Ants in My Pants

Hey all! You will never guess what happened this week! This week was one of the best weeks of the mission so far, and it was filled with plenty of surprises!


A pleasent surprise was 2 baptisms this week! We baptized Temana (investigator baptism) and we baptized Jeannine (an excommunicated member baptism). I had the privelidge to baptize them both and they both have very different stories. Jeannine has been working ever since January to get back in the church, and after a marriage, following the lessons, changing times for work, and baptizing her kids, she is back! With Temana, he has a little bit of a learning disability, so we had to change our teaching style a ton. But, it just goes to show that the Lord is looking out for everyone, and if we ask, He will give us the way to succeed.

Jeannine's Baptism

Temana's Baptism

 

The crazy surprise is that I am not in Bora Bora right now! I got a transfer call to serve on Tahiti! I am right now serving with Elder Peel in Maraa! It was so weird to see all the cars and big buildings (which I am sure are nothing compared to America!)! So, I'll be here for a while, and I'll be the senior companion, definitely freaking out a little bit right now!

Na Na Bora Bora

Also, we had a fireside that was awesome! It was about the meaning of Christmas and how Christmas is about the people, not about the presents. Definitely a cool message! And for one of the videos, Elder Webber and I translated the subtitles into French (the French movie isn't out yet)! Definitely a cool experience!

Ants In My Pants

Funny Moment of the Week:

Definitely goes to finding a colony of ants in my pants! They were hanging up, and in the morning, we found the colony all over 2 pairs of my pants and all over my dress shirts... Definitely had to laugh that one off!

Josh's First Boat Blessing

Culture Shock:

We were asked to give a blessing to a boat... Not every day you find someone asking for a blessing on their boat! Just goes to show how important fishing is here!

Spiritual Thought:

This week, I came across a quote that Elder Stevenson said. He said that when he was called to the Quorem of the 12 Apostles, he was very overwhelmed. But, President Monson told him that the Lord qualifies those who He calls. Several times on the mission, I feel like I am not qualified at all to be a missionary. I am trying my best, but there are honestly times that I feel like the French or Tahitian isn't coming, comprehension and speaking. But, the Lord will qualify me to do His work if I remain faithful to Him. And for all of us, if we are faithful to the Lord, we will be qualified to do what He asks us to do.

Elder Garff

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"

 

Happy Halloween?

Hey all! I'll explain the title of this email later... But today was a great week! Here in Bora things are really picking up! We have been finding a lot of new investigators and we experienced miracles this week! We literally experienced miracles! In the work of the Savior, I have honestly seen more miracles in my life, not because of me, but because I am reaching out beyond myself and I am realizing how much I am really dependant on the Savior. Every time we listen to His Spirit we are blessed! And with the miracles, I will tell you in 2 weeks what they are... :)

Apparently, our Halloween package for Josh just arrived this week.  He and Elder Webber have been celebrating Halloween.

So, everything else has been going great! Elder Webber and I have been working as hard as we are able every day and are putting together a Christmas fireside, which requires us translating a video into French... Should be awesome! The language is defintely coming better too, it's just through all of the small and simple things that the great things are brought to pass!

"Our Chapel - Pretty Awesome!"

Know that I love you all and I hope that you are all enjoying the snow! Here, it's crazy hot, super windy, and when it rains, it is hard to tell if it is the sweat or the rain on our faces ha ha ha!

"Thanksgiving Feast - Playboy Roulotte - Ua Reva Tatou!"
 

Spiritual Thought:

In a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar, he asked the question, "I wonder if in our comfortable lives of electricity, air conditioning, and modern commodities if we have forgotten our daily dependance on the Savior" (definitely paraphrased). My Spiritual thought for this week is focused on our daily dependance on the Savior. I know that every day I don't ask for His help in the mission field is a tough and near impossible day. But, every day that I humble myself and ask for His help, I find miracles and strength. My challenge to you all to start this Christmas season is to realize how much Christ is in your life and to give Him credit where it is due (everywhere!).

Elder Garff

Happy Thanksgiving!

Hey all! I hope that this week brings Tahitian-like meals for you all! I think it is funny when people ask about Thanksgiving here, because I basically describe a dinner appointment every time ha ha ha!

Josh with Elder Webber and Keanu

 This week, Keanu was baptized! This kid is an absolute stud! There are tons of stories about him, but the one that stuck out the most to me was right after his baptism, there was a huge celebration, tons of cake!!!!!!!!! And there was a rehearsal for the talent show, and tons of other things happening. While Elder Webber and I were putting away the chairs for Sacrament Meeting the next day, Keanu saw us and asked if he could help. So, he put aside all of the food, friends, dancing, etc... so he could help us. Talk about an amazing kid!

"Tama'a Maitai after the baptism huh?!"

Other than that, this week was another great week! We have continued to work as hard as possible and should be having a lot of success with baptisms in the next few weeks! Right now, our goal is to have 5 by the end of the year. I don't know if I will still be in Bora by then, but hey, 5 baptisms by the end of the year for Bora Bora! We have 1 fixed for the 12th of December, and we should be having 2 others fixed at least this week!

Josh changing his first flat tire

Though this week was great, my bike didn't really get the memo... So, this week I got a flat tire and it took us 3 days to finally repair it! Talk about frustrating! The part where you inflate the tire popped entirely off, it was definitely a fun experience ha ha ha!

"This is how I work out every day - I lift empty gas cans.  With empty gas cans, you know that every shower is cold, no heat!!! Got to love it!"

Spiritual Thought:

This week, I want to share a little Thanksgiving message with everyone. Before the mission, I didn't realize how blessed we are to live where we do. In Utah, there are tons of luxuries that many people around the world don't have. As I look around where we serve, one of the richer sectors in the mission, I am more and more grateful for my home.

But, most importantly, I think the mission has taught me the most about being grateful for my family. I think I might have taken for grated being with my family, and now am starting to regret every time I didn't do something with them and could have. I love you all so much! Definitely know that I am grateful for you and will always be thinking about you!

So, this Thanksgiving, don't focus on the food, focus on the family: Our family here on the earth and our eternal family.

Elder Garff

Another Week in Paradise

Hey all!

I hope that everything back home has been going well! Here, things are heating up! While everyone in Utah is putting on sweatshirts and pants (though I would suggest that everyone wear sport shorts), here the topic at every house is how hot it is! This time of year in Tahiti is the hot and mosquito season! So, a little different than back home!

A Tahitian Celebration

This week was a very preparatory week. We have started to focus more on the things that our investigators need to be baptized, and we have a lot of baptisms on the horizon! Next week, we should have one! I will tell you more next week, but this kid is really impressive and understands the Gospel a lot better than I did at his age, and he is an investigator!!! We have also taken a lot of action and have tons of events coming up! Including a ward talent show (27th) and a ward Christmas Fireside (December 13th). So, a lot of really cool stuff is coming up!

Next week should be awesome! I hope that you are all doing well, and just know that when the snow comes, I'll be sweating up a storm!

"Notice that Bryan, the man behind me, has biceps bigger than my head!"

Spiritual Thought:

This week, I really learned a lot about judging others. Sometimes, I am very quick to jump to conclusions without getting the whole story. But, something that I have learned before, and something that I relearned this week was that we need to have a positive attitude toward everyone and not judge them. It is hard to change a lifestyle and it is impossible to be perfect. President Brigham Young said once that on earth, we are commanded to be as perfect as we can. A popular phase nowadays is a saint is someone who keeps trying, (thank you Nelson Mandela) and if we are trying our own personal best, that is enough. That is what God demands of us, not to do the personal best of someone's capability, but to do our own personal best.

Elder Garff

The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman and Garfield - Week 1

Bonjour everyone!

 

So, quick explanation with this above... Elder Webber and I have been given cartoon characters because of our names. So, all of the kids and most of the adults here call us Elder Spiderman and Elder Garfield. So, definitely awesome!

 

Tan Lines brought to you from Maitai roa

This week was a good week! It was a weird week adjusting to a new companion, but, like Elder Borgholthaus, Elder Webber is awesome! This week, we taught a ton of lessons, and I think we taught the Plan of Salvation at least 3 times a day! Pretty awesome! And all of our investigators are in a great progression! We are teaching a lot of kids right now, so working with a lot of parents too, but we should be having a couple of baptisms soon! Stay posted!

 

And with the language, everything is coming along much better. Definitely I still have to keep working and now I am more tired than ever when I come back to the house, but it is not as frustrating anymore! So, definitely a good sign!

 

A quick shoutout to Elder Abraham Smith-Driggs for rerouting my mail - Thanks Man!

Spiritual Thought:

With learning a new language, I sometimes put myself in the shoes of our investigators. They are incredible. If someone came up to me and could barely piece a sentance together, I don't know how patient I would be with them, or if I would want to talk to them for an hour or two every week. Here, I have really seen true humilty. To change and do the will of God taught by a couple of Elders who have French as a 2nd language would be tough. But, with humility, there is the Holy Ghost. And with the Holy Ghost, there is a conversion. Truly, I have come to see that only through the Holy Ghost can others be converted to the Gospel and come unto Christ.

 

Hope the snow isn't too cold over there!

 

Elder Garff

Au Revoir Elder Borgholthaus - Bonjour Elder Webber

I hope that everyone had a great Halloween! And that there were some great costumes!

As for my Halloween, it was great! We had a great activity, and my health I think has declined, more on that below! But, this is the end of my training (yeah!!!), and there were a lot of treats. One is that the language is finally starting to come along! I still have a long way to go, but it was like getting the fun size candy bar! It was sweet, but the king size is the way to go right? Nevertheless, I am very grateful for my small candy bar :) The other treat was my new companion! His name is Elder Webber and he is from Florida! He used to be a zone leader and will finish his mission in 3 months! It is crazy, I am put with all of the wise and old missionaries!

 Elder Borgholthaus - Nice Balloon lei Josh

About that, I also sent my companion back home. Elder Borgholthaus was an awesome companion for me, and defintely taught me how to speak French better, how to plan effectively, and how to love the people. I definitely can learn a lot from him and hope that I'll see him in 19 months!

Speaking of that, it is crazy that I have been here for 5 months! If you could the months, I have been here for 7 (I started the very end of May and it is the very beginning of November ha ha ha!)! It defintely has gone fast, and I think that is it going to be even faster, now that I can somewhat understand people!

Elder Webber

Funny Thought!

So, about my health. During the good bye tour for Elder Borgholthaus, we said hi to some investigators in our old sector, Faanui. Tom, the investigator, took one look at me and the first thing he said was, "Elder Garff, tu as grossé"! Or, "Elder Garff, you have gotten bigger/fatter"! I definitely had to take a look at myself and say, "yeah, I have put on a few pounds..."!!! You might see that in the pictures I send!

Spiritual Thought:

My Gam sent me a talk given by Elder Bednar about the Atonement of Christ. From this talk, he said something that is on the front of every planner I have (since I received the talk) which has helped me discover how I can be a missionary and actually serve effectively for 2 years. "Individual willpower, personal determination and motivation, effective planning and goal setting are necessary but ultimately insufficient for us to triumphantly complete this moral journey. Truly, we must rely upon the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah." Truly as a missionary, I have found that only when I rely on Christ can I complete this mission with no regrets and find the strength to continue every day, even when I have none.