Email to Mom from Kaitlyn: April 19, 2021

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
To: Mom
Subject: Tres Meses?!!

Ola minha mãe! 🤩 I hope this email finds you at a good time and that you have a had good week. I'm not gonna lie, I found myself thinking of home a lot this week haha! Not really in a homesick way but just missing simple things like Smiths, my big mirror, jeans (man I miss those!) Just little things like that, but ya know that's part of the sacrifice ;) Anyways, you'll be glad to know I've been sleeping haha! This week I've been beat at the end of everyday and have hit the pillow HARD every night. This week also felt like it dragged a little bit but also like the fastest thing ever. I've made a goal for myself to make the most out of everyday. The days just keep going by faster and faster and I don't want to look back and wish I would've worked harder ya know? It was overall a good week and I even managed to snag a few more pictures, but I'm still not doing great so sorry :/ But before I jump into my week, let's talk about yours! 

- I'm so proud of her for getting her grade up! Woot woot! You'll have to take her to Coldstone or FIIZ for me to celebrate;) 

- Hopefully you'll get some more pictures soon! Sometimes it takes a minute because whoever took them has to get them all sent. He looked nice though! How do you feel about her? Has she still been really weird? 

- Can we talk about Aliana Riddle for a minute though?! What the heck?! I would say I'm surprised but honestly nothing surprises me anymore with her and the Riddles. 

- The weather here has pretty much been the same as Utah then haha! I did snag a couple blossoms though and pressed them in my scriptures and they're now in my journal so that's pretty cool;) I hate bipolar weather though! I rant about it for a minute in me rundown haha! 

- Honestly I just hope that Chuck and Shawna are happy, I guess. They can be all talk but they'll realize they'll loose a friendship with you guys because all they wanna do is either talk money or one up everyone to the point that it's annoying 

- I'm super excited to see the backyard! I think it'll look super good! You'll have to send me pictures or put them in the drive for sure ;) 

- Mom! What happened?? Obviously I don't know the full story and you don't have to share, but I just want you to take care of yourself. I kinda really want you to be around for a while ;) I'm glad that Banning was there and able to help. Set backs suck (sorry for that word butttttt) but you're right. Today is a new day and they can just keeping better one day at a time:) Are you doing okay though? Is there anything I can do for you? 

- Brooklyn's picture juat makes me giggle! She's a dork! 

- I'm excited to see the new boat too! I miss the water already and it's not even summer yet! I just don't have that to look forward to anymore haha! ;) 

Okay now onto my weekly shenanigans! 

MONDAY 

Hello hello! How was the rest of your day? Also I just need to apologize real quick and you have to take this apology too ;) I'm sorry for not getting to talk to you a little bit more. I was so excited but then the DL'S called and talked forever and a day. Thanks for always being there :) Anyways, today was not the best day for lessons, but ya know you win some and you loose some. That's the hard thing about not going outside, if a lesson falls through we don't have the option to just keep walking we have to find something else to do. It's okay though we made it work. We had an English class tonight but with the Book of Mormon! I did this in my last area, but basically we pick a verse for our friend Alessandro and we read it and then he reads it back to us. He's so super sweet and is actually out of our area and is working with the missionaries towards baptism but we still do English with him. It was a good way to end the night honestly :) like I said though, it was a pretty slow night. I actually feel a little better about things too. I actually went back through and read some scriptures and a few talks. Plus talking to you always makes me feel better about the hard times:) That's about all I have for today though! I love you!

TUESDAY 

Okay so let me just start this off by saying how grateful I am for socks?! Today the weather did a full 180 and it was cloudy and cold all day. That also meant that the apartment was super cold no matter what we did. I wore two pairs of socks all day long because it was so cold haha! Anyways, wanna know what today was?! My official 3 months as a missionary say what?! I feel like time is flying by mom! Does it feel like that for you guys? Anyways, today was honestly a really slow day for us. This week might just be dubbed the week of cancelation or something because most of our lessons didn't go through :/ We did find a little ice cream shop and got some ice cream though to celebrate my 3 month mark. What can I say, I love ice cream ;) We also sat down for a got minute and tried to get ministering figured out. It's a little difficult because we have so many older members that honestly just need someone to talk to. I think we got it all planned out, but we'll have to see here in the next 2 ish weeks or so. We had a super sweet memeber make us dinner tonight too and man, she must think there's like 9 elders or something! I'm super grateful for it don't get me wrong, but there was just so much food! I also got to try Cachupa for the first time. I guess it's a really big deal in Cape Verde, who really knows. I couldn't even tell you whats in it though. It wasn't the best thing I've ever eaten, but it also wasn't the worst. Everyone else here has a very strong hatred for it, but I didn't think it was that bad. It honestly tastes like nothing, just oil. But that's gotta count for something because I'm not a lucky eater haha! Today I was so tired today too. I have been knocking out like a rock (is that even a saying? Haha!) But that makes it so hard to get up and get going because I just wanna stay in bed. Nonetheless I thought you'd be happy to know that I'm sleeping ;) I hope you had the best day today! Maybe the weather is nice there too? I love and miss you!

WEDNESDAY 

I'm gonna call today the day of Facebook finding. We spent so much time on Facebook today that I had to bust out my blue light glasses because I was getting a huge headache, but ya know you win some and you loose some:) But hige shout-out to you for getting me them while i was in the CTM ;) We did have a little of fun today though! So we have a mini game of Jenga in the apartment and Sister Pearson had the best idea. We asked the DL'S if they had some paint, guess what?! They did so of course we had to borrow it! We painted the gospel of Jesus Christ on these tiny Jenga blocks for a minute today. Sister Pearson even started to paint O Livro de Mormon too. I'm thinking about it but I don't know for sure yet. I don't know what I would even put on there haha!! I actually was super relaxed while I painted, that might be a new hobby, but probablt not until I get home because packing all that would not be fun. All our lessons fell through tonight too, thus adding to the Facebook finding and messaging. I'm so determined to get someone to respond to my message and for us to start teaching them. I will not take no for an answer! We did some page promo too. It's still a little weird to not have to be in charge of a page, but I don't mind it at all ;) How's your week been so far? I was looking at my picture wall and I saw the one from the day I got my call. All I could think about is just how different Tyler is going to look when I get back haha! That was a good day though :) I hope you're having the best day! I love and miss you!

THURSDAY 

Another day in the books! Today was service day! I love service so so much! It's definitely something that I want to continue after the mission too. I feel like it's always something I've known was good but I never realized just how many options there are to serve! Anyways, service today was so good! We do service at a furniture bank which is pretty cool not gonna lie, I loved seeing all the old furniture and the retro stuff that people donated too. I might have been born in the wrong era ;) While we were at service these high school boys were there and were playing country music but also like high school dance music and it was so hard not to just sing and dance. Sister Pearson and I literally were holding it all in. At service we had to move our schedule around a little bit and bump weekly planning to tomorrow. It was worth it though because we had a lesson with Elba to help prepare her for baptism! I'm so so excited mom! Her baptism is scheduled for May 1st! Eek! :) After her lesson though the day really tanked though haha! No matter what we did all of our lessons fell through. We ended up moving weekly planning to tomorrow too just so we had time for all our lessons, whatta bummer! Anyways, we tried to find people and get in contact with people but we had very few actually respond to us. I sent a few messages on Facebook and they ended getting back to me at like 10:25pm soooo they get to wait until tomorrow haha! It's okay though, people are busy and have lives that doesn't revolve around missionary work;) After pros though I did start painting a Book of Mormon so that's to come :) It was a really chill night. It was one of those days too that was all rainy and just super gloomy that all I wanted to do was lay in bed and just watch a movie. Obviously can't really do that, but the thought was good! I'm mainly just confused by the weather haha! It was seriously so nice this past week and now it's all gloomy and rainy. Also can I just point how much music is a huge part of life! I was thinking about it today at service and just how much we listen to music at home, you lucky ducks! ;) How are you? How's everything there? I haven't seen hardly any pictures in the drive, but you might be going on strike because of my lack of pictures too ;) sorry about that! I'll try to be better! I hope you're doing so good and that this week has been good too:) I love and miss you so much!  

FRIDAY 

Hey hey hey! GUESS WHAT CAME TODAY!?!?! Your package!! Ahh seriously thank you so so much mom! It really means the world just how supportive you are and just how amazing you are :) Let me back up a little bit though if that's okay with you? Guess who got to give the training for district counsel today? Ding ding ding! Sister Pearson and I had to give a training on one of our transfer scriptures, Roman 8:16-18. We ended up making a memory game and playing it with everyone. I won't bore you with all the details, but it worked out really well and everyone liked it. We do have an elder in our district though that's a bit odd, kinda reminds me of the one elder I had in the CTM. He's really nice, but a little hard to work with, it's okay though and it worked out jusr fine. It snowed here today?! What the heck?! I thought it was supposed to be spring?? I had to double sock it again today too! The snow quickly turned into rain though so I didn't mind that too much. I actually really love the rain, but I also love the sun. You know this already haha! We also had weekly planning today. I don't love weekly planning, but we have to do it and it actually went by so fast today! #tinyblessings ;) The only crappy thing is that all of our friends that we planned for were lame and didn't answer our calls. It's okay though, I have a good attitude and am hopeful they were just reading the Book of Mormon or something ;) We got to teach English class again tonight too! Something I thought I would be familiar with. Boy was I wrong! Haha! This isn't anything like I was doing over in Bridgeport. This is a full blown class with people on Facebook. It was good though, one of our super sweet members, Rita joined and we got to talk to her. The members here are seriously THE sweetest people I've ever met! I definitely have lucked out when it comes to supportive members. They always send us messages and bring us food and just tell us how much they appreciate us being here and helping them. I can already tell that it'll be a hard goodbye when I leave or when Sister Pearson leaves. Nothing too exciting today though, just weekly planning haha! Our weekly planning is way more effective though than it was in Bridgeport. Being here is such a blessing and having a companion that is willing to work makes all the difference too :) Anyways, we didn't have very much go on tonight or anything too crazy haha! I hope you're doing good though, I haven't seen much in the drive. I love you!

SATURDAY 

The end has come... our weekly event of Walk in the Light is officially over. President Mavromatis has said that it served its purpose and it's time to be done with it. Muito triste! I actually really loved them and felt my testimony grow in so many ways. I had lots of questions answered and many impressions, so it's sad to see it go. But first let me back up haha! I was so tired this morning! All I wanted to do was sleep in just a few more minutes haha! That's not really an option for missionaries though so I rolled outta bed and started my day off right with a good old prayer. Let me just tell you right now, my testimony of prayers has grown exponentially over the past 3 months ;) This morning we had a Facebook meeting with the whole mission and guess what I learned, our entire mission is being monitored by Salt Lake and they're going through all of our profiles. Kinda scary! Not that I'm doing anything wrong, but still! It's kinda like when you see a cop on the road and you check everything and put both hands on the wheel even though you aren't doing anything wrong. Haha! Anyways, President Mavromatis always leaves us with some great scriptures to ponder and I now have some new study material haha! It's good though, I can't imagine being a mission president and the spirit thay comes with that. It's amazing! Today we really pushed our contacting limit with inviting all of our friends and members to church tomorrow. We're stopping walk in the light and starting to promote sacrament meetings and getting people to church. We still have some kinks to workout but I think it could be really good :) Speaking of Walk in the Light! We had the one and only Danny Ainge tonight woot woot! His life story is incredible and the spirit he holds is the same! He also had some really amazing stories and the story of him and his wife melted my heart! It was such a good note to end on and really helped me see that I need to be better about having the spirit with me. I strive everyday for that, but I need to be better everyday. We were supposed to have a lesson with Elba, our friend on date, but she didn't answer. I'm a little nervous about it but I'm hopeful she comes to church tomorrow and that all is well :) How the heck are you?! I saw your picture in the drive of an IV bag? What happened?! How was Christians Prom? What did they end up doing for a day date? I hope you're okay and that nothing too serious happened. I love you!

SUNDAY 

First off! I love you! And I just wanted to say thank you for always looking out for me and for raising me with good standards and being involved. Today is church we talked a lot about gospel centered homes and I just wanted to say thank you for making our home a place where the spirit is:) Second off, I LOVE Sunday's! I love waking up and knowing that it's Sunday, I love getting ready on Sunday's, I love walking to the church, I love everything about church! Ahhh I just love it haha! Today was a pretty average Sunday but I just felt the spirit so much today and was just loving everything :) I'm slowly starting to understand more and more of the language too so in sacrament meeting I can understand what everyone is saying for the most part. After sacrament meeting the new Relief Society presidency got set apart and then we had to explain what it even is. The hard thing about the branch is that all of our members have been baptized as adults so they don't know all the church programs. Luckly, President Fairbank (he's super cool and served in the south of Brazil so he's a homie) was able to explain everything and help out. We had a little meeting just to go over the vision for the program and really emphasize ministering. When we got back to the apartment we were ready for Sunday school butttttt that didn't happen haha! So instead I did some solid DuoLingo and got my email ready for tomorrow haha! We also had to resplit the members with the Elders because we had both been stepping on eachothers toes a little bit this past week. Before I knew it, it was time for coordination. Our branch is seriously the best and our meetings are super quick and to the point, just how I like it! ;) Today has seriously flown by! I've grown a special love for Sunday's and my desire to serve has grown so much the last few days I feel like. I don't really know what's going on haha! But I just have this overwhelming desire to serve everyone thay I possibly can and honestly just make my Savior proud. Thanks for coming to my TED talk haha! Anyways, tonight was low key a bust :/ Sister Pearson did not feel good at all either so it was also a alight tender mercy that our lessons didn't workout. Still a sad day though! But it's still a good day and the work still moves forward! How was your night? How was your Sunday?  I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow! Muito saudades! Eu te amo!