P-Day update week 16, 06/06/2022

¡Hola  a todos!

I'll be honest, nothing much happened this week, Elder Nielson has been deathly ill and we haven't been able to really leave the house, but I will still give all the details of the week!

So like I said, we've been stuck inside for the majority of this week while Elder Nielson recuperates from his sickness. So that means we can't really do the traditional work we normally do, or really much work at all, but I tried to make sure I took advantage of our time. The big thing I've been feeling this week is an unusual amount of patriotism, it might be because a small part of me misses the United States (possibly a big part of me haha), or maybe I'm just a good old fashioned red blooded American !! Whatever the case may be I've found the best way to quell my patriotic hunger (and also the only way) is to listen to talks given about the United States. You would be surprised how many BYU speeches have been given about our beloved country. If you ever find yourself in a patriotic slump, I recommend you go there. One speaker that has been particularly fun to listen to, would be our very own Ezra Taft Benson. I do have to thank my brother Miguel for giving me some talks to start off with, but I can definitely say I've been feeling the pump of red, white, and blue! But in my search to fill the Star-Spangled Banner shaped hole in my heart, I have come to the conclusion that Heavenly Father loves all his children. I know, unbelievable?!?! But seriously, even  though I believe myself to be a citizen of the greatest country in the world, I have also come to gain such a love for Mexico, and the people that live here. I can say with 100% confidence that no matter where you are from, or currently live, Heavenly Father loves you! So if anyone has any good patriotic talks to listen to, please send them my way!

Also, when I wasn't listening to speeches about America and marking scriptures like the American flag, we made sure to find a way to be productive. And that way, is calling people on the phone. Because we are the only missionaries in our huge area, whenever someone sends a reference to us from here in Zacapoaxtla to the very ends of the mountain range we are the ones to contact them. But we've been busy the past couple weeks and haven't been very good about contacting them. So we decided to use our resources and do some work. The first couple calls of the week were a little rough. I'm still not amazing at Spanish and the way a conversation is started here is very different than in the United States. Back home I was accustomed to just cutting right to the chase with all my texts and phone calls, which is socially acceptable over there, but here you have to make sure to not skip any of the pleasantries. You need to make sure to say sorry a lot, not say anything until you've asked them how their day has been going, introducing yourself and giving them a chance to introduce themselves as well. Thinking about it, most of that stuff would be pretty normal in the U.S. too, but no matter! Anyways, after the first couple messed up calls, and advice from my companion I started to get the hang of it. It turns out that if you aren't dreadfully boring or incredibly annoying people will actually talk to you! So we were able to have some conversations with real people. But at the end of the day we didn't have a whole lot of success, we did have a couple people who were interested, but a lot more people who's time just hasn't come yet, they'll come around :)

One of the people we called was a man named Vernon. Vernon has been having some family trouble, and was in a particularly sad mood when he came across an ad about missionaries who help people learn to pray and connect with God. So he went ahead and clicked it, and we got into contact with him. The truth is that he has so much faith, he prays everyday and has tried a few different pastors out, and wants to become closer with his Father in Heaven. But, like a lot of people he doesn't know what to do with this faith or how to help it grow even more. So I guess that's where we come in. He agreed to meet with us in our house of prayer on Thursday and hear our message. It worked out since that was the day we were gonna go to the hospital. It went great! He was so receptive to the spirit (which can be hard for people, especially men) and shared some experiences with us that helped us understand how to best guide him. The only problem is that he can't read. The Book of Mormon is one of the most powerful tools in conversion and it's going to be tricky for him to gain that testimony without reading it, but we know that the Lord provides a way. So we will continue to guide him and teach him so he can flourish into a wonderful disciple of Christ one day! We also had two lessons with a family that lives near our house of prayer. We met one of the family members on the street last week and she said she would love to hear our message. So we made sure to drop by and teach her and her mother this week. They also are super good! I felt the spirit so strong when we were teaching them and they have such a desire for their confusion to be dissolved in the light of the restored gospel of Christ! The only problem we had with them is that the father of the house isn't interested at all. After our second visit we were told we couldn't meet at their house anymore. But the nice thing is that they live literally right next the the house of prayer. Talk about a blessing! So we will continue to teach them along with Vernon and hopefully I can give y'all good news about them next week.

The view after the rain outside our house of prayer

It's starting to look like I'm not gonna have an entry now for the next while that doesn't have a great Huitzilan story! This week is no different. So for a tad bit of background, here in this area we have just hit the wet season. It's been raining a lot lately and they've been some heavy storms to boot! Since we've been here in Huitzilan we were informed that during huge electrical storms, a bunch of these flying ants fall from the sky. The ants are called "chicantanas" and it usually gets the whole town riled up, why? Because once they fall, you hop em on the grill and eat em!! That's right folks, this week in Huitzilan we got very lucky! We arrived right after a big storm and Hermana Vicky, with the help of her husband Edson picked up a whole bunch outside their house and stuck them in the fridge. So when we arrived she was "cleaning" the ants and getting them ready to eat. Obviously I asked if I could try and help, she said yes, and gave me a quick tutorial. Basically the ants come down with a head, body, legs, and wings. She had already taken off all the heads, but we still needed to take off the wings and the legs to get them ready to cook. So I got at it, the first few were very weird. I've never ripped off the legs of any creature before and it wasn't something I thought I'd ever do! But little did I know that once the ants start to defrost, it gets even more interesting. They start to come back to life! Even without their heads they still move around and try to escape. And when you amputate them they scrunch up and make noises almost like...well almost like you just ripped their legs off! So for the next 30 minutes or so Elder Nielson and I found ourselves ripping the wings and legs off of these ants that were trying their best to not let us do that. It was the strangest thing I have ever done in my entire life. IT WAS SOO COOL!! And let's not forget the best part, eating them. After cleaning all the ants, Hermana Vicky and her mom started frying them up. After they had finished we had a nice chunk of fried ants to put in our tortillas and enjoy! They were actually really good, they tasted almost like sausage, but they weren't very heavy like sausage. I ate about 4 ant tacos and still felt fine afterwards. It was honestly pretty amazing! So at the and of the day we massacred, cooked, and ate probably 100 ants, I don't think I'll ever forget this day! Moral of the story, try new things, you never know what you might get out of it!

Ant closeup

Fried ant tacos!

Like I said in the intro, Elder Nielson has been fighting a stomach bug for a while now. He got really sick last Sunday and hasn't really been back to working order since. One of the Hermanas that lives near us though, loves us very much and has been there to deliver us food and supplies (much to our chagrin at times). She has a daughter who is a nurse and she offered to have her take a look at my companion. After meeting with her and a doctor they decided that Nielson needed an IV of straight vitamins and medicine. So we set up a day when we could go to Vicky's house (not Huitzilan Vicky, neighbor Vicky) and have her daughter give Neilson this IV. It was so interesting, so the day of we make our way over and chat with Vicky while we waited for her daughter, all the while letting the nervousness build up! Eventually she arrived with all her supplies and had Elder Nielson lay down and started to look for a vein. Apparently, when a person is nervous or anxious, their veins become harder to see and she kept telling Elder Nielson to stop being nervous! She eventually found a good spot and stuck him. An unusual amount of blood came out, but she eventually got the IV in and started pumping my companion full of vitamins! After the line was in we just waited and talked for a couple hours while the "suero", as they called it, emptied all into Elder Nielson. When it was all said and done it was very late and we had to go home, but the next day Nielson woke up and said he felt super human. We are confident the suero has done it's magic! So I will put in the picture of Nielson and just let you all know that he is intact doing better, so no need to worry! But a prayer for him I'm sure wouldn't hurt.

A cat that I've been trying to get a picture of for 9 weeks!

Okay that is it for stories this week, but now I will leave you with a spiritual thought. Along with the patriotic talks, Miguel also gave me some other talks he thought I should listen to. One of those is a talk called "Walk with me" by President Henry B. Eyring. It is so good! I recommend you all go and listen or read it. It talks a lot about priesthood holders, but anyone who has a calling works through the power of the priesthood and the blessings that come from this sacred responsibility are available to all of God's children. The thing I want to touch on is the same reason this talk is called "walk with me." When we walk the path of the Gospel, Jesus Christ walks with us because it is his path. Life can be hard, life can be frustrating, and life can be sorrowful. But one thing I know for certain is that when we strive to to walk this path and strive to be the people God wants us to be. The grace of Christ makes up the rest. 

Jesus Christ has said "I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." I bare my testimony to you all that Christ is the way, and when we walk in his way, he will always be beside us, he will always strengthen us in our times of need and he will never leave us stranded. Come follow him. I love Christ, and I love you all, stay safe this week!

-Elder Garnica