Email Home: Monday, April 4, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, April 4, 2022
Subject: Miracles and Conference :)

Monday was a weird day haha! When I woke up I was really sleepy but I got ready for the day and we got all of our stuff done that we needed. I talked to some people and then it was time to get ready for the night. As soon as 4pm hit though my body literally shut down and started to hurt all over. Not only that but my stomach started to get upset too so not a very good mix. All of our lessons fell through but we did get to exchange a few messages with Sandra. She didn't like church again so that blows but we're not giving up! She's so close! It was a pretty lowkey night though :) 

Tuesday was a day haha! Let's just start with the fact that my stomach literally hated me because we ordered açaí but there was mix up and we ended up eating 800ml of this ice cream stuff and let's just say that it didn't go over well. I was super sleepy because I was up all night not feeling great but it was still a good day. Tuesday we decided to grab a quick video to talk about General Conference to send to all the people we're teaching (48!) so hopefully we have a few watch! We then got into our media referencias and got to calling. Everything was going pretty good and I was so grateful it was phone calls because my stomach was still flopping all over the place. Then out of no where this guy on the street started to yell 'pare o ladrão!' a million times! He was yelling 'stop the thief!' Haha! Then the security guy for our street starts running, it was seriously like watching a movie on the street haha! Little did this guy know though that our street is a dead end. We got to see him all handcuffed and watched as the police showed up. I did feel a little bad because he had stolen two things of diapers, it just makes me wonder the situation is all. Whatta adventure! But don't worry, we live in a very safe neighborhood;) We continued to make our calls and then do nada it felt like I literally had two knives in my back. It was a weird feeling, I had stomach pain and bacn pain at the same time. Don't really know what happened there, I think maybe I pinched a nerve or something but I took some Aleve and threw some ice on my back and decided to exercise my faith ;) 

Wednesday the saga of Sister Garcia's back continued. My faith must've been real big because I woke up with ZERO pain and I was literally just fine. Milagres são reais! I even did a leg workout! I miss working out for real but I'll take what I can get ;) We also had a quick MLC to talk about some changes to exchanges so that'll be interesting to see what President Nordfelt will do. After that we then went on a wild goose chase haha! Well not a goose chase but we ran all over the place haha! We started at the mission office to get a declaration that Sister Scioli lives here in Pernambuca then we headed to this clinic place to get our COVID booster. Let me just tell you how different medical stuff here is haha! But when we got to the clinic we were 2 minutes late is all and they told us we needed to wait an hour because they were going to lunch. Lunch clearly is sacred time here in Brasil ;) The Uber dropped us off there so we sat there for a minute and thought about what we could do, we eventually decided to send some messages to some members that we don't know very well and just chat with them. The ward here is pretty big because it used to be 2 and now it's 1 giant one so theres a lot of people that we don't know very well. The hour went by pretty quick and we were able to get our booster finally. Then we called another uber and that's when we realized that we were OUTSIDE the mission haha! We were in Recife Sul haha! But hey, Sister Nordfelt made our appointments so it wasn't like we didn't have permission ;) We called an uber to take us to pick up our marmita from Irmã Luciana and then to take us back to the apartment. By the time we got back to eat lunch it was already 2pm. I felt like we lost such a huge chunk of the day so I was determined to really work hard that night. We finished up our video and sent it to all 48 of our friends and then left to go teach and find some homies. We got a referencia a while back but the number doesn't work so we decided to give the address a go. The only thing is that the address was a bust, the number doesn't exist and the only name is João, in Brasil that is zero help haha! We decided to call it and go to our lesson with Sergio and Ana Paula. We got a message from Sergio asking for prayers for their daughter Annalice, she's going through some teenager stuff and it's super heavy. When we got to their house it was obviously heavy and we decided to chat with them for a minute. Then when we started to talk about General Conference and baptism that's when we started to loose them. They have such a short attention span that it's hard to teach them. If you have any tips or advice I'd love to hear it haha! We started off strong but then they just get distracted. I'm hopeful that they'll watch General Conference though! When we got back we had such a solid lesson with our friend Tafni too! She's so good and I hope she really progresses :) That's about it though as far as the work and Wednesday goes!

Thursday was nothing like I expected haha! Really this week was like that but hey, that's the mission ;) Sister Scioli was a champ and washed my watch for me and now it's actually white woot woot! But the say really started when Sister Scioli told me that she wasn't feeling good and when I felt her forehead she 100% had a fever. She was having a reaction to the third dose of COVID. Gotta love it. She said she was okay to go to DC so we made our way there. I'm just glad that my arm was only a little sore so I could take care of her. We had a really good DC and we talked a lot about patience. I learned that I really need to be more patient and work on that Christ like attribute in these next couple months ;) After DC we made our way to pick up our lunch so we could eat quick and get to the hospital. We are so fast and I definitely didn't even taste my food because we had zero time. But man am I glad that I ate haha! We got to the hospital for Sister Scioli's injection and we ended up waiting for literally ever haha! Todinha had to wait while not feeling good. Well it was taking so long so the doctor called us back to tell us why it was taking forever and he asked if she was having any kind of reaction to the COVID boster, we of course told the truth and I wasn't ready for the answer at all... He told us to remark for another day because he didn't want to risk anything. So we waited from 1pm all the way to 3pm for nothing. We had to call Sister Nordfelt and explain what was going on and she told us to get back to the apartment and to let Sister Scioli sleep and recover. When we got back I literally played nurse, not only that but Sister Scioli was literally dead. I got some good duolingo time in though so I guess that's a plus haha! I did decide though that I couldn't just sit around and do nothing so started to send messages and call people while she slept. Kind of a fubeca but what else was I supposed to do?! I already decided that in my letter to President I'll explain everything;) It honestly just made for a unproductive night, well kind of haha! We made calls but no one answered and I get going back and forth to make sure Sister Scioli was okay. I'll have to keep you updated on the saga of this whole knee injection now haha! 

Well, Friday was a day haha! For starters, it's already April?! How is that possible?! I didn't sleep 100% because I was worried about Sister Scioli and I didn't want her to not feel good alone. But 6:30am came and I needed to get up but while I was in the bathroom Sister Scioli thought it would be funny to make some kind of scene in the apartment and then hide like something had happened. It didn't really work out like she wanted but she sure tried haha! It was after that when I realized that she was good but that was also the moment that all heck broke loose... So we trade off days with a set of sisters (that we take care of) for all the media stuff. Thursday was our day but it was made clear that they contacted those people too. The most frustrating is that we called them and they said nothing to us. Basically they lied to the Elder that's in charge and they said that they forgot to tell us they wanted to switch days. I was pistolaaaaaaa to say the least. It was quite the morning and let's just say that the Lord knew it too and threw a lot in my studies for me to arepender. We got it all figured out though and we had a good day. We had a really good lunch with a MA youth and hopefully she'll watch Conference with us! We also got to meet the sweetest member! Her mom recently died so she hasn't been coming to church, she's been ward hoping basically. Shes actually so so she's though and I really hope that I'm here for longer to get to know her more :)We also got to go over to Sandra's house woot woot! It was kinda weird though because she was getting ready for a date and her date joined our lesson haha! It was actually really good though and we got to talk about General Conference. She was actually super open to talk about everything and said she would watch woot woot! You'll never guess what happened though, as we were leaving Sandra gave me and Sister Scioli this weird envelope and when we got back to the apartment we learned that it was 50 reais... I genuinely feel bad and have no idea what I'm gonna do with that now haha! But Sandra did say that she likes having us come around and that she likes me haha! I guess that's a good thing because that means that she can trust and open up a little bit more. 

Saturday was Conference day! I seriously love General Conference more than I can even explain and we actually had some big plans this time around. We planned to get Analice, Sergio and Ana Paula's daughter, to watch with our young woman. The young woman planned an activity to watch the first session together at Irmã Camilas house so we were super excited. I won't lie, my faith was not what it needed to be just because Sergio and Ana Paula weren't answering and we were just going by the seat of our pants. When we got to their house Ana Paula and Sergio weren't home and no one was answering and then it hit me. I knew that if I told myself it would work out that it would and it totally did! Analice ended up coming out of the house! She was all ready to go and we made our way to Irmã Camilas house. We got to talking to her and Sister Scioli whispered to me that I needed to talk to her because apparently I talk to the youth better. That's a total lie but I had a good time talking to her. She doesn't remind me too much of B but kinda just because she's 14 and super tall and skinny haha! When we got to Irmã Camilas we made it just in time for the opening prayer. It was seriously so so good and such an amazing experience! Analice paid 100% attention and didn't even look at her phone and she even said that she liked it! Shes more shy than the young women but they all talked to her and it went really well :) We took her back home and then made our way to our apartment. We  made a few calls and sent some messages and got ready for Conference part 2! The talks this year seriously were so good and it hit me just how soon the Second Coming must be with all the talk about missionary work and repentance. I took so many notes and by the end of it I was just so at peace and content with everything :) We didn't have a ton of lessons go through unfortunately but people did say that they watched so that was a plus! You'll have to let me know how you watched Conference! 

Sunday! I can't lie, I was a little sad knowing that General Conference was ending haha! Not only that but it's my last one on the mission and I was a little sad. The mission is just too good :) I'll get into Sunday though because it was such a good day! We got up and we actually did weekly planning first thing. It actually worked out pretty well and I didn't hate it haha! We finished up and made our way to Irmã Gilvanda's house for lunch. But it was kind of on the rocks because her mother in law passed away on Saturday night. We tried to cancel but she wasn't having it so we made our way over there. It was just her and her son, Irmão Oscar went to Paulista to organize some stuff for a funeral. We ended up having a super yummy lunch with the Elders and we stayed to watch the first session Irmã Gilvanda. She told us she wanted us to say and because of the circumstances we decided we could stay. There was a moment though that the translation wasn't working and it was in english and she asked me to translate haha! After the first session we came back to the apartment and got a few things done that we needed and got ready for the second session. We actually had a good amount of people watch too so that was a total win! I seriously LOVED Conference and it was so so needed. I was a little overwhelmed with how much they talked about missions but it made me love the mission even more :) I don't even have words to describe my feelings from Conference other than I loved it! And Brasil is getting 2 new temples! That makes 112 that President Nelson has announced since being Prophet. The second coming is seriously way closer than I can even imagine and I don't know how I feel about it haha! I can't wait to talk to you! I love you to the moon and back!