We are All Children of God, no matter What

Hey everybody!

Again, just a quick reminder that next week, our P-day is the 16th. I hope you all enjoy Martin Luther King Jr. Day!

Favorite Scripture/Quote:

"Remember that faith and doubt cannot exist in the same mind at the same time - for one will dispel the other." -President Thomas S. Monson.

Just a quick shout out to our beloved prophet: President Monson was an amazing man. I'm happy for him that he gets to be with his wife again. May we all look to his example of service and of acting on the promptings of the Spirit.

Favorite Spiritual Moment:

We came in contact with this part-member family (we call them goldmines in this mission) a few weeks ago that we've gone back to see a few times since. The inactive member is named Carol, and she and her daughters are amazing. When we first met Carol, she told us that her family is basically atheist now, but she let us in to show her girls that there are good people who are members of the church (she has a rough relationship with her active extended family). They have gotten more comfortable with us as we've continued to stop by, and we've even been able to share short messages with them the past few times. This week, we felt like we should share Mosiah 4: 9 with them (I'm not going to tell you what it says; you all have to go look it up because it's awesome). We were a little nervous to do so, but we went for it. Holy crap, I am so glad we did. It brought the spirit so strongly, and Carol even thanked us for it at the end. We really feel like deep down, she knows it's true and is considering coming back. They're so amazing. I love the Spirit!

Favorite Funny Moment:

We knocked on this door the other day where the man who answered it stalled us for a minute while his wife told their grandkids to stay out of sight. And then the lady marched over to their door and handed us a pamplet from their church, which they'd had a stack of on a table right next to the door. It just makes us laugh sometimes how many people think that we're so insecure in our faith that we'll convert to their religion on the doorstep when we're missionaries for crying out loud. I don't know. We just laughed.

Other Stuff:

During Knock Out, Sister Reynolds and I met this woman who defined her belief as being a "submitter" to God. She explained it as being basically Muslim but without all the crazy cultural stuff - just the doctrine based on the Koran. But we got to teach her! We shared part of the restoration with her, talking a lot about prophets and the priesthood. She thought it was so cool that we have prophets and apostles on the earth today, directing the Church as directed by God. We had to hand her off to some other Elders since we actually were out of Newhall, knocking to try to find YSAs, but it was a super cool experience. The gospel really is for everyone, everywhere. We are all God's children. : )

Love you all!

Love,

Sister Garfield

 A ward member sent this picture to me (mom).  They are at the DelHoyos.  The ward members take great care of these girls!! I am so thankful to them!

More Christmas pictures...

Man, this girl is blessed!!

And so cute

She won't be hungry!

Last Christmas picture (for today)

As missionaries, there is a rule that your companion has to get out to make sure you don't hit anything every time you back up. I'm not sure if you can actually tell in the picture, but both of these cars (one is ours and I think the other one was actually the APs') are parked across three parking stalls each to avoid that rule in a rush. Haha. Mission life. ; )