La Vie D'Ivee

This past week was pretty great! I got to go to the temple last P-day. We're allowed to go once a transfer (6 weeks) and this was my first time! We went with a ton of other missionaries, and it really was just the best. I had so much fun and it was a nice break from the rest of the world. The Montréal temple is super small, but so cute! It just got rededicated last year so everything is really new and pretty. Plus they have maple leaves in the details of everything which is so Canada. 

I got to go to a baptism too! It was for the GreenField Park ward (English speaking) and it was awesome! It makes me so excited for Melissa's baptism.All of the missionaries did a nice little musical number for the baptism, and I still am tone-deaf but the other missionaries made up for it. The woman who got baptized is named Sandra and she is just so sweet, so much love to give everyone. 

We lost 2 investigators this week which was a huge downer. But sometimes people just aren't progressing, or it's not their time, and you have to move on. However, there was a silver lining! We got 2 new investigators! Funny how the Lord works! We found them when we were out contacting on a beautiful day and they were stoked that I speak Spanish (barely). But we got to talking and they asked about where we're from, what we're doing here, our purpose, all that jazz. The wife was not having it, she thought everything we taught was ridiculous. But her husband and son were pretty interested and invited us back! We had a really good lesson about who God is, and what our purpose is on earth. It went super well, so wish us luck!

Anywho, not too much time left, so I'll just leave it with that. 

Scripture of the week:

Alma 26:12

Quote of the week:

"And so I did an emotional blackmail to the Lord…and it worked!"

Well another week has just gone by here in Quebec, and I don't really even know where to begin…I guess I could start with my subject line. Quebec is a definite melting pot of culture. I have been called to serve in 3 languages and I mainly teach in French, sometimes English, and I've had a few Spanish encounters. However, there is a large population of Africans here who we have the privilege of teaching. Only problem is, they are also learning French. We have a couple investigators who speak Swahili and Lingala and we managed to get them materials in their native language, but we have to teach in French because it's the only mutual language. It's pretty entertaining, but they understand! They seem to have answers when we ask questions, so we progress, ever so slowly.

As for Mandarin…we have this super great recent convert named Lucy. Lucy is awesome, she speaks like every language, but we actually teach her in English. Anyways, she has a friend named madame Wong who wants to learn English. So Lucy decided we should teach Madame Wong English even though Madame Wong only speaks Mandarin and the tiniest bit of French. We tried to tell Lucy that we don't speak Mandarin and there are elders who do, but she wants us to teach her, and Madame Wong will teach us some Mandarin. Haha, how is it going to work? I have no idea. We will get Mandarin pamphlets and point a lot…but Lucy promised to help and Madame Wong promised to cook for us, so not a bad gig. 

We almost lost an investigator this week. That was pretty rough for sister Agapinan and I. We never have any idea what's happening in the world because we can't watch the news. And as it turns out, there was a bunch of anti-mormon stuff on there from the FLDS people and she decided she couldn't meet with us anymore. We somehow managed to calm her down and get her to agree to meet with us again, and we explained the difference between FLDS and LDS. That was great fun…

As for Melissa, she's awesome! Progressing great, super excited for April 30th when she gets to be baptized! She's so ready, her testimony has definitely kept me going through the rougher days. She's the investigator every missionary wishes they could have, so lucky she's mine.

On a fun note, we have this thing called an 'area book' and it's just a record of investigators, members, potentials, all that good jazz from the past couple years. The missionaries always write a little bit of background, lessons taught, and even why a person stopped being taught. My favourite one I found said, "They don't really understand French and are a little lost. They never really were investigators, just some confused immigrants who let some nice young men in." hahah and thats why the language barriers are so fun.

Miss and love you all! Enjoy your spring while I continue to freeze in the great white north.

-Sister Garcia 

Scripture of the week:

Joshua 24:15

Quote of the week:

"If it's the Mormons, not today!"

I broke the door at church…bishop didn't believe me when I called to tell him

It snowed again this week!

Like actually snowed...

Cute Melissa wants to feed us after her baptism Lucy and Madame Wong!

Sister Agapinan and I just for fun

Yes, it is in fact that time of the week again. That time of the week where you get the wonderful privilege of reading my e-mail and hearing about the life of a sista missionary.

Well right off the bat this weeks weather haas been completely bipolar. It rained for about 3 days and was absolutely freezing. And then the next day it was sunny and warm and beautiful and went right back to freezing rain. Plus everyone says the weather in celsius so I never actually know how warm/cold it is. I am getting a nice taste of the wind that chills you to the bone, and it is not fun (especially when I decide to be tough and not wear tights)

This weekend was #LDSconference! I hope that all of you watched because the prophet spoke and that's kind of a huge deal. Wow, I seriously just love President Monson so much. He looks a little weak up there, my heart kind of breaks when I hear him speak because I can tell his age is starting to catch up with him.. regardless, we should heed to his council and "choose the harder right rather than the easier wrong" so simple, yet so important. It can be so easy to make decisions based off of what we want now or what's popular but we must continually to hold firm to the iron rod and continually choose the right. I mean, Heavenly Father has so many blessings waiting for us but we must choose to receive them! He will never force any of us into the celestial kingdom.

One of my favourite things that was continually repeated at conference was that scripture from D&C 68:6 which said, "Be of good cheer, do not fear" Once again, so simple. But honestly, I am constantly asking myself, "What am I doing here? How did I end up on a mission?" but I have seen how much Heavenly Father has taken care of me and blessed me for making this decision. And so I continue to be happy in the work and not be scared of rejection or all the things back home that I have no control over. It'll all work out, I may not know how, but I know it will.

As far as the missionary work goes, we have 3 progressing investigators now! Only 1 with a baptismal date, but we're working on it. Melissa is honestly the best. She has such a strong testimony and a desire to be good. I can't wait until April 30th when we get to go to her baptism! She's so excited she's been inviting all of her friends and her husband isn't interested in the church but she is making sure he comes. The others are Suzanne and Jean-Marie. Suzanne is doing really well, keeping her commitments, progressing slowly, but progressing. Jean-Marie is awesome too. We teach his daughter Eftamala english and now he's allowing us to teach him the lessons. He watched conference! So that is a huge step. 

Oh fun experience this week, my companion and I have decided to work a lot harder at contacting. It's hard because we can't really speak French and people either think we are Jehovahs Witnesses or nuns so they avoid us…it's fun! So the other night we were walking in this area and it was getting pretty late, pretty dark…and I saw a man walking with a dog. And I was just thinking, "perfect." Dogs are an awesome way to start a conversation, and definitely not what kidnappers use to get young girls. So I start talking to him and he's super nice! Not super interested in religion but curious to know more about the so called "Mormons" and so we leave him with our card tell him if he has any questions to just let us know! So he texts us and we're all excited and then he just sends us a text that says, "besos"" (a.k.a. spanish for kisses) Yiikkkkeeesss. So even though he's super nice and friendly, he might be a little tooo friendly…

Well I am all out of time for this week! Hope everyone is doing great. Love and miss you all!

If you ever have the urge to send me stuff (like a nice letter) my address is:

470 Rue Gilford ste 300

Montreal, QC

H2J 1N3

Canada

Love always,

Sister Garcia  

Scripture of the week:

D&C 68:6

Quote of the week:

"Wait. You're allowed to get married?"

Morning walk (disregard how I look it was 6:40 am)

The elders only speak truth