The Old Man Must be Snoring!

Good morning everyone! 

This week was a pretty good one. It is starting to get a little cooler out here, and it even rained! Sister Howard and I enjoyed it so much. It really was pouring a couple of times though. ; ) We definitely got soaked a couple of times, and California is definitely not built for this kind of weather. But it was so much fun!

Favorite Scripture:

3 Nephi 27:1-2. I liked this scripture because it talks about fasting, praying, and being united together. It also talks about teaching and baptizing. On December 23, the first presidency has announced that it will be just sacrament meeting worldwide, and that it will be an invitation Sunday, to help people to feel the Spirit of Christ. Yesterday, we had the opportunity as a church to fast to know who to invite, and how. It's cool to me that the Lord answers our prayers like that when we are united in common cause, His cause.

Favorite Spiritual Moment:

We got to help at the Elders' baptism for a man named Jorge (which he pronounces like George) on Saturday. Jorge is a really cool guy. He has a little daughter named Sarah who is about 4 who is his whole world. This whole time he's been learning about the church, he has talked about how he has so many reasons for wanting to be a part of him. One of those reasons is for himself, but his number one reason is for his daughter. He recognized how much of a blessing the gospel can be for her life as well as his, so he is so excited to raise his daughter in the church. He bore his testimony right after he got baptized and it was one of the most beautiful recent convert testimonies I've ever heard (and I've heard some good ones), because he talked about following the example of Jesus Christ so he can be a better example for his little girl. It was so amazing to see how strong his testimony is that families can be forever.

Favorite Funny Moment:

At district council the other day, we received a few announcements to remind us about some safety precautions for walking the streets of LA. One of those was to not carry more than $5 cash in our wallets, so that if we get robbed, we have something to give the thieves while also not losing that much money. The rule makes sense, but Elder Peterson just got this horrified look on his face. He just went, "Wait, do they know that most of those taco trucks only take cash?!"

Other Stuff:

Every time we meet a Russian person, they all think it's really weird that Sister Howard's last name is American. She usually explains to them that she was adopted, and tells them that her first name is Natasha (which is a nickname for Natalya. Apparently Russian speakers are really big on having a bunch of less formal versions of one's name), which makes a lot more sense to them, even though they still don't like "Howard" because it's hard for them to pronounce. A lot of them actually start calling her by her first name. ; ) This week though, we went to go visit a Ukrainian member of our ward, Irayida, who still speaks only Russian. Sister Howard introduced me, and she looked at my name tag for a minute, trying to pronounce my last name. Eventually she gave up and started calling me Katya. So I guess I'm Katya now. ; )

Got to go!

Love,

Sister Garfield

Us at the food pantry showing our "Mission Pride"

Kind of defeats the point of a car port. ; )

Modeling Sister Howard's ingenuity

So fashionable. ; ) 

They're effective though.

That's 4 inches of water guys ;-)

It's raining, it's pouring

Somebody got really cold ;-)