P-Day update week 82, 09/12/2023

Muy buenos días a todos ustedes en este gran día de felicidad!!!

Alright so this week has been a little weird!! It's been a really full week but looking back there isn't really anything to mention! But what there is to mention will be mentioned below!!

Baptism selfie

This week has been very similar to last week, in the sense that we've been working really hard to find new friends that we can teach! Two weeks ago we found a lot of friends and with this last week of finding we have a really nice teaching pool to keep ourselves busy! We've seen some miracles in our search to be diligent here in our area!! One event in particular stood out for me! So I'm not sure if i have already mentioned that a few weeks ago my companion and I found an opportunity to serve while walking in the street and were able to help a lady cut her grass with some machetes! Well we have been trying to be in contact with her over the past couple weeks but it's been hard to get a lesson in with them. But a few days ago we were walking in the street trying to contact some friends in teaching but it seemed like nobody was home! Nobody was letting us in and we were still looking! Once we decided to head home we had an impression to go to the house of this friend who's grass we cut a few weeks ago. Much to our delight we found her there with her daughter and we were able to have a short lesson before we had to be home for the Curfew! I see them with a lot of potential to progress, it was nice to have an experience like that after a little bit of a struggle. But it often works like that in life!

So as you might have seen I mentioned that have a Curfew. So let me try and explain the situation, about a week ago one of our DLs called us to let us know that their city has been placed with a Curfew, that there is a group that is trying to hurt people after it gets dark. They told us that there has already been 15 people who have fallen victim to this organized crime group. Now that was last week, but a few days ago here in Martinez we started hearing that the same thing was going to happen here in Martinez, in fact quite a few members told us that we needed to be sure that we are home before it gets dark to make sure we stay safe. After hearing a few different companionships tell us their members have mentioned similar things we received a call from President in thw which he told us that we were now in Curfew as well. So for the time being we have to be in our house before 6:30pm everyday. That means we are going to be leaving earlier and studying at night, so we can be the safest we can be during these scary times! Now I don't want yall to get worried, this is something that happens every now and then. In fact it happened in Poza Rica by this same group earlier in the year. Please pray that everything can calm down and we can get back to our normally scheduled work here in Martinez!!

Some of the best tacos I've had in a very long time

Laney's baptism

Caught in the act of being stressed out and calling for help with the baptism

One last quick story is about our friend Lanye who was baptized this week!! She is such a beast and has been so excited for her baptism for some time now! Finally this weekend was her baptism. So like we normally do we go to the church the day before to clean the font and check the water and really just make sure everything is ready for the baptism the next day. So when we arrived we walked into the baptismal font and found it completely full of dirty stagnant water! We have no idea what happened but we new we had to get it fixed! So we went outside to drain the font, but when we lifted up the tank where the water drains into we found that it was already completely full of water as well! After a few seconds of panic we remembered that in my last area, the bishop there works in maintenance for the church, so we decided to shoot him a call and see if he knew what we could do. While talking with him and explaining the situation he came to the conclusion that our irrigation system must not be turned on. So he told us how we could get it going to have the water in the tank irrigate to the sprinklers so we could drain the font and clean it! After turning on the irrigation system we saw the water level begin yo drop and we were able to start draining the font! Now because of the Curfew we couldn't stay to watch it all drain out, so we just left it running and had to head home for the night. Knowing that the next day we would have to clean the font before we could fill it up again we set out alarm for 5:30 to give us sufficient time! So the next day we got up bright and early and headed to the church to do some light cleaning and font filling haha! And when we opened the door to the font we saw that it was completely filled once again with dirty stagnant water! We ran outside and it seemed that the irrigation system didn't finish draining to font which caused the water that drained out to be pushed right back up the tube and back into the font! Now panic mode was in full swing, but we knew that if we did all we could the Lord would help prepare the way so his daughter could be baptized! So we decided to do it all again what we did the night before. But this time we were there the whole time turning on the system, checking the drain, checking the tank, checking the system and cleaning as the water level dropped. This went on from 5:45 until 8:45 when the font was finally fully drained and cleaned in preparation for the baptism! Then we just turned the water on, set up the chairs, and got everything ready for the baptism! Once everyone arrived we had a very beautiful baptismal service, probably one of if not the most beautiful baptismal service I've ever seen! It was truly a spiritual experience!! In the end everything turned out well, we did all we could and trusted that the Lord would do his part. And he did. Like he always does!!

This cat has had enough of me. 

Honestly that's about it this week! It's been a lot of finding new people, just opening our mouths and speaking to those around us. It's so incredible how powerful this message is, that as those around us hear us testify they want to learn more! Like one time we visited an inactive sister and talked a bit with her about the church, and a man that was sitting outside working on his car asked us for a Book of Mormon. Just from what he overheard grew a desire to learn more. This message is true. This is the church of Jesus Christ, nothing else is as important as this fact. He loves us so much! 

I hope you all have a great week! I'm excited to keep working in the Lord's Vineyard and help him gather his sheep, I invite you all to do the same, and you may also feel the joy that I feel!! I love you all, see you soon!!

-Elder Garnica