Monday, March 15, 2021: Email from Kaitlyn home

From: kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
To: Mom
Subject: FELIZ ANIVERARIO

FELIZ ANIVERSÁRIO MINHA MÃE!!!! Happy Birthday Mom!! I hope you have the best day and that you're able to take some time for yourself. I love you! How was this week?? How was Brooklyn's job shadow day? Did you guys have a fun day? What about your lunch with Amy?? Was it weird or was it okay? How's everyone doing? I wanna hear all about this week! My recaps this week are a little long too, so I apologize in advance haha! 

MONDAY 

Okay so it did not even feel like a week had gone by! Time is so crazy out here, like I know what day it is but all the hours just get jumbled together. I got to do my first Facebook contacting too! It was kind of scary and not my most favorite thing, but two people actually messaged me back so we'll see what's gonna happen with those. Prime Pros was lame tonight too! We had so many people cancel so we responded to messages and cleaned up our Facebook admin stuff. Pretty low key night but we all went to bed early because there was a mission wide workout at 6:45am on Tuesday. It was a productive Pday, but it all worked out. 

TUESDAY 

Sister G had to leave today! Muito triste! Okay so first off we kick started the morning with our mission wide workout. Some sisters lead stretches, our ZL lead the circuit workout, and then some elders ended with stretches. The ZL's looked like the guy from Napolean Dynamite too haha! It wasn't terrible honestly, it was nice to do something different. I didn't really feel it when I woke up, mainly because of girl stuff but I really enjoyed it. During planning this morning we had a lot of time in the afternoon so we planned to just promote and update Facebook stuff, and plan for the next few weeks. After our personal study we got a call saying that Sister G had to leave. It was mad panic as we tried to get all of her stuff packed. Man did she have SO MUCH STUFF!! She had a big suitcase, a medium one, a small one, a bedding bag, another big laundry ish bag, and a tjmax bag with fragile stuff in it. We had to call the ZL to help us take it all down and they were shocked when they saw how much stuff she had. We drove for like 30 minutes to drop her off to the other sisters. It was in a Lowes parking lot too haha! Kinda felt like when me and Chrish would switch houses. No one cried though, so that was good! I was a little worried that Sister Wo would cry and it would be an awkward ride home, luckily that didn't happen. We stopped at chick fil a too!! Woot woot!! The car ride was actually not terrible! I was nervous that having Sister G gone was going to be weird because she was kinda the buffer, but so far it's been good :) We just talked about Sister Wo's 'boyfriend', he's actually serving in California too! But it was a good car ride. When we got back we had to switch our whole day around. It was a blessing that we had today mostly open and just filled it with odds and ends and didn't have anything too urgent. We were able to get all of our stuff done and even had time for a walk:) It was a beautiful day today! I love the sun so much!! I didn't even need my jacket today! Ahhhhhh I love the sun and walking in the sun and just the sound of shoes on the sidewalk :) The little moments make life so enjoyable :) Prime pros was lame again today! What the heck is up with that?! We were supposed to call a guy that messaged me yesterday, but he never responded so we made our posts for Facebook. We were both struggling so hard too! It took us wayyyyy longer to make them than it should have, but it's okay, it got done. We had an English class tonight too! Elisangela is super sweet (and soooo patient!) I was really nervous to call her actually. Sister G was really carrying us in the lessons these past 2 weeks, so with her gone I was very nervous. I love Sister Wo, but her português is not where Sister G's is and she's been out longer. Kinda weird, but hey we made it work. It does make me want to get better so that I can teach and talk to people. We'll see what happens. Haha! It was Sister Farnsworth's 6 months today too! She's doing a low sugar diet thing, so instead of getting ice cream like we did for Sister Wo's I made some banana muffins. I don't wanna brag, but they're pretty bomb ;) Maybe next time, I'll have to make banana bars or something! I love you!

WEDNESDAY 

Whatta day!! Today we had so many contacts it was unreal! We did our Facebook finding and had to follow up with them. We also had a literally crap ton of ads and Facebook stuff to do. We seriously sat in our room forever! My butt actually started to hurt from sitting on the chair and the couch. Goes to show that Tyler's purple seat thing worked in the CTM! Haha! I finally made it to the post office to ship my phone though so it should be there pretty quick. Sorry it took so long for me to send it :/ Anyways, we had a lot Facebook ads to make and schedule. Not only are we in charge of assigning and posting things, but we also have this huge campaign for general conference we need to put together, and we have to make content for our page and the Português page too. It was a lot yesterday! Haha! WE GOT TO GO TO THE BEACH!!!! All of us were slowing loosing our energy and wanted to get out of the house. We have two options through out the day for breaks in our mission. Option 1 is to take two 15 minute breaks when needed, option 2 is to take one 30 minute break when needed and fits into the schedule. We lined it up with the other sisters and we left just before dinner. It was a little chilly, but it was so pretty!!! We live like 10 minutes from the ocean, how crazy is that?! We planned it so that we would have our 30 minute break and dinner right after so we stopped and picked up some super yummy Asian food for dinner ;) It was so much food! Like I still have stuff in the fridge that's gonna take me a solid 2 days to finish probably haha! Our lessons have been struggling lately too :/ We were supposed to have 2 but ended up with only 1. It was an hour so it wasn't just super quick, but oh my gosh can Leona talk! Haha! Maybe I'm half Brasilario or something because I can talk too ;) During prime pros we were slowly loosing energy and our minds honestly so, Sister Wo and I had a mini dance party too just to keep our spirits up because last night was not the best. It wasn't really a dance party we just jumped around everywhere but it helped haha! I do wish we could have listened to some Brittnay though ;) 

THURSDAY 

Weekly planning day!! Weekly planning is quite the task and it makes me sleepy, but we power through and get it done. The hardest thing for me I've learned is that I am slightly OCD ;) I like things to be organized and look pretty and no one else really does. It also is very apparent in the cleanliness of things, but that's a whole other topic of conversation. I also learned that I'm not as sensitive as a lot of other sisters. Like Sister G used to have a whole list for comp inventory and wanna talk about feelings all the time, and I just say my peace if I even have any and I move on. I guess it's good? I don't know for sure haha! Today was a lot of planning for the General Conference campaign. That's the other thing, I like to be in control of big projects and make them look a certain way and make them look good, but Sister Wo (bless her heart) just doesn't. I'm trying to be better about it but I bite my tongue a LOT. Anyways, we have a lot to do to make videos and ads for that. Not only that but we have to make ads for our page, the Português page, and Andar Na Luz. We mostly got it all done until the Instagram sisters called and said that our posts are going to be used on their accounts and they have to fit the asthetic soooooo I have to change stuff. And to top it all off, we got a call saying the place we do service had COVID vaccines that we can have, so now we have to figure that whole situation out. This sounds terrible to say but if I was just doing this by myself, I could've had most of this all done by now. I really need to work on that, I'm thinking of making that a mission goal of mine. I feel a little stressed and overwhelmed, but I've said a lot of prayers haha! Prime pros was so good tonight! We found new people teach English to! Anddddd we had an amazing lesson with Matheus! The spirit was so strong. If I'm being honest the spirit was just so strong and with me today. I don't know what I did today, but I plan on keeping it up because it was amazing! I'm super excited to start teaching our new friend and we have a lot of potential friends too so we're gonna stay on top of that :) 

FRIDAY 

ESEE UM DIA DE MILAGRES!!!! Oh my gosh mom! Today was amazing!! Okay so we had district counsel today and it was so so nice outside so we sat outside! Oh my gosh I love the sun!!! :) It seriously made my whole day to just have our meeting outside. We talked a lot about gaining our own testimony and how we need to testify with power. It was super good and something I didn't know I needed. Today was super productive for our ads and stuff today too! I'm telling you, a day of miracles! :) Prime pros was actually so good tonight. We had 2 English classes woot woot! I never thought I'd be teaching English, but I actually don't mind it too much. The first one was with Elisangela. She's a single mom with two young boys and it makes it hard for her to fully be in the lesson so we have to work around that, but it went well. The overall lesson was a little crazy, but we were still able to finish on a spiritual note. The next class made my heart SO happy! Okay let me back up, so it's with a woman named Stephane. She's super smart is learning English so she can talk to her step daughter and husband better. She was a little late so we didn't have a ton of time to teach, but luckly she speaks really well so it worked out. We always finish our lessons with some sort of scripture or message and tonight she said she had a question for us! :))))) She asked what we believe about baptism! Oh my gosh mom I could have jumped out of my seat! The other sisters were telling me that she has never been interested in getting a Book of Mormon or even a Bible. This is huge!! We ran out of time but she asked about our beliefs and how we do it and wants to learn more! So we're planning on teaching her :))) I'm so so so excited! That lesson went a little over obviously haha! But a late night didn't even matter! We had to call the other sisters to do our weekly prayer and then it was finally time for bed. My favorite part of the day! Haha! It's funny how sitting in a room all day makes you tired. It was such a good day mom! How was your day?! How's everyone doing? I love you!

SATURDAY 

IM OFFICIALLY 2 MONTHS OLD! Well, I've just been a missionary for 2 months, but you get the point;) I wrote a lengthy journal entry today about my feelings of being a missionary but just to sum up a few quick things ;) The Spirit on a mission is so crazy! I've seen the Lord's hand in my life more than I ever have these past 2 months. The Lord works and gives us blessings and miracles every single day, we just have to look for them. Your attitude means everything, it totally effects the outcome of your life. I love my Savior and this gospel more than I could ever express and I'm so lucky to get to share it with other people. Anyways, today was solely dedicated to finishing our Facebook AD for General Conference. I was in charge of getting conference clips and putting them in a sequence and let me just say, I DISPIZE MAAS360! Haha! It took my way longer than it should have to get all that stuff done, but I did it and I don't think it looks too bad. I put the video in the drive too! I did the part at the end with all the conference sequences :) We also had a meeting today for Facebook admins and we're possibly going to start Zebra-ing some areas so that's a little scary for me haha! We also are adapting the Book of Mormon Experiment and gonna use that. I'm actually really excited for that one and to see how it goes :) Today was Walk in the Light too! It was with one of the sons in the Bonner Family. I highly recommend listening to them because they're so good! :) It was a super good devotional and actually something I really needed, but didn't know that I did. Crazy how the Lord works and gives answers to prayers huh? He talked about 2 men that on their way to Heaven got stopped by an interviewer. He asked the first man, "what do you know about Jesus Christ?" The man responded, "He's the Savior of the world, the only Begotten Son, the Son of God" The interviewer said, "wow you know alot about Jesus Christ!" The first man stepped aside and the second man walked up to be questioned. Before the interviewer could ask any questions, the man was on the ground worshipping this interviewer saying. "Oh Lord my Redeemer!" Christ was the interviewer. There's a difference between knowing and loving someone and knowing and loving someone on a personal level with a desire to know and love them. Today I read in Moses (Pearl of Great Price) when God creates the world. He says that He knows all things He created. That includes us! Not only does He know us as that man knew the Savior, but He loves us so much that He gave His son. A question to ponder would be, how well do you know the Savior? How much do you love Him? If you were being interviewed, would you know it was Him because you're close to Him? Anyways, that's my thoughts for tonight haha! We spent the rest of the night contacting and sending church invites out to our friends for tomorrow, so hopefully we'll have a few more people:) Oh! I also made dinner tonight. It was super simple though haha! I just made chicken with veggies but all the sisters really liked how I seasoned the chicken and all wanted to know. It made me chuckle a little bit because it was such a weird request haha! I can't believe it's already Saturday though, we were talking and we only have 1 month left of this transfer. I feel like I just got here?! If this is how the mission always feels, I seriously will be done in a heartbeat. I love you!  

SUNDAY 

This was my second Sunday ever out here! So crazy! Stake Conference kinda messed that up, but it's all good. Today was kinda crappy weather too, so that's no fun. When we got to church though we had 17 people, that's a great turnout!! Matheus even came! Kinda weird to see him in person instead of just over video chat. Haha! I was asked to say the opening prayer too. I was low key kinda nervous about it too, but I think it went okay. We got to sign up for service and upload out LIVE for the Facebook page too. It was a pretty productive afternoon. I did decide though that I should start learning Spanish. We are in a Spanish ward and every time someone sees my badge they start speaking in Spanish to me. Sooooo I'm taking that as a sign to start here soon. Maybe when I hit 6 months I'll start Spanish. That way I have 6 months of Português under my belt. Who knows, but I feel like it would be beneficial and might actually help me. We'll see haha! Prime pros is interupped on Sundays by Andar na Luz so we don't get as much time. We did have a lesson with Matheus tonight! It's so crazy that when I teach I know the Português words. Tiny miracles tiny miracles! This week has full of ups and downs, but I truly love this work :) AND! I'm so excited to get to talk to you tomorrow!!! I love you so much! Happy Birthday Eve! :) Eu te amo minha mãe!   

She had such a GREAT week and now I cannot wait to hear from her!

Missionary Momma