Email Home: Monday, March 14, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, March 14, 2022
Subject: A friend in jail...

Good morning! I hope you're loving your little Mexico getaway! Woot woot! You found some sun ;) This week was all over the place so I'm just gonna get into it! 

Mondays go by so fast! I swear the clock goes 10 times faster than it does on any other day. Pday was busier than normal but after we chatted Sister Scioli wanted to do hair masks and was all ready haha! I have no idea what she put in my hair but it literally made my hair so soft and it smelled good too :) I also made a few audios to send out before the day got away from me. I sent an audio to Brittan so we'll see what happens. I'm kind of nervous but I can't not talk about stuff with him too. Anywho, Monday night we had a good lesson/talk with our new friend Gilmara. She really wants to know how to pray and we spent about 20 minutes talking to her about prayer. After we wrapped up with her we made our way to a noite familiar with the AP's. They have a friend they need to pass to us so we made our way to Irmã Angela's house for our lesson. When we were about 10 minutes out their friend canceled but we still decided to just have a noite familiar with Irmã Angela and her family. It was actually really good and her daughter Emily had a ton of her friends over so it was a bunch of youth. The AP's kinda took the lead and it worked out alright. Emily is baptized but wants nothing to do with the church, definitely fallen away and all her friends are members and are trying so hard. It was sad to see honestly. It was a good night though and it passed super quick. Before we knew it we needed to head out to be home in time. We decided to take an Uber because it was a sketchy part of the neighborhood and we didn't feel good walking. I'm gonna be an Uber pro haha! That was really about it though for Monday! 

Tuesday was quite the day haha! It started off with a pretty killer leg workout I won't lie, I definitely have fallen off the train a little bit, I think it's because of exchanges but I'm getting back into it ;) Tuesday morning we had kind of a part 2 to our MLC. We talked a lot about how we can make DC's better and what we need to be doing to be better missionaries and be more effective. It was a pretty good meeting and it was a lot of pressure put on my shoulders haha! But hey, that's just life;) We had a pretty yummy lunch too, we had gnocchi! I don't know if you remember, but Sister Parrish and I tried to make it and it was a total fail haha! This was way better and I would eat it again ;) We left straight from lunch to the hospital for Sister Scioli's consult for her knee. I seriously could spend all day in the hospital! Her doctor is super rad too and was asking all sorts of questions about missions and the United States, just a super cool guy. He gave her a treatment but she didn't really understand what it was but we also needed to get permission to mark another day so she can do this treatment. Basically what ended up happening was that I had to explain everything to Sister Nordfelt so that she could ask permission haha! It was hard to talk in English, like holy cow! But it was also super cool because I understood what was going on and it was medical stuff! We got everything all figured out though and I'm hopeful that we'll be able to get her knees taken care of :) We were on social media and man oh man did we really grind. I think we called like 29 people and taught them lessons. We've been getting a few more people so that's been good but it's a ton of work haha! We also got news that our fridge won't be fixed until maybe Thursday so that meant that we didn't go to the store like we planned. It's made me realize just how much I love cold water but also how much we use a fridge day to day haha! Count your blessings ;) It was a really solid day though full of lessons and contacts. We also had a few calls with the Sisters and they seem to be doing better! I told Sister Scioli that I feel like a mom haha! But I think this transfer will be good and I'm hopeful :)

Wednesday literally everything just fell through but we still kept our hopes up! We marked a lesson with our homie Gideão at 9am but when we asked if he was ready (video call) he told us that it wasn't going to happen at 9am and asked of we could at 4pm. It made for a little hit of a slower day but by the time 4pm came around we were able to talk to him and we even had a member join in on the call. He's from the assembleia but he's actually pretty open and listens to what we have to say without arguing. Que bênção! Haha! We talked about the Restoration and our member, João Victor, is a RM and he was a ton of help in the lesson :) I was really surprised at how well that lesson went but it was exactly what I needed to keep my hopes up haha! A lot of our friends have been ehhhh lately so it was good to see that he was actually paying attention and everything. We still didn't have a fridge so we made our way to the supermarket to buy some things that we didn't need refrigerate haha! I've never wanted cold water more in my whole life. It was a good day though! We also prepped a lot for our training we have to give in DC. Basically President Nordfelt wants all the ZL's and STL's to give a special training to their district and another one, so we got to go to the escritório! More to come in a minute ;) 

Thursday was our big training day haha! I learned this week that people like my handwriting which means I'm responsible for a lot of things haha! For our training we wanted to have them write a quote down but instead of that I wrote the quote and decorated it for 14 people. I started them in Wednesday night but it's a lot of work so I ended up finishing them on Thursday morning before we had to leave. It was a good DC and I'm hoping that we said what President Nordfelt wanted haha! We talked a lot about faith and how we can have more faith to find people, teach people, and baptize. It was only a little weird to have the office elders there haha! When we finished up they told me that I had some packages so I snagged those and we were on our way. I GOT PEANUT BUTTER!!!! I've never been so happy in my whole life haha! THANK YOU THANK YOU!! We also had to wait for the fridge technician to come and look at our fridge. He said the exact same thing as before and then just left. We were a little frustrated because he said it could be another 15-30 days before anything will change. We had a call with Elder Ritta and it was decided that we would get the fridge from the senior couple apartment because we don't have a senior couple in the mission right now. It was a mess to say the least haha! I love being an adult, in Brasil too ;) 

Friday came so quick but also so slow. This week has been going by quick but also had been going by a little slow. Also, literally all my mission friends and people from the mission all decided to go home on the same day. My Facebook was full of going home posts. I think it made me the opposite of trunky honestly haha! Like I want to be there to see them but at the same time I'm just fine here as a missionary ;) Anywho, Friday had a lot! For starters Sister Scioli hit 16 months! How wild is that!? I literally am gonna be there in a little bit... we aren't going to talk about it haha! To celebrate we got our new fridge! Irmão Amon and his buddies showed up with the fridge from the senior couples apartment and man was I so happy to see it! They got into the apartment and were ready to put in the kitchen when they realized that the fridge was wider than the door frame. It was about 45 minutes of them shimmying and opening doors of the fridge before they finally got it into the kitchen. But they got it in there and we were able to clean it up and plug it in :) Woot woot! After we got it all situated we left to go to a lesson with our homie Sergio. Him and his family were taught in the past but because they aren't married legally they couldn't be baptized, but they have kids that could've been so we decided to make a stop and see what's up. They're a super sweet family and love the missionaries but they explained why they aren't married and it's all super complicated. Haha! We didn't have a chance to ask about the kids being baptized but it was good just to get to know them and to talk to them. I have high Hope's that we can help them with the whole marriage situation but also help the kids. We decided to actually celebrate Sister Scioli's 16 months too haha! We ordered a HUGE thing of açaí and it was 100% worth every real haha! It was so good and man was I so full after it was all said and done :) We also had some solid lessons and were able to commit some people to church too! Our capela is still under construction because of the robbers so our capela is a little but longer (stake center) so it's good that they said they would come! Vamos ver if that really happens though ;) 

Saturday I was beat haha! Normally I'm pretty solid with my energy levels but Saturday I was so sleepy, I think it's because I haven't been sleeping the greatest but who knows. I decided that I wanted to do some specific workout too and they totally kicked my butt haha! I'm gonna feel it I'm sure! Anywho, we didn't have anything too wild on Saturday, studies, lunch, and social media. We started to look at some of the people and we realized that the other sisters are messing up the system because if the way they're reporting stuff and it took everything in me and Sister Scioli to not just loose it. We sent a message (nicely of course!) to see if we could get it figured out but they didn't respond. I'm sure they hate our guts but at the same time it makes no sense what they're doing. We just decided to take a deep breath and get into it. We ended up contacting close to 55 people and teaching them. Lately people have been a little more closed to getting messages but we're sure trying! It was a little tiring too because Sister Scioli didn't really want to talk so I talked to probably 50 of them. My brain was so sleepy and so was my body haha! We had some good laughs in between calls but I was a little frustrated by the end of the night. Oh! We also called to teach this guy named Nelson and he passed the phone to his buddy and told us that it was on speaker phone so we started to talk a little bit with them. Well turns out, they're in jail! They told us literally everything that they've done and man is it a lot! When we hung up we stopped teaching Nelson and made a little note so that who ever contacts him in the future knows haha! When we wrapped up at 9:30pm I was ready for bed haha! I'm literally an old woman now! We made something quick to eat and this is when all heck broke loose. We made some breakfast sandwiches basically and then we went to bed. Well I was literally passed out and do nada Sister Scioli wakes me up and tells me that the stove was turned on. I was half asleep so I was still processing what was going on. Basically the burner was left on and she got up to get something in the kitchen and noticed. Kinda scary but don't worry, everything is all good! 

Which leads me to Sunday! When I woke up I went straight to the kitchen and I realized that she turned the burner off but not all the way so the gas was still on. Our CO alarms didn't go off but I could smell something and I realized that she didn't turn the burner off 100% and it was hot. Man oh man! What a way to start off the day haha! We turned everything off and unplugged the stove and opened all the windows. I still want to know what even happened that we didn't turn the burner off because I remember turning mine off. Who knows! But sunday was such a good day! For starters, Irmã Rubia gave us a ride to church and it was such a huge blessing! We've really been struggling to get people to church so that's not too rad but we're trying and I have faith that someone will come :) After church we had lunch with Irmã Rubia and her family (Vivi!) and as always it was so yummy! I was so full haha! Not only that but Vivi was telling us that she wants to take us to ally these places for pday but some of them aren't open on Mondays so we're gonna ask President Nordfelt what we can do. If we can pull it off I'm gonna be so surprised haha! I seriously love their family though :) You have to meet them! We finished up the day with some weekly planning and a call with the sisters. Things seem better with them so that makes my heart happy and it's a huge sigh of relief haha! I love you forever!