ALOOOOOHA! November 22, 2010

What an amazing week for all of us here in Hawaii! The Laie Hawaii Temple was dedicated and Satan's power has gone down just a little bit now that we have a working temple here! Elder Paul Pieper told us that the missionary work in our areas is going to increase because of this opening, but I will talk about him in a little bit.

The temple dedication started off with a cultural celebration the youth did for the prophet! Wow that was amazing! They did dances from all different islands (Tonga, Samoa, Fiji, etc.). President Monson was his joyous self as always, just cracking jokes and laughing for no apparent reason! I love that man and there is no doubt he has been called by God to lead Christ's church. Then the dedication on Sunday was amazing! There were some awesome talks given before the temple was dedicated. President Eyring, President Monson, Elder Cook and Elder Walker were here for the temple dedication, and also Elder Pieper. Oh how blest we we are in Utah to have temples all around us. People here in Hawaii have had no temple (except on big island) for almost 2 years, and we have 5 temples within 30 minutes of each other. Take advantage of the blessings of the temple, they are the closest place on earth that we can get to heaven!

This week has been solid, I have had many spiritual experiences this week. First off on Tuesday night we had a solid lesson with L***. L*** is such a sincere person and is so spiritual. She has been Catholic for basically her whole life but doesn't agree with a lot of it. We taught her this week from the book of mormon and the power it brings, and man was that spiritual. We taught her about revelation thru prayer and the book of mormon, we taught her about baptism and what Jesus Christ expects of her, and so we are working hard with her. She was crying at the end of the lesson, and she said a closing prayer after I said a closing prayer and said "I thank thee for sending these 2 angels to me!!" That was so powerful to hear that, I hope we can help her see that baptism is what she needs to do!

This week we had another awesome lesson with Sister A** S****. She has been going thru a lot lately and EVERY WEEK the spirit directs us in the lesson we need to teach, and its just what she needs. I learned this week to NEVER ignore the promptings of the Spirit, because I ignored it once and it was a big mistake. And then I followed it 2 days in a row and it was just what she was expecting, it was so neat. Don't ever ignore the promptings of the Spirit ya'll, you are getting the promptings for a reason, SO LISTEN and ACT!

We had an interesting run in with a guy this week while tracting. We had about a 45 minute conversation on his doorstep and he just kept bringing up concerns, we would answer them and then he would say "we don't know what our church teaches." I finally at the end was like "sir, you are not a member of our church, and you are telling me, a member of the true church, what we do and don't believe. Doesn't that seem a little weird?" He did not like that but he had no response for it! Some people these days I tell you what!

Alright, so here is the most amazing experience for me this week. Probably one of the coolest things that has happened to me before. So last Saturday we had the opportunity as missionaries to listen to Elder Paul Pieper from the Quorum of the Seventy, He came and taught us, and he answered a question I had asked the Lord the night before. He actually talked on my exact question for 2 hours! It was super cool. And then, he wanted to interview a couple missionaries before he left, and who does he choose!? Elder Garritson baby! Holy cow it was super chill, we just talked, he got to know me and asked about the blessings I have seen in my mission so far. The spirit these men have is unbelievable, its just illuminating! It was a very neat experience to have a one on one conversation with a man like this! He only asked one thing of me, so he asked me to relay this message from him to you Mom and Dad: "Thank you for raising such a great son in the right way to come out here and to be an excellent missionary. You are amazing people and I can tell that from your son!" Straight from one of the Quorum of the Seventies! I love you Mom and Dad!

I will miss you all during this holiday season, it will be hard, but this is where I am suppose to be! I know why I am here, and the Lord will take care of us! Set me a place at Dinner, and I will be there in Spirit! You are all in my prayers, I love you all! Happy Thanksgiving!

Ofa atu.

Elder Garritson

ALOOOOOOOOOOHA!!!! November 15, 2010

Aloha my beloved brothers and sisters in the beautiful state of Utah!

Hope all is well with you folks and you are doing well, Hawaii is solid and the temperature is nice (relatively) but it is super raining which kinda sucks to be honest! But I shouldn't complain, no snow on the roads and that is a pure blessing!

This week not too much happened, just hit the pavement trying to find, teach and baptize nations! This week we were able to have a lesson with L***, and her husband wasn't there! (Her husband is the one that is holding her back from being baptized) .We got her a BOM in Spanish so she could understand everything and she was so STOKED! She could not believe it and said "this is the greatest gift you guys could give me because its in Spanish." Ironic eh, because it really is the greatest gift we could give her, whether in Spanish or not! She committed to reading it so we will see what happens with that, her husband (well actually boyfriend) is not interested at all, although he does love when we come over. Thats okay tho, MIRACLES HAPPEN and L*** is going to be one of those!!

Wednesday we got to go to Pearl Harbor again and do some service on the USS Missouri! That was so tight! That ship is amazing and we don't really even do that much service when we go, we just check out the ship and do little housekeeping (I guess boat keeping) stuff. Small kine stuff but its still solid!

We had a good lesson with H**** on Friday, he is coming along slowly but surely. He has a great testimony and knows being baptized will give him a better life, he just learns very slowly so we have to teach principles a lot. He will be baptized if his sister doesn't stop it again! Pray for her heart to be softened!

So each Sunday we get to do Sacrament at the Care Home (I am getting "in" with the owners there so my parents have a place in 10 years!) and its so fun! These people are NUTS! They have no idea whats going on, they just sing randomly, clap during the sacrament hymn, its a riot! But even tho this stuff still happens, its so spiritual and they feel it! I love old people haha!
So thats about all I got for this week!

All is going well, nothing to exciting here in Hawaii. My companion is solid, very good elder and knows what his purpose is. He keeps my faith strong and we work hard! Elder Smith and I (my last companion) still live in the same pad so we have a lot of fun (maybe too much fun?) but still work hard. Missionary work is the greatest thing that you can do! Things aren't easy, its probably the hardest and most stressful thing you will do! But as long as you stay focused and work hard, it WILL be the most rewarding experience you will have thus far in your life! Let the Holy Spirit guide ya'll, until next time, Love you all!

PS I need some letters!!!!!!!!!, gotta give a shout out to Brooke and Daisha, they consistently writing! I will write back I promise!

Ofa atu
Elder Garritson

More pics!!

While sitting and waiting for Jordan's latest email, I thought I would post a couple more pictures.

There were a couple of pics on his birthday. One of the ladies Jordan and his comp baptized has been soooo kind to them, and she baked him a cake for his birthday, had them over for dinner, and gave him a present-a picture she had put together. Love those people who love and watch over my son!!!!!

HOWZIT!--November 1, 2010

Aloha one and all! How are my favorite people back in the 801 doing? I don't really know why I ask that because I don't get a response, but you have to start out an email like that or it is just worthless. So I heard it has been pretty cold there, too bad. Halloween here was... pretty lame actually. We had to be in by 5 on Saturday and Sunday so we just kinda chilled and I caught up on some much needed sleep! White washing into a new area is hard work, but its enjoyable! We went to a members house Sunday night, and there wasn't one trick or treater all night, pretty lame out here in Hawaii. For some reason, their favorite holiday is New Years, New Years is NUTS over here from what I have been told! I guess we will see, this is the last year for fireworks.

So anywho, about the work. We are doing a lot of finding, and not really finding haha! We actually did find one new girl named K**** who is a former investigator from when the sisters were in this ward. She is 15 and is a pretty solid girl. She lives with her dad and I feel like her getting baptized would help their relationship. The only problem is her mom doesn't really want her to get baptized again, so its tough to work around that. She is super cool and has a great testimony about what she needs to do already. Things will come around for her, I know it.
We found a new investigator who lives at the care home here (I was at the care home looking for a place for my parents). His name is H**** and he is a great guy! He has been taught before and was ready to be baptized but his sister wouldn't let him go thru with it. He already accepted to be baptized so we will see if this can go anywhere. I love teaching people at the care home, they are SO FUNNY! They have no one to talk to so they just talk to you for hours on end about nothing at all! Its pretty great, my companion struggles to stay awake haha but I love it!

We had an amazing Sunday in which we found another new investigator. Her name is K*** and she went to the temple open house and loved it. She said she felt like she needed to do something for her dead brother in the temple. She keeps on getting that spiritual impression so we are going to start teaching her in a couple of weeks. She is super busy, and lives with an excommunicated member (who wants to come back into church, so this is not a bad situation. Had it not been for the excommunicated member, K**** would have never come in contact with the church). Work is coming, we are working very hard with the ward to get them on their member missionary work!

So things over here are pretty solid. We live in a 4 man pad and my previous companion Elder Smith lives with me. He stayed in my old area Kahala and I went to Hawaii Kai. We both are training so its a lot of fun! Our pad is rockin! Elections are Tuesday and its kinda scary for Hawaii because they are going to vote in a man who has some whack ideas, so we will see how that pans out with everything! I got a good picture for all of ya'll! We had an interesting time tracting this week, we ran into some very rude people, and of course my pride took over. I can't believe some people, don't EVER be mean to missionaries of any church, I don't care who you are. If you do, I will hunt you down and hurt you (haha!).

We have a HUGE training this week with all the missionaries on Oahu from 8-3 Tues-Thurs so it is going to be very good. They came out with new teaching principles, so it is going to be a good thing! Things are coming along, just gotta trust in the Lord! My thought for this week comes from 1 Nephi 15:24. the first part of this verse gives us an AMAZING promise! Go check it out, this is an amazing scripture! The church is true, the book is blue and Joseph Smith is the man! Love you all!

Elder Garritson

Email from Monday October 15, 2010

Ok, so I got a little behind by about a week! Oh well, enjoy this one today, read today's letter tomorrow!

Well another week down and the weather here is really cooling down for us! The swells are coming in and we are hitting the surf hard! This is the best time of the year, we have a mean time out on the waves! Unfortunately, ya'll are having problems with the snow, too bad!!

So this week was a pretty hectic week for me! Man whitewashing into an area is not the funnest thing to do in an area. We have no one to teach right now so we are just really hitting the members up hard, trying to get referrals. We are in the Hawaii Kai area, right next door to Kahala. The Ward Mission Leader and Bishop are helping us out, so hopefully in a couple weeks we should be finding some new investigators. We found one on Saturday who is 14 years old, she has been taught before by missionaries. She is going to be baptized brah, her name is K****, I cannot wait! We also had contact with L**** again (the lady we met at the party). Her and her husband are super chill to us, they love us, but not quite ready to change. Well, I guess I should say the husband isn't. He is very interested in the BOM. We are trying to encourage him to read it and pray about it. We are going to teach him stories about it, read from it with him and hopefully he will recognize the Spirit talking to him. We will see though, anything can happen if you have enough faith!

I got a new companion fresh out of the MTC. His name is Elder Taylor from Arizona. This kid is a STUD!! Hard worker and hit the ground running, he is very teachable and knows what his purpose is! I am very blessed to be serving with him!

I have really been learning to trust in the Lord the past couple weeks, especially this week. I felt a lot of pressure this week when I got called to these things but I knew it was a calling from the Lord. He has really blessed me and helped me out to do the things that I need to. Its all the Spirit man! Its amazing how well it works when you just listen to what it has to tell you. We did some amazing things this week I don't think would have ever happened without the Spirit. Live worthy of the Spirit, listen to what it has to say, it will never lead you astray! (yeah I rhyme brah!)

Sunday was a solid day of church, it was the primary program! These little children are so special, I love the primary program so much! One little girl, about 5 years old got up and sang a solo without any fear and she did so well! I was amazed, it was super spiritual. They all having amazing testimonies. Simple but yet so powerful. We would all do well to follow in their footsteps. Just like we have been taught, "humble yourself and become as a little child through the Atonement of Jesus Christ..." That is my message today. Be an example to these kids, but more importantly, learn from their examples. They will teach us a lot of we listen to what they have to say and feel their Spirit. Hope everyone has a great week, stay safe with all the snow! Love you all!
Elder Garritson