P-Day update week 33, 10/03/2022
Holis!!!
I'll be honest, this was a really weird week, we had our zone conference, general conference, and divisions. So I was out of work for the majority of the week, But I'll make sure to fill y'all in on the good stuff!!
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| Zona Xalapa |
So like I said, this week has been a little weird and we didn't have a whole lot of time to do real missionary things. We were mainly stuck in the church listening to talks! But it was really spiritually refreshing. I had the chance to just feast on the words of Christ this week! About a week ago our secretary of materials ordered me a new hardcover copy of The Book of Mormon, and so I decided to just read it and try and truly feast on the words that are written in that book. I've been trying to use every second of free time as study time to learn more! This week I've seen some incredible spiritual highs. I have felt encircled in the love of God, truly! And with that I tried to take my rejuvenated spirit into our lessons with us! This week we had the chance to meet a new friend named George! George was found by the members! The ward has started this new activity, each member of the Elders quorum receives a list of names and with an assigned companion he will go to each of these homes on his list to see if there are still people living there. And as one of the members went and did that, they found a member that hasn't gone to church in a while, and there they also found George who is living with this member but he hasn't learned about the church yet! So our friends sent us over his phone number and address and we dropped in on him and his wife! In our very first lesson with him he expressed his desire to be baptized! He talked about how we wanted to live with his wife/girlfriend, and knew that he could only do that as a married and baptized member, thanks to her virtues! He also has some things in his life that he needs to leave behind if he wishes to be baptized, but that is something we will help him overcome the best we can! We are still pretty early into his path, but I will keep you all updated on his progress in the coming weeks!
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Cool night sky on our walk home |
Besides those events with George, we've been basically kept from working this week, it was a struggle but we made sure to take advantage of the time we had to listen to the servants of The Lord! Our first order of business was interviews with President Hermana Perkins! I always do love interviews with the mission leaders, I mean I see them every week because of our office meetings but it's nice to have one-on-one time with them as well! This last chance that I had to talk with Hermana Perkins I had time to just tell her my story, why I was on a mission, why I was doing the things I was doing, it was like a therapy session haha!! It was really nice to just talk and have someone listen who can and will help me! It's always nice to have an ear, and sometimes it's necessary to be that ear for someone, we gotta look for those chances my friends!! After we had our interviews we had our Zone Conference! One thing I want to point out, this week I've heard the hymn "Lead Kindly Light" about 5 times in Spanish. For those of you who don't know, it's my favorite hymn! It was cool the first time I heard it, and the second time, and the third time, and when we got to the fourth and fifth time it just felt wonderful! I feel like it was one of those things where the Lord is just sending me little notes letting me know he's there, it was really cool! But from there the Conference itself was really amazing! To start it off we had the chance to eat a nice breakfast and talk with the other zone and just spend time with them, always nice! From there we funneled into the sacrament room to start out the conference, we had the chance to hear from the mission leaders, the champion who is going home soon, the Senior couple in our mission who are getting ready to go home, and the stake president! It was really great! One thing that they talked about that really stuck out to me was how important it is to have virtuous thoughts. I often find myself entertaining jokes in my head that probably would not be good at these times, but I still let it sit in my head. They stressed the importance of watching your thoughts and actions. Virtue leads to power, and it is by that power that people are converted to Christ! They also talked about showing love to all, especially our companion. I mean we're stuck with them for at least a month and a half, might as well love them right? Those were the big things they talked about for the Zone Conference, and after we had a Costco chicken bake FEAST!! A great way to finish off the conference!
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| Basketball with friends |
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| Taking a break from basketball to pose for the camera |
I guess one other thing they really stressed during the zone conference and in our office meeting this week, was the importance of keeping our house clean! Obviously you've got a bunch of basically teenagers running around living alone, and cleaning isn't usually a big priority for them. So they explained first, why it was so important. They talked about how the Holy Ghost cannot reside in an unclean mind, in the same sense, the Holy Ghost cannot reside in an unclean home. They told us that as we strived to keep our house super clean, we would see the benefits of it in our connection with the spirit! With that we decided to deep clean our house, I wouldn't say it was dirty, but we usually do the bare minimum to keep it good. And Obviously we needed to do better than that, so after the conference this weekend we got all our supplies ready, turned on some Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, and got to work, we started by sweeping everywhere and cleaning the bathroom, then we cleaned the windows and doors, made sure our laundry was neatly put away, put things back to their original home, and mopped. It took us about 2.5 hours to get it all done and get the house looking good! But man was it worth it! It feels so nice to live in a clean home where I know the spirit will more strongly reside! Now all we have to do is keep it clean and not let it get dirty again, that's the hard part I suppose haha! But I'll keep y'all updated on the state of the house!!
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Brethren with a purpose to serve |
Alright, so this weekend was also a very special weekend for the church in general. This past Saturday and Sunday we had the chance to listen to the 192nd semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, with speakers selected from the general authorities and general officers of the church. Music for those sessions were provided by the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square hahah!! Anyway, we had the chance to listen to the Prophet, the Apostles, and other very powerful speakers! It was really nice, there is really too much to cover in this email, but I will just talk about something that stood out in particular for me! In the days prior to the conference my companion invited me to think of a question beforehand, and bring it to the conference so that I can receive the response. I've heard about doing that before, but this time I decided I would give it a try, so before the conference I started thinking about a question, something that I feel like I want/need to learn. And the Conclusion I came to, was to ask about change. How a person can truly change, and what are the steps to do so! With that question in mind we started the conference. We all went to the church to watch it with the stake (though only three people that weren't missionaries showed up on Saturday) so we could see it on the big projector! I watched it on my phone because I still, can't understand General Conference's advanced Spanish vocabulary. But it was amazing nonetheless!! I loved all the talks, they were really amazing! I especially like the one given by Sister Tracy Y. Browning! But at the end of the conference I had successfully received an answer to my question. It was the simple things, they highly stressed the very simple steps we take every week as members, and these steps help us grow and change, when we do it with a mentality focused on Christ and his Atonement! And those are: daily prayer and scripture study, regular church attendance and sacrament participation. And of course, daily repentance having faith in Christ! These are the steps a person needs to take to truly change. Little by little we grow and turn into the people Heavenly Father wants us to be! Overall it was a great conference!!!
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| A little friendly street cat |
Well that's all I have for you all today, I just want to leave you with my testimony, I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, called to restore the true and living church of Christ to the earth. I know that change is possible through the atonement and eternal sacrifice of Jesus Christ. It is by his blood that we are cleaned. I have seen it with my own two eyes! I love you all and I hope you have a wonderful week full of change and growth!!
-Elder Garnica
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