Email to Mom: Monday, July 5, 2021

To: Mom
From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Subject: Happy Cape Veridan Independence Day!

Hey hey hey! Happy 4th of July yesterday and Happy Cape Verdian Independence day today! Haha! Look at you, you're you're cultured haha! How are things? How's everyone doing? Alright I feel like this week totally flew by! We officially have a new mission president too. His name is President Brough and from what I've heard he's super nice and will be really good for the mission :) but before I get too far into this email I gotta get to  yours! 

- We have not done our tye dye yet! We're thinking maybe this pday or next so keep your eyes peeled on the drive ;) 

- That poor kid! And I'm sad that B had to see that! I guess it really is a good reminder to always being looking and be safe 

- I'm the glad the MTC is falling into place, it's a huge adjustment that's for sure. I need to send him an email actually, his email this week was full of questions for me 

- What did Lindsay have to say?! 

- Also, I'm I'm glad that she accepted the calling ;) I hope you guys are still there when I come home ;) 

- What happened to the diner?! I was actually looking forward to that when I came home! I know I only went once but it was pretty good haha! 

- How was it with Brittans family? I don't know but I got so nervous seeing you guys all together haha! 

- I hope that Chad's okay! I'll have to message him and see and I had NO clue that Kayla was pregant! Her and Bryden pop kids put like it's no big deal. Thag video you sent me though had Kyrae in it and she's showing! That made my whole day:) 

- I'm glad that everyone is staying busy and is happy too:) 

- Tyler sent me a super cute email too ;) I'll have to tell you about it just remind me! 

Okay now here's my week! :) 

MONDAY 

Oiiii How was the rest of your day?! I'm sure you did something fun ;)  We didn't have too much going on tonight na verdade, kinda lame. Sister Parrish wanted to go LIVE on Facebook so we did to try to teach English. I love the mission don't get me wrong but I just wanna teach the gospel! I'm hopeful that someone we teach English too wants to hear a message. Who knows! That's really all I have to report back tonight ;) I hope you had the best day and that it wasn't too hot out there and that everyone is doing good:) I love and miss you!

TUESDAY

Guess what happened today?! This guy I've been practicing English wanted to hear a message! So of course we called him! I think it went pretty well and he said he wants to keep practicing English but also keep learning more about the gospel too :) Pretty rad if you ask me! Now before I get too far into today, I just have to say that today was not the best day as far as having high love for Sister Parrish. I truly do love her but sometimes she just takes over and I have to fight to get a word in or she just goes completely off what is even going on. I just don't know what to do. We went over to Irmã Fatimas house today for a little member lesson and she seriously talked the whole time. I think Irmã Fatima could tell too because she kinda just started shaking her head. And then when we left she was super quick to say goodbye to Sister Parrish but wanted to hug me and even like kisses my cheek and everything. I don't know, it's interesting to see and I feel like I'm working that much harder at the language to just get a work in. Anyways, thanks for coming to my rant haha! I really do love her it's just hard. Our lesson with Irmã Fatima was good too! She's so sweet and even made us pastels and had this whole array of food laid out for us. When we were getting ready to leave she packed it all up for us and we took it with us. She's the cutest and she's real worried I'm gonna forget about her. I don't know how anyone could forget Irmã Fatima haha! Today we decided to drive to the other side of Rhode Island and drop off some treats to the handful of members that live over there. It was such a long day of just being in the car and I was already frustrated with Sister Parrish that sitting there was just not the best. I got over it for the most part but then right as I was over it, something else would happen. We had another English class tonight too and she's even brasileira! She's super cute and her daughter even comes to the classes. We learned a few new words in Português too which I love :) I did learn that the word 'diabinho' does not mean little demon, well it does but it's more of a sexual term. Definitely will not be using that! Haha! Sister Parrish asked and not me so I'm not the one that brought it up haha! It was a good day though and I love this work and this gospel with my whole heart! Being a missionary is not always easy that's for sure but it's so so worth it :) I love you mom!

WEDNESDAY 

Today was a sad day mom! President and Sister Mavromatis had their final meeting with us as a mission. We all jumped on a zoom link and had a final breakfast devotional. It was so bittersweet to hear all their words and memories from the past 3 years. I really am gonna miss them and getting to talk to them I português too. I did learn how President Mavromatis makes his cereal though haha! He also said that the first thing he's gonna buy when he gets home is an Xbox to play flight simulator games. How freaking precious is that!? Today was another day of service except it was probably THE hottest day and guess what I wore? Jeans! I wanted nothing more than to wear shorts like everyone else but it's all good and I got a pretty good workout in moving all the furniture ;) Tonight we had this super weird lesson too. We found this guy named Guilherme and man is he weird! I just get super weird vibes from him and he asked us all these weird questions. It was the weirdest and most uncomfortable thing I think I've done on my mission so far. He was an English class and after he wanted to know the word for 'shart' For one, that's hilarious! But for two, what the heck?! I'm telling you mom, he's freaking weird! He keeps sending weird stuff too so I'll have to keep you updated on that haha! I hope you had the best day! This week is 100% FLYING by, I can't believe it's already Wednesday! I love you forever!

THURSDAY 

The weather here is more bipolar than Utah I think haha! It was seriously so nice and hot yesterday and the first part of today and now it's pouring and cold! I'm so confused at what season it is haha! Today I had my very first house inspection too. It was just over zoom but still. It was super last minute but they said everything was good and that it looks super clean ;) That automatically made my day haha! We had a super rad lesson today too with our friend Annie. She's just awesome and is willing to follow through on commitments but she still goes to the catholic church, dang! Hopefully she can make it ours at least once just to see. We went over fasting and before we even invites her to fast she said that she would! I'm telling ya, she's on it. We also had a lesson with Irmã Odete in place of our lesson with her daughter Any, she's in Cabo Verde for vacation. I just love her so much and I'm gonna miss getting to see her. Mom she literally bought us treats to take with us too, how freaking precious is that?! Today I got a package your package! THANK YOU! it seriously made my whole day! :) and you really didn't need to at all, I just needed some contacts;) but seriously thank you it means a lot. I'll have to start thinking of some tye dye ideas ;) I love and miss you mom!

FRIDAY 

How is it already Friday?! I feel like I just talked to you but also that I didn't. I was thinking too and how crazy is it that I could literally call you and you could answer? But hey, I'm a  consecrated missionary  and would never;) but just think about that?! Anyways, today we spent most of the day going through Irmã Guzman's family history paperwork. She's a beast and has so so much bit needs help organizing it, so she gave it to us. It literally made my brain hurt so bad to just try and make heads or tails of it. And it didn't help that I've had a huge pressure headache for like 2 days because of some knots. It's all good though and I'm grateful I packed advil with me :)  We had English class tonight! I love English class, especially this one because it's a group on Facebook and we get to teach people all the way in Brasil. How rad is that?! After the class, two ladies that we talk to wanted to talk about the gospel and missionaries because they're being taught in Brasil. How cool is that?! We did have that super weird guy, Guilherme on the class though. He's bascually fluent in English so I don't even know why he came. But he was like, you're a cute and funny teacher to Sister Parrish. She called him out and was like, "uhhh you're married and in the US that's not something you say" and he tried to play it off like he didn't know. This man literally knows the word for "entrepreneur" but doesn't know that?? We find that hard to believe.  I don't know he's just an interesting guy I guess. It was super cool to get to talk to those two ladies though :) It makes me excited to get to go to Brasil one day and meet all the people there (and get to eat some super yummy food!) It's crazy that Chrish will be in Africa before I'm gonna be in Brasil. Nuts! I hope you had the best day! I love you to the moon and back!

SATURDAY 

I don't know why but I feel like Saturdays are sometimes the longest days. Do you have a day of the week that just feels like it's way longer than the rest?? We've been working super hard on Irmã Guzman's family history papers but it's gonna take us a minute that's for sure haha! I'll have to send you a picture or something because it's a LOT! We had our first DC with our NEW mission president in charge today. President and Sister Mavromatis are officially home and President Brough is in charge now. As of right now, we have no new changes to anything but that's to be expected honestly. He still has to figure out how the MBM works and runs. Everyone said super great things about him though so I have high hopes to meet him next week at Zone Conference:) I was kinda hoping they'd call a meeting and we'd get to meet them, but tudo bem. Today was crazy! Okay so we had a lesson with Helmer and he's already in 1 Nephi 13 mom! We just invited him to read the introduction?! It was a super cool lesson and we're even gonna meet with him tomorrow:) Sister Parrish and I decided to start fasting after lunch today too so we decided to go during dinner to get some 4th of July things. We ended up getting a patriotic cake box for some cookies and of course sparklers and pop-its :) Get this though! We get back to the apartment and we had just started pros when all of a sudden the fire alarm starts BLARING! Sister Parrish and I thought it was a joke or a mistake. It was so loud and then we heard everyone walking outside. We grabbed out jackets and left. We still don't know what happened but nothing was burned down so I think we're good haha! Us and the Elders all jusr chilled outside though and we all decided that was the most fun prime pros we've ever had haha! Besides that though, it was a pretty low key kinda day. We made some cake box cookies for President Fairbank and the Elders for the 4th tomorrow too. Do you guys have any fun plans?! I know you have the rodeo but other than that? I'll have have keep you posted on what we end up doing too :) Also! I need you to shoot me super straight, how was it was Brittan's family? I loved all the videos and pictures but it was weird to think you guys were all hanging out haha! You'll have to let my know :)

SUNDAY 

Happy 4th of July! I hope that you got to something fun and that you got to see some fireworks and nothing caught on fire, it's dry out there! ;) Today was such a good day! Our friend, Francisco, is super hard and honestly pretty flaky. We've had a handful of lessons but guess what?! He came to church today! He even knows one of our members AND he said he would come next week! How crazy is that?! Fast and testimony meeting was too good too! I even got up and spoke ;) kinda scary still though haha! We got the irmãs talking about the cape verdian independence day (tomorrow) and man were they happy haha! I think there's a Festa tomorrow that we might go to and see what they have, who knows :) We had another really cool lesson with our friend Helmer! He was confused about Lehis vision and why it's in there twice, we got to explain how the second time it's Nephi haha! We even sent him the video the church did and he said he loved it and wants to watch more videos after he reads. He's so stellar! Tonight we decided to do a lot of area book but when I say we sent a million contacts, we literally sent a million contacts to everyone haha! You should see our area book, it looks like a giant caterpillar! We heard some of the fireworks starting so Sister Parrish and I decided to go up to the roof for the last 30 minutes of pros. While we were up there though other people started to come up. We got to talking to them too, normal and natural ways ;) It did make me realize though just how many people here smoke weed haha! Needless to say they were super nice and it was nice to get to talk to them. After pros us and the Elders went to the church parking lot to light our sparklers and get some pictures. It was honestly so fun and our district is super close. Elder Mons even went all out with boots and a cowboy hat haha!  As I'm typing this I'm still hearing and watching fireworks too. They're my favorite! I hope you had the BEST 4th of July! I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow! Sleep so good! I love you mom!