P-Day update week 59, 04/03/2023

 Buenas tardes mi amada familia y queridos amigos!!

This week passed by super fast! I feel like so many things happened but it also feels like nothing has happened haha! But lets just get into the nitty-gritty!!

The stick of Juda and the sick of Ephraim!

The first thing, I've already mentioned on here that my companion and I have been house hunting! About 2 weeks ago we decided, after many weeks of praying and thinking, that we needed to change houses. There has been a few incidents here that have been less than comfortable for us in our little neighborhood! I probably can't go into too much detail about the events themselves, but it sufficeth me to say that we haven't felt very safe or comfortable here. So we talked with our housing coordinator and he gave us the go-ahead to find a new house ASAP! The houses we saw last week were okay, but they weren't exactly what we were looking for, especially for the prices he was throwing at us, so we have been keeping up the search! Like I mentioned before, I've never been house hunting before, and I wasn't really sure how we should go about it. But we asked the help of some members and decided we would dedicate an hour of just searching in the street to see if we could find something! We weren't too hopeful but if there's something we've learned to do, is walk! I want to thank all of you, first of all for your prayers when it comes to finding this house, it's been a hard little search but as we were walking we found the perfect place! While checking the streets we ran into one of our good friends who has a taco joint in Jalacingo, and who is a member of the church in another ward! We talked about our search for a bit, and after leaving we decided to check one more street before calling it quits for the day. As we checked this street we saw a "house for rent" sign with a phone number. We called the number and talked with a lady who shortly opened the door and took us for a tour of the house. It was awesome! It's a two story house, two bed, two and a half bath, with a kitchen and ample loving room! As we walked through the house my companion and I were thinking the same thing "it's and awesome house, but I'm sure it's going to be way to expensive!" After touring the whole house, which was built only last year, we asked about the utilities and finally the rent. I was expecting something along the lines of $4,000 pesos ($222 dollars). But when she told us it was $2,500 pesos I about fainted! It was perfect! The perfect house, super close to the church, in a safer neighborhood, with a cheaper rent! Just like last time I tried to keep my "poise" (shoutout Mark A. Bragg), and talk a little about the contract and the whole "new people will be moving in and out fairly often" and she said that wouldn't be a problem! After a few days of them checking over the contract, they said they accepted and would sign! Finally our house hunt was over!!

So one thing that my companion and I have been thinking about during this while process, that we haven't wanted to do, is tell our current landlord that we're moving out. I really don't like these kind of situations, I mean they have been renting to the missionaries for the past 10 years! And telling them out of the blue that we are moving seemed very daunting for us! But there are sometimes in life you just have to bite the bullet and do it! So after saying a nice long prayer for strength, we printed off a note from our housing coordinator, and headed next door to talk with our landlord. They took it just about how we thought, they were confused, and a little frustrated, but I think they understood why we had to leave. So from there we set up a time to do the final house inspection and we told them we would be moving out in two days, on Wednesday. I'll be honest, I never thought I would have to do something like this on my mission, definitely a little weird, but it was also a good learning experience, now if I ever have to find a house again, I already have some experience haha! I'll let yall know next week house the move went with some good pictures!!

Elder Mendoza and me who have been in the same zone since I started my mission, this is the last Pday of the transfer and he is about to finish his mission, so it might be the last time I see him!

Jicaleta shaped like Mickey!!

Elder Nuñez and I are just about finished with our second transfer together, and because I am his trainer, that means he is just about done with his training! Over these past two and a half months or so, I have seen Elder Nuñez change so much! He came to me like a little moldable ball of clay, and I have formed him into Elder Garnica 2.0! It has been an absolute pleasure being his trainer and helping him reach new climes that he hasn't reached before!! But as we entered his last two weeks, it was time for me to put everything to the test! So as a trainee enters his last two weeks of his training, they tell us that we need to give him the responsibility of being senior companion! So that's exactly what I did, at the start of last week I let Elder Nuñez know that he was now senior companion, that it was his responsibility to lead the companionship in studies, finding, contacts, and lessons! He was a little shocked, and mainly scared, but I told him that I had full confidence in him, and we had our week! And it was a great first week of him being senior companion, I'll be honest it has been hard to let go of the reins, but it's been a step of faith and humility to let my son take control and lead the area, I know it's for his own good! There were a couple times in lessons or in contacts where he would use the classic "I'm not sure what to do, I'm going to look over to my trainer so he can help me" but I stayed strong and let him take care of these new challenges! And he really truly took it to the next level! I am so proud of how he handled himself, and I'm excited to see how this week treats him, but I know he'll do great, heck, he's my son haha!!

Ever since we got here, my companion and I have been trying to find good ways to find people, and we've had success when it comes to our less actives, but we decided to open up a bit our pool! On Tuesday one of our recent converts invited us to play basketball with him and some others in the park in the center of town, we saw it as a perfect opportunity to strengthen pit new convert, and invite people to our new sports activity we have planned! So we went out there and absolutely balled out like usual (our daily morning basketball training has not gone to waste) and as we finished off we invited them to come play basket all with us at the church for our activity! They said that they would come! I think it helps the fact that in the park we were playing with a DIY basketball hoop, and the hoops at the church are professional courts with breakaway rims! So Friday we invited all the youth from the ward and started to play, after about 19 minutes our friends from the park showed up! I wasn't necessarily surprised to see them, but it was cool that they followed up with what they said! We had some really food games of basketball and soccer, everyone was super into it and we were all having a good time! As we finished off we shared a spiritual message with everyone, and we saw some potential with our new friends that we invited to our activity! I'm excited to see what happens with them, I'll keep yall updated when they get baptized!!

This post that is in the middle of the street ha ha!

And he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made. 

So as I'm sure most of you who are members of the church know, this weekend was General Conference! I've mentioned it before in past blog posts, but to quickly sum it up. It is a bi annual conference held by the leaders of the church, we have the opportunity to hear from the Prophet and the twelve apostles of the church! It is a perfect time to receive revelation and receive answers to questions, and guidance in your life! This weekend we were very excited, but also a little nervous. When we watch conference we almost always watch it in the stake center, which is about 30 minutes away from San Juan and Jalacingo, so I was a little nervous about if we were going to get a lot of people to come! I mean it's a struggle sometimes to invite our friends to church and have them come when the church is here in San Juan, so having to go all the way to Teziutlan made me a little nervous! Especially because we have a baptismal service this coming Sunday for two of our friends, which made coming to church this past Sundays super important for them! But we knew that we could invite them and promise blessings, and try and help them the best we could, but from there it was a decision they had to make! So when Sunday arrived we talked with one of our friends that is getting baptized this Sunday, his name is Josh, and decided that we would go together, since he is only 14 and his mom wouldn't let him travel there alone! So we passed by for hik and took him with us, along with another young man from the ward who has been in our lessons with Josh! We arrived and got ourselves settled in, and as we were waiting for the conference to start, Daniela showed up with her family!! We were so happy to see her and were thrilled that she brought her family along, they even brought someone who has never been to our church before!! So when they arrived everything was calm, we had the people in church who we wanted, and they had the opportunity to hear the words of the Prophet!! After the amazing conference session that left to go ear, and watch the rest in their house, but they said that they really enjoyed it, I'm so excited for them!!

A burrito that looks like a cat

That's all for this week folks! It's been a great week, it's gone by super fast, and now before I knew it, we're in the last week of the transfer! I'm excited to see what happens with transfers, I feel very pleased with the work we've done here, and I'm excited to finish off strong! But we'll see what happens with transfers, it'll definitely be exciting!! I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!!

-Elder Garnica