Christian in Africa

Fr Noel et Elder Kyungu Sr Audrey baptism Sr Audrey avec Jean Baptiste  

From: Mom To: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Friday, December 30, 2022 Subject: Happy New Year! Hey! I feel like it has been forever since I have sat down to write an email. I am sorry about this last week. I am finally (I hope) on the mend to being back to 100%. How was your week? How are things going in this new area? Are you having success with new ami’s? It really is still just crazy for me to realize how new the church is there and I just love that you get to be a part of the massive growth. Where have you seen the hand of the Lord the most in these last couple of weeks? Around here it is just life and busy. Christmas was good. I think B was happy with what she got and I hope Kaitlyn was happy too. Kaitlyn was a rockstar and has Christmas just about all the way down without my help on Monday because I was still feeling like garbage. It was sure nice to have the help. She ended up picking up Eric from the airport and then headed to her apartment that night to...

Benin murals This car...they have a chicken tied to the back too Some noice food  

Elders Mukuna and Lunda When you're so cool they write your name  

The year the Christmas bug hit and of course it was the year of having a missionary in Africa too! Ugh...so frustrating.  I have been under the weather for the last couple of days and so when Elder Garcia was messaging me to see about a good time to call was, I was sound asleep. Thankfully Kaitlyn was here staying for the holiday and was able to take a call and visit with him and let him know that I was not feeling well.  Kaitlyn said he sounds like all is well and that he is good and happy. I am sure glad these two have the friendship and relationship that they do. They have relied on one another for their entire lives and I pray that that closeness will last throughout the eternities.  Merry Christmas from home. I am sorry I missed the call this week. Please know I love you and I miss you and I cannot wait until  next year when we are all back together again FINALLY!  I love you to the moon and back, Mom  

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Monday, December 26, 2022 Subject: Merry Christmas!! Bonjour tout le monde! Okay so I know that for some of you Christmas has already passed but majority of y'all should be getting it on Christmas day soooo... MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Wow this week was something else that's for sure. I'm not really sure how best to describe it haha.  We started off the week by heading to Bohicon to do our district council. We talked a lot about the grace of God in our lives and where we have seen it and then how we could share it with others. It was totally worth the 2 hours in a car to feel the Sporirt that much. We spent the rest of the afternoon, after having spent 2 more hours in a car, trying to contact people. Not many wanted to listen though so it was a lot of just taking and ears closing.  Wednesday went alright we had a very amazing lesson that was guided 100% by the Spirit with our ami Audrey. She has a baptismal date for this Satur...

The family (Obeya, me, Meline, Ilunga)  

Dancing buddy  

The many faces of Tyler this week. :) This week wasn't a long call because Elder Garcia is now 8 hours ahead of us here at home and also I had a fabulous start to my week by having to go to the Periodontist bright  and early. :/ That didn't mean though that we didn't get a chance to catch up and hear about the new things going on in Benin!! Some highlights from the week: - Elder Garcia had to take a long old ride in order to get to Benin. - When they got to the border, the patrol agents there took all of their passports, looked them over, gave the immediate ok to the Africans and kept the Americans standing there while they walked away with the passports. Elder Garcia said he just kind of stood there but then they started to ask him questions like "How long will you be in Benin" "What are you doing in Benin" and so on. After I guess answering them the correct way, passports were handed over and they continued on their way. (I would have been freaking out...

We found some cool shirts for the fete  

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Monday, December 19, 2022 Subject: DASSA Bonjour tout le monde! Well I don't even know really where to start this week haha. There has been so much that has happened and I have loved every single second of it!!!  So last Monday I did a really long drive to get over to Benin with 8 other missionaries. It was really weird to be in a car for as long as we were but at the same time it was cool because I hadn't seen it all before. We spent iterally the whole day inside of a "bus" but it was really cool because we were all talking and wondering what Benin would be like (at least those of us who hadn't even seen Benin in anything other than pictures). When we got to Benin we met up with the assistants to the President and an office elder. President and Sister Proudfoot were there too and we got a little tour of the Mission Office, it was really weird to see that not going to lie. There was a real kitchen there with ...

From: Mom Date: Saturday, December 17, 2022 Subject: It's almost Christmas Hey! How are you? How has your week been? How is Benin? How is the new area? How are the five members? I bet so stoked to have missionaries there to help the growth happen! I cannot believe December is just about through. How in the heck has this month gone by so dang fast?! Things here this week have been good. I had a few nail appointments and then Tyler and I left on Thursday for our weekend in Beverly Hills. I am currently at the airport waiting which gives me a minute to stop and type an email. :) It wouldn’t be a classic trip if something didn’t happen before we left though right? I woke up Wednesday with what felt like someone punched me in the jaw and I was a little bit swollen too. So…I had a cleaning scheduled for Monday but I called to see if Rodney could get me in anyways. Thankfully he did and it turns out I have a tooth that had a root canal when I was a teenager and the roots on...

Secret passage at a Catholic Church still the Catholic Church Dassa Secret passage leads here Elder Kyungu This guy Dassa!!  

Chillin on some rocks Nativity  

Elder Kyungu Just a hill of rock right behind these houses...no biggie Another part of the hill ft. Tante Sniped while waiting to cross the street  

BENIN  

Today is moving day for Elder Garcia and it isn't a quick moving day with the transfer because he is headed to BENIN! I am so thrilled for him to be able to be inside the actual country that his mission call stated. It has been a long time coming and to be honest, even with the borders being open now for a few months, I wasn't sure it would ever happen. Elder Garcia I am sure is going to be thrilled. We will have a lot to catch up on next Monday and I am already looking forward to that for sure.  Just know I love you more than you will ever know, Mom

**Reply to Mom's Email** Well first things first... IM HEADED TO BENIN!!!! But things are doing super good. We had an amazing last week of the transfer and were able to meet some new people. We did run into a marriage problem with some of the younger progressing amis but hopefully that'll get fixed out soon. The lessons with Fr Lucien didn't go as planned with lots of people but hopefully next time for sure. Interviews were amazing! President and I talked about prayer and then a little bit about college for a hot second and then he kinda made me apprehensive haha. He told me that he had something in mind for me but he wasn't 100% sure so he was going to keep praying on it. Well come to find out on Friday when I called him, I am headed ti Benin to a sector called Dasa. It'll be me and my companion and LOTS of work!  So a little that I know about my new sector. It is a group of about 8-10 people and there are only 2 missionnaires there. One companionship ...

From: Christian.garcia@missionary.org Date: Monday, December 12, 2022 Subject: Eyzande Togo...Hallo Dasa?!? Bonjour tout le monde! This week was HYPE! Let's explain a little bit... So we started off this past week with interviews with the President. It's so crazy to think that the last time was 6 weeks ago. I seriously feel like there was maybe 2 weeks MAXIMUM between them but that's not the case at all. It was good to talk to him as always and I also got to talk to Sister Proudfoot and so it was safe to say that out of interviews I wasn't just super encouraged but I was also on Cloud9 because of what I was able to learn with my discussions. I seriously love my mission president and his wife, they are 100% what I have needed throughout my whole mission. When we got back up to Tabligbo we had some rendez-vous that we had cancelled because we had a long drive ahead of us so we called se people and passed by some recent ci vets and then had an amazing lesson wi...