Email Home: Monday, September 6, 2021

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, September 6, 2021
Subject: Witches and One Month

Oiiiii mãe! This week was full of a lot of ups and downs but let me tell you how much my testimony of the Book of Mormon had grown! I'm just gonna get straight into it:) I can't wait to talk to you today! But of course, your email highlights ;) 

-This place gets better and better every day! There is just so so much happening all the time and the amount of witches is insane! 

-The area is SO busy! The area book has so many grays it's crazy! We've been walking quite a lot to get to places because it's way easier than driving honestly 

-All the friends here for the most part are English so that's kinda lame but we leave them with a message at the end;) We also found a new friend! 

-The colors haven't changed too much but we had a few chilly days this past week. Nothing crazy, I haven't used my jacket but it is getting a little cooler 

-Man do I miss my old district! I worry a lot about Arroyo and Sister Parrish. Remind me to tell you what Sister Parrish told me too 

-I didn't know the Evans were getting divorced?? 

-The video of B in the Razor made my whole day! She's gonna be gone as soon as she gets a license 

-Mom you have to take care of yourself! You're gonna hate me one day if I have to tell you that you have to use a wheelchair or something 

-I forgot Caroline's parents owned that store haha! Yeah she's supposed to be in Australia but she's in California right now. A lot of missionaries meet with therapists. I can explain more later haha! 

-B is gonna look so so grown up without braces! Ahhhhhh! 

-I'm so mixed about Brasil! I'm so so excited but also so anxious haha! I also feel like there's so so much in my head and here that I can't leave now 

Alright now onto my week that flew by! :)

MONDAY 

Oiiii! Alright so I'm sorry everything was so rushed today. District pday and having to drive and just do everything makes things tricky. Hopefully next week it won't be so rushed.  Anyways, today was just crazy busy. We had yet another district pday. Man you're just gonna think that's all I ever do haha! We went bowling but it wasn't just bowling. It was like a giant version of ski ball and the score we had to put in by hand. It was actually pretty fun and we should find a bowling alley like that to go to:) We didn't have too much tonight other other an English class, but it was good. Tonight was pretty laid back and I realized 1) how much I miss talking to chrish and 2) how much of an adjustment this area is haha! Anyways, I'll get over it haha! I'm excited to be here but it still doesn't feel too real. I hope you had a good rest of your day and got all that laundry done;)

TUESDAY 

Whatta day. Today we had service! Here we have served twice a week but this was our first time. I honestly had no idea what to expect but it was actually a super cool service place. Basically it's like an outdoor market that we just have to keep stocked. These people come and get to grocery shop for free. While we were there this older guy that I guess is pretty regular came up to me and told me he liked the church because of the multiple wives. He kept trying to talk to me and I tried my best but the elders were laughing so hard behind him. Whatta time haha! Service took up literally our whole day too so when we got home all we had had do was our studies and then it was dinner. It was super weird I won't lie haha! It was really good though:) I have a goal to finish the Book of Mormon before October so I'm trying my best and my studies have been so cool honestly! I love the Book of Mormon! Tonight we saw some super cool miracles too! We had a zoom call with a family in our ward and we got to know them. They're a little odd but they're super cool and their son is headed to BYU-I this week so that's cool. We then got into 3 lessons! 3!! They were all English but at the end we share a message and it was just one after another. Sister Soares was beat by the end of the night but I wanted to keep going haha! We actually had class with Alessandro from my last area. His story is a bit complicated but we got to teach him tonight so that was so fun! We did have to call Sister Parrish and Sister Gieger because technically they have him but we taught him tonight so we just needed to figure out what to do. Sister Parrish is struggling and I feel so bad. I don't know I just feel like I have so much in my brain and so many thing to worry about haha! Gotta love the mission huh? ;) I hope that you had the best day!

WEDNESDAY 

Bom dia! Man do I miss you! I also miss your words of advice;) I feel like I'm totally failing as a trainer. I just can't seem to do anything right and it's just hard. You also bring up that the Lord does things for a reason, but I feel like He made a mistake on this one. I don't know it's just hard neste momento.  Anyways, thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Today we got to go on a little adventure to the post office. We got a letter for one of the elders that was a medical thing so we needed to get that that him. This place is seriously so so cool! Even just walking the 5 minutes to the post office there is so so much to see! We already decided that we wanna take a pday and just walk around to see what we can find. I for sure need to take the most pictures ever while I'm here!  Today we also decided to pay a visit to an older less active member. I didn't really know much going in but we quickly learned that he lives in an assisted living situation and needs a lot of care. It broke my heart to see him laying in that hospital bed. We got to talk to him and he told us how much he misses the temple. I decided that we need to find him a picture of the Boston temple to hang up in his room. He told us that is his favorite:) They have a ton of member work here. Speaking of member work, we had a nice little member visit with a family in the ward. They both served and we alexcited to have us over. Their kids though, they seriously were just bouncing off the walls and the parents said nothing! I understand that kids are kids but at the same time it was super hard to even invite the spirit. It was an interesting lesson but they're a super sweet family. While we drove home we literally got dumped on with rain! I guess there's another hurricane of something? I don't even really know. It was a crazy night that's for sure! Haha! There's so so much work to do here and I'm excited to get to be here:) I hope you were able to get all the fall decorations figured out too! I love you and miss you!

THURSDAY 

Minha filha tem um mes set uma missionária! Uau! Today was Sister Soares 1 month mark! That's so wild! I hit my 1 month in the CTM in the basement, she's out in the field! Today was a super rainy day too so I was kinda bummed we couldn't do much to kinda celebrate and get out. With that being said, the weather made me sooooo sleepy. I don't know what it was but I was just so so tired today. It's like the Lord knew I doozed off during a DuoLingo ad today too, more to come later. We had weekly planning today and for once in a long time we took up the entire 2 hours and even a little more. Sister Soares had a few questions for me. We decided to take an early dinner because we had a lesson right at 5pm. The weather lightened up so we walked to this little pizza place and grabbed a bite to eat. I love Sister Soares but she likes to take her time with everything. It's good sometimes but today it made it so we were late to our lesson. It was definitely not good and we even had a member, thankfully on zoom but still, waiting for us. We finally made it to the lesson though! It's these two younger kids and their brother is a 4 month old RM and he was able to join through zoom. They were super sweet and it was such a powerful lesson. Sister Soares even said as we were walking back to the car that she felt something in that lesson she had never felt before. It was so so cool! This is when the Lord knew I was a slacker today and opened the heavens and said, 'Sister Garcia you're training and I hate you, let the bad luck begin' Well I don't know what He really said but I'm thinking that was pretty close. Basically we started driving but instead of taking us back to our apartment (11 Church st) it took us to 11 church st in Massachusetts. It was a mess! Let's just say I felt like the worst trainer ever and I just needed the day to be over. We booked it back inside after we finally got home and had a phone call with a new friend! She's super open to our message and Sister Soares got to make her first dot! How fun! We finished the night off with some good ole correlation haha! Nothing to crazy but the ward is pretty upset that President Brough told us that we are no longer allowed to eat with members or friends and we aren't allowed to take food from them either. It's a whole ordeal now. Oh whale, it is what it is. That's all I have for today! Thanks for listening to my epic fail of the day haha!

FRIDAY 

Man! How is it already Friday?! Today was a super productive day but looking back at area book it doesn't look too crazy. I hate when that happens! We had DC today and it still is such an adjustment from my last area. I know I shouldn't compare but there's just so many new missionaries in this district and they want to talk about everything! Thankfully Sister Soares knows what's appropriate! We had a good training on Christ like attributes too and I realized just how much work I have to do. Sometimes all the mission goals feel a little overwhelming but it just means that there is always room to improve né? ;) We also had a return and report meeting for new missionaries and trainers in the mission. It was interesting to see what other trainers are all experiencing with their new missionaries. Sister Parrish has a hard trainee and I feel so bad. She literally had to take like an hour while her comp just cried to her about being homesick. Sister Parrish and I are very similar in that we font really cry, so that was gard for her to have have interrupt the day. I 100% got lucky! I don't have too much to worry about and she already knows the language so the struggle of learning a language is so much less. It also opened my eyes that everyone puts on a show. It made me sad to know that some of the companionship have a lot more struggles than others. I love my trainer and I learned a lot from her but there was still a lot of things that happened too. I just never imagined other companionship, kinda crazy. We decided to eat a quicker dinner and head to this ice cream shop right by our apartment. I felt like after sitting in that meeting and just to help Sister Soares, we needed it. It was actually super good and totally hit the spot too :) I think I have an addiction! We spend the majority of the night knocking doors and walking all over downtown Salem. So much fun! It was kind of a bust though, but hey there's always tomorrow ;) When we came back there was a live band outside our apartment at an outdoor restaurant! How fun is that?! We wrapped up the night with some calls, nothing too crazy. Sister Soares was so tired after we got back from walking too. Definitely an adjustment for everyone that's for sure ;) I just wanted to tell you how much I appreciate you and how grateful I am for you. You constantly make me want to be better, and I hope that you can feel my love all the way from this Witch Town

SATURDAY 

Man oh man! This week really is just zooming by! How had your week been? Today we had  our apartment inspection! I started to get a bit worried about what they were gonna say so we took so time to clean it up more. We've only had one pday here and it was a district pday so we didn't have a ton of time. I'm glad we did though! This apartment was soooo gross and definitely not clean like I like things ;) It took some time but we got it all done and it was looking good! The super cute Ramptons came by and they ended up giving us 100% on our apartment as well as our car. Woot woot! They're super cute though and thought that Salem is a pretty cool little area. They go back to Utah here in a little hit and have loved getting to see a lot of the mission recently. Today was such a beautiful day we had to take advantage of it! We went to a park (which are so hard to find here btw!) and did our comp study. After our studies we knocked some doors! And guess what?! 2 people answered!!! My heart kinda skipped because I had no idea what to even do and Sister Soares is looking at what I do so it was a little scary haha! They both said we could come back though! :) We hit so many houses too, such a good day:) We came back for a quick dinner and decided to find a spot just outside our apartment in the little common area of downtown Salem to do our work. We saw this super creepy guy in stilts too! It was wild! We made a few phone calls, invited people to church, all the good stuff;) We were just about to make our way back to our apartment when we ran into the Elders on exchanges. Poor Elder Ridenour is so scared of Salem and wanted to know why they put missionaries, especially sisters, here haha! We decided to show them the area for a minute and give them some places to go. We ended up getting ice cream again....I gotta finish the day strong before fast Sunday!;) The rest of the night we just responded to some messages and phone calls. This weekbis going by too fast! The transfer is almost over too, how wild is that!? Also I don't know if I mentioned it yet or not, but I did get your package and have all that stuff in my suitcase now ;) You're the best! I love you

SUNDAY 

Fast Sunday! We had a super sweet member bring us a frozen meal, taco soup, and we decided to have that for dinner tonight. The catch is that it has to be in the crockpot for 8 hours so we started it this morning. It smelled so good right as we were getting ready to leave for church, good thing we had to go haha! Church is still super weird in English I won't lie, still getting used to it. We had a good sacrament though and I just felt the Spirit so strong today. We totally got called out too... the first counselor got up to pass the time over to us and goes, "We have new sisters and we would love to hear from them today!" I guess that means we got to bear our testimonies haha! We also had a Sunday school today and we're talking about temples. The recent convert here, Leilia has so many questions about the temple too ao it was hard to focus on it. We're thinking of setting a lesson with her sooner than later to talk to her. She has amnesia so we have to be strategic about our lessons. We were able to set up a lesson with her tonight though and man did I feel exhausted after that! I wish I could tell you everything that happened but it would be a whole other email and a half for sure! Her brain is always going 100 different directions and it's hard to keep up haha! We talked about temples but she had questions that make me wonder what the elders taught her. Who knows! We came back with a few minutes to spare before going into our noite familiar familiar Julio! He's a beast and actually gave us a referral this week! We have a lesson with her tomorrow :) He's just the coolest and I love him already! Today was such a good day and the Book of Mormon is just so so cool! Maybe I'll have some more time this week to talk and I can tell you about some of my studies recently:) I hope that you had the best night and the best Sunday! I miss you and everyone back home more than you guys know but I'm so happy to be here too :) I think you need to serve just to feel the spirit of a mission, it's honestly indescribable! I love you and I can't wait to talk to you tomorrow!