Email Home: Monday, May 30, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, May 30, 2022
Subject: This one is sooooo late

Hello hello! Well, I can't believe that it's Mondah again! Let's just get right into this week because holy cow haha! 

Monday was insane! Saying goodbye is not my favorite and knowing that Sister Scioli isn't just a quick visit away isn't cool either. I was able to get to Camaragibe in one piece and get my stuff all put together before lunch. Sister Bradford is super sweet and I'm excited to get to serve with her. Sister Cabrero is SUPER quiet and didn't say hardly 3 words the whole day. I hope this new missionary is more talkative haha! We also had to go back to Recife to get Sister Bradford to the hospital for a consult. We waited for an hour for an Uber just to get there so I knew it was gonna be a later trip. We finally got there and it took way longer than I was expecting. By the time it was all said and done it was 7pm. We tried to get an Uber but none of the Elders were having any luck. By 7:45pm I decided I was just gonna call an Uber and I'm glad that I did because it worked! There was SO much rain too that it made the trip a little bit longer. We didn't end up getting back until 8:30pm. It was a long day and nothing like I was expecting. I'm excited for a new adventure and a new transfer:) I hope that it all just goes well! 

Tuesday was my first real day here in Camaragibe and let me tell you it was not like I thought at all haha! Sister Bradford told me that normally the days are chuck full of stuff but that Tuesday was just not the day. Everything seemed to fall through and we got SO MUCH rain! Literally had swimming pools on the streets. Not only that but I was actually cold. Like had goosebumps! What kind of life is this?! We stayed out on the street on all day in the rain and the Lord blessed us with a few solid contacts. The thing I'm learning is that this area is a lot like Torreão in the aspect of we work for others haha! It's hard to find people that live here but we sure gave it our best shot! We did end up finding a guy the Sisters had contacted in the past but never got his number. Tender mercy for sure! We said a lot of prayers too that we wouldn't get sick from all the rain but man was I soaking wet haha! It felt so good to come back and take a shower and climb to bed. I still can't believe that I'm in a new area. It low key feels like I'm on an exchange or something. Also, I discovered that my chaos are breaking so please pray that for the next 6 weeks they'll be okay haha! 

Wednesday was a wild day! Normally it would be transfers but the rain didn't stop at all and President Nordfelt canceled our transfer because of the flooded streets. That meant that we also had to stay inside all day, lowkey felt like the MBM haha! We started to get things going and tey to figure out what to do with our day now that we didn't have to go to Recife to pick up a new missionary. We canceled our lunch so we decided to head out to the super market and brave the rain it was actually such a blessing and we contacted a worker there. She doesn't live in our area but she agreed to let us pass her contact. It was such a tender mercy and totally worth the rain :) We pretty much stayed inside all day but we did manage to have a few lessons at night. I also had some work to do with our phone from Torreão for the referencias de ouro so it was kinda nice so I could get it all figured out. We did learn that we also had to give a virtual training for all the new missionaries. They ended up staying in the hotel all day and got trainings from all the ZL's and STL's. Poor things! But I hope that ours was fun and useful for them :) Still don't know how I feel about training and I'm a little nervous but it'll all workout :) This week is just flying by! When we woke up on Thursday we noticed that our fans were all turned off... the power went out because of the rain! And it was still sprinkling a little bit too. Thankfully it stopped enough AND I realized we had a total lily moment on Wednesday. We needed to buy gas for the stove but because of the rain we didn't know if it would work out. Well the guy that we bought it from lives super close and we were able to get it all figured out. With that being said, with no power we were still able to make breakfast because it's a gas stove and we have to use matches to light it. God is always in the details ;) 

This week is just flying by! When we woke up on Thursday we noticed that our fans were all turned off... the power went out because of the rain! And it was still sprinkling a little bit too. Thankfully it stopped enough AND I realized we had a total lily moment on Wednesday. We needed to buy gas for the stove but because of the rain we didn't know if it would work out. Well the guy that we bought it from lives super close and we were able to get it all figured out. With that being said, with no power we were still able to make breakfast because it's a gas stove and we have to use matches to light it. God is always in the details ;) We were able to have our transfer finally too! We headed to Recife to go pick up our new missionary! It was a crazy day but now we have a new missionary! Here name is Sister Feitosa and she's from São Paulo! She's quiet but she's fun :) Her mom actually served here in Recife so that was kinda fun! I was able to chat with her for a little bit too before Sister Bradford and I think it was good. Technically Sister Bradford is her trainer so my goal is to be like an Aunt haha! We got back super late and when we came back to the apartment we still had 0 power. Not only that but because of the no power everything in our fridge wasn't frozen anymore and we had so much water on the floor. So there we were, cleaning up water on the kitchen floor in the dark haha! It was not the best and I literally just feel so bad that Sister Feitosa had this to star off her mission. I am glad however that I have a flashlight in my suitcase and that our phone battery is good and didn't die haha! 

Friday we still had more rain! But this time we had to go back to the mission office for mylast MLC. It was pretty relaxed to get there but it was still training so much. We finally got to the escritório and we plugged our phone in to charge. Oh and I forgot to mention, Thursday night our smoke alarm went off and we had to move our beds to the living room and sleep there. Poor Sister Feitosa haha! Anywho, we had a super good MLC and I had to bear my testimony. Man did that one hurt! I don't know how I'm gonna be able to bear my final testimony here in a couple weeks, it's gonna be interesting to say the least. We got back and we still had no electricity and no way to leave the apartment because the streets were flooded. That meant that we stayed inside yet again and tried to call people. Sister Bradford works very differently than I do too so I'm slowly trying to figure her out and how to work with her. Trio training is a lot too so it's a huge game of just trying to figure this all out. I think with time we'll get there but on the other hand I feel bad for Sister Feitosa. Sister Bradford is vê much like her trainer too and her trainer has a very specific way of teaching. I just hope that next week we can find more of a rhythm.

Saturday was quite the day haha! Really this whole week but Saturday really did it. It was a real tear of my patience to say the least. We got up and of course still had rain haha! But this time Sister Nordfelt was worried about us and told us that we could stay in a hotel or we could stay at the apartment in Torreão. After our lunch we decided to try to see if members or even the capela had power but nada. And the members that did have power had glooded streets and houses. This resulted in us getting our stuff and heading to Torreão. This is when the real adventure started haha! We called and Uber and the windows were down when we got in the car. The Uber driver tried to roll it up on the passenger side but it was broken and wasn't working. I just kinda sat there and waited while he tried to shimmy the glass up. He ended up totally wracking me in the chin and then it closed. Sister Feitosa was behind him and she almost hit him with her umbrella haha! I decoded that that needed to really be like a disciple of Jesus Christ and just take a deep breath. Once we got to Recife it was literally a lake! There were streets that we couldn't go on because of the amount of water. Long story short it took us an hour to get to the escritório to get the keys for Torreão. We got there, grabbed the keys, and made it to the apartment. It was super weird to be there without Sister Scioli I can't lie. We were able to work online again but at least we had power so that was a huge relief.

Sunday we left bright and early so that we could get to church on time. We didn't have nearly asany problems and it all worked out for us to be there. We didn't have hardly anyone at church but we did learn that a RC lost his house because of the rain and flooding. It was super sad and made me realize just how blessed missionaries really are. We had lunch right after church with this super sweet family and their son is so cute! He talked my ear off the whole time but it was so worth it :) I learned too that 7 Reis is a lot of money to a 7 year old haha! We came back and got into our studies and wrapped up the Jughead with weekly planning. We have to explain everything to Sister Feitosa and I just hope that she's not too overwhelmed with everything. 

I'm so sorry this is so late! I had 0 time to write this week and with 3 people splitting the phone is hard. I promise next week I'll be better! I love you forever and for always!