P-Day update week 8, 04/11/2022

 ¡Hola!

This week has gone by crazy fast, Elder Nielson has been working me to the bone and I've been loving it! The Lord has been hastening his work here in our mission and we are all working hard to be instruments in his hands.

To start off I want to talk about a family we have been teaching since about a week before I arrived. We will call them Albert and Daisy. I only missed a few lessons with Albert and Daisy before I got here but the faith they've showed from the beginning has been amazing to see. They listened intently in our lessons and have accepted the gospel like no one else I have seen before, they rock! Anyway at the end of P-Day last week we stopped by their house and taught them about the commandments. We usually try and teach the commandments during other lessons just as they come up, but this time we decided to have two full lessons about it. It went very well. After our lesson not only did they accept to let us help them get married but they also have a date to be baptized! They are crazy good and I'm so excited to see their progress as we approach their baptismal date and after! I've never actually helped someone get married before but it was actually pretty simple. One day we stopped by the government building in the center of the city and they told us we only had to have a few documents and some witnesses, we were definitely glad to hear that. In fact, so were they, when we told them it wouldn't be very hard they actually decided to move their baptismal date one week sooner so they could go to the temple with our branch!!

Going along with that, we also have two other of our converts going to the temple, so we decided we were going to ask the mission president if we could go as well. Really, the reason is so we can help our converts, especially since two of them are disabled so the help would be appreciated. And it would be a great blessing to go to the house of the Lord as well! So Elder Nielson and I mustered up all our courage to ask the mission president, we called him and...He said we could go! We will be going on the 23rd. The branch is renting a bus and it's only going to cost us 300 pesos each (around 15usd) we are so excited to be with our converts in their first visit to the temple, and just being there in general is going to be amazing!

Because Elder Nielson is the District Leader, he has a few more responsibilities than the common rabble. One of those being going on exchanges with all the elders in our district. So he went on exchanges this week with an elder named Cottrell, and their first meeting was with one of our friends named Dayanna. We have been teaching her for a few months, she comes to church and reads the Book of Mormon but has been unsure about baptism, up to this point! In their meeting with her she said she had something to say, usually when someone says that it's not always good. But when she said she came to the conclusion that she wanted to be baptized it was absolutely amazing! Obviously I wasn't there but just hearing that she is taking this step to come closer to Christ brings me much joy! 

I love Mexico, my area is beautiful and each day my love for the land and the people grows, I couldn't have been sent anywhere more perfect, Heavenly Father knows his children! My Spanish has also definitely been improving, I'm learning some good mission appropriate slang so people don't think I'm a robot or anything like that. And my overall fluidity is getting better. The other day someone couldn't believe I wasn't from Mexico, but then like five minutes later I stumbled through a sentence that definitely shouldn't have been as hard as it was. So my humility is definitely staying at a healthy level haha. Elder Nielson is also giving me a lot of advice to study and improve my Spanish, he said that most people return from their mission not being fluent because they get to a a point where they can understand well and can teach lessons pretty alright, but they don't continue to learn and be better. So I am going to keep trying to improve and hopefully become fluent by the end of my mission!

The teaching has been really amazing as well! It was a little hard at first, but Elder Nielson and I are really hitting our stride. We're able to convey our concepts "simply and powerfully" as my companion likes to drill into me. Really, it has been hard adjusting and I've been feeling some anxiety about my ability to teach and be a missionary, but when we're in lessons and the Holy Ghost is touching the hearts of out f
riends all I feel is peace and happiness. Speaking of peace and happiness, I've taught a lot of lessons with Elder Nielson and the hands down greater part about being a missionary is seeing those we teach find peace and happiness in their lives, when before they struggled to make it day by day. That makes everything worth it.

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting, so I guess I'm still feeling that a little bit. I just want to end my letter with my brief testimony.

I know that my redeemer lives, I know that Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the life. His sacrifice has led to me finding peace I couldn't have found any other way. You can have this peace, follow his example and receive blessings from on high. I love you all and I love the work.

-Elder Garnica

Photos: I still don't have access to internet that will work with my camera so I don't have a lot of photos this time

Elder Nielson and me about to eat a pie (or "pay" en español)

Elder Nielson and me after playing dodge ball with our zone