Not enough time in a day...

Hey everyone!

It was an awesome week this week! We went to the temple Wednesday! I love the temple so much! Then we got to have a special meeting with President Nelson on Friday! He came here with a few of the 70 and they all talked about missionary work. We got to shake his hand and everything! It was cool to get to hear him and be there in the same room as he spoke. We got to really see his true personality and he is a pretty funny guy! I only got two pics of him when he was getting into the car and they didn't turn out very well but you can still see him haha.

We found a ton of new investigators again this week! Sometimes I just feel there isn't enough time to get everything done that we need to haha. And we have been receiving tons of blessings. Like one time in Olocuilta a guy and his wife rode up on their motorcycle and said, "what a miracle that we found you". Turns out the husband is a member but the wife isn't and they didn't know where the church is. Also the wife is really interested! A ton of the people we are finding are all reading the Book of Mormon and say they love it, but they just don't come to church haha. That's the only problem for right now. Mainly because our area is HUGE! 

Today we went to Olocuilta to eat some pupusas and I got a pupusa loca with a ton of stuff in it! AWESOME! I miss and love you all tons!

Love Elder Markham

**President Nelson is one of our church's apostles from Salt Lake City.  The 70 (or Seventy) is a group of priesthood that oversees the areas that they have been assigned to.  They look after the people in that area and make sure the church and it's members are taken care of.

Diligence and obedience is the key to receive God's help...

Hey Everyone!!!

Well good news and bad news. The bad news is that the new Elder I was going to train had to go back to the United States for something. The good news is that I'm still training but I'm finishing the training of an Elder. His name is Elder Alvarez from Costa Rica. This week was soo awesome! We found a ton of great new investigators that want to be baptized. We received so many miracles in the streets of people just coming up to us and saying, hey when you get the chance you need to visit my son and his wife that live over there. Then when we would go by they are all just super positive. The spirit has really been helping us through these past few days and I know that it's through obedience and diligence in the work. Like it says in Doctrine and Covenants 84:99 and 100 we aren't worthy to be in the presence of God if we aren't diligent. That scripture has really helped me to work harder and be better. I love seeing the people having a desire to change and leave the worldly things behind. The people here really have that desire but sometimes its hard for them to act and really change. But That's why we are here and I love this chance that I have to help them. I want to send some pics so I don't have too much time. I love and miss you all!!!!

Love Elder Markham

**here's a kinda funny story for the week. 

The other day we were looking for a family that we talked to in the street and said we could come by. My area is huge and there's jungle areas that I've never been and the houses are spread out and literally made of bamboo and mud so there aren't any numbers or anything. So we just got an idea that this guys house is down this one dirt road past the school next to the store. Here in El Salvador every other house is a store and they are always very small. But anyways, we started down this one street and we were walking for a few minutes and I thought maybe we passed it. There aren't many people in the street but when we asked them they just said, "oh yeah, the school is just down there". So we kept going. Everyone told us, just down there....well after walking for about 30 minutes in the jungle on a dirt path we finally found the house because the daughter was outside waiting for us haha. So she helped us. It's also a good thing that they are super humble because we are going back tomorrow!

Here are a few pictures from Garrett's new area in Santiago El Salvador!

Santiago with the Lake in the Background

Elder Flores, Orlando with his grandchildren and Garrett

It feels good to hold a real football after one whole year!

The Lake.  You can see the two volcanoes from his first area in Alta vista.  He has traveled around the lake in all of his areas.  He has to tract through these jungles to find his investigators that want to know about the Gospel.  He loves it!!

Training again....and getting lost in the Jungle!

Hey everyone!

Well guess what! I'm training again this change! Except I'll be training an Elder straight off the plane haha. I got the phone call on my birthday at about 11:00 pm when we were already sleeping so it was a pretty good way to end it! My birthday was awesome! We did some service in the morning then went to Olocuilta to eat the best pupusas ever! And Sister Vasquez called me to wish me a happy birthday. It was awesome!

Yesterday we had quite the time. We went looking for a family that hasn't gone to church for a while. But we took a wrong turn in the jungle and got a little lost. Let's just say there were no houses...just jungle. And yes it was very hot and humid and going there was down hill. But when we had to go back it was all uphill! Those little football workouts I did in the summer were easy. I thought we'd never make it out alive haha. But it was cool because after we found the family and shared a lesson, about 4 or 5 of them asked us for blessings. It was a great day. We should be baptising Orlando pretty soon because we are putting together a thing to sell some stuff with the sisters in the ward so we can get some money. Also, some other people are donating. It's going to be awesome to finally help him! Well I have to go but I love and miss you all!

Love Elder Markham

Finding less active members and playing American FOOTBALL!

Hey family!

Well...it's official! I will never be wearing my suit again! They told us this week that suits are no more ahah. That kinda stinks though because it's already pretty used with a little hole in one sleeve. But anyway, this week was another week of entering in at 7:00 pm so we didn't have a ton of lessons. But on Saturday we did go to a lesson with a member to teach a less active sister. Then afterwards I asked him if he knew any members that lived close by. He took us to two different members houses and showed us about 3 more! It was awesome because we had been looking for the less actives for a while but the directions here are terrible! So it was impossible with out the members help. The only thing is that they weren't in our area haha. But the families were very happy that we came by. I don't have a whole lot of time today but I can't wait to read your emails! Oh! and today I brought my football to play with for p-day. It's AWESOME! I started playing catch with a few Americans then all of a sudden all the Latinos wanted to play. It quickly just turned into them running around in circles throwing it to each other so I just watched and talked to an Elder from the states haha. I love and miss you all!

Love Elder Markham

** A couple months ago the headquarters in Salt Lake City for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints came out with a new policy that many of the missions through out the world would not require their missionaries to take or wear full suits because of their hot and humid climates.  El Salvador was one of those missions.  This is also to relieve some of the financial burdens on families to send their missionaries out in the field.

Garrett is required to be in his apartment at 7:00 pm for safety reasons as the gang violence is getting worse in San Salvador.  We appreciate your prayers for his safety.

Lots of walking and extra time for Scripture study

Hey Everyone!

This week was a crazy week. So a few things happened last Monday just as we finished writing and we had to buy our stuff and head home because they shut down all the buses. Luckily we got the last one going to our house. We had to be in the house at 7 every day so that took a little time out of our schedule and we didn't have any buses until Friday! Tuesday and Wednesday we had to walk all the way to San Marcos where the church is. It's almost 4 miles away and took 1 hour and 15 minutes. It was quite the walk. But now everything is back to normal but our branch president still wants us in at 7:00 pm. With the extra time in the night I've really been able to do a lot more reading in the scriptures. I read Genesis this week and I have really developed a love for the scriptures. I can feel the Spirit so strong as I read the scriptures, there's no way they can't be true. I'm so grateful for what a huge blessing they are and for how much they have changed me here in the mission. I know that as long as we read the scriptures we will never be lost. I hope all is going well at home. I can't wait to see what's been going on! I love and miss you all!

Love Elder Markham

** Mom's note

Garrett doesn't share specifics about why some things happen for good reason...but because of the internet, I can find things out that maybe I don't want to know anyway!!  But I must trust in the Lord that He will keep my boy safe and pray every day that he will be watched over.  The Church also does whatever it can to keep the missionaries safe.  And it sounds like the gangs are getting worse in El Salvador, calling for Garrett to be inside his apartment earlier for safety reasons.  Here is what I found:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/08/06/us-elsalvador-violence-idUSKCN0QB04520150806

Hope... that all is going to go well...

Hey Everyone! 

I don't have tons of time today so I'll have to be quick!

First of all I got the birthday box mom and dad sent! It's awesome! I loved the cookies!!!! I couldn't believe what I was eating haha. I gave some to my companion too! And, well he didn't say much about them...but I loved them!!!! Haha, I also couldn't wait to check out the USB! It's so awesome! Thanks Dad! It's perfect with all the stuff I wanted! But it will probably take me the rest of my mission to listen to allllll that music haha.

Well this week was a stressful week! But this morning I was reading and studying in preach my Gospel about hope. And I learned a lot of great things about how we need to have hope that all is going to go well and that we will receive the blessings that God has promised us as long as we work diligently. We also had a super awesome lesson with a pastor this week from another church. We started teaching him about a few things and I lead it into baptism. Then my companion started talking about the importance of the authority to baptize. Then I shared Hebrews 5:4 and talked about how someone needs to be called of God. As we taught him he really seemed interested. I knew it was because the spirit was testifying to him because I felt it so strong. At the end of the lesson when I invited him to be baptized he even said yes!!! Haha, we're going back this week to talk and teach more. When we left my companion just said, Holy cow, the spirit was incredible. 

I love and miss you all. Hope all is well!

Love Elder Markham

A Great Week, a FUNNY story...and a Great Testimony from Garrett

Hey everyone!

It was a great week of finding great people to teach! We found tons of positive people that want to change their lives and learn more about God! I had a ton of great experiences teaching this week. First on Monday, we had a family night with an investigator and we were talking about Jesus Christ. I shared my testimony of how I've always felt Him in my life. I asked the investigator how she has felt Him in her life and she responded crying and telling us how she was left behind by her parents and as growing up it had always been so hard for her. She even thought about taking her own life a few times but didn't because she had always felt the loving presence of Jesus Christ. It was a super powerful moment. Then on Thursday we found another investigator who cleans the house of a member (of the church). We started to teach her about the church and how she can come to know that it's true through prayer. I told her about my conversion story.....I guess I never really told you guys but what happened is when I was about 14 or so getting ready to go to the temple, I remembered all my Sunday school teachers telling us to pray for ourselves if the church is true. I was in my room and said a kneeling prayer. I didn't feel anything crazy at first, just to read the scriptures. I opened the Book of Mormon to a random page and read in Alma. He was giving his testimony about how these things are true. That's when it hit me and I felt the spirit testify sooo strongly that the church was true. After I shared that experience I talked about how I knew God knew me better than I did and that we are all individual sons and daughters of God. The spirit was super strong and she seemed to really feel it as well. I'm so glad that I can be here and serve my mission in El Salvador...although it's far from easy haha. I love you all and miss you tons!

Love Elder Markham

Garrett added this later. 

**He found out that one of his first baptisms of a girl from a family in his first area (the Zepeda Family who always made him yummy treats and taught him how to make pappusas) resulted in the recent baptism of her Mother!  She was also happy to tell him that she got her first church calling...as a Young Woman's teacher!  (The Young Woman/Young Men organization in our church is for youth who are 12-18 years of age. They meet together each Sunday for lessons about our Savior, scriptures and other church related topics.  They meet once during a week in the evening for some kind of fun activity or service project.) He was so happy for her and her family!! 

Here's a funny story....

So we do a lot of walking here...and my shoes are pretty bad. But anyways...we were finishing up the night with one more visit. We were walking up this crazy steep hill when the bottom of my shoe just came off....yep. It was funny and my companion and I just laughed. I picked it up and put it in my bag and we continued walking. We went to our visit and they didn't notice I was missing half my shoe so it wasn't a big deal. Then after our nightly planning when we got back I glued it back on with some cement glue stuff....like a lot! ahha it works now but I have to squeeze these last few weeks out of them!  

(I have yet to find a good pair of missionary shoes for my boys!)