Christian in Africa

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Saturday, July 31, 2021 Subject: Soarin, Flyin Bonjour tout le monde! Comment ça va? So first I want to apologize for no email last week, hopefully it doesn't become a habit. But who knows how Africa is going to be, probably very busy. Just a little update from last week, I GOT MY FLIGHT PLANS!! I fly out to Togo, the other country in my mission, on the 5th of August. So it's coming up really quickly but I know that the Lord will be with me through the whole thing. We also made crepes so that was super fun and super cool, I didn't know how many they would make though so there were a lot of leftovers. I will include a picture below. Other than that I don't think that there is much else that really went on that week.  Alright now onto this weeks. The final week at the MTC, kinda really crazy I know! 6 weeks flew by and I can't figure out where the time went. Classes were pretty normal until the last 2 days, we ha...

The Home MTC is coming to an end this week and it appears that Elder Garcia's District is enjoying a little Christmas in July. I won't lie, I about died laughing when I saw that he was Jack Frost in his screen! The white eyebrows I think it was did me in! So fun that again, making the most out of a not so great situation.  Going down the homestretch, Mom

We got home from Lake Powell with enough time to get some laundry done and pick up Elder Garcia to head up to Oakley. We had full plans with the Miller family starting Friday night after the MTC classes were done.  Bull Wars! It sure sounds a lot better than what it actually was that is for sure. It started out with bull riders doing their thing, only this time it was BAD. Kamas Days is pretty much the red headed step child of Oakley and Bull Wars was 100% black and white proof. The bull riders were not good. I am almost certain that Tyler and Jason could have thrown on a cowboy hat and some boots and said they wanted to ride a bull and they would have let them. I think a total of 4 riders made the full 8 seconds all night long. They also had about 2 hours worth of 'horse pulling' that we were so sick of that we didn't stick around for the fireworks. But we sure weren't alone. We stayed until the event was over but about 2/3 of the crowd left when the bull riding took a...

 July 21, 2021. I was at Lake Powell for the annual trip with the Riddle bunch and had just come in to tie the ski boat to the houseboat after taking kids out for a tubing adventure. I sat down after getting hooked up and the boat cleaned up some and decided to check my phone.  In my Facebook messenger app there was a message from Elder Garcia. He was home with Jason Miller standing in as his companion and babysitter so I wasn't too worried but I opened it up and he has received his flight plans. He is officially booked on a trip to head to his mission on August 5th. He seems excited and the flight looks like it will take a good day and a half, maybe two? I am not 100% sure with all the time changes and zones he will travel through but it will be a long day of travel for sure. He will fly on the 5th of August out of Salt Lake at 3:25pm. He will go from there to LA, from LA to Paris, and then from Paris to Lome Togo in Africa.  Life continues to get more real as each day p...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Saturday, July 17, 2021 Subject: We're Halfway There Bonjour, tout le monde! Comment ça va? This week flew by fast, mission time is seriously no joke y'all. This week I hit my halfway mark through the MTC. As of right now I only have 10 more days doing classes, hopefully I'll get my flight plans soon. This week has been full of teaching and learning, the language is coming together very very slowly and I am still needing to make so much progress but I know that the Lord will bless me with what He sees fit. I don't really have much else for this week. This week we have talked a lot about prayer and how, through prayer, we can come closer to God. I would like to extend the invitation to you all to sit down and have a conversation with our Father in Heaven, I know that He listens to our prayers and that He can and will help us through everything.  Passe une semaine incroyable!!  Beaucoup D'amour,  Elder Garcia

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Saturday, July 10, 2021 Subject: "2 Feet In" Salut à tous! Comment vas-tu? Man oh man, this week was something else. First of all, happy late 4th of July, I definitely forgot about that when I was typing up last week's email. This week my district switched to all French speaking with a little bit of english set in to make sure that we understand, hence the subject line. French isn't what I thought it would be like in all honesty, it's pretty yeah, but it definitely has some weirdness to it. Sounds don't make sense and you sometimes sound like you're gargling water instead of actually speaking. With switching to French this week Elder Kempe and I had to sign up for a TRC or a Helping Others lesson that was all in French. We have that scheduled for Monday so I'll tell ya how that goes next week, fingers crossed it goes well. That's basically it that I have for this week, got another one down in ...

We spent the 4th of July weekend up to the cabin in Oakley so we could attend the Oakley Rodeo. The rodeo is a ton of fun and it draws a big crowd. It is a PRCA rodeo as well so the riders are really good and you don't feel like you are watching some high school kids doing their thing or living out their wildest dreams. :) We also had the chance to spend tonight (Monday) over to Annie's for an ice cream social and meet up with the neighbors/friends Annie has in her life. Total blast! 4th of July weekend 2021 in Oakley   Elder Garcia did the home MTC up here on Thursday and then again today and it seemed to work out really good. I think the change of place/scenery would be a good thing. Especially when you are normally at home in your bedroom most days instead. Anwyays, on Saturday we all got up and hung out. Tyler made us breakfast and we were able to enjoy being in the sunshine and hearing the river (even if it is really low) run by. It is just so peaceful up here. I had to ha...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Saturday, July 1, 2021 Subject: "The Fires of Brimstone and Such" Salut à tous! Comment vas-tu?  So yeah that sums up my week pretty well, my companion loves the bible and whenever he gets the chance in breakout rooms the other elders and I get to listen to a sermon so that's pretty epic. This week I had my first TRC/Helping Others lesson, for those that don't know you sign up to teach a random member of the church for practice for the real world, and I would say that it went better than Iexpected it to. I did learn that in order to connect the bible is one thing that I need to be studying more though.  We started language classes this week!! Frere Hable got us a schedule and we were able to dive into the basic core of French and let me tell ya, it's nothing like sitting in Madame Bergstroms 8th grade French class. Frere Hable really knows what he's talking about so that makes me excited for these next co...

While doing home MTC today, Elder Garcia received the email that stated his visa for Benin has officially been approved. We are to print it off and have it with him in hand with his passport for the day of travel. If this doesn't make it officially 'real', I am not 100% sure what will.   Benin here he comes!