P-Day update week 28, 08/29/2022

 -lost the phone, whatsapp web, paper planner

¡Hola a todos! 

This week I'm very crunched for time but I'll make sure to fit in the good stuff, I know I say that every time but this time it's true haha!! 

              All the keys we have in our house, we had to try and open one of our gates!

This week has gone by super fast, probably one of, if not the fastest weeks I've had on my mission so far! We've basically just been running around like crazy these past few days, doing all the things that had to be done as we prepare to finish this month. One of those big things we had to do this week was get everything ready for our wedding and subsequent baptism happening in the coming week! So thanks to me having already married one couple up to this point I have just a little experience with all the documents and everything required to help the wedding come to pass! (Side note: I feel like my English is getting worse every week, so I'm sure there is going to come a day when y'all read my entry and you find it hard to understand with a lot of grammatical errors. I plead that you have patience with me as I try and get a hang of Spanish, that's all haha!) Anyway, here in Xalapa it's very expensive to get married, about 3,000 pesos(roughly $150 USD)! Which doesn't sound like a lot but that is a lot of money in Mexico, and not very easy to save up and prepare for a wedding. But we came to the knowledge that in one of the nearby cities called "Coatepec" a person can get married for 1,500 pesos, half of what you need in Xalapa! So this week we had to make our way over to this city, it's only about 45 minutes away and turn in all the forms and documents for the wedding! But before that we actually had to finish the documents, and that meant leaving the house before 7 o'clock, then leaving the Zone to go to Centro and then heading all the way back home. All that to get the four signatures for the witnesses, and make all the copies required! So after having gathered all the required things, we headed to Coatepec to finish filling them out and turn them in to be able to make our appointment for a week from then! It was a very close call, after doing everything we got the papers turned in at 2:55, and the place closes at 3, but once again, gives flavor to life! 

Alright now that everything for the wedding was set up, it was time to finish teaching our friends, and get them ready to be baptized! So yesterday after church we bought a member and his wife (who we are actually teaching right now) to be in the lesson with us!! It was an amazing lesson, the member (Emilio) is an ex missionary and has such a strong spirit with him, and his wife is so kind and well, normal compared to us that it really balanced it all out! We had to cram a lot of stuff in to be able to make sure that they're ready to be baptized on tuesday. But it was probably one of the best lessons I've ever had the privilege of taking part in!

This little food area in one of the malls here called "Plaza America's" and I thought we were actually outside!

I found Dr. Pepper with cream soda!!

I remember Kris bearing his testimony to us about how much the Gospel of Christ has changed his life, He talked about how hard it used to be, and how easy it all seems right now. He cried as he bore his testimony, and the spirit testified to him and us of the veracity of it all. After we finished our lesson we said goodbye for the night and headed home. But today after our office meeting we went back to Kris' house to have his baptismal interview! We got there, our zone leaders separated to interview them both, and we waited outside on the balcony. Here in Mexico they don't have the same grading system in schools like we do back in the states, they have a system from 1-10 on their exams. Kris and his wife got straight 10s!!! Our Zone Leaders were very surprised with them, they said they are real converts. What more could a guy ask for? Now everything is all ready for tuesday. Tomorrow we will get up and meet all the witnesses and Kris' family at a bus stop and og together to Coatepec for their 1:00 wedding, and then have their baptisms the same day at 6 in the church! How exciting, I'll put the pictures in the next email!

This week we have been putting a real focus on our friends that are ready, or almost ready for baptisms, they usually tell us that now is the time to start finding new people for this coming month, but we really have just been focusing on our beautiful plants we've already worked so hard on! Once again we've had quite a few amazing lessons with Lacey, she is so incredibly prepared! It honestly doesn't feel like we're teaching her anything, but rather I feel like I learn something new each time we see her. We had the chance to also eat with them this week and talk about stuff besides church, it was honestly really nice to hear more of her story. After her telling us about her family and her life up to this point it makes me even more impressed with her, and who she is! She actually gave out a copy of The Book of Mormon to her sister and told her to read it! She is such a legend! We have also been trying to clean out our teaching pool, we have a lot of friends that are on our phone but have decided that this isn't for them, at least not right now, so we had to go through and remove some names of people that haven't talked with us in a while. It's always hard to do stuff like that and let 'em go, but I have said this before, everyone has their time. And I know that Heavenly Father has a great plan for each and every one of them, now we just wait to see what it is!

We also have been having a nice full schedule of English Connect work to do. In our office meeting last monday we talked about the changes going on with English COnnect and talked about how we think it could get better. We came to the conclusion that our online English classes were not bearing any fruit, so we have made the decision to cut them off. Obviously it was a pretty hard decision, we have put a lot of time and effort into these English classes to make them the absolute best that they could possibly be! But all good things must come to an end, and also things that weren't so great haha!! But also decided that we would have a meeting with all our English teachers and the tech support companions that work on the slides and take attendance during the classes. As we prepared for our meeting we made a game plan for this new phase of English Connect, and that is in person classes everywhere in the mission where they are available! So when the day of the meeting came we submitted our game plan and also a quick English Connect video, a lot of the missionaries were a little surprised/worried about having to teach English classes, but it's not anything obligatory, just another tool that we have to find and teach people! President is very excited to see where this new phase of English Connect is going to take the mission, so now we just have to wait and see the fruits of this new labor!!

A very regal looking cat

Found a monkey on our way to a food appointment

So this week hasn't exactly been all rainbows and butterflies, The day we dropped off all the documents in Coatepec, we got home and realized that we didn't have the phone. We usually always ask each other if one of us has the phone as we get out of taxis, but this time we forgot, and it was the time that neither of us had it ://. So after about 20 min of frantic calling, eventually they turned off our phone, looks like somebody got it. From there we had to come back to the house and hop on Whatsapp on the computer to let our Zone Leaders and Secretary of materials know that we lost the phone. Once that was all done we tried to track it on the computer, but thanks to its new owners turning it off, we weren't able to get it. So we just decided to go to bed early and get ready to tackle the new day after that! So we got up in the morning and did our normal study, exercise, food and clothes routine. But when we got to our daily planning session it was just a little bit different. Before missionaries had cell phones they all used physical paper planners, and just wrote it out. And every missionary still gets a paper planner (just in case something like this happens), so we whipped out our dusty paper planner and got to work. It actually wasn't that bad to be honest, kind of fun being able to just pull out a planner I can hold in my hand and feel as I turn through the pages! And not living with a phone wasn't the worst thing in the world, I felt like I was taking a nice technology fast! And because of our assignment we have a computer in the house so we could use whatsapp web in the morning and confirm our appointments, and just go throughout the day hoping nothing urgent happens haha!! And we were only phone less for about two days before the secretaries got us a new one. So it all a little stressful, but not too bad!

Okay that's it for this week, but like always I will leave you off with a spiritual thought! So this week has been very stressful, a lot of stuff to do and a lot of things to worry about. But There's one thing I've realized has been keeping me grounded and animated! And that has been a big leaning into The Book of Mormon. I have found real solace in its pages and have come to know Christ through each word and each action it implores me to take. I know there are people who read this blog and haven't read The Book of Mormon, whether that be because of the things you've heard about the Church of Jesus Christ, or because you already have the Holy Bible, or maybe because you have just found it hard to make time to read it. Whatever it may be, I invite you to give it a try, you can get one for free in just about any part of the world. And once you've read the words, I invite you to pray and ask our Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus Christ if it be true, and I promise you that you will find your answer by the power of the Holy Ghost. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God, It is not here to replace the Bible, but to complement it, it gives us all more opportunities to grow and learn about our saviour Jesus Christ. I know that The Book of Mormon has blessed countless people, and it can bless you, and it will. Malachi 3:10 says 

"Bring ye all the ^atithes into the storehouse, that there may be ^bmeat in mine house, and ^cprove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not ^dopen you the ^ewindows of heaven, and pour you out a ^fblessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."

Here the Lord is talking about taking the step of faith that is tithing, But this principle can be applied to many things, including reading The Book of Mormon. He says Prove me now if i will not open the windows of heaven. That is the Lord's invitation "prove me now, just see what happens" And I promise you if you prove the Lord, just try him, you will see the hand of God in your life. I love you all to the moon and back! Have a spectacular week!!

-Elder Garnica