Phone Call Home: Monday, August 23, 2021

Well, I wasn't 100% sure a phone call would come in today after my email on Wednesday this past week so imagine my pure joy when I saw Elder Garcia calling this morning! 

Right off the get go I could not just sense a change but I could SEE a change in Elder Garcia. His entire countenance was radiating and his smile was glowing through the screen video call! It was so wonderful to see the Christian I know! Especially after a not so great week...Elder Garcia was back in Lome for a Zone Activity. They were learning how to make lasagna from an Elder who went to culinary school but...the apartments don't have ovens so they can't take what they learned back and make lasagna again anytime soon. Can you imagine no oven! CRAZY!

We talked some on how Zone Conference went last week. He said he loved it and it was so nice to see other American Elders. It was nice to have others to talk to about some of the frustrations he is currently experiencing with his companion and just the transition as a whole to the new country. I could tell in his eyes that Elder Garcia needed someone to have experienced something similar to help guide him on what steps to take next and those feelings were validated. So so grateful!

Elder Garcia is working through a tricky companion but is doing well. His companion (Elder Obeya) loves the pamphlets that the church has down there and so Elder Garcia is trying to line them up to his studies with Preach My Gospel so he can help jump in and guide a lesson when the opportunity presents. Elder Garcia's companion continues to control the phone and so there will be no email again to the group at home this week. I wonder when things will change. I know Elder Garcia will discuss it further with his Mission President during interviews on the 1st of September so for now I will just keep him in my prayers that he will have all the other things he needs in the meantime. He said his main water has been broken but is hopeful that Elder Coe can come out and help get it remedied quickly. This means showering, doing laundry, etc are tricky and they use very very little water to do so. Even through all of it though, seriously, Elder Garcia is much happier today than he has been in our last two calls. 

Some fun things he shared today are that he found a store close by that has American deodorant!!! He was so thrilled about that and I giggled thinking yet again another thing I take so for granted! He has found a new fruit that he is enjoying. It is a fruit that has an orange and lime mixed together taste. He is eating still lots of spaghetti and rice with just about everything. He got 1.5 kilos of rice for a great deal and was grinning from ear to ear telling me all about it. 

Things are moving in the right direction and I can see the small changes taking place already in my boy. I type this and I have tears streaming down my face because gosh dang it! I am so stinking proud of him and who he is allowing to emerge out of himself! This continues to be an adventure that you only write if you experience it first hand by living it or second hand by someone who is 1st hand in it shares with you. I am excited for another week to come by and for the chance to get to talk to Elder Garcia. I am so grateful for the hand of the Lord in all things. I know that it is 100% because of Him and the love that He has for my Elder that this week has been better, that Elder Garcia is happy and good. I am grateful for the good that is playing out in front of him so he can see his efforts and so that he can see the change in those around him. 

Until next week...I love you for forever and for always,

Mom

This is what I live for on Mondays!!!

Even Tyler jumped in on a call today

Passing on some suggestions and ways to try to make living with a hard companion a little more doable.

Brooklyn hadn't quite left for school when Elder Garcia called so she was able to jump on and say hello. She misses him a lot and she brings up both of our missionaries often.

Look close...proof that our calls buffer the majority of the time we try to talk. :) Gotta love Africa to the US connection!