Email Home: Monday, February 21, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, February 21, 2022
Subject: Exchanges are a lot of work

Hey hey hey! How are you guys?? It sounds like your week was busier but not too crazy :) Hopefully this week will be better! Don't worry too much about B too, she's just a teenager ;) And hey, I'm literally gonna be home so soon. It's going by so fast ;) This week was all over the place so hold on tight! 

Well it's official, I had my first pday here in Torreão. I can't lie, having the computer in our apartment makes pday a little easier. Not only that but we divided the day up and it worked out well and I was able to talk to more people than normal :) I was glad I was able to talk to you though and B for a minute. Do you know that I literally only have like 20 more pdays left? I dont know how I feel about that... I wanna be a missionary forever honestly but with you guys here haha! Anywho, we were in charge of media today because we have a lot of exchanges this week and wanted to avoid doing media on the exchanges. It was pretty normal though, nothing too crazy or wild, just a lot of phone calls. Pday went by so fast though! I'm just glad that I got to talk to you for a minute :) 

Tuesday it really hit me that I'm an STL haha! I had my first exchange and I literally had no idea what I was doing, I was just along for the ride. I got to go to Vasco with Sister Jones and Sister Da Silva came here to Torreão. Sister Jones was in the other American district when I was in the CTM and is half Brazilian so she's been here her whole mission. I won't lie, I was pretty nervous and they both were acting kind of weird when we started the divisão. When we go to Vasco I quickly learned that being in Brasil is not a guarantee to learn the language. Sister Jones hasn't gotten the language hardly at all and people don't understand her. Sister Da Silva asked me to try and help her with the language too. It's hard though because she doesn't really want to try or change anything that she's doing right now. I don't speak Portugues perfectly but I was struggling to understand her. Sister Jones is a little tricky too so it was a bit of a harder day. We ended up talking a lot about the language and I tried my best but in the end it's gonna come down to her and if she's willing to try. We had a good day though and spent the majority of day on the street with some really amazing members visiting less actives and street contacting. We found a ton of new people too so that was pretty rad :) It was a good day and I hope that I was able to help Soster Jones and help the area/companionship. Not only that but we've been having a few problems with this set of sisters and the district here so I tried to slyly talk about it but ended up just getting to the point. I can't sugar coat things I've learned haha! I just hope that it came across in a loving way. Tuesday night Sister Jones started to not feel so good and spent a fat minute in the bathroom so it was a late night, not my favorite but what can you do? I just wanted her to feel better and to sleep haha! I was a little sad that I didn't get to call B for her birthday but I did send her a video so hopefully that's okay :) It's crazy to think that this time last year I was home finishing up the CTM. Wild! 

Wednesday we finished up the divisão and boy did we have a lot to talk about. I can't imagine what it's like to be a parent haha! I'm only taking care of 6 sisters and I'm losing sleep and worried about them and their areas and their well being and just everything. And we have our area and the social media side too, gotta love it ;) Wednesday was a pretty slow day though. We spent a lot of the day talking about the divisão and how we can help the sisters in Vasco. It's funny too, I haven't been here for too long but I was glad to see Sister Scioli again too haha! We didn't have too many people to contact as far as social media goes so that was kind of sad and the people that did answer just hung up. We did have some good jam out sessions though, Sister Scioli loves that my music is faster and not just hinos. We spent a good portion of the day and night singing random songs and the best is that Sister Scioli doesn't know the words in English so it's just a whole bunch of mumbling and I have to try and figure out what she's saying. I love her haha! We also decided at roughly 9pm that we wanted açaí so we started to find a good açaí place and after about 20 and s lot of confusing messages we succeeded:) I still think the açaí in Carpina is better (and way cheaper!) but it was good to have açaí again:) We also finished up everything for Zone Conference. We have to give a training so we finished up our slide show and practiced a few things. I dont know what I'm doing so winging it is gonna have to do haha! It's also weird to think that I'm an STL and am giving the training, normally I sit and listen to everyone else talk. New adventures I guess :) 

Thursday was the big Zone Conference day! It was kind of funny too, no one knows that I'm here so this was the first time that people knew that I'm here instead of Sister Canha. It's big shoes to fill that's for sure, but the Zone is fun and welcoming. I got to see Sister Zaugg too! I dont know as many people in this zone but that's just part of it. We gave our training and it actually went pretty okay which was a huge relief haha! Zone Conference was too good! President Nordfelt recently has just been saying everything that I need to hear. Not only that but Sister Nordfelt gave a killer talk and analogy about making cookies. Normally that's always the analogy but this time she found things that I've never thought of before. It was super good :) We did have a problem with the Sisters in Vasco though so we had to try and resolve that so that was kind of a bummer. I just hope they can make it to the end of the transfer here in a week or so. Thursday was a day of getting stuff taken care of too. After Zone Conference, Sister Scioli needed to get a booster for Hep B with some other missionaries so we got to wait in this long line and I got to talk to the other missionaries. Elder Reis is my Zone Leader and he had a million questions so it was more like 20 questions while waiting haha! After she got her booster we had to go to the office to take car of my mission phone. Basically MAAS360 does updates and because my phone is turned off it's not updating. Well because it's not updating it will literally destroy my phone so we had to take MAAS360 off my mission phone. We had a ton of Americans in one room with so many phones haha! That's why there were a few uploads on my photos that dont make sense;) I needed to upload them because we factory reset my mission phone. It was kind weird to have that phone again though I won't lie. It was pretty quick but one Elder literally couldn't remember his password and I felt so bad. We also picked up and English Connect book for Sister Scioli because Sister Nordfelt teaches english and the missionaries that participate need the practice book. We also decided to talk to her about the Sisters in Vasco because we dont know what we can do for them. She was glad we talked to her because she didn't know anything was even wrong. I feel like a giant tattle tale but at the same time we're at a loss and President and Sister Nordfelt have more power to change things. It was quite the day to say the least haha! We didn't end up leaving the escritório until like 5:30pm when it was all said and done. You'll never guess what we saw though! We were in the uber coming back to the apartment and there was this guy in the middle of the road with a sign. Normally it's for food or money right?? Nope! He was holding a sign that said he was looking for girlfriend that's blonde haha! The uber driver thought it was just as funny as we did haha! 

This week went by fast not gonna lie. It could be the fact that we had 2 exchanges this week and it was just go, go, go. Friday we had a divisão with the sisters in Casa Forte. I stayed here in Torreão with Sister Lima! We had to stay in social media too so I was a little worried but I got it all figured out and I was worried for nothing. We even had to go get our lunch money and I didn't get lost! Woot woot! Sister Lima is super sweet and is actually the daughter of Sister Canha so that's kinda fun. She loves to talk though, like more than I do. Her and her companion Sister Roza are the same and it was funny to hear from Sister Scioli when it was all said and done. We have some problems with these sisters because they hang out with the elders in their district almost every day. We decided to talk to them about it more in depth during the exchanges and I was nervous how it was gonna go. When I brought it up, Sister Lima just kind of brushed it off. Her and her companion don't really like to be corrected so it makes things complicated. Ahhhhhh. Anywho, it was a good divisão and Sister Lima told me she had a good time. We also taught this dentist that was a referencia from the AP's. She's a little closed off but she let us teach so I'm gonna take that as a win haha! She's super sweet though and reminds me of a grandma. Sister Lima also really wanted açaí soooooooo you already know what happened haha! I really might have an addiction;) It was totally worth it though and a good way to end the night and talk about some stuff. I think I'm getting the hang of exchanges but really no one knows what we're doing, we all just wing it as missionaries haha! 

Saturday was a day to report about everything honestly haha! We finished our divisão with the Sisters in Casa Forte and started to talk about the 2 exchanges we had this week. Not only that but we spent way too long trying to order lunch. We had money but by the time we ended the divisão it was 12pm so prime time for the whole world to get lunch. We literally studied and did contacted people while we waited for our food to show up. We had lunch at like 2:30pm haha! It was a luta but it was good and it was kind of a win because we didn't want to eat dinner so we didn't have to make anything haha! Sister Scioli and I did a lot of talking about the sisters too. We think that this next transfer is gonna be full of new changes and we think that President Nordfelt is just gonna mix everything up. We're all just here for the ride haha! We also got a message from the ward saying that the capela has been having problems with energy so church is going to be at the stake center and are 10:30am instead of 9am like normal. That meant we had to send the new address to our friends to make sure they dont go to the capela haha! Saturday night we literally grinded so hard on Livro de Area too. We contacted so many people because the AP's sent so many referencias. Basically into he past our area was part of their area but now it's Torreão A and Torreão B. So the AP's cleaned out their Livro de Area and sent us a million people that are in our area, that meant a lot of contacts. It was honestly good but we were both so tired too. Going on exchanges twice in the semana is hard haha! But it was good :) Sister Scioli and I have a good time too so that helps :) 

Sunday was such a good day as always! Today was quite the adventure too. So our capela doesn't have power so we got to go to the Stake center for church today. The stake center is also the mission office so it was a little strange to be there for church and not for something for the mission. The office Elders were there too so it was kind of like a mini mission Conference haha! Church was good though and one of our sweet members gave us a ride. Bênçãos! After church we had lunch with Irmã Camilla too! The AP's didn't get to eat with us today though because there wasn't another guy in the house so it was just us. Irmã Camilla is so fun though and I love her :) She recently just bought a new puppy too so I got to play with him. He loves to bite though so my hand has a few marks but so worth it, he's so cute! I also learned how to make farofa too! It's super simple and I'm gonna be a real Brazilian chef here soon;) Sunday went by so fast too, before I knew it we needed to wrap things up for the night. We didn't have anything too wild, just weekly planning and getting ready for this week. I can't wait to talk to you! I love you forever and always