P-Day Update Week 6, 3/24/2022

¡Buenas tardes!

My final week in the CCM has been just wonderful! It hasn't been super exciting but just good day after good day this week!

One of the most eventful days was definitely Monday. It started off fairly normal, good breakfast, good morning class, and good lunch. But after lunch and the gym the other Elders in our district came late to class because, get this, our house flooded. They told us that they were just hanging out in the room when another house-mate of ours said "uh elders, you should see this" and when they looked down the hall they saw water rushing out of the kitchen that we were locked out of. They didn't really know how to react, but they just got the important stuff off the floor and tried their best to sweep the water out of the house, while others went to reception to let someone know. The CCM guys sent a plumber to fix it right then, it turns out a pipe burst in the kitchen, which just filled the house with gunky black water! but by the time the Elders told us about the incident everything was fixed and cleaned, with zero damage, good thing there were people home at the time, or who knows what could have happened. Also later that day during my personal study I decided I wanted to build stronger faith in Jesus Christ, this was my next big goal. So I used the guide in Preach My Gospel to help give me somewhere to start, I know as I strive to build this attribute everything else will come easier, so wish me luck!

Another fun event was, my companion, Elder Ashton, had the wonderful opportunity to go to the immigration office on P-Day last week, and unfortunately didn't have much better of an experience than I did. So when he came back I made sure to console him a bit, as I am a bit of a legend when it comes to having rough days at the immigration office haha! But he also handled it a bit better than I did. Also I have successfully overcome the CCM stomach bug! It had a hold on me for a few days but I definitely showed it who's boss, so I was already off to a good start after that. And the rest of the week didn't disappoint, I have definitely felt that the things we're learning in class are testing both my Spanish and my Doctrinal abilities which has been giving me the opportunity to lean a little less on my own understanding when I get tripped up. Also due to my companion and fellow Elders in the district, I have been going to the gym almost everyday, so my body doesn't get to rest either. And the other day at the gym I ran into someone that I knew from high school when I was living in Utah, we had a nice conversation just kinda talking about Kearns and catching up, very cool to see someone I knew in the Pre-Mission life haha.

This week our district has also really turned up the intensity on memorization, as a leadership companionship, making sure people are motivated and working on our required memorization is one of our responsibilities. But this week they have been very self motivated with it, we have all of the main principles in the lessons memorized and all the required scriptures outside of the lessons down as well (all in Spanish). I'm sure it helps that we run through them in class with our morning teacher but I am still very impressed with them all. The only bad part is that we have spent so much time memorizing these things, only for our branch president to tell us on Sunday that missionaries are no longer required to have them memorized. I could tell our branch president wasn't particularly happy about this, mainly from him saying "I don't like this change" but at least it is one less stressor for the generations in the CCM after us. And because we already have almost everything memorized we still reap the rewards from our work, which will hopefully show itself in the mission field.

We had the opportunity on Tuesday to hear a devotional. The first 45 minutes or so of the devotional focused on the Relief Society, the thing that I thought was most interesting was that the CCM President's wife told us the difference between the Relief Society and other women's organizations. She said that the difference was, The Relief Society was created through the keys of the priesthood, which gives it access to the power of the priesthood, it allows Relief Society members to gather Israel and bless families on both sides of the veil. I found that statement particularly powerful! The rest of the devotional was a live broadcast from the Provo MTC, Elder Dale G. Renlund was the speaker. The biggest takeaway for me from this devotional was that he told us we don't have to be perfect messengers of God's word. The message we share is completely perfect, and we are called to deliver this word, if we were anything more than regular people called to work, we would get in the way of the message, that is the message of Jesus Christ. I liked that because obviously I am not perfect and nor will I ever be in this mortal life, but I will give my time and talents to the Lord that his perfect message will be heard by the children of men.

We also had the opportunity to go to the temple again today, It was a wonderful experience just like last time, if not even better since I wasn't fighting my body the whole time

This week has been very bitter sweet, I have had such a wonderful time in the CCM and will miss my district so much, but I am so ready to get out in the field and preach this word to the children of God! I know I'm not 100% ready, and I know that I'm scared but "this is the way." I will leave this email off with a spiritual thought, which shockingly, is about faith. in Mosiah 4:11-12 it says:

"humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel. And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God"

I'm not sure about you but being filled with the love of God seems pretty good to me. What I like about this is it's simplicity, "my soul delighteth in plainness," and this is plain as can be, it's not always easy to live these attributes, but the blessings are there for those that desire them. With such a complicated world, being able to constantly rejoice is a necessity for all. I implore you to pray to The Father and lose yourself in the study of your scriptures, here you will find peace.

My next email will be sent from Xalapa, wish me luck!

-Elder Garnica