P-Day update week 31, 09/19/2022

 ¡Hola hola!

Well not much happened this week, we've been working hard to find new people but nothing besides that haha!!

Zona Xalapa photo!

Zona Xalapa after our Zone Coucil!!!

So as I said, we've been continuing our work in trying to find new people and keep up our momentum! And we've been able to see some real fruits from that, we were able to find 8 new people this week to teach! I'll quickly talk about a few of them, the first one is a reference that we received from facebook named Cash! We received a reference with his number about two weeks ago, and he said he really wanted to learn, but we've had a lot of trouble getting an appointment set up in these past couple days, but on Saturday we were finally able to get some time with him! We stopped by at around 6:30 and met him in person and also his mother! They told us that they have heard a lot of people teach them the gospel and they are truly trying to find the truth, and a place where they feel comfortable and loved. We started out and taught them the message of the restoration, we told them about the church, and about Joseph Smith. We shared our testimonies of the truthfulness of this message, it was one of the most powerful lessons I've ever been a part of! We invited them to pray and ask if our message is true, to ask of God, and we also Invited them to come to church with us the next day, they said yes to both of our invitations! I saw them with a lot of potential, they told us how different it was to hear us preach about Christ, they said that we brought something different, obviously we told him that it wasn't us but rather the spirit that touched his heart!! I'm not sure if I mentioned the lady that stopped us near the bus stop last week and told us she was a member and has a grandson who is 14 and doesn't know anything about God, and she wanted us to teach him! Well we had our first lesson with them this week, it was a little bit of a journey to their pueblo, which is called Miradores, but it was worth it! We had a wonderful lesson with them, another amazing experience, he (Ethan) said he felt really good to talk about God, and hopefully we can see him again soon!! 

We also had the chance to meet with an inactive family this week, we've been trying to get to meet some more and this family in particular came to our attention to see if we can help them get back to church! When we went to eat with her on Saturday, we got there before the food was ready, so they invited us to play pool with them, as we waited! So as we played we got to know them a little bit better, the older daughter of the group lives in the city of Veracruz, we asked her what she studied and she said that she is training to be a pilot! From there we had something great to talk about, ever since I've come here I've had a serious lack of aviation talk and it was really nice to talk with someone about something I enjoy that isn't just Christ (Though I do enjoy talking about Christ more hehe)! While we talked we got to meet her dog which is a huge saint bernard! It was a really good chance to meet this family and hopefully we'll have more chances to stop by and get them going to church again!

This week has also been full of great food!! First of all this week is the week if the 16th of September, which is the Mexican independence day, so there was a special dish that they ate a lot of during this time! That dish is called Pozole!! I've talked about pozole before here, y'all know how I feel about it! This week I've had the chance to eat pozole four times! It was glorious! We ate red pozole three times, and our last one was white pozole, it was soooo good! It smelled like Thanksgiving dinner!! Also I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but in my area we have 5 malls, Plaza Americas, Animas, Xanath, Pradera and Calabria. It's been very different from Zacapoaxtla, but that isn't the thing I wanted to mention. Today I will be talking about...Starbucks!! In my time here in Xalapa I have gone to Starbucks more times than I would like to admit, but every time I have tried to convince my companion to get something! He hasn't ever had Starbucks, and this week we were able to change that! After a very rainy day, when we went to go to the ATM in Plaza Animas to grab some dough, I decided to get a hot chocolate to help with the rain problem, and much to my surprise, Elder Parker got one too!! It was a very big step for us as a companionship! And today we finished our p-day with a zone lunch, we went to a very famous taco joint called "Mas Tacos"! I got a double order of tacos al pastor and a cup of Horchata, a great way to end a great week of food!!

Mas Tacos!!

So as I mentioned, this was a holiday week, and man it's been crazy! First of all, the entire city is covered in Mexican flags, every taxi has them, just about every house has one and they are just spread out among the city! Now that I'm thinking about it, it's just about the same in the USA during June and July haha!!! But it has been very interesting to see Mexico like this, definitely been super cool, but also it's been not so cool sometimes. The day of the 15th we had to be home at 7:00 because of how dangerous the streets can get as people prepare to start celebrating, because at 12:00am the entire country that is awake screams "Viva Mexico!!" and then goes to a bunch of parties. So President didn't really want us to be part of that, and sent us home early, and making calls wasn't amazingly fun, but we had to take advantage nonetheless! And the day of the 16th all our lessons fell through, most people were spending time with their families and weren't able to meet with us. But we knew that that was gonna happen and used the time to contact more people and find more people, so not too bad! Viva Mexico!!

Cool street mirror selfie!

I know it's blurry, but I love this night photo we got a few days ago!

So this past week we had our zone council, most of it was just normal stuff, you know, work hard, don't give up, work with the members, all that good stuff! But one of the big things we talked about was making the p-day activities better, making them more enjoyable for everyone and making sure everyone participates! The idea we came to was to have one companionship take charge of planning one p-day, so each week would be filled with something fun and exciting! This first week was in the charge of the Zone Leaders, and after our morning basketball matches, we headed to a very special place. PAINTBALL!! We went as a zone to a nearby paintball arena and shot each other for about two hours, it was so much fun!! We played two game modes, elimination, where it is one team verses another and if you get hit you're out! We also played capture the flag which was a little more exciting since people had a tendency to just hide out in the elimination games! I unfortunately didn't have much luck, paintball guns are much harder to use than real guns! The pellets don't go where you want them to, they just fly all over, and it's never consistent! At the end of the day I ended my last match with zero eliminations and a very sore body, it was perfect! And I only got hit twice, once in my chest, and once right in my face, it was cool and we definitely have to go again!!

Set up for paintball!!

The last thing I want to talk about is our friend Lacey who got baptized a few weeks ago! To make a long story short, she moved away to huatusco and her boyfriend is going to move to Monterrey! It was really sad when they told us, because it kinda came out of nowhere, it's been hard to see our friends leave, but we know that they leave with a greater knowledge of God and a greater trust in his plan! So on Saturday morning (I know I've talked a lot about Saturday, it was a very good day for us haha!) we headed over to the house where Lacey was living and we packed it all up for on a truck for her, it was a nice amount of stuff and a great way to send off our friend, with some good old fashioned service!! The truth is I am very happy I had the chance to meet her and be a part of her journey towards Christ, it was one of the biggest honors of my entire life and she will be sorely missed in the Alborada ward, but I know it's all for the best!!

Little black cat in a store!

A very quick spiritual thought for you all today, I was reading this week in the first couple chapters of The Book of Mormon, and was especially fixated on the part where Nephi and his brothers go back to Jerusalem to get the plates of bronze from Laban. In these chapters Nephi and his brothers battle hard to get the plates from Laban, and one thing that I thought about was, well why? The things that they had to endure to just travel from their father's tent to Jerusalem and back must have been very serious, and then to almost die multiple times in the act of trying to get this record for their family? I mean this was heavy stuff, and one might ask themselves why, why do all this? And the answer lies in the very book in which we find this account, God. God lives in the pages of his holy scriptures, you can see his hand, his heart, his spirit poured out in every page, you can see things not of this world, things that will cause you to rejoice in ways you've never rejoiced before, you can find your true self and figure out every other question you have. That is why, because without it, life would be very hard, and Nephi couldn't imagine his life without these scriptures anymore! I invite you all to put my words to the test, read the scriptures as often as you can, everyday if possible. And see the differences that come into your life. Nephi saw the need of these books, I have seen the need, now you need to find out for yourself, there you will find lasting happiness! I love you all and have a great week!!

-Elder Garnica