Pushing a Wheelchair Down a Rocky Path and Pictures of Sen Sok

One really cool thing this week is that we found a very old member.  She has been a member for over 10 years.  We were contacting and this guy came up and told us his mom knew us.  So we followed up and found his mom who is paralyzed on her right side, but her mouth seems to be okay.  She literally just sits and sleeps on a bed all day.  We talked with her and found out she was a member. We tried to stop by a few more times that week.  On Saturday we met her and told her we were going to take her to church.  She put up a little fight, but we solved her concern.  Her main one is that she would not have enough time to shower.   

I do not know if I have told you how they shower here, but they have huge, massive pots they fill with water, and they have a little pot scooper that they scoop water up and wash themselves with.  She told us usually she gets to shower once a week.  Or longer.  So, we moved all of the stuff to help her and set up a chair and pulled out the moto bike from the house so that she could shower.  Once we pulled out the bike, we went outside and shut the door.  Then when she was sitting back on the bed and was clothed we put the bike back inside and told her we would be back.  We have a wheel chair at the church, and we got to the church a little early and walked to her house with it.  Not too far, maybe a 4 to 5 minute walk.  So I carried her (deceptively heavy) from her bed to the wheelchair, and then we pushed her too church.  She said she felt very happy and loved being at church.  She left after the second hour.  We pushed her back home, I lifted her to her bed, and then we left.  By the way, it is not very easy to push an older, 70ish year old, woman on a dirt/rocky road.  More like small paths really.  I felt really happy to serve her, and it feels good to find someone who is a member and to bring them to church.  She tried to tell me that next week she would not come because it is too hard for us.  Yeah right.  We are coming back every single week. 

I came to the realization that sometimes I feel like I live in a farm-like petting zoo.  I have seen some type of Asian buffalo, cows, chickens, ducks, huge wild turkeys, horses, goats, huge wild frogs, etc.  I look out my door and a cow is 20 feet from my house eating my neighbor’s tree.  Sometimes you just have to laugh.  I watched someone cut off the head of a huge frog and skin it in front of my eyes.  Pretty cool.   

There are some awesome sunsets here.  I guess in the city I could never see them, but out here they are really pretty.  By the way, I have learned there are 5 words for rice.  One for when it is growing.  One right after they cut it.  One when it is ready to be cooked.  One when it has been cooked and ready to eat and another when it is put in a stew type thing.    

We spent most of the week contacting.  I do not know if this will sound like a big number, but we contacted about 64 people.  It is a lot when you are squeezing in a few investigators, recent converts, less actives, etc.  The Most of the contacting was not immediately beneficial.  We had some people interested but usually they had a reason they could not learn.  We have a few return appointments; we will see how they turn out.  Either way, I see this past week as a testing period.  The Lord wants to see our diligence and our desire.  And while I know we were not perfect in any way, I really think that we tried hard and tried to share with people the gospel.  Maybe in the future they will learn, but for now I hope and believe that somehow the Lord will bless us with referrals or someone who will want to learn.  

People Just Kept Coming

This has been a great week.  We were blessed with a lot of miracles this week.  Lots of new investigators just kind of showed up.  At church, this lady who had looked us up on the internet came and was totally interested.  Another recent convert brought her friend who is super interested and told me she knows it is true.  Sunday was awesome yet insane.  People just kept coming.  There were these three girls who showed up wanting to interview us for a school project because we were American.  They didn't want to stay for church but we swapped info, and I said I would call them later.

  

 
Things are going well.  We have a lot of investigators with goals right now, and we need to focus on helping them really progress towards baptism and take those final steps.  I don't know what it is about this area, but I feel like this is the land of eternal investigators.  We are working with a girl right now who prays every day, reads the Book of Mormon (is currently in Alma 54), and still doesn't want to get baptized because although she believes all of this, she still believes in Buddhism.  She accepted a goal though and came to church, which is big for her.  We will keep working.   

We had a wonderful miracle this week with our investigator Wang Zi Rong's family.  Last week her mom (who previously has been very supportive of her daughter but not personally wanting to investigate) had a very special experience with prayer when her mom was in the hospital.  I felt prompted this week to call her and ask if we could send the Elders to give her mom a blessing.  I called, and she said yes.  The hospital was out of our area, and we asked the zone leaders if they would be willing.  They were very willing to serve and said afterwards that it was a very spiritual experience and that they had committed the family to pray every day together for their grandma and grandpa's well being.  The next day the mom called me thanking us for sending the Elders and saying that they had prayed and that her mom was doing a lot better.  She was very touched by it, and I believe that she will get baptized.  It is hard to meet with her right now because she spends a lot of time at the hospital, but I believe one day soon she will understand that baptism can mean that she can be with her mom forever – no matter what happens.  Her daughter is doing awesome and is progressing towards her 24th baptismal goal. 

Garrett and Elder Kong

This week has been pretty good.  Actually it seemed like every single one of our investigators had a problem.  But it seems to be fixing itself.  First off, right now we do not have that many investigators.  We have dropped a lot, and some have just dropped off the face of the earth.  

Rado and Rada are getting baptized on 2/5/12 for sure.  They both came to church yesterday.  Their interview is set.  We waited a week because we wanted them to better understand that they should not be baptized if they were not going to keep the Sabbath day holy.  (Last week they didn’t come because they were helping prepare a Vietnamese New Year celebration.) So, both of them are good.  But we are meeting with them every day this week to review and prepare them for their baptismal interview.  They are doing well, and their parents are still strong.  Their dad will do the baptism.  He is very excited, and the kids are good kids.  Rado is pretty much like Tanner.  He loves to play computer games.  Even though they are pretty poor, they have a computer, which is kind of weird.  He loves to play video games, but he is a good kid.  

The Som family, Devin, and her husband, Heng, are progressing well but could not go to church yesterday because Heng had surgery on either a hemorrhage or hemorrhoid.  He had surgery and was in the hospital.  We went to visit him before church and gave him a blessing.  He is doing well and they are progressing, and he should be allowed to go home sometime tonight. I can only imagine how you are pronouncing their names.  They are awesome.  Every time I ask how church was they always say that they are so happy, filled with joy, that they understand a lot, etc.  They are really awesome.  They read the Book of Mormon, pray, etc.  One of the new goals for our mission is to make daily contacts with our investigators.  We have been trying to do that with them.  Even when we do not teach, we just stop by and say hi, ask if they read and prayed, she usually gives us a little food, etc.  Being with them is so awesome.  And Emma, they have three dogs.  Crazy.  Every time we ride up they are just barking and crazy.  Their names are Robin, Lucky, and Sky.  So, yesterday they were great at church and they came even though many members did not come.  We are about half way through the plan of salvation with them.  

Heng sleeping on a bench in his house with the Book of Mormon on his chest. 

 We have another investigator named Botum.  She was doing well, and she was the one who told us she did not want to learn when we first got here about 5 months ago, but then decided she was ready and came to church on her own.  Either way we have been teaching her, and she is doing well and understands a lot.  Then we got a call while we were planning Tuesday night telling us that she had a problem where she sells fruit and other things.  Quite honestly I do not understand it all because Elder Kong and the other members do not really know how to translate it all, and sometimes they say words I do not understand, but I understand most of it.  She had a problem with someone over in the market.  She told the other lady that that was her spot, or something like that, and then went away.  The other lady attacked her and hit her and she fell on the ground.  Then another random lady came and helped our investigator.  The attacking lady kicked Botum, which is a problem because she is 7 months pregnant.  After this happened, the Police arrested Botum and the lady who helped her.  They arrested them because after Botum got attacked, she scratched the other lady's face and made her bleed.  When the police came, that was the only evidence they saw.  At first, Botum and the lady were not in jail, but kind of in a holding area jail.  At first, the police would not let her go to the doctor even though her stomach was hurting, but finally they let her.  Two days later both ladies, Botum and the lady who helped her, got out of jail, but they had to pay $200 to for legal fees, etc.  Botum and the baby are fine.  She is feeling better.  The sad thing is that the other lady who just tried to help had to pay money too, and she was not even involved. She has 4 little kids at home.  Sad, but Botum is okay.

While all of our investigators have some problems, the work is good.  We are still working with members. We have also been really working with members.  Not just inactive or less active, but active members.  I had the idea that I wanted to do that while I was doing weekly planning by myself as Elder Sok packed.  Then Elder Kong came in and had the same idea, and we just started doing it without really even telling each other.  Initially, the reaction has been, "hy do you want to meet me?"  That is something we are trying to change.  We do not only want to meet investigators and members that are struggling, but meet members who are strong, and help them to be stronger.  Hopefully, six months from now the branch will get much stronger and then our recent converts will be more active because the branch and members are stronger.  So that is what we have been doing.  Overall, the mission is kind of changing things.  They have changed the goals to have 20 discussions with members present and 20 with members/recently concerted/less actives every week.  So, more of an emphasis on working with all members.  

I mentioned we are lacking investigators, so we have been doing a lot of service.  Well, trying.  They sell these huge sticks of sugar cane, probably 8 feet tall.  In order to sell it, they need to scrape off or "shuck" the bark from the sugar cane.  They sell it two ways.  One is in the form of small bite sized circles and people buy them to chew on them, and the other way is they crush them and sell the juice for people to drink.  One of our members sells them, so we went and "shucked" sugar cane for about an hour and a half.  At first, I did not know how to do it, but now I can do it pretty well.  You just hold a scraper, like a big cheese grater but with only one big blade thing to scrap it.  Then you scrap all the bark off.  And we helped her neighbor do hers.  I love to do service, and hopefully, it can plant some seeds.  

Chinese New Year

It is hard to get adjusted to a new area, but it is also super great.  My new area is like mini New York City.   It is so pretty and totally has that New York City feel.  There are kind of dingy, not so pretty parts, but then you will turn a corner and be in this really gorgeous city area with this random modern art in the middle of a park.

My new companion is great.  Sister Lethco is from California and this is her 11^th transfer period.  She has been in Taiwan for about 10 months.  She is a really sweet girl, and we get along really well.  

It has been a little tough lately because it is Guonian or Chinese New Year.  It is basically like Christmas time in the US.  Everyone just tells us they can meet after New Years, which is understandable.  I am sure missionaries in the US get the same thing because holiday times are so busy.  We have a lot of invitations to meet at member’s houses which is super fun, but in between that there is mostly open time.  I think it is kind of exciting.  I like going on random adventures to pop by less actives or part member families houses, but at the same time it can get a little slow.

Today we went with some members to this huge mall.  It was packed!  It took us an hour and a half to find something to eat, but it was cool to walk around the mall.  It was really coolly decorated and had awesome architecture.  It was fun to get to know better some members of our wards.  We went with a lady and her daughter and also a recent convert who is this sister’s coworker who she referred to the missionaries and another sister who is friends with them who has been investigating the church for forever.   

Probably the biggest success of the week was that a less active we are working with, Chan Mama, came to church on Sunday.  Our mission president has asked us to really focus our efforts on rescuing as well as baptizing.  Inactivity is a huge problem in Taiwan, and we are really trying to bring people back.  It is hard.  In my old area, we could hardly ever find less actives who were willing to meet or who were ever home, but here we have found some people who are willing to meet.  We have seen some success, which is so wonderful.   

Something that has really grown within me throughout my mission is a commitment and a determination to never turn away from what I have covenanted and from what I know.  
  
We did have great miracles this week.  On Friday night we had two really good lessons planned, and they both fell through.  We were feeling really bummed, so we prayed to ask what we needed to do, and I felt like we needed to stop by the house of one of our investigators.  We headed over there, and right as we rode past her door, she comes out with her daughter.  They were leaving to go the store.  It was a huge miracle because we had been trying to get in touch with that investigator for days, and we were able to set up and appointment with her, which was wonderful.  

Another great miracle of the week was also on Friday.  A member invited us over to her shop to eat dinner.  Her friend was there and said she had picked up a Book of Mormon and started reading it.  Because she was poor, she wanted to know what the gold plates were (she works with this member who owns a purse store and has a basket full of missionary related materials for customers as well as Book of Mormons to give out when people buy a purse).  Needless to say, she is amazing.  We sat down with her and talked about the restoration and the Book of Mormon.  It was a great lesson and she said she has a lot of interest in reading the Book of Mormon and that she loves to read.  We are really excited about that.   

We also painted our bikes today.  It is common here for missionaries to spray paint their bikes to prevent theft, which is not a huge problem but just like in any place is a possibility.  I didn't really want to paint mine for a long time because sometimes they look really lame when people paint them, but I decided that I need to do it because I don't want my bike to get stolen.  I spray painted my bike yellow.  I really like it; it is very sunny and makes me happy when I see it.  

Garrett Says Goodbye to Elder Sok

 We got new nametags!  They just translated "Elder Gibson" to Khmae, so people can read it.

The week was pretty good.  First off yes, I will talk about transfers.  We got transfer calls last night.  Elder Sok is going to another branch in Phnom Penh, and I am staying here for one more transfer.  I am getting another Khmae companion, and I have heard mixed things about him.  One returned elder told me he is super annoying. Others say his English is good and some say it is bad.  Either way, he is my companion, and we should do well together.  I must admit I was hoping a little bit that I would be transferred.  I love the members and the branch, but I was looking forward to a new branch, fresh faces, new investigators, new house, etc.  Oh well. I am still excited, and it should be good.  I know this will be my last transfer in the area.  6 months in one area is somewhat normal for new missionaries, but then the amount of time gets shorter, and they always leave after 6 months.  It should be a great transfer though. Transfers really do fly by.  I am a little nervous too as now I am the main elder who has to tell the new guy where we should go and when – not the best timing too when we have recently lost or dropped a lot of our investigators.  We still have a good amount though, and I have some good plans to really strengthen the branch through teaching members.  Our new goal as a mission is 40 lessons a week - 20 with members present and 20 member/less active/recent convert lessons.  So, that is that.

Our investigators are doing really well.  This is the situation on Rado and Rada.  President does not want them to be split up because they are still relatively young and they are a family.  So we plan on baptizing them in the Vietnamese branch, but we will tell them to go to both branches.  Probably what will happen is that Rada will go to the Vietnamese branch.  That is where she has been going because she has friends and such.  Rado will most likely come to the Khmae branch.  He wants to understand, and he has been coming every week.  So they will technically be in the Vietnamese branch, but they can choose which branch they want to go to.  As long as they are at least going and the family is strong, it should be good.  

Elder Sok, a member who helps us out a lot, and myself. He is preparing to serve a mission. 
We took the picture on a little wooden bridge.

The way they fix tires here.  They pull out the tire tube and put a new piece of rubber over the hole and burn it on to the tire tube with a hot iron or an open fire.

James came to church yesterday, Chanlina did not.  We are working with them.

One great blessing we saw was in a less active member’s life.  She did not come to church, so we went to her house last week.  Her husband had beat her up and took most of the money and left.  She had some really nasty bruises and scratches.  We talked to her, and prayed with her.  We prayed for her that night, and she prayed for herself as well.  The next day she went to work at a richer man’s house (she is a maid).  He found out what happened, sent her to the hospital for free to make sure nothing got infected.  He gave her 200 dollars and told her that if it happened again that his brother was a lawyer and they would send him to jail.  All for free.  Really awesome story and a great blessing of the power of prayer.  



Every Vietnamese person here knows Khmae as well.  Except a few that just got here, but almost all of them are pretty much fluent in Khmae.  They speak Khmae with each other in the home.  A big thing, however, is reading.  The Vietnamese cannot read Khmae.  The mom cannot go to the Khmae branch because she only knows basic Khmae.  She does not know spiritual Khmae words or any advanced words at all.  She also cannot read.  The dad cannot read, but his Khmae is really good.  He could probably come to the Khmae branch and gradually learn the words he did not know.  So they speak Khmae at home, but the mom and dad and every Viet cannot read Khmae, and even if they know Khmae, they do not know church Khmae or more advanced Khmae than just the everyday stuff.  So, that is why.  Rado only knows Khmae.  He can pray in Viet but only because he has it memorized.  Rada kind of knows Viet, but not that much.  Their parents want them to learn, but it is never going to happen.  They live in Cambodia, and except for a few places Vietnamese is worthless.  So, it should be all good now.  Just have to finish teaching them and make sure they understand where they should go to church.

Luen is still drunk.

The Som family is really awesome.  We have started to teach them all together.  There are two parents and two girls in their twenties.  The father already knows Joseph Smith is a true prophet. He prayed and told us he felt goose bumps and an energy - a warm energy from his head to his feet.  He said he felt happy.  He was really happy when we told him that was an answer from the Holy Ghost.  He told us he has had some of the same questions as Joseph Smith.  Both the mom and dad came to church yesterday.  We just need to teach them and get them to church more and then they should be good to go.  They are really awesome.

McKenzie is Transfered to Taichung!

I am writing you from Taichung; it is so weird.  On Sunday morning I got the call that I would be moving up to Nantun.  Leaving my area was exciting but also really sad.  It was just so sad to say goodbye to all the people I love so much.  Zhou Jiemie was super funny in Sunday school.  I asked her where I was going to see her in a year.  She thought for a second and then said, “The Celestial Kingdom.”  I sure hope we both don't die in a year.  I told her that I was going to see her in the temple. We both laughed.   

 

The saddest and hardest thing was saying goodbye to Jenny.  It was just so sad because I know that she is going to pass away, and she knows she is going to pass away.   

It was also really hard to say good bye to Fang and her kids.  They had a family obligation, so they weren't able to come to all of church, but they came for a few minutes.  We were able to say goodbye out in the hall.  Her sweet daughter started crying, and I started crying.  It was just such a tender moment.  Fang said that she will defiantly be getting baptized and that she was going to do all she could to bring the rest of her family into the gospel with her.  I love their family so much, and it was really sad to leave them. But I know they are going to be ok because they have the gospel.      

We have a new investigator recently named Lin Jiemie.  She showed up at the church the day I was on sister exchanges.  She is very funny, kind of difficult to teach, but really cute.  She has a Buddhist background and in almost everything she says she includes that she is Buddhist.  For example, she often says, "Well, I am Buddhist so I have a question."  She is interesting because although she is really concerned about Buddhism and how the Gospel will fit with Buddhism, she also loves the Gospel.  She doesn't really acknowledge it, but she comes to church and to everything we invite her to.  She reads as well.  She keeps trying to drop us, but we just kind of don't let her.  Of course we are respecting her agency, but she will say things like I am going to think about this for a while and then get back to you.  Then we will say, “Hey can we meet on Wednesday?”, and she is like, “Okay.”  It is interesting.  She has a long ways to go, but I really think she is progressing.  She just can't totally give up, and we aren't going to let her.

I am excited to be in my new area.  It is up by the mission office, and it is a really major city.  My new companion is Sister Lethco.  She seems really nice.  We have only been together for a couple of hours, but I am really excited.  I am so grateful to be able to do this work.  I love this people so much, and I just feel privileged every day to be able to work with them and to see the work of the Lord.  One of my favorite scriptures as of late is 2 Nephi 22: 2.

Our Christmas Conversation with Garrett

We have been trying to find inactive members from our CBR book.  We have searched for a family before, but they were not home or their house was too flooded to get to.  Saturday we biked over the Cambodia Japanese Friendship Bridge and biked to their house.  We found that the road/surrounding area was still flooded.  So we took off our shoes and rolled up our pants. The walk through the water which at times came up over our knees was not comfortable.  Many unseen rocks were hard on the feet, and I must admit I had flashbacks to watching River Monsters with McKenzie. I wondered if maybe I would be attacked and Jeremy Wade himself would come and do an episode.  But don't worry, it was not connected to the river; it was just a flooded road/field/area of the outskirts of Phnom Penh.  All the people walk through it to get to their jobs and the main road everyday.  The water had been there for over 5 months.  Stinky, but it was cool.  Plus, the family is awesome.  7 kids! 3 are over 12 and are potential investigators.  We will hope to bring the mother back to activity and the kids to the church as well.  

Notes from our Christmas conversation with Garrett:

• There are various forms of poop everywhere (rice, mice, lizards).  It is unavoidable. 
• On the 23^rd, they had a mission-wide Christmas event. They were fed and watched Mr. Kruger’s Christmas. On the 24^th, they had a mission conference, and in the evening a senior couple in his area had Garrett, Elder Sok, and some other missionaries over for dinner. On the 25^th, they went caroling for a couple hours after church with some of the teenagers in the ward. Garrett really enjoyed this. Other than the caroling, Christmas was a normal day. 
• They get limited member help because the members work a lot and have school. Some of the members help a lot though – especially some of the youth who are preparing to go on a mission. 
• Garrett corrected our pronunciation of his companion’s name. Elder Sok is pronounced Soak.  It means happy, and Garrett says most of the time he is. 
• Mom asked Garrett if he thought he would be transferred soon, and Garrett told her that he didn’t know, but that he thought either he or Elder Sok would likely be. The Assistants to the President make recommendations to the Mission President as to transfers after a lot of prayer of course. The Mission President then prays more and changes things. Garrett told us that he didn’t realize just how big of a role APs play in everything until he got to the field. 
• Transfers happen in about two weeks. 
• Garrett likes his area. They have good, solid investigators and good members – especially young members. 
• Garrett lamented that his stomach is getting flabbier. 
• Their typical breakfast and lunch involves rice, vegetables, and meat (pork and chicken). They eat dinner at 8:45 PM, which is usually a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He thinks that is why he is getting chubby. He eats and then goes to bed. 
• Eating spiders is against the mission rules. Garrett expressed that while he wants to be adventurous about food, he is careful because he doesn’t want to get sick. He wants to be able to keep working. 
• He doesn’t like the fish he has had so far because they have a tone of bones, which are nasty and hard to eat. 
• A lot of missionaries get sick. Garrett used to get diarrhea everyday at the beginning of his mission but now it is only every once in a while. It doesn’t keep him down though. 
• He has eaten frog and octopus. 
• All of the missionaries are taking anti-worm pills right now. They got them for Christmas! He wonders if he had ringworm because he wasn’t feeling great for a couple of days.  Plus, he said his stool “just wasn’t right, if you know what I mean.” The pills seem to be helping, and he is feeling good again. 
• There is no toilet paper in Cambodia. They have a hose that you squirt your bum off with. Typically, he takes his daily bowel movement in the morning, squirts himself off, and then takes his shower. 
• Garrett, doesn’t like to wait for the warm water heater to work, so he takes a cold shower. 
• They have a washing machine in his apartment but not a dryer. 
• A typical toilet in Cambodia is a hole in the ground. Then you pour water into it from a bucket to flush it down. If a toilet doesn’t have a hose, you just get some water on your hand and clean yourself with that. Then you wash your hands by pouring more of the water from the bucket on it. Garrett said he has never had to use the bathroom while out and about. 
• They get about $30-40 a week for food and things. They eat out in the mornings for about 75 cents. Then they make their own lunch, and do PB&J for dinner. 
• The traffic is crazy. Garrett says he has almost been killed in traffic about a thousand times. However, no missionaries have ever been killed in Cambodia. 
• Garrett particularly loves a desert they make – palm fruit mixed with rice to make porridge of sorts. 
• They have some vegetables he had never heard of before, but most of the vegetables they use and eat are pretty normal to him. 
• That one hernia pin still bothers him. 
• He likes the Wats (temples) including the neighborhood Wats. They are very beautiful. 
• Garrett says that the people are very nice in Cambodia; however, they are very critical if you don’t speak their language well. They will tell you what they think. Sometimes they make fun of you if your language skills are weak. 
• He says that the work is not at all like it is portrayed on the Other Side of Heaven or in the Best Two Years. When would you ever just be sitting on a beach? 
• He says he sees people with shirts that have American things on them that he knows they don’t understand. For example, he sees shirts like Angry Birds, Facebook, Google, etc. 
• Overall, Garrett says his mission has been great, but it is very hard. The hardest part, Garrett says, is realizing you didn’t do as well as you could have or wanted to in a particular lesson or something. 
• Almost every day is very hot, and right now it is dry. 
• Garrett corrected our pronunciation of Khmea. It is pronounced Ka – ma – I 
• Their kitchen is outside of the main house.  It is open.  That adds to the rodent problem.   
• Garrett’s P-days are switching to Monday. 
• Cambodians get up earlier than Americans do, and they go to bed sooner too. The mission has adapted to their schedule. 
• Garrett’s mission schedule is: 
• They get up at 5:30 every morning. They pray, do the dishes from the night before, do some light exercises like jumping jacks, sit ups, etc., takes a dump, showers, goes out to the street to get food for breakfast. 
• 7:00 to 8:00 they have personal study 
• 8:00-9:00 they study as a companionship 
• 9:00-10:00 they have language study 
• 10:00 to 12:30 they try to teach and meet with people 
• 12:30 lunch 
• The rest of the day they are out teaching and trying to meet with people. 
• On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 5:00 they teach English as a Second Language. 
• 8:30 they return to their apartment, eat dinner, plan the next day, etc. 
• 9:30 they go to sleep. 
• At the end of his call, Garrett told us he wanted to share something with us. He said that sometimes we think that things in the church aren’t that important for us to do, but they are. He said that everything the prophets say is straight from God. He told us to be good and to do what they say. He kept telling us that it is what God wants. The scriptures and the words of the prophets are all from God. It will make you happy to follow God. 
• Garrett, ended his call by saying that his very happy where he is and doing what he is doing.