One more photo

Elder Getts is home!

Elder Getts arrived in Columbia Falls this morning about 11:20am.  It is so good to have him here.  He served a faithful mission and is now embarking on the rest of his life.  :)

Mom

Dad

Niels is happy to have his big brother home.

The Last Two Weeks

This last week has been amazing! We had the Mission Department come and give us a training on how to teach more simply and powerfully. They showed us how to teach with the pamphlets they made from Preach My Gospel by asking the investigators to look at the pictures and tell us what they see. (Does that remind you of 1 Nephi 11?) It works really well! The Spirit is there and they put forth some effort to think so He can influence them more. We teach and testify simply and they really get it! We learned how to invite them to read the Book of Mormon and what we needed to do to help them got to church so they can witness the sacred ordinance of the sacrament. The same day after we got out of the meeting we were impressed to stop by someone that we haven't taught for 5 months, since I first got in the area. I had only met the wife and the son, but the dad answered the door, and we said that we are servants of Jesus Christ and we were inspired to come by their house. He let us in and we taught him the Restoration. The Spirit was very strong. We have been having many other experiences like that and seeing many miracles. The whole mission is changing because of the many things that we learned. The Lord is hastening His work in more than just calling more missionaries, but in how we do the work and how we guide others to the truth as well. What we learned is really going to have an effect on my whole life; I can feel it. Elder Hernandez and I were talking, and if I hadn't come home from the Dominican Republic and then come to this mission, I wouldn't have been in the Utah Provo Mission at this critical time in missionary work and wouldn't have been present at the life-changing meeting that we had. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father's plan! Have a wonderful week!

Well, here goes the last email from my mission! Pretty crazy. I still don't think I really grasp it yet. I had my exit interview with President McCune yesterday, which was good. This weekend was great! Justin and Stephanie were baptized (in the pictures I will send). Their baptism was awesome! They are really bright (she goes to law school at BYU) and study the scriptures a lot, have always believed in Christ and she even prayed about if coming to BYU was the right decision. (We weren't at all surprised when she told us that it felt right :) the Lord brought them here for a reason). They have attended 2 Married Student Wards, and then with all of their friends from school, we filled up the whole chapel! It was great, especially because they bore their testimonies. We even were able to bring an investigator named Benson from Kenya, who will be baptized on the 13th, so it was a great baptism for him. Then on Sunday Elder Hernandez confirmed Stephanie and I confirmed Justin. It was really powerful and I definitely felt the Spirit during both blessings. He was ordained to the Priesthood as well, so we will be going with them tomorrow morning to do baptisms for the dead! It is awesome to be able to do that with them. I love going with new converts to the temple, because then they see how much more they can receive through the Gospel and get a glimpse of what is in store for them. Justin and Stephanie actually started a blog about becoming Mormon and they said they have already had people from all over the world look at it. The new Assistant is Elder Guzman! He was my companion as Zone Leader, so you should remember him. He will do a great job. Teaching went a little slow this week because of transfers and also Elder Hernandez was sick for a day. Well, I love you and am looking forward to seeing everyone at the airport on Thursday!

Love,

Elder Getts 


Justin and Stephanie get baptized
with Elder Hernandez and Elder Getts



The Light of the Gospel

Our area is great! We have a great family stake to work with that has a lot of nonmembers and less-actives, and our YSA stakes are good as well. Bob is getting baptized on Saturday. He passed his interview today. He will be the oldest person that I have taught to get baptized (80 years old!).

We need to find some new investigators! We have a few preparing for baptism right now, which is awesome, so we need to find more so we aren't caught in a rut when they all get baptized. We had an awesome experience this Monday. A young couple we have been teaching finally got their answer! Two Mondays ago the wife asked us for a blessing and I was voice. It was probably the most powerful blessing that I have ever given. I knew that the Holy Ghost was speaking though me. The only thing that I really remember saying was at the beginning, when I said that Heavenly Father blessed her to know that this blessing was by the power of God. When we talked with her this Monday (we meet once a week on Mondays), she said that she really did know that it was by the power of the Priesthood. Then the next day (Tuesday), they happened to go for a drive and ended up at Temple Square. They read some scriptures there and then were just sitting there looking at the temple, and they started talking and thinking about baptism and said that they felt all of the fruits of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, light and everything else confirm to them that it was the right thing to do. After they had left and started for home as they were driving they also received confirmation about question 2 of the baptismal interview, which is if they believe that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the gospel was restored through him, and if they believe that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet of God today. They had been telling us that this was the only question that they could not answer honestly for the past few weeks. They had wanted to be baptized, but that held them back. Well, the husband received a confirmation from the Holy Ghost that made him know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, and the wife received a confirmation that Joseph Smith was a prophet! So they got both parts of the question. They were so happy and excited when we met with them on Monday. There was a new light in their faces and we could tell something had happened. It really is amazing what the Gospel does in our lives. They were talking about how amazing they felt and how they just wanted to tell everyone about what they now know. They are going to be amazing disciples in Christ's kingdom!

Well, I hope that everything is going well for everyone.  Have an awesome week!

Love,

Grant

Thoughts from the past couple of weeks

Today we went to a Married Student Ward. It was the first one that I have ever been to and it was pretty weird. We went with a couple that we are teaching. They are investigating really intently. They read the Book of Mormon, study conference talks, go to church every Sunday, pray a lot, and the wife decided that she is even going to fast every Sunday until she gets her confirmation. They feel really good about the church, but it seems like they just have a fear of taking the next step without being perfectly sure about it. I think that they will be ready soon. We have been focusing on just listening to them and then giving them things to read or watch to help them with finding their own answers, which is the way the Lord would have us teach. It is amazing to see how they answer many of their own questions as they talk to us about their concerns. Oh, and by the way, my companion and I bore our testimonies in the ward, and when I had finished and was heading to my seat I saw Shelly B. in the congregation! It was pretty cool to see her and meet her new husband.

. . .  

I am having a great time. It seems like I am getting the most out of my mission now as the transition out of the Utah Provo Mission is approaching. I put it that way because I don't see it at all as though my mission is ending. I am just going to be transferred to Columbia Falls for a few months and won't be required to be with a companion 24 / 7 and follow some extra rules, that's all. And then after that I will be transferred to BYU again! I really love to feel the Spirit and feel it working through me. This week we have given a few blessings, and they are the blessings where I have felt most that the Spirit spoke through me. I have really felt that it wasn't me speaking, that I was just the mouthpiece and the words were coming from someone else. It is just amazing to see the effects of the Gospel in anyone's life, whether they are a member, not a member, less-active, or a recent convert.

. . .  

We had board week this week and did everything for transfers and have been really busy in our area. We are actually going to split the area because of how busy we are. We wanted to focus more on the Grandview East Stake, because there is so much work to do there between non-members, recent converts and less-actives. We also will cover 2 YSA stakes that are in the same area (where the Branbury, Carriage Cove and Old Mill are). I am really happy about how the area is doing and hope to get it even better by the time I leave.

So long, Elder Bishop. . . Hello, Elder Hernandez

 

Bits and pieces from the last few weeks -
I am doing great! We have transfers this week - transfer calls are tomorrow. Elder Bishop is heading home.  We are doing well. Andrew was confirmed today and then given the Aaronic Priesthood and now has a temple reccommend! So we are going to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with him on Tuesday. It is so much more exciting when you can go to the temple and do baptisms with your recent converts really soon after their baptism! I don't worry as much about if they will stay active or not because I know that they are starting to enjoy the blessings of the temple. It has been a good week. I love teaching the Gospel and getting to know Heavenly Father's sons and daughters. We are teaching a family in a member's home right now, which sadly doesn't happen very often, and it is amazing! The members are a young family with an 8-month-old girl, and there is an amazing spirit in their home! They aren't afraid to invite their neighbors over for games, for FHE, and then to meet with the missionaries, and it makes a huge difference in our teaching and how the people we are teaching are progressing. Much of the time all we have to do is invite! There are many people who will accept if we just invite them! If we do it with sincere love they will not be offended. Keep up the good work in the service of the Lord!

It has been a wild week for me. We had transfers and tons of stuff to do, and then suddenly we are flooded with appointments! So we have been all over the place teaching and working. We got 17 missionaries this transfer, opened some new areas and created a new zone, which is what is creating all the work for us. It is fun, though. I like to see things change for the better and be a part of it. Everything is going well for us. We had a baptism yesterday and he was confirmed today. I confirmed him and really felt the Spirit as I said the prayer. It definitely felt like my words were being guided.  My new companion is Elder Hernandez. He is from Raleigh, NC and his parents are from El Salvador. He was called on an English speaking mission here. I hope that everything is going well for you and everyone else!

Elder Hernandez is cool. He has been on his mission for 15 months. We get along pretty well and are working hard. There is SO much work to do here that we need to split our area to focus more on individual stakes, especially Grandview East. It probably won't happen until the transfer that I leave to come home, because we are getting mostly Spanish missionaries this next transfer in February. The next baptism coming up is on February 9th. The man's name is Chris and he was really prepared. Everything makes sense to him and he feels that it is true, which is how the Spirit often speaks to us. It is really amazing to see the member family that has helped us fellowship them and the love and the Spirit that can be felt in their home. I just wish that the members of the Church would catch the VISION of Preach My Gospel that the Apostles are trying to get us to see! It is SO important and even more rewarding!

Well, I hope that you have a great week!

Serve someone every day this week!

 

Dear Everybody,

 

This week was a good week. We were a little slow on lessons because many people were on vacation for the holiday, but we were still able to do some great missionary work and keep inviting others to come unto Christ. On Thanksgiving we had 3 dinner appointments, which was a bit much. There are just so many members here who want to have the missionaries over for dinner! It is a good thing that we are getting a whole bunch more missionaries in the mission so that we can spread the love even more! There is so much work to do here that I am very grateful that God is sending us more missionaries so that members and missionaries can work a lot harder to help people become reactivated, or baptized in the kingdom of God. Then, eventually many families will be sealed in the temple, which is really the bigger goal of missionary work. My first convert here in the Utah Provo Mission was sealed to her husband and kids on Saturday, which was great! They were sealed in the Salt Lake City Temple, so I couldn't go, but I went to their reception afterward. It was great to see them and how excited and grateful they were for the blessings that God has given them. I was also fortunate to get permission to accompany Marissa through the temple as she received her endowment. It was a great experience and I am very excited for her! She will be an amazing missionary in Zambia!

Well, keep up the good work! Look for some way to serve someone every day this week!

Love,

Elder Getts

I love the gospel!

Sunday, November 18, 2012

 

Dear Family and Friends,

This week was good. I was really excited to get the news that Marissa will be going on her mission to Zambia! She will be an amazing missionary. I hope that all of you strive to be amazing missionaries as well! We just don't have time any more to not share our testimonies with others around us and invite them to come to church, to read the Book of Mormon, and to learn more about the Gospel by meeting with the full-time Elders or Sisters. The Lord has hastened His work, so we must hasten ours. We had Zone Conference this week, which was great! Elder Bishop and I had a great time as we applied what Elder Bednar taught us about teaching by the Spirit and inviting others to learn as they choose to act. Preaching the Gospel really is the most fun thing that you could ever do! It is really changing my life. I love you all and hope that you are doing great!

Love,

Elder Getts

Hello everyone!

This week has been a great one and interesting. We had 6 investigators on date for baptism, but 2 are moving to Idaho, 1 is going back to New Mexico, another decided that she didn't really want to change her life or meet with us anymore, and another is having trials and still wants to get baptized but wants to change her date, so we went from 6 to 1 on date in a couple days. But that is all right because the ones who are moving will meet with missionaries where they are going and the other ones will eventually find their way through the guidance of Heavenly Father. We have been working hard and I have really felt the Spirit guiding us. It constantly amazes me how many people not of our faith that we find to teach here in Provo that not one of their neighbors knows about! If every member will take upon themselves the responsibility of inviting others to come unto Christ by meeting them and preparing them to meet with the missionaries, ABSOLUTELY AMAZING THINGS WOULD HAPPEN! The Lord is hastening His work in preparation for His Second Coming. There should be about 90,000 missionaries out in the field pretty soon! That means that every mission in the world should be growing, and that means that the members need to work on finding people for those 90,000 teachers to teach! Today we were privileged to bear our witnesses of the divinity of Christ and His work in 3 Sacrament Meetings. I love to do that! But it is not enough to do it just once a month, we MUST do it multiple times a day! Everyone, be an amazing example of Christian virtues. That is essential, but will not be enough. We MUST speak up as well! Give a little testimony - "Jesus is my Savior and I try to follow Him every day." or "The Church has blessed my life. I feel so happy that I can be together with my family forever." or "I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. I try to follow its teachings and I am always happier when I do." I promise that many people will respond with desires to learn more about the Gospel and that many of those people will receive a witness by the power of the Holy Ghost that it is true and will enter into the waters of baptism. Never doubt your testimony. It will lead others to eternal life.



Genaro gets baptized



I love you all!

Elder Getts

Working hard and baptisms

Hello everybody who reads this little update on my mission!

 September 24, 2012

Things have been going well this week. The past couple of weeks we have been getting more than 20 lessons, which is great because more people are coming unto Christ. Elder Guzman and I are working well together. We have fun and work hard. He is probably the companion most willing to work that I have had. We have two baptisms coming up this week: the first is Nilcer Figueroa from Honduras. She came to Provo about a month ago to learn English at Nomen Global, a small English school here, and said she noticed a huge difference from Honduras and really felt something special here. She has progressed amazingly the past month and will be baptized on the 29th! Second is Daniela. She got married two weeks ago to her boyfriend, who is a less-active member coming back to church. They both seem ready to change their lives, so it will be great for both of them. She is also getting baptized on Saturday. The Temple Dedication was great. We went to the Edgemont South Stake center because it is closest to our house, and when I saw the doors to the baptismal font I remembered that I had been baptized there! I am excited for this week because we will have Elder Koelliker from the First Quorum of the Seventy in the mission doing zone conferences with us. It will be especially cool because the zone leaders will have a zone leader council with him that will be more personal. I am sure that I will learn a lot. Other than that, not much is going on. I hope that everyone is doing great wherever they are and with whatever they are doing!

Proverbs 3:27

October 1, 2012

This week has been good. We have been teaching a lot more lessons, but still need more work. I especially love to teach Genaro Inoa, a 72-year-old Dominican man who is so excited about the gospel and for his baptism even though he can't remember things very well because of a stroke he had 3 years ago. I know that he is excited because of what he feels in his heart, which is where we can come to know for ourselves that something is true. We learned from Elder Koelliker about D&C chapter 4. It talkes about serving with all of your heart might, mind and strength. We start out with putting our heart in the right place, and then our mind will follow and then we will work with our might and strength, but if we don't become humble, pure in heart and receive a witness in our hearts we will never be able to channel the potential that our mind has or that our body and spirit have to do good in this world. When our heart first submits itself to God's will, then those elements will align and we can truly serve in the best way.



Daniela's baptism



We just got a call this morning that we will have a missionary waiting on his visa to go to Spain with us for a while, so we'll see who it is when we pick him up at 3:30!

I hope that everything is going great for everyone! Have a wonderful week!

Love,
Elder Getts



Nilcer's baptism



Dear Everyone!

Saludos from your friendly neighborhood missionary!

The temple steps

A Jerusalem street scene

This week was a great week! It started out with Zone Leader Council on Tuesday. It was really cool because we got to go to the Jerusalem set down in Goshen that the church built for the movies of Christ. It was awesome to go see what they had built. It felt cool to be there even though we knew it wasn't the real Jerusalem. After our tour, we had the rest of the meeting on the steps of the area that they use as the temple. I am including some pictures.



Elder Getts by an olive tree in Goshen, Utah



This week we met with a man named Genaro Inoa from the Dominican Republic! He is 72 and had a stroke and a brain anurism 3 years ago and has recovered great. It is so awesome to hear his Dominican accent! We meet with him almost every day because he just stays at home and he is on date for baptism on October 20th. He needs a lot of time for us to teach him because he forgets things very easily. He came to church on Sunday. So you never know who will accept the Gospel, even old people who are supposed to be set-in-their-ways. We also had another investigator get married with her less-active boyfriend on Friday, so she is progressing toward her baptism on the 29th.

It has been interesting to be serving on BYU, because I see a lot of people I know just in passing and some of them don't recognize me, and some do.

Well, the transfer has come to an end.. Elder Espinoza will be opening a new area in Provo and training a new missionary, so he will be a district leader in the zone. My new companion is Elder Guzman, from Mexico. I don't know much else about him. I am way excited for the transfer and to get to work to lift up the zone because it has been suffering for a few months. President McCune is trying to have a set of Spanish Missionaries for each Spanish unit (ward or branch), so they divided a couple areas and there are a lot of missionaries training in the zone. So we will have a young zone and hopefully their enthusiasm will make the work improve a lot!

Also in our area, the whole ward got together to help a recent convert family who lives in a pretty run-down trailer to redo their roof, but the walls were so unstable that they had to redo them them first. So it turned out into a big project, but I was really impressed by the charity and love that they showed toward this family. I hope we all always strive to show that. They taught a lesson without saying anything!

Love,

 

 Elder Getts

 

Hello Everybody!

 

Elder Getts is doing great here in Provo. I love serving here and it has been amazing to see the hand of the Lord. This week we had some great experiences and I have been loving my scripture study! It just seems to make me hunger more and more to know Heavenly Father and Jesus better through the scriptures and the teachings of the Holy Ghost. This week we talked with a man named Wilbur who left to go back to Mexico on Sunday. He is 39 and has a wife and two daughters in Veracruz, Mexico. He told us that he was looking for the way to guide his daughters toward God and had a ton of doubts but was sincere in wanting to understand. We tried to answer his questions and were bold in declaring the truths of the restored gospel. We made sure to stress the importance of the Book of Mormon and establishing a foundation first before all of his questions could be answered. Elder Espinoza finished by sharing Alma 37:6 with him about small and simple things, and that really impacted him. We shared our testimonies and left full of the Spirit. We probably won't ever see him again in this life, but it was an amazing experience. A returned missionary called us yesterday with a referral about a girl named Nilcer. So we met with them in his apartment. She is from Honduras, and has heard about the church from friends there. She really wants to learn about it and has loved going to church the past couple of weeks. She seems very prepared to hear the gospel message.  We have been having great experiences as a companionship here.

 

I hope everyone has an awesome week and that each of you ACT and DO something to further the work of the Lord among your friends and family who have not received the Gospel yet!

 

Love,

Elder Getts

Highlights from the last two months

June -

After being here in Utah I realize that it really does rain a lot in Montana. I really love that quote about how the Lord works because it is TRUE and AMAZING! I remember reading it before and thinking about how attitude is so important and the Lord can help us be humble and change our attitude and then our environment changes through how we see the world and how we work to change our lives and the lives of others.  This week was good. we only had one lesson that was without a member, and the other lessons were good. We haven't been able to put anyone on date yet, but I can see that they are progressing slowly to be able to accept the invitation to follow Jesus and be baptized by someone holding His authority. Tomorrow we have a mission conference because President and Sister Pitts will be leaving this month and they want to get the whole mission together. We will take a mission picture and all that stuff. It will be good to see everybody there, too. I am going to Saratoga Springs this Saturday. It will be great to see everyone and be able to baptize Carmen and see her kids get baptized. I will also meet her brother who finishes his mission in Idaho in two days.

This work is the work of the Lord. I know that He will help those who come unto Him with their problems and weaknesses. Today I was reading in Ether 12 about humility and charity. I could feel the truth of the words and how that if I apply them that I really will be able to be like Christ and share is light for my whole life with everyone I meet. I hope everyone has a great week!

 

July -

I hope that everything is going well for everybody. This is the Lord's work, and everybody can do it. Just start out with the goal to start a gospel conversation every week, and then you can work on it and make it higher. I read a statistic that says that between 3 to 5 % of ACTIVE members of the church regularly participate in missionary work. And we still get almost 300,000 convert baptisms a year? Imagine if 50% of active members participated? Each person can choose to add their little part to the great work of the Lord. I promise those that do that the Lord will magnify their small effort into a great force for leading people into the Gospel. Talk with your friends. Leave small testimonies. And the number one factor that affects missionary work in a ward or stake is the personal righteousness of the members. Live up to your covenants. Keep the commandments. Be more like Jesus Christ every day.

 

Things have picked up a lot here. And it is definitely God doing it. We just try to be obedient and diligent and He has brought the people to us. We have 2 baptisms planned for the 11th and 2 more for the 25th and hopefully a few more people we are teaching will be ready by September. The sad thing is that I am leaving the area. I am staying here in Provo, in the same district actually, so I will be able to come back for the baptisms. Crazy, huh? My knew companion is Elder Espinoza. We will actually be in a trio for a couple weeks with Elder Prettyman, who is finishing his mission 4 weeks early to get to school on time (he will be back at BYU too). It will be a good transfer. It has been amazing to see Elder Kuhn progress. He is way better at Spanish, although he still has a long way to go, and he isn't as quiet with the members and investigators as he was at the beginning of the transfer. The past week I have been pretending like I was a missionary new to the area and making him lead me to our appointments and decide who we were going to visit if one fell through so that he would get used to it if they were going to transfer me. It is definitely a good thing we did that because he will have to introduce someone to the area now!

Something weird that happened is that I was talking with the 21 year-old daughter of a member family that we visit who is going on her mission in September to the St. George Temple visitor's center, and we found out that both of us went to Rock Canyon Elementary together! It was weird because we don't remember each other at all, but we remember a ton of the same people and the same teachers and everything! It almost felt like I met a long-lost cousin or something. How small is the world!

 

Well, I hope that everyone will have a great week and will do what they can to come closer to Jesus Christ. He lives and is our Savior. He restored His Church and the Priesthood and the Fulness of the Gospel for us in these days. Keep moving forward!

August -

Transfers were last Wednesday. I was only with Elder Kuhn for one transfer, but it was still amazing to see his progress. It looks like he has a great companion and they should have some success together. I am still in the district so I can keep tabs on him. :)  We are in charge of the Grandview 20th Spanish family ward and all of the Spanish YSA investigators. There aren't any Spanish YSA wards, so we just have 21 YSA stakes and teach young single adults who speak Spanish. So, technically I cover Marissa's ward! Crazy, huh? So tell her to look for Spanish referrals for me!

 

Love,

Elder Getts

Finding new investigators

It is definitely not the Pacific Northwest here. After living in Montana for 10 years I have realized that they were right when they told me in elementary school that Utah was a desert! I guess that is just an example of why we have to experience opposition to really understand. If I hadn't lived in Montana or traveled to other places, I would never have realized that Utah is dry and dusty and deserty. One thing I don't like about the valley is the inversions where all the smog and everything clouds the air. It is pretty gross.

This week we found a bunch of new investigators, We received a referral from a guy from Haiti and he set up the meeting and everything. We went and the whole family was there. There is the husband and three daughters who are not members, and the mom has been inactive for many years. We mostly just taught them about prayer. The daughters had never been to any church or read the Bible or anything, so it took a while for them to understand prayer. They do believe in God, and are a really sincere and loving family, they just haven't learned all of the amazing principles of the Gospel. I am excited to teach them and see their eyes open to these amazing truths. We tried to get everyone to try a practice prayer, but only the 15 year-old daughter would do it. She said a great prayer and there was a great spirit there. The mom and the 17 year-old daughter were crying. At the end of the lesson the dad asked when we were going to come back, which is a good sign that he wants to learn more! (Usually we have to ask when can we come back.) Then we met another family, where the dad is really sincere and wants to follow God, but he told us the first time that he met us that his wife doesn't really like to come listen, but she came and listened along with all of their kids and we also taught them about families and prayer, and we had a kneeling prayer that the dad said. He even told us that our church is probably true because his wife actually came and listened to us! I really hope that these two families will progress along with other individuals that we have found here.

We gave talks in the Parkway 6th Ward yesterday. It was good. I basically taught the Restoration and bore testimony of it - one of my favorite things to do. And then I explained a little about Preach My Gospel and encouraged everyone to study it. Elder Lampinen, a Finnish Elder in our district told me that Elder Perry in a Stake Conference in Spanish Fork promised the members that if they would study the first 3 lessons in chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel, that they would always have some words to answer any question or doubt that someone would bring up. Preach My Gospel is really an amazing book, inspired of God, and I know that if we study it we will become better disciples of Christ and better missionaries in our wards, communities and families. So please, study it and apply what you learn!

I love you all and hope that you look for ways to serve other people this week!

Love,

Elder Getts

Leaving Saratoga Springs - Heading to Provo

Dear Everybody!

Well, my long sojourn in Saratoga Springs is coming to a close. This Wednesday I am going to be transferred to the Provo West Spanish area - west of the freeway, by Utah lake. My companion will be Elder Ramirez. I don't know much about him, just that he is from Jalisco, Mexico. I am a bit sad to leave all of the amazing people here in Saratoga Springs and Eagle Mountain. I have come to love this area and the people here so much! It is amazing how much love that Christ can give you toward others, and it just comes from serving them. There are two people who want me to baptize them, so hopefully I will be back a couple times during the next transfer. I am excited to get to a new area and build it up again, to find those who are looking for the truth and help them to change their lives, make covenants and endure in the path of Christ. I know that that is how they will find true and eternal happiness. Without any doubt.

This week was pretty good. Carmen moved out from living with her boyfriend, so in two weeks she will be ready to be baptized, but she is waiting until June 16th to be baptized because her brother will have ended his mission in Idaho on the 14th. So I should be back to baptize her that day. It will be the best birthday present ever! We also had an opportunity to lay some sod again, which was fun. It only took us about half an hour this time because the yard was tiny and there were a bunch of people. Hopefully the family will remember the service that we did, because new Elders are coming to the area so we are giving up the English stake.

Well, I hope everyone will have a great week and that they will do whatever they can to be more like Christ and to show compassion to others!

Love,

Elder Getts

Photos:

1. The District at Neptune Park  - the pyramid is the only one in the Western Hemisphere!

2. Hna Arteaga's Family (he was the SS ward mission leader)

Baptisms!



Gisela and her family



Elder Dickinson, Tyson, Danny, and Elder Getts

Hi, everyone,

Everything is going good here in the area. We had two great baptisms this weekend. The first was a 16 year-old named Danny. His best friend, Tyson, baptized him and he got the priesthood and was ordained a priest just after sacrament meeting on Sunday. It was really awesome to see him with so much opportunity to serve in the church and go on a mission. His non-member mom was even crying. Hopefully she will also be baptized in the future. Then on Sunday we had a baptism of Gisela, a sister who has basically been active in the church for about a year without being baptized. She finally gave up coffee and was baptized. She will be confirmed next Sunday. Elder Campos came to perform the baptism and I gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. There were so many people who came that we had to do the service in the chapel and then go to the Relief Society Room for the baptism. It was great to see her finally making such an important promise with God so that she can follow Jesus Christ more fully and achieve much more happiness and be sealed to her family.

This transfer is almost over! It has been way too fast here in Saratoga Springs / Eagle Mountain. I am leaving in about a week to who knows where. We will just see where the Lord wants me. I have had such a great time here, and the area has been really successful even though I heard a bunch of negative things about it before coming.

This morning we went with the Saratoga Elders and hiked up a hill by the lake. We could see the whole valley and even into the Salt Lake valley when we looked north. It was pretty fun.

I know that if everyone will strive to be a good example and then to share their testimony with others that the peace, safety and joy of the Gospel will spread into the hearts of others. Please commit yourselves to living a more virtuous life and follow that commitment every day! You will be greatly blessed for it!
Love,

Elder Getts

Small miracles

This one is for everyone!

How is everyone doing? I hope that everyone has been enjoying life, because that is how it should be. I have been enjoying the mission a lot. We have been seeing many small miracles here in Saratoga Springs. The past 3 transfers we have worked really hard contacting referrals, former investigators and knocking doors and I probably know or know of about every single hispanic person in Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. So just before this transfer I was basically out of ideas and just prayed to ask God to prepare the people who are already here and to bring new people ready for the Gospel to the are. Since then one non-member family that we weren't even teaching has come to church twice, an eternal investigator that we have who has been meeting with missionaries for years and goes to church every Sunday stopped drinking coffee because her family's home teachers gave her a blessing to be able to quit and she got sick and didn't want to drink coffee for like a week because she was sick, and then just didn't start drinking again. So she should be baptized this week or next! And two kids, a girl who is 17 and a boy who is almost 11 started coming to church because their mom is inactive but their aunt is an active member of the ward. The 11-year-old already wants to serve a mission and to be baptized, he just told us that he wants to be baptized and then be good after and not just be baptized to be baptized. God has really been answering that prayer! It was just a different feeling that I had when I was saying that prayer. I had faith and knew that it was the will of God that what I was asking would happen, and it has and will continue to happen. It was really a situation where I had done almost everything I could do and all I could do was ask the Lord to help us. He really is helping.

Besides all of the work that is going on we had a little fun trying to milk the goats - our landlord told us we could whenever we wanted to. We got the district together, but even with six of us we couldn't get much, and then the goat stepped in the teeny bit that we got, so we couldn't try any of it! It was pretty fun though.

I hope everyone is doing great at work, at school, at home, on vacacion, or wherever you are! Heavenly Father loves you.

Love,

Elder Getts

Dear family and friends,

 

I am pretty sure that it has snowed more here in March than it did in December, January and February combined - and it still hasn't snowed all that much. Saratoga Springs is getting better as we work hard to find and help our current investigators keep commitments. This Saturday we played basketball for exercise in the morning and I suffered a minor ankle sprain. My ankle is a bit swollen and has some bruises, but I can walk on it just fine. I just won't be playing any basketball for a couple weeks. It also helped to be able to remember how Mr. Bowman wrapped ankles in high school, so I could wrap it with athletic tape.

This Sunday was a good day. We had a Stake Conference in Saratoga Springs, and then afterwards we stopped by some new investigators - Adriana, Luiz, and Sergio Montoya - and were able to put a date for their baptism on April 14th. It will be awesome, because they are so humble and sincere and really feel the Spirit. Then we talked with Ivan in his new apartment and had a great dinner with our Ward mission leader, Hno Arteaga, the bishop and the Gutierrez family, who had their baby boy in the hospital for over a month because he had to have surgery on his skull. He finally got out of the hospital and is doing pretty well. Hopefully we will be able to start teaching them slowly and that they will be able to feel God's love because the whole time the boy was in the hospital we tried to stop by and just check up on how they were doing, as well as other members.

Elder Whitsitt also got his call about his flight plans - he will be headed out on April 2nd, the day after General Conference. So that means that I will be staying here for another transfer, which I am excited about, so that I can leave the area doing really good for the missionaries who will be after me.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is truly wonderful in helping us conquer challenges and find happiness and peace in our lives. I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that Jesus Christ lives. He loves us and suffered and died for us. The Book of Mormon is His divine word and contains the fulness of His Gospel. I challenge every one of you to bear your testimony through how you live.

 

Love,

Elder Getts

Missionary Work

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone is having a great time doing whatever they are doing, working, playing, vacationing - it all just depends on the attitude.

We have been trying to deal with the new changes that have happened in our area, especially trying to contact the investigators that the Zone Leaders left us in the Eagle Mountain North stake. We should be seeing all of them this week. I am excited to be District Leader, to learn more about missionary work and to try to be an inspiration to other missionaries.

We have a great family that we are teaching now, Familia Aragon. They are really looking to come closer to Christ and to raise their children in the right way and told us that their marriage said "until death do you part," but that they want to be together for eternity. They even invited us over for dinner after the first appointment with them.

Sebastian is getting baptized next week and it has been great seeing the amazing change in his family as they have strived to follow Christ and change their lives. Brother Goodfellow will be receiving the priesthood this Sunday, so he can baptize Sebastian and Josalynn.

The Gospel is true, but it is so much more than just true! It is the Gospel of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We have the Church of Jesus Christ, the exact same church that he established when he was here, on the earth today. The Book of Mormon is The Word of God. We have a Prophet of God on the earth today who is guided by Jesus Christ to guide the church. I know this with out any doubt.

Love,

Elder Getts

Crazy Transfer Time!

Dear Family and Friends,

I hope that everyone is doing great! This email is going to have a lot of pictures and not as much writing. This transfer some crazy stuff happened. We are down a few missionaries in the mission, so President is sending Elder Campos to Orem and switching him to an English missionary. I am staying with Elder Whitsitt for a transfer and he will be heading out to Argentina on the next transfer. I am going to be district leader, so I will definitely learn a lot this transfer. They also switched us from doing English work in the Saratoga South stake and gave us a stake in English in Eagle Mountain, because they are switching the Zone Leaders to Alpine and dividing their stakes with us and with the Eagle Mountain English Elders. So it is definitely a crazy transfer with a bunch of changes.

Everything is going good - we are saying a lot of goodbyes for Elder Campos today and tomorrow. We played the Spanish ward at the high school on Saturday in basketball (they won the stake tournament) and we beat them pretty bad. It was really fun, though, especially being on a high school court again.

Well, I hope that everyone will have a great week and look for ways that you can make other people's lives better!

Love,

Elder Getts

Andrea with "El tata" which is just a term of endearment for "Uncle". He baptized her.

 The Trio on the ice of Utah Lake - left to right: Me, Elder Campos, Elder Whitsitt

The Trio with Mt. Timpanogos and Utah Lake in the background

Our District - it was a really fun and united district this transfer.

Left to right: Elder Whitsitt, Ivan, Hermano Arteaga (ward mission leader), Elder Campos, me