One month down!

11:30 AM

I have officially made it past my one month mark!I can't believe that I have been gone for a whole month and still have yet to make it to my actual mission. However, only 1 more P-day before I'll be e-mailing from Montreal! Yayy!

Well this week was another very full week. So much has happened once again, and I will probably send another long e-mail. To all my friends, you can just scroll down and look at the pics, it's okay. Family, you actually have to read this.

The devotional on Tuesday was amazing. There is no other word. We had 2 pretty big people last time so were kind of saying how this one wouldn't be as big or as good. Which is horrible of me to say, because it was probably my favorite one by far. We had Brent H. Nielson of the quorum of the 70 and he's in charge of the entire missionary department. Because he's kind of a huge deal, he has the special opportunity of meeting with the first presidency and quorum of the 12 each week. And for the devotional he shared some of his favorite lessons that he has learned from them and I want to share them with you!

1. President Monson- "He whom the Lord calls, the Lord qualifies" He will always make us equal to the task.

2. Boyd K. Packer- "In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints we have no fear" Fear and faith can't coexist.

3. Jeffery R. Holland- "Remember Lot's wife" Luke 17:32 Our future is forward, we shouldn't look back because great things are in store.

4. David A. Bednar- "Bury your weapons" Alma 23:7-8 We must bury our weapons of destruction (a.k.a. our sins) and become righteous and converted. Also, their children ended up being the army of Helaman so parents and future parents, take note.

5. Boyd K. Packer- "Revelation doesn't come until you are on the way" Also known as the "doctrine of proximity" Sometimes in order to receive revelation, we must be up and moving, up and doing.

6. Neil L. Anderson- "Always ask about others" This work is about serving others, its not about me! "If you lose your life, you'll find it"

7. John 6 (Sermon on the mount) His grace is sufficient for all

Any of you still reading? I hope so! If not, those points were probably the most important of all, so I don't mind. So this week instead of teaching members in the MTC, my comp and I got to skype a member from our mission! Her name is Amanda, shes a recent convert of 3 years, and actually goes to BYU. It was so great! I loved being able to just talk with someone that knows my mission! She was born and raised there and could not stop bragging about how wonderful it was. I'll be honest, I was so nervous to speak with her. However, the lesson went so well! She understood everything we said, which is a huge blessing, and we actually understood everything she said as well! I was pretty worried she would have a quebecois accent but nope, she spoke perfect french. Oh, funniest thing. Some of the elders were skyping a woman in France and at the end she goes, "wait, wait, wait, REGARD! Mon chien!" (Look! My dog!) and just picks up her dog and starts showing it off haha

My district has kind of been freaking out that we are leaving so soon, and are worried that we'll get there and won't know if they're speaking French or Swahili. Therefore, we decided we should speak some more French with each other so that we don't actually fail when we get there. We did an English fast! fom 6:30am-9:30pm we only spoke French. It was pretty good until about 3pm when I got a major headache from translating everything. And then I basically played charades all day with everyone that didn't speak French. It was interesting to say the least, but it went well! I was able to actually do it and impressed myself. I can probably talk like a 5 year old now instead of a 2 year old, heck yeah! Progress.

In my branch presidency we have this couple, the Markhams who are just some of the best humans around! They have this vineyard in their backyard (yes, a literal vineyard in Provo) and they brought us some of their homemade grape juice! I would tell all of you to buy it except for the fact that they don't sell it! They say it's just a hobby and they don't want it to be a business. But they promised that post-mish I can go over and we'll go drink a bottle and talk about the mish, so thats awesome. Then sister Markham came over the other night and brought us homemade jam and apple butter! Wow. The best. All of the presidency's wives are just like 2nd moms, I love it!

Okay, there's so much more but that's all I will share because this is a lot.

I love you all! Thanks for the support

-Sœur Garcia

Scripture of the week: 2 Nephi 33:6

Quote of the week: "She does cross fit? I can barely do zumba!" -Elder Dalmasi