P-Day update week 26, 08/15/2022
Hola a todos!!
This week has gone by suuuper fast! I feel like I was just writing my last email! But we've been working really hard and have had a nice full week!
All the Elders that shaved their heads at the MLC.
All those at the conference
Selfie on Hermana Perkins phone at the conference!
So first things first, last Monday was my first Pday here in Xalapa, it was so much fun! I can't remember if I've already talked about it, but if I have, I guess I'm just reiterating my point haha!! So every P-Day our Zone and the other zone in Xalapa go to one of the church buildings and play basketball with President Perkins! It was absolutely nuts!! There were so many people there, and it was amazing! Just about all the Elders showed up and we played basketball for about three hours!! President Perkins actually played basketball at Rick's College, and he hasn't list his flow yet. So even though he may look old, he's got some play in him! We continued the day with soccer and then lunch at...Chili's!! Thanks to Xalapa being a relatively big city, there are a lot of things to do and places to eat at! Including American restaurants like Hardee's and Chili's!! It was just like the United States, a big bacon burger and a molten lava cake! It was definitely weird though, I mean just the fact that I was in the middle of Mexico and eating a bacon burger from Chili's is strange haha!! But that wasn't the strangest thing of the day, after having our weekly meeting, we decided we would shave our heads, a sacrifice for the Lord haha!! But it was cool because a lot of us did it, so it was also a bonding moment, and I don't think I look too bad!
Before shaving my head.
During the head shave.
This week we also had our MLC (Mission Leadership Conference/Council) this is where all the leadership of the mission gets together in Xalapa to have training and talk about how we can improve our mission! So we had this conference, and since all the ZLs were coming down for the conference they needed to have somewhere to stay. So the ZLs from Martinez de la Torre stayed with us, it was funny because one of them was the coordinator right before I came in, and the other one was on of my ZLs my second transfer! So we decided to welcome them with Little Caesar's pizza! But they let us know after we bought the pizzas that they decided to go to the American mall here and eat food there. So we had an extra pizza, the only sane decision was to eat it. And we did. But we got back later that day and told spooky stories with the other Elders before going to bed haha!! And the next day we had our conference, we walked in and I got a lot of "Elder Garnica, what happened to your hair?!?!" But as the rest if my brothers in shaved head walked in it started to feel like they were the ones who looked weird haha!! Anyway I got to see a lot of my friends there and a lot of people I haven't met yet, it was really cool! So after a quick breakfast we got right into the conference! The overall idea this time was trying to focus on working with the members in our ward and not focusing as much on contacting on the streets and knocking doors. At first I was a little taken a back, I mean contracting on the street is my main way of finding people, but after talking about all the people we've helped get baptized in the past couple transfers through contacting vs references form members, it became obvious where the focus should be placed. The majority of the Conference was spent talking about the importance of members in this work, but also Hermana Perkins shared a special message to us about the culture of our mission. She talked about what it shouldn't be (having fun, learning Spanish, etc.) But then she explained what it should be. The first point was the one that hit me the most, she said the first part of our mission culture is, personal conversion to the gospel. We can't help anyone else be converted if you aren't yourself, a true convert to the gospel. The conference overall was so amazing, the spirit that was there with us was so strong! Like almost nothing I've ever felt before! Overall the conference was amazing! And after the big spiritual meeting we got a big Costco pizza meal! A great day to be sure!!
Costco!!
Costco haul! Not a lot because I don't have money, only the essentials!!
Alright this week we've seen a lot of people start progressing! On Tuesday we had a lesson with a man named Lenny! Lenny has been going through a super rough time lately, he got caught in a fraud scheme and has been facing the trials that come from that! So when we met with him, it was the second time he's seen the missionaries but my first time, And he told us how much the gospel had been a help to him! So we went in and decided to teach him about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and about the steps that one needs to take to be on the Lord's covenant path. It was a very powerful meeting, at the end of our lesson we knew that if he wanted to change his life, he needed change. So we invited him to be baptized, and he said yes! We're very excited to see how it goes with him and see how much he'll progress in these days! Speaking of baptismal dates, we also taught one of our friends named Loretta, she is the wife of a member in the ward based Martin. We've known about some of the trials she's had, struggles with bipolar, with her marriage, but mainly with her faith! So we went and taught her the same thing as Lenny, the gospel of Jesus Christ, thanks to her husband already being a member and his insights and his love for his wife, she was able to accept a baptismal date! But after talking the details for a bit we found out that they aren't actually married! Haha it looks like we're going to help three couples get married now! How exciting!!
So about a month ago, a member from our ward got back from his mission as president of the Queretaro Mexico mission, his name is Presidente Dominguez. It's really cool because he's just like a returned missionary, and we still call him president thanks to his new calling, Elders Quorum President! So him being basically an adult Returned Missionary and also being Elders Quorum president means that he's hype about missionary work, and he can help the ward get involved with our efforts as well! So the other day we ate with him and his wife, we got to know them pretty well, we talked a lot about his mission, and how we are going to change the mentality of the ward to be more focused on missionary work! It's exactly what we need in the ward and in the mission, just to change the mentality from "sitting to serving" I'm really excited to see the fruits that come from this new initiative!! Anyway they made us really good food, we also talked about my friends that are serving in Queretaro right now, and how different it is from Xalapa! Also his house was really nice, it reminded me of the temple to be quite honest, it was truly just a nice experience. He also finished off our meal with giving us a reference!
So to start this new initiative, President Dominguez came into Elders Quorum class yesterday and got right to work. He put every member of the Quorum into an assignment (Well being, Missionary work, or Temple work) he is super excited to get this ward, we'll excited haha! He brings with him such power and authority. Wherever her goes it seems the spirit follows, it's been just a few short days, but he's already become a great role model for me! Can't wait to get to know him better!!
I look just like Millhouse!!
So, onto another topic, our duties as Coordinators can be summed up to two main tasks, Facebook, and English Connect classes. The former being the most time intensive, you see we are the people that make all the announcements that every non member person who lives in our mission sees, they are the ones that we pay money for, so we have to make them look good!! And our first two weeks we didn't have time to get them up, but these weeks we focused up and got two of our announcements up! One of them was about hope and the atonement, and the other about baptism! I'm super excited because I actually got to help a little and get these up and running! Let's hope they didn't turn out too bad! We also train and help our Facebook specialists who are spread throughout the mission, so they can get their zones filming posts and bringing in those who are interested to learn more! In fact we had our first meeting with them last week, I still don't really know anything yet, so Elder Parker did just about everything, but that's fine! It turned put pretty good :)). So anyway our other big responsibility is our English Connect classes, every week we have English classes on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday at 7:00. These classes are free for everyone living in our area and are a great opportunity for those who are interested to learn English, and learn more about Christ! We mainly just make slides for the classes, notify the students each week and get our specialists ready to teach! Honestly at first I didn't really like it, I was getting used to just being a normal missionary so the extra stuff we have to do felt like a distraction form my work. But these past few days I've seen how important it is to do everything we can to help people hear the Gospel, it is my duty, and this, I've realized, is a means to fulfill that duty!
Orange cat!
Well I'm all out of time, but I am absolutely loving it here! I went to Costco today and bought a card so I can go every week and stock up on my wonderful snacks, my zone is absolutely amazing, and is full of beautiful souls!! I'm really just having a great time, even if I still am homesick for my old area hahaha!!
Okay spiritual thought today will be short and sweet. Let God prevail. That is the invitation from the prophet, all we have comes from God, so why not give back all we can? Let God prevail and you will see his hand in your life, of that I Testify to you all!! I Love you and I hope you have a wonderful week!!
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