Monday, October 28th

Well we are doing great! We just got transfer information yesterday! I will be staying in Lovell and Elder White will be a zone leader in Corvallis Montana. I am getting Elder Rust as my companion. He is from Georgia. That's really all I know about him. He should be a good missionary. 

Today the temperature is supposed to drop to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. It started snowing in little flakes. Winter here I come! I am so ready for this! Bring it on! 

We were at a members house with the sisters and there was this crazy cat named Spaz. We stuck straws in his collar and messed with him. Tons of fun. Then we gave the lady a blessing for a surgery she was having. We've been giving a lot of blessings lately. It's awesome! The first picture is Sister Wing from Texas. She's cool. Then we found these 3D glasses and made funny faces.

I will finally be getting my I-pad this week. Which is great, because I want to study Revelations and I need a side-by-side help because I can't figure it out. It's going to be great! We have our planner, our area book, ward information, scriptures, all of the conference talks!, all of the magazines! I'm pretty excited. It's like a new video game just came out.

That's all I can think to write about for now.

-Elder Garceau

(I love you Mom!)

Monday October 21, 2013

Hello everyone! It's been a very good week for us here ! We have done a lot. We have more people to teach and more people to look up. Things are great!

Our mission has been selected to pilot the I-pad as a missionary tool and I have been approved to have one! The training for them is today in Billings. And I'm not going. For some reason my Mission President wants me to be here in Lovell on an exchange with another missionary Elder Ross. He's a pretty cool guy so we are going to be hanging out today. My companion is going to be at the training today so he can tell me all about it.

Sorry, I don't have pictures of me getting punched in the nose or any after photos. I really don't want anyone to see that anyway. 

I met a less active member who is a petroleum Engineer. He supervises the directional drilling for a major oil company. It uses a lot of math and I am very interested in it. As part of the procedure they drill down two miles, and then out two miles. The oil is collected in 4 miles of pipe (kind of similar to wiring but bigger) and then it gets pumped up to the surface where they clean it out and store it. I guess it's a pretty new procedure. His job requires a lot of math and it sounds like tons of fun! He goes out on the site for three weeks and then he is back home for about a week. It doesn't sound like something I would want to do for a very long time, but maybe for a little while because it pays well. He is on his week off at the moment so we are going to visit him and his family this evening. He's going to tell me more about his job and then maybe we could talk religion for a bit. Who knows. We'll see how this goes.

Every week, the missionaries in the district have to report numbers (lessons taught, baptisms, people attending church,...etc.) to the district leader so he can send them to the zone leader. Elder White has decided the give a prize every week to the people who call in first. This week we gave the prize to the second caller. The prize has generally been the same every week... a sugar beet! We keep finding these on the side of the road because the trucks keep dropping them. Just last week we found 30 sugar beets on the side of the road! Someone is going to be getting a very big prize.... We're going on exchanges later this week and my companion is going to hide sugar beets everywhere in the other elders' apartment while he's there. And next weeks prize, the only one who doesn't get a sugar beet is the winner! This is going to be so great! I can't wait! 

I love you all!

Elder Garceau

(I love you mom!)

October 16th, 2013

I am taking the time right now to finally send my weekly letter. On Monday I was on an exchange with the one of my zone leaders in Powell Wyoming. It was awesome working with him for a day! We went to this house that had no joke about a hundred cats. I know my parents would never let us have that many cats. I wouldn't know what to do with so many cats.

On Monday we also went to Cody because we had a member driving us. I got myself some good boots and a hat that will keep my head dry so I am ready for the winter! We went to the Cody Dam that's on the way to Yellowstone. It was huge! But it was snowing so we couldn't see that much.

I went to a district meeting in Cody with the zone leader and we talked about humility. 

Humility as a missionary pretty much means relying on the holy ghost to teach people things. Because I know as a person I am not a very good teacher. I can't do it unless I have divine help and I pray for it every time I teach someone. A good way to recognize that what you are saying is coming from the holy ghost is if you learn things from what you just said. If you are learning things from your words, then you know the spirit is teaching.

Also a story I can tell now because I am not in Dillon Montana haha...

Elder Tayrien had just been put with me in Dillon. It was his fifth day in the area and we were driving into town for a 10:00 am appointment. We were going to do service for a very nice lady who needed things moved. As we drove down Smith road (or Axes Canyon depending on who you ask) we got behind a truck that was towing a trailer. The speed limit on the road was 35 mph. He was going 20 mph which is perfectly within his rights. It is also within our own rights to pass him on this particular road, in which we passed him. We were talking about our plans for the day as we drove the six miles to the lady's apartment building. We got out of the car and took out our backpacks. We were just getting ready to go in. Elder Tayrien was putting on his backpack and tightening his straps while facing the road when to our surprise, out of nowhere this crazy dude comes rushing towards Elder Tayrien and punches him in the right cheek. He then proceeded to yell at us about how we needed to slow down and not speed and how we could have put a chip in his windshield. We were both very astonished and confused. He said that he had seen this car speeding down Smith road often. This was not in fact Elder Tayrien's driving, which he explained to the man as well as the fact that he had only been here for five days. The real culprit was my trainer, Elder Nay, who had no qualms about speeding down Smith road in our Ford Fusion. Elder Tayrien asked the man what he would like us to do for him. The man ignored him, called him a liar and punched him in the face two more times. The whole time going through my head was the thought,"I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the son of God."  I knew it would not end well if we had chosen to gang up on him because it would have made us look bad. I tried to tell him to calm down and he didn't like that very much so he proceeded to punch me in the nose (Which was very annoying by the way. It's not fun having blood drip out of your nose in a constant stream.). I was not going to let him think it was okay to hit me again so I shoved him very hard to get him away. After that he hopped in his car and drove off. The police officer showed up and got some statements from us and the other 20 or so witnesses in the area. I called my mission president and told him about what happened. He said that I did the right thing pushing him back and that if it ever happens again I have his permission to destroy whomever it is. So, in the rare event this does happen again, I'll go to town on so and so's face :)

It actually turns out is was better we didn't paste the guy to the pavement because now it is a more black and white situation and there is no way that the missionaries look guilty. The situation looks more like, "these nice Mormon missionaries were just standing there and this crazy guy attacked them for no reason. What a jerk." So he was cited and as far as I know the last thing I heard about it, he was sitting in front of a judge. Two counts of assault. Word traveled around town fast. And the guy is a general contractor. No one wants to work for him, and no one wants to hire him for any jobs. He's basically losing the shirt off his back. From the stories I hear, he's had it coming for a while. It was a great door knocking opportunity because everyone wanted to hear our story. 

I almost wish that Elder Nay had been there. He's a fighter and would have wrecked the guy.

Elder Tayrien handled it very calmly and neither of us has bitter feelings toward the man. We are actually kind of sad at the way he chose to handle the situation.

I didn't want to tell everyone about it while I was in Dillon, because I didn't want my Mom to worry and get sick. The people in Dillon really are great people, but there is always one bad egg in every bunch. We just so happened to meet him. I am fine and my nose is well. But next time, I will remember what my mission president has said.

We are doing just fine!

Love everyone!

Elder Garceau

(I love you Mom!)

October 14th, 2014

This week has been crazy! don't have a lot of time! I'll see if I can take time later to tell but I hope you all have a wonderful day! Sorry!

Elder Garceau

October 7th, 2013

I loved conference so much! This conference I focused on things said about faith and Jesus Christ. I have really been hounding down faith to get a good and solid grip on what all it is. Everyone knows that faith is Hope for things which are not seen, which are true. But what else is it? Elder Deiter F. Uchtdorf of the first presidency said,"Doubt your doubts, before you doubt your faith." I like to use short meaningful phrases to get an idea through my brain and the brains of others. The phrase that I have been searching for in my mind to make faith mean more to me is,"Faith is action in the presence of doubt." To fit your own specific needs you can replace the word,"Doubt" with any other word. One investigator we have said that he was having trouble exercising faith because of his pride and he was too prideful to go to Jesus Christ for help. For him his word was pride. But the most important thing to remember about this phrase I just made up is that Faith is action. Just do it.

Hmmmmm as far as things that have happened... not much. A German Shepherd chewed on my suit coat. So I had someone patch up the hole. It was awesome. I got this epic bite mark now. I'm never wearing my suit coat in that house again. It's still my favorite suit coat though. The scar gives it character and makes it more rugged. I'll try not to think about the 1G I dropped in buying all of my clothing... I now see the value of shopping at thrift stores for suits that I don't have to care about.

Due to constant slipping on the sidewalks I am starting to see a need for boots and a good hat,"Thank you Mom!". I think I'll start the modeling photos for these awesome hats and scarves my Mom is sending me.

Oh yeah and the picture I am sending with this email. Any guesses on what it is? That's right! These ain't no chicken nuggets! It's a delicacy known as rocky mountain oysters! Just had to do it because it's part of being a missionary. We're supposed to eat weird stuff so there you are!

Well so far on my mission I've been punched in the face, had a dog bite my suit coat, and I ate some weird food. Almost a real missionary!

For those of you who know him, I am in a 3 missionary companionship with Elder White and... Elder MR.Bill!

Love you all! Stay in touch!

Elder Garceau

(Love you Mom)