"Rosie is here to see you!!". Seeing them was such a great blessing!

November 18, 2014

"Ow!" "Did that squirrel just bite you?" "Yes!" - Elders Garriss and Egbert ‏

This week has been a fantastic week for us!! 

Jing passed her baptismal interview on Friday and came to church on Sunday! We have taught her everything and she is preparing for baptism this Saturday.  She even asked me to baptize her!!! I am so honored!! We texted all of the information about her baptism to Sister Choi and we really hope they will be able to attend.  Having the opportunity to teach Jing has been one of the greatest blessings of my mission.  We attended the Member and Missionary Fireside last night as well. She really enjoyed the fireside.  President Choi and Sister Choi even talked with her after!

We received training this week which was really important for us.  We went over Baptisms and Baptismal Services -- focusing on how to have the perfect baptismal service. We are working closely with our Ward Mission Leader as well as Jing to prepared her and help him prepare the baptism.

We had the opportunity to have interviews with President Choi this week.  I love interviews.  Its 7 minutes with President.  Its a pretty amazing experience.  I love President Choi.

I wanted to share with you an experience from this week.  It happened at the Member and Missionary Fireside last night.  After the closing prayer, we are given about 20 minutes to socialize and see members, investigators, and converts from our previous wards who attended the Fireside. I had the special experience of seeing a family from Redmond 1st.  Rosie and Roberto with their sons Roberto Jr. and Jason all attended the fireside.  Elder Kearley -- who is now serving in Redmond 1st -- found me at the fireside and quickly pulled me over to them telling me "Rosie is here to see you!!".  Seeing them was such a great blessing!  I loved working with this family.  Rosie told me that her and her family came to the fireside specifically in the hopes to see me.  Rosie bore her testimony to me and thanked me through grateful tears for all I did for her and her family.  I never knew I had done that much for them.  It turns out, it wasn't until I had been transferred that they realized the importance of all that the Gospel holds. She expressed that she never thought I would actually get transferred or would be gone.  Because I was transferred, they began to take the discussions very seriously.  They told Elder Kearley not to call but just show up so that she can't make up an excuse haha! I was so grateful to hear that they have attended church almost every week since I left! Their whole family is coming together as a stronger unit and their testimonies are growing.  Roberto has decided he wants to be active in the church, Rosie wants to be baptized and stay strong, Jason has already been baptized since I left and little Roberto Jr is just an awesome little 4 year old.  I gave them all huge hugs and gave Jason an extra one since I can't hug Rosie.  As we were driving home, a scripture came to my mind: "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings; that publisheth peace; that bringeth good tidings of good; that publisheth salvation; that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth;" (Mosiah 12:21).  What a blessing it is to be a missionary.  It is inexpressible the joy I felt upon seeing Rosie and her family at the fireside, in their Sunday dress, happy, and giving thanks to God.  Do missionary work.  You will feel the love of the Savior touch the lives of those around you, and as you do, you will feel the Savior's love in a greater abundance in your own life.  Sharing the gospel is not about numbers.  It is about creating relationships that will last for eternity.

I love you! I hope you have had a wonderful week.  Thank you so much for your prayers!  I really appreciate them and feel their power.  Keep being faithful! And remember - Mom, Dad, and whomever else reads this - Do missionary work.

Love,

Elder Connor Marshall Garriss

Picture: I was feeding a squirrel.  Ever since I've been here I have been obsessed with those little dudes and I finally got one to come to me! The little guy bit me (which I do have a video of) but totally worth it!

We are teaching her the last point in lesson

November 10, 2014

 

 "I'm trying to decide if my sock is wet or if my feet are just cold." - Elder Egbert ‏

 

What a great week we've had!!!  We had 3 lessons with Jing, each one in a different member's home!  She has commit to everything that we have taught her.  We finished all of the commandments this week and are almost done with the Laws and Ordinances.  We are teaching her the last point in lesson five, Priesthood and Auxiliaries/Missionary Work, tonight in a member's home.  Then we will go over her the Baptismal Interview Questions on Thursday, again in a member's home.  Her Baptismal Interview is on Friday!  She is so ready and prepared.  To top it all off, she was able to come to Sacrament yesterday.  We had been worried about that.  She has been trying so hard to get that day off and although her boss won't let her have it off yet (although she did just get a new supervisor so she will be asking again) she was able to work extremely hard and the Lord blessed her with the strength to finish work 2 hours earlier than normal and come to Sacrament.  It was a huge miracle!  She wants to meet President Choi really bad too.  She is Chinese and hasn't seen any Asian members of the church yet.  When she asked about that, we told her our mission president is Korean and she got really excited! She said she wants to try and speak some Korean to President Choi! She can't wait to hear him speak at the Member and Missionary Fireside coming up.  We invited President to come to her Baptism.  Hopefully he can make it.  It would really mean a lot to her.

Outside of Jing, we have a few potential families that we are following up with.  They seemed pretty solid.  On top of that, we were able to have 2 members come out on visits with us for an hour each! We had a ward missionary come one night and a youth on another.  The youth are excited to do missionary work!  They asked us if they could start coming out with us.  So we set up with them to have a different priest assigned to come out with us every week.  Some of the more motivated Priests want to come out with us more often than that but for the rest, it means about once every 6-8 weeks they get a missionary experience.  It was truly inspired.  The Lord is pouring out blessings upon me and my companion and this area.

Thank you for the prayers!  Please keep praying for Jing!! She's going to get baptized!!  I love you! I hope you're having a good week!!

Love,

Elder Connor M. Garriss

"Yup, I see how all that is bad for me. Okay, I'll live it." (Word of Wisdom)

November 4, 2014

No quote Monday :(

 

And for the first time in a year, I am not having to attend transfers! Its a weird experience haha.  Both Elder Egbert and I are staying here in Pine Lake and we are staying together.  We are both really happy.  We get a long well, work hard together, and both of us would be bummed if one or the other got transferred before Jing's baptism this month!

This week was a great week!! Halloween was pretty lame... We had to be in our apartment by 6pm and do our weekly planning from 6-9pm.  Totally lame!  We didn't even get any trick-or-treaters out where we live!  The Trunk or Treat was pretty sweet though.  We had our own booth (as it seems you already found out from Sister Gutke).  We made a "Wheel of Fortune" using Elder Egbert's bike.  It was pretty fun, and one of the more popular booths.  Got to play volleyball again this week.  That was fun! I love the opportunity to be active with ward members.

We had a wonderful lesson with Jing. We commit her to live the Word of Wisdom! She drinks coffee but as soon as we finished teaching her about the Word of Wisdom, she simply said "Yup, I see how all that is bad for me. Okay, I'll live it." We've made sure to keep daily contact with her as she begins living the Word of Wisdom. Yesterday, Jing texted us and told us that since she has stopped drinking coffee, she has been happier than ever before and her coworkers have even noticed it! She is recognizing the blessings that the Lord is pouring out upon her already! I am so excited for her baptism on the 22nd. I am a little worried because she has not attended Sacrament yet because of her work schedule. Our fast for her went well. One of her coworkers came back to work after an injury and that coworker has Sunday off so she wants to try and trade her for a few Sundays off but Jing has yet to be able to get Sunday off. She comes to church straight from work each week now. She almost made it to Sacrament this week. She requested the day of her Baptism and Confirmation off but I hope she can come to Sacrament before that. We have a lesson with Jing scheduled over at a member's home again this week and we will go over a baptismal calendar with her.  She is seriously the best person ever! I just can't believe how blessed we are to have the opportunity to teach her.

Other than working with Jing, not much is going on. We are trying to find more investigators. We had to drop everyone we were teaching but Jing and a Part Member Family because they would not allow us to schedule lessons, they weren't coming to church, and they weren't progressing. We are just putting our faith in the Lord and his ability to provide for us people to teach and baptize.

I hope you have had a great week! I love you!!

Love,
Elder Connor M. Garriss

  The Wheel of Fortune!

 

Our Shower - lol its slanted.

 

You're so welcome!  I just took this picture of them riding their bikes in the rain.  They're very patient :)
(Elder Garriss is in front).  My husband is the ward mission leader so we get to have these awesome guys in our house quite a bit.
Emily Gutke

Hi!

I took these pictures of Elders Egbert and Garriss tonight at the Trunk or Treat. The idea for their booth was brilliant and they came up with it themselves. It was a huge hit!  They are great missionaries and wonderful young men!  Thanks for sharing them with us.

Love,
Emily Gutke

Hi there Janet – I’m Suzie Wiley.  Your cute son (aka Elder Garriss) had dinner at our house tonight, along with his companion Elder Egbert.  I wanted to send you these 2 pics of the guys with our dog Cato.

 

Your son was such a joy to have in our home and is a big asset to our ward. He shared his testimony – confident and steady – about missionary work and that if we ask the lord he will direct us to those we need to talk to.  He also shared how proud and excited he is that you have invited a family friend/neighbor to have the discussions and challenged us to do the same!

 

We also enjoyed hearing about his great family and his plans for the future, as well as an update on who he’s teaching!  We talked golf, BYU dorms and ate lots of tacos!!

You must all be so proud of him –my own son Calvin is serving in Spain right now! Calvin has only 4 months left and I miss him every day- but am grateful, that like your son, he is serving the Lord!

 

Best to you and your family!

 

Suzie Wiley

 

We had quite a few miracles!

October 27, 2014

This week has been a pretty great week!  We had quite a few miracles!

We were tracting early on in the week and found a Japanese woman who decided she wanted to learn more about the gospel and find out if God really is there.  We taught her about prayer and gave her a Book of Mormon with a few chapters to read.  She accepted a return appointment.  We dropped by the next day to let her know that the return appointment we had set was actually during our Trunk r Treat activity and that we would need to reschedule it.  She opened the door and quickly said "Ah! I haven't read yet!" We all got to laugh as we explained the situation and invited her and her family of 4 kids to the activity.  She said she would love to come and we will be meeting with her tonight.

Same street, different day.  We had a pretty big storm blowing in.  Before our tracting, I had prayed that we may find some way to avoid some of the rain.  Well, the Lord provides.  4th house into our tracting, a chinese woman opens the door and we explain who we are.  She looked at us and said "I want to believe in God. Can you teach me?"  Of course!!!! So she invited us in on the spot and (miraculously) her father was home so we could come in.  Her husband is still in China and does not get here for another week or so.  She just moved her a month ago from China.  We taught her simply the Gospel of Jesus Christ, who Jesus Christ was, why he is important, and our relationship with God.  She was so excited!  We taught her to pray and she commit to pray daily and to read a pamphlet we left with her.  We will also be seeing her tonight.

We had a surprise call from a less active member of the ward this week.  She requested a blessing.  After explaining the situation to us, we gave her one and had a chance to visit with her.  She still has a strong testimony and has decided she wants to come back.  We are working with members of the ward for fellowship.  She attended church on Sunday.

We had a dinner with Jing at our Relief Society President's house this week.  Jing is doing amazing! She is just soaking up the gospel.  We taught her the Plan of Salvation and it answered many of her questions.  She said that's already what she believes! We invited her to church.  She is still trying to get work off but said she would come to Relief Society because she will be off work at 2:30 and that starts at 3.  She did.  She loved it.  Tuesday, she will be asking for work off.  Please pray for her!! We will be praying and fasting for her to get Sundays off.

Overall, what an amazing week!  The Lord blessed us with so many miracles and so many great blessings.  I have been pondering this week my service to the Lord.  So often, we quote 1 Nephi 3:7 when we are faced with difficult tasks.  "I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them."  While this is true, I often fall into the snare of "I will go and do, just not right now".  While in my study this morning, I was reading in Mark.  Speaking of Simon's (who would later be named Peter) response to the Savior's call, the scriptures say "And straightway they [Simon and his brother] forsook their nets, and followed him."  I thought to myself, "Am I not only willing to go and do but am I willing to go and do now?"  This is a question I believe we all must answer in our life at some point.  I hope that we will strive to act willingly and "straightway" whenever the Master calls.

I love you! I hope you have a fun time down in Mexico! Try not to have to much fun ;)

Love,

Elder Connor M. Garriss

PS: Please thank Aunt Tanya for her lovely letter!  I really appreciated it!

 

Pics!

"If you try, sometimes, you might just find, you get what you need!" - The Rolling Stones‏

October 20, 2014

This week has been a great week!  We had lots of physical activity (not that we don't normally on bike).  On Monday, we got to have Zone Sports day filled with Soccer and Ultimate Frisbee.  That was a blast as always! Tuesday, the Young Men invited us to play dodge ball with them and their nonmember friends for mutual as well as share a message at the end.  That was a lot of fun! I still have a decent arm haha.  Saturday night we were invited to play coed volleyball with the ward.  There weren't very many nonmembers as present but oh well, we still had a lot of fun.  And I got to see the Hansens from the Redmond 1st ward!!! Wahoo!!!

As for miracles, there were many this week.  On Tuesday, we decided to go visit Jing.  We hadn't seen or heard from her in about 2 weeks and we were worried about her so we stopped by.  Turns out she has had a pretty rough past couple of weeks.  I won't share too much because it's private but she expressed that she was pretty angry.  She was quite unhappy and at first didn't really want to listen to what we had to say.  So instead, we listened to her.  The Spirit was present and it was strong and after talking with her for about an hour and a half her entire demeanor and attitude changed.  She went from refusing to read, pray or even consider church, to committing to read 3 chapters from the Book of Mormon, praying twice daily, and coming to the Member and Missionary Fireside on Sunday!  She commented that she loved how she felt when she met with us.  We told her that was the Spirit.  We even set up a time to visit her again on Thursday.

Fast forward to Thursday.  We had a member invite her over for our discussion.  We taught Jing in the member's home and the Spirit was definitely there.  Jing and Sister Walton really connected.  We taught about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  At the end of the lesson, Jing looked at me and asked "Well, what do I have to do?"  Earlier that morning, Elder Egbert and I had discussed inviting her to be baptized so my response was to follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized.  She accepted it.  We invited her to be baptized on November 22.  She accepted with the immediate response "How did you know?! That is the day that I become a full time employee."  Turns out, when she becomes a full time employee, she has more control over her schedule and can request time off of work (ie for her baptism!).  The Spirit was so strong.  I grew to see that the Spirit can reveal things to you that you would never know.  Often times, we don't even know why we have had that prompting or something revealed.  We did not know why we should invite her for that day but we felt strongly that we should.  We had discussed other days that seemed more reasonable but November 22 was the day we had been prompted for.  So we stuck to it.

Sunday, I had the opportunity to teach Gospel Principles.  I love to teach! I always learn something new.  I was teaching about "Developing our Talents".  This is something I have been praying to know.  What are my talents?  Talent is more than just being "good" at something.  I learned talents are something we work at.  It takes effort.  One can have a "natural talent" for sports, music, or even something like gaming.  But it is not until we exercise that desire to become better that we truly gain that talent.  If we simply know we have that ability then do not exercise it, we will lose that ability.  I gained some personal revelation on one of my talents.  I have always wanted to be a strong public speaker.  I confess, I am not there yet, but as I had the opportunity to teach to a classroom of adult-- many of which I would consider strong speakers and more intellectual than I-- the Spirit helped me see the progress I have made in the last 16 months. What a great blessing that has been for me.

I hope you have had a great week! I love you!

Love,

Elder Connor M. Garriss

"You love my Koreanglish" - President Choi‏

October 13, 2014

We had a pretty sweet week this week.  We had Zone Conference which is always a great experience.  We can learn so much.  That being said, I'm kinda tired of conferences haha I'm ready to have normal weeks of working! We got to do a lot of service this week!  We did lots of yard work with lots to come.  It was actually a really cool experience!

About 2 weeks ago, the Thuesons' invited us to teach their 8 year old daughter about baptism as she was preparing to be baptized.  This last week, we were over there helping them move a couch-- which was quite the job.  Had to get a hide-a-bed up from their first floor to their second floor by lifting it up over the balcony since it didn't fit up the stairs.  We helped with some of their yard work as well, and we will be continuing to do so this week.  Through the process of all of this service, they invited us to their daughter's baptism!  What a blessing! Then, we were surprised to be invited into the confirmation of their daughter.  That was truly a great experience and I am so thankful for their inviting the missionaries to be a part of it.  Long story short, invite the missionaries to do stuff (service, attend events, etc.) they really appreciate it!

We found a new family this week.  They were a referral from another set of Elders.  We are really excited to work with them.  Not much progress yet, but we found them!

On Saturday, the Muhlesteins' invited us over for their annual doughnut making!  They had a pretty big gathering at their home as they made their homemade doughnuts and apple fritters!  It was so good! And we got to meet some of their neighbors.

I broke both of my brake cables this week.  Sucked! So I had to drop a bunch more money on bike equipment. #biking #16months

I think that's about it for the week.  We have Zone P-Day today! Which means soccer and frisbee as a zone! Wahoo!! Super stoked for that.  I hope you've had a great week and I would encourage you to open Preach My Gospel and search through it for one small section that stands out to you and read the whole thing (including the scripture study at the bottom).  It's a great learning tool.  I love you!

Love,

Elder Connor M. Garriss

 Elder Pfister goes home at the end of this transfer!! :( He has been a great influence on me and missionary work.

 

#MeettheMormons

  My new rain coat #hellyhansen

 

Doughnut making with Bro Muhlestein!

 Elder Egbert @ the Library about 15 seconds ago

 

WE GOT TO WATCH MEET THE MORMONS!! And you have to go see it.

October 6, 2014

What a great week it has been to have been able to watch General Conference.  I hope you were able to see it and love it as much as I did.  It is a great blessing!

This week we spent a majority of the mornings cleaning our apartment.  Oh my.  When I got here it was a disaster.  So we did a major overhaul clean.  Much better now :)

But outside of that, both Elder Egbert and I are fighting colds again.  But more importantly...

WE GOT TO WATCH MEET THE MORMONS!!  And you have to go see it.  And take people with you!  It is a great movie!  I have grown a huge testimony as to the power this movie has and it is not even about our doctrine.  It is about our daily lives.  The people portrayed in this movie and extraordinary but also their daily life involves the same thing you would find in any of our lives as members of the church.  It is extremely well done.  You MUST go and see it.

Between that and watching General Conference, we didn't get have many teaching appointments.  Mostly tracting, and no great stories this week :( but just know I am loving it out here and everyday is a good day.  My favorite conference talks were probably Elder Bednar's talk to the nonmember as well as Jorg Klebingat speaking on increasing our spiritual confidence.  I think those 6 points he shared are crucial to becoming not only a powerful spiritual leader but also a compassionate and caring leader too.

I love you! Sorry I don't have any pictures again this week :( I must repent!

Love,

Elder Connor M. Garriss

PS.  Yes, I did buy a new jacket!  I meant to get a picture of it and show you but I forgot :( I got a sweet deal though!  Its a 300 dollar jacket (way better than my jacket and it is very fashionable, you know me haha) but the lady there did some searching and found a way for it to be 40% off.  So I got it for 180.  The Lord provides for his servants.

I'm really glad you guys enjoyed conference.  When President Eyring talked about his Mom I choked up a bit remembering all the things you've done for me in my life.  Thanks so much.  Without it, I don't think I would have amounted to much.

I love you! Thank you so much for all you do, all the support you show me, and for being my mom!  Go watch Meet the Mormons with someone this week! Or multiple people! I promise you, you'll love it!

 

 

Pine Lake, Sammamish

September 29, 2014

It was a wonderful post transfers week.  I spent the majority of my brainpower trying to memorize the names and faces of everyone I was meeting, member and investigator alike.  The ward seems pretty awesome! They love the missionaries and are so excited to help us or feed us or do whatever they can for us.  What a blessing!

We had a pretty sweet miracle this week!  We visited with one of our investigators, Jing, and we invited her to go on a church tour.  She was so excited! She has loved everything we talk about and wants to learn as much as she can about Jesus Christ.  At the church tour, she had so many questions we ended up being there for 2 hours.  She just had question after question and no worry about a time limit.  She was devoting all of her time and attention to learning about Christ.  Please keep her in your prayers.

Besides that, not that much else happened that was all that exciting.  We helped a family move from one part of the ward to another on Saturday.  I'm still on bike.  Pine Lake is on the Sammamish Plateau, so I'm back on the Plateau again!  I basically spent all of our down time meeting members. I forgot to take pictures this week.. Oops..  Next week!

Oh! I guess I could share something about Elder Egbert haha! Elder Egbert is from Wells, Nevada and he is a cattle rancher.  He's pretty awesome.  Just a #cowboy (even though he won't admit it but that's because he's not a wannabe/puffed up with pride).  We get along well.  This should be a really fun transfer together.

 I hope you've had a great week!

Love,
Elder Connor Garriss

Vazquez Family

This picture was sent on September 22, 2014

 

 

 

"Your son has help our family so much is very kind he miss u so much

from the Vazquez family"

Whitewashed

September 23, 2014

This week was an amazing week! On Tuesday, Rosie and Roberto came to our English class.  This was a miracle because they have been so busy, but then the member who teaches the class canceled on us!   Well, miracle! We had invited a newer member of the ward, Brother Williams, to fellowship them and come to the class with us.  turns out, he taught English to non English speakers at the MTC for last couple of years while attending BYU!  What a blessing! He did an amazing job and then bore his testimony of the Book of Mormon and how reading the Book of Mormon will improve their English because God will help them.  It couldn't have gone better.

Saturday, Elder Gemperline and I helped the Novelty Hill sisters at their baptism by singing with them while their investigator-now-recent-convert was changing out of his wet baptismal clothing.  That was a fun experience.

On Sunday, we had the entire Michael family come to church.  That is the Samoan family we have been teaching.  They loved it! They were surrounded with the love of the ward.  It was an amazing experience for them.  Sadly, Rosie and Roberto weren't able to attend because they got sick.  But we did get to have Lourdes and EJ (the oldest 2 of the Michael family) come to the Member and Missionary fireside.  It was a great experience for them and we even invited them to be baptized which they accepted!  We are planning for the 18th of October!  It will be amazing!

Sadly, we weren't able to meet with Randy this week because of some pre-existing plans he had to do, but he got back today and will begin to meet with us again.

Well, this week started with sad news.  Elder Gemperline and I both got transferred.  They whitewashed Redmond 1st.  We were very unhappy but it turns out Elder Kearley and his new companion (who are Zone Leaders) got transferred to Redmond 1st.  So I know the area is in great hands but I am so disappointed to not see Randy, Rosie, Jason, and the Michael Family's baptisms which will happen this transfer in October.  I guess it was just not meant for me to attend those.  I have been transferred to the Pine Lake ward with Elder Egbert.  He is very excited about the work and it seems that the ward is pretty supportive!

Please continue to pray for my previous investigators but I know I will be able to do good work here.

I hope you have had a great week!  Love you!

Love,

Elder Garriss

The Michael Family.  I will miss them greatly!

Elder Gemperline plays the French Horn!

September 15, 2014


What a great week we've had this week!  We had made a goal last week during our zone meeting to involve members more in the work and we have seen the miracles that have come from that.  We were able to have 11 member present lessons this week! To put this in perspective, we have been having 1-2 member present lessons a week for the last 3 months or longer.  Members have really made all the difference to missionary work!

Because of the members and their involvement, we were able to see Randy at church and participating.  Not only that, we were able to see Rosie, Roberto, and all 3 of their kids also at church and participating!  The members really embraced them into the ward and they all felt great.  Rosie and Roberto plan to continue coming and even invited many of the members to come and visit them at their house!!

While tracting, we ran into a woman named "Bobby" and she knew almost nothing about God but believes in him and desires to learn more.  We set up a church tour with her for that weekend and we were able to involve multiple members in her tour and we sang "I am a Child of God" to her in the chapel where she felt the spirit so strong she said she just wanted to cry because of how happy she was.  We commit her to church next week.

A woman we have been teaching, Paulette, who is a French Horn private teacher really connected with a member we brought with us whom we had no idea loved the French horn and classical music!  He and Elder Gemperline were able to connect with her on a musical level and transition to teaching her the Restoration.  She commit to reading the Book of Mormon and wants to continue her learning!

We have seen all sorts of miracles this week, big and small as we have been working with the members to progress the work of the Lord here in the Redmond 1st ward.  We have seen such a huge difference.  I hope you have been having a fantastic week as well!  Please keep praying for Randy, Rosie and Roberto and Family, as well as the Michael Family.  These families are progressing so much and have a true desire to be baptized!

I hope you have had a wonderful week!  I love you!

Love,
 

Elder Connor M. Garriss

  Bikes really cause some "wear and tear" after 16 months! I ripped 2 pairs of pants this week... And all I did was squat! This pair was unfixable...

 

 Alexis Whitmore, Randy, and Myself!