Christian in Africa

Family photo with Elder Brown Family photo: 4 Generations. Elder Berrett, Elder Obeya, Elder Garcia, and Elder Meline All of the Togo Missionaires  

Today wasn't a very long call with Elder Garcia but it was a call nonetheless! Mondays are always better when I have a chance to check in and actually be able to 'see' how he is doing. I remember when it was announced that missionaries would be able to call home and thinking that if my kids ever served I was certain they wouldn't call home. Boy am I glad I was wrong! Elder Garcia and Elder Meline continue to have a great time together and they go out to sector and work hard day in and day out. They really have gotten to become good friends and I pray that even after the mission they stay in contact.  Elder Garcia doesn't know about the package that is headed his way with his American deodorant but he did tell me that he has an email that President Proudfoot sent saying that packages need to probably not be sent anymore because of the cost of customs. Um....he is SO right! Remember the cost of the deodorant package? $800!!! I didn't tell him that one is coming bu...

From: Mom To: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Sunday, March 27, 2022 Subject: Good morning Happy Sunday! I hope you have had a good week and that this week has come to a close with lots of positive and happy included as well. How did this week go? How were the ami's that you are working with? How have the trickier ones progressed this week? How is Elder Meline doing? This week at home was good. Brooklyn had a dermatologist appointment on Tuesday that was fine. She is still working through Accutane one month at a time. She had her final orthodontist appointment on Wednesday. There is something to be said about finally! She had her final round of pictures and it was Brynlee who got to take them. It was fun to catch up with her and hear her talk about her and Bryson's wedding. She is super cute and super not loving the adult world. They went and looked at apartments this last week and she was pretty bummed to learn that they start at $1600 a month for just a one...

The kid with Fr Raymond  

I drive motorcycles! hahahah (just a joke!)  

The District  

We had Daylight Savings come into play while we were in Mexico which was LOVELY and meant I got to sleep in an extra hour today! I woke up at 5 instead of 4 and I am not sure if it made much of a difference now that I see the photo we took today but...I was a little more rested maybe. :)  Elder Garcia is doing well. He had some interesting things come up throughout his week that I want to touch on: - They have an ami that has been taking lessons and he felt like she was really progressing and doing well. When he and Elder Meline discussed her with I believe someone in the Bishopric, that gentleman just smiled and said basically that there is plenty still to do because this young lady is a PROSTITUTE?! What? So....needless to say, Elder Garcia and Elder Meline have their hands full of working with her - Another ami, Charlotte, has taken lessons from lots of sets of missionaries and for some time as well. She comes to church each week but she just doesn't understand fully what it is ...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Monday, March 21, 2022 Bonjour ma famille et mes amis!! J'espère que vous avez passé une bonne semaine. Tuesday was a day full of excitement... we woke up and Elder Meline informed me that he wasn't feeling well so we got to talk with the Jeffocats (the sr. couple in togo) and they said to wait and see what he felt like in the afternoon. So I got some great studying in in the morning. The bible is challenging in any language if you don't understand it very well, good thing we can ask questions haha. Elder Meline ws steeling up to go out to sector in the afternoon so that's what we did. It was a great experience to stay the least. We got stood up because one ami went to go play soccer. And then the others just weren't home when they said they would be. We ended up going and trying to find people but it was as if there wasn't anyone out in the streets so it was pretty weird. Especially because there aren'...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Sunday, March 20, 2022 **Reply to Mom's Email** Hey mom,  Well this week was probably the weirdest of my mission concerning health haha. On Tuesday morning Elder Meline was sick. Then that night I was up all night sick. Then for basically the rest of the week I had a stomach ache and when we got to church this morning everything was fine. And then we sat down and I was like... uh oh. I went to the bathroom and threw up the little I had in my stomach. I'm better now but I have no idea what the freaking heck happened haha. Other than that though I'm doing great. Everything is going good and I am starting to focus on harder grammar in my studies and it's kicking my buttttt. This week went by again, just like every other week. But we had Zone Conference this week too and that was really great. I always love those because instead of having 2 people's minds coming together we have the entire zone plus the assistants ...

trash heap and fire trash everywhere  

General Conference schedule I got a sandwich with beans, Elder Meline got one with fried cheese ha ha ha Waiting for an ami outside a Catholic Church Spaghetti and garlic bread  

From: Mom Date: Saturday, March 19, 2022 Subject: Baseball Madness Hey. How are you? How was your week? How did your ami's go this week? Anything that stands out as far as the highlight of this past week? Life here has been good. We got settled back into life after Mexico and that is good. It was colder than I had hoped when we arrived back home but it is hard to beat the weather in Mexico when you have been on a beach right? Throughout the week it has warmed up and in fact, today our high is supposed to be almost 70. I will so take it! It will storm tomorrow but just rain so not a huge deal. I don't mind rain. The wind is here though so it will make it chilly. I am going to go to Sarah Baker's homecoming talk tomorrow. I don't know why they waited so long after she got home to have her do this but it's okay. I am glad that she was able to make it home and hopefully her mission was all she had hoped it to be and more. I haven't said anything to anyo...

Elder Garcia called today to wish a happy birthday to me and to Tyler! I was so happy to just see his face! I missed not getting to catch up on Monday with him so being able to steal 20 minutes or so today was great. :) He apologized for not calling on Monday or even my birthday but figured he would kill all those together in one call and make it for Monday, my birthday, and Tyler's today too. I love the time management. We talked about our trip to Cabo and all the things we experienced there. We talked about how different it was from Cancun. I told Elder Garcia it will definitely be a hot spot of travel moving forward and I hope one day he will be able to join us there as well. Elder Garcia is doing well and is loving the companionship with Elder Meline. These two Elders together really are thriving and teaching one another great traits and habits. You can tell the growth that is taking place in Elder Garcia and I love seeing it.  Brooklyn was home from school for about 5 minutes ...

found a new hat...it's a little big and not quite ripe to pick  

I don't know if it is because we are in Mexico on our birthday trip that Elder Garcia didn't call today or if he was just busy, but we had a minute to chat via the Messenger app on the Facebook. It was early in the morning and I was standing on the beach waiting to reserve a palapa for the day for Tyler and I. I was grateful for the chance to have the distraction of talking with Elder Garcia because my toes were freezing in the sand! :)  I hope that this week will be a good one for Elder Garcia and I pray he knows how often he is thought of and talked about within the walls of our home. Sure love you. Hope to talk again soon. XOXO, Mom

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Monday, March 14, 2022 Subject: Monkey Businessonjour tout le monde! J'espère que vous allez bien!! So this week Elder Meline and I got to watch some spectacular moments with rain and baptisms and just people haha. Let's get into it... Tuesday we had Districr Council with our new district. The first of the transfer and it turned out o be really focused on Faith In Christ. Elder Ipatutele challenged each of us in the district to find something we can do everyday to focus on our Faith in Christ. So I am extending that invitation to you as well. Each day find one way to exercise or focus on your Faith in our Savior.  Wednesday was a day of member contacting. We didn't have any lessons with amis so we went and found people but then ended up with members hoping that they could help us. And it paid off in all honesty hah. We found quite a few people this week just from members alone. It was great.  Thursday was a day of wha...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Sunday, March 13, 2022 (Elder Garcia's time 3-14-22 @ 12:01am) **Reply to Mom's Email** I'm doing great. The amis are coming along. Today (Saturday) we had a lesson planned but when we got there we had nobody to translate for us. The ami speaks a little French though so she told us that it was okay to come back next week. So we said sure and planned for that. She was also at the baptism this morning and told us that she wants to get baptised too, so I guess it's a good thing that was the next lesson haha. The baptism went great, for the most part. It was supposed to be 8am buuuut it ended up being at like 10 because people here don't know what being on time is and because it rained a ton Friday night so everyone here decided that Saturday was just a "day-off" kinda situation.  The snow like this is seriously just awful. I kinda hate it but at the same time I miss the snow a little too so I'm in thi...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Sunday, March 13, 2022 Subject: The why Last week you asked me to be 100% honest with you for the reason why I am serving my mission, so here you go.  When I was first doing my papers I was doing them because I felt like there could be a pressure to do them and for me to go on a mission because Kaitlyn had already gotten her call and was getting ready for the MTC. But as I started to do my papers that changed. I was reading my scriptures more and I even got out my patriarchal blessing and started focusing on the section that talks about a mission and I just had this strong feeling like I needed to go on a mission. And then I got my call and all of a sudden I was unsure, especially because when I talked with you and Tyler it was like a "you won't survive" kinda thing. Tyler even admitted that he wouldn't have accepted to go to this mission. So then my reason changed to "I'll prove everyone wrong and show t...

To: Mom From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Sunday, March 13, 2022 Subject: The Why Last week you asked me to be 100% honest with you for the reason why I am serving my mission, so here you go.  When I was first doing my papers I was doing them because I felt like there could be a pressure to do them and for me to go on a mission because Kaitlyn had already gotten her call and was getting ready for the MTC. But as I started to do my papers that changed. I was reading my scriptures more and I even got out my patriarchal blessing and started focusing on the section that talks about a mission and I just had this strong feeling like I needed to go on a mission. And then I got my call and all of a sudden I was unsure, especially because when I talked with you and Tyler it was like a "you won't survive" kinda thing. Tyler even admitted that he wouldn't have accepted to go to this mission. So then my reason changed to "I'll prove everyone wrong an...

Some littles  

After the rain here...flooding Elder Garcia and Elder Meline  

From: Mom To: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Saturday, March 12, 2022 Subject: End of a week Hey. How are you? How was your week? How are things with your ami’s progressing? How was the baptism? Things here have been a little more alive I guess if you will. We had crappy snow show up. And when I say crappy I mean the heavy wet and a whole lot of it crappy. I shoveled so B didn’t have to walk in the snow to get to the Millers van since Akaela was driving one day and holy cow. My arms were so sore! This next week should warm up enough that hopefully we can soon forget the cold. Tyler and I celebrated 9 years of being sealed in the temple at the Chinese restaurant. B wasn’t up for joining us to celebrate that day that included her too so we made it quick.  We have been prepping to get ready to come to Cabo and having things here for grandma and Brooklyn too. Not much really. B is easy when it comes to food. She isn’t picky and that sure helps make it easy. I hav...

Elder Garcia, Elder Meline, Elder Ipatutele with Frere Raymond and Frere Thierry  

 

 

Elder Garcia is happy and well this week! I think the early Monday mornings are starting to *maybe* become a normal thing for my body. I giggle each week when I sit down to type up this overview and look at how 7 hours can change how a human looks. Elder Garcia has always been up for some time and been productive where I wake up, throw on some clothes, and jump on a call. :) I am grateful for the opportunity to talk each week and I am even more grateful that Elder Garcia isn't judgemental on what it is I arrive to those calls looking like. HA! Things seem to continue to be going well in Africa for Elder Garcia. Elder Meline is doing really really well on the language and is even leading lessons. Elder Garcia is so proud he says of the hard work that Elder Meline puts into the language study and loves that it is a good example for him to do the same thing too. Elder Garcia and Elder Meline have decided that during companionship study they wanted to set a goal. So...they have decided...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Monday, March 7, 2022 Bonjour Bonjour! Ça va?  This week was yet another transition because it's the 2nd transfer with Elder Meline so we went from the basic training stuff to the little harder. He's great though and is such a hard worker that it's been a piece of cake, I couldn't have asked for a better son in all honesty. Let's hop into it... Tuesday was weird becaus either was transfers and so we didn't have District Council so the morning we went out to sector and were just walking around. We went and got our money for the next little bit and then tried to remeber what we needed to buy. (I forgot that it was a thing to go and get money oops ) After we got everything we went and it was time to go to the apartment again. It wasn't wasted though. Every time we stopped we actually talked with people and we tried to get phone numbers and had out brochures but it was as if nobody really cared about what...