To start off, I would like to say a Bonne Fête de Mères and Happy Mother's Day to all the beautiful wonderful moms and future momma's out there! I am super grateful for all of the amazing women who have helped me along the way, and that still continue to support me! As president Holland said, "No love in mortality comes closer to approximating the pure love of Jesus Christ than the selfless love of a devoted mother"

That being said, I got so Skype my family! Wow, mother's day is one of my new favourite holidays. It was so good to be able to see everyone's beautiful beaming faces and talk to them. It's weird that I've been away for a little over 3 months at this point…sometime's I forget that I'm on a mission haha. 

This past week was my birthday, that was weird. I turned 20, and am no longer a teenager…what the heck. I feel like I just turned 5 last year. Funny how quickly time flies. Definitely did not think I would have been on a mission a year ago, but sometimes Heavenly Father has a different plan than you do! My birthday was amazing though. We had sushi for lunch, the sister training leaders brought over a cake, and then sister Regimbald took us out for mexican food! Cinco de Mayo is not a big deal here, but I made it a big deal.

We got to go to the temple again this week! Wow, I love that place. How lucky am I to be able to have a temple in my mission? It's the best! So many blessings come as a result of going to the temple. I think I definitely took the temple for granted when I was in Utah because they are everywhere! But if you live in Utah, take advantage of the fact that there's probably a temple within 20 minutes of your home. Go to the temple! And if you don't think you have time, make time. It should always be a priority. And the peace and comfort that you feel will be unmatched, promise.

Well, I think it would be fun to share with all of you some cultural facts about good ole Quebec!

1. Bises. Bises for days. They are when everyone likes to come up and touch your cheek with their cheek and make a kissing sound. Sometimes old people will just kiss your cheeks straight up because they just love how big your cheeks are. It's super awkward when men try to do this to you and you have to quickly block with your hand

2. Milk comes in bags, it is the strangest thing. You buy a pack at the grocery store and it has like 3 bags of milk in it. And then you put the bag in a pitcher thing and snip the corner. My 1st time I didn't know how it was done and I just poured the milk into the container…whoops

3. Everyone lives in an apartment or duplex. Everyone. I don't know why but living in a home is just not really a thing here. And you have to ring the doorbell or little call machine to get into a building. It's fun when we pass by people who don't know we're coming…we just ring random numbers until someone lets us in! 

4. Potholes. Potholes everywhere. The roads here are so bad that you basically have to just choose a hole. It's pretty terrifying to drive here.

5. You can only turn right on red at certain streets during certain times of the day. And if you are stopped for like .5 seconds after the light turns green everyone will honk at you!

So that's it for this week, you're very welcome for that cultural lesson!

-Sister Garcia

Scripture of the week:

Luke 9:24

Quote of the week:

"Do you know when she'll be awake?"

"When her eyes are open"