La Vie D'Ivee

Happy Halloween! 

This Thursday I will hit my 9 month mark on my mission, which means I will be halfway done! That doesn't even seem real to me. Half of my mission is over. I hear that time just passes crazy fast from here on out.

I forgot to tell you all about a miracle that Sister Paine and I had last week, so here it is. We were at a relief society activity and really felt that we needed to leave. We were pretty far from home so we decided to go to the chapel to finish up our studies there. We were inside for about 2 minutes before we hear the doorbell ring. We thought that was super strange so we decide to go check out who is ringing the door bell. We wind up meeting the cutest old man named Claude. He read about our church online and was wondering if he could get a book of Mormon for him and his sister-in-law. We were able to give him contact information, and get him all set up. It was the coolest thing! Imagine if we hadn't listened to that prompting and left the activity.

This week was good, despite some minor setbacks. Sister Paine was sick for a lot of it which resulted in us spending a lot of time at home, helping her recover. However, it did allow me the time to go through our area book and contact some formers. There were a lot of people who were not very receptive to the idea of meeting with missionaries again. But there were a couple people who were willing to set up appointments with us! One of the women I called was a former potential. She caught my interest because I saw that she spoke Spanish. I was able to speak to her in Spanish and find out that she has a great desire to learn more about the Church. She loved what the missionaries shared with her on the bus. Only problem is that she works a lot, and has about 15 minutes a day to herself. I told her we do this work 24/7 and would be more than glad to share messages with her over the phone to which she gladly accepted.

I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with Sister Zobrist who was my companion in the MTC! We spent a lot of the day doing passbys, knocking doors, and street contacting. As we were outside it even started snowing! Yes, snowing, in October. We went to an apartment building to try and visit one of our former investigators and he wasn't home. Rather than go back out into the cold we decided we should just start knocking all the doors. Well, luckily for us, we knocked into Arnold. Arnold is from Benin, Africa and was so excited to talk to us. He loves what we're doing as missionaries, giving 18 months of our lives to serve others and teach them about Jesus Christ's restored gospel. He's a non-practicing evangelist, and feels a great desire to get closer to God. He loved everything we taught him, and wants us to go back and teach him and his brother!

Saturday we were able to see somewhat of a small miracle. Sister Paine and I had some plans set up for the day, but were running super low on the amount of kilometers we could use on our car. We noticed that we were by some former investigators houses, and decided to walk around the street and see if we could visit them. This is where we ran into Rafael! Rafael was found a few months ago, and became super interested in the idea of eternal families. But Rafael didn't have a job, and couldn't afford to feed his family. After searching for a long time, he found a job...in Montreal. So he spends Monday-Friday in Montreal and sleeps all day Saturday, and then travels on Sunday. It was a miracle that we were even able to see him at all, but as soon as we did he told us that he's kept up with his book of mormon reading! He wasn't able to have us over at that current moment, but he said he gets home early on Friday and the first thing he wants is for us to come over and teach his family!

Funny moment: We haven't been getting meals from the members...like at all. And as missionaries, we don't receive that many funds, and as STLs we're also responsible for feeding 5 other sets of sisters on exchanges, so we're extra poor. Our ward mission leader found out about this and was not happy. So during 5th Sunday when everyone was gathered together he got up there and pretty much called everyone to repentance and told them they should feed us and allow us to come over and bless their home with our spirits. It was pretty embarassing, because he's like a dad. But it worked! We have 3 dinner appointments just this week alone.

Well, I hope you all have a Happy Halloween! Sister Paine and I will be in by 6, making some calls, and eating candy 

love,

Hermana Garcia

Scripture of the week:

D&C 58:3-4

 Ye cannot behold with your natural eyes, for the presenttime, the design of your God concerning those thingswhich shall come hereafter, and the glory which shallfollow after much tribulation. For after much tribulation come the blessings.Wherefore the day cometh that ye shall be crowned withmuch glory; the hour is not yet, but is nigh at hand

Quote of the week:

So this week was my first full week as a sister training leader, and it was BUSY. I don't think I truly understood how it felt to be tired until this past week. However, despite the constant running around, it was amazing! 

This past week sister Paine and I were able to find 2 new investigators. They are a couple from the Congo, and they are living here with their children. The were found because another set of sisters had contacted their son, and he was less than interested. However, the mother was very willing to let us into her home and listen to our message. They are the best! The wife is definitely more interested than her husband. He's a non-practicing Catholic and agrees with everything we taught...up until the book of mormon. He has a firm belief that the bible is complete, so we'll have to work on that one. But the wife has started to read the book of mormon and wants us to keep coming back!

We were able to go up to Montreal for the Mission Leadership Conference (MLC) this past Thursday. This required us waking up super early and spending several hours on a bus, but it was so worth it! They have MLC once a transfer and it consists of all the zone leaders and sister training leaders in the mission, as well as the assistants to the president, and president and sister Phillips. We spent about 2 and a half hours discussing how the mission is doing, and how we can help them improve. One big focus of this past MLC was consecration. We want all of our missionaries to be consecrated to the Lord in their missionary efforts. One thing I really enjoyed was the training that was given by Sister Phillips. She talked about how as sister training leaders and zone leaders we are the pillars of the misson. There is a lot of weight being put on every single one of us, but its because Heavenly Father trusts us. Something they even did was create another zone in Montreal! The zone was massive, and they felt it was too much weight being put on the set of missionaries. 

Next month we will have the privelege of having Elder Bennett of the 70 come and visit us! It is a super great opportunity for this mission to receive an apostolic message directly from one of Heavenly Father's appointed servants. Elder Bennett will be visiting each zone and has specific instructions on how he would like us to prepare so that we are ready to receive the better message. I consider myself to be extremely lucky because he will be having a special training with all of the mission leadership as well! I can not wait to hear what message he has prepared for us, and I can only hope that we are humble enough to receive it.

I got to go on my first exchange this past week! I was able to go with sister Ortega who has been on her mission about 6 months now. We had all these amazing lessons set up, but of course they all fell through. Thankfully sister Ortega is awesome and even though it was pouring, and freezing, she was willing to go out and work. We spend the day doing passby's and contacting. It was a great chance for me to get to know sister Ortega better and see that she has amazing contacting skills! She was super confident and willing to knock on every door and use all the french she knew. 

This past weekend we had Stake Conference! Our stake President and Mission President set up a dinner for everyone that the missionaries are working with. We brought 2 of our returning less actives and it was the perfect setting. The spirit was tangible. Both presidents allowed the people there to ask any questions that they had, or share their testimonies. It was amazing to see how a lot of the people were struggling with the same issues, and they were able to bear each others burdens and build each other up with the light of the gospel. It was amazing.

Last thing I would like to share would have to be during our general session of stake conference on Sunday. The young women's president gave a talk and as part of it, she asked every primary child to stand up. As they stood up, she hummed a hymn and asked them to start singing it as soon as they knew what it was. In unison they all sang 'I love to see the temple' and the spirit was unreal. I don't believe you could find a single dry eye in that room. The spirit each child holds is so powerful. 

Well, that will be all for the week!

Love you and miss you,

Hermana Garcia 

Scripture of the week:

Revelations 3:12

Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city ofmy God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

Quote of the week:

"We're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints"

"Oh, I don't like that one! Bye honey!"

I would just like to start off by saying I am in LOVE with the life of a sister training leader. We are busy all the time, and it is so much fun. My new companion is Sister Paine and she is the best! She's from Franklin, Tennessee and was fast tracked through the MTC so she's only 2 weeks ahead of me on the mission, but a full transfer ahead of me in the field. We work super well together, and get along great!

I will be honest, I was super hesitant about leaving Montreal and coming to Gatineau. Our area, Gatineau, is in Quebec but we also spend a lot of time in Ottawa which is the province of Ontario. I don't know what I was expecting, but I set my expectations super low. Thankfully, I was completely wrong about everything because this place is absolutely beautiful! I would describe it as the perfect mix between Europe and USA. And everything is so clean! I love it.

This past week sister Paine spent a lot of time helping me just get familiar with the area and the investigators that we currently have. We found out that the sisters before us did a lot of great work in finding investigators, however, they didn't do an amazing job with retention. There are so many names of people that are apparently being taught right now, but we have 0 investigators that are progressing. It's actually pretty sad. Sister Paine and I have plans to go through and do kind of an area book detox. We are going to visit everyone and see what happened. There is so much amazing potential in this area, it's unreal! Pretty much every french speaker in Ottawa is ours, yet the church is empty on Sunday. 

We met a new investigator named Jean-Mil! He is from Haiti and lives here with his wife and 3 sons. He met with missionaries before while he was in Haiti and is very open to learning more. Our lesson with him was not the best because I kept wanting to speak Spanish, and sister Paine and I had not prepared as well as we should have. However, lucky for us the spirit was able to do all the teaching. He agreed to read the book of Mormon and would like for us to continue teaching him. It's really cool to see that even if we don't do our best, Heavenly Father will help us out.

On Saturday we had an amazing day planned in this area called Hull, but everything fell through. Sister Paine and I both felt really impressed that Hull was not the area we needed to be in. We decided to go through our area book, and find names of people that we could pass by to start our clean sweep. We both agreed that we needed to spend our day in Ottawa, and I am so happy we did! We ended up passing by a ton of people which in turn led us to schedule 4 return appointments, and contact a few potentials. 

Sunday was super fun because I got to go up and give my testimony in French! It feels weird to be back in French, but I also really love the language. I do hope to find a couple of Spanish speakers out here though, I will not lose my Spanish! The new ward is very very small. It is the smallest ward I have yet served in. More than half the chairs were empty on Sunday. I learned that the ward actually has a lot of members, but a great amount of them are less active. Because our ward boundaries are huge, and there are a lot of people who don't have cars, it can make Sunday church attendance really difficult. Another thing is, the members are very sweet, but they don't understand the importance of member missionary work. Our saving grace is definitely our new bishop, he's young and has a fire within him to help the ward in any way.

That's about it for this week! I can't wait to see what else is in store for the rest of this month.

Love,

Sœur Garcia 

Scripture of the week:

Alma 26:12

Quote of the week:

"The only people we had to talk to were moose"

Bonjour!

Transfer calls are in, and I have been transferred! I am going to Gatineau which is in the Ottowa Zone and I will be the new Sister Training Leader (STL). Basically, I am responsible for helping all of the sister companionships in Ottowa, and I get to hold exchanges with them. This means I have to leave my beautiful Zarahemla and Spanish to go back to French. I'm really excited for this assignment, but super sad to be leaving! Sister Bradley will be training this transfer, which will make me a grandmother in the mission, crazy! But, I know she'll be amazing!

This last week was absolutely amazing! Sister Bradley and I were able to find and teach 2 new investigators! They were both referrals from the Montreal East sisters, and they are golden. The first one is a woman named Jacqueline whom they found while knocking. She is from the Dominican Republic and spends half the year here, and half the year over there. When we went over she said she let us in because we brought her peace. As we taught her the restoration, she responded extremely well to everything. She said that the thought of having a living day prophet on the earth brought her much needed joy. At the end we invited her to be baptized and she said she would love to prepare for baptism! She is prepared. She mentioned how she sees missionaries all the time in her country and she appreciates how hard we all work. I can't wait to see what happens with her.

The other investigator is named Giovanni! He actually approached the sisters himself while they were getting off the bus. He met with missionaries about 3 years back and then moved to Mexico and lost contact. He's living here alone, but has 2 daughters which he deeply cares for back in Mexico. He's seeking for purpose, and believes the church can help him find what he needs. When we met him, he was a little cautious about the first vision, wondering if Joseph Smith really saw God the Father, and His son. He asked Sister Bradley and I if we really believed it and we both got very serious, looked him in his eyes, and said "yes". To which he said, "well I guess it could be true then". We met with him twice, and then he came to church on Sunday for the first 2 hours! He's reading from the book of mormon but will not accept a date until he knows for a fact that it's true. Either way, he's sincerely searching, and it's amazing to see.

Yesterday was Canadian Thanksgiving! When all the members found out I was leaving they felt the need to feed me. So I had 2 thanksgiving meals, which is super funny because no one here actually celebrates it. And the meals? both Peruvian! I love it. I had to give my departing testimony which was actually really difficult. I have grown to really love this ward, the members, and every single person I have taught. It was so cute to see how so many of the members were really sad to see me leave. This was definitely harder than when I had to say goodbye to Lemoyne. Maybe it's because Sister Bradley and I came in here with nothing and after weeks, and months of hard work we finally have something to show for it!

We had to spend a lot of time saying goodbye to people. It's amazing that as a missionary leaves, it can really push people to open up. Nancy told us she has a hard time coming to church, but she knows she needs to. I told her I would call Sister Bradley to see if she goes and Nancy promised me she would! And then we had one of our less actives share with us the real reason it has been so hard to get back to church. Now the other sisters can focus on the problem, and do their best to resolve it. 

I am so grateful for the time I had in Zarahemla, but I am so excited to see what new adventures await me in Gatineau! Everyone I've talked to has told me it's beautiful, theres no pot holes, and it's super clean! It should be great.

Love,

Hermana Garcia

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