Email Home: Tuesday, June 14, 2022

From: Kaitlyn.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Tuesday, June 14, 2022
Subject: I finally got sick...

Still weird not to have pday on a Monday but that's okay :) I hope you guys are good! I can't wait to talk to you soon :) 

Monday was just an absolutely crazy day haha! We woke up and got going right away so that we could get out of the apartment on time. We stopped at the papelaria to grab some stuff and now I'm regretting my plans to write letters for everyone but it's all good haha! We then went to the grocery store and grabbed a few essentials and made our way to the fruit market. I think I'm gonna miss the fruit market :) We finally got back to the apartment and it was time to get cleaning. Before I knew it we had to leave again to start our zone pday. We all met up at the mall to eat at the food court and then head to the capela after. It was a low key pday because of the rain but it was fun to get to talk to everyone. Pday went by so fast too that I didn't even have time say goodbye, sorry! We came back to the apartment and Sister Bradford told me a few things that she's worried about with one of our Sisters and she ended up talking to President about it. We didn't have too many lessons but we did manage to teach Diogo so that was a huge blessing :) I hope you had the best rest of your Monday! :) 

Tuesday we had some adventures getting lost in our area haha! Tuesday was just one of those days and in the end I felt lowkey unproductive but I sure tried. I did bust out my cooking skills and made us all lunch :) We managed to have a lesson with our friend Ailton, he's a referência from a RC Izaque. He seems way older than Izaque but hey I can't judge. It was a good lesson and I hope that he really keeps his interest. We made our way to the praça to teach Diogo about the Plan of Salvation and it wasn't too bad. Sister Feitosa is getting better and better with her teaching and it's so fun to see :) We tried to visit Cristiane that we found last week but she wasn't home and wasn't answering so that was a bust. We then called an Uber to take us to Tabatinga, a city in our area that we don't know very well haha! We decided Uber would be better because it was already dark and almost 7pm. We got there but the family we marked with didn't answer and they don't have phones so we have no way of contacting them :/ We decided to walk back to the apartment to do some street contacts and this is when it all really started to turn haha! Sister Bradford doesn't know the area super well and I was following her because neither do I, well long story short we ended up getting so lost and it took us an hour to walk back to the apartment. It was a good time haha! I wish I could say we had some contacts but everyone was just drunk and wasn't worth it. Gotta love it!

Wednesday had a rough start haha! Tuesday night Sister Bradford and I ended up staying in wayyyyyy to late talking about the Sisters and just a few other things. It was a actually a really good conversation but it was so late haha! That meant that Wednesday I was super sleepy but we made it through :) Wednesday consisted of waiting 5-ever for pizza that we ordered for lunch and teaching a blind guy. We ordered pizza and waited for almost an hour and a half for it. It was yummy but I don't know if it really was all that worth it either. After we ate literally so much we made it to Bairro Dos Estados to try and have our lessons but they all fell through. I'm really trying to focus on finding people because man, the people we have are from the past sisters and they aren't progressing hardly at all. We were making our way back and we found this mom and her son. We started talking to them and they totally invited us to go tobtheir house in that moment. Her name is Edinede and her son, Jeovani is blind. They're both super involved in their church but we taught the Restoration and they paid attention and said we could come back. That's already progress! Haha! We had a few lessons online and we were able to talk to Izaque (RC) for a minute too before it got too late. One of our jovens also had a referência and he actually seems super interested but he doesn't live in our area:/ We were able to teach him a little bit though and it was a good lesson, hopefully the Elders can teach him more. 

Thursday we had virtual Zone Conference! It was also my last time to give a training, kinda sad but I don't know if I'll miss giving trainings haha! It was a good Conference though and we talked a lot about visiting less actives and getting referências. Literally right after we had this guy show up at our apartment to fix our door. Our door doesn't lock at all so we've just been closing it at night and hoping for the best, Sister Nordfelt didn't like that she the office sent a member from Recife Sul to come and fix it for us. He stayed for a fat minute haha! But in the end he fixed our door and we can now lock it at night :) He was super cool too and chatted with us about missions. Soon after he left we left, we had members to visit! We decided to put into practice what President Nordfelt taught us and we visited less actives. We had quite the adventure and we learned that the people don't even live here anymore. BUT, we were able to find new people and get numbers and everything. It was a tender mercy that's for sure :) We headed to the praça to do some contacts too before going to the capela to have lessons online. We found this super open couple because they had a pretty dog haha! I started to talk to them about their dog and one thing lead to another and now we're gonna teach them. As we were walking away we ran into Daniel. He told us that he has been reading the Book of Mormon and that he would try to come to church on Sunday. He then told us that he doesn't have a girlfriend and that valentines day (Saturday) is basically pointless. Why did we need to know that?? Great question, I have no idea. He then proceeded to put his hand on my shoulder and then he left. We turned around and there was this weird woman that touched my hair and then left. Thursday must've just been the day to touch Sister Garcia. We finally made it to the capela but the Elders were there so we were getting ready to leave when all the seminary kids showed up. They needed another woman to stay so that the teacher wouldn't be alone with them, our stuff was falling through so we stayed. The youth in our ward are wild is all I have to say haha! It was a good time though :) Today we did have a Bible bash on the street with an assembliano too. He just tried to tell us that the church is false and that the Lord doesn't call prophets anymore. He also told us that the America's didn't exist when Christ died. I decided not to waste air talking to him but Sister Bradford literally started to argue with him. She always has to be right and it was so hard for me to sit there and listen. I just kept thinking about the example she was setting for Sister Feitosa, it's all in the past now, and I've moved on :)

Friday was our exchange! It was my first exchange here in Camaragibe but it didn't go too bad. The Sisters here a little more relaxed than they were in Torreão that's for sure but still, gotta take care of them :) I got to go to Cordeiro and stay with Sister Harward, she actually went to school with me! It was a really good exchange and we got a lot of work done. She shared a few struggles with me and we were able to work on them all of Friday. Obedience is always a struggle I'm learning. Our ZL's are also having us set daily goals for baptism invites, sacrament meeting invites, and referrals from people. It was super good to put into practice and we ended up finding like 8 people in Cordeiro for the Sisters to teach now :) We also stopped by a few members house (President Nordfelt has a new focus to visit 5 families every month) and this lady was so funny haha! She's like 70 years old but so sassy and I loved it haha! She's a MA so it's gonna be a fat minute for her to come back I think but she loves the Sisters. We also were able to put one of their friends on date! Later in the night with also met a hippie on the street that called us Elders, love that haha! He told us that he was actually a member for like 14 years but I don't know if i believe him. He even had a choker! Haha! We also had s really solid lesson with a member lá! We had planned to talk about the Restoration but when we got to talking to him it was more of the Plan of Salvation so we switched it up but then it took another turn haha! He started to talk about how he didn't use to respect women but now he does and he just wants to follow Jesus. I wad a little uncomfortable and so was the member, I decoded to call it and it was 9pm so I cut it off. Sister Harward wasn't understanding what he was saying so after I explained it she felt the same haha! It was a wild day but it was so good and not too bad for a first exchange of the transfer. 

Saturday I came back to Camaragibe and got the run down from Sister Bradford and Sister Feitosa. It seemed like a good day and they kinda marked someone for baptism! He said if he gets a response about the Book of Mormon he'll be baptized. Saturday I also finally admitted to myself that I'm a little sick because of the amount of rain we've been having. Oops! :) Anywho, we had a super good lunch with our members! This area is mostly money or take out so it's a tender mercy to eat with the members. It wad actually really good and we got to know this family really well. Not only that but the 2nd counselor in the bishopric told us that he'd be making some changes on Sunday for the obra missionária. Woot woot! I really just wanna get things rolling here before I leave. We had a fee lessons after lunch and we ended up trying to visit some members too. We're learning that our records are all messed up and no one lives here anymore. Love that haha! Sister Bradford isn't feeling 100% too so we decided to get back to the apartment and get ready to call it a night. It was a lot more than it sounds like but I'm hopeful that the people we're finding instead of our members have a genuine interest haha! 

Sunday! We had such a good Sunday! For starters, Diogo came to church! Woot woot! He was actually there before us because he took the bus and it was faster than he thought. We also had changes made in the ward and now our MLA is super pumped to work with us :) We were fasting today so I don't have much to report as far as a good story from lunch but we did decide that we want to learn a dance or something before I go home. Also! Sunday was Parkers homecoming, thats literally wild to me that he's home. Ahhhhh! You'll have to let me know how it was! Anyways, we also headed back to the capela after our studies because UR7 had a baptism and we invited Diogo to watch. He couldn't make it in the last minute but the baptism was super good :) It was a little girl that the Elders are teaching (and her family but they have some problems rn) but they found her through her cousin that's a member. Rad! We got back to the apartment and got into weekly planning. We've been taking turns and this week it was my week to put everything in Area Book, to say that I feel so much better about how it's organized would be an understatement haha! Ir was such a good Sunday and we actually had sunshine! Like not one cloud in the sky! It was amazing :) 

Monday was probably the most unproductive day I could have had haha! There was literally no one on the streets and we had little to no lessons. It was all kind of a bust but man did we sure try! We had our studies and I'm almost done with My Plan... yikes Scoob! We also had lunch at the apartment and I was able to get some more letters written for the Sisters so that was a tender mercy. We did have some good street contacts even though they were few and far between. We ended up going to the capela to work too and contact referências from the Elders. A member showed up and we ended up leaving because we couldn't be there alone obviously. It was kind of a whirlwind day that went by super quick and didn't have much to it. 

I'll try my best to talk to you guys when I can! I love you to the moon and back!