Who’s Who? The Six-Month Houseguest

I met Garry in a pretty unique way. He just showed up at my house one night, with luggage… and then stayed for six months! Garry is from Montana, and he served an LDS church mission here in Southern California from 2007 to 2009, based out of Carlsbad, California. We were hosting the missionaries in Rancho Santa Margarita, and in April of 2009 he transferred to our area, and moved into our home. We knew immediately that he was a great missionary and leader, and quickly learned that he had a love of music, and a unique and special voice that touches people when they hear it. Many evenings after family prayer we would enjoy a few minutes of men’s choir music around the piano, as my husband and boys loved to sing as much as Elder Pfile, and they sounded so awesome together.

When Elder Pfile transferred to Oceanside after six months, he assured us he would be back, and even left a box of his belongings in an upstairs closet to prove it. I was sure I would be mailing that box to Montana, but when Elder Pfile was released from his mission this last July, he made good on that promise and came out to record music during the summer. Unfortunately, I had lost my direction for the CD, and I wasted so much of his time that he was here. I regretted that mistake in September, when I committed again to make my CD of Christmas music, and realized that it had to be completed by the first part of November.

Maybe my favorite song on the CD is the last track… Will You Hold Me on Christmas Eve? As I have explained in a previous post, Rachel had already recorded the song, and I tried three other male vocalists to sing the other half of the duet, with no good match-ups. I was fast coming to the realization that the song would have to be left off the CD. I called Garry one morning, very discouraged, and told him about my dilemma. He asked if there was a way for him to sing it. I only had about two weeks left to finish the CD, so I couldn’t really imagine a way that could happen, but I sent him the music and told him to try it, and to give me his honest opinion of whether he could pull it off. I don’t know why, but it actually made me feel better just that he wanted to try it, after the time he had in the summer. I just had such a peaceful, unworried feeling after we talked. Three days later he called and told me he knew he could rock that song. You have to understand that Garry is a music critic… especially of himself. So when he told me that he could really do it, I believed him. Then he dropped everything to come out from Montana to do the recording. It gave me the boost I needed to push through and finish the CD. And when he sang the song, he just blew me away… it completely exceeded my expectations. It took us about eight hours to record his part of that song, because he had to work one part at a time to match everything that Rachel had already recorded. I love the way the song turned out, and even more, I love that Garry went to so much trouble to do it.

Meeting Garry is proof that God works in mysterious ways. The thought that this 21-year-old guy from Montana was sent right to our house… well, certainly there are no coincidences. I don’t know how else I would ever have met him, and if I hadn’t, I’m not sure how I would have figured out I needed to make a CD this year. This music experience has been made up of a thousand different miracles, and Garry is not only one of those, but also a true friend.