P-Day update week 67, 05/29/2023

  Hola hola!!

 

Wow, it's been a great week here in Independencia! The first week of the transfer just flew by! I won't waste any time, so let's jump right into it!

English class!

So first things first, we had transfers last week! It was an interesting experience because President changed the day of transfers! Before, we would receive our transfers on a Sunday, pack on Monday, and travel on Tuesday. But now, we received our transfers on Tuesday night, packed on Wednesday, and Traveled on Thursday! I'm not exactly sure why we changed the transfer set up, but I guess we'll see how it works through this week! That also means that I was going to be coming home on a Monday, January 29th, but now I'll be coming home on a Thursday, February 1st! My mission has officially been extended one more month haha!! Anyway, we received transfers, everything in our area is the same. I'm staying in Independencia with Elder Perez another transfer! That's is perfectly fine by me, I've been thoroughly enjoying it here in Independencia with my companion!! But most of the Zone got switched around in the transfers, and we had to go Thursday to see a lot of missionaries off, and receive a lot in there places! So that means from 8am on Thursday we were in the bus station helping people load up and unload their bags. I would say I probably wouldn't love to be a worker in an airport (expect to be a pilot of course!). But during all the hustle and bustle, we realized that we didn't cancel our food appointment, and we also knew that we were going to have 8 very hungry missionaries! Now usually the sisters in the ward sign up to feed two missionaries, for a lot of them, that is a big sacrifice, especially if they have financial issues. But we thought we would ask this sister if it would be possible to go eat with her, with 8 missionaries! We were fully expecting her to say no, but to our amazement she told us yes! So we put all out bags in the house of the nearest companionship and headed out in a bus to go eat! When we arrived she had made a huuuge pot of food for all of us, and had everything set up! We helped move some tables and chairs, and went to go fetch the tortillas, and got back to feast! But before we started, the sister asked us to sing a hymn with her, so we all took out our mini hymn books and sang Lead Kindly Light in Spanish (Divina Luz). As you all know, it is my most favorite hymn! As we finished the song this sister, who hasn't been to church in a very long time, was left in tears and thanked us. It was a beautiful experience, the Lord is always aware of us, he cannot forget us! After the hymn we blessed the food and ate, once we were all done we helped clean up and headed back to the bus station to see some more Elders off. At the end of the day my companion and I got home absolutely beat, but it was worth it for the experiences we were able to have with the other missionaries!

Ford and Kristen!

Ford after his baptism with his tag on!

This week has been a great week full of work! Just like last week and the week before we have had a full schedule of teaching, we quite literally have not had time to go finding people! It's honestly a grata problem to have, we have been having about 4 or 5 great lessons everyday, which is something I haven't experienced in the very best of my areas! Like I mentioned last week, this area has been very hard for me, when I got here the work was slow, no one wanted to listen, it was hot (that part hasn't changed), and we were walking a lot more than any other area I've been in (also hasn't changed much haha). But all out little efforts have been piling up, and now we have hit our rhythm! We have a great teaching pool, and all our friends have been progressing nicely, in fact we placed three baptismal dates this week! And had three new people at church on Sunday, that is after having 8 last week! It's been truly amazing!! Like I said, it's still hot, and we still have to walk everywhere (my two huge blisters on the bottom of my feet can testify) but were seeing results when it comes to inviting everyone to come unto Christ and try this wonderful Gospel, and that's the most important part!!

Eight missionaries in one food appointment!

Alright y'all, last week I talked about two huge miracles we had in finding Ford and Kristen! This week we had set up everything for the baptism of Ford, in fact the day of transfers we set up a time to go over the baptismal interview, and the next day he had his interview, he passed without any problem! So he was all ready for Sunday! But Kristen was still unknown, rather we didn't know when we could have her baptism, due to the fact that she needed a special interview with President Day to see if she could get baptized! But this week we received a call from President Morales, the first councilor in the mission presidency, who lives here in Martinez. He called us and let us know that President Day has asked him to do the interview for our friend Kristen! So Wednesday we set up a lesson with Kristen and the brother she takes care of, and notified President Morales! The day of the interview I would be lying if I said I wasn't very very nervous! I had faith in the fact that she was doing everything right, but we still needed confirmation from the church so she could be baptized! But once President Morales got there he interviewed Kristen and the Brother separately to understand the situation. After said interviews he came out and all he said is that he will send his report to President Day and he will be in contact shortly! So we tried not to be too nervous about it, and it helped that Thursday we were busy with all the new missionaries and couldn't really focus on anything else. On Friday morning we got a call from President Day, he called us to let us know that Kristen is going to be able to get baptized! My companion put ourselves on mute as we began to jump up and down and scream like a couple of teenage girls!! After we got a hold of ourselves we thanked President Day and finished the call! As soon as we got off the phone we started making arrangements so our baptismal service on Sunday would he changed from one person, to two people! We notified all the respective parties, and headed out to tell Kristen the good news! We had a quick lesson with them, and we all finished very excited for her Baptism on Sunday!!

Bugambilias changing color from white to pink!

So Saturday night, we had to run around all of Martinez to get everything ready for the baptism. We had to get the white clothes, we had to get the programs printed out and we had to clean the baptismal font! But once that was taken care of, we were all ready for Sunday! So unlike Xalapa and San Juan, we don't have hot water in the church for the baptisms, so we didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn to go to the church and fill up the font! We woke up at our normal time and headed out at about 7 to get the font filled up, then we headed back to the house to get showered and ready for the day! Once we arrived to the church we got the room set up, and everyone arrived on time! Except for the fact that we had a few hiccups. We had planned and notified two brothers to do the baptisms, but the morning of the baptism they both canceled! We frantically called everyone to see who could do the baptism, but we only found one. So that means I was chosen to do the other one! We had to scramble to get white clothes and towels and everything and ran out the door! Once we were back everyone was ready and we started the service! It was a beautiful baptismal service! The cold water wasn't actually that bad since Martinez is so hot, it was actually quite refreshing! And once the baptismal had been done, and everyone was changed we finished up and congratulated our two friends, Ford and Kristen! We finished at about 9:45, so everyone had time to just wait around until church started at 11! We had a quick ward council and hopped into church! Three of our friends arrived and were able to see the confirmations of Ford and Kristen! And just like that we officially welcomes our two newest members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints!! It's been a struggle, a lot of long days, but to see these two souls enter into the waters of baptism makes it so worth it!!

A huge toad we found at the church as we were cleaning the font!

Member cat who accompanied us as we ate!

Alright, my very quick spiritual thought this week is focused on courage. Courage is a very important attribute to have for us as disciples of Jesus Christ! Often times we can find ourselves in situations where we need to make a choice, choose to be courageous and do what Christ would have us do. Or let the pressure of society make us take decisions that can hurt us spiritually and sometimes even physically or mentally. It is the hardest thing to do, make decisions in the moment of who we will serve. I know that if we make the decision now, if we decided in this very moment who we will serve, when it comes down to us having to be courageous, the decision won't be so hard. We need to be examples of Christ, we have really truly taken his name upon us, now let us show it! That is how we see blessings, and how we receive spiritual strength!!

I love you all so very much! I hope you have a great week full of blessings and joy! I'll see you soon!!

-Elder Garnica