P-Day update week 78, 08/14/2023

Muy buenas tardes mis queridos hermanos en Cristo!!

This week went by really fast! It was a really full week! We had the chance to meet a lot of new people and have some cool finding experiences! We lost a day of teaching because we had to travel and do some baptismal interviews but the Lord helped us have success in the other things we did!! 

The sunset form the church after our English class!

I also hit 18 months today! That means I'll be home in a little under 6 months which is nuts! All the Hermanas from my CCM district go home this week which is totally weird, I don't feel old yet and I'm definitely not slowing down (at least not too much I hope!) I'm glad the Lord still has 6 months set aside for me to work in his vineyard!!

Alright so let's set the stage for this week! Last week was rainy and petty fresh, but this week was super hot! It wasn't actually as hot as it was a few months ago but it's just different. In June we had days where we got up to 125°, this week we were probably between 90° and 100°, not too hot...hehe...Anyway the heat un June was very humid heat, it reminded me of my sweet home Alabama and I was able to get through it without too much trouble! But this week the sun was very strong, it wasn't SUPER humid but just normal humidity levels and a lot of sun! In fact I actually got a nice little sun burn from walking around, usually I have my Sombrero but I sometimes feel like I stick my head in an oven when I use it! So this week I just went without it, and payed the consequences haha!! But the burn wasn't that bad and we could move on, thanks to my trusty water bottle! So I brought a metal waterborne with me on my mission, but it's kinda heavy and impractical for the street so I leave it at home. But when I arrived here to Martinez I found a two liter water bottle from "Betterware" (which is like Tupperware's enemy) and I've been using it for the last couple months. But few weeks ago I was walking in the street and the handle broke, and all the water drained out. But I grabbed my super glue and fixed it, or so I thought! About two days ago we were walking down the street and I jump off a little curb, and when I did I suddenly felt my water bottle become very light, as it turns out my water bottle flew off the handle and I was there just grabbing on to nothing haha!! But don't worry, I bought a Tupperware 2 liter plastic bottle two days ago and I hope it'll be a little more durable! We'll see!!

Nice Italian restaurant we found!

Put with the old in with the new (team Tupperware!!)

Even though the heat has been a little rough lately the work has to continue! This week my companion and I worked hard and we got to see some great miracles! This week was especially promising when it comes to finding new friends to teach! There were some friends that for one reason or another weren't able to receive us anymore, so we had to find new people who wanted to listen! But really we didn't dedicate that much time to finding, really the Lord just put his children in our path so we could meet them! Three quick experience come to mind: On Monday we were walking in the street like normal, my companion and I were chatting about something random when a guy yells "hermanos!". This usually happens about 10 times a day so we just greeted him and kept on our way, but for some reason we decided to stop and turn around to talk with him! We introduced oursleves and he did too, he said he is an inactive member of the church from a little pueblito called Teteles (which is actually super close to my first area, Zacapoaxtla)! He said he wanted us to visit him, so one day we went over and met him and shared a quick spiritual thought, and the next time we went he introduced us to his wife who isn't a member, and we were able to teach her! Here is another cool experience when we were walking in the street. So when we are going about our day we are consistently looking for opportunities to serve, if we see someone pushing or carrying something heavy we just about always offer to lend a hand (I'll talk a little bit more about this later). But after helping a woman carry some things to her home, as we left a young lady stops us and asks us "are y'all still giving English classes?" We turned around and told her, "well yes"! We introduced ourselves and so did she, she said that before she was in teaching with the missionaries and went to the English classes, but she wasn't able to go for a while, but now she can again!! We told her to go to the next class, and asked if we could stop by one of these days to share a message with them, and she said yes! So these two experiences were cool, I mean we didn't really do anything, THEY contacted US! But we also had time this week to visit some inactive families, my favorite pass time. So we have been trying to focus more on asking the members we go with to eat for references of members that haven't gone in a while, once we stopped by the house of the Relief Society president and began to talk about a few families when she mentioned there was an inactive family just a few houses down! After our conversation with her we took some time during the week to go and visit them! The first time we stopped by we were greeted by two vicious poodles who do not seem to like the missionaries haha! And someone from the house said to come back on Saturday, okay so we went back on Saturday at around noon. When we arrived a little girl came running out to greet us, she introduced herself as "Elly", she said her mom wasn't home and asked if we could come back later, we said yes and we went back later. That happened two more times that same day, we felt kinda sad that we didn't have a chance to meet with them :/. But the following day in the sacrament meeting, my companion and I were sitting on the stand to bless the sacrament when Elly and her mom walk in out of nowhere!! So Elly is a nine year old girl and isn't a member of the church yet, and she told her mom the day before "mom tomorrow can you take me to church?"! Wowow!!! When I was nine I'm pretty sure I couldn't even pronounce church correctly! This was an awesome miracle, and that same day we had a lesson with them in their home and got to talk about The Book of Mormon with them a bit! We're excited for Elly, we're pretty sure she is going to carry the team along to church and help her family come back, and also prepare herself for baptism in these coming weeks!!!

La abuelita Petra dandonos de desayunar!

One simple step shows 3 steps?

I mentioned in the last paragraph our focus on service this week, well I would like to share a few experiences we had with trying to serve others! So the first experience that comes to mind is when my companion and I were in route to a door we had knocked a few days earlier when we saw an older women carrying a bunch of random stuff! We saw her stop and adjust herself then keep going, I'm not gonna lie, it looked super heavy! Of course we offered our help, of course she said no, of course we insisted more, and of course she let us help her! We grabbed her bag and her collection on random things and started on our way to her house, we presented ourselves as the missionaries, and she as Jezabel! As we walked and chatted she mentioned that her daughter in some time listened to the missionaries, but that was a very long time ago! But mentioned that whenever we have time she would love to receive us in her home! We didn't even try to contact her, we just tried to serve and she contacted us!! Another really cool experience that week from service was when we were on our way to visit a family that is in the process of reactivating. As we were walking we saw a young woman and her mother cutting their lawn. Alright so I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but here in Mexico nobody has a lawn mower or a weed wacker, everyone cuts their grass with machetes, they just cut it from the roots and destroy everything, but it works! Because of that it's also pretty hard work, so my companion and I offered some help, they said no, we insisted and they said no, so we just kinda grabbed the machetes and started working haha! But they seemed relieved that we were there to help! It took us about an hour or so, but we finished and had a great opportunity to get to meet then, and they even offered us dinner, which we accepted! They seem like very good people, we plan on stopping by tomorrow and seeing if we can't have a lesson with them! I really hope so, I feel like they have a lot of potential!! So service is awesome, as we serve our fellow man, we are in the service of God, always remember that! I invite you to look for opportunities to serve this week, and see how the Lord can use you to bless others, and yourself in the process!!

Black kitty

Alright so I'm all out of time this week, but we get transfer news tomorrow night, and we'll see what happens! I'm finishing my 3rd transfer here, and I'm hopeful I can stay one more to see my friends progress, but we'll see what happens!!

God loves you all so much, you are his greatest creation, he would give anything so you could return to live with him, all he requires is a broken heart and a contrite spirit!

I also love you all, I might not be the all powerful father of all mankind, but still!! I hope you have a great week and I will see you soon!!

-Elder Garnica