P-Day update week 72, 07/03/2023

 Buenas tardes a todos!!

This past week lasted 2 seconds and 2 years at the same time! It had it's ups and downs but more ups than anything!

Post divisions selfish with the Elders in Martinez!

To start off the week let me tell you about some divisions that we had. Last Monday we were on Divisiones with the companion of one of the Elders that had to travel to Poza Rica for their last dinner with President. His name is Elder Garcia and he is still pretty new in the mission, he is currently in his 3rd transfer! But he is a beast! His trainer is one of the best missionaries in the mission, and a good friend of mine so I was excited to work with his trainee for a little bit! To start off our divisions we went and did a contact with a family that we met a few weeks ago, it's been hard to get a lesson set up but we were determined to find them! When we got there the family wasn't home. But just as we were about to leave, a man came biking in, he was one of the neighbors! We started to chat with him for a little bit and turns pit he is the brother of the man we were looking for (miracle number 1). So we got his number and set up a time to meet with him again! From their we started walking in route to the house of an inactive family, we had stopped by the day prior and they said wr could come back the following day. But as we were walking somebody stopped us. A young man grabbed us and explained that he is a member and is visiting family that just had someone pass away. He said that he didn't believe in coincidences so he told us tp follow him to their house! There he went inside to ask if we could come back another day to teach them (they were having a "rosario" catholic type funeral prayer service) and he came back out and told us they said yes! So we set a day to go back with them as well (mircale number 2)! Once we had finished with that we finally made our way over to the inactive family's house, but it seemed like no-one was there! We knocked the door anyway just to be sure and another young man came out that we hadn't met before. We started to rlak with him and he told us that he hasn't gone to church in a very long time and that we would be able to convince him. He said that he doesn't like to hear people, he prefers to talk and he doesn't really want to talk with us. But we felt Impressed to push a little more, we started talking about the experiences he had when he was in the church and why he got baptized. And then we asked him again, if he would like yo meet with us. He changed dramatically in those 2 minutes that we spoke, and he said yes! He said no-one had ever talked to him like that before. So we set up a time to go back! (Miracle number 3) form there it was late so we headed home, but we felt very pleased with what we had done. But as we were walking home we heard someone call out to us "Elders! He Elders!". We turned around and greeted a new face. This friend fold us that she is a member of the church but hasn't gone in a very long time and wants us to stop by and give her house a blessing! She said that her daughter is also inactive and has three kids that aren't members of the church! She mentioned all the hard stuff that has happened to them and how they really needed the Priesthood power! So we chose a day to go and visit them (Mircale number 4)! Now that we finished that we got home and just talked about everything that happened it was a really good day!!

Presidente y Hermana Villanueva!

Distrito Vega P-day!!

Cross drawing from Tammy

I want to use a lot of this emailing talking about the friends that we met this week, but I feel like I should now mention our NEW MISSION PRESIDENT!! One Friday morning we had a final Devocional with President Day where he said his last goodbyes and we watched a video that was prepared by a former missionary! And that same day at 5 we sent a message to the new Presidents phone to welcome him with a video from the Zone. And just like that we have a new mission President! Presidente and Hermana Villanueva are the new mission leaders, and with them they brought their 15 year old daughter, two cats, and a dog! I am going to miss President Day a lot! It was under his leadership where I grew the most as a missionary, during my most crucial times he was there with his wife to help me become better and change! It was a pleasure to serve with him and it's going to be an interesting transition! But I know I'll have the chance to visit them after I get home, and Hermana Day says that when we get engaged she needs to interview the prospect to make sure their good for us!! President Villanueva and his wife also seem like amazing people! We had a devocional on Saturday so the whole mission could pressent themselves and get a chance to meet the new mission leadership! They seem like so much fun! They are different than the last two Presidents I've had but they seem so loving and excited to work with us! We got to ask them some questions to get to know them, President is from Oaxaca and his wife is from Colorado but was born to parents from Chihuahua! They have three daughters and everyone speaks Spanish and English!! I'm very excited to see how this mission grows and changes under their guidance! 

Alright so like I mentioned I wanted to use some of this email talking about our new friends in teaching! These past two weeks we have had to let a lot of our friends go. It's always hard to stop teaching people, but I have the strong testimony that when we take the step of faith to let these friends go for now, God helps us find his elect. And that's what happened this week! We knew that we needed to focus on finding new friends, and thanks to one of the miracles on Monday we had the chance to meet Anthony! He is the grandson of the sister that stopped us on the street to ask for a blessing on her home. Well we stopped by on Wednesday and gave the house a blessing and taught Anthony about the Priesthood and the basics of who God is. He is a young man of 14 years and has seen his share of trials and I am excited to see how we can help him and his whole family come to church and take part of the peace that is found in Christ! And they gave us a juice as we left so that was just the cherry on the cake! This week as we were walking in the street talking amongst ourselves we received a call from a sister in ward. She said that she had just talked with an inactive family and found that they have a daughter of 14 years who isn't a member and wants us to visit her! So we shot over to their house and taught the first few principles of the Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ! Her name is Daniela and her parents are endowed members and have had a lot of callings in the church, but for a lot of reasons they stopped going, bur said that we don't congregate anywhere and are looking for the place where God wants them to be! I always feel a little sad with these cases, an inactive mom or dad stops going which keeps their children from enjoying the fruits of the restored gospel. But that is why we are here, to invite all to come unto Christ! I'll keep y'all updated on Anthony and Daniela! Please pray for them that their parents let them continue hearing our message!!

Visits with a recently returned sister missionary!

I'm sure you all remember our friend Kings who was baptized last week, well Kings has two sons, Abraham and Kings Jr. Their mom lives in Veracruz and they rarely see her, or I gues I should say that she LIVED In veracruz! Because on Thursday when we went to visit Kings, he wasn't in his house. But his sister lives right next door so she told us that they had moved! But she knew where they lived. We followed her about two blocks down the street and went to their new house. We knocked and sure enough Kings Jr opened up and let us in. They had just finished eating, and we saw a new face! We presented oursleves and she did aswell, Tabitha is her name. We started to talk and they told us that they didn't move, they just gave some stuff to Tabitha since she just moved to Martinez again after having lived in Veracruz! She just happ3ned to move back to Martinez after the baptism of her ex husband, coincidence? I think not! We knew that the Lord had prepared her to hear our message, so we helped them clean up their table and shared with them the Message of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her to read it and go to church this coming Sunday. We said goodbye and left. And then we saw them all at chruch this past Sunday!! She said that she really likes it, and was very welcomed by the Relief Society sisters!! I see a lot of potential with her! Now I want to talk about two other friends! A few weeks ago we were talking with a recent convert in her little tiendita when a woman comes up to buy something. We step aside to let her buy her goods, but then I saw she had a 

Star Wars tattoo. I told her that I like her Star Wars tattoo, she thanked me and we started to talk, but all of a sudden she starts to speak to us in English! We went a long with it and continued our conversation in English! That's when she asked us what we did, we explained that we are missionaries of Jesus Christ and are here to help people increase their happiness and peace through our savior Jesus Christ! She said that her mane is Tammy and our message intrigued her and said she lived in the corned on the next street, she told us to stop by and see if we could convince her haha!! So we stopped by one day and met her Husband Wesley! We talked with him for a bit and he told us he worked in the USA for about 16 years! He said he worked for a Hotel renovation company and got to visit just about all of the east coast of the United States! But he said he never got to Alabama, only yo Georgia :/ oh well! We talked for a bit and told him we would stop by the next day to talk formally with him and his wife! So we went back and were greeted very warmly by our new friends, they pulled out this cool camping chair sofa type deal and we sat and talked for a bit. She pulled out a bunch of drawings for us and explained how she loves to draw! She showed us a lot of drawings, but then she pulled out the drawing of a cross. She told us that she spent a few weeks in prison, and to get by she drew these crosses and sold them so she could eat! She said that she only drew three. One she sold for food, and she kept for herself and the third is a gift for me. We hadn't even started the lesson yet and she had already gifted us a prized possession for her, she got a little teary as she explained the significance of it. Obviously I've never really had crosses before, but I think I can make an exception this time! After that we actually started the lesson itself, we only had time to talk about the first little bit of The Restoration, but even then she began to cry as we shared our message. She said she didn't believe in coincidences (we don't either) and she knew there was a reason we were meant to meet her. She told us to come back on Tuesday and we can talk some more!! It was a very short but very spiritual experience for us and we are excited to see what she can do when we give her all the information!!

Now I know I talked about a lot of people but I ask that you pray for these friends that they might have the opportunity to know this message us true and progress in the covenant path!!

The last thing I want to mention very quickly is the activity we had for our Champion friends in the district! Like I mentioned the Champions are the missionaries going home this transfer, and this past week they were all in Poza Rica. As they were away the rest of district planned a couple activities so their last P-Day could be the best P-Day ever!!! We had everyone film a short video talking about something they learned/have enjoyed about each champion and we put it all together in a video to share with them, a long with some other fun activites for us all! So the day before P-Day we sent out the invitation for our cowboy themed P-Day! The day of the activities we all met up in out chapel and played games, listened to music, watched the video, wrote in journals, and had a great last P-Day! It's sad to see this generation leave, a lot of them are dear friends of mine, but everyone has their time! I'm just happy we were able to finish off on a good note!!

Gray cat

Well that's all folks! Let me finish off with a quick spiritual thought! This week I have seen a great impact on my life as I've focused on having the spirit with me and reviewing revelation! There was a time in my life when I thought receiving revelation was only for the prophet and us normaltons had to be perfect to receive such guidance. But it's not like that at all, really truly each person who searches will find. But we need to search, we need to have still and quiet moments and just listen. We need to ponder and the spirit will guide. I know our Father in Heaven loves us and wants to show us what we should do, but he's not going to canon ball it into heads, we need to open up and spiritually go to heaven and grab it! I love you all so much, thank you all for always reading my horrendously long and probably grammatically incorrect emails! I hope you have a great week!!

-Elder Garnica