P-Day update week 63, 01/05/2023

¡Buenísimos días!

I'll be honest, this was a pretty rough week for us here in Independencia. We set another high goal to find new people, and we weren't able to accomplish it! We worked our tails off though and even if we didn't get the results we wanted, every week is a new opportunity! And we're feeling really pumped to get this area up and running again!

Our new house! (it looks a lot better new I promise)

So to start off, this week was kinda weird! I lost four days of working time here in Independencia! The big thing that messed with our flow this week was that we moved! But this move was very different than the last, because last time, my companion and I had everything ready for the move well in advance. We had already invited a good amount of people to help, we had planned for the move during our weekly planning, we had everything in boxes ready to go, and it was a very smooth process! But I don't really know what happened this time, our planning was a little more "non existent" haha! We have been super busy with other stuff that we completely forgot that we had to move this week. On Wednesday we got a call at about 6:30pm from the housing secretary asking us about the move, and reminding us that the next day was our last day in that house. When he told us that my companion and I realized that we had to done almost nothing to get ready for the move the next day! Once we finished the call we started to organize ourselves, as we packed our bags and got the house ready for the move, we called some friends to come help us out! We called the Bishop from one of the other wards in the stake who has a truck to give us a hand, he said he could! And then we called our companions in other areas to give us a hand as well, they said they could help! So we took that day and got as much ready as we could! The next day we got up and headed to our District council in a little pueblo called Misantla that's about 1hr away from us here in Independencia! We head our council and headed back quickly to get the move started! The good news is that our bishop friend came and we started to get everything loaded up, but our companions never showed up! So it was up to us three to get our house packed up and moved! After 3 hours, a few trips back and forth, and a lot of stairs clicked we finally were able to get everything in the house! From there we bought a coke to share between us three and headed to our English Class. After our class we headed to eat dinner with the family we were supposed to have comida with, but we cancelled due to the move. After earing dinner with them we headed home to organize the house, because we literally just threw everything in the room and headed out to make it on time for our class! It was a real hassle folks, please learn form my mistake! Planning is the key to happiness, or at least the key to less stress and back pain from having to carry so many books between three people!!

Our first English class!

100!! BAUCTICIEN!!

The move took about 2 days from our week, but the other 2 days I lost were from going on Divisions. On Tuesday I did divisions with an Elder in our Zone named Elder Raymond. I was with Elder Raymond in Xalapa while he was in the offices, and I got to know him very well! I was very excited to hear he would be in the zone here in Martinez! So when it was time to go on Divisions with him, since he's one of the District leaders, I offered to go with him to his area! It was so much fun! Elder Raymond is such a good guy and an amazing missionary, I was able to learn a lot from him! We spent our day contacting in the street and visiting inactive families, and we were able to talk with a lot of people! And when we have a nice contacting session we usually always find people that are very much against "Los Mormones". One occasion in particular was when we were looking for a friend they've been teaching and saw a woman sitting on the corner of a store, and we decided to talk with her! It started off kind of rough, after we introduced ourselves she hit us with the "You know you're just a sect of the Catholic church right?". From there she explained that the Catholic church is the original church, and that every other church is just a sect, and that when Christ was crucified, his body on the cross became the first image we needed to worship. My first instinct was to take out my Bible and show her the error of her ways, but Elder Raymond interrupted and bore a very beautiful and simple testimony. After he spoke, the woman completely changed, she started to have an actual conversation with us. In the end, she didn't want to learn more, but the fact that Elder Raymond's testimony had such a big effect on her was incredible! I learned that we can try and chastise people, and try and convince them that they are wrong using the scriptures, but really the best thing we can do is testify of Christ! Elder Raymond has 22 months in the mission, and I'm very glad I was able to go on divisions with him and be able to learn such an important lesson! From there we continued contacting and teaching in the street until we finished our day with some waffles and headed to bed! I still have so much to learn haha!!

Besides having gone on divisions with Elder Raymond, I also went on Divisions with another Elder, Elder Castillon, in an area called Tlapacoyan! Elder Catsillon and I are actually finishing our mission together in January, so it was cool to go on divisions with one of the other three missionaries that finish with me! Tlapacoyan is awesome! We went on divisions there because President Day has some plans for that area in these coming weeks and months and wanted us to scout out the area! Even though I was there to see the area and the ward, I was still able to learn a lot from Elder Castillon! So the Elders in Tlapacoyan have a really messed up phone! For the past week or so it hasn't been working, they haven't been able to make or receive calls, text messages, emails, or really anything unless they are connected to wifi! I think they don't have data anymore but they say that their chip got blocked, who knows! But anyway, this little phone problem is actually kinda a big problem, because the only place we can connect to the internet is in the church, and its not exactly super efficient to go to the church every time you need to make a phone call! So our only option was visit the people they already knew, and contact in the street! So if I haven't given the impression yet, I love contacting people in the street, besides visiting inactive families, it's probably my favorite way to find people! It feels like good old fashioned missionary work, talking with as many people as you can, testifying of Christ in the streets! Missionary Gorilla warfare haha!! So that's what we did, we contacted a lot of people in their houses and the street, and I got to know Tlapacoyan pretty well! But during our galavanting, Elder Castillon remembered that there was an inactive member who lived close to where we were, so we decided to drop by and visit her! Elder Castillon told me that they have tried to stop by and visit her many times but haven't ever found her, and she doesn't respond to their messages! But we decided to stop by, and much to our surprise there she was! She told us that she works in Teziutlan and is almost never home, but miraculously the only time she's been home before the night time was that day when we stopped by! We talked a bit with her as she explained that she hasn't been to church because she's been having a lot of mental health problems. We talked for a while with her, and set up a time to call her later on that night, but before we offered a prayer with her there on her doorstep! Later that night we had a phone lesson with her and were able to share about the Sacrament, the Atonement and the peace that comes from Christ! It was great to have the opportunity to meet with her and share the love of our Heavenly Father with her! She said she still didn't feel 100% sure about going to church on Sunday, but said she would make an effort to go! From there we had dinner, ate some burgers and went the house! We talked for a while and went to bed. The next day we went to church and I got to see how the ward is, but in the worst moment, the burgers from the night before decide to bite back! After some rough visits to the bathroom we finished the meetings. After church we ate some roasted chicken with a family and then finished the divisiones! Pretty good divisiones, Tlapacoyan is much colder than Martinez so it was nice to get out of the heat for a bit!

Pozole!!

Cool looking gray cat!

The last thing that happened this week was a very good devotional we had last night! The devotional started off with an experience from some hermanas in Xalapa who shared a miracle they had with the Lord helping them reach the goals they set, they talked about how of the goals we set are set under the spirit of prayer, the lord is bound by his word to help us complete that goal! The experience they shared was really incredible and it filled my with a very strong spirit, a spirit of happiness for them, but also a desire to have the light that these Hermanas had! I could tell that there was something different they had that I don't have. From there we heard from President about our baptism goal for May, 100 souls! President promised us that if we gave all the we could this month, and trusted in the Lord we would see this goal come to fruition! Please pray that we can make this happen, that we can help 100 children of our Heavenly Father open the door of the Celestial kingdom this month! After the devotional my companion and I talked about what was different between us and the Hermanas who spoke in the devotional. We talked about our personal baptism goal for May, we talked about how if we want new things to happen in the area we need to do new things. We need to elevate ourselves to a higher plain than we've been on before. President Day said that this month can be the best month we've ever had on our missions, the happiest month, the most successful month, the most miraculous month! My companion and I decided that if this is going to be a month that we have never before experienced before, we need to do things we haven't done before, or we've stopped doing! I'm very excited, I'm excited yo change a lot this month and help many people come unto Christ with the help of my companion!!

Thats about it for this week! We are going to have to really put a focused this week to find people so that we can make our goal come true! But that's fine by me! I love you all so much! I hope you have a great week, and I will see you soon!!

-Elder Garnica