I'll Have A Purple Christmas Without You

Josh (Garfield) and Elder Webber (Spiderman)

Greetings everyone! I hope that everyone is liking the snow and if you are like I was, I hope you are all enjoying scraping the snow off of your cars every morning! Here, it is the hottest time during the year, so instead of scraping ice off of the car, I am wiping the sweat from my face and mud from my bike ha ha ha!

Josh with his Purple Christmas Tree

This week was a crazy busy week! We have every hour of every day filled with plans, back-up plans, and everything we can think of! This week, we worked really hard to prepare people for baptisms and saw a lot of progression! We have a transfer coming soon, so I might not be able to see them get baptized, but nevertheless, they are coming! This upcoming week, we should have a ward Christmas party (Friday), 2 baptisms (Saturday), and a Fireside that we set up (Sunday), so a crazy week ahead!

Josh with Elder Borgholthaus and Mateata

Other than that, everything was pretty normal. We are doing all we can to bring everyone to Christ, no matter the area! One of our investigators, Mateata, was baptized this week! But, in Raitea (another area). So technically the baptism doesn't count for us, but it was a great story with her! With my old companion, Elder Borgholthaus, we started teaching her and it was one of the hardest things that we attempted to do, as her mother is a leader of the Protestant Church. But, through the Spirit, we managed to help her get baptized!!!! Awesome story and decision for her!

"We saw this little friend one morning after our studies"
A Mom Note:  Frankly, I think this looks similar to a Komodo Dragon.  We will be sending Josh a crossbow for Christmas.

So I, by request of my parents, will add 2 things every week: Culture Shock and The Funny Moment of the week! Enjoy!

 

Funny Moment:

When explaining the Plan of Salvation, I accidentally told our investigator that the Spirit Prison was better than the Spirit Paradise... That was a little awkward.

 

Culture Shock:

One of the first things I learned here is that always, you take off your shoes before you enter into a house. Maybe something you want to try with the snow!

 

Spiritual Thought:

This week I have thought a lot about the power of the Holy Ghost in teaching. I will go in a little more depth next week, but I have truly learned that only through teaching by the Spirit I can be an effective missionary. And, to have the Spirit in our teaching, we need to ask for it! "How can you expect to receive something if you didn't think to ask me?" In our lives, we need the Spirit, to learn effectively, help others, and to be led to righteousness. So, in our lives, we need to ASK for the Spirit!

 

Elder Garff

"Speechless"