Email Home: Monday, February 7, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, February 7, 2022
Subject: Whatta week

Hey hey hey! 

How are you guys!? How was your week? Traveling isn't always fun but I'm glad you all made it back in one piece ;) This week was totally insane but I wouldn't have it any other way ;) Also, I'm so glad you got my letter! 

Monday was a good day but I was also low key frustrated haha! I know I shouldn't have been and I got over it but st the same time I was so frustrated that Sister Bradbeer literally had the phone all day. I still need to talk to her about it but I don't wanna be rude too and she apologized for having it for so long too. Life is just crazy and you just gotta roll with it right?;) Zone pday was fun though and I'm basically Brazilian now soooooo I hope you're okay with that ;) It was a good day but I miss getting to talk to you:) You kinda really mean a lot to me, I don't know if you know that. Your video made my whole day too :) I hope you had a good pday and that you had fun with your district! I'm excited to hear about it :) 

Tuesday! Whatta fun day we had haha! We have big plans for this week as far as our weekly planning goes so I'm hopeful that it'll all go through and we can do everything we planned. We had kind of a busy day and we needed to go to Pauldalho too so that made it even more crazy. We left after lunch to get to Pauldalho to talk to Willamis. Literally all of our other friends want nothing to do with us so I'm glad that he wants to meet with us. When we go we stop at the pista by the centro but he likes like 15 minutes from the pista so we talk to him while we walk and on Tuesday we walked and taught a little ;) We had a good lesson and even had some good street contacts while we were walking back to find a combie. Sister Bradbeer told me today that the combies just remind her of Mario Kart haha! The sad thing is that she's not wrong... When we got back we had a few contacts and tried to have a video call with one of our friends but he ghosted us so that was kind of sad. We left to go to our friend Marta's house but she wasn't there :/ Que triste! We decided to do some contacts instead and today must've just been a bad day for a lot of people because everyone was kind of rude and told us no for everything. What can you do though? We did get some ice cream though so I guess that makes up for it ;) We spent the rest of the night contacting referencias. We have this project for our Zone to contact 444 referencias in 7 days so we've been calling and sending messages like crazy! All on top of our friends too. It's been crazy to say the least haha! We didnt have anything too crazy though as far as lessons go because no one wanted to talk to us :/ You can't win em all ;) Also guess what happened today? I cut my hand on a cube of ice! Who would've thought you could be hurt by an ice cube? It did make me miss pebble ice though...

Wednesday was quite the adventure haha! It went nothing like I had expected but it was so full of tender mercies and lily moments :) On Wednesday we needed to plan our training for DC so we got to working on that. Our DL wanted us to talk about the purpose of DC and how we can improve. Hopefully we did it right haha! We had a lesson with our homie Jailson too so we kind of had to cut our planning short. I won't lie, I'm at a loss for him haha! He won't read the Book of Mormon at all and we can't force him to do anything. It's so frustrating and Sister Bradbeer was very upset so we had a nice little chat after our lesson. We also marked to go to one of our friends house this afternoon but as soon as we asked for her address we got nothing back :/ We decided to make the most out of our time and do some street contacts. We invited a lot of people to church but no one wanted anything more infelizmente. We did find one guy that seems promising so who knows! We also got called angels by this drunk guy on the street so that was fun haha! We also gave Willamis the baptismal interview woot woot! He's super excited for Saturday and can't wait to be baptized! We still have a few little things to plan but nothing too crazy. We decided to go back out on the rua and try to see if Romildo and Fernanda were home. When we got there everything was dark and shut off :/ But they live close to an older member, Irmã Regina, so we decided to stop by and see how she was doing. She told us she had been thinking about us and was wondering if we could stop by! I'm telling ya, the Lord's hand! We had a quick visit and then made our way back to the apartment because 1. It was very dark and 2. We marked a video call. On our way back to our apartment we found some people we had taught in the past. How rad is that?! She recognized us so we chatted for a little bit and we were on our way. Our video call with Ewandreia was too good!! 

Thursday was such an adventure, I don't know if it was a good adventure or not but nonetheless it was an adventure. We had DC planned for the morning so we got ready for the day and made our way to the capela. We got there and the other sisters showed up and then the waiting game started. You wouldn't wouldn't believe what happened. Okay so we had planned for DC to start at 9:30am and our DL showed up at 12:30pm. We literally sat at the capela contacting people, contacting referencias, planning, comp study, literally anything we could do, we did. I was so frustrated too because Willamis needed his baptismal interview and we told him we could have it at 11am. Obviously that didn't happen and I was started to get so impatient and so angry. I've since repented but I was so done by the time my DL showed up. It was a good thing that Willamis had a free day and could do the interview later. Also, Willamis changed his profile picture on WhatsApp to the Salt Lake City Temple! How rad is that?! Anyways, after DC we had quite the day of catch up and lessons. Thursday night we had a lesson with Lindenberg. He's so hard sometimes but the Lord really did soften his heart and he didn't try to argue with us this time about the fall of Adam and Eve. I did learn that he's one of those people that wants a verse to explain every little detail. It was a good lesson and we even met his brother that joined us for the lesson. He was super attentive and even told us that he'd come to church. Woot woot! It was a good lesson and I have a lot of hope for them. While we walked back Sister Bradbeer had the idea to stop in and get açai instead of ordering it like we normally do. It was actually so fun and she literally put so much sugar haha! I'm surprised she didn't have a heart attack! We've been watching/listening to missionary devotionals when we have time at night too, and the missionary devotional from Elder Soares is so so good! Would highly recommend:) 

It's Friday, Friday, Friday! Party and party and party yeah! Do you remember that song? Haha! Friday was another good day but it was super busy! We had to finish up all the last minute things for Willamis' baptism! I still can't believe that! We also had kind of a run around to get stuff all figured out but it all got worked out and all is well :) Friday was stayed inside most of the day I won't lie. We have this mission project to contact 444 referencias in 7 days and Friday was like an extra day to send referencias and to wrap it all up. With that being said though we stayed inside making calls and sending messages to make sure it all got taken care of. It got to be a little later and I decoded that I couldn't stay inside anymore so I told Sister Bradbeer we were gonna go outside and street contact and make some calls haha! I have to be way more careful here so that I don't get robbed but it was nice to get out of the apartment! When we got back from our little outing we had another video call with Ewandreia! She's so good! She's also the sweetest person I've ever met and I love her so much. We really focused on the Book of Mormon and talked about prayer with her. She was super responsive and even told us that she would read the Book of Mormon and pray everyday. Too good! After 9pm I got to become chef Garcia too haha! For Willamis baptism we wanted to make him a cake (cake is super popular here for baptisms and literally everyone makes one!) so at roughly 9pm I got making a cake and whip cream to put on top. Here's the catch though haha! We don't have a hand mixer or a whisk because they seem to not exist here, so we have this weird spring thingy. After a whole hour of using this spring device, we FINALLY had whipped cream haha! It was a long process that took up the night but it was fun :) 

Saturday was one of the BEST days! We have to start from the beginning though because it was all just too good :) We got going pretty early on Saturday because we told Irmã Regina that we would be back at her house early to get our money for lunch. As we were walking we were talking and trying to say hi to as many people as we could. We'll we said hello and this guy stops and asked us if we were Mormon. We got to talking to him and he's heard of the church but never gone in and never talked with the missionaries. He asked us if we thought that he could be forgiven from all his sins because he's done a lot. It was a super cool contact and he told us that he would even come to church! It was such a good contact! We ended up at Irmã Regina's and she wasn't there :/ so we made our way back because man did we have a lot to do haha! As we were walking back we saw this lady that had a lot of groceries so I asked her if she needed help. She told us she was fine and that we could keep going but I don't like the answer 'no' so I started to grab some of her bags. She then asked if we were missionaries and I was kind of shocked haha! Turns out that she had been taught way back in 2019 and lost contact with the Sisters after they were transferred. We had a good chat for a little bit until we got to her house. She has two special needs kids and they were a little confused who we were but that's okay;) she even showed us her Book of Mormon! We got her number and went on our way. So many tender mercies and miracles! When we got back to the apartment it was kind of go time to finish up everything before heading to the church. We made some brigaderos and got everything packed up. I even put in mascara for the first time since Christmas I think and let me tell you, I forgot that my eyelashes had so much potential haha! We made our way to the church and go everything all ready. We were expecting a lot of our members but infelizmente they didn't pull through :/ it was a super tiny baptismal service but it didn't even matter. I don't even have words! As soon as Willamis was in the water I literally could have cried I was so happy for him! And you should have seen his smile! He was so happy! Yes I was frustrated we didn't have members there but at the same time none of that even mattered, it was just what was needed and it was such a special day :) We actually had a ward baptism for one of the little girls that just turned 8 so Willamis stayed and we made some phone calls and tried to get our lessons in. When we got back to the apartment we finished off the night and got ready for bed haha! It was a run around kind of day, it doesn't sound like it but I promise that it was ;) 

Sunday! Confirmation day! It looks like Correnation day like in Frozen haha! It was also fast Sunday and I've realized something about fasting. I don't feel hungry but I get so thirsty haha! Especially here I Brasil, but hey the power of prayer works and it always works out :) Sunday was too good! Willamis got confirmed today! Woot woot! Anyways, he was so happy and it was seriously such a good fast and testimony meeting too! We got everything finalized too for the ficha batismal so that was a relief haha! I've never been so nervous to spell anything in my life! When we got to church too one of sweet members, Irmão Artur, made us these super rad Keychains! I'll have to take a picture and put it in the drive for you ;) Willamis was so excited to go to Sunday school today too! He's being taken care of so good too by our members:) After church we had a TREK to get to lunch with Irmã Ester but it was worth it and I don't even have words to describe the view! You'd love it, at least I think ;) Irmã Ester is so cute too and just has a heart of gold. When we got back to the apartment we just had studies and weekly planning. Nothing too crazy ;) I can't wait to talk to you guys! I love you to the moon and back!