Phone Call Home: Monday, August 22, 2022

Monday calls :)

I swear our weeks are flying by! It was just yesterday that we talked I am almost sure of it but in reality...a whole other week has come and gone. 

Elder Garcia was in good spirits today when we talked. He was happy and was excited to tell me all about what this last week looked like. Some highlights this week are:

- Elder Kamata and Elder Garcia are a great companionship. Elder Garcia says that Elder Kamata is a hard hard worker and is a go getter. So because of this, they are out working in the sector for long days and they are seeing the successes of this hard work too. Elder Garcia is loving the work ethic and the drive that Elder Kamata has brought to the apartment. 

- Elder Garcia and Elder Kamata are both bicycle riders! This means they get to go out to sector and stay out there for longer because using a bicycle means they don't take as long to get back to the apartment. 

- There were oodles of inactive members that joined them at church yesterday! This was good for Elder Garcia because he didn't know they even existed. He is excited to go and get some rendezvous scheduled to start teaching them and finding out where they are on their journey to the Gospel

- Elder Garcia talked about one of his 'eternal ami's' (an ami who comes to church and does all the things that needs to happen for baptism but has a hang up of the dowry to be paid to be 100% good for baptism) whose husband has never been around for the lessons. Well, this last week he was around for both times they stopped by! He doesn't have much to say and he gets weirded out on a few things and leaves the room BUT he is there and so maybe he will see the importance of it to his wife and will be willing to see about how to afford the dowry. This will be added to our prayers here at home for sure

- Elder Garcia and Elder Kamata went to a ladies home as a follow up from a pamphlet that they gave out and were shocked as they started teaching that this couple had actually read the pamphlet! This has never happened in his mission according to Elder Garcia. This opened the door to have a more in depth lesson being taught and he said it was so great to be able to answer questions that the husband specifically had. When it came time to end, the missionaries extended an invitation to the husband to say the prayer. He hesitated and was unsure but with the encouragement of his wife and of the missionaries he proceeded to do so. At the end he apologized and said he was sure he prayed wrong and that he would work on it but Elder Garcia and Elder Kamata tried to remind him that there is no right or wrong way to pray. They taught that as long as his intention was to open the doors to a communication with Heavenly Father, that alone would be enough. Elder Garcia loved the spirit that he felt during this rendezvous and specifically during the prayer that this gentleman offered

- A funny this week was that Elder Garcia reached out to Elder Meline to see how it was going. He is training now so he just wanted to check in. Well...Elder Meline is not 100% sure if his companion is on the verge of coming out as gay or if he is just 'fruity' but nonetheless, he shared some funny experiences with Elder Garcia in an email that had Elder Garcia laughing pretty hard. I am grateful for relationships that have formed during this time in Africa and I hope that friendships will continue long after missions are done.

Other than that, it is just another really great week that is behind Elder Garcia and he is looking forward to the amount of work that is in store for him this upcoming week. It sounds like they will be very busy with their new found inactive friends who were at church as well as the ami's they have found by being physically out in the sector. I am excited for him and hope that he will continue to thrive and learn from working hard. 

Until next week, I sure love you and am so proud of you.

Mom