. We "celebrated" by going to a Japanese Hibachi restaurant called Wasabi. Ha. It was all I could do not to choose McDonald's or Wendy's yet stay on the cheap side! Anyway, great day of remembering my first day in the MTC, meeting Elder Hoddy for the first time, saying goodbye to mom and dad... 

Friday was pretty sweet! We left our area and went to five different areas! With permission, of course... We helped a member get stuff from his grandparents' house over in the Moore 1st ward area (1). To do that we had to jut across the OKC 2nd ward (2). Later on that day we went out with Brother Tonay, our 2nd Counselor in the bishopric to see Brother Wray, and member that lives clear out in the middle of nowhere! So of course we drove through Mustang 2nd ward boundaries (3), then we had to cut through the corner of Anadarko branch's boundaries (4) to get to Brother Wray's house. We had a really spiritual visit with him and gave his mom a blessing! Afterwards we drove over the boundary and went through OKC 5th ward boundaries (5!) and got on I-40 to get home. We saw some of the damage from the tornado that hit in El Reno almost a year ago. Tornadoes seem to be hiding out this year.

Elder Bolan and I love this area! And we love this work! Have a fantastic week y'all!

Elder Garner   

The Month of Nostalgia (05/12/2014)

This week I approach the top of hill: my year mark is this Thursday the 15th. This past month I've kept thinking about everything I was doing a year ago: finishing finals at BYU, moving back into the house (for only three weeks!), going down to St. George to visit Kayla, giving my farewell talk (a year ago today), getting set apart, and of course, entering the MTC in Provo. For the first time on my mission I am starting to see the end, which scares me!

So I'll tell you about my week and make the most of it before I no longer have the chance! So Tuesday was pretty...interesting. We got the go-ahead to take our mission car into the dealership. The 2013 Chevy Cruzes have a massive recall because of issues with the front axle. So we took our car in for inspection, and pop goes the weasel, our car gets replaced! So the dealership had to provide us with a rental car. We waited for a couple hours before they had one available. They gave us the first thing that arrived: A tiny, hot-red Chevy Sonic! Raise your hand if you are familiar with what those cars look like. Yeah, we pretty much drive around a Hot Wheels car now. Not sure when we get our normal Chevy Cruze back, but I miss it already. 

On Thursday we went on a quickie exchange with the zone leaders for a few hours. Both sets of us had some cool miracles! We had an amazing visit with a couple inactive members that needed help figuring out their purpose in life, and we had a very spiritual discussion with them. The other set found some great potential investigators for us to visit. On Saturday I got to meet "Terrible" Terry. He's an Okie talker! We spent two hours with him talking about the Restoration! He has so much kindness in his heart and has so much to give to others. He really has little to learn about the gospel--because he lives it so well already. Elder Bolan and I continue to pray for miracles to happen with our investigators and for opportunities to meet new people and share with them the gospel. 

And of course, Sunday. Mother's Day. What a great time to remember all that my mom has done for me. For helping get to this point in my life. She deserved nothing less when I skyped her and the rest of my family last night. It was so much fun seeing my family for the first time in a year. I'm excited to reunite with them and my friends, but for the time being, it's back to serving the Lord for the latter half of my mission! Have an epic week!

Elder Garner  

The Personification of Death (05/05/2014)

The moral of this week: Wash your hands with soap and sanitize your hands with hand sanitizer or else you will get SICK! 

Why? Because if you don't you will get wrecked by sickness and affliction. 

Okay, obviously there's a backstory behind all this so I'll just say right now that I had strep throat this past week. So yes, wash your hands and take care of yourself so you don't get plagued like I did. 

Thank goodness for connections though. Elder Bolan knows an ENT doctor from the Edmond 3rd ward. The doctor prescribed antibiotics, and they definitely did the trick. I was out the whole week. Sunday was my first day back to the full swing of things. 

In other news, we had Stake Conference this week! We had an area 70 come speak, Elder Hansen. We also heard from President Bean, our Stake President as well as President Walkenhorst and Sister Walkenhorst. All the talks were geared towards temple and missionary work. It sure was a great conference. We also had transfers earlier this week. In hindsight I'm really glad I didn't have to go to transfers, because I didn't want to meet a new companion looking and feeling like death.

Good things will happen this week. I know it! Next week should have more exciting and interesting stuff. Just don't get sick...if you can help it. Thank you for your prayers and support. Time to conquer Mustang!

Elder Garner

04/28/2014

Just a heads up, I am incredibly sick... again.... It's getting very frustrating being sick almost once a month. This is the second or third time I've gotten sick here. I'm starting to worry more and more about my health... It's the same sickness as before, achy everywhere, sore throat, fever symptoms... I've taken medicine but it doesn't seem to making a difference. A priesthood blessing might be in order. So if this email seems super unenthusiastic, just know that it's because my battery is at about 5%! 

We had a 'storm' early Saturday morning and Wednesday, but nothing severe. We just got a little rain and some lightning. There were some tornadoes--we think--and they mostly hit rural areas out in western Oklahoma. All the storms seem to pass Mustang for some reason. That's so fun you got to talk to the Fairbourn's! I sure miss having a senior couple around. The Fairbourns were mentioning the VINEYARDS :) haha. Unfortunately they've kind of fallen off since Elder Zeyer, Elder Linam and I left... It's just not their time I guess. 

I sure wonder about the youth in the 7th ward. We have a severe lack of youth in the Mustang 1st ward--Mustang 2nd took all of them! >:(  Fun updates from Mustang 1st: The other set of elders baptized an 80-year old lady named Lois! She works at the laundromat with a member in the ward, and after four years of seeing missionaries come and go she finally decided she wanted to join the church! She was so excited for her baptism, and watching her get baptized was so so neat! There were lots of missionaries there from all over the mission, so that was a nice little reunion! Let's see... TRANSFERS. All four of us are staying the same. One elder in Mustang 2nd (who was there for 7 and a half months!) is getting transferred to Norman 4th ward. Elder Bolan and I are stoked to be together for another transfer! This makes him my longest companion together! And breaking news--we get to SKYPE for Mother's Day!!!!! I get to see all your lovely faces for the first time in a YEAR! Let everyone know!

I really am not in terrible need of a package. The more stuff I can get rid of, the better... I might send a bunch of stuff home when May 15th comes around. Elder Kahawaii goes home this Thursday. I'm sure he's incredibly homesick. You know what, I think I'll just give you an update right here. My aches are killing me. Next week I'll probably do a double update or something...

So on Monday we had dinner at the Payton's home. They have a ginormous RV! Elder Bolan and I got pictures in the RV in the driver's seat :) On Tuesday we helped some members shovel some dirt into their garden area. Later on that day we FINALLY met with Mike Hulsey--the non-member husband in the part-member Hulsey family. We tried starting a gospel conversation with him about the Restoration, but he got argumentative very quickly, so we kinda changed subjects. Interestingly enough, when he gave us a ride home, he opened up to us about how he's felt towards the gospel. He's actually more open-minded than we thought, he just doesn't want to talk religion around his member wife. So bishop Ketcher offered to have him over at his house and have a lesson there. We'll see how that goes. Mike wants to take us to Bricktown and the Science Museum in OKC. So that's gonna be exciting.

Wednesday was interesting. We visited Candice. We found out some interesting things about her. She lives with her ex-husband. They're more like roommates though. We got to visiting with her, and we SLYLY asked for her birthday and her last name! And on Saturday bishop Ketcher found her records! Later on that day we picked up a new investigator named Harold! We had a great discussion with him, taught him the Restoration, and set a baptismal date with him! Very powerful lesson... Thursday was obnoxious. We were on bikes that day. The wind was even worse than last week! AND, we forgot our phone! The other elders needed us to come with them to teach Lois her last lesson because they couldn't get a third male. But we were three miles from our apartment with no phone! So we frantically went to peoples' homes and asked them if we could use their phone. About an hour later we finally got to a members' house and got access to a phone...but the other elders didn't pick up. So irritating. Elder Bolan and I were quite pooped and upset. The wild goose chase for a phone took us over an hour to find...and we even started knocking on random peoples' doors...which didn't work. We were in Krista's neighborhood, and we haven't been able to get in with them this past week... :( 

Friday was a bust, but the day slowly get better. We went out to Union City for the first time--no members were to be found there. Later that night we had our ward game night. We had an investigator there, which was neat. OH! And did I tell you I got CLUE last week?! The patriarch in our ward/stake bought it for me at a yard sale! That was nice of him. Anyway, the game night was spectacular. Saturday was Lois' baptism, which of course was exciting. And on Sunday we got our transfer calls! We have lots of sister missionaries coming out, so one of the Mustang areas (we aren't sure which) is getting replaced with sisters! Could be me and Elder Bolan's area! We'll see later on in the summer. 

Anyway, hope your week was fantastic. Pray that I will make a quick recovery and figure out what's wrong with my immune system... Love you guys. 

Elder Garner

Mormons in Disguise (04/21/2014)

The hymn of the week award goes to: Master the Tempest is Raging. Want to know why? Because the "big bad wolf" disguised as the "clouds over Mustang" almost blew me and Elder Bolan right off our bikes! We had some major wind over in Mustang this past week. 

Elder Bolan and I have a street map of our area. We decided that whenever we go tracting we would mark in highlighter the streets we tracted. We have a goal of tracting for two hours a day, so at the end of each day we get to color in a little portion of our map. One day that entire map will be colored. Earlier this week we decided to tract in a neighborhood that wasn't particularly fruitful. The last house we knocked on belonged to a United Pentecostal pastor. That turned out to be interesting. He was very friendly—he invited us in and we got to talking about our beliefs. He gave us an entire lecture on being overtaken by the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. He even asked us if we wanted to be baptized "in the name of Jesus Christ" rather then by the names of the Godhead. His explanation behind all of it seemed almost... salesman-like. We felt like we were being sold religion. It didn't feel right to us. He invited us to his building. Too bad it's out of our area... He does have a friend that pastors for a United Pentecostal Church in Mustang though, so we might go visit that one if we feel so inclined. It was interesting experience, for sure.

On Wednesday we felt the wind the worst. It was blowing at 45 MPH! Or so we heard... We were on bikes that day, so when we biked north we got to our destination in only 15 minutes! After doing some tracting, we biked back against the wind, and it took us half on hour to get back! Then when we got home we had to wipe our faces with wet wipes (thanks mom!) to get all the dirt and sand out of our faces. The wipes came out brown. Gross... We certainly tried opening our mouths to share the gospel, but whenever we did we get sand in our teeth. Gag...

We had a couple child or record baptisms this Saturday, and those were awesome. After the baptisms we had a church tour with Alex, one of our investigators. The tour was very spiritual and enlightening for him. Afterwards we had a lesson with him with a member. After the lesson with Alex we went to go try a lady named Becky that I tracted into with Elder Faulkner on exchanges. Becky asked us to pray for her granddaughter, Beth, who was sick. When we tried Becky's house, we instead get Krista. We got to know her and found out she's Becky's daughter and Beth's mother. She was incredibly friendly. After getting to know us she invited us to an Easter get-together that she was having with her family. Her husband, Glen, invited an LDS member from the OKC 5th ward named Mark, who happened to be childhood best friends with Glen. 

So on Sunday after church we headed off to this Easter get-together. We had no idea how it was going to turn out. When we got there we got a lot of strange looks! Whenever we looked and made eye contact with people in the room they'd kind of just look down or avert their eyes. It almost felt like we were playing Whack-a-mole with our eyes. But we introduced ourselves and they were friendly towards us. We met Mark, the member that's childhood friends with Glen. We had a good conversation with him. Later on we were approached by a lady named Debbie, the wife of Mark, who is the brother of Glen. Turns out Debbie is an inactive member! Coincidence? Definitely not. Inspiration? For sure. We visited with Debbie for quite a while and got to know her and her feelings towards the church. She felt that our presence at the get-together was a sign from God and a hint that she needed to start getting back into church. We got her contact information and found out she's in the Quail Creek ward up in Oklahoma City. Time to sick missionaries on her! Anyway, Elder Bolan and I definitely knew the get-together was inspired. We made some great connections with the guests at the get-together. Krista and Glen and their family were incredibly nice to us, and they invited us back! Mark told us they are now starting to ask questions, so Elder Bolan and I are praying that this whole experience goes somewhere. 

Our Easter was certainly a great time of remembrance and peace. We felt it all throughout the day. We know the Lord's watching over us each and everyday as we bring souls to this gospel. I hope your Easter was likewise. 

Elder Garner 

That's All It Takes (04/14/2014)

We had a fantastic week here in Mustang! I some great spiritual experiences with Elder Bolan this past week doing missionary work here. We finally got some good lessons in with some of our investigators this past week. 

Last week I told you guys about TJ, the guy that stopped us while he was dirt biking in an unfinished section of a neighborhood. We met with at a coffee shop--of all places--and had a discussion about the Restoration with him. He is a very spiritual and knowledgeable man. He doesn't affiliate with any church around here, but he wholeheartedly believes in the Bible and in God. As we delved deeper into the discussion, Elder Bolan and I found out that TJ and his son have some very...unique spiritual gifts, I guess you could say. TJ's son (who's about 8-years old) has made some prophesies about the world, about people, about whatever, and TJ told us all his sons' prophesies came true. TJ told us he's healed broken bones on the spot and restored blindness to peoples' eyes. 

Sound crazy to you?

Needless to say after the lesson Elder Bolan and I came out scratching our heads. We had a very powerful lesson with him, but we were left with a lot of questions. TJ had no problem accepting a modern-day prophet, Joseph Smith, the Book of Mormon, and even a baptismal date. We definitely questioned his faith--and our faith! TJ lives a pretty decent life--nice house, nice kids, nice cars, all that stuff. We definitely feel that he's pretty levelheaded if he lives the way he does. Is he joking with us? We hope to explore the validity of his statements as we meet with him more, so stay tuned on TJ. 

We also met with Alex earlier this week. We had a great lesson on the Plan of Salvation. Alex is trying so hard to because more extroverted and be more involved socially. He doesn't know if he's ready for church and being around lots of people. He accepted a church tour. 

So hot story of the week: This story is about how someone pushed my buttons--someone that performed the perfect mix of actions and used the perfect balance of words--and caused me to be quite bold to them. Elder Bolan and I went to go try people on our ward roster. One day we attempted to see a less active member named Jeff--a guy we'd tried a couple times but to no success. The first time someone answered the door, it was a lady who said "sorry guys, I'm busy right now" and slammed the door without even letting us speak. "Okay, so you're busy. We'll just try back later," we thought to ourselves. Earlier this week we tried them. It was very obvious that they were home. We could see their silhouettes through their window, and one of their cars in the driveway was running. We knocked on their door twice. After waiting a few minutes the same lady, who we assumed to be Jeff's wife, answered with the following tirade,

"Guys I really don't want you coming back here anymore," she said rather rudely to us. Oh! That's funny...you never told us that the first time we ran into you!

"Fine, all we want is to ask you a question," I said before she had the chance to shut her door.

"What??" she said as she impatiently fluttered her eyelashes.

"Is there a Jeff [their last name] that lives here?" I asked.

"Yes, but he's not interested so please leave us alone," she grouched at us.

"Okay, thank you! Ma'am, that's all it takes. If you had answered the door the first time we could have figured that out much sooner," I stated very forwardly to her.

Was it rude of me to say that? Some might say yes, some might say it was necessary. Did it sink in? I sure hope it did. For the sake of her sanity and our time, I hope she learned that missionaries would have stopped trying her if she had just been honest with us and told us from the beginning. It seems that people like that who choose to shun the truth and shun what's right become very resentful and even hateful towards what's good. It really does to show that wickedness never was happiness. 

I hope you guys learned something today. Just don't treat good people with good intentions with disrespect... No matter how good it makes you feel, no matter what you're trying to accomplish, it's going to turn around and bite back. So please...just don't. Have an awesome week, and be a good Samaritan for someone.

Elder Garner