Email Home: Monday, September 20, 2021

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, September 20, 2021
Subject: The last one in the US

Bom dia!! I hope that you're ready to do some reading haha! This week was absolutely crazy and totally went by so fast. I also decided this one needs to be the best one yet because this may or may not be my last email like this :/ I don't know what kind of access I'm gonna have to my notes like this haha! We're gonna figure it out, it's just gonna be a learning curve that's for sure. Anyways, I'm gonna jump into your email and then get into mine as always :) 

- The packages did arrive! Thank you thank you thank you:) 

- I have a few questions to ask Sister Zaugg so I'll make sure to bring up money today too 

- I need to see pictures of Christians room! 

- Hopefully that family is doing a little better! It still feels weird that people are getting COVID but it's still a think infelizmente 

- Kaden Whites mom sent me the cutest necklace! I've seriously been living in it. Remind me to show you :) The thronells and imlays just sent me letters is all 

MONDAY 

Pday is always so crazy and goes by way too fast! I'm a little nervous on how pdays are going to work in Brasil I won't lie. We didn't do anything too crazy today honestly, we went and looked at some of the shops that are near our apartment and I started to go through my suitcase stuff. I feel like I was just packing too haha! How was your night?! We didn't have too busy of a night but we did get to meet with a family in the bishopric. He's a doctor and his house is HUGE!! Like it's so big! And they had a blue couch so that was pretty rad ;) Whenever we drive back from lessons and it's dark I feel like I'm breaking some kind of rule too haha! It was a good night though :) thanks for entertaining the call with Arroyo too haha! He called me and then wanted me to add him so he could talk to you. I think he loves you just as much as I do! ;) I hope you had the best night

TUESDAY 

We had exchanges today!! It was my first ever full day exchange too. Kinda weird not gonna lie haha! Before we just would do 4 hour exchanges and we'd stay at the church, so today was very different. I was with Sister Johnson and she's about ready to go home in like 10 days so it was interesting. If you thought I talk a lot, you should meet her haha! She's super nice but she always talks over people. She gives me Parriss Rose vibes like you CAN'T believe. She literally talked over our memeber in our lesson tonight, more to come later. Anyways, she's super interesting and very different from me so it was an interesting dynamic for the day. We had an English class tonight and because she doesn't speak português I had stop and translate, being in the language program is hard sometimes. We made it work but you could tell she was really uncomfortable and I felt bad. She wanted to go see Salem but we had a lesson with a family in our ward so I told her that we could go walk around for a minute. She was so scared the whole time! Like white knuckles on her bag and was walking so slow. It isn't even bad here yet! She didn't like that people here wear black lipstick haha! Anyways, she took a little but linger than expected in a t-shirt shop and we ended up being late to our lesson with the family in our ward. I do not do well with being late and I've been trying to work on it but man is it so so hard for me. When we showed up to the family's house I just felt so bad! Ugh! Also, fun fact, they have a pet ferret! Who the heck has a pet ferret?! Anyways it was so weird! It just kept crawling all over the table and then the floor and it was trying to sniff my feet. Ahhhhh! Then as I was talking the stupid thing BIT ME! I WAS BIT BY A FERRET TODAY! I was trying to keep my cool but I was like "what the heck?!" We wrapped up our lesson and then headed off to finish up our exchange. When Sister Soares pulled into the parking lot I don't think I've ever been more happy to see her haha! It was a good exchange but I was ready for it to be over. We had a good 40 minute drive before we got home and by the time we got home and got everything all cleaned back up (Sister Johnson left a bit of a mess) it was so late. Then just as we were getting ready to sit down to write in our journals, Elder Bawden messaged us and said he needed some girl help. His whole situation is sad and a little complicated haha! He sent us screenshots from yesterday and we ended up on a call with him haha! Who knew we would be therapists as missionaries? Well a lot of people think that's what we are haha! Anyways, I'm typing this on Wednesday because by the time that was all said and done it was time to get to bed so hopefully I didn't miss anything too crazy. I love you mom!

WEDNESDAY 

Man oh man was today too good! Today we had Zone Conference! Let me just say, the Spirit of a mission is almost tangible and I don't think I could ever fully describe it. Anyways, today we had to leave at literally 7:30am because of where the chapel for Zone Conference was haha! We had to be there by 9am and the Boston traffic is the WORST! Even leaving that early we didn't roll in until 9:05am. I was so stressed but so so many other missionaries were late too because of the traffic. Also, we couldn't find parking to save our lives and when we finally did we literally RAN up the street (in dresses keep in mind) to get to the chapel. It was worth it though and I've never felt so spiritually fed :) Here are just a few brief highlights from those 4 hours! 

•The word Saint comes from the word Sanctify and it's a super cool study, would highly recommend 

•Christ like love has no bounds! We should leave every encounter with people with them feeling the love of the Savior 

•Saran HATES that I'm a missionary haha! I need to stay firm and hold onto my why 

•Am I allowing the Savior to help me carry my cross? Or am I doing it alone at times? 

•Where is my heart? Am I humble enough to be a mouthpiece for the Lord? Am I doing all that I can to be the best missionary and instrument for the Lord? 

•URGENCY! This is the LAST dispensation. There is no time to waste

•We are in the dispensation that Joseph Smith started. We need to listen to his words and study them, he received revelation for us 

•We all were saved for this last dispensation, how incredible is that?? 

•Elder Douglas talked so much about not falling away. He literally looked at all of us with so much conviction and said, "You are NOT going to fall away" 

•Elder Douglas also said, "Without trial there is no faith. No faith means no miracles" 

•He also shared a lot about our desires, not just our mission desires but overall as a latter day Saint. 

•"Your desires determine your priorities. Your priorities determine your decisions. Your decisions determine your actions. Your actions determine your happiness." -Elder Oaks 

•Be CONVERTED unto the Lord 

•Allow the doctrine of Christ to rest in my heart and forever change me 

•My hand is on the iron rod but the Holy Ghost's hand is right on top of mine keeping me there and supporting me 

•I don't do this work, He does because it's His:) 

It was such a good Zone Conference!! I seriously couldn't have asked for a better one :) When it was all wrapped up we had to make a trip to the mission office to get some things for Brasil. Thankfully they had my passport too! I was so relieved to see it haha! Today was just a day in the car honestly haha! My butt hurt so bad from sitting and I think we listened to every song about three times;) Before heading home we made one last pit stop at a families house for a quick lesson before they move to Utah. They're so sweet and the little boys wanted us to play basketball with them so bad. It was the cutest thing ever! I think I've played more basketball on the mission then I ever have before haha! We finally made it back to apartment! Well only for a minute because we had another family lesson haha! It was good to stop and sit for a minute though. Our lesson went good and then we had some contacts to take care of. It was just such a good day! I hope you had the greatest day and know how much I love you!

THURSDAY 

Service day! And we were not on produce today woot woot! I don't mind it but I see wayyyyy too much mold when we do it haha! It was good though. I used my português too!:) I love that there are so many opportunities to use it and it's cool to get to be able to communicate with people. Today went by so fast too. The days are just getting quicker and quicker I swear. Im starting to really get nervous about leaving now haha! I feel like I have no time left here. We literally get t-texts this week and I'm stressed! Anywho! Tonight we had some amazing miracles! We had an English class with our new friend Marlene and at the end she asked if we would be willing to teach her husband too! Claro que sim! She's just the sweetest and she was so happy when we said yes :) After we got that all squared away we had a lesson with our homie Vilmar. He's so rad! He's super smart and picks up English really quick. Last time we talked to him we invited him to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. He totally did! He had so many questions for us too and it was such a powerful lesson! Ahhhh! I'm so so excited for Sister Soares to keep teaching him and for him to progress. He even said that we peaked his interest and he wants to know more! Woot woot! That was my miracle for the day:) Hopefully you had a few lily moments today

FRIDAY 

My last District Counsel (In English haha!) It feels weird knowing that all this week is full of my lasts here in the MBM. I feel like this still isn't real haha! We ended up staying a little bit later for DC so we didn't get home until later in the afternoon. We weren't really feeling too hungry at dinner time because we had lunch way later than normal. Soooo we decided to get some BOBA! Infelizmente Sister Soares doesn't like it but I enjoyed it :) It made my whole day haha! We also decided that we needed to stop and get some ice cream for tommrow night haha! We saw quite the tour going on too haha! It's never a dull moment here in Salem that's for sure:) Today was honestly kinda slow.  We have an ice cream social on Sunday and the ward needed help getting fliers all passed out so we split the pile with the Elders and went on our way. It was so so humid today too! Like there was this spooky looking fog and my straight hair was definitely not straight anymore and so so frizzy haha! We got the job done through so hopefully people from the neighborhood will come and see what's up! We ended the night with some contacts, nothing too crazy haha! Today it all started to get a little bit more real not gonna lie, I'm a little overwhelmed with how much needs to be done and that t-texts are coming tomorrow. I know I'll get it done but I'm worried I'll miss something haha! Vamos ver :) How was your day? How's this week been?

SATURDAY 

Today was finally weekly planning haha! This week has absolutely flown by and we haven't had much time to do much planning or anything. Exchanges, Zone Conference, and just lessons have pushed it all back until today. Last night we had an absolutely insane rainstorm too! It literally woke both me and Sister Soares up in the middle of the night. It was cold too! I literally just finished putting my jackets and stuff in a box too so I had to go and dig it out. Anyways, we decided that because it was our last weekly planning we needed to go big. We ended up at a Brazilian restaurant like 5 minutes from us for lunch. Let me tell you. I have NEVER felt so full in my whole life haha! I seriously felt like I weighed 15 pounds more and like I couldn't even move. We got all of our planning done which was nice though. I'm so sad to be leaving Sister Soares too. I know she feels overwhelmed and I feel like I can't even help her. It's so hard. I wish I could just stay here but I also want to go. I've seriously been going back and forth on this all week haha! You're probably tired of hearing about it, sorry! After our planning we decided to hit up some dots that are around the area there. We weren't having too much luck but then we found a house and when we knocked this guy came around the corner. Turns out it was the brother of the dot and he said he was interested in a Bible Study. We gave him a pass along card and he said that he would call us! I don't know if he really will but hey, he took a card! Tonight we also started teaching a new English class too! She's super sweet and has a real desire to learn. Tonight was also the night with t-texts... my heart literally couldn't take it haha! I know that I'm leaving but what the heck is happening to Sister Soares?? Well I think we got forgotten about! Literally nothing happened, nada coisa muda. I honestly have no idea what's going on and I can't show that I'm worried or I'll freak Sister Soares out. I hope the AP's have something for us tomorrow haha! It was honestly the most anticlimactic thing of my whole life haha! I hope you had the best Saturday!

SUNDAY 

My most favorite day! I love Sundays! :) I sat in sacrament today and just felt the love of the Savior so strong. I really am gonna miss the people here and being able to watch all the families and people here progress. I also haven't told anyone that I'm leaving. I feel like it might just be easier because I've only been here for 4 weeks. Today was the big day for our ice cream social too! It was just mainly our ward though so our flier passing out wasn't too effective. Oh whale! It was good though to get to do a little linger longer and talk with the members. Today we also got transfer information! Okay so basically I have no idea where I'm gonna end up haha! But Sister Soares is going to be in a trio with the EN/PO sisters in our zone. That also means that our apartment is gonna be vacant for about 6 weeks until we get some more português sisters here. They're gonna merge our areas and we're both moving. It's just a big mess at the moment haha! I still have no idea what's gonna happen and after talking to Sister Soares about it I could see the tears and it broke my heart. I feel so helpless. I don't even know how I can help her, I feel like I'm just abandoning her and that's the worst feeling. We talked through some stuff and we'll see how it goes. We got back and then headed over to our bishops house for a lesson! They're a super sweet family and I'm glad we got to have one last lesson with them. They're a bit odd but then again so is everyone here haha! It keeps things exciting and fun :) We made a quick pitstop at the apartment for some dinner and I did a little bit more packing. I don't wanna have to do a lot of it tomorrow so I'm trying to knock it all out if I can haha! Tonight we had two really good lessons too! We had a lesson with a super sweet family in the ward. The one little boy was so interested in what we do everyday so we were able to tell him and we even showed him area book and he thought that was the coolest thing ever haha! He's super cute though. After their lesson we had one last noite familiar and of course Julio was the only one on haha! But it was a good little discussion about missions. We even got to hear part of his story and he's just the best! We told him that I'm leaving too and he was really sweet:) We had one last call in too so that was kinda sad. We had some good laughs though. Which reminds me! I need to read my Tchau Tchau haha! I'll wrap this up because this is so long, sorry! I hope you had the best Sunday ever! I seriously can't wait to talk to you tomorrow. I love you!