Carrot Love

Hellooooooo!!

So this week has been super awesome and has gone by way too fast! We literally JUST had transfers and we now only have 3 weeks left until transfers come again.. It's amazing how much time flies when you're having fun! It's almost March and then I will have been out for 3 Months! I can't believe this.. I feel like we have so much work to do and not enough time to do it! But if there's one thing i've learned the most, it's that time is so precious and so sacred that literally Every Second Counts. 

So the Stake President here is seriously the greatest man that I have come to know. The love and kindness that he gives is just incredible and he has been such an amazing influence on both Sister Wight and I. The inspiration's that he's received for the Stake on Hastening the Work have really taken a toll on all of the members and many of them are getting so so excited about doing Member-missionary Work! So the work is finally starting to pick up.. and yes, there are a lot of people to baptize and reactivate here in Sandy! NOT EVERYONE IS MORMON! haha which is nice because that means that there is a ton to do!

Our Mission President always says that we are in the Heart of the world, here in Utah, and the rest of the world are the body parts. And the heart must be strong in order for the body to be healthy and efficient! So the missionaries in the Utah Salt Lake Missions do have a lot of work to do in bringing other's unto Christ. This mission is really tough, as they all are, because everyone really does know already about the Church and has had some experience with it before..Good or bad.. This causes for missionary work to take a sort of different toll. We have to really work with the members and help lift them and strengthen them to see how important THEY are in doing Missionary Work. There is a quote from Preach My Gospel by President Brigham Young:

"There is neither man or woman in this Church who is not on a mission. That mission will last as long as they live, and it is to do good, to promote righteousness, to teach the principles of truth, and to prevail upon themselves and everybody around them to live those principles that they may obtain eternal life."

What does this quote mean to you? What have you learned as a member from President Young? Just sit and ponder with this and really think about this life we live, why we are even here and why is it that "Hastening the Work of Salvation" has become the focus of the Church?

We, as members, are indebted to God. Once we have come to an understanding of the fullness of His everlasting gospel, it is our job to share it with all those who we come in contact with. If you think of this life and how minute or small it is compared to eternity, the people you live around, befriend or even your own family, have been placed in your hands for a reason. This is something that we tell so often to the members here in Sandy. They have been placed by their neighbors for a specific reason, whether their neighbors are active in the church, not active in the church, or not even members at all. They are there, beside them to uplift, edify, encourage, love, support and invite to activities at church, hear of the discussions from the missionaries, or even an invitation to come to church. Once the members have an understanding of what the gospel means to them and what their purpose is to do with that knowledge, we all would be literally running from door to door sharing the gospel with everyone. Yes, it's a gradual process. Even Christ, as we all know, He was spit on and beaten many times because there were many who didn't like or believe the things that he was sharing with them. BUT, He knew that that was His mission here on the Earth.. to "fulfill all righteousness." So He did, but He was crucified for that as well. But because of that, we are now able to return to our Father in Heaven again some day through repenting of our many sins and becoming clean. Think of all the blessings we receive from being member's of Christ's church. And think of all the people we are keeping from receiving these same blessings because we are maybe scared to share it with others.. 

We are promised to be given the words to speak as long as we are striving to have the Spirit with us at all times. We are to help the Lord Hasten His Work and it truly is our job as members of His church to do that, whether we are set apart as full-time missionaries or not. Sister Wight and I need the help from the members here in Sandy or else nothing could get done.. We don't tract, or other words go from door to door knocking. We mainly rely on the members to give us people to go visit and to go and teach! What a blessing it has been working side-by-side with the members. I know that as you pray and ask Heavenly Father to give you opportunities to serve, He will answer and show you the way. The Spirit will guide you to the hearts of those who are prepared to hear of His Word..

 Doctrine and Covenants 84:62-69

"Therefore, ^ago ye into all the world; and unto whatsoever place ye cannot go ye shall send, that the testimony may go from you into all the world unto every creature. And as I said unto mine apostles, even so I say unto you, for you are mine ^aapostles, even God’s high priests; ye are they whom my Father hath ^bgiven me; ye are my ^cfriends; Therefore, as I said unto mine apostles I say unto you again, that every ^asoul who ^bbelieveth on your words, and is baptized by water for the ^cremission of sins, shall ^dreceive the Holy Ghost. And these ^asigns shall follow them that believe—In my name they shall do many wonderful ^aworks; In my ^aname they shall cast out devils; In my name they shall ^aheal the sick; In my name they shall ^aopen the eyes of the blind, and unstop the ears of the deaf;"

I love this scripture.. If we have faith, The Spirit will show us the way! I know that is truly why we come out and serve missions whether it be 2 years or just 1 and a 1/2 years. It is to learn how to walk by the Spirit.  And of course many other things, but I am learning more so than ever right now how to always be worthy of the companionship of the Holy Ghost and how to have it guide, direct and comfort me in some of our more difficult times. 

So! Let me just take the time to tell you that the weather is SOOOO NICE here! :D it has been in the 50's lately and I have Spring Fever so bad. Haha! It's funny because it's usually chilly and snowing and absolutely no one even goes outside. But now, now everyone is taking advantage of the weather and are all out side raking or playing with their kids! It's so great! We now have a ton of people to talk to on the street :) but we have been told that it will not stay like this for very long.. That the Utah weather tricks you in February and gets you excited for the Spring! That made me mad, but that's okay! Lol gotta take good weather while you can!

We went by one of the Bishop's house last night just to stop by and say hello! Well they were in the middle of making dinner and of course we asked what they were making. The wife replied, "Carrot Loaf." We thought she had said Carrot Love and we were like, "What in the world is a Carrot Love?!" She corrected us and then explained that she is trying to get her family to eat more healthy meals. Well, they have all boys and there are 4 of them and of course...they like food...and were rather upset knowing that their mom was making something "healthy" and "without any meat." So just to be kind, we sat down and tried a piece with their family.. this would be our second meal that evening. And we tried it with bbq sauce on it, it just tasted like umm a mixture between hummus and stuffing. haha! And it looked terrible, the carrot pieces were like sticking out of the loaf and it looked like tentacles! It wasn't that bad.... -_- lol

So after dinner, the family does this meal rating thing! The rating are from "I threw up" which is a 0, to "The best meal i've ever had" which is a 20. We all rated it and we all said it was a 9, "Not the worst i've ever had." It was seriously the funniest thing of my entire life.. they are just such an amazing family! You all probably thought this was a dumb story, but it made us really happy and I laughed so hard I was crying.. and just for that to happen means it had to have been HILARIOUS! :) 

So our investigators are doing great! i'll attach a few pictures.. the one with the family is of the girl we are teaching named Kirsten! She is progressing quite well and is a golden investigator :) She will be getting baptized hopefully in the next couple of weeks! And our other investigator, he is praying about the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, and abou tmarch 15th being the day for him to be baptized. So yeah! All is well here with the teaching pool. I love serving here in Utah, despite how hard it may be at times. It's such a blessing knowing that The Lord has entrusted me, a 20 year old, with this beautiful message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to take it to all of His children :)

God bless you all and I hope that all is well! I pray for each of you daily and know that I am thinking of you quite often! May this email find you with a smile on your face and enjoy the beautiful whether in Florida....for most of you!

Love always,

Sister Garretson

Ps. Read James 1:1-5 :) and remember that this life is meant to bring you great joy! So do all that you can and if there's something you simply cannot do, that's okay. Just smile and be grateful for all that you have!

Lots of Pictures:)

Here some pictures of my latest adventures on my mission! 

 the pic with the little boy is the family that we live with here and her son was just baptized :)

The following two pictures are from Christmas Eve:

Feb. 3rd

Well, for starters... I am staying in Sandy for another transfer! it's so exciting because there is much work to be done! Sister Wight is still training me and after this transfer, they can't call me a greenie anymore. haha! i've been in the field almost 2 months! 

So we do have one girl we are teaching, she is progressing very well! We are so proud of her willingness to be baptized. It's been such a special experience watching her grow and progress in the gospel. Just to be a part of that has been such a blessing! She was raised Methodist and has shared with us that she always felt that there was something missing from her life and then she expressed that the Restored Gospel fills that void. What a tender story that reminds me so much of my own! But it has been a little bit of a roller-coaster with her only because she lives in West Jordan and the missionaries there should be teaching her. So we are talking to the Mission President about it. We just want whatever is best for Kirsten, what will benefit her the most! But it truly has been a blessing with being a part of her conversion and teaching her the gospel! So i'll update you all with what happens with that.

There was one day this past week that Sister Wight and I were sitting in the car, around 8pm, and prayed to Heavenly Father to give us just ONE miracle before the end of the night. So after we prayed, Sister W. felt prompted to visit this ladies house and there's no way she would have remembered where she lived if it weren't for the Spirit guiding her. So we showed up the house, knocked.. waited a few minutes.. then this lady came to the door, she's Chinese! We asked if she was a member of the LDS church, she said no and that she was Buddhist.. But we asked if she would be interested in hearing more about The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She said yes!! She invited us back this Wednesday! We will teach her the first lesson and invite her to be baptized! We were so grateful for the faith of which we had that Heavenly Father could still provide a miracle at the close of our evening!

SO I HELD A SNAKE!! I thought I was brave.. but it seriously took me ten minutes to finally do it! haha I am such a baby.. even as a missionary.. geesh! but I am attaching a picture of me holding it :) I am so proud of myself!

Also, the bad air here is called "Inversion" and there is an inactive guy we are teaching that called it "Conversion." That was the funniest thing of my entire life.. He was so serious.. Oh how happy that made me! 

The member's here just love Sister Wight and I, and in a meeting we had with the Stake President yesterday, he said this:

"Thank you for both of your hard work and diligence in finding people to teach here in the Stake. Even if your number's don't show your hard work, you both are touching countless lives. Everyone loves you and feels like you are a part of them. No other Elder's or Sister's have done as much work as you have done in such a short amount of time. The members and myself can feel the love from how great a companionship the two of you have."

That was seriously the sweetest thing ever. I am so blessed by Sister Wight and the trainer and friend she has been to me. She's amazing and we are going to get work done around here! As we are being "consistently lead by the Spirit" as our Zone Leader says :)

Attached are some pics! Love you all and thanks for all the prayers. They mean so much! I am doing well and all is fine and dandy here in Sandy! 

Sister Garretson

Is it "You have to" or "You WANT to?"

This letter dates from 1/27.

First off, the inversion here is terrible! The air quality stinks and it is making my breathing really difficult. Half of the time it is CODE RED which is when small children and older people are advised to stay inside because it wouldn't be well for them to inhale it. Well, we are extremely lucky to have a car to get around in. But, with that said.. There still are times I am exposed to the air and the doctor that I went to this week said that the air doesn't like me and I don't like it very much either. She had me get an X-Ray of my chest to see how my lungs and heart are doing. She also prescribed to me an inhaler that I can use in emergencies! So I think I more so have excersize enduced asthma, but it still stinks :( I am doing better though! Also, I had an infection in my toe from the surgery I had in the MTC to have the ingrown toenail removed.. well it had got infected again and the antibiotics I was taking were making me feel awfully terrible. I only have about 3 more to take. They just have made me super groggy, headache always, and then the air and my breathing on top of that was making me.. haidihkiuauegiu. Yeah, I wasn't feeling all that well. BUT! My District Leader gave me a blessing for the sick and afflicted. All of the Elders in my district stood in on the blessing as well and let me tell you, I have been feeling a ton better. I am SO grateful for the priesthood having been restored once again, to bless me and heal me if I truly believe it can happen! So I am great now and we are getting back into the swing of things.. Also, my companion Sister Wight has been treating me so well and learning how to be so motherly to me. It's sweet :)

 

So since we didn't get a lot done this week, The Lord has blessed us immensely! So we had someone call us a little over a week ago and say they have someone who is ready to take the lessons.. WE WERE SO STOKED!! haha we answered saying, " Say that one more time?!" So that was a blessing in itself from over a week ago and then this past week on Wednesday we were able to meet with her for the first time. We taught her Lesson 1, The Restoration! It was my first time inviting someone to be baptized! And guess what, it was grrrrreat! She said yes! She's been prepared from day one to have met with us and the Lord truly knows the desires of her heart. We asked if she would read the Book of Mormon and she said, "I am actually on 2 Nephi 18." What? How does that happen?!! I asked her how she felt about the Book of Mormon and she said, "I now know what I have been missing from my life. This is what fills the void I had and she said she knows the church is true!" The Lord's hand has truly been shown in her life and in our lives as her missionaries! Miracles are happening left and right. She is praying to know if Feb. 15th is the date Heavenly Father would like her to be baptized! We are meeting with her again this week.

 

Also! We have transfers this week.. Most likely since Sister Wight is training me for another transfer, we probably are staying here in Sandy and not going anywhere! But the Lord is mysterious and works in funny ways sometimes! So who knows! I'll keep you all posted :)

 

So we sang in two Wards this past Sunday and talked in one of them about Missionary Work. I was able to share my conversion story and Sister Wight talked about finding courage and hope in yourself to be a member missionary to those you live around and are friends with. So many people walked up to us and said how touching our talks were to them and then our singing.. Oh my gosh, Sister Wight has a beautiful voice too! AND the two of us together, it's just absolutely amazing.. Everyone was saying, "does your Mission President know how good you two sound together?!" That surely is a blessing too that we are able to make beautiful music together and change lives in doing so. Remember that Heavenly Father has blessed us with talents to in return bless other's lives! If you aren't sure about your talent, pray and ask Heavenly Father and he will make them known unto you! But honestly, it was awesome being able to pump up the members in the wards! They are really starting to catch the wave of hastening the work of salvation!!

 

The Fort Lauderdale Temple open house is soon! I expect that someone from the Ward can go to that and let me know how it goes! Although it is quite a drive.. but if you feel prompted to do so, DO IT! And invite family and friends to come as well. It's perfect to learn about the things we do in the Temple and to see how beautiful they are!

 

So one thing I have learned is that in order for me to become a better missionary, the missionary that Heavenly Father has called me to be, I must give all of myself to this work. This instead of me saying, "I have to wake up and I have to workout and I have to study.." It should be, "I want to wake up and I want to workout and I want to study!" This is how my heart will change and be able to better serve the Lord, thus serving His precious children. You all should read "The Fourth Missionary" by Lawrence E. Corbridge. It isn't just for missionaries out on a mission, but for us all. We are all missionaries! Just look it up on google :)

I have learned it's not just about obedience and worthiness, don't get me wrong because that is definitely a form of godliness! But, it's completely surrendering my will to the Father.. Elder Corbridge says:

 

"Just give it up. Surrender your will to Him. Unconditionally. Witholding nothing. Turn it all over to Him; all of your desires, wishes, ambitions, dreams and hopes. Be true and faithful in your head and in your heart, not just in your behavior. Trust in Him. Trust Him who knows all things. Trust Him who has all power. Trust him whose love for you is perfect. Trust Him, who alone suffered, paid and atoned for your sins, and for your weaknesses as well. Trust Him that He will make of you, immeasurably more than what you will ever, ever, in all eternity, make of yourself. He will create of you a masterpiece. You will create of you only a smudge. You will create an ordinary man; he will create a God" (pg 28).

 

He then goes into talking about the parable of the 10 Virgins.. 5 of them were prepared to enter into the Lord's presence and 5 were not. He goes on saying that it's interesting that The Lord used the metaphor "virgins" and not ten maids or ten servants.. What does virginity even imply? Purity. "There were ten worthy, pure maidens and yet five did not enter His presence, despite their worthiness. Why not? He (The Lord) said to them: "Verily I say unto you, I know you not." (New Testament, Matthew 25:12)

 

Obdeince and Worthiness are essential, but they are only but a few qualities of godliness. It's not all of it! Elder Corbridge says that the central question isn't necessarily, "are you worthy, pure or clean?" But, "who are you and who are you becoming?"

 

I love you all! Glad I was able to share my experiences with you. Being a missionary is far more difficult than I ever had imagined. Elder Larrabbe and Gillan made it seem super easy.. But I now understand how much work they put into it and how much they prayed for me and thought about me. It's a blessing to now be on the teaching end. And although I have a lot to work on, as do we all, the Lord will bless me as I come to Him humbly saying, "I simply cannot be who you want me to be without you. I can't get through what life is going to throw at me unless I surrender all that I have to you. I need you. My will isn't going to get me through this experience here on Earth, it's Yours."

 

Have a beautiful week! Stay positive and rely on Heavenly Father in all that you think, say, and do!

 

With never ending love,

 

Sister Garretson

From January 20th

I can honestly say that I have learned patience more than ever in these past 5 weeks. The people in this area were mighty hard to contact and share messages with because they were all busy during the holiday. They asked if we could come back after about half-way through January! Boy have we been hitting up their houses left and right. They all sure see a lot of us now :) But any way, Sister Wight and I were struggling because we hadn't seen a lot of miracles happening in our area. All the other missionaries in our Zone have been finding people ready to be baptized and have had just the neatest experiences and stories. We seriously thought we were doing something wrong to not have seen any miracles in our area. There's a saying, "Obedience brings blessings, Exact Obedience brings miracles." Were we not being exactly obedient enough? Well no, that's not the case. I firmly believe that Sister Wight and I have had a lot to work on indovidually and Heavenly Father has given us the time to really focus on progressing individually and converting individually to the ways of being what's called "The Fourth Missionary" so that way when the blessings come we will appreciate them a ton more. So as we have been working on our things, the Lord has been well pleased with our hard work and blesses us with tender mercies daily. We have been receiving a ton of referrals, which are nonmembers that we are asked to go and visit and see if they are willing to hear about the message of which we have to share. Some invite us in and don't want to learn but will be kind and befriend us. And on the otherhand, some will look at us like we are crazy and say, "Umm I already have a Lord and Savior, thanks for your time anyways." For every 5 people that turn us down, one is bound to listen!

 

We contacted the referrals one evening and one of them was this family of nonmembers. They actually weren't home, but the son was! He lives in Salt Lake and goes to SLCC and was just home for the weekend. So we asked him if he would be interested in learning more about the church and he said, "I mean sure, I just really like hearing ya'lls testaments about the church. Oh, can I have a Book of Mormon too? I have been meaning to read it again." What? Again? He explained that growing up in utah and hearing a ton about the LDS church, he wanted to read the BOM for himself and learn about it. So he read it once when he was 10 and hasn't since. So we gave him one and shared a scripture with him, Moroni 10:3-5. Just when we thought he would be interested, he began talking about how he actually is agnostic and belives in science to be the only true and correct thing. He started talking about distorted things in the church like polygamy, tithing, mormons being forced into having lots of kids, how the Prophet is paid, gay people, and sexual chemistry. Yes, we covered all of these things in a matter of 15 minutes. He had such a terrible concept on it all and I think my comp and I did a good job staying focused and not going deep into those things. He obviously was very set in his ways and what he believes and there wasn't any changing that, but we helped him understand the nature of God. That yes, God has given us His restored church once again on the earth and if We Choose to follow his commandments, He promises blessings eternally and life with Him forever. But the only thing is that He doesn't have our Heart. We helped him understand that God loves us so much that He doesn't force us to believe the gospel. The only thing He doesn't have is our hearts. WE have to choose to give that to him for ourselves, WE have to choose to follow His commandments which He has given, WE have to choose to repent and be baptized and become a member of this church. The greatest gift that Heavenly Father gave to man is his Agency, his freedom to choose. You don't show someone love by forcing them to do something, yet you express your love by guiding them in the right direction and then letting them choose on their own. This is the pure love of Jesus Christ. All men are saved through His Atonement He performed, but all men still can choose to partake of it and repent of their sins and become cleansed. Heavenly Father loves each and every one of His children and desires us all to return back to Him one day. After we said this to him, he just looked at us and said that he would read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true. We then taught him how to pray in addressing Heavenly Father, thanking Him for blessings and asking any questions (for him in regards to the BOM), then closing in the name of Jesus Christ. He said he would do it! We gave him our number and told him to ask us any questions if he needed to! You could tell his heart was softened. It was definitely a weird experience in the beginning, but to share with him our testimonies changed his outlook. :)

 

So one day it was snowing pretty bad and we decided to go walking to try and find some people to teach. We met this guy standing outside of this house on the drive-way shoveling it. We stopped and talked to him for a minute and he actually invited us back over to meet with him. He said we wanted to learn more about the church because his ex-wife was actually LDS. So Sister Wight and I have been trying to go back and meet with him and the last 3 times we have went he hasn't been home. But, this last time we went a couple days ago his daughter answered. And guess what, she wasn't wearing any pants. Talk about Awkward. Seriously, I have never felt so weird shaking someone's hand as I did hers at her front door. Ahh!!! Strrrrange people!

 

There is a less-active family that we have been visiting often and teaching lessons to. They are the funniest family I think I have ever met! Maybe.. But any way, the dad is Native American and believes in Animal Todoms, Totems? However you spell it. Haha it's funny to me and Sister Wight because we haven't heard of that, ever. But he said that he would ponder on what we are, what animal we are, then let us know. About a week after he said that he texted us at like 3am and said, "I GOT IT! I know your todoms." The next lesson we had with them, he shared with us what we are. Apparently I am a Dolphin and these are the attributes:

kind

salvation

wisdom

happiness

playfulness

prudent

capable of deep emotion

happy

Even though I don't understand the Todom thing, I thought that those are great attributes to work towards! Neat, huh? :)

 

And this other guy that's not an ective member we are teaching wrote me a song about flowers, it's hilarious! We are thinking of writing a song with him. It'll be interesting to say the least. Haha I love the people here. They are so great, they keep us on our toes!

 

We are experiencing miracles! Yes! We have 2 new investigators, pray for them! Pray for them to feel loved and to have open hearts to our message we have to share. Good things are happening :)

 

My favorite scripture right now is Mosiah 4:11, look it up! I know that scripture was written just for me. I read it during personal study at the perfect time, just when I needed it. I know once i have felt the Lord's love I can become humble, pray fervently, and press forward with faith. Faith is key. Faith is action. FAITH FAITH FAITH!

 

I love you, all! So much! Thank you for all of the love and support.

 

Until next time,

Sister Garretson