Well, I can't even begin to describe how it feels to be hitting my year mark this week. The time is flying, and my mission is winding down, and I can't even think about it! Ahhh. 

Anyways, this week was AWESOME. For starters, I am e-mailing late because we were just able to go snowshoeing with one of our less actives! Yup, what a great Pday this already has been.

This past Wednesday we had the worldwide missionary broadcast and some big changes were made to the missionary schedule and key indicators. The schedule before used to be very rigorous and pretty much every second of every day was planned for you. However, they are now giving the mission presidents and the missionaries much more flexibility to use their agency. The mission president can adjust the schedule according to needs. But, we as the missionaries get to choose when we do our studies, and when we eat. They have also switched planning to the mornings, and now we can go to bed a whole hour earlier if we want! Dreams come true. As well, we used to have 9 indicators that we would track daily and weekly, and now we only have 4. We only focus on baptized + confirmed, investigators with a baptismal date, investigators at church, and new investigators. It's been really weird to have so much freedom, but we have seen so many miracles!

For example, one night sister Paine and I did some knocking. We didn't know where we should go so we said a classic prayer. Then I decided to open up this old map sitting in our car, and the page I turned to happened to have a street circled. Well, I took it as a sign, so thats where we headed. There were 4 apartment buildings on the street so we made a plan to knock all of them. As we did, we taught a lesson in each building and were able to get several potentials that were interested! It was great.

Then, one of our old investigators, Rafael, who we haven't seen in months ran into our ward mission leader on the bus. He invited him to come to an activity the ward was hosting, and even offered to pick him and his family up. Well, we had a lesson scheduled, and weren't going to be able to make it. That lesson ended up falling through, and we were able to go to the activity with Rafael and his 2 daughters. It was so much fun to be there with them and to introduce them to the ward and the youth, and they loved it!

This Sunday we had a MIRACLE. Sister Paine and I have been struggling forever to get our investigators to church. No matter what we do, they just will not come. They will agree to come and then flake out morning of, even if we have found a ride for them. Well, that happened to us again this Sunday and we felt pretty discouraged. However, as we were greeting everyone, a woman walked through the door I had never seen before. We got to talking, and it turns out her dad joined the church in Benin, Africa. She always goes to a Catholic church and felt impressed to come to ours that day even though she had never attended another congregation. She has been prepared! She knew some of our members, and saw the elders walking down her street the other day but never talked to them. She had a great experience, and we were able to teach her some of the plan of salvation and plan to meet with her again shortly. Oh, her name is Ambrosine by the way.

Really what it came down to was this quote that I have been obsessing over since the broadcast. Elder Bednar said, "all things come together in 1 in Christ." The gospel is amazing. Amrbosine has had so many instances in her life that have prepared her to recieve the gospel. And for the longest time no matter how hard we worked, we sort of felt jipped at the last minute. But I am learning that I need to just trust in Heavenly Father and his timetable more. He will bless me with success when he is ready for me to take part in success. 

Throughout this past year, I have come to really love the gospel of Jesus Christ. Coming into the field I knew things were true just because it was what I had been taught. My testimony was not as strong as I thought it was. When I got out here I learned that maybe my faith wasn't as strong as it needed to be, I wasn't as knowledgeable as a I needed to be, and some days I even wondered what the heck I was doing here. But a year later, I have come to find out the true joy and light that can come from the restored gospel. I am so grateful for my Savior. I am so grateful that I have been able to study his atonement. I have learned to rely on Him and my Heavenly Father more than ever before, and I have never been more aware of blessings. I am a firm believer that miracles exist because Heavenly Father has been kind enough to allow me to witness so many weekly, in fact, daily. THE GOSPEL IS LIFECHANGING. Let it help you, let it heal it, let it change you. 

I love you all! Thank you for being the wonderful people you are and supporting me throughout this past year! Time is flying! I will see you before you even know it.

Love,

Sister Garcia

Scripture of the week:

Mosiah 24:14

And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.

Quote of the week:

"You won't share your chair with me? I share my house with you!"