ELDER CONNOR MARSHALL GARRISS

February 16, 2015

It was a good week this week. I'd like to start off by thanking everyone who sent me Birthday wishes!! I really appreciated it.

We had an enjoyable week. We went on 2 exchanges with our District Leader back to back as he took time to get to know each of us personally. It was a great experience to learn from him and how he works. He is a very strong missionary. The first exchange, I went to his area and we worked there. The second day, his companion came to my area and we worked together while Elder Pulini went to their area with the District Leader.

While we were together we had a pretty cool experience. We were walking home for dinner and on the way a middle school kid tapped us each on the shoulder (you know the reach around and tap to make them look the opposite way? One of those). At first -- from both that action and his appearance -- I thought he was just going to try and mess with us. He was joking around but as we walked and talked with him he opened up more to us. He told us how his parents were divorced and he only sees his real dad twice a month. He explained how they go to separate churches and that each one teaches something different. He knew that one of them must be teaching something right and one of them teaching something wrong because they couldn't both be teaching everything right since they didn't agree. We asked him who god was to him and we were able to teach him about God and prophets. As we approached his home, I invited him to be baptized on March 14th and he accepted! It will be tricky to arrange how to talk with him more and also get his parental permission but we will find a way to work with him. Please pray for him! His name is Omar.

Connie is back on date for March 14th as well. Please pray for her to come to church! That is her one big hold up. We continued to work with her and she is starting to understand just how important baptism is.

In other news, we did attend a Pinewood Derby! That brought back some good memories haha. We moved a freezer from a cobweb infested basement, emerging covered in webs but we were successful (I share that because any of you who know me decently know how much I hate spiderwebs). Overall, it was a fun week.

Reading in my scriptures this morning I came across something that I found to be humourous. I heard a quote once that went something along the lines of "The scriptures contain no jokes but many stories humorously told" and I believe it. Anyway, we often are faced with the question "Why do I need to [insert your choice of ordinance -- often baptism] again? Why is it any different?" Our standard answer comes down to authority. My studies produced a story about the need for authority. Coming from Acts 19:13-16 is the story of some "vagabond jews" who decided to "exercise" an evil spirit out of a man. Now, how many movies, tv shows, stories, etc. contain a similar story line? These jews (there were 7 of them) came in and exercised the fellow. It does not say exactly what they said but it was probably along the lines of "In the name of that Jesus which Paul preaches leave this man" yet these "vagabonds" did not have the priesthood authority from Christ that the Apostles had. So what happened? Well, the Evil Spirit gave them some sass "Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are ye?" and proceeded to kick the daylights out of them (remember its 1 on 7) and sent them away "naked and wounded". Now, I tell this story in a humorous way but it presents a very real and needed message. Priesthood Authority is real. It is needed. One cannot simply command in Christ's name without his Authority -- especially when it comes to ordinances and Christ has restored that Priesthood to the Earth.

I love you! I hope you have had a great week! Thank you so much for your prayers and Birthday wishes.

Love,

Elder Connor M. Garriss