Week 56 Email: New Companion!!

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org
Date: Monday, July 11, 2022
Subject: New Companion!!

Bonjour tout le monde comment allez-vous?!?! I hope that y'all had great weeks this past week! For me this past week was great and I loved it too! My new companion is great and I know that we are going to have a great transfer or time together, we aren't sure if it will be more than 1 transfer here together or not haha.

So to start off this week we had transfers and I had to say a goodbye/see you at Zone Conference Elder Mulamingu. It was pretty sad because he is a really fun and great guy and an amazing missionary. I feel lucky and blessed that I was able to do 2 transfers with him here in Sanguera. My new companion's name is Elder Ipatutele (e-pa-to-tal-ay) and he's from... yep you guessed it. Congo. I don't know why it shoced me so much because the Congolaise are like 90% of the African missionaries but I thought that it was going to be a different country. 

This week we took the week and walked in sector while we get some stuff with the bikes figured out. It was really weird to be walking after using bikes for 3 months. And I kinda missed bikes to be honest, not really something that I thought I would say after hating the bikes in Kpalime but I really did miss them.

My companion is super cool and he's really smart too! For example we pull up to the first lesson with this guy that we just started talking to who says he's a member of Jehovas Witness. We get to talking and he asks me a question about why we don't think that Jehovah is the Father. I responded with a simple response but he didn't like that so he started blowing up when my companion comes in with his bible. Now, here if someone brins out a bible and starts giving out scriptures then a bashing of chastisement starts, so I was getting ready to stop him and apologise to our new friend, when he opens up and starts slowly and kindly exlaining why we bellive what we do. This guy calmed down and listened to my companion. Here's the thing with that, my comp was using really good doctrine that I  myself don't fully know how to explain because my understanding of it is smaller than I would like. But this guy was soaking up all the information and chilled off and then invited us to come and talk to him whenever we needed a break. I was astonished to say the least and still kinda am.

This week for a thought I am going to continue to tlak about faith. And I am actually going to use a teaching that my mission president used. He said that faith brings about miracles. Now when we think of miracles we think of the miracles that Christ did here upon the earth. Changing water to wine, feeding the 5,000, ressurecting Lazarus, and even His Atonement in which He took upon Him our sins. And yes, all of those are miracles but there are also daily, little miracles that come into our lives. But what really are miracles? Well in the bible dictionary we read that miracles are "manifestations of divine or spiritual power." So if a miracle is a manifestation of spiritual power, then doesn't that mean that peace that you feel from the Holy Ghost at times of chaos is a miracle. Or even maybe a comfort on a bad day. For me I have seen many "baby miracles" thoughout the course of my time here in Africa. Learning a new language is hard, especially when you're just thrown into it. But today I am speaking French and understanding others when they speak as well. Missions aren't always just there and easy, there are always challenges that come. But I get through them through the little miracles. It's the same in life, we go up and down and side to side and over and under things. But through the grace and divine and spiritual power of God we get through those tuff times. This week I am going to challenge all of us to look for those "mini miracles" that God puts into our lives. And then thank Him for those, I can promise that as you do that you will be able to feel God's hand in your life more and you will feel His love for you. 

I love you all and I hope that you have a great week! 

Beacoup d'amour, 

Elder Garcia 

Photos:

Me and the new comp

I found a pretty sick ride... we broke down though :(