P-Day update week 66, 05/22/2023

 Hola holaaa

These past two weeks have been so great for us here in independencia! We've been working hard and seeing great fruits!

Book of Mormon on Aloe Vera, which can do more healing?

So to start off, this week we gad MLC! We traveled to Xalapa Monday morning and arrived at about 2pm, so that gave us plenty of time to have a cool P-Day in Xalapa! We went to Costco, and Starbucks, and the mall, all the basic Xalapa stuff haha! But the MLC itself was amazing! It was focused on one big thing. The Book of Mormon! President Day was telling us that he has been pondering about the thing our mission lacks, he said that there are other missions in Mexico that are the same size but are consistently helping more people be baptized. And he said that he discovered that the answer is The Book of Mormon. That's what our mission is lacking to take it to another level! He focused on 4 point in specific: 

1. The importance of The Book of Mormon.

2. Our responsibility to share it and live it. 

3. The Power of The Book of Mormon.

4. Flooding the earth with The Book of Mormon.

He first talked about how this book has the fulness of the Gospel, it is the perfect tool to convert all unto Christ! He talked about how The Book of Mormon was restored before any of the ordinances of the temple were restored, that the Lord first sent Joseph Smith to translate the plates before he told him to do anything else!

My companion and me

Then he talked about our responsibility, he was very firm in his words, and made sure we knew that we can't take this sacred gift from God, and treat it lightly! He told us about the positive consequences of using this book how it is meant to be used, but also the negative consequences when we take it for granted. I think just about everyone in the room was feeling the "ah I should repent right about know" but it helped us to see that this isn't any other book, and that it is our responsibility to treat it that way and use it that way!

Form there Hermana Day shared a few experiences about the power of The Book of Mormon, how it has helped so many people, how through this book people have seen miracles! I'm sure most if not all of you can think about an experience that showed the power of The Book of Mormon!

And finally they talked to us about how we could flood the earth with The Book of Mormon. It was mainly a big brain storm with everyone to find the ways we could flood the earth with this book! Some of those were: always having a copy in your hand in the streets, having every member of the ward put their testimony in a copy of The Book of Mormon and gift it to someone, bringing a box to the center of town and contacting there, giving a tour of the church with focused on The Book of Mormon, and many more! I'm excited to see what happens!

Zona Martinez!

MLC with Moreno and Capener!

Form there we all finished and had lunch and then we got caught in the rain, had to pay a taxi of 150 pesos, and we headed back to Martinez! It was an awesome MLC and we took that feeling and delivered it to the Zone in our zone council! It was awesome, and now our whole zone is going to be flooding the world with The Book of Mormon!

Like I mentioned at the beginning, this has been a great week, I could probably write a whole letter about each day, but I want to focus on some miracles we saw this week. The first one was about our friend Kristen. If you remember, two weeks ago I mentioned that she had been preparing to be baptized but her kids were coming down to take her to Reynosa, and she wasn't going to be able to be baptized. But a few weeks ago we were walking through the market, and saw her! We went up and started talking and she said that her kids came down, but they told. Her that she should stay where she's at and take care of the brother she's looking after! And she said that she still wants to get baptized! So we stopped by 2 times this week and are getting everything ready for her baptisms, there are just a few things we need to get taken care of. But if everything turns out well, she will be baptized this Sunday!!

So ever since I got here there had been a family that has been going to church every Sunday. It's a man, his wife, and their grandson. Since I got here I never really thought too much about them, I mean they are really nice and I can always say hi to them, but I thought it was just regular member family. But one day after church my companion mentioned to me that the young boy is not a member! I was a little taken aback by that, because the young boy is a beast! I've talked to him and he is super smart and has a knowledge of the gospel (he's 9)! But we made an appointment to go visit them that week, and when we went it was awesome!! This young man (Ford) shared with us his testimony and his desire to not only be baptized, but he said he wants to be a missionary one day! He shared with us that he convinced his grandparents to go back to church so he could be a member! He told us about how his mom was planning his Catholic baptism, when he told her "I'm not getting baptized in the Catholic church, I'm getting baptized in grandpa's church!". After he told us this story we knew that this young man was ready to be baptized, but all we had to do was get permission from his parents, because they are inactive and his Grandparent take him to church. We set up a lesson with the boy, his grandparents, and his parents. In the lessons we shared the plan of salvation, it wad a very powerful lesson. My companion and I taught very well, we were able to share with concise phrases that were short and powerful! We also could see that the parent were engaged in the discussion, the spirit was very strong with us! After we had finished we asked them permission to help Ford get baptized, they said yes! They were completely okay with him being baptized, in fact the father (who isn't a member either) gave his approval and mentioned that at one point in his life he had gone to our church but his dad stopped going so he did as well. But he said that he really liked it! Maybe we can also help Ford's dad as well soon! But from there we set a baptismal date for this Sunday!! I'll let yall know how it went this coming week!

Free hot dogs!!

Let's talk about our friend Mary and Lily! Mary and Lily are two friends we've been visiting since I got to this area, in fact they have actually been in teaching for about a year! Even though they've been in teaching for a while, all of a sudden they've been progressing very quickly! Let me try and quickly explain their story. Mary had an accident a few months ago which left her partially paralyzed on one half of her body, her daughter Lily has been helping her with the to-dos in the house, they also sell food at night in front of their house, and even though Mary doesn't have cemetery control still, she has been improving with her physical therapies! In fact, a few weeks ago we went by and shared a message about The Book of Mormon and Prayer, we talked about the power of these two gifts, both separately and together. And we left her with the homework to read and pray. The next day we stopped by to see how it went and she shared a very beautiful experience with us. She told us about how she hasn't been able to move her left arm be itself in almost a year, but after she read and prayed last night, she was able to lift up her hand and raise it above her head! She began to cry as she thanked us, and shared this beautiful miracle! At that point we knew that the Lord had great things planned for this family! Lily has always been very kind and welcoming to us, she had a desire to learn and is very smart, we have seen a great change in her these past couple weeks from not really being interested in going to church, to making all the arrangements necessary to be able to go to church with us! And yesterday, after inviting them for the past couple weeks they came to church! And they said that they loved it! I'll explain I'm this next part our Sunday miracle, but it was so great to see them enter into the church, even though Mary has trouble walking, she made it and walked from the entrance all the way down the hall to the sacrament meeting!

Yesterday was probably one of the best Sunday meetings I've ever had the privilege to attend! We have been working hard in trying to invite our friends to come to church, and help them take this step, but we have been struggling a little bit with them coming through. But yesterday we had a miracle, with 8 of our friends in teaching come to church! It's the most people I've ever seen come to church on one Sunday, and it was the perfect meeting! This week was focused on mother's day! (Shout-out to my mom and my aunt Nicole! I love you both very much! ). In this meeting the majority of our friends that came to church are mothers! And the whole time we were talking about how important they are not only as mothers but as women in general! And after the meeting, they decorated a room next to the chapel for a little mothers party! They brought cake and little boxes full of treats! We don't know what they talked about while they were in there, and the rest of us men were just kinda lost waiting for our friends to come out! But when they finished our friends that had come for the first time told us how much they loved it! They said that they are excited to come back again this coming Sunday! Unfortunately Lily is going to have a surgery done tomorrow and is going to be in bed for a few weeks, but she said she would love to come back once she is ready to be out and about! Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for us and our friends, I am very grateful for your help! Please keep praying for us that we might help these people come unto Christ, and take the next step to loving with him, baptism!

Junkyard cat!

A very quick spiritual thought: Read the Book of Mormon, and pray to ask God if it is true. Even if you've already done it many times, do it again! This book is not like any other book! And it will help you come unto Christ if you give it the chance, it truly is the word of God!!

I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week full of happiness and peace!!

-Elder Garnica