Email home to Mom: Monday, June 28, 2021
From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
To: Mom
Subject: Lerica, Helmer, and Fubecas?
Alright alright, hey there mom! First off, your email
was not too long! I'm a speed reader out here in Pawtucket :) I am just
gonna get straight into it though:)
- Thanks a million for the Flonase! It's literally a heaven sent and I can in fact breathe ;)
-
Of course I'm happy! I'm literally a representative for Jesus Christ!
Yes it's hard (more to come later) but I'm 100% happier than I've ever
been!
- How is this Cutler? Haha! She kills me!
-
I'm so so glad that I got to be there for Christian! Not gonna lie I
knew he'd be a hard one to say goodbye to ;) I hope he knows just how
proud I am of him and that he knows how much I believe in him too. If it
makes you feel any better, I butchered that prayer for one haha! And
two I could see you crying but I couldn't tell you were bawling ;)
- Look at you ripping out all these trees haha!
-
One of the biggest focuses in our stake our here is 'Serve the One' I
often think that sometimes the prompting we get, the ones that we're
most reluctant about, have the biggest impact. You've always been good
at finding and serving the one :)
- Christian's
days will probably be pretty different not gonna lie, for one he's going
off Utah time and not another country and he's also the Provo MTC. I
think he'll be busier as time goes on, well we can hope ;) it does take a
minute though that's for sure!
- Alright here's the baby list haha!
• Derrick and Kelsey -> Boy
• Doug and Cierra -> Boy
• Braxton and Kyrae -> 2 girls!
- How's Kathrine holding up? She's a freaking champ but like for real?
- How's the home MTC? How does it feel to have another missionary? How are you holding up? ;) and be honest!
Okay I think that's all for this first half and now onto the second :)
MONDAY
Holy
cow! Today flew by! I feel like I'm blinking and time is going by just
like that! I imagine this is what it feels like for parents watching
kids grow up haha! We didn't have too much of a busy night but we did
get to watch some bed time stories with Elder Mons. I take pride in the
fact that I'm the top fan ;) We had a lesson fall through with a member
so that was a bummer but it's okay, we'll try again next time! I just
want you to know just how much I love you and how grateful I am for you.
Seriously I look forward to getting to chat with you and share all my
feelings with you. I love being out here don't get me wrong but I also
can't wait until I can just text you again and call you and just give
you a run down if I wanted haha! I hope you had the best rest of your
Monday! I love you forever 
TUESDAY
Whatta
day! Okay so get this, your girl joined a choir! Well kinda haha! We
have zone conference tomorrow but I'm staying so I have no reason to go
to transfers, butttttt all my friends are going home and this is now or
never ya know? So some missionaries set up a secret choir to surprise
President Mavromatis at zone conference. Sooooo long story short, Sister
Parrish and I went to transfers to join this choir even though we have
no idea what's going on haha! It was so so good to see everyone and
guess what!? Literally my trainer and everyone else I first met is all
going home. How crazy is that!? We snagged a couple pictures and it was
time to head back. It was so hot today too! It felt so nice to just be
outside and chat with everyone. Oh! Also! We have new missionaries and I
think there's about 8 of em, 2 of them went to high school with me.
The MBM is seriously just a huge Herriman High School reunion. Don't
know how I really feel about it na verdade haha! We had another in
person lesson with Any tonight!! She's a tough friend but I hope that
we're helping her and she knows how much we care about her :) She even
gave us some banana bread tonight as we were leaving. How sweet is
that?! We had a super cool English class with some lady from Brasil so
that was rad. I love getting to talk in Português! Also side note from
today haha! We had to check our 72 hour kit and boy am I glad that we
did. The sisters that made it seriously must have not understood the
list or something. The only things in there were 4 water bottles, 4
things of soup, 4 boxes of jello mix, and a bag of seeds like from the
gas station. How the heck are you gonna survive off of that?! We
definitely have to fix it so we had to make some calls so we'll see what
happens haha! Tonight was the big night! Christian is now Elder Garcia!
How rad is that?! I'm so beyond grateful that I got to call and be
apart of Christian being set apart tonight :) It worked out just perfect
enough and I'm glad I got to be there for him. Man am I proud of him
and I can't wait for him to be home already! It's hard to not be there
for him not gonna lie, but I love that I was still able to call and be
there over the phone. I even snagged a picture with his badge, two
Garcias are now serving! How rad is that?! I hope that all went well and
it was so good to see you guys again today :) I love and miss you!
WEDNESDAY
Oh
my goodness I love people! Shocker I know! ;) Today we had my first
real life zone conference experience! Okay let me back up a little bit.
Up until now we've been doing like 2-3 zones at a time and it's been
about an hour long. Today we had 6-8 zones and it was a full day!! I
seriously loved it more than I can even express :) I also got a lot of
notes and heard some really incredible things that I 100% needed to
hear. I feel like I'm gonna miss that the most. Just the spirit of
having missionaries together and hearing leaders talk. It was incredible
to say the least! President and Sister Mavromatis also gave their
goodbye remarks. Sad day! I know I've only been here for 5 months but
the love I have for them is crazy. His mom even gave a talk! How cute is
she?! She gave it in Greek though (her native language) and President
translated, except the first go around he translated into Português
haha! I could understand though so that was nuts! It was such a good day
and I can't believe we'd been doing zone conference a different way.
Also update, that new Sister, I 100% went to high school with and I had a
class with her haha! We didn't have too crazy of a night, we did get to
talk to Alessandro though :) He's our homie and we love him! Did you
know there's a holiday in Brasil to rob chickens?! I wanna go see what
that's all about na verdade haha! I think I may have already mentioned
that but I don't know for sure haha! How was the first day of the MTC?
Does it feel weird knowing that he's gonna leave in a short 6 weeks? By
the time he guys out I'm gonna be closer to my halfway mark then I will
to 6 months, how crazy is that?! I hope today was good and that
everything is falling into place :) I love you to the moon and back mom!
THURSDAY
I
can't believe that it's already Thursday! Say what?! This week has
FLOWN by! I swear that weeks are just going by quicker and quicker. How
fast is this whole mission thing gonna go?! I feel like I just got here
but also that I've been here for a fat minute haha! Anyways, we had
service this morning because we didn't go yesterday. I don't know what
our deal was today but both Sister Parrish and I were SO sleepy. To the
point that just everything was funny at service. You would have thought
it was funny too but this was another level ;) About half way through we
woke up a little bit more and it wasn't too bad. I'm getting buffer
every time we go too ;) haha! We had some weekly planning to do today
too! It was bem bonita la fora so we decided to head up to the roof for
comp study and then get straight into weekly planning up there too. I
did in fact get some color and it made my oh so happy! :) I miss the sun
and I'm for sure gonna be soaking up as much as I can wherever I end up
;) Weekly planning was a little sad. We had to stop teaching some
people because they're more interested in us and not the gospel. I don't
know how to feel. Sister Parrish is very much "let's give em a week and
if nothing happens let's call it" Don't get me wrong, I get it but at
the same time I also don't wanna give up on these people. I don't know
it's interesting and I really just want to help someone progress. All in
the Lord's time though ;) How's your week been? I'm sad this week went
by fast but also happy because that means I get to talk to you again
here soon :) The moving elders also stopped by today because we asked
for some bar stools. Our storage unit is freaking massive! Like almost
like the work ones. When they came to drop em off they just walked on
into our apartment! Sister Parrish and I both looked at eachother so
confused! Like what the heck do we do?! It was freaking crazy. They also
gave us some weird French book they found and they even signed it. I
feel like that'll be some legend that stays here haha! It just made me
realize how weird it was to have boys in our apartment, I've only lived
with girls for 4 months. How crazy is that to think about? Anyways, that
was my crazy story for the day haha! I hope you had the best day! I
love you mom!
FRIDAY
Hey
hey hey! Can I just say how excited I am for the day I can go back to
the temple?? There's more to come but I just had to say it :) Today was
such a good day out here in the MBM! We had the first District Counsel
of the 7 week transfer. It actually went super good and I'm way pumped
to get to serve with all these elders. Elder Demars is a super quiet but
he carries the Spirit and it's super cool to get to hear him talk about
the church. Elder Hanchett it pretty quiet too but he's a sweetheart,
we just need to get hum to loosen up a little bit, he's a transfer
behind me too. That means I'm officially older than someone I've served
with, freaking crazy! Elder Arroyo is such a rad guy too. His story is
way cool and he brings such a different perspective. Mom he even has
tattoos! Also! The past like week everyone has been asking how long I've
been out and they're always taken back. I feel like it's an MBM thing
for sure to ask that question for sure. After DC we decided to head to
Chick-fil-A for a little district lunch as a request from Elder Dawson
before he dies in a week. It was actually so fun and I loved getting out
of the apartment. We pretty much went straight from there to our IN
PERSON lesson with Helmer. He's so awesome mom maybe even golden! We
taught him the Restoration and man was the spirit so strong. Get this! I
felt like I really needed to invite him to church, kinda crazy I know!
But I did and he said YES! WHAT THE HECK?! It was nuts! We also had a
super rad lesson about temples with our friend Annie. That's where the
first part of this recap comes in ;) We sent her a video of the Rome,
Italy temple tour but before we did we had to watch it to make sure ya
know? The temple is something I've always loved but i never appreciated
it enough ya know? I already want to make it a habit to go to the temple
once a week when I come home, but man does my heart miss the temple!
Also the Bride's room is seriously GORGEOUS in Italy! Anyways, it was
such a good night and I love being a missionary :) That's all for
tonight! I hope you had the best Friday and got to soak up some sun too
;) I love and miss you!
SATURDAY
Today
was literally the slowest haha! But yet still the end of the night I
was so so tired! The bags under my eyes are 100% not desinger and I need
to get it figured out haha! It just makes me realize all the late night
I had before the mission haha! I don't think I'll ever take sleep for
granted ;) Anyways, today was pretty slow, just a lot of contacts and a
lot of area book work. We did have a super amazing miracle though! So we
had this girl named Lerica that's 13 ish and Sister Pearson loved her
but she never ever responded! It was super hard for us to even get into
contact with her so we had to stop teaching her :/ Super sad and I
didn't want to but Sister Parrish felt like we needed too. Well guess
freaking what?! She sent us a text today! Seriously an answer to my
prayers! Ahhh! She explained her whole situation and she wants to talk
to us again :) it made my heart super feliz and I'm so beyond excited to
just get to talk to her and teach her! Now here's what I've been
holding in for about a transfer now.... before I say anything though, I
LOVE the mission and I love being here and there's no other place I'd
rather be. But man is Sister Parrish hard sometimes. She seems to be
pretty annoyed at the littlest things but she also lacks major faith.
She also just constantly says how slow this area is (duh she came from a
Portuguese ward in the busiest city) I don't know it's been super hard
to be positive about the work and find all the good when she's
constantly saying something. She gets annoyed at our dots and literally
wanted to stop teaching all of our friends and start new. Those are
people! Yes they're slow to progress but that doesn't mean anything!
It's their path and their time, they're people, not just dots in area
book. I don't know it's been super hard this past week. I've found
myself saying silent prayers pretty often to just get through the night
sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I seriously love Sister Parrish and we
get along great and have a lot in common but it's just something I've
noticed this past transfer. Well thanks for coming to my feelings show
haha! I'm super excited to get to be in contact with Lerica too:) She
reminds me so so much of Brooklyn! I hope that we can stay in contact
with her and help her! I hope you had the best day ever! It was pday
after all ;) I love you forever!
SUNDAY
Sunday's
are always my most favorite days! I woke up a little sleepy though and I
little down because of my feelings towards Sister Parrish and the area.
The good news is that we had church today and I was able to get some
answers that I didn't even know I needed. Get this too! We have this
awesome friend, Helmer, (who said he would come to church!)Well we sent
him the address and I guess he was there but because our church building
is just a warehouse he didn't think it was a church and went back home.
How sad is that?! It's okay though because he said he would come next
week :) Today in church we went over a talk from the Priesthood Session
of General Conference this past April. One thing that I absolutely LOVED
was when it was talking about our battles with Satan. We already
overcame Satan once by choosing to be on 'God's side' if you will. We
won and gained our bodies and this amazing opportunity to be here and
experience life. Here on this earth we have the constant battle against
Satan every single day, but we ALREADY overcame him once, why not again?
I've never thought about it like that and I loved it haha! After church
we made some quick little oreo balls and made a list of friends that
needed a little TLC. We took some to Helmer and he freaking loved it
haha! He sent us all these texts and even put it on Facebook haha! Then
the miracle of Lerica! She's the one from yesterday ;) We took her some
and she was so excited to see us! She kept giving us hugs and saying
thank you. When she gave me a hug though she reminded me so so much of
Brooklyn. She's 13 and she's about her height too so it just all fit
together. It low-key made me miss her not gonna lie haha! We came back
and finished the night off with an English class. When we were getting
ready for our journal writing the elders knocked on our door. Elder
Holverson and Elder Mons were fubeca and Holverson came to our area so
his comp could get a haircut from Elder Burdick. Not my choice but
theirs, anyways we talked for a minute and then actually finished up our
night haha! This week has gone by so fast but it has also been just
long enough ya know? I hope you had the best Sunday and that all went
well with Relief Society! I know you're gonna kill it and that they'll
love you! And if they don't (kinda weird but whatever!) I sure love you
