P-Day update week 55, 03/06/2023

 Buenas tardes a todos!!

This week felt like it lasted 10 years and 2 seconds at the same time, but it's been really an amazing week! Same old stuff going on, but we love the same old stuff that's happening here!

Breakfast with "vampire juice"

Laura's baptism

So first things first, like I mentioned last week we had transfers, and one of those transfers was that they put Hermanas in my district to replace an area that had Elders before! Last transfer the Elders that were there struggled quite a bit, and had some trouble with obedience. I worried about them a lot trying to find out how I could help them, but in the end there was only so much I could do. But when I saw the transfers I saw a huge ray of hope! The hermanas are basically always pretty obedient and hard workers, and I knew that is what that area needed! But when they came in the area was a little rough, their area book was all out of sorts, the house was super dirty, and they just felt kinda uncomfortable there! So this past Sunday they asked us if we could go by and bless the house! I've never "blessed" a house before, though I did know that it did not include putting drops of consecrated oil in every corner (I don't know, some people are crazy). And i was under the impression that it was just a normal prayer, unsure, I looked at my trusty dusty General Manual and saw that blessing a house is actually a real priesthood blessing! I was kinda excited to go and bless this house now with my newfound knowledge! We arrived in about 30 minutes from leaving our house, which during the travel a little old lady had given us like 6 oranges after we got into a debate with the taxi driver about his flat earth theory! Anyway we showed up and obviously we can't go into the house of the sisters by ourselves so we went in and the hermanas stood there outside on the doorstep. Then we kneeled down and blessed that home! It was honestly so cool! I'm learning almost everyday new ways to use this priesthood authority Heavenly Father has entrusted me with! And as we left, the hermanas gave us apples and choco rolls, so it was a win-win! I really have a lot of faith that these hermanas can turn things around for this area!!!

So like I mentioned, this week felt like an eternity, but also like a half a second! It has been one of the hardest and also most fulfilling weeks of my mission! We got in on Tuesday after finishing my greencard stuff (I'm still legal!!), and went to visit a few people! But they weren't there, so we decided to visit some inactive families, and some friends we haven't seen in a while! We finished the day having walked a ton, super tired, but having had some good lessons! And just about everyday this week has been similar! We set lessons, some of them fall through, so we go and contact people, knock some doors, and find work. Have some good lessons and get home absolutely beat! It's been awesome!! I feel like I've never worked so hard on my mission before, I'm not saying that in my other areas I was lazy or anything, but in my other areas the work usually came a little easier than it has been this past week! It's honestly been so rewarding, I really feel like I'm working, and we're seeing results! This week we found 7 great new people, we put a baptismal date with one of our friends for these coming weeks, we had 4 people in church, and had a baptism!!! I can see that the Lord is aware of us and notices our struggles, gives us comfort and rewards our hard work and obedience with heavenly blessings! We've just seen that so much this week, I hope we can keep that rolling!!

Bus ride home with my favorite misioneros!

Elder Nunez balancing an eraser on his finger

I know I mentioned that we had a baptism this week! But before that I want to talk about one of the friends that we found this week! So for a little bit of background, when we first got here to this area one of the sisters in the ward asked us for a copy of The Book of Mormon so she could gift it out to someone, she didn't know who but she wanted to gift it out! We gladly gave her a copy and told her we would be ready to go and meet this person whenever she is ready for us! Well it took a little while but now after about a month she gave us a call last week, very excited to tell us that she gifted the book, and that he is okay with us going to visit him! So we stopped by ok Wednesday and talked with him a little bit, his name is Jeffery! Jeffery is so great!! As we presented ourselves there in his little store, we began to talk a little bit and began to teach Lesson 1, the message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! My companion and I have been practicing giving shorter lessons more focused on powerful short phrases and clarity! This lesson we applied that, and it was probably one of the best lessons I've ever had on my mission!! As we spoke with Jeffery he asked us many things about what we were teaching and we had the opportunity to respond and keep the glow of the lesson going, and the spirit that was there with us was so strong! The lesson didn't last more than 15-20 minutes, and was really just amazing! We left him with the homework of reading more of the Book of Mormon (since he's already started to read a little) and to okay and ask God if it is true! We will be going back with him tomorrow to see how it went! We're really excited for him!

Alright y'all, now I can talk about the baptism of Laura on Sunday!! So Laura is one of our friends that we basically just met, infant this past week was our first week teaching her! She had already gone to church quite a few times, but it took us a little while to get in contact with her after church and set up a time to visit her! But in that first week when we started teaching her she told us that she wanted to get baptized! And since she already had gone to church quite a few times we set it for the following Sunday! But the only problem was that we still needed to teach her everything and she still needed to get her baptismal interview, but we talked with her and she said that she wanted to get baptized, so we told her we would take care of it! In one week we taught Laura all the missionary lessons, went over the baptismal questions, had her interview, set up a service, and had her baptism itself! It was kinda stressful, but on Sunday when she entered into the waters of baptism and received the Holy Ghost, I felt so strongly the Spirit, and knew that it was all worth it! Honestly it wasn't actually that stressful, because everyone who was involved was set on making this work, so it was a team effort, and it all worked out perfectly! The service was so great, she has a lot of family who are members of the church, so there was quite a few people at her baptismal service which was great, and the baptismal font filled up all the way with nice hot water! Honestly it was like the perfect baptism, and I'm grateful that I had the chance to be a part of it! I'm really very excited to see what happens next with Laura, especially since she has already given us a reference for one of her family members!!!

Attack puppy!

Serious cat

Well that's all folks! It's been a great week full of mostly ups, but some downs as well. And a week full of growth! My quick spiritual thought for you all is quite simple. Love God. I feel like in our lives we can get easily caught up in trying so hard to feel God's love, or stressing out about making a mistake and fearing not being able to feel the spirit. But I can promise you all that as you focus this week to love God, you will see a difference in how your days go! I know that as we love God we will keep his commandments and receive all the blessings that he has in store for us, our Father in Heaven is so ready to bless us, but it calls on each on of us to love him enough to keep his commandments so that we can receive said blessings! In Doctrine and Covenants 130:21 we read 

"21 And when we obtain any blessing from God, it is by obedience to that law upon which it is predicated."

As we focus on loving God we will see that being obedient becomes easier, and the blessings we see will come more abundantly!!

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your prayers, it really helps out here! I hope y'all have a great week and I will see y'all soon!!

-Elder Garnica