Email home: Monday, January 17, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, January 17, 2022
Subject: 365 days and Charli Dog :)

Hello hello! 

This week was absolutely all over the place and I have no idea where to even start haha! But before I get too far ahead of myself, I need to say sorry for being so rushed on Monday to say goodbye. Sister Bradbeer had some family stuff to take care of so she had the phone until 6PM and I didnt have too much time to say goodbye.

But let's respond to your email first, we all had quite the week....

For starters, it was a little weird to get your email so early in the week haha! 

I think that a little reading nook in that back bedroom at the cabin would be such a nice touch! Catharine and her girls are so sweet! I was actually looking at pictures the other day from the Great to be 8 thing you guys had when I was in the CTM and she's in a few haha! Brooklyn did send me a picture of her nails too ;) My Charli dog. Man did we all love her :) I wont lie, it kinda hurts and sounds weird to say because shes a dog, but she really was the best ;) I'm glad you choae to let her go peacefully though. And let's be honest the Millers are pretty good too ;) i heard about the shooting from stuff that my dad posted actually. I'm telling ya, I'm ready for it to be announced that Christ will be speaking next in General Conference. 

Anywho, Monday night didnt have anything too crazy honestly. We normally leave Monday night to contact all our friends and get everything all set for the week. I wont lie though, it's still a little weird to not order açaí like I did with Sister Da Mata haha! But I learned that maybe that's a good thing because running was not the move haha! It made me realize how much I miss the bike and I can't wait to get back on there and do the classes. Monday was a good day/night though and man am I so glad that I got to talk to you! 

Tuesday was the day of all days haha! We had this great day planned and we were all ready for it, but then the Lord said no. We were supposed to have lunch in Pauldalho with Bispo but in the middle of our studies he called us and told us he was on his way to our apartment with money. That was a bummer but we still needed to go to Pauldalho because we had marked 2 lessons there with our friends. Literally as soon as Bispo left we got messages from our 2 friends we had marked with saying that they needed to cancel. You're joking me! That meant that we weren't going to Pauldalho at all, which meant we needed to replan our entire day. I kept having this thought that we needed to contact this yellow dot. Long story short, after a lot of luta we finally got something set up with our homie, Lindenberg. Let me just say, the Lord prepares people holy cow! When we got to our lesson he had a friend there that wanted to hear too. The other had so many questions about literally EVERYTHING you could ever imagine. They wanted to know what we believe, if we think the second coming is happening, if we have church during the week, why we take water instead of wine, literally everything you could ever imagine. The lessons had a principle from literally every single lesson. It was such a good lesson and Lindenberg said that he would even come to church on Sunday! By the time we left it was almost like a high, I was so happy! We were a little behind because they literally had so many questions so we stayed for longer than we planned. But we got everything all figured out and we made it back to the apartment with enough time to call José Carlos. We marked him for baptism on the 16th, so this coming Sunday  but after talking to him for a while we decided to move his date. He's currently praying about a new date so hopefully it'll all go well. Tuesday was just such a day and it just goes to show that the Lord has more in store for us than we could even think of. 

Not gonna lie, Wednesday didn't have anything too crazy haha! Looking back it was a good thing because the rest of the week was super busy. We got this referral from the São Paulo temple and the sister that sent the dot said that she had a ton of potential so of course we were trying that much harder to get in contact with her. We kept trying and trying and nothing happened :/ We weren't able to get in contact with her though, kinda sad. We also got a phone call from Irmã Renata saying that she had dinner ready for us and that we needed to be there. Everytime she calls us like that we don't have anything too urgent so it always works out haha! Tender mercies I guess. She's recently been remodeling her house, really just painting, but we were finally able to go over for dinner. I've said it before and I'll say it again, she's literally my mission mom and still has a goal to make me fat haha! It was kind of hard to explain to Sister Bradbeer though that it's hard to give a lesson with her kids so normally it's just for her. We've tried and tried but they just run around and Irmã Renata doesn't say anything... Let's just say that Sister Bradbeer understands what I've been talking about. It was a ton of food as always too and Sister Bradbeer got to eat cuzcuz for the first time! Overall, it was a good day and I was grateful to have all of our stuff done by the end of the night and that we had dinner :) 

Thursday had so many things I don't even know where to begin honestly haha! Let's start with the fact that I literally only have 6 months left of my whole mission. How did that even happen?! I swear I just was in Connecticut being trained and not having a clue about what to do. Somehow I ended up in Brasil and I have only 6 months left. Time is too crazy! We started the day off with a virtual Mission Conference woot woot! It was so so good too! Sister Nordfelt talked a lot about the power that every little word has in the Book of Mormon and how our personal study time is truly a time for personal revelation. Presidente Nordfelt always has the best things to say too! He talked a lot about showing the Savior everyday that He can trust us to do this work and that we're willing and ready to participate. I took a lot of notes to say the least haha! Before leaving the capela I took a few pictures and then we proceeded to walk back to the apartment with a balloon in my hand in the shape of a one haha! Thursday we also learned where one of our members works! Kinda random but we needed to snag some money for lunch and she was at work so we made our way over there. Sometimes I forget that people actually live here and don't just pass by because of missions haha! Thursday night we had a huge miracle too! We had to stop by the capela for something and Leí was there because he needed a companion. He's currently doing one week of the CTM em Casa but he's headed to São Paulo on Tuesday to finish up in person. Anyways, he was there with Bispo because he can't be without a companion. Anyways, we got to talking for a minute just about the CTM and this little old woman walks up to the capela and starts talking to us and asked us if she could come in. We got her a chair and she explained this huge long story. Her name is Ana Maria and let me tell you she has lived a life haha! We got to know her a little better and she actually had contact with missionaries in the past but after transfers and things she lost contact. She's super sweet and we were able to talk to her and give her a Book of Mormon. We exchanged numbers and she was on her way. It was a super cool experience and it was cool to have Leí there too. When we got back to the apartment all I wanted was açaí to celebrate my one year so we ordered some up and got to watching some Safety Zone haha! Sister Bradbeer needs to do all the safety training so we've been slowly working through the videos when we can :) The life of a missionary haha! 

Friday was another crazy day! We started off the morning by heading to the capela to share a quick message after a soccer game that Irmão Eric put together. It was quick message but we left our number with a few of them so who knows! We had our studies really quick and then we met up with Irmã Josefa. She's the funniest little lady too! We stopped by a menos ativo and shared another quick message. She went less active because of the Pandemic and still doesn't want to come back because of this new sickness. She's so sweet thougha and had the humblest home. I don't even have words. I've never been more grateful for things that I have. On Friday we also got this killer referência! Shes super open and when we called her she told us that she solicited our contact because she just wanted to know more about what missionaries do and who we are. After we answered her questions she told us that she's interested in learning more! When we went to go mark a follow up she was the one that told us we could do a video call and then mark a day to pass by her house. How rad is that!? God has just been too good lately :) 

Saturday was another good day! I'm telling ya, God is too good! Okay so that referral that we got from São Paulo ended up responding to us and we were able to set something up! We got it all organized and ready to go and Saturday was the day. She lives in the neighboring city basically so we needed to get a combie or a taxi to get there because buses don't go there. The only catch is that it was absolutely DUMPING rain outside! This wasn't gonna stop us though so we grabbed our umbrellas and started walking to see what we could find. My dress was dripping it had so much water haha! I was super grateful for my chacos though because I didn't have to sorry about shoes or anything. We ended up finding a taxi that would take us to  Tracunhaém. By taxi I mean some guy with a car was literally gonna take us there, not sketchy at all... Anywho, we were able to make it to Edinete's house and she was so welcoming! She literally has the kindest soul :) She recently found out that she has breast cancer and had surgery about 6 months ago. I hate the word cancer and I hate that it's something that even exists. We didn't know too much about her but we had planned to talk about the Restoration with her but after talking to her I felt like the Plan of Salvation was the way to go. She had to leave the room for something and I hurried to tell Sister Bradbeer and she agreed so we went in with the Plan of Salvation. The lesson was amazing! I don't even have words to describe how strong the Spirit was! Not only that but when we got to talking it got to the point where I was bearing my testimony and it all just hit me like a truck. I knew the Plan of Salvation was real and that it's true but in that moment and I was telling her that she would be restored to a perfect frame I literally had tears come to my eyes. It was like and 'ah ha' moment and everything was just so so true. It was such an amazing lesson and Sister Bradbeer and I left that lesson very happy :) We got another taxi and headed back to Carpina but this time with no rain ;) We didn't have anything else too crazy happen though haha! We did low key get stood up by Jose Carlos though in the praça. He marked with us but then never showed, we waited there for a long time too but just as we were leaving he called and told us that something came up. We had other lessons so we couldn't stay but we decided to set something else up. I'm hopeful that he really is praying about another date! 

Sunday was the day that I had no clue what to even do with my thoughts haha! We have transfers this week and we're gonna find out Monday morning what's going to happen. With that being said, I had no idea if this Sunday would be my last or not, kind of a weird feeling. I just kinda brushed it to the side and got to work haha! We stopped by Jaqueline's house but she said that she wasn't feeling good and that she wouldn't be able to make it to church with us. Sad day! Na veradade, we didnt have hardly anyone at church today so that was a bummer :/ Butttttt Ana Maria kept her promise from Thursday and was there! Not only that but she was able to hear Leí's farewell talk and it was so good for her! She stayed for Sunday school too and she said that she really liked it and remembered when she first came to church all those years ago. After Sunday school everything just was a mess though haha! Ana Maria likes to talk and just kept talking about things that happened in her life. At the same time, Irmão Eric kept telling us that we had conselho and that we needed to leave. We excused ourselves and went to conselho. There was so much information given in the span of 15 minutes and my brain was in 500 different directions haha! After our quick little meeting we opened the door and Ana Maria was still there! She continued to talk to us for 30 more minutes and then she made her way back home. We had to make a pit stop at the apartment before heading to our lunch with Irmã Renata too. I'm telling you, it was just madness haha! We said a quick goodbye to everyone and headed to the apartment. Sister Bradbeer needed a few things so I was putting some things in Livro De Area when I got an email from Presidente Nordfelt. With the new way to write weekly letters, when President responds it's through email. This past week I asked him if I could continue to stay with Sister Bradbeer and finish out her training. It's been hard but it's something that I've felt pretty strongly about so I figured I'd ask. What I wasn't expecting was for him to respond on Sunday (before transfer news) saying that I would be staying with Sister Bradbeer here in Carpina. I was shocked! I quickly told Sister Bradbeer and she was super happy haha! We then made our way to Irmã Renata's for our lunch and man oh man did I eat a lot haha! She literally filled the plate with feijão and then piled pasta on top with rice and chicken. Just when I thought I was done too she handed us dessert. I'm so super grateful for our members but this is why missionaries gain weight haha! It was a good lunch though and we talked a lot about how to help out the ala. We finished up the afternoon/night with our studies and some weekly planning. I'm honestly still in shock that Presidente already told my about transfers haha! I'm excited to be staying in Carpina, these people are like my family and we have such solid friends right now :) Training is still tough but I'm happy that I can still continue to help Sister Bradbeer:) I hope that I'll have some time to talk to you tomorrow! we have our limpeza profunda tomorrow so I may call a little earlier or later, who knows haha! I love you to the moon and back