Email home to Mom: Monday, June 21, 2021

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
To: Mom
Subject: TWO IN PERSON LESSONS?!

Hey hey hey! Sorry for the shorter recaps this week, we seriously had no time at all. The time is just flying and by the end of the night I just wanna crash super hard haha! I'm just gonna get straight into your email and then into mine ;) 

- You had quite the party going on at the pool! It looks like it's a hot commodity ;) You'll have to start charging people one of these days ;) 

- I'm glad that Rodney puts stuff together honestly, how's the ward doing? How are you feeling about the calling?? I'm excited to see what you do with that program :) 

- It's so crazy that he'll be a missionary! I know he's older and everything but I still feel like he's young and not old enough for this. How are you feeling? 

- Thursday sounds like the best kind of productive day! You're killing it mom! Your new bag is super pretty too! I love the colors :) 

- Cutler kissed her?!?! She's too young for that! ;) she's such a dork too, man I love her though! I wish I could've been there to watch it all play out for you, I'm sure I'll hear about it this week 

- I'm excited for Christian to get into the MTC. I hope it Flys by for him like it did for me honestly, sitting for 6 weeks is not really the move ;) 

- Overall it sounds like a pretty good week there! I'm so happy:) I can't wait to chat with you and catch up! Here's onto my week! 

MONDAY 

Ola ola! Como você esta? Whatta crazy day honestly haha! It was super fun though and I'm glad it all worked out and we were able to still have a district pday. I'm still not very good at bowling but I'm happy to go and have a good time with everyone. That's something we should do when I come home or something you should do with Christian on his pdays. ;) Tonight we just made some more dots honestly, nothing too crazy. I think it'll be good though, if not now for the future for missionaries that are here. I'm glad I got to talk to you today too! I miss getting to chat with you at the end of the day but every Monday works ;) I hope you had the best rest of your Monday and that you were able to soak up some more sun with all the kids running around;) I love and miss you!

TUESDAY 

Hey mom! Whatta day of driving! I don't think I've ever been so grateful for a car in my life but I definitely can't wait to not have TIWI in the car haha! Anyways, we had interviews today! This transfer is weird because President Mavromatis is going home. So that means we have a 5 week transfer this time and a 7 week transfer next time. That also means that today was my last interview with President Mavromatis. Kinda sad! He was very much all business though and seemed a little stressed honestly, I can't even imagine what's going on in his life right now. I didn't have too much to say though, but he always has the best advice:) After interviews the rest of the day just became a mess! We had two in person lessons both fall through. I love our members and cape verdians but they don't seem very mindful of our time or other people's time. I was a little frustrated but what can you do ya know? Maybe another day we'll try and it'll work :) because everything fell through we did a lot of finding today. My friend Helmer that I found had so much potential mom! I hope that he genuinely has good intentions and is ready for our message. I think that's always the scariest part haha! Tonight we also went through our Paper Area Book again. We found the paper records for potentials so we called them all up! I think it'll be really good to have all of that in area book too. It's a little tedious making new people but 100% worth it ;) That's about it for today! I hope you had the best day! Love you mom!

WEDNESDAY 

Oh boy! I had high hopes for today honestly haha! We had planning exchanges with the DL today, I've never done that before, but it was a pretty quick morning though. Sister Parrish had some meds we had to go pick up but that was a disaster and they didn't have them. It was just a lot of run around honestly. We left straight from Walgreens to service. I don't know why but service just ruined my mood. I tried SO hard to be happy and in a good mood but this guy at service was literally just man-splaining everything to me! I was so frustrated! Like I get it if I was doing something wrong or didn't know what I was doing, but I was fine. Ughhh I was so frustrated! The only thing that kept going through my mind too was "the doctrine of Christ" I need to be better is all. When we got home from service though, Sister Parrish literally lost it. I don't even know what happened honestly. Okay so normally the elders would go and get food from Irmã dalomba but today we had to. We had just gotten out of the shower and we had to hustle to pick it up so it didn't cut into our dinner too much. She was just so annoyed that the elders didn't go and grab it. When we dropped it off, Elder Bodily was playing was guitar and she lost it! I didn't really see the big deal but she was very upset about it. By this point I was over everything from service and was trying to be better but she was not having it. Our lessons fell through again tonight so that didn't help her either. It was a pretty slow night not gonna lie, I just hope that things will start picking up. We did have Alessandro tonight too, I always love talking to him! It totally stinks that he's not our friend :/ but I'm happy to help him! I was so exhausted today too, I actually just wanted to take a nap or something but that's dangerous because what if I can't sleep? Haha! It all worked out though and we're thriving:) I hope you had the best day! I love you forever and for always  

THURSDAY 

God is too good mom!! Holy cow! Have I ever told you how much I love this gospel and how much I love missionary work?! Because it's a while lot!! :) Today was low-key just another day of travel. We did however get Sister Parrish's medication though! Whatta tender mercy honestly haha! It took us long enough ;) We got back and had a quick little study and then went to grab lunch for weekly planning. It was another super great day so we grabbed our lunch and went to a park to plan. We infelizmente had to stop teaching a few people but hey, all in the Lord's time :) We also had to plan for our training in District Counsel tomorrow. We seriously just gave a zone training! What the heck?! It all worked out we just had to be a little creative with it is all. We booked it back to the apartment to grab a Biblia and a Livro for one of our new friends Helmer! He's stellar mom! I Facebook found him and we started teaching him a few days ago. He's super awesome and I really feel like he could have the right intentions. I'm so so excited to help him! Then this is when it gets even better! Are you ready?!? We drove from his house to Any's house for my very FIRST IN PERSON LESSON!!! Oh my gosh I could've cried! Haha! I was nervous at first but I totally felt the spirit just take over. We sat down IN HER HOUSE! with Irmã odete and we had such a good lesson! The spirit was so strong and I genuinely loved every single second. I even got to explain my broken heart and contrite spirit idea to her and she loved it! You should have seen her face!! Just as we were getting ready to leave, she goes 'vocês ficam, eu tenho suco!' So we sat back down and she continued to pour THE biggest glass of juice ever! Haha! We both looked at each other and tried not to chug it, but slowly (but quickly) pace ourselves haha! Irmã odete also gave us candy, no wonder missionaries gain weight! ;) Just wait, it gets even better! As we were walking out, not only was I on this spiritual high, we ran into this girl that kept asking if we were from the church. Mom! It's a youth that we literally can NOT get in contact with! We got her Facebook and she was down to talk to us some other time. Just think, if we hadn't have stayed to drink suco we wouldn't have seen her! DEUS É TÃO BOM!!! I seriously can not even begin to describe how I felt mom! It's incredible! I can't wait to do that more! Tonight was a slower night but we kept chugging along with our dots from our paper area book. We may or may not have found some new potentials but only time will tell. We did get news that we're getting t- texts on Saturday because this transfer is shorter by a week. How crazy is that?! I think I'll stay here with Sister Parrish honestly. I'm not mad about it I just know that I'll most likely leave the next transfer then, but that's way into the future right now ;) I love Sister Parrish and we have a ton of fun but she's definitely the comp that I've had to work on my patience with the very most. It's good though, it's just a Christ-like attribute I need a little more refinement on is all ;) I hope you've been enjoying the pool and have been getting some color for me haha! I love and miss you!

FRIDAY 

Where do I even start with today! This week has seriously just been go go go! I LOVE it! This morning started off with District Counsel, the last one of the transfer, how sad is that? We also gave our training today and I think it went well na verdade mas nao sei completamente. We also had in person exchanges today so we left straight from DC to our exchanges. Not gonna lie, I didn't really feel overly excited for exchanges today. When we got there though I realized I needed it more than I thought. Nothing's wrong at all but Sister Florence is just awesome. She really gets the whole reassignment thing too so that's way nice to get to talk with her and I know she gets it. During our exchange though we had a lesson. Not gonna lie I was very much nervous about it and I knew I'd have to do it on my own because it was a guy I found on my Facebook and Sister Florence doesn't speak português. When it came time to call I felt so bad because Sister Florence just sat there while I talked to our friend. When I got off the call my heart stopped beating so fast and Sister Florence was so sweet and told me I did good. She's just the sweetest!! The three hours were up and it was time to head back to the apartment. Time has been going by SO fast recently mom! When we got back it was just in time for dinner so we hurried and made a killer meal not gonna lie and got straight into prime pros. We had a super awesome lesson with our friend Annie! I just love her and her lessons are always so fun haha! After her lesson we made a quick trip to the church for English class. We just do class on Facebook but we decided to switch it up and go to the church to use the whiteboard there. We had a pretty decent turnout and one lady on there was so sweet and was shocked that we could speak português haha! I love having English class honestly. I don't think I could ever be a teacher but I just love talking in Português with other people, it makes my heart SO happy! :) I definitely want to keep up on the language as much as I can when I get home. The people in the CTM were right, you really do fall in love with the language and just want more and more;) I think that's about it for today! I love you to the moon and back!

SATURDAY 

You'll never guess what happened today!! We had a straight up miracle and had ANOTHER IN PERSON LESSON! Say what?! Okay so we have this friend that used to be a gray dot and we've tried to meet with him consistently but he's just super flaky. He also talks at like rapid speed and is so hard to understand. Well guess what?! Today he sent a text and told us that he wanted us to come to his house and meet with him! He even sent us his address and everything! We both just looked at each other and were like, alright let's go! The only catch was that the English elders had our car so we were legit missionaries and walked! Ahhh mom it was so cool! I need to be better about speaking during my day to really keep up on the language. When we got there I did not expect it to go that well but it went so good and the spirit was so so strong! I just am soaking all this up :) On our way back we got a lot of weird looks and I realized just how strongly the spirit is with me now, especially being outside. When we got back it was time for contacts. We did so many it was crazy! We finished up with all the numbers in our paper area book though so now we're moving onto our addresses. The night went by so quick honestly. I was super glad it did because we got t-texts tonight. Sister Parrish and I made some Boba while we waited. Then it happened! Guess what!?  IM STAYING! I'm super pumped to get to stay here and watch everyone here progress more and more:) During the middle of it though, all the elders came by to give us our keys back haha! We ended up all just sitting in the doorway/hallway and talking until 10:30pm. I'm genuinely gonna miss these guys. Kinda weird to say because I don't like know know these people but I do in a way. That pretty much sums up Sister Garcia's night though! Sempre lembra, Deus e tão bom :) Eu te amo!  

SUNDAY 

Stake conference day!! Okay can I just say how weird it is to go to an English ward now? I genuinely might find a português ward when I get home haha! It'll keep my language skills sharp haha! Today I was super on edge not gonna lie. I think a lot of it just had to do with the fact that I was gonna call my dad tonight and I unfortunately let that effect me for a minute. To the point where I was annoyed with Sister Parrish for a while too. That's a wjole other story though. I feel super bad about it actually and don't know why I get so worked up about it. Stake conference was super good and had a lot of things that I actually needed to hear. We love when that happens honestly haha! President and Sister Mavromatis were there today too and his mom! She's my new favorite human and just made my whole day. She even talked to me in Português and it was so fun! I love this language so much, I never want to loose it. Today was a pretty chill and slow day honestly. We didn't have too much other than more contacts and organizing area book so we can start contacting more people, hopefully in person! Only time will tell ;) I did end up calling my dad and it wasn't too bad honestly, but he had football kids to attend too ya know? Did Christian go over or call at all? I'm glad I got to talk to Tyler today too, even if it was weird Tyler;) You'll have to explain to me thay whole situation haha! I hope you had a good Sunday soaking up all the sun ;) I'm jealous! I can't wait to talk to you! I love you mom!