P-Day update week 24, 08/01/2022

Hola Hola!!

Its been a pretty good week here in Zacapoaxtla, the weekend was a little crazy, but in a good way!!

My first Mexican glass of Coke. It was as good as they say.

Alright so I'm sure I've talked about how amazing our branch is, here in Zacapoaxtla. All the members are amazing people, so kind and friendly, and truly help us a lot with the missionary work here! Just this past Tuesday the Elders quorum put together an activity to go visit the less active families in the branch! Early on Tuesday morning us four missionaries with another five members of the Elders quorum all met up at our house of prayer. Which for some people is a 2 hour drive from their house, and yet they made the journey just to help the other families, it's truly wonderful to see such committed disciples!! Anyway after we all got together we headed out, first to Zaragoza. After not having much success with our first couple stops, we went to the house of a man who was baptized about a month before I got here! He lost his wife not too long ago, and it has been weighing him down a lot. So we stopped by and just focused on sharing our love for him, and inviting him to come to church with us again on Sunday! He was so happy that we stopped the Tamales vendor in the street, and bought us all Tamales!! I got a sweet Tamales that was bright pink, it was soo good!!! And he also decided that he would tag along with us to our next stop. So we headed out and visited a few more people, and the same thing ended up happening, that were so happy that we stopped by and took the time to reach out, and got really animated about coming to church with us again! Once we had visited a couple families in Zaragoza, and had eaten a lot of walnuts, we headed back to Zacapoaxtla for one last visit! We popped by one of the members who owns a panadería (bakery for just bread). We haven't seen him in a long time and we brought some milk since President Luis said that would be our peace offering haha! We got there, offered him the milk and just sat and chatted with him as we ate breakfast and drank milk! Once again we got him excited to come to church! This whole experience has shown me how much of a difference just one person can make when they show small ants of love!

Pink Tamal

This week was the last week of the transfer so we had our final Zone Council! So this transfer has been a wonderful opportunity for me to learn, to learn how to show true christlike love to all! I found myself at times getting angry for little unimportant things that happen to us throughout the day. I found myself feeling separated from my companion. But at the Zone Conference our District Leader sat me down and gave me some advice. He talked to me a lot about love, about figuring out how to make things works even in the face of adversity! He told us about the importance of humility and charity. He talked to us alot about what we can do to improve out experience here on the mission! It was exactly what I needed to hear, he told me the answers to just about all the things that have been bothering me, and I can't be more grateful! After the big talk he had with us, our mentality as a companionship changed, almost overnight, the things that had been holding us back, were now turning into strengths! I saw the promise from the Lord in Ether 12:27 come to fruition, and it was truly something I can't forget!

For about the entirety of this transfer I have been very lax with how I spend my money. My first two transfers I made sure to make a budget and stick to it, but this transfer I basically just threw that out the window. And this past week it all caught up to me. The day of the Zone Council one of our ZLs was sent to Xalapa to be the new Assistant to the President, so his companion decided to come with us to Zacapoaxtla until the transfers came in. And as we started planning our day, and planning our travel, I realized I didn't have enough money to get home! I knew I had been running low, but that day I realized by how much I was running low. But we only had one option, do what we need to do and hope for the best! So we headed out and went to a nearby city called Atempan where our ZL grabbed some clothes for the weekend and got everything organized. And from there we headed to Zaragoza to meet with one of our friends, when we got there they unfortunately had to cancel on us, so we took that opportunity to meet with knew of our recent converts! We went to their house and taught them all a quick lesson, we talked about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the importance of having a firm foundation in Christ! It went really well! But after that it was time to head home. We didn't have any money for the taxi home but we decided to just walk in that direction and see what happens. When we got to the taxi stop, we heard someone call for us. We turned around and there was one of the branch members who coincidentally drives a Combi from Zaragoza to Zacapoaxtla! He asked us where we were headed, and then offered to give us a free ride to Zaca! It was truly a miracle! We had no way to get home, and here out of nowhere comes a free ride! It was honestly very very incredible! How perfect is our God? Very perfect!! Also the next day we got caught in a huge rainstorm without our umbrellas or jackets and once again a member drove by just in time to give us a ride home, you can't make this stuff up folks! Morale of the story: if you see missionaries caught in the rain, give em a ride, Heavenly Father doesn't accidentally put you in perfect opportunities to serve for no reason!

Huitzilan. What more need I say? On Friday we decided to head back down to our favorite part of the area and meet with the family we just set a baptismal date for, so we could iron out all the details and teach them some more! So that morning we got ready and headed to the terminal, but when we got there, we found out that the combi had already left! So we didn't know what to do!! But we asked one of the director guys and he told us that we could board the combi to Zapotitlan and from there, ride in the back of a truck, called a "Ruta" to Huitzilan. Obviously we didn't have any other choice, so we hopped on and took a nice 2 hour nap on the journey to Zapotitlan! After being woken up by the driver we hopped off and got onto the truck to head to Huitzilan. It was amazing, driving from Zapotitlan to Huitzilan in the back of the truck was never something I thought I would've enjoyed, but because it was all open, as we drove through the green untouched mountains of the Sierra all I could do was sit there in awe of this beautiful earth we are so lucky to live in! After about 15 minutes of looking at natural wonders we made it to Huitzilan! They gave us a light breakfast of pancakes because they said, "we're taking you to a special party later, where yall are our guests of honor, so you can't eat too much". At that point I was intrigued, so after our light breakfast and a quick lesson with our friends, where we just read 3 Nephi 11, we headed out to thus special party! We walked there from the member's house, and enjoyed the scenery on the way, and made it to the house of their god daughter which was on the side of the mountain! So the whole meal is part of this cultural ceremony, and the first part is, when you enter the house you wash your hands with a brand new bar of soap and a bowl of water filled with these special white flowers. And as you wash your hands, they have this goblet type thing that is burning this special plant, and they like spread the smoke on you and wave it around! And when you're done you dry your hands with a brand new handkerchief made by the mother of the God daughter! After everyone has entered you eat relatively normal food (I say relatively because I ended up eating an entire pig snout!) And at the end of the meal the family brings out a whole cow's leg for the family of the god parents! It was definitely something I won't forget for a very long time! And during the meal the members from the branch taught us some words in nahuatl! I only remember that the "thank you very much" is "miak tasocamatik"! Hearing then speak nahuatl is the strangest thing ever, hard to believe that people can actually speak this ancient Aztec language! Anyway after that we just headed back and got on the combi to the house! Overall a very interesting day!

Me about to take a chunk out of a pig snout!

Okay because this is the last week of the transfer that means that the new transfers came in! So there's some news, I've been here in Zacapoaxtla for the past three transfers (roughly 4.5 months). And I honestly thought that I would be staying here and continue to work. But President Perkins had a different idea, and I am getting transferred to Xalapa! I will be going to an area called Alborada, and I will be the new coordinator in the mission! I don't know what that means but I'm excited to find out haha! It honestly was sad news at first, when I first found out that I was getting transfered from from Zacapoaxtla the first emotion was "wow!" And then "wow :(" I've spent the last couple months of my life here and it's the only thing I really know when it comes to being a missionary. This is the place where I learned to be a missionary, the place where I've learned to call home, but now I have to go. I was really sad for the first couple hours, but after talking to the members and having to go through some pretty sad goodbyes they all helped me understand that it's part of God's plan! Heavenly Father wants me in Xalapa, and I'm not gonna let him down! And they also have stuff there, like: Costco Walmart, Carl's Jr. (Hardee's :^)), and an American mall! So I think I'll have a good time there, and my new companions name is Elder Parker, he's already been there for a transfer and everyone tells me he's a really good missionary, so I'm excited about that! Overall I have a lot of feelings, but I'm grateful for the time I've had here in Zacapoaxtla and I wont ever forget that!!

Last selfie with Dayanna and her mom Vicky.

But the hardest part was saying goodbye to all the members, on Saturday night I heard gossip that I was getting transferred to Xalapa, obviously I couldn't trust it completely until I found out for sure. But I decided to tell the branch president and he let me give a talk in sacrament meeting since one of the speakers wasn't going to be able to come. So on Sunday I gave a talk about Heavenly Father, I didn't have a lot of time to prepare, but that's what being a missionary is all about! So I went up and talked a lot about how he listens to each and every one of our prayers, and answers them all, and how incredible it is that such a great and powerful being listens to us, and we have the opportunity to call him "Father". And of course I slipped in a little tiny goodbye in my talk just to close it out, and after the meeting I said goodbye properly to the members.

Tonight we'll eat with President Luis for the last time, and with that I will close out my time here, but I hope one day I'll be able to come back, if not during the mission, after.

And for my spiritual thought I will talk a little about the talk that Elder Holland gave a few years ago called "remember lot's wife". In this discourse he talks about how lot's wife turned back and focused on the passed, and didn't trust Heavenly Father was able to bring her to something better. I feel like it's definitely fitting right now, I just want to give my testimony. I know that Heavenly Father lives his children and had a perfect plan for all of us. I know that he will always let change happen in our lives to help us grow and become better people, if we never changed in our lives and never grew, we wouldn't have the opportunity to become the people we are meant to become in this life. So I invite you all, to accept change as it comes, even though it may be scary, I know that Heavenly Father has so much more in store for us than we could ever dream of! I love you all, and have a great week!

-Elder Garnica