Continuing to learn and always striving to be better

Hey Family!

This week was a huge learning week! I loved the talks from this week especially the ones in the Priesthood session! I learned more than anything else what I need to change in my life to be a more powerful missionary and priesthood holder. I have already tried putting these things in practice and I've already been able to see a few changes. I'm so grateful for General Conference and the words of the living prophets! And I didn't know Grandpa was a poet! haha....I don't know if you saw the session when someone shared a poem from Edwin Markham...

Well we haven't had water for about a week now. The whole area where we live hasn't had water so I guess while we were out visiting a truck came by and started selling water to everyone. Some members live real close to us so they're going to be helping us out a bit haha.

Rodolfo has his testimony and is ready to get baptized! He believes that the church is true and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God! We are getting ready for his baptism here in a couple weeks! He is doing great! The thing that I like most about teaching him is about the Savior and repentance because the Spirit is always so strong. He has a huge desire to change his life. I can see the happiness it brings him and that is what the mission is all about. Bringing others unto Christ through faith, repentance, baptism and entering the temple. I love being here and being able to help so many people! I love and miss you all!.....like always! haha

Love Elder Markham

*Garrett says they have drinking water...but that's it.  He appreciates things more when living under hard conditions.

Pics sent by Elder Togisala (his mom Amber)

Elder Togisala and Garrett

Lots of baptisms and getting excited for General Conference!

Hey Family!

It was one of the best weeks ever! Carlos was baptized and confirmed this last weekend! He was really happy! There were a lot of members that were there to support him. Now our plan is to visit him Wednesday and teach him about the Priesthood so that he can have his interview with the Bishop and receive the Priesthood here soon! 

Ana, Kevin, Rodolfo and Sergio all went to church yesterday! It was so awesome! They are all preparing for their baptisms in April. We had to change Rodolfo's date to the 23rd because he drank coffee. But he said that he felt so bad inside and that he wouldn't do it anymore. He also loves reading the Book of Mormon because he says it helps him be happy and have the energy to get stuff done. Ana and Kevin just need their interview this week and go to conference. Then they will be baptized on the 9th! This week we will also be making sure that they have received their testimony. They say they are reading alot and praying. They feel good as they pray but haven't gotten an answer. But we will help them be able to recognize that that is their answer.

Wednesday we had another temple trip where we bring all our investigators to the temple and also less actives. They loved it! I was also Nephi again. The news was there so maybe you might find me on the news from here! haha but it was awesome because I got to see a ton of people from my other areas. But guess what! Elder Custodio was there! He visited from Guatemala! It was great to see him. Later I went on divisions with the Zone Leaders in Alta Vista. And for dinner we went to the Zepeda Family! IT was so cool to go back and visit with them. They were all so happy to see me and saying how I could actually speak Spanish now and stuff. It was so fun.

I am so excited for General Conference! Its going to be amazing. I love listening to the prophets. I know that the words we hear from them come from God! I love you all so much!

Love Elder Markham

Please join us this weekend April 2nd and 3rd watching General conference on BYUTV or cable networks April 2nd at 9:00-11:00 am and 1:00-3:00 pm and Sunday the 3rd at 9:00-11:00 am and 1:00-3:00 pm

Find out more at www.lds.org or at mormon.org

General conferences are the semiannual worldwide gatherings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Church members gather to receive guidance and encouragement from Church leaders about gospel living based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Pictures from Elder Togisala's Mom Amber:  Garrett looks very happy, but too skinny!  I can't wait to have him home to put some muscle back on him!

And Garrett got to visit his friend Karen Martinez (Zepeda Family) who sent me these pictures!

The service he does....

Hey Family!

Well, Pati wasn't able to get baptized this week because she wanted a little bit more time. It's really hard to have lessons with her but we should be able to help her to get baptized soon. We had Carlos' interview on Saturday and he passed! He will be getting baptized at 5 pm Saturday afternoon by Fidel Hernandez. He's the Gospel Principles class teacher. He's really great and funny. Carlos says he's kinda nervous but also really excited. Rodolfo is really progressing as well. He stopped drinking coffee and Alcohol the first day we taught him the Word of Wisdom. At first he kept saying it was kinda hard, but now he says that he feels really blessed. Then we asked if he read the first chapter of the Book of Mormon that we left for him to read. He said yes, then we asked if he would read the second chapter before the next visit and he responded, "well actually I was just thinking about reading a chapter a day". It was awesome! He wasn't able to go to church this week though because of an emergency. We still aren't sure what happened because we haven't been able to talk to him since. All we know is that he called his friend Ismael at 2 in the morning and said he had an emergency with his family and had to leave. We have a visit with him tomorrow if we can't get a hold of him tonight.

You guys will never believe but on Wednesday we went to the movies!!!!! haha we went to see "The Resurrection of Christ". It was awesome and had some great things in it that talked about the Living Christ. President Vasques says that he's going to get us all a copy of it! Have any of you seen or heard about it yet?

Well I love you all tons! And miss you so much!

Love Elder Markham

**  While Garrett serves his two year mission, he is not allowed to go to movies, go on dates, watch TV or anything that is not related to teaching the Gospel or serving others and Christ...so that is why he made a joke about "going to the movies".  Here is a link to explain a little bit about what Garrett is doing in El Salvador.

https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2013-02-2000-mormon-missionaries?lang=eng

Garrett will stay in this area for a while

Hey Family!

Well they told us changes this morning. I'm staying here in this area and my companion has changes. I'm glad I get to stay here so that I can see the fruits of the area this change. I don't know if you got the pictures from the baptism on Saturday. But the sister missionaries in my district had a man named Ciro that they were teaching. They had been teaching him for over a year and he was always too scared to get baptized. I told the sisters to get a visit set up in the church so that I could meet him and talk to him. But they said better yet why don't we just do his interview to show him that he's ready. So last Sunday I did the interview. He was soooo ready with a huge testimony of the Sacrament. He really wanted to change many things he did before. After I interviewed him I told him he was ready and asked if he would like to get baptized the next Saturday. He accepted! The sisters then passed by his house to set up a time and get the things ready. They called me after and said that he wanted me to baptize him. It was awesome! I think Elder Togisala tried sending some of the pics. He also says hi!

I did a lot of interchanges this week because last week I wasn't able to. It was fun and I was able to learn some stuff from the other missionaries! We also did the choque de fuerza in my area this week so we had a ton new investigators this week. Yesterday Carlos, Ana, and Kevin went to church! They have their baptismal date for the 26th. Kevin is the son of Ana, and Carlos is a guy that my companion and his old companion started teaching last change but then they couldn't find him in his house anymore. After a few weeks here he just randomly showed up at church and we put a visit with him. He answers all the questions in the gospel principles classes! 

Well I have to go but I love you all tons!

Love Elder Markham

Finding lots of people who want to learn of Christ

Hey Family!

This week was awesome!!!! I got put as companions with Elder Togisala and Elder De Leon. We are in a trio and there's only one area here in Valle Nuevo now. We were able to work a ton with the members here. We had 10 visits just in members houses. We also found a ton new investigators. Some of my favorite lessons that we had was with Rodolfo. His friend is Ismael who's a member and gave us the reference. We taught him about the Word of Wisdom. He has a few problems with it but says he wants to start living the commandments to be able to get baptized. He then told us that he helped build the temple here and got to touch the Moroni statue! It was so cool. But after we finished talking about the atonement and how after baptism we can be perfectly clean. I have a strong testimony that if we truly repent of our sins, God doesn't remember our sins any more. I know that we can be clean but only through our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Saturday night we had a lot of people going to church. I don't know what happened Sunday but when we did divisions with the members to bring people to church, we could only bring a few. I was a little worried because Ismael was going to pick up Rodolfo but neither of them were there when the meeting started. But just as we started singing the Sacrament Hymn, they both walked in together. I was so happy to see him there! He stayed for all the classes and said he liked it! Tomorrow we will go to Ismael's house to visit more with him but we are going to have a ton of the people from the Elders Quorum to support him! 

I was kinda sad that Ana didn't go. I haven't been able to talk to her to find out why because she said Saturday that she'd go with her son. But Carlos went! He also said he liked it! This week will be the week of just helping him prepare for his interview and baptism next week! We were also able to find a friend of some members that has been going to church for a while but the missionaries weren't able to have a lesson with her because the grandma is against the church. She is obeying all the commandments that she needs to so she should be able to get baptized Saturday if all goes well this week! So much to do in so little time but I'm loving it! I miss you all!

Love Elder Markham

**Also, we did divisions this week with some members. I went with someone named Roberto but everyone calls him Tito. He served his mission in California a few years ago. Which reminds me, there's a guy that just got back from Idaho that served in Boise. He also served in Ontario, and close to Baker and all those places over there. He is amazing. I love all the members here. But anyway, when we finished we were going to meet up at Titos house. So while we were waiting he said, I have something for you Elder Markham. He gave me a book that talks about the Book of Mormon and the findings of evidence and stuff in Mexico and Guatemala that shows how its true. He said the book was very special to him and told me how he was able to get it. It's signed and everything by the author. It's in English so maybe you guys can read some if you want. But he said how special it is to him and that he really wanted to give it to me and said that I cant give it to anyone and I have to keep it forever.

Lots of work to be done, but fun times too...

Hey Family! 

Sorry I have to be quick again this week...

We had a primary activity on Friday. It was about the Book of Mormon. Us four missionaries dressed up as prophets and guess who I got chosen to be again, yep Nephi. haha There was a lot of fun things for the kids but all we did was stand in the corner and when a kid would come to us we would explain a bit of our life and they had to guess who we were. Then at the end we sang the primary song that talks about the books in the Book of Mormon. It was fun with lots of kids! Although they really need to work on their prophets haha. Oh! and the sister in my ward gave me the direction of her dad that lives in Portland. It says he lives in the South East part. Pretty cool huh?

We did interchanges with the zone leaders on Tuesday. That was awesome because I got to go back to Alta Vista to work. I went with Elder Togisala who's in my district and we worked with our Zone leader Elder Tay from Guatemala. It was awesome because we were able to get lots of lessons in and have a fun time while doing it! They are both two great missionaries and I was able to learn some great things from both of them. This week is going to be the last week of this change. I'm pretty sure I will be staying but we will see what happens. My companion already has 4 changes here. I will have to let you know next week! I love and miss you all!

Love Elder Markham

Trials and blessings...and wanting to be a better person.

Hey Family!

Well the week went by so fast I don't even know what to talk about....

The District had really low numbers the past week so we had to think of some stuff to do to raise them. We did something that's called choque de fuerza. We all went to an area that needed the most help and worked there for about 2 hours. It helped so much! They had lots of new investigators and a few new baptism dates. Then I did interchanges with one of them in his area for that day. It was really cool because we went up to the first visit and I started looking at the door and inside the house...then I realized that when I was a district leader here a year ago I had visited them. But they didn't recognize me haha. But hey, we put a baptism date with the wife! Her husband is a member and has been trying to help his wife get baptized. We were able to get a lot more success this week and the Zone Leaders seemed to be pretty happy!

I also did interchanges with another Elder in my area one day and interchanges in my area with the zone leaders another day. We were able to put 8 new baptismal dates this week! The only thing now is to help them with the desire that they have to change. We had a few awesome lessons with our neighbor that's an investigator with our other neighbors that are members hahah. She was so excited to go to church with her family. She was going for SURE! But then on saturday she told us that she had to take her Piñatas to the city so she couldn't go. It was very sad but she says she will do everything she can to go next week. Shes Ana. The lesson I talked about this last week. 

I am very grateful for the trials that I am going through right now. I hope they help me after the mission to be better. I don't want to return to my old life. And that's why I am so grateful for the mission. It's not easy but the blessings are huge. I love you all so much!

Love Elder Markham