The Still, Small Voice

Hey all of you. ; )

Transfers just happened, and I am still in West Hills. I am training a new Sisters, Sister Jenkins, this transfer, until she gets her visa. She is going to New Zealand!

Happiest Moment:

We got a text right around 6:30 yesterday morning from our good friend Jason. Jason has been struggling for the past month or so, but this past week, we were able to get in contact with him and had a couple of really good lessons. We were able to have some really good lessons on repentance and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was amazing to see the change of heart he has seemed to have experienced. He seems different this time. He wants to be accountable and do this the right way, which is so amazing. Earlier in the week, we gave him a calendar and told him to write "C,P,R" every day that he was clean, had prayed, and read his scriptures. Well, the text Jason sent us at 6:30 yesterday morning was a picture of his calendar. He had a "C" written on every day since we'd given it to him. He's been clean and sober for a full week! We were so excited. : )

Favorite Miracle:

We didn't have a ton of set plans on Saturday, so when we planned, we looked at a bunch of different lists of people to try to figure out who to stop by. We had one complex we already felt like we should go to, but then we found another name that lived in a complex nearby, so we decided to go there too. When we got to that complex, I realized that it was one that was really hard to get into, because I had tried before, but we decided to go for it anyway. We walked up to the front to make sure the address was right and realized that the front gate had been propped open. Looking at the list of people who lived there that we had record of, we couldn't even remember who we'd seen on that first list, so we decided to go by all the members and old referrals in that complex since it's hard to get in anyway. We kept going down the list, one by one, but none of them were home. As we were going, there was this one building in the complex that Sister Jenkins stopped in front of and said she felt like we needed to knock, so we did. Not one of the doors answered. We kept going, and made it to the last name on the list, and were greeted by this lady who tried to kick us out. So we started to head out, not quite knowing why we had been led to that complex until we walked past this guy heading toward his apartment and OYMed to him. He didn't understand what we said, but when we held up a pass-along card, he then asked us, in Spanish, if it was a picture of Jesus. We switched to our broken Spanish to talk to him and said that yes, it was. He asked who we were and we told him, and ended up not only getting his address (right next to the lady who had kicked us out), but invited him to church and he said he was going to come! It was super cool to see how the Lord had not only led us to the right place through a bunch of small, little promptings, but had also used other promptings to stall us long enough that we would be able to intercept him right as he was walking in. It was so great! The Lord's master plan is so amazing. He really knows what he's doing.

Favorite Funny Moments:

We had transfers this week, and I had to stay be at the stake center by the temple pretty early so I could pick up a new trainee. Sister Jarvis was able to set it up so she could meet her new companions there too, which would have been fine, except that her new companions didn't get there until I had to be going inside, so they had to move stuff around without me being there. I gave the keys to Sister Jarvis so she could get her suitcases out and told her to make sure to get them back to me before she left. By the time the new missionary orientation was done and I had my new companion, Sister Jenkins, I still didn't have the keys back. We went outside and saw that they were completely gone, so we asked the APs if anyone had given them any keys and no one had. So we called them up, and yes, Sister Jarvis had taken the keys with her. To her apartment, 45 minutes away from the church. ; ) We couldn't do much about it, so Sister Jenkins and I just chilled in the parking lot, getting to know each other while they drove back to Santa Monica. It was kind of nice actually. ; ) As soon as they came back, we got on with our day, but it was just funny to see the little things that happen at transfers.

Also, Sister Jenkins had her first real lesson on Wednesday! We were meeting with this man for a first lesson with him, and we knew we'd be giving him a Book of Mormon, so she wrote her testimony in it and everything. When we got to the lesson, we found out within the first five minutes that he's an athiest, and in the last ten minutes he asked us about the church's stance on LGBT rights because he's apparently bisexual. It was an interesting lesson, to say the least! Haha, only in California. ; ) The lesson actually went really well though! And he still took the Book of Mormon!

Just another thought: I hope that each and every one of you know about the strength that comes from relying on Jesus Christ. There are so many things in this world that we absolutely cannot overcome without His help. None of us have to feel unworthy to reach out to Him to ask for His forgiveness, love, and grace. He is there for each of us. He is the one that can give us the strength to do the things He's asked us to do. We cannot do this without Him.

I hope you all have a super great week!

Love,

Sister Garfield

District breakfast this morning. We made some freaking awesome French toast!

Sister Jenkins' first morning in the field! 

Front row seat to some action across the street.