Email Home: Saturday, January 1, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Saturday, January 1, 2022
Subject: Happy 2022!!

Hello hello! How is it already 2022?! I swear it was yesterday that I was with Bryson and Brynlee celebrating 2021. Time is going by so so fast, I think something is wrong haha! Before I get too far into this email I just needed to say thank you again for making my Christmas amazing. It seriously meant the world to have something from you guys and to get to call you:) I hope you know how much I love you guys and how grateful I am for you! 

Christmas was an all day pday so Sister Bradbeer got to talk to her family and I got to clean up a little bit and chat with Sister Morais. We didnt have too much to do honestly. Sister Harward finished talking to her family and when she started to talk to us I could tell that she was having a harder time so I started to talk to her just about things. I genuinely feel like a mom on the mission haha! It was good though and she was smiling by the end :) It was such a memorable Christmas on the mission for so many reasons! God is too good, that's all I have to say:) 

Sunday we had some Christmas miracles play out! Okay so we've really been struggling to get people to sacrament literally the whole time that I've been here and it's been hard to even get people to commit honestly. Well in the morning we sent some reminder texts and I was hoping for a miracle. When we were getting put stuff ready to go we got a message from one of our friends and he said that he would be there! We got to the capela and I could hardly wait! And then that's when the Christmas miracle came true! He actually came and he really liked it! He said that he would be back next week :) Not only that but after sacrament meeting Sister Bradbeer started to talk about the Book of Mormon and we were able to give him one. How rad is that?! Seriously it was a miracle! He even lives close here in Carpina so that's an even bigger blessing! Sundays are always such busy days for us regardless of the time of year. We had so much planning to do to today and I still have to explain some things to Sister Bradbeer because training haha! But we also got a call from Irmão Eric talking about one of the youth that's getting baptized on Sunday. It was a hectic call to say the least but we got it all figured out and everything is good :) I also learned that the other sisters are going to be staying here for a fat minute. I don't know how I really feel about it haha! I love having them here but they have exchanges this week soooooo that's gonna be interesting. It was such a good Sunday though and so so full of miracles! :) 

It's still weird to not have pday on Monday haha! But this time around it really felt like a normal day of work so I guess that's good:) I decided to really just have the mindset that maybe we would find people we wouldn't normally if it were pday. In weekly planning I decided that we needed to stop teaching a lot of people and focus on finding new people. Looking back on our day it doesn't sound like we did a lot but we really did! Haha! We had some contacts and then we headed to the praça. I told Sister Bradbeer that I was just going to throw her in the pool and she needed to try to street contact. The thing is that I have no idea what I'm doing but I can't let her know that! She floundered a little bit and I had to come in to save her but for her first time it wasn't horrible. She's nervous and stressed about the language so it's hard to get her to think about anything but that. We did have an interesting conversation with a guy that said we're all gonna burn and we need to prepare now because Christ is coming basically tomorrow. It was interesting to say the least. When we got back to the apartment the other Sisters were still here haha! I love them and I've loved having them but I'm ready to sleep in my bed and not on the floor, I think my body is feeling it too ;) We called some yellow dots too to try and see if we need to stop teaching them or if we can keep them. Sister Bradbeer got hung up on for the first time, milestones! It was a good day over all, we even found two new people in the praça. Bênçãos!! 

On Tuesday I realized that people here in Brasil solicite our contact because they think we're therapists or something. Haha! Everyone here for the most part he lives in Jesus Christ but when it comes to actually learning about the church and stuff, they want nothing to do with it. We have this friend that basically told us she really needs money and needs our help so we set up a phone call with her for today. When we called she literally just vented to us for 30 minutes and we didnt even get a full sentence in. It's hard too because Sister Bradbeer wants to help her but we literally can't do anything for her and far as money and marriage problems go. It was an interesting phone call to say the least and I could tell that Sister Bradbeer still wanted to help but that she understood that we have the gospel to share. After our phone call we had to go get our lunch from Irmã Adna. I always love her lunches! Everything on Tuesday just kinda fell through too :/ Not my favorite thing but it gave us some time to practice and try to help Sister Bradbeer feel a little more comfortable speaking the language and teaching. 

We got so many calls on Wednesday from our friends saying that they were sorry that they didnt answer our calls or anything. It was good to see some of our friends actually be sad that they missed talking to us, it just showed that they really have an interest you know? We also learned why so many people didnt answer and why things have been happening. Basically there's this virus going around in Brasil rn and it's making everyone sick. Literally all our messages from Wednesday had the word 'gripe' ou 'gripada' in them. We also got a call from Irmã Renata saying that we need to be careful and that it's probably better for us to work inside on the phone so that we don't get sick. She really is like my mission mom haha! Luckily Sister Bradbeer and I are going strong and we feel good :) We also still went out on the street and did some street contacting for a minute. We ended up finding this guy that had been taught like 5 years ago and knows a decent amount about the church. He straight up told us too that he has a hard heart but that he wants us to pray for him. I feel like he's actually more open than he thinks so we left him with a pamphlet and we got his number;) Who knows, he might have more potential than I think! One thing I've really been thinking about lately is that none of us really have the right to say that people can't accept the gospel. As far as missionary work goes we need to teach people that are progressing obviously, but we can't judge if they are ready or not for the gospel. When we walk in the street why don't we just literally talk to everyone? You never know what's gonna happen :) Maybe this is just a thought I have because I like to talk ;) We both know that one haha! Sister Bradbeer also has been getting better with street contacting too! She made a new friend today all by herself! Of course I was there and helped her when she didnt understand but she pretty much did it on her own. I'm so super proud of her! Shes getting with the language little by little too :) 

Thursday was a massive DC that I had no idea was happening haha! I just thought we would have the STL's with us because I knew they were doing exchanges with Sister Morias and Sister Harward. Boy was I wrong! We had us, the other sisters, my DL, the STL's, the ZL's and the other trio of Elders because they were doing an exchange with the ZL's. It was quite the DC to say the least. It was actually really good though and we talked a lot charity and the love of Christ. I think chapter 6 of PMG will always be one of my most favorites :) Thursday was as kind of a run around day too. We had marked to meet one of our friends in the centro mas when we got there and sent a message it wasn't even getting to his phone :/ We kept trying but nothing really happened, but we were there for a reason so we decided to do some street contacting and see what we could come up with. We ended up meeting this super sweet old lady that told us that her special needs granddaughter has taught her so much about Christ. It was a super sweet story :) We had a few phone calls that we marked but everything fell through. I feel like maybe I'm doing something wrong and that's why everything is falling through. It could also be the fact that people are sick everywhere or they're traveling for the new year. New Years is super duper big here and people travel to celebrate so none is really around or willing to answer the phone. It's all good though because we're gonna keep trying and working hard! :) 

I can't believe that it's already Friday! That also means that pday is soon! This week went by so so quick. Friday started off with a really solid planejamento mas we got an audio from President Nordfelt asking if the Sisters from Limoerio could come back to our apartment to wash clothes and take a shower because they still don't have water. We had to shuffle the whole day around but we made it work. Not only that but we had special directions to be in the house by 6PM instead of 9PM and that we needed to do something productive with our time starting at 6PM. Our original plan was to clean up the apartment a little bit and get our laundry done but the sisters needed to come and we knew it would be way harder to clean with them here so we started during the day. Little by little we got it all done but man was it a task haha! We finally got it all cleaned up and by the time the sisters said they were on their way it was dinner time and we wanted pizza haha! We found one place that was open and it was super close to our apartment so we had a nice little walk to get pizza and bring it back. When we got back we were getting ready to send a text to the sisters but then they walked in the door. It was a fun night just chatting but it started to get so late haha! 

Happy New Year! I can't believe that it's already 2022?! I hope you guys had a fun night and did something fun! Next year let's go something fun okay?? I can't wait to talk with you guys today! I love you forever and for always