P-Day update week 89, 10/30/2023

 Muy buenas tardes mis queridos compas!!

This has been an awesome week here in Lagos! We've had basically the whole week here in the area so we were able to get a lot of work done and have some really cool experiences!!

Elder Morales, Elder Moreno, and me during the MLC

So to start off let's talk about our MLC. Now I've mentioned the MLC (Mission Leadership Council) before, but this time I got to take part from the other side of the council! So my companions and I have been thinking about things we can prepare to share with the Zone leaders. My companions reminded me of a talk from Elder Marc Bragg where he talks about Christlike Leadership. We talked a lot about how much we love that talk and we decided to tell President that we wanted to give our training about that! We were able to talk with President about it while we ate with him, that day they invited us over to eat and we had a great conversation about the mission and the missionaries and a lot of things! It's very strange the point of view of this side of the offices, its such a great experience to be around President so often and be able to hear his counsel! From there we had approval from President Villanueva so now we just had to get it ready. We separated the talk into three main points: 

1. Focusing on the individual. 

2. Edify and teach.

3. Teach repetitively.

Then we each chose a part to explain. I chose the first, focusing our Leadership on the individuals. Personal private, and public ministering and guidance! Elder Buer chose to teach about Edifying and Teaching those we serve to help them grow and become better. Finally Elder Moreno chose to prepare his part on teaching repetitively, not saying the same thing over and over again without changing but rather emphasizing a specific topic to make it engrained in the minds of those we serve. Then we listened to the talk a few more times and started to prepare. Almost instantly the revelation started coming to us on how we could present our topics and how to make it engaging. The process took a while. From 2:00pm when we arrived to President's house until about 11:30pm when we all finished our Councils and went to bed, but it was a great experience!

Zona Xalapa 1

Zona Xalapa 2

The next day we got up bright and early to be at President's house at 7:00am to help set up. Once everyone arrived, we had breakfasts and started the council. Because I'm new President chose me to conduct the meeting. During the introduction I was really nervous. I have taught many people and many missionaries in different settings, but teaching the Zone Leaders seemed like a very different type of thing! But I said a prayer in my heart and knew that I was going to do my best! So when it was my turn I got up and started to give my council. It turned out awesome!! The spirit was very strong as we all participated and had a great council about how to best serve our missionaries personally. It was a great experience that taught me faith. Even though I probably didn't have the perfect presentation I was sure that I prepared it and delivered under the influence of the Holy Ghost, with that I knew it had to turn out good!

After we finished our MLC, had lunch and took some photos and we put everything away and started divisions with the Zone Leaders here in Xalapa! Because we're in trio we were able to take advantage and do divisions with all the Zone leaders here and still work in our area! I went to an area called San Bruno with an Elder named Elder Huesca, and his companion came here to Lagos with Elder Buer, and Elder Moreno went to Americas with my old companion Elder Hernández and his companion Elder Ramirez! Once we left the MLC we went to their house and dropped our stuff off. Now I would like to share something we've been putting a lot of focus on lately. As a missionary we very often have a lot of things to do and sometimes we don't have time to study in the morning, whether that be personal study, companionship study, or language study. And most of the time we missionaries have to decide whether we are going to work in the streets proselyting or study. For the majority of my mission and the majority of missionaries we decide to go proselyting, it seems like the obvious answer. But in the missionary standards it says we have from 10:00am to 9:00pm to do our studies, and my companions have been putting that in practice. I was a little unsure about doing it, especially this particular day when we were on divisions. But I told Elder Huesca that we were going to study. But as I prayed to start my personal study I asked Heavenly Father to help me know if I should sacrifice working time to do my studies. So after we finished up all our studies we hit the streets.

When we left the house we saw so many miracles! Everyone that we went to visit we were able to teach, and while we were there we met new family members that we hadn't met before. And the kicker is that all out friends that we see all told us "Hey Elders how lucky, I just got home!". So that was a testimony to me of the importance of doing all our studies every day. Because if we would have not done our studies and left the house to visit these people just two hours earlier we wouldn't have found them, and we wouldn't have met the new friends that we had the chance to meet. In fact one of the friends that we met told us in that very first lesson that he wants to be baptized!! It goes to show that Heavenly Father loves pirate efforts and our desires to be obedient!!

When President Villanueva went to Tuxpan we went to go and take care of Lui!

We also used President's kitchen to cook food one day they canceled our food appointment!

Tarot Ice cream en Los Lagos!!

For a few transfers here in the Mission we had gotten rid of the Zone Councils. Zone Councils are something that doesn't really exist in the missionary standards nor in Preach My Gospel. So President decided to get rid of it. But about two weeks ago a Zone here in the mission that was having a lot of trials decided to ask President for permission to have one and teach their missionaries. And it turned out great, President was able to attend and he said it was a great success!! So from there President told us all in the MLC that Zone Councils are back. And this Saturday we had ours! We got there right on time Saturday and were able to get started without any hiccups, and it was an okay Zone Council. I think I realized why President wanted to get rid of them in the first place. Many missionaries go to the Zone Council thinking it's a buffet, but really it's a potluck. Everyone needs to go ready to share and participate, but the missionaries sometimes don't want to do that. My companions and I found ourselves commenting a lot during the council to break the silence after our Zone Leaders asked an open question to the group. Even though we try not to participate too much since we're already so Involved in the mission. But even then it was necessary. We'll see how it goes in future Zone Councils, I think we just need to change the focus and rather than just project all they heard in the MLC we want them to use what they learned WITH revelation for their Zone to come up with a great Zone Council! In excited yo see how that changes in the future! The bright side is that I was able to see a lot of friends in the Zone that I haven't seen in a while!

Now to finish off I would like to talk about this weekend we had here in the area. Now to start off, on Saturday Elder Buer went with President to Tuxpan in the north for a Stake Conference and to do some divisions with a few Elders that are struggling. That left Elder Moreno and I here in the area to finish off the week strong. Starting Saturday we were 3 new friends short of meeting our goal. And we new we had to find them before the week finished! So Elder Moreno and I decided that we were going to apply the old faithful, talk with Everyone!! Contacting in the street is one of my favorite missionary activities, I love talking with people in the street and meeting new friends and primarily, teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ with all who will here us out! It's something neither of us have done in a while, we've been focusing more on asking our member friends for references, but we knew that we didn't have time, and that the Lord is preparing new friends for us to help! So that whole weekend we spent it serving in the street, taking with people in the stores, in front of their houses, stopping them in the street and preaching! It was so much fun and filled me with such joy! It feels just wonderful spending the whole day talking with new people and testifying of Christ. Sure not everyone wanted to hear us, but we found those who did, and ended up not only meeting our goal but passing it by 1! 

I know that the Lord has the power to bring to pass all his desires and plans. We just need to be willing to do something, to let him work through us. God uses imperfect people to complete his perfect plans, like Elder Holland once said "it must be incredibly frustrating for him" but if we give our effort and time to the Lord he will us us, I've seen it time and time again in my life an on my mission. Even if we don't know exactly what to do, we just need to do something and have faith that our Heavenly Father will consecrate those actions and being to pass his plans! 

Really cool Esquites where we could put our own Chile flavoring

Little black checked cat

Friends that is my short update for you all! I am still loving the mission so much! In fact I've decided to extend my mission a little bit more and will be getting home around the middle of March instead of February! I'm excited to see you all but for right now I'll stay here and keep serving for all the time the Lord permits! I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!!

-Elder Garnica