Email Home: Monday, June 6, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, June 6, 2022
Subject: I only have a month...

Hello hello! 

I swear the weeks are just flying by and I have no idea where they're going! This week we had a lot going on and it was a little bit better than last week :) 

Monday! Well it was my first real pday here and boy was it an adventure haha! We got up and of course had rain so our plans to go to the store first got bumped. We cleaned up the apartment and Sister Feitosa called her mom. We caught a break in the rain and decided to head out. We stopped at the bank to get our MSF and then headed to the glasses store. I can't remember what that's called in English so just bear with me haha! Sister Bradford needed to buy some glasses so we stopped in and she was able to get it all figured out. We then went to the grocery store for some essentials and headed back to the apartment. I learned that they normally hangout at the capela on pdays with the ZL's and another set of Elders so Monday was no different. We got to the capela and I started talking to Elder De Paula. He's super funny and tries to fool everyone that he's from Arizona. Gotta love it haha! Pday went by really quick honestly but I feel like all of them go by quick. It's different with 3 sisters sharing a phone and doing everything but I'm hopeful that this week we'll be able to find our rhythm and get going :) I've decided that I'm just gonna do what I know how to do and keep a good attitude, it's not worth it to spend the next 5 weeks unhappy :) 

Tuesday had a lot but it probably won't sound like that haha! We had a meeting with President Nordfelt and all the DL's, ZL's and STL's to talk about some numbers and how we can help our missionaries. It was a good meeting and it actually went by pretty quick too. We had all of our studies (12 semanas.... woooo) and then got to pick up our lunch. The members here just give us food and we don't get to actually eat with them. It's a change that's for sure but it's still good and I'm grateful we get lunch :) We then took some time to plan our exchanges for the transfer. Sister Bradford is only in her second transfer as an STL and she's still learning so this took wayyyyyyy longer than I expected haha! After all that planning we still didn't decide on everything. I've decided that I think this transfer will be the transfer of patience haha! We then caught a break from the rain and headed out to contact people. It was all kind of a bust but it was good for Sister Feitosa to practice :) She's opening up more and more so that's all that really matters to me. We headed to a part member families house to teach our friend João. This is when the rain started to kick in again and we were on a huge hill. The rain had literally caused so many landslides that it's kinda sketchy to walk on the streets but you gotta fo what you gotta do;) We ended up talking about the Plan of Salvation and it went super good! He's an older guy so he's a little more stubborn but I have faith. We made our way to our friend Hector's house but he wasn't there infelizmente. We were able to get his mom's number though so that we can start sharing messages with her! Oh! We also found this guy on the street and we invited him to be baptized, he thought we meant right in that moment but in the end he accepted to hear our messages and prepare for baptism. I also saw wild pigs, it was a crazy day on the street haha! We also had a really good lesson woth our friend Bruna! We wanted to talk about palavra de sabedoria e lei de castidade but she had some questions about sealings and eternal marriage and some other questions about the plan of salvation. We started to answer her questions and it was just a super good conversation/lesson! We now have homework to study for her but I'm excited:) Sister Bradford and Sister Feitosa are opening up more too and we had some fun conversations! Little by little it's starting to feel like a normal-ish companionship haha! 

Wednesday was the first of June! Where the heck is time going?! I swear it was just April. We started off the day with SUNSHINE!! Holy cow did it make my heart happy to see the sun and to feel heat as we walked out the door:) Wednesday morning we also got some big news for Sister Bradford's little brother, he's going to Perth, Australia for his mission! How rad is that?! Wednesday we decided to let Sister Feitosa take all the lead on the contacts so that meant there was a bit of awkward silence but in the end it all worked out :) We did take a Book of Mormon to our home Diogo so that he could have his own copy to read. We then got a bus to go to Tabatinga to visit some people and do some more street contacts. We didn't find anyone that we had their address though, I think they passed the wrong address on purpose but what can you do? We did end up finding some people and marking another day to go back to see them. It was a good adventure and Sister Feitosa made 10 whole contacts all by herself! Did they all accept to hear our message? No. But did she totally kill it? Yes! We came back to Camaragibe and while we were going through the praça there was a woman that stopped us so that she could tell us that her husband left her for a man. I didn't know what to say but in the end after listening to her talk about how she does drugs and wants to mess with her husband we were able to at least share about the Atonement haha! It was quite the contact and I don't think anything will top that one haha! We also found 3 Baptist ladies that just wanted to argue with us about authority from God and Sister Bradford got pretty upset. Not the way I would have handled it but oh whale. We finished off the night with Bruna!! I love Bruna! :) Last time we talked to her we talked about the Plan of Salvation and we had a lesson plan for the word of wisdom and law of chastity, but when we called she had more questions and we didn't get to it. She's dating a member of the church so she knows more than the normal investigator but she had a lot of questions about sealing and what happens to people after they die, if men can be sealed more than once, if you can cancel a sealing, just a lot haha! I love how curious she is and she genuinely wants to know the doctrine behind everything. She has a date but I think we need to move it because she won't get baptized without an answer if the Book of Mormon is true. It was a super good lesson though and we overall good day full of sun:) 

Thursday was my first DC here! Last week was all messed up because of the transfer so this week was really the first time. Here we do DC online because all the other missionaries are far away and we don't have a capela that's in the middle we can go to. Kinda sad and I miss doing stuff in person but what can you do? At least we have the technology to do it:) It was a different DC that's for sure but it was still good. We got into all our studies and I got rolling on My Plan. Still crazy to me that now it's my turn to do all this. We had sun but not as much as Wednesday, we had more cloud cover. We also picked up Sister Bradford's glasses and our lunch money for Friday on Thursday. It was a run around kind of day and we had to leave our area to get our lunch money but it all worked out in the end :) We didn't have anything too crazy happen on Thursday honestly. All of our street contacts had to be send to other areas but it's alright :) Thursday was also Sister Feitosa's one month mark on the mission! AND Sister Soares hit 10 months in the MBM....I'm old haha! It was a good day and we decided to get some açaí to celebrate! Torreão and Carpina have better açaí but this one was good too. We also had to call Carpina to sing for Sister Cattron and Sister Araruna for their month marks too! We decided to call and act like they were in trouble or something and then sing. It didn't quite work out like that but it was still funny haha! 

Friday?! How?! Friday was a wild day haha! We said a lot of prayers and the rain finally stopped! Woot woot! We had money for lunch so we decided to go to a restaurant to eat lunch, but alive did they take forever haha! It all worked out though and we were able to get going without being too behind. We made our way to Wadja's house in Bairro Dos Estados and this us when the adventures really got started haha! We had to climb a literal mountain to get there though and after the rain, it was quite the adventure. We made it and were able to have a lesson with her and her husband. She also breast fed her 3 year old so that was a little strange but I've just learned not to ask or react. We tried to find and visit some people in our Area Book bur we learned that they live in the Elders area, our areas are super close here. Well, we decided to just give it a try ans see if we could find her house. We were walking on the street and I heard someone clapping (=ringing the doorbell here haha!) and when I looked it was the Elders! We've never run so fast haha! The best is that we had just finished saying that we would never run into them. Whoops! That is gonna die with us and no one is gonna know that we did that. We then decided to go to the praça to do some more contacts and find some new people. We were able to have a quick lesson with Diogo too so that was good! We started our contacts and we low key got rejected a lot but that's okay :) We were talking to this couple when this guy came up to us and waited for us to stop talking with them and then started to talk to us. He basically taught us about the Atonement and even shared Psalms with us. It was the most interesting contact I've ever been apart of haha! It gave us just enough time to get us contact info and head back to the apartment so we could get some of materials for a special activity:) 

Saturday we had our special activity! We woke in bright and early and made our way to Carpina! My favorite Carpina :) We went to go help the Sisters there with a Helping Hands project. It was super weird to be there again but the members that helped were super sweet and remembered me. I even got to see my querida Irmã Renata! We made our rounds collecting food and clothes until 12pm and then we made our way to the bus station. We got absolutely SOAKED and I regretted wearing my vans that's for sure haha! We were able to get a bus and I dried a little bit on the hour and a half bus ride so that was a tiny blessing. When we got back I literally felt so unproductive, we got our studies in but it was late because of the bus. We left and headed to the capela to plan with the Elders for an activity we're wanting to do on Saturday. Anyway, we left from the capela to Hector but he wasn't home so we decided to visit our new friend Cristiane. I'm a little confused by the situation but I think there are two Cristiane's haha! We came back to the apartment and were able to have a lesson with our friend Daniel. This is when I decided that he's aweird haha! He kept asking if I was the one talking and Sister Bradford and Sister Feitosa are convinced that he likes me. I kept passing the phone to them because I did not want to talk to him. We're gonna see how this one goes. It was a way crazier day than it sounds I promise haha! 

Sunday went by so quick! We had some good miracles though and Diogo and Daniel came to church! Diogo is still going strong and Daniel said that he wants to be baptized! We also learned that he already knows someone in our ward so that's a huge plus. Sacrament meeting went by so quick today though, I don't even know how it happened. We had such a good lunch too! It was with our MLA and he's the coolest! Him and his wife live in the literal middle on the jungle but we finally had sunshine and it was a pretty drive :) Him and his wife are learning French so they can move to Canada here soon and after talking to them Canada doesn't sound too bad haha! We got back from lunch and were able to take a Book of Mormon to a MA that's coming back to church. He was super sweet and thanked us for being patient with him and giving him a Book of Mormon. We had our studies and then weekly planning. I'm still trying to figure out how this whole trio thing works but I'm confident and it's getting better:) I can't wait to talk to you guys! We have zone pday and a few things to do in the morning so I'll try my best to chat when I can :) I love you to the moon and back