Positive Attitude makes the work easier!

Hey everyone!

This week was a crazy one. We had to make a ton of trips this week into the city of San Salvador so that meant taking lots of long buses in traffic and stuff. It was a very tiring week. But we were still able to get a lot of work in! We found a few more families to teach but they weren't too acceptive of the Gospel. But we still had some other great lessons with a few families! We are teaching a family called the Trujillo Family. The parents are super awesome! They have two kids and since they are only 14 and 17 they aren't super interested like their parents but sometimes the parents make them come in and listen ahaa. The parents are married which is pretty rare here so that makes everything a lot easier. They also read the Book of Mormon everyday and LOVE it! They are so close with not drinking coffee. The only problem that they would have is that they haven't been going to church. They want to go so bad because they love everything we teach, from the restoration of the gospel to the plan of salvation and all the commandments! They are so excited every time we go by and they study everything we leave for their homework before we get there so we almost never have to teach them haha. All we need to do is help them get to church and not drink coffee and they are all ready to get baptized! 

Orlando took out his passport this week and will be getting married and baptized the weekend of the 10th and 11th of October! It's going to be great because he has been waiting for this for such a long time! He has even been helping clean the church and going to all the meetings Tuesday afternoons with the Elders quorum. He's pretty much been a member for months. But now he will finally be an official member! 

We start a new change today but since my comp only has about two weeks here I'm staying here in Santo Tomas for at least another 6 weeks! I'm super excited to be able to see Orlando's baptism and see the growth of the other investigators here! I love the missionary work that I get to do here! I know the Gospel is true and that Jesus is the Christ. I'm so grateful for the blessing I have to live with my family forever and there's no place I'd rather be than here in Santo Tomas El Salvador!!!! I miss and love you all tons!!!!!

Elder Markham

Garrett loves being a missionary!

Hey Everyone!

This week was pretty crazy! Tuesday morning I got a call saying that I was receiving a new missionary that was leaving the mtc that day! So....I'm training again! Except he's right out of the mtc. His name is Elder McHaley from South Jordan Utah! He's great! We were able to find some more good investigators this week. Orlando is doing great but we weren't able to get enough money for him so we are still waiting and can't have his baptism this weekend but he's still enduring! 

I completed my one year mark Thursday so to celebrate I read the first chapter of "Jesus the Christ" haha. The mission rule is that you can't read it until after one year in the mission. But that was about it. I haven't gotten sick but every once in a while I start to fill weird, then I started thinking that maybe I needed a voo du blessing from JJ...do you think you could throw one my way JJ man? 

I really love the study time in the morning we have to really search the scriptures. My faith has strengthened so much! I know that Jesus is the Christ and that only through Him can we be saved. Many people don't understand how the atonement actually works but I'm so grateful for this chance I have to help them understand it. Many people don't accept but there's no other place I'd rather be! I love it here and I love being a missionary! I love and miss you all!

Elder Markham

PS quick funny story...on the way here I saw a place called Grandpas bakery...they always name stuff here in English. Now I'm not sure about the details behind it...and there's nothing against you Grandpa...but wouldn't it sound better if it was Grandmas? haha maybe that's just me

A Year Done! Half way there....Garrett feels like he's running out of time!

Hey Everyone!

Christmas is here!!!! Ever since the beginning of September the stores have been preparing to sell their Christmas stuff haha.

But anyway, this week was super awesome until Friday night...we had emergency changes and my companion and our district leader got sent home. So now I'm with Elder Hale for now in his area. We are trying to still visit the people in my area preparing for baptism but it makes everything super difficult. We've tried leaving to visit with the people in our branch but there isn't very many, and they haven't been able to go out with us. We at least got a new Companion this morning so now we are in a trio and hopefully it will be easier to leave with just one of the Brothers in the ward. Besides that, not much has been going on differently. We're going to have Orlando's raffle tomorrow to help him get some money to take out his passport so we can have him get married and baptize him next week. 

Also tomorrow is independence here and hopefully it will be super sweet! It's kinda like they are going to celebrate me completing my first year in the mission because this Thursday the 17th of September is one year in the mission! It's gone by too fast! And everyone says that the second year is always way faster which worries me because I feel like I don't have time to get done all I need to!!!! Well I gotta get back to work haha. I love and miss you all so much!

Love Elder Markham

Garrett LOVES to go to the Temple!

Elder Nelson leaving their conference

This kids name is Tonito.  He came up to me one day and asked me for a tie. So I gave him this grey one, and now he wears it every day to church....it's also already got a ton of stains and stuff. But he's only 8 haha

Now those are some pupusas. the giant one is called a pupusa loca and it's full of just a TON of stuff. Definitly my favorite so far!

Garrett says "everyone and their dog" has one of these pet birds!

Finding new investigators! And being able to give blessings to those in need.

Hey everyone!

This week was another good week! We found a ton more investigators! Two are super awesome! One of them we passed by when he was just sitting outside reading a book. I thought...no one here reads books. Then I felt that we should go back and talk to him. He went by and talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how special of a book it is. We then gave him a copy and set a date when we could come back. We went back a few days later and he had already been reading all the testimonies and a few chapters! It was awesome! He had tons of questions so we just spent the whole lessons answering them!

I don't know if you remember the couple that drove up to us on the motorcycle and started talking to us, but this last week the husband was in a terrible accident and almost died. He had a crazy surgery on his stomach. Now he's resting in his house. We went by to give him a blessing Friday. He lives super far away. We had to take a bus for about 30 minutes then we had to take a moto taxi. It's like a little red scooter taxi thing that's pretty cool. I'll try to get a pic of one later. Then we went back last night to meet his wife and mom. His wife is super ready to be baptized! She was going to be baptized years ago and they already have plans to get sealed in the temple!!! But the guy has to get divorced before he can get married to her so that she can get baptized. He tried getting divorced to his ex wife but she was asking for a ton of money each month and he didn't have that kind of money so the lawyer left him. But we are going to help them because I know tons of members that are lawyers who can do it for cheap. One of them is Karen Zepeda who I baptized back in January when I was in Alta Vista. 

I love and miss you all so much!

Love Elder Markham

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