P-Day update week 9, 04/18/2022

 ¡Hola a todos!

It has been an amazing week here in the land of milk and honey! We've been continuing to work hard and continuing to have a wonderful time!

Easter morning baptism

This week has been like the last couple, we get up very early, work hard and open our mouths to everyone we see and we get home late. I'm starting to get used to my 70+hr work weeks without pay or vacation time haha, but seriously the work has actually been fun, I love that preaching about Jesus is my job! Of course there have been a few rough days here and there though, in fact on Tuesday morning I woke up with really bad stomach pain, and I ended up spending half my day in bed and the other half running to the bathroom. It wasn't pretty but Elder Nielson and another elder went out to get me Mexican Gatorade. It was really bad but it definitely helped! And besides that the work has been treating me pretty well!

If y'all remember Albert and Daisy from my last email, then you'll remember that they make the decision to be baptized! Their baptismal service was something I won't ever forget any time soon. We had to get up pretty early so we could do the baptisms and make it to church after, but that wasn't a big deal to me in the slightest. We hitched a ride with the branch president (President Aswell) and headed to a nearby river in an area called Apulco. It was pretty cold to be honest, but the fact that Albert and Daisy were getting baptized in a river on Easter morning helped me see the bright side. When we got there, Sister Aswell said a prayer, and Elder Nielson and I gave our testimonies on baptism. The spirit was with us. Albert went first. He was baptized by Elder Nielson, then I had the opportunity to baptize Daisy. I can't describe the feeling of helping Daisy into that river, then pulling a new person out of the waters of baptism. I am so humbled that Heavenly Father has allowed a very not perfect person to help with such a perfect act of love!

Elder Nielson, Albert, Daisy, me, President Aswell

 

Daisy being baptized

And we also had the opportunity to go with them to the presidency building for their wedding. We didn't have a very big celebration or anything but afterwards we did go out for gorditas! And the next day we brought them over a cake to celebrate as well.

Cake with the newlyweds!

After church we met with another of our friends Dayanna who told us last week that she wanted to be baptized. So we met with her after church to visit with her and iron out some details. It was a wonderful meeting! We talked a lot about her faith and her diligence in learning the truth, I mean she started using some terms most non-members don't know, she really is just so ready to serve the Lord and grow herself as a result! One of the very cool things she also brought up, was that she also wants to go to the temple with the branch!!! It was awesome to hear that she has this desire as well, we told her we were going to do everything we could to get her to the temple on Saturday. That only gives us six days to get everything ready for her baptism and to get everything squared away so she can go to the temple, It's a tall order but I know Heavenly Father wants her to go to the temple, and when he wants something done, well, it gets done.

We also went to a nearby city called Cuetzalan to have dinner with some members and to teach a few lessons. The ride there was really rough, we had to ride in this combi for an hour and a half, and that wouldn't be so bad but I had to stand the whole time since there weren't any seats left, combis don't usually treat me well but this one in particular had it out for me. But when we got there the member we were eating with gave us coke (Literally Mexican medicine, I'm convinced it can cure any illness) and tacos dorados, so it was all worth it! After that we went to the center of town for an appointment, and it was crazy! I knew that Cuetzalan was touristy but this place was very different from the other places I've been, especially with the giant Catholic cathedral in the center of it all! But it was actually quite pretty when you didn't notice all the people running around selling things and taking pictures.

That is really all for this week, My Spanish comprehension is continuing to grow with each day, and people are starting to make more sense. I've also been focusing on having really good study time this week which has helped me feel more connected with the spirit, which has been helping me in our lessons! I want to say how happy I am to be here, even during the hard times I know that I'm doing what Heavenly Father wants me to do, and he will help me.

I want to say how much I love you all, I don't have a lot of time to talk to a lot of you, but just know that I hold you all very close to my heart, and some of you might even have been part of the reason I wanted to serve a mission. So please be kind to yourself. Loving thy neighbor as thyself implies that you need to love yourself a lot too, don't forget that.

-Elder Garnica