September 20, 2010

Aloooooooha!

Howzit from Hawaii! All is well here in the beautiful islands. It is blazing hot right now, these next couple weeks are some of the hottest weeks of the year because the trade winds tend to die down. A couple weeks and the temp is going to drop about 10 degrees and it is going to be solid! Well, its already is solid-- its Hawaii come on, but it will be even better! Hope all is well in Utah, I bet it is going to start cooling down and I feel for you guys! That is going to be no bueno. I'll think about you while I am chillin on the beach (just kidding)!

Another week down and it seems like they are flying by. You have all been in school for a month, and I am coming up on 4 months out (yeah I know 20 more months, I am almost there). Haha but I was thinking the other day and I am pretty stoked that I still have 20 months left. These next 20 months are the ONLY 20 months left of my life that I can fully devote all my time to the Lord. To share the Gospel with all the people I come in contact with, being called by a prophet of God. Being so in tune with the Spirit that its scary at times! I love this job, I love this work, and more importantly I love these people! The Gospel is true my friends, I promise you that!

Work is still slow here unfortunately. Its going to pick up though, I know it. The Lord is putting us thru a dry spell to strengthen our faith. Its like I talked about last week, if we get everything we want, we will never get anything we need. If every door I knocked turned into a baptism, I wouldn't learn a thing. It would be tight, but it wouldn't help me grow. My faith wouldn't strengthen. These times are tough, but seeing the blessings come after these times make it all worth it! I can see a bright future ahead, I just can't get brought down by Satan (a lesson we can all learn, not just for missionaries).

We are teaching 3 people on a consistent basis right now. ***** is a 14 year old kid who is SUPER smart and thinks very hard, at times too hard. We are really focusing in with him and trying to get him to recognize the Spirit and not try to understand everything all at once. He will be baptized, its all just a matter of time. His sister ****, who we have been teaching (she is 8 years old) is getting baptized! Its going to be great and I think this is going to be the turning point for *****. I'll let you know how that all pans out.

Then in Hawaii Kai we are teaching two ladies. One whose name is Angela. She is Catholic and is very devout. She is such a sweet spirit though, some of our lessons get pretty heated but I love this woman! She is so kind. There is going to come a time when she is going to say "I get it". She comes to church, she reads, she prays, all in due time will the blessings of the Spirit come upon her and testify to her of the truthfulness of the Gospel.

The other lady we are teaching is Cindy and all her kids have been baptized and she wants to, she just needs to quit smoking. She is trying really hard and she will quit very soon. We are going to get a date set with her this week. She will recieve the strength she needs thru the Atonement of Jesus Christ, I know it! Blessings are in store!!!!

Thats about all. The brethren have come out with a new teaching method which focuses in on 8 teaching principles in helping people and investigators. They also came out with DVD's to help, which are AMAZING. President Dalton bought every companionship a DVD player to put in their pad, and we watch these DVD's every night! My teaching has gone thru the roof with this! I will explain more about it later, my fingers are tired.

Stay strong in the Gospel, keep your sights on the temple, remember who you are and what you stand for! The Lord will bless you and help you, but you have to let him in. Don't give into temptation. Shun Satan, and all will be well. I love you all!

Elder Garritson