La Vie D'Ivee

This week was nice and full, so much is happening all the time. I feel like I just had P-Day yesterday, yet here I am sending another weekly e-mail! This week we will have Canada Day! But because Quebec doesn't want to be part of Canada, they have their own independence day called St. Jean-Baptiste day! We tried contacting on that day and everyone wanted nothing to do with us…so that was cool.

We had a departing devotional with President Patrick! This week our new president, President Phillips, will be arriving and taking his place. But President and his family took the time to come and say goodbye to all of the zones in the mission. They gave us life advice, and shared their experiences during their 3 years here. It was really fun to just all be together and really get to know the Patricks! I am sad that they're leaving us, but I know that they made a great contribution to the mission. 

We have 2 new amazing investigators! One's name is Marie Lourde and I am not 100% sure if she lives in our area…we have her teaching record and I know the missionaries before us took the time to visit her. But either way, her area is absolutely gorgeous, there's so much land, and this beautiful lake, and wow, I miss the gorgeous Utah landscape sometimes. However, Marie Lourde is awesome! She met with missionaries before, and said that she is willing to try again with us! She appreciates that we're girls and really loves that we are willing to give 18 months to go teach others about Christ. 

Our other investigator is Gilbert! He is amazing. We have been trying to meet with him for I don't even know how long…since before my time. We finally got a lesson with him and it was amazing! He was very engaged, had amazing questions, and I could see this light in his eyes that just beamed while we discussed the gospel. He's special for sure.

That's about it for this week. Keep being great! 

Love,

Sister Garcia

Scripture of the week:

1 John 2:5-6

Quote of the week:

"What's that song…I have a bike with no handle wheels?"

At the lake we found!

Creepy truck that drives around playing music and will sharpen your knives and stuff for you

Elders gave us some sour patch souls…and apples

Bonne Fête des Pères! (A day late)

Forever grateful for all the amazing men that have been such a positive influence in my life!

Finally put up pictures to make grandma's basement more homey

New District! (E. Maire, E. Stanley, E. Baldobinos, E. Eakins, Me, S. Johnson)

I have a new companion! It's a new transfer! It feels way weird to know that I am officially done with training and that I am no longer a "greenie" also, I am the oldest missionary in Lemoyne, so heck yeah, seniority. The only problem with being the oldest is everyone expects me to know everything and I'm like…yeah…no…

My new companion is awesome! Her name is sister Johnson, and she's from Colorado. She's super cute, and fun, and speaks good french. We get along really well, which is awesome. Everyone was like, "I am so happy you two are together, you'll be great companions!" What a compliment. Plus, they think we're cute, so that's fun. Flirt to convert am I right? (Jk, mom)

Sister Johnson cam from the great north of Chicoutimi! It's about 5 hours away, and is a legit farmville. They have an itty bitty branch and so this will be quite the transition. However, it doesn't mean that there isn't a ton of work to get done here in Lemoyne. She was sick the first couple of days which meant being quarantined in grandma's basement. That was a make or break situation. We could either bond and become friends, or we could realize that we can't stand each other and it would be a long 6 weeks. Thankfully she's awesome, and we bonded. 

Because we were trapped for a few days, I don't have too many stories to share. But we did pass by this less active kid hoping that we could convince him how great church is! Well we show up and he's got these nice gages and a shirt with a pot leaf on it and homie doesn't look like he's all there. But don't judge a book by it's cover right? So we try talking to him, seeing if he's interested in the gospel at all. And he just goes, "I'm not into that anymore" and we were like…oh…okay…well you can call us anytime can we leave you our number? and he says, "No, I'm good" HARD DISS. Oh well, you laugh and move on. We'll go back, he doesn't know it yet, but he needs the gospel, as does everyone! 

I miss and love you all! I hope you are having a fantastic summer! 

-Sœur Garcia 

P.S. Happy Birthday to my cute nephew Jonas! How are you already 5? Stop growing.

Scripture of the week:

D&C 6:29-30 (This super helped me realize that it's not about the numbers, it's about the people)

Quote of the week:

"Then my roommate said she was going to buy a fish to replace me, I am better than a fish!"

Lemoyne missionaries before Elder Perry went home and Sister A got transferred!

New companionships! (Sister Prince, Sister A, Me, Sister Johnson)

Me and sister Johnson!

Allô!

First things first, transfer calls! I will be…

…

…

Staying in Lemoyne! Haha, shocking, I know. BUT, I will be getting a new companion! Her name is sister Johnson and she actually was companions with sister A in the MTC. Small world. And sister A is going to be going to Greenfield Park! Which meets in the same building, but it's in English. So that means she will be in a different district, and stake, and zone. So I will see her, but not really. 

We had zone training again this week! Even though we just had it recently, it was so good! We learned about what it truly means to be converted unto the Lord. Which is a giant deal because you can't convert anyone beyond your own conversion. So as a missionary, if I am not 100% converted, there is no way I will be able to get my investigators to become converted. Our goal is to "Teach Repentance, Baptize Converts" we are not here to baptize people with weak or shaky testimonies, we need people to be converted! Also, we made a zone goal to reread the book of mormon these next 6 weeks which I am stoked about. Book of Mormon is the keystone of our religion, if that's not true, our religion just crumbles.

We have a new investigator! Her name is Margalie and she's from Haiti. I'm telling you, Haitians and Africans just love us! Anyways, she met with missionaries a couple years back but then just got super busy and lost contact with like all of them. She's super sweet and cool though, so I am hoping there are some good things in store with her, she's really receptive which is awesome.

We have this little boy named Denzel that bishop has asked us to do Family Home Evening with the past 6 months to help him prepare for baptism, because he needs more time. Well he is like a huge ball of energy, and sometimes I really wonder how much he gains from us being there…but he must have gained something because he finally got baptized this week! It was the happiest thing. He was beaming and his sweet mom Jennifer made all of us some really good haitian "La soupe" Oh wow, it was the best. 

Oh. Also, at his baptism, this…interesting…gentleman decided to stop in so we spoke with him and it turns out he was incredibly angry. He told us about how his dad and sister just died, and because his dad was part of the Irish mafia some people came and roughed him up and took half a mil from him. I don't even know. We just tried to get him out of the church, and away from the baptism. I gave him a book of mormon, said if he needed comfort to read it. Then he swore a lot, and said he was going to move haha 

Elder Renlund of the quorum of the 12 and Elder Gong of the 70 came to our stake conference this past weekend! How lucky are we? It was such an amazing experience to hear from an apostle of the Lord and their cute wives too. Pretty impressive thing, sister Renlund gave her whole talk in French! It was so great. And what I really gained from Elder Renlund is, "It doesn't matter where you come to the knowledge of your Redeemer, as long as you come to that knowledge"

Also, I got to meet the both of them at the end and Elder Renlund just said, "Sister Garcia, thank you for all that you do" and that was AWESOME. Apostle of the Lord right here in Quebec! It was so great, doesn't happen very often.

Well, that's all I will share but it was a great week! I am so excited for what's in store this next transfer!

À bien tôt! 

-Sœur Garcia

Scripture of the week:

D&C 4:3

Quote of the week:

"I wanted to go to the conference, but it was raining…"