Happy Pioneer's Day

July 24, 2010

Mom and Dad,

Happy Pioneer's Day! This day 163 years ago the pioneers arrived in the Salt Lake Valley and Brigham Young said, “This is the place.” Crazy that now I’m a missionary here, right!? We’ve had a lot of good experiences this past week. It will be hard to hand write them all, but I love you enough to do it!

Thursday we were planning to contact at the North Visitor Center at the Jerusalem map at 11:00am, but for some reason it felt weird. So my companion and I decided to take our 10mp study at that time because we forgot to schedule that in for the day. We were on our way to the South Visitor Center when we met a woman. She wanted to know where the Joseph Smith building was. We told her we were going that way and would walk her there. As we did we taught her a little and she was so prepared. The spirit was so strong and I barely had to invite her to receive the missionaries. She was so ready to have the missionaries visit with her and deliver her a Book of Mormon.

After that we got our bags and headed home. We barely made it out of the gate when an older gentleman stopped us. He introduced us to his recently returned missionary, grandson. We talked to them and had a great conversation. The grandson shared with us that while on his mission he had had great experiences with Temple Square referrals, so he was willing to give us another name. He gave us a name of a friend from high school. My companion called his friend the next day and he was so prepared to hear the gospel. The friend, of course, received our invitation to have the missionaries visit with him. When my companion called the grandson who had referred the friend back to let him know what happen, the returned missionary almost cried with joy. He said he felt bad that he had waited so long to share the gospel with him.

On Friday we met a few really prepared people as well. A couple with their son, who was probably 27 years-old, was visiting. They came up to us and started asking questions. They were from New Mexico and said they have friends who are members of the church. The couple shared that they had been to our church and had even met before with the missionaries. They were very willing to meet with the missionaries again and their son was excited to meet with them as well. We got two referrals and a potential from them, also. They wanted us to call their other son. The woman kept talking about how peaceful she felt on Temple Square. At the end she told us, “I knew there was a reason we met you!”

When Heavenly Father prepares people, they can feel the spirit and they are so eager to refer. This church is true!

I love you so much!

Love,
Sister Garbett