Email Home: Monday, November 1, 2021

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, November 1, 2021
Subject: The Devil and 20 Years Old

Hello hello! 

How are you? How was your week?? This week totally flew by for me, how was it for you? 

Okay I have to admit that I didn't have a ton of time this week to sit and type this up so it might be all over the place or shorter than normal. 

Anyways, this week was absolutely insane and full of so many things. Monday wasn't anything too crazy, just another pday ya know? Except we had to go into Recife to get to the hospital for Sister Da Mata. We finally figured out her whole tooth hurting/ear hurting problem woot woot! We still have a few things to do for it, but nothing more in Recife. On the way back from the hospital though we had the chiquest Uber Haha! The windows were super tinted too so the sky literally looked red, kinda weird I won't lie. 

Tuesday was a pretty chill day, it even rained here for a minute. Sister Da Mata had to get her second dose of the vaccine too so we ended up at a clinic again. Thankfully she didn't have any kind of reaction and was still able to work and live life. We did finally sit down and make a list of all the ideas we have for the ward here. Everyone shows a lot of interest in an english class so I may be an english teacher again, but this time kinda solo because Sister Da Mata doesn't speak English as a first language :) Then things all started to go downhill and looking back I was terrible at listening to the Spirit. We had a lesson with Thais today, it's the one that I told you about on Friday. It was the worst lesson of my whole life babe. I literally just spiraled without stopping. Thais' husband was literally just a black figure. I don't even know how to explain it honestly. We ended up calling our DL when we got back because we literally have no idea what to do. Now we kinda joke that we saw the devil on the mission, but we genuinely have no clue what to do or how to teach him. We have 3 really solid game plans but he still freaks me out. Needless to say by the end of the night I was ready to just get to bed. I was physically and spiritually drained honestly. 

On Wednesday nothing too crazy happened honestly. I think the Lord knew we couldn't handle another situation like the day before haha! We did make a new friend though! We always pass this little booth when we go anywhere and we finally decided to stop and talk to the woman that works there. She told us she knew we had to be from a church because of the way we dress. She continued to tell us that all the girls from Carpina dress horribly and that we dress nice and respectful. Kinda funny haha! We also had the best lunch today from our sweet member! Irmã Adna is the best and so is her cooking ;) It's funny too, all the Irmãs here call us 'amores' ou alguma coisa commo assim. I just love them! We also had quite the adventure today. Basically long story short, the Sisters in Limoeiro ran out of water and needed to come and stay with us to shower and wash their clothes. I've never been more grateful for the friendship that Sister Da Mata and I have! They were so awkward and quite and just made the whole situation so weird. We had a lesson in person and I was honestly so excited to just leave the apartment, it was that bad. Infelizmente our lesson fell through so we had to come back earlier than we thought. Our friends name is Elsa and everytime I see her name I just think the movie and hear 'Let It Go' in my head haha! 

Thursday we had DC but it was virtual this wee because we had Presidente Tavares (counselor) with us. We had a solid training from him about how we can better introduce the gospel to people and start conversations. I won't lie I was pretty sleepy this day because Sister Da Mata and I slept on the floor with our mattresses and even though we had mattresses, it was still super uncomfy. The other Sisters finished up all their stuff this morning too and made their way back to their area. We both took a big sigh of relief, I'm telling you I've never been so grateful for my companion in my whole life. We had a lesson with Roberto too! He's kinda hard to get in contact with sometimes but we were able to make it work. When we got there he had a little bird and wanted to know if we wanted to hold it. Claro! I have officially held a bird in the mission! Not anything too crazy and I've held one before but now I've held one in Brasil ;) The rest of the night was kind of just a bust honestly. I don't know what happened but all of our friends just stopped responding. It's been kind of annoying I won't lie, but I'm just gonna keep trying and trust the process:) 

Friday I officially became a real life adult, no more 'teen'. I'm 20?? How does that even work haha?! I honestly wasn't expecting much for a lot of reasons, but boy was I wrong! Sister Da Mata was so cute and made me a (giant!) breakfast and sand happy birthday to me. I had a letter from my favorite,  Sister Parrish and I could've cried. I also had the cutest posts on facebook. I seriously felt so loved haha! It sounds cliche to say, but really it made my day. Sister Da Mata also got me the cutest little gifts, for real so sweet. We even found a new person today woot woot! Now that's a good birthday gift ;) During lunch too Sister Da Mata made me a birthday cake AND beijinhos! I don't know if you'd like beijinhos as much as brigadero but who knows ;) I got to call you guys too! Hopefully it really was a surprise! I I with kids on Monday about times to make sure that see all could be there on the call so I'm glad it worked it out :) I always love getting to talk to you guys and it that call was the cherry on the cake! I also officially have a Brasil Jersey;) I'm basically Brazilian now ;) To really just end the night on a high note we had a noite familiar with Irmã Roberta and Irmã Renata (they're twins!) They were seriously so so sweet too and had a little party for me! You're kidding!! They had pizza, cake, and their daughters even got me gifts. When I tell you I felt loved, I truly, truly felt so loved :) During the lesson though we got the scariest text from Presidente Nordfelt saying he wanted to call. It wasn't until after that I realized it was for my birthday and nothing was wrong haha! Overall such a good day! :) Seriously thank you so much for everything and for my gift all the way out here in Brasil :) It made my whole day! 

Saturday my chaco tan line really got good haha! We had lunch in Paudalho! It was a little hit of a disaster to get there and we climbed lots of hills, but we finally made it to our sweet members house. It's do funny too when the kids know that I speak English. The always want me to say something and it's always the most random things haha! While we were in Paudalho we got to give a Book of Mormon to our friend Miguel! I don't know why but I'm seriously so so happy that he has his own copy now:) The only crappy thing is he doesn't have WiFi this week :/ Hopefully he can still get normal phone calls instead of WhatsApp but we'll see! We didn't end up getting back to Carpina until around 5pm (we left at 11am) and we even took a van back to Carpina instead of the bus. Woot woot!! We made a quick pitstop at a Salon that one of our members reccomended and got Sister Da Mata's eyebrows done (they wanted to do mine and I literally ran the other direction haha!) When we got back we sent out our invites to church and had a few solid lessons. 

Sunday was proof again that we're literally like the primary haha! But first let me back up, we went to go get Thais (and her super sketchy husband) for church but they weren't there :/ I really just need them to come to church haha! She ended up calling us later on Irmã Renata's phone and told us that something came up and they had to go to another city to resolve something. She said she really wants to come next week though and feels bad that she hasn't been coming. Anyways, sacrament was good and always and we had kids sit with us as always too ;) People probably think we're nuts of something haha! After sacrament we had lunch with the Elders Quorum President and his wife the Primary President. They're the sweetest people ever and their son, Davi is my new homie. Lunch was super yummy as always and we even managed to get in a mini conselho (we didn't have any today because there was some stake stuff today) Not only that but Sister Da Mata got permission to call her brother today because he got the Melquezidque Preisthood. How rad is that?! I'm super happy she got to 'be there' for it :) We did stop by our friend Luis' house but he wasnt there:/ People here don't knock or have doorbells so I'm really good and telling people's names haha! The rest of the day was just full of studies and weekly planning. We really needed it too so it was good to get it done :) 

But how are YOU? Your email seriously killed me reading about the Beaves games haha! Mainly because I read it in your voice and I can totally hear you telling me what happened haha! 

I'll get the package this week from the office! We have our mission tour so I'll be able to pick it up :) We didn't do anything really for Halloween other than eat some M&M's haha! Sister Da Mata is feeling better too :) 

Hopefully B is feeling a little better this week. Middle school drama is the worst and totally blows :/ But I'm glad she got to hangout with some solid friends for Halloween. Her and Cutler make me laugh haha! 

Anyways, I can't wait to talk to you today! Keep me posted on times so I can maybe call today:) I love you to the moon and back!