Email Home: Monday, November 22, 2021

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, November 22, 2021
Subject: Bugs and Baptism

Hey hey hey! 

How was your week? I know you had a pretty low key week planned but did it stay that way? ;) 

Monday was pretty lowkey here in Carpina. We had our weekly prayer Zoom call and President Nordfelt really stressed on making disciples of Jesus Christ instead of only focusing on baptisms. We need to be concerned about our friends and their lifes in the church instead of just worrying so much about the number of baptisms. It was super refreshing to hear honestly because we had so many missionaries just talking about numbers, numbers, numbers. Anyways, just some thoughts from President Nordfelt for Monday haha! 

Tuesday went by so quick but not so quick too haha! The morning went by so quick and so did my studies. I actually studied a talk for the first time in forever (*que Frozen!*)  It was a pretty solid talk too so I'm glad I had some time to read it :) We also finally got water delivered to out apartment woot woot! We tried to get it on Monday but it was a holiday so we couldn't get any. Let me tell you how badly I wanted water haha! But we finally got it all figured out and now we have water :)  We also got paid today woot woot! I don't use my MSF card at all here, we have to go to the bank and take the money out that we get. Remind me to send you a picture or something of the money here, it's totally different. Anyways we decided to kill two birds with one stone and we ate lunch at the restaurant in the market and then did our grocery shopping. We got all our "chores" done and headed back for some solid lessons. We also got to share our favorite scriptures with our friend Mayara! We were supposed to give her a Book of Mormon this past week but she had a reaction to the second dose of COVID so we didnt and up there :/ BUT we still sent our favorite verses to her and I realized how many favorite verses I have haha! What's your favorite verse? Anyways, it was a solid day :) 

Wednesday we had interviews with President Nordfelt! And I learned how to make strogonoff! We had money for lunch today so Sister Da Mata taught me how to make strogonoff! It turned out pretty decent too so I wasn't too mad! We then had a few things to do before our interviews but we ended up getting a message from President asking if we were free then because the other set of sisters needed to switch. I seriously love President Nordfelt! He answered questions I had before I even asked them. Not only that but we had a really cool study of D&C 93:18-19. I really needed the interview honestly. I also realized in the middle that I think I'm leaving the area this next transfer. Sad day! After Sister Da Mata and I were talking and she's pretty sure that shes going to stay here, but quem sabe?? After our interviews we had a few lessons and then headed to the dentist for Sister Da Mata to get her night retainer. Long story short she has some dental problems that we found out a while back (when she was literally dying) and has to sleep with this retainer thing. It ended up taking way longer than either of us expected but luckily we were able to still get everything done:) The only sad part is that all the messages we sent and lessons ended up being red :/ It was like no one wanted to talk to us today. It's alright though because we have the rest of the week and maybe they'll respond to us!

Thursday was packed and had so much. We had DC today and I had to give a teaching. They separate teaching and training here so I just had a teaching. But before we left I found a baratta next to my shoes. Sister Da Mata has this huge fear of them too so I needed to get him out. It was kinda funny I wont lie Haha! I ha e a video but I don't know if you'll be able to tell much of anything. We had a pretty solid DC too and we talked a lot about daily planning and what we can do to really improve our area books. Its interesting because in Boston I was so by the minute and everything was reported for, here things are so so different. They want us to be specific but not like I was before. Everyday I'm still adjusting and leaning honestly. After DC we went straight to Irmã Renata's house for lunch. Irmã Renata has a goal I think to just fatten me up haha! She seriously LOADED my plate, like I don't think even Tyler could've eaten all the food she put on my plate. It was good food but seriously so so much. After I had finished my food, she also had cake and pineapple. It was a long walk back to the apartment Haha! I literally could feel the food all the way up to my throat, kinda gross I wont lie to you Haha! When we got back both Sister Da Mata and I literally died for a minute but it's alright because we're here now and thriving ;) We had planned to do a video chat with our friend Mayara too but she messaged us and told us that she got home late from work and wanted to know if we could reschedule. It was kind of a bummer because we had planned on inviting her to baptism, but we're hopeful we still can this week :) We also sent some audios to our friend Miguel to help him understand a few scriptures but that's about all :) This week I got to play therapist a lot too and Thursday was just the beginning I realized. Sister Da Mata has a lot in her mind and always wants to talk about it, which it totally done but I feel like this week that's all we did. She started talking about how all her friends are at home now and not on missions, how she doesn't know if she likes this one boy or if she just liked him because he was an Elder, one of her friends is totally fallen away from the church and she wants to fix it, her parents are going through a rough patch, and she feels like a bad missionary. Let's just say my language was really tested this week while I tried to give some kind of advice. I also learned that I think very different from her but I can't say that because she'll just be really upset. It was a long week of feelings to say that least Haha! 

Friday was quite the day! We got into our daily planning and into our studies. During our studies though we realized that it was Friday and not Saturday so we had to fix some things in Area Book. I love when I have no clue what day of the week it is Haha! Also! Let me just tell you that reading the Book of Mormon in 90 days seemed easy in theory, and it's pretty simple, but finding the time to read all the chapters I need to in a day is sometimes a struggle ;) Guess what else happened today?? I was eating a crepioca at our favorite Padaria for lunch and it literally had a piece of a plastic spoon in it. Let's just say I did not finish it all. It's all good though because I was still so full from Irmã Renata;) Sister Da Mata really wanted to paint a Book of Mormon like I did so that meant I was kinda flying solo this whole week. I just took charge of the lessons and contacts and tried to get people to respond. We were doing so good with responses but I don't know what happened. What can you do? We also went to our friend Neto's house to try and give him a Book of Mormon but he wasn't there again. We honestly just need to stop teaching him, he's not interested and doesn't talk to us in anyway shape or form. But! You'll never guess what I saw today. CHRISTMAS LIGHTS!! They love Christmas just as much as Clark Griswald I think ;) We had so many miracles today too! We had to stop at the church to snag some Book of Mormon's that we left there and on our way back we decided to stop at Irmão Fabricio's padaria to see if Thais was there. She recently got a job there so we were hopeful she be there. She was! We also made a new friend while we were waiting for a free moment to talk to her! His name is J Barros and he even said he'd come to church. How rad is that?? Thais is doing good too! I'm sad that President said we have to stop teaching her though, definitely need to still keep in contact when we can but still. We also saw a super rad partial lunar eclipse tonight! It was seriously so cool and I would've taken a picture if I didnt have a million Book of Mormon's in my hand Haha! You just gotta trust me ;) To really just end the night on a high note, we finally got to call Mayara. It was super a good call! We talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and at the end we invited her to be baptized on December 5th. She accepted! I'm so so excited for her and shes honestly so prepared! We set a time to go to her house on Sunday too so I'm hopeful she still feels good about everything. It was so amazing babe. I got to bear my testimony of the Holy Ghost a d of baptism too!  It was so good :) God is just too good! 

Saturday was a rainy day. I love the rain! It has a different smell here than at home, but I love it nonetheless. I think it's because it cools down here for a minute;) Anywho, we kind of had a weird day I wont lie! It all started with the fact that we had about 10 minutes of personal study. While we were studying the neighbor from below came up to ask us if we had water on our floors because his apartment was wet. I think it was because he has the windows open and it rained because we definitely didnt have any water on the floors. Anyways, he continued to talk to us for 40-45 minutes about things that Sister Da Mata and I are still trying to figure out Haha! I also had my first stomach pains here on the mission but don't you worry I figured out why ;) Basically I'm drinking more soda than I probably ever have in my life and my stomach did not agree with anything Haha! It was a few sharp pains but nothing too serious :) As far as the work goes it was mainly inside today because of the rain. Here in Carpina when it rains everyone stays inside so we made our phone calls and sent our messages. On Saturday we also got this really rude audio from a past friend that we had been teaching. His name is Danilo and we had to stop teaching him because he wasn't responding to anything and didnt really seem to show any interest. We sent a few messages after we stopped to teaching him to see how he was going and so on. Basically the nurture texts ya know? Anyways, we got an audio from him that was 2 minutes long saying that we're horrible servants for the Lord and that we are for sure not doing the work of the Lord because we aren't talking to him. He continued to go on about how awful we are and then at the end he said that we wants to date us. It was interesting to say the least Haha! Sister Da Mata was pretty upset and I had to have another little therapy session with her (we had a lot this week Haha!) but yeah that happened. It really end the night off on a high note we had a massive baratta in our apartment! Seriously it was probably the size of my palm. I tried to get a picture but he started to move quickly Haha! This thing wouldn't die either! I literally hit it with 3 different shoes to try to kill it. I even squeezed all the guts out of it and it was STILL moving! Sister Da Mata has a huge fear of them so she was waiting outside while I tried to kill the stupid thing. Whatta time to be alive Haha! 

Sunday we had big plans for our day but the Lord always has other ones :) But it was still such a good day! We started off strong with the primary program! It was the cutest thing ever and I loved it. We infelizmente didnt have anyone at church :/ They always say they'll come but when 9am hits they all disappear. It's super frustrating I can't lie. After church we had planned to have our lunch and then head over to Mayaras house! Here's where the Lord really stirred the pot Haha! Our lunch was with Irmão Eric and Irmã Aliana, I seriously love them and their family! We got there and realized about 30 minutes into lunch that our plans wouldn't work out. To get to Mayara's house we have to take a bus for about 40-45 minutes but on Sunday's it takes longer because there's less buses. We also sent a message to confirm and she didnt respond until later so all together it just didnt work. I was so sad to have to send that message to her and how I feel like shes upset with us. She marked for next Sunday but still. We ended up having our lunch and then having a conselho with Irmão Eric and Irmã Aliana. We talked a lot of activities that we want to have happen, how we can better teach Juan and we even got some advice for how to deal with his dad Haha! , we even talked about getting Irmã Aliana on a video call with Mayara here soon. It was honestly super good and productive but it stinks because we didnt get to go to Mayara's. When we got back to our apartment we just had our weekly planning left to do. President Nordfelt asked all of us to send him our weekly planning this week so it took a little longer because we had to be very detailed for him to understand Haha! It was good though and we finished it all up :)

That's about it for my week! I can't wait to talk to you today! I love you forever!