Garrett's Testimony of His Savior and of Eternal Families

Hey Family!

Happy fourth of July!!!!! With my companion we spent all morning listening to the few patriotic hymns on my flash drive. Then as all the Latinos called us for something I would say to them, HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!!!!! But they didn't really care hahaah. 

Well this week was great! Wendy passed her interview to get baptized this saturday! We also wanted to help Belinda, who's 11, get baptized but she will have to wait a few more weeks. But Wendy has really gone through lots of stuff but I know that becoming a member of the church of Christ will be a huge blessing for her. 

Yesterday we had an awesome sacrament meeting. The testimonies from the members were all so strong. This is my first ward here where once the bishop gives the time to the members to share the testimony, half the members run up to fill the stand. There were lots of great testimonies about the Savior. Which helped us so much because we were finally able to help a teenager named Fernando get to church. All his brothers and grandma are members. He just hasn't ever gone to church because he's never really been too animated (I think Garrett meant to say "excited" here...he can't remember the correct English words) to go. But afterwards we talked to him and asked how he liked it and he says it was great and wants to come back next week! He says he also wants to get baptized the 23rd of July!

I just want to share my testimony of the Savior that I know He lives. He is my friend and my brother. He is my redeemer. He gave His life for me so that I could live again. He knows how I feel during my sufferings because He suffered every pain of each and everyone of us. In the mission He has changed my life. I have felt the power of His atoning sacrifice. My sins have been washed through His blood. During my time here, He has walked beside me, testified with me and has never abandoned me. He is the way to the eternal life. And for His sacrifice I will be able to live again with my family in the presence of our Heavenly Father. I love Him and I know He loves me and I share this in His sacred name. Amen.

I love and miss you all so much! Talk to you next week!

Love Elder Markham

**This is something that Garrett shared in his personal letter to me that I wanted to share with all who reads his blog.  I'm so grateful for the experiences that he is having...and that he is being changed for good in many ways, and that these experiences bring him a greater love for his family and a knowledge that he will be with us forever.

Also, something I didn't tell in my letter but we visited a man this week who has had a blood cancer that wasn't too great. When we got to his house he was in a coma. We sang a hymn and watched him take his last breathes. It helped me understand the Plan of Salvation better and I know that we will all be resurrected after this life. I'm so happy for my eternal family. I have to go! I love you all soo much!!!! Talk to you next week! 

Love Elder Markham 

Several baptisms and many more to come...Garrett loves sharing the Gospel with the Good people of El Salvador!

Hey Family!

We had the baptisms for Roberto and Maryori this week! It was a lot of fun. First Roberto and Sonia got married. We helped a family cook them hamburgers in the morning and the wedding was in the afternoon. After everyone had eaten we had the baptismal service! We had Maryoris in the night so that her mom could make it when she got back from work. She was really happy to get baptized!!! Now we are planning for July! Pretty crazy that July is coming up right??? Well here's what we have so far. And all this happened Sunday! After church we went to the stake center because we always talk to the bishop about the work in the other ward that we help called the Refineria. He wasn't there but we found the ward mission leader. His name is Mitchel. He said, "Elders! We have lots of work to do with in the next few weeks. And we need to do it now!" So we went into a room to talk. He told us about an 11 year old girl from a family that are members but she hasn't been baptized yet. They are coming back to church and she wants to get baptized in a couple of weeks. There's also another sister in the ward that was less active and lives with her boyfriend who isn't a member. They both have been going to church now for a couple months and the boy friend wants to get baptized the 16th of July and get married the 9th. Then he said he has a few more he is still working with. After that we went to visit America with her husband and children. She was baptized last week. We found Wendy there. She is the niece of America and was living with her for a long time but never got baptized. She went back to live with her parents but now she's back again! It surprised us when she said she talked to the Bishop and they decided on a baptismal date together. We asked her when she wanted to get baptized and she said Saturday! haha it was awesome but she was drinking coffee last week. So she has to wait until the 9th to get baptized. But she is super excited! Then another member told us that he had been talking to his friend about the church and he wants to learn more. So we visited him and his wife with the member named Melvin. They said that they were getting married this week and would love to get baptized! If someone is already married or getting married that means they are so prepared by the Lord here! So that was our Sunday pretty much. It's amazing how much the Lord has blessed us with all this work but making it easy because we have had all the members helping us. Here we see how important the members are in the missionary work. This ward doesn't have full time missionaries but they will probably baptize the most in July!

The Zone is doing great! We finished the month with 25 baptisms. Which is a ton for here! I have never seen a zone baptize that much. The zone that baptized the most last month baptized 19! As a zone we are preparing to baptize 30 in July. We know we can do it but it's not just us that are bringing the Gospel to the children of God. It's also Him Himself with His Angels. I love being here! I love missionary work! I love you all!

Love Elder Markham

More baptisms, and getting mistaken for the FBI!

Hey Family!

It was one of the best weeks yet!!!! So we ended up having the baptisms for the Elias Family, Etel and America! America is an investigator that has been listening to the missionaries for such a long time, a little more than a year! Last week we fasted with her so that the Lord would put into her heart a baptismal date. Wednesday we went to her house and she told us that she wanted to get baptized Friday. We thought that she wanted to get baptized next week then she said, no in two days! haha so we helped her get ready and we had her baptismal service Friday and yesterday she was confirmed. The service for the Elias Family was Saturday morning. It was very special. They were all so happy. They got confirmed yesterday as well! Saturday night was the service for Etel. Once again, it was a very special experience. Her mom was there and Sunday she came to church! We hope to help her parents start coming back to church with her and her sister.

Roberto didn't get married and didn't get baptized this week because he was a little scared haha. But he says this week for sure. We kept visiting him and helping him to have faith. So we will have his wedding and baptism Saturday. We are also going to have Mayori's baptism Saturday. She is the daughter of another investigator who can't get baptized until she gets married. But her daughter wants to get baptized now and we don't know when her mom will be able to get married. 

Friday we had an awesome zone activity! We took pictures of families with a special banner for Fathers day and wrote the directions down of the people to go by and drop the pictures off and see if we can talk more about how Christ can bless our families. We got 180 referrals in three hours

! It was awesome! There were always people in line to get their picture taken! I mainly walked around inviting people to go get their picture taken, but it was funny what some of the people said when they didn't want to. One guy told me he wasn't going to get his picture taken because he knew we were going to do other things with the pictures. I thought...what could those other things be... Then I remembered that everyone here thinks that we are from the FBI. Wednesday an investigator told us that on the news, they were saying how we aren't going to be let in to the neighborhoods anymore because we are here to watch the people and not really to teach about Jesus Christ. hahaha

I miss you all so much! 

Love Elder Markham

Garrett loves what he is doing and found an old Friend

Hey Family!

So this Saturday we are going to have 5 baptisms. The first one is a little 9 year old girl named Etel. Her whole family are members but her parents are less active. Her brother and sister go to church but they never helped her to get baptized. So we taught her this week and are going to do her interview today. She is really smart and is great! We are also going to baptize a man named Roberto. He has been living with his girlfriend who is a member. The missionaries have been visiting them for a long time now but they never wanted to get married. But now they finally have said yes. So they will be getting married this Saturday and then he will get baptized. We also have the Elias Family, pretty much the best name right? (Garrett's middle name) haha There's the dad, Alexander, the mom, Saida, and their daughter, Alexandra. Alexander's parents have been members for a really long time so they pretty much got them prepared for us. The parents started bringing them to the church for about 6 months to clean it every Saturday. They loved serving and had a lot of fun with it so they kept going with them to clean up. Then they finally started coming to church and listening to the missionaries just a few weeks ago. They were already married and didn't have any problems with the word of wisdom. They were super prepared by the Lord. They are such a special family. I love Alexandra because she's a little quiet 9 year old girl that is very shy. She always sits there during the lessons quietly, then when we ask her something she just smiles and doesn't know what to say. We are also going to have a few more baptisms in the coming weeks.

ALSO! Yesterday at church, I started walking towards an older sister in our ward. I couldn't see her very well but I felt that I had known her for such a long time. When I said hi to her, she turned around and kinda shouted for joy and almost gave me a hug haha. It was Adela from San Patricio. She was the lady that gave us dinner every night and her son also always helped us with everything. His name is Aldo. She lives here in Apopa but when her other son was killed she went to San Patricio for a while to get away. But now she's back! She says she's kinda living in the two areas but she said I need to visit her and help teach her brother. Today we are going to see if she's there. But it was really specially to see her here again.

I love you all and miss you so much!

Love Elder Markham

Garrett continues to be converted...

Hey Family!

Well this week was awesome and crazy at the same time. First of all about the area and the zone...In our area we have tons of baptismal dates for the 18th of June and a few more for July. Twelve investigators went to church yesterday. There were a few people sick that didn't go that always go as well so next week we will have more. We actually don't have just one area. We have three. But that's because there are two wards that the missionaries got taken out for some reason and now we are in charge of helping the investigators in that area progress and get baptized. The zone is huge! There are 10 companionships and they are all spread out pretty far. For example, Friday I broke my record for being farthest from the capital when we took a bus ride to an area called Chelatenango for 3 hours. It's on the boarder of Honduras. We did interchanges so that I could do an interview for an area over there. But the zone is great. We should have around 30 baptisms as a zone which should be the most out of the whole mission this month.

My companion is Elder Sabey from Utah. He's great! I love having a focused companion who wants to work and be obedient and wants the salvation for the people. Friday we went to Presidents house for our Consejo de Lideres. It's the meeting with the assistants and other zone leaders. We just talked all morning about last month and what are the goals and plans for this month. I really enjoyed it! 

The ward we have is really great too! I've been able to meet some people that are so sweet and have huge testimonies. I love learning from them because they have been a huge part of my conversion. Everyday I feel more converted to the Gospel with a greater desire to serve the Lord. It's crazy that my time is running down. Just about everyone I talked to this week had to remind me by asking me when I go home but I'll just keep working hard. I love the mission so much! I love and miss you all!

Love Elder Markham

A Happy Weekend and new challenges come with a new calling

Hey Family!

Well we had the best weekend ever! We had the wedding of Kelly and her baptism! It was so awesome! The spirit was so strong. You could see the huge difference between the two of them and the love that they have through the blessings of the Gospel. Just to remind you they have 6 years together, 2 years listening to the missionaries and did not want to get married at all. There were many times when they almost separated. But now they are happily married and Kelly was able to get baptized. Her husband isn't very into the church stuff but we will help him.  Yesterday we had divisions because my companion was sick, so I went to visit her with a member that's going on his mission to Canada in August. She was so much happier this time! She said that it was the first Sunday where she's actually been able to feel stress free from her work and other responsibilities that she has. She knew it was because she had received the gift of the holy ghost and could take the sacrament for the first time. I just love being able to help people find happiness and peace through the gospel. There is no other substitute.

This Saturday is going to be Estivens baptism. He is also very excited to get baptized! His uncle is going to baptize him so it's going to be great! Estiven is already a great missionary. When we went to visit him this week he was outside his house playing soccer with some friends. They were all pretty happy to see us. His friend asked us if it was true that he was going to be getting baptized this week and we said yes. Then she said that she wanted to get baptized too haha. So we started to teach them together and she now has a baptism date for the 2nd of July. She went to church with us yesterday and said she liked it! Her teacher also told us that she answered all the questions and I asked her, Michell, how she knew all the questions. She told me because she read the pamphlet that we left with her! She already is progressing super quickly!

Now....there's more news...I have changes this week again. I'm going to Apopa and they told me that I'm going to be Zone Leader there for the zone. It was great here in Valle Nuevo and I'm going to miss lots of people but I'm ready for new challenges. I miss and love you all! You guys are the best!

Love Elder Markham

Bats in The Night...Weddings and Baptisms!...

Hey Everyone!

Everything is ready for Kelly's baptism and wedding this Saturday! It's going to be awesome! She gets married at 3:30 and the baptism will be at 4:30! Her future husband is a little bit harder to get to go to church but we will help him. Kelly has been an investigator for about 2 years or so. She always loved the church and stuff because it has helped her a ton through her difficulties and stuff but she never could get baptized because she didn't want to get married to her husband. But now they are finally getting ready this Saturday! The whole ward has been helping a ton and everything is going great! Aaaaand! Karen Zepeda is going to get them married! We were going to have another baptism for Estiven but he got back late from an activity and slept through church. But he says he wants to get baptized the fourth of June!

So funny story for the week....

I was sleeping in the middle of the night when I hear my companion say, Elder Markham there's a bat in our house! I said that I was fine because I had my mosquito net. My companion doesn't so it woke him up when it fell on his face haha. He ran over, turned on the lights and killed it. Then he just left it there until the morning. I told him to get a mosquito net and it wouldn't happen, mostly just joking around with him. Then the next night I was dreaming and I heard something next to my ear. Then I felt something on my shoulder crawl on my face then back on to my shoulder. When I woke up there was a bat on my shoulder! I don't know how it got in but I just hit it off with my hand even though it didn't go anywhere because of the net. I quickly jumped out of my bed and turned the lights on. Then my companion killed that one too. Haha it was crazy but now I have to worry about bats crawling on me during the night.

We are going to do Estivens interview this week and he should get baptized next week. We taught him about Prophets this week and showed him a picture of Thomas S Monson. We told him to pray and ask God if he's a Prophet. The next day he said he prayed and felt really happy and knew that he was a Prophet. He's doing great!!!

I love and miss you all! You guys are the best!

Love Elder Markham

PS..Garrett is feeling like no one remembers him...so those of you who read this blog, if you could write him a quick note letting him know you are thinking about him...that would be awesome!!  You can email him to get on Monday, but he would love a letter in the mail...he hasn't gotten much, only from family now and then....so if you have a chance, then send him something!  Thanks!  His addresses are on the home page!