Email from Kaitlyn to Mom: Monday, May 10, 2021
From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
To: Mom
Ola ola mom! I'm just gonna jump straight into this if
that's okay with you:) I hope that you had the best mothers day this
week and that the kids didn't fight too much ;) This week was full of
high and lows, so many laughs, and mostly just me realizing that I have
big shoes to fill when Sister Pearson leaves here at transfers. Mostly
right now I just feel like I can't really do it, but I means we have
companions for a reason so hopefully whoever comes here can help me out a
little bit :) okay onto your email!
- Seriously
thank you so much for your Amazon stuff! Don't even worry about it, I'm
just thankful you're willing to help and send that. Sister Pearson was
telling me that her family treats her birthday like any other day and
they don't do anything for her, hopefully I can change that :)
-
This week sounds like it was busy but fun filled! I will say, I'm
pretty over the wind too haha! It's by far my least favorite element
- How did getting your tests go? Was it pretty smooth besides the 5am wake up time?
- IM SO SORRY I CALLED YOU WHILE YOU WERE SOLO! Ahh I feel so bad! How did it go??
-
Hopefully when you get to Kauai all will be okay and you'll be able to
soak in some more sun and just enjoy the beach. And hey please get in
the water for me! ;)
- What the heck happened with Thackeray?? Who do I need to yell in Spanish at?!
-
I think Christian just needs to figure himself out honestly. I wish I
had some solid advice here, but I'm fresh out :/ Just know that you're
an amazing mom and that you haven't failed. He just needs to figure life
out and not be so worried about what others think. You're right though,
only time will tell, and sometimes that blows
- I love that he sent you a letter! Could you even read it though? Haha! I know that Elders handwriting and man sometimes haha!
- Update on the guitar: we named it Stella haha! We also did give it back to the Elders and they even played us a song
- Elba is... well you'll just have to read about her in the recaps
- What about my calling?!
Okay now here's my week! :)
MONDAY
Ola
ola ola! So we didn't really do too much today but I didn't mind it
honestly haha! It was nice to really have a relaxing pday. We did get to
have back to back lessons tonight though and that has never happened to
me yet! It was so cool though! I love sharing this gospel! We got to
talk to our friend Annie and share more about the gospel. She's
relatively new so we're just taking baby steps with her but she seems
interested so that's good! We ended that call real quick and jumped on
the call we had with Elba. Not gonna lie it was really concerning
because we decided to research everything right? Mom she didn't even
understand the restoration. We really are starting from rock bottom with
her now. I'm mainly just really confused at what the other sisters
taught her, but it's okay, we're gonna help her :) We got to wrap up our
night with our homie Alessandro! He's our English student and he's just
the best, he makes the end of the night end on a high note. I have a
feeling this week is gonna be a slower week, but I'm determined to look
for miracles and have people talk to me ;) Sorry I didn't get to talk to
you after, we had our calls with the DLs and they always go forever. I
hope you had the best night though! You're amazing and I'm so so lucky
to call you my mom! I love you! 
ps Monday's are my favorite days!
TUESDAY
Ola!
How was B today with her test? I had her in my prayers so hopefully it
went okay she felt good about it. Today was productive but also felt
like I literally did nothing, kinda a weird feeling haha! I am gonna
call today trunky Tuesday though! Okay so basically long story short
Sister Pearson and I love music and especially country. Today we both
just had all these country songs stuck in our heads and we kept singing
them and were being fubecas. Not the best moment, but hey we're still
human and we gotta have fun still. Anyways, back to my day! We started
bright and early with some yoga as a mission. Not gonna lie I was a
little sad that we didn't get to run, I never thought those words were
going to come out of my mouth... ever! I think it just wakes me up
honestly. It's okay though Sister Pearson and I had a few laughs at some
of the elders trying to do yoga at 6:45am. Haha! We had a solid lesson
with one of our newer friends and got to go over the introduction page
of the Book of Mormon and he seemed to take it really well! Hopefully
he'll let us keep teaching him:) I saw some miracles today too! I sent a
ton of friend requests but no one had really responded to them so I was
pretty useless yesterday. Well today I had a few people I could
message! It seriously made my whole day I don't think you even
understand! Tonight was honestly just full of friending people on
Facebook. We called a few way less active members but none of them
answered so we got really good at leaving voice-mails haha! I also
learned that the later it gets the funnier everything seems! To the
point where Sister Pearson and I were just laughing at everything
eachother said. The amount of movies we can quote together and songs
that she'll start and I'll finish or vice versa is outta this world too.
Haha! We had call ins after 9pm tonight because the STLs had a crazy
busy day with some moving that happened, I think and emergency transfer
happened or something. It just made for a later night is all. I'm
telling ya, I felt so unproductive but also productive at the same time.
That's all for today folks, I love and miss you guys!
WEDNESDAY
Interview
day!!! Okay so I don't know why but I seriously was so so nervous!
President Mavromatis is just an intimidating man but he's also a
sweetheart, kinda like Tyler;) I will have you know that I tried real
hard today to not get any songs stuck in my head, I don't know how well
thay really worked but hey I tried. I did try to help by really diving
into the scriptures. If I could spend every minute of the day studying I
would! I definitely should have been better at that back home. Man I
just love studying the scriptures and all things gospel related. God is
so so good and this gospel is amazing! Before I really knew it, we
needed to get going so we could make it to interviews on time. I just
love President! He's just the sweetest and you can tell he genuinely
cares about every single one of us. He had us write goals and he's gonna
follow up with us next time. I'm excited to keep working towards my
goal and I can't wait to see what happens. My goal is pretty specific
but also really broad at the same time haha! I just hope I can really
work on it. Okay okay, I'll tell you my goal ;) I want to work on my
prayers to have more faith filled prayers to feel the spirit and be able
to recognize the spirit. There are days I can really feel the spirit
and others where it's not so strong so I think with this goal, those
days I can feel it so strong will be more consistent. On the drive
though we listened to this new song, well really it's not a bunch of
talks with music over top. It's really good actually and we got so into
it haha! It may be our new motivation song honestly;) Prime pros was
Prime pros was another bust if I'm being honest. I've been kinda
struggling with it lately honestly. I feel so unproductive but I know
I'm talking to people, it's just hard. Maybe I should've brought that up
with President today but I was just so nervous haha! I'll just have to
type it up in my email to him or something. Anyways, thanks for joining
me on my thoughts haha! How was your day? It's hitting the middle of the
week so things could either feel fast or like this week is dragging on.
Ill tell you what though, these transfers have flown by!! I can't
believe in only have a week and a half left in this transfer. Crazy! I
love you
THURSDAY
Service
day! Woot woot! Last time we went to service I was a freaking
destroying ninja but this time I was Bob the Builder haha! We had to
build furniture today and Sister Pearson and I are bascually pros;)
Service today actually went by so fast and before I knew it, it was
12pm. Our run this morning kinda made me tired so that fact that it went
by fast and I had the energy was shocking to me. When we got back we
realized that we never planned for the day because of when we have to
leave for service, yikes! But don't worry, we planned and got everything
all figured out for the day. I also got to wear my pants today! I
seriously love pants so much, if jeans were allowed as pros clothes you
bet you're bottom dollar I'd be wearing them all day everyday. Just
something I was extra grateful for today:) Also huge thanks to ylu for
sending them to me! After our mini planning session, we got into out big
planning session for weekly planning. It was actually a little sad
because we had to stop teaching a few people, it's hard because you know
you need to but also you don't wanna give up on them and make your
teaching pool smaller. It was a way nice day though so we went up to the
roof to plan. There was a couple up there just chilling and this is
gonna sound rude but the girl was sooooo needy! I don't really know all
what was going on because I was trying to focus but man oh man. Tonight
we actually had the cutest lesson! Okay so we're teaching this 12 year
old named Ivania, she's kind of hit or miss though because well she's 12
haha! She called us though and we talked to her about the Holy Ghost
and the power of prayer. She asked if we had any questions about
choosing our religion so I got to tell her that I got to choose and that
the Holy Ghost helped me to know the church was true. She goes and I
quote, "Wow I think I'm gonna cry" My whole heart mom! She's so smart
and she really loves the Book of Mormon too. She said that she loves the
idea of the Holy Ghost and all that it does. Right before we were gonna
wrap up the lesson though her phone died and we couldn't call her back!
Noooo! It was the purest lesson and she's the cutest 12 year old I've
ever met:) We were on such a spiritual high when we called Elba, let's
just say that didn't last very long. We went in there with a solid game
plan but we ended up going in a different direction as ya do sometimes.
We ended up talking about the sacrament and how it's an opportunity to
remember the Savior and renew our covenants. That's when she really just
stabbed me in the heart. She goes, "I just don't see the point of the
sacrament or even going to church for me. I don't really have the desire
to do any of that" Not gonna lie, that one hurt. I just don't know what
happened. When we first started talking to her she was so excited and
ready to be baptized, now it's like she wants nothing to do with that.
She's not even willing to come to church or put in effort to read the
Book of Mormon mom. It's just hard, so we gotta figure that out and how
we can help her. After her lesson we both felt a little defeated, but we
couldn't feel that way for long because we had a meeting. Sister
Pearson and I have been chosen along with another set of elders to
review our specific mission standards and gather info and data about
them for the new President that's coming in. We had a meeting with the
AP's and the STL's to talk all about it. So basically the four of us get
to review alllllll the rules of the mission. It honestly shouldn't be
too bad, but no idea why they picked us haha! All this being said
though, tomorrow is a new day full of new opportunities:) I hope you had
a great day! I love you!
FRIDAY
Okay
if I'm being honest I've been such a slacker on these recaps. We've
been busy but also not but I've also had like no time to type this up
haha! Does that even make sense? I've just been trying to write my talk,
let me just say that writing talks is already not my favorite thing in
the world but now doing it in another language, ya right? Anyways, today
was Zone Training! Get this though, Sister Pearson and I got ready to
leave and drove the 45 minutes to the chapel and when we pull up there's
only like 2 cars. We were 15 minutes early, but still you'd think there
would be more right? I imagine you already know where this is going but
just bear with me;) We see the ZL'S and the DL'S and they were so
confused as to why we were there. Welp, we thought that it started at
1pm, jokes on us because it started at 2pm. So we had about an hour to
kill haha! We needed to film our LIVE for the Português Facebook page so
we locked ourselves in a little room and got to filming. I've never
made a LIVE before so this one is a little rough but ya know, you live
and you learn and you move on. Finally Zone Training got started! Haha!
It wasn't anything to special or eventful actually, we just went over
some tools on Area Book and learned how we can use it better. Zone
Training literally took up the majority of the day and when we got back
home it was dinner time. We ate real quick and jumped into our contacts.
We actually set up a lesson from one of the people I contacted. Woot
woot! ;) We also had a lesson with our friend Annie, she's so funny mom!
She's an interpretar so sometimes she'll start talking in Português and
then all of a sudden it's in English. She was in the middle of reading a
scripture and just goes, 'Wow I need new glasses!' And then kept
reading! Haha! I love her! Her lesson went way longer than expected, but
it filled our night so I'm grateful :) I love the videos of Tyler in
the drive by the way haha! And thanks for all your help with Sister
Pearson's birthday stuff:) You're the best!! love you!
SATURDAY
You
know I kinda miss Saturday nights and having things planned. Haha! I
love being out here and serving but there are times that I just wanna
put on normal clothes and go to the mall or something. I've been on the
sky lookout recently too with spring happening to see howbthe sky
changes, all I gotta say is that the skies in Utah are way prettier than
the skies Rhode Island or Connecticut ;) Anyways, today was another
slow day. This week has honestly just been slow, I've been praying hard
for some miracles so maybe things will start to look up a little bit.
It's just a little tricky when everything is online, that's all. I
finally finished my talk today! It's super simple but mainly because I
have no idea what to say haha! I just hope that it goes good tomorrow,
we're gonna have to see ;) We took a deep dive in Area Book today to
prep for Sister Pearson leaving. President Mav basically told her in
interviews that she's leaving so we took some time today to make groups
and just clean up our Area Book. We even had to delete some people
because some of the other sisters before us clearly cared about the
numbers and just started making people but they didn't put and address, a
phone number, an email, or even a Facebook so we literally have no way
of contacting them. I just don't understand the mentality of the
numbers, that's not why you're on a mission! We literally say our
purpose everyday and no where in that does it say a thing about numbers.
To each their own I guess though haha! We also took some time to go
over ministering assignments and send that off to the Relief Society
president. Nothing too exciting to report there. Our night also
consisted of contacting friends and other dots to try and get them to
church. We kinda figure no one will be there tomorrow because it's
mothers day but hey we can sure try! We actually got a few responses
from people saying thank you for wishing them a happy mother's day, heck
if that's all we needed to do for them to respond we would've done thay
ages ago! Also, you're email made my whole night! I always love hearing
from you. When I get to Brazil I'm gonna miss seeing those right as
they come in. We didn't really have too much happen tonight though, we
talked to our DL'S and got learn about a crazy ex girlfriend that one of
them had and I realized just how nuts girls are. Holy cow! This is why I
only hangout with Brynlee and didn't really hangout with girls in high
school, they're all crazy! That's my day, nothing too crazy :) I hope
that you had the best day and I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow for a
minute! I love you
SUNDAY
SUNDAY
Feliz
dia das maes! I know you already got my card, but I just wanted to
thank you for all that you do. I know that raising us wasn't easy, you
had two kids by yourself, you had to deal with me (that in and of itself
is a lot!), you always took care of the house, I could keep going on
haha! I just wanted to say thank you for all your sacrifices, late night
talks, shopping trips, tanning sessions, but mostly your unconditional
love:) Mom guess what?! I gave my first ever talk in Português today!
And guess what else!? I didn't even read it word for word, I just
talked! Heck, I didn't even do that with my farewell talk! I know it
could've been better, but hey it was my first one. When I wrote it too I
didn't even think about writing it in English and then translating it, I
just went straight for português so hopefully it all made sense haha!
Today at church too they gave all the sisters flowers and it reminded me
of the flowers I would get at school for Valentines Day. It was so
sweet to see all the irmãs get their flowers. After church we had a
lesson with my gray dot that I found (that we have to pass off
eventually sad day) He actually seems really cool and is willing to
learn more. I'm a little bummed that we can't just keep his dot. This
afternoon was just full of relief society and coordination, nothing too
fancy. Anyways, we haven't had too much going on during prime pros so
that's kinda lame. We've just been going through Area Book and Facebook
finding honestly. I honestly don't know what to do differently, I think
I'm gonna email President about it tomorrow actually.Prime pros was too
good tonight mom! I know I already told you this but I'm just ao happy
about it! Oh my gosh God is so good! Okay get this! We were going
through our Area Book and we went 3 for 3! That never happens, like
ever! We even set up a lesson with one of them! She actually wanted us
to come to her house but we can't so we settled for a meeting in the
park :) I'm so so pumped about it you don't even know! AND THEN! We
called another gray dot and when we told her who we were she goes, "ohhh
yeah I remember you guys" Yikes... luckliy though she didn't yell at us
or bash us, she actually wants to meet with us! She said she's super
busy until about the end of the month but when we told her that we would
call her then she goes, "okay great I'll be waiting!" How crazy cool is
that!!? Seriously SUCH an answer to prayers :) We finished off the
night with some quick messages to the senior missionaries and mission
moms to wish them a happy mother's day too. We of course made some
celebratory mug cakes too! I loved getting to talk to you tonight too!
Thanks for always being willing to chat :) I hope that you had the best
mothers day! I love you! 
