P-Day update week 49, 01/23/2023

 Bueno buenas tardes!!

This week has been super great!! My new son and I have been having such a fun time in our new area!!

The pyramid literally right in front of our house while it's lit up at night!

So like I briefly mentioned last week in my message, I have been transferred! My new area is very different, but not in a bad way, in fact, in a very very good way! The main town in my area is called San Juan Xiutetelco, which is where the church building is found! Right next to San Juan is a town called Jalacingo, which is our second big focus here in the area. So these two main towns are where we do most of our work and where the majority of the members live. First of all, I absolutely love it here!! We've only been here for a week but I have been able to really see great potential in San Juan and enjoy what is already is! The people that we have had the pleasure of meeting are absolutely wonderful, everyone is so nice and so very friendly! Because we are both new here we've had to ask for directions and advice a lot from people on the street, and they have all been so kind and willing to help, and it also gives us a chance to share the gospel with more people! Obviously the people that have been the kindest to us are the members here in the ward. Our ward is pretty big, atleast the amount of members on the member list is a lot, but each week we only have about 50 people in the meeting. But the ones that go are really great people! One of the other great things I love about San Juan is the church building! The church building is a small little chapel about 2 minutes walking form our house, and it is soo pretty!! It has a beautiful little garden, with red brick on the outside, and a really well kept basketball/soccer court! Overall I'm just really loving San Juan! The only downside is that it has been super cold here!! I don't know the number exactly, but I've been freezing my assets just about every day, another thing to get used to though!!

Group photo at President Luis' house!

Carne asada plate!

As I explained last week, I am training a brand new missionary, his name is Elder Nuñez, he's from Reinosa Tamaulipas here in Mexico! He's awesome!! He arrived with a great drive to work and do what's right, and even though he thinks he doesn't know a lot, he has a great knowledge and is a very good missionary, and it's just his first week!! Elder Nuñez and I have already had a great chance to get to know one another, we talked a lot on the bus ride out to our area and we've had nice conversations here in the streets! Here's a fun fact for you: Elder Nuñez and I have the same birthday, the same year, at almost the same hour of the day! We were both born July 10th, 2003! It's just that we were born a little far away from one another!! It's weird but when I heard that we had the same birthday, I knew we were going to do great together, and it's been so true so far! Obviously it's been a little stressful for him getting adjusted to real missionary life, and just like my father before me, I walk fast to help him build up his condition! Elder Nuñez is really just a big sweetheart, he's so kind and I can see that he truly wants to.do a good job here, and together we can make sure that that comes to fruition!

I was practicing my sign language; this is the letter "F" for Sombrero!

Because we got here as two new missionaries (whitewash) we have been really trying to just get to know the area and find some people to teach! When we arrived to the house for the first time we just got in contact with all the people that were already in teaching, and started looking over the member list that they have in the house! As I've mentioned before our big emphasis is inactive members, so this week that's where we worked a lot, and wow did we see a loy of success! Just about every day we spent about an hour just walking around and visiting less active families, and we have been able to see great miracle from our hard work! This week we had 3 lessons just about everyday, and we found 5 rally good new people!! It's been fun getting out and just working! I've grown to thoroughly enjoy just talking to people in the street and sharing my testimony, and it's even better when I'm at their house and they let us in to hear more! With this hard work that we've been doing the past week, we have seen so many miracles, one in particular was when we went to find a n inactive member near the stadium here in San Juan. We arrived to her house and knocked on the door, but no one answered, so we knocked again, and no one answered. We were about ready to call it quits with this house, but we decided to knock one more time, and as we turned back around we saw a doorbell! We rang the doorbell and quickly someone came out to greet us. Our new friends introduced herself as Dalila, and told us that the person we were looking for wasn't home, but that we should come back another time, but after talking for a bit, we found out that Dalila isn't a member of the church, but at one point in time, was going, and even considering baptism! So we asked if we could come in and share something with her, she said yes and we quickly taught something without taking too much of here time, but set up a time to come back! On our return visit we taught the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and invited her to come to church with us. The next day ad we got everything ready to start the church meeting, she walked in with her family!! It was a miracle that we found her in the first place, but then the fact that they walked from their house on the other side of town to church was even more amazing!! We've had a lot of great experiences like that this week, San Juan really is a land of Milk and Honey!!

Due to our need to meet the members in the ward, we have been really trying to put ourselves out there and make a good Impression with our new ward members! In fact when we went to our English class on Saturday we ran into this young couple in the ward who are getting married that same Saturday, but we're in the church practicing their dance! We presented ourselves and made sure to put real interest in their lives! And as they headed out they invited us to their wedding hahaha!! We told them we weren't sure we could go because we had a lesson at that time, but if anything changed we would let them know! So we went about our day and had some good lessons, but our lesson at 5:30 ended up cancelling on us, so we had the time to go to the wedding and Introduce ourselves!! We arrived just as the ceremony started and were able to hear some beautiful words, that I am not going to have to really apply to my life for a while haha!! But as they finished we introduced ourselves to a lot of members, and even ran into members form my ward in Xalapa, so I was able to say hi! And then they told us to take a seat at a table and then we ate dinner with them! Also the other people that were sitting at our table with us weren't members, so we took advantage and presented ourselves with them, well see if anything happens! After eating we said goodbye and walked to our next lesson. Going to the wedding of someone you just met that same day us definitely something for the journal entry hahaha!!!

Like I said before, I'm back in the zone where I started my mission, really close to Zacapoaxtla! Obviously I've missed Zacapoaxtla a lot in these past 6 months or so and have been anxious for the opportunity to go back, so when I got here and they told me we would be having a Pday barbecue in Zacapoaxtla with Presidente Luis, I just about jumped right outta my boots!! Usually I'm not the type to be thinking about pday a lot throughout the week, but this time I couldn't help but think about going back to where it all started! When Monday eventually came around, my companion and I cleaned the house really quickly and headed out for the 1.5hr travel to Zacapoaxtla!! When we got there the first thing we did was head to this huge soccer field and play a big game of soccer with the entire zone!!! It was so fun!! The field was really huge and so I started getting really tired from running from one end of the field to other, but I still enjoyed it! After playing for a couple hours everyone was dead, my legs were destroyed I was thirsty and just tired, but man was it a lot of fun!! After the game we headed to the house of Presidente Luis (I'm happy I can say that again) and started the barbecue! We first ate some Pozole from the day before, and then we started grilling up the meat as we played basketball!! We have some really tall people in the zone that are really good at basketball, and they really put up a big fight, it was a lot of fun! But eventually we all sat down to eat and just enjoyed the food and the guacamole that I made with another Elder named Elder Ely, for not knowing what we were doing, it turned out pretty well! After that we all just changed and headed back to our areas, overall it was a great trip to Zacapoaxtla, and I'm definitely coming back to visit some of my converts during these next couple weeks!

Fam submitted cat photo, thanks Elder Moreno!!

Alright y'all, I have had one of the best weeks of my entire mission, and I've been enjoying so much my new area and companion! And it's been easy to think that all the success has come from our own work, but my spiritual thought for you all today is going to be gratitude! We have seen so much good this week, but I know that all that good comes from the hand of the Lord, which has had such a big part in our success and joy! I know that as we focus on being grateful for the things we have, we will see even more blessings in our lives! Even if your family went to Disney without you like 50 times while you were living in Mexico, be grateful for the fact that you don't have to endure hot Orlando weather haha!! But really, I promise you all that as you focus on being grateful, you will see even more, the hand of the Lord in your lives, and will receive more joy, and more peace! I love you all, and I hope you have a spectacular week, filled with gratitude and ice cream!!

-Elder Garnica