Elder Garrett Brothers' Mission Blog: Week 10 Journal: Second month done!

Following is Garrett's email from the tenth week of his mission. His email address is garrett.brothers@myldsmail.net, and his mailing address for letters and packages is:

Elder Garrett Brothers
242 Laredo Rd, Apt. 10
Evanston, WY 82930

September 6th, 2016

2 months! Whhaaaaat?! Transfers happened yesterday. For us. Elder Owen got called as a zone leader, which means he goes down early to the mission home. He was feeling a lot of stress about that...

My new companion is on his last transfer. He's Elder Matsuzaki. Elder Matsuzaki has a Japanese father and a Brazilian mother. He lived in Brazil. He speaks Portugese, Spanish, English, and Japanese to varying levels of fluency. He enjoys video games, which is cool, and he played a lot of volleyball before his mission. He has back problems, so he can't drive. He's really experienced so I'm trying to learn a lot from him. We work really hard together, so I have no time...

September 7th, 2016:

We're doing language study now--Elder Matsuzaki is practicing English and I'm practicing Spanish.

We had correlation today, and it occurs to me exactly how much we have to keep track of in our area!

September 8th, 2016:

I tried my first crab apple today! They're super bitter.

September 9th, 2016:

I tried to get a prescription for my meds done today. It's frustrating because apparently Kaiser will not pay for it. I ended up working with the mission nurse, Sister Balling, and my dad. We determined that I should buy my medicine with no insurance and mail the receipt back to my dad so he can deal with it. Hopefully it will all be set up for next time.

September 10th, 2016:

Whew! I've had so little time to write in my journal. I wrote 9/8 & 9/9 today from memory. It's been crazy.

~Later~

It's amazing how just going out and visiting people can help my mood. Sometimes it's hard to do weekly planning (which takes 2+ hours).

The work is going well; the group with the most missionary work is the Spanish Branch, Bear River Branch. Or at least, it's the group we're doing the most work in.

September 11th, 2016:

Today was pretty cool. We had regional conference instead of sacrament meeting, and all the talks were good. Elder Ballard spoke. The focus of the meeting was the attitudes and actions we have as disciples of God.

Also today, we visited Artemio. Artemio seems completely ready to be baptized, but he will not get baptized. Elder Matsuzaki and Artemio talked most of the time in Spanish; I can understand Spanish pretty well but I have trouble speaking it. At the end of our visit, I bore a really powerful testimony on how our greatest changes come from inside us, which is to say, we have to decide to change, and how we just have to take action. There is no "green light" from God. We change through God, and he's always ready for us to change for the better. In other words, for us, the green light for change is always on. The spirit was with me as I spoke and it was a wonderful experience.

***

Here are some more things that are going on that I didn't have time to write in my journal:

The work is going well. We have five investigators on date--Raymond, Sahyra, Jose, Alyssa, and Alaizy. Raymond and Sahyra are for the 23rd this month. They are a married couple in the Bear River Branch (Spanish) and are very solid investigators. Jose is a young man who decided to investigate because his LDS friends are such good people, and while he's committed, his dad sometimes only gets to see the family on Sundays so he wants to go out and do things with them. He's on date for October 14th. Alyssa didn't like her old church because, in her words, the pastor was lying to her. She feels better when she attends the LDS church. She's on date for the 22nd of this month. Alaizy has a part member family. She's 13 (or so) and she is already pretty active in the church, but we still need to teach her so she's on date for October 8th.

I still sometimes feel like I don't know what I'm doing when I plan. I'm progressing pretty well--gaining confidence, working better in the area, and becoming a better person (I hope)--and I'm learning things, if slower than I would like. I know I need to have patience and I'm trying to. The hardest things I've found on the field are keeping track of all the names and planning around that. I've developed a good system using Areabook's focus list, but I'm still improving it. Even then, when planning to visit them it's more efficient to visit other people nearby instead. I wish Areabook map had the focus list as a filter so we could see where the people we wanted to visit are on the map all at once. Also being able to see where all the scheduled events for a day will happen would help. I've submitted it as a suggestion in the app.

I read some talks in the binder new missionaries receive in our mission, specifically "Becoming a Consecrated Missionary" and "The Fourth Missionary." Both talk about attitudes I should take while on my mission and how I can make it the most effective for everyone involved. They were cool talks.

There are still so many cards I haven't sent out yet! You can tell from my journals that I've had so little time.

Because Elder Matsuzaki is on his last transfer, I'm probably going to be in Evanston for at least one more transfer, and maybe even two. Anything could happen, but if I were to leave in the next transfer, it would be a "whitewash," in which two missionaries are placed in an area at the same time. Neither one knows the area, the members, the ward leaders, or the investigators. All they have is the notes from the prior missionaries, so it can be really stressful for both the departing missionaries and the entering ones. So I’m guaranteed to have had a new companion for the first three transfers: my trainer became a zone leader, my next companion will have gone home. And if I’m transferred on the third transfer, then I’ll have had four different companions for my first four transfers. Weird to think about. But it’s not super indicative of the future, though.

Also, I’m getting mixed messages on whether there is really a rule everyone should send all their (non-electronic) letters and packages to the mission office instead of directly to my apartment. I’ve been told that’s what the mission asks people to do, but Elder Owen and most of the other missionaries in my zone have been getting stuff sent directly to them. If I find out one way or the other let you all know! If it is a rule, then didn't know beforehand, though, so if I was in error I was ignorant.

The weather in Evanston is getting colder. It's currently between 60 to 70 degrees for a high. It's also incredibly windy, as always.

I think that's all for now!

Elder Brothers

Photos!