Week 20!

So this week was another crazy week but then again every week as a missionary seems pretty crazy haha.  We found out about transfers, some people left and new people came in! Once we found out we went home to tell the Andersons (the people we live with) that we were staying together! Sister Anderson was so excited but sat us down and told us that we would be leaving this house and moving somewhere else.  They have kids moving in and they need the space.  We both started crying because we absolutely love living with the Anderson's.  They have had missionaries living with them for decades so we got pretty emotional about it.  We will definitely miss them, we don't know when we are moving but it is within the next week or two!

So funny story....I think it was on Thursday.  Hermana Bumstead and I were walking to the temple booth for the Provo City Center temple.  Our shift started at 10 and we left the house around 9:15 to have time to walk.  A lady stopped and offered us a ride and we took it because it was super cold.  So we were like 30 minutes early to the temple booth.  O and the temple booth used to be a canopy  outside and now they built a legit booth for us.  Its like a little house and they are putting a TV inside and pictures.  So its going to be like a little visitor center.  So we saw that there were some people in the temple booth and we just thought they were people working on it but we walked in and we saw President McCune there and that's the last person we thought we would see there haha. He was like Hey Sister Garces and Sister Bumstead we were just talking about you.  He was in there with a stake President getting a picture.  So yeah the whole situation was funny because we walked in looking so cold and just not expecting to see our mission president in there haha. 

So Saturday was a super busy day for us.  We had a baptism for Hannah and it was our ward Christmas party.  Unfortunately not many people came to her baptism.  It was such a busy day and a lot of members were busy with the Christmas party.  Her family was there, the primary president, the Bishop, our ward mission leader, and our zone leaders came to support us.  And people that were supposed to give the prayers, lead music, and play piano didn't show up so we were a little frustrated.  It ended up being a really spiritual baptism though.  Hannah looked so happy and her family looked so happy.  Hannah wanted Hermana Bumstead to give the talk on Baptism and she wanted me to give a talk on the Holy Ghost.  So I gave a talk on the Holy Ghost in Spanish, only my second talk in spanish haha.  It went really well and I just focused on Hannah and looked at her and told her how much the Holy Ghost can help her in her life and that Heavenly Father is super happy with her decision to be baptized.  After her baptism we asked how she felt and she said I feel so good, I felt so clean coming out of the water and she gave a big hug.  Despite not many people showing up what mattered most was that she was happy and could feel the spirit and she did. 

After the baptism we went straight to our chapel to help with the ward party.  Our relief society president, Hermana Brett was pretty much in charge of all the food so she had us help a lot in the kitchen and help with serving food. It was really fun and it was a great way to get to know all the members in our ward.  The food was sooooooo good! Before we had dinner they put on a very nice program with singing, a live nativity, and there was a narrator.  It was really nice, the spirit was really strong there.  After dinner and desert they took down all the tables and started dancing.  Unfortunately we couldn't dance but everyone looked like they had so much fun!

So I am about out of time! Thanks for all the love and support!

Family- I can't wait to talk to all for Christmas!!

Shout out to Elder Hodges- I saw your brother this week at the mission office, he was dropping off Christmas presents for you! Such a small world in the Utah Provo Mission haha

Love you all!!

Love,
Hermana Garces

Week 19...

So first off Hermana Bumstead and I are staying together!!!!!!!!! We are so excited!! This is going to be an awesome transfer especially with Christmas coming up! Also our zone leaders are staying together and they are still going to be a trio which means they can still give us rides when they can!!! :)

So this week was crazy because it snowed so much and was bitterly cold!!!  We weren't able to teach as much this week but we were able to serve a lot of people. There were calling for snow and they said only like 3 inches, it snowed over a foot, CRAZY!!!! Tuesday was when the snow hit and it was coming down sooooo hard.  We were like we really can't go out and walk in this so we ended up doing service all day and helped shovel driveways.  People were so appreciative of the help, we shoveled at least 10 driveways if not more. 

Also this week I went on exchanges with Sister Smith, the sister training leader for our zone.  She came to our area.  She is so sweet! I felt really bad because she has a car so she wasn't used to walking a lot and it was super cold! We made it work and were able to get some rides! Its nice here in Provo because we will just be walking on the main street and people will just pull over and offer to give us a ride.  Sister Smith was awesome! She kept telling me that I was such an amazing missionary and that she can tell I really love the people.  I really do love the people here, the people we are working with I have gotten so close to! Whenever I have to leave this area, it is going to be super tough.

This week we also had ZTM (zone training meeting).  We talked a lot about how to work better with members and get them involved more.  We also talked about using Preach my Gospel and that we should be using it our entire mission.  President McCune challenged all of us to read the Book of Mormon and Preach my Gospel everyday in our personal studies.  I can already see the difference that challenge had made on me.  We also talked a lot about Jesus Christ and his atonement.  We all had the opportunity to bear our testimonies about the Savior.  When I got up to share mine, I started to get emotional.  If anything my testimony of the Savior has strengthened so much since being on the mission.  Everything I have gone through I couldn't have done without the help of my Savior. 

This week we went over to Caty's house.  She is less active and she's a single mother with a 5 year old son.  We go over to help her fold boxes and do service for her.  This week we helped put up her Christmas tree and other decorations around her apartment.  Her son is so cute, when we put up the Christmas tree he was so excited! He kept saying "LOOK AT THE CHRISTMAS TREE, IT'S SO PRETTY. I AM SO EXCITED FOR CHRISTMAS. THANKS HERMANAS FOR HELPING MY MOM.  I just loved seeing how excited he was for Christmas.  It reminded me how precious this time of year and that everyone should feel that joy of Christmas that this little boy feels.

This Saturday we have a baptism for a 10 year old girl named Jana.  Her family is less active and we have worked to reactivate them and they all have been going to church for the past several weeks.  We have to still teach her one more lesson tonight and then the Elders will do her baptism interview and then she will be good to go! We are super excited for her, she has grown a lot since I have been here and really knows that this is something really special that she wants to do.  Also on Saturday we have our ward Christmas party.  We are super excited because there will be a lot of great food and it will be lots of fun.  Spanish wards really know how to party haha but really they do. 

Well I am about out of time.  Thanks again for all the love and support!

Mom and Dad, Happy Anniversary this week! Thanks for getting married so that I could come into this world and be a part of this wonderful Gospel. You both are amazing parents, thanks for everything you do! Can't wait to talk to you and the whole family for Christmas!!

Love you all!

Love,
Hermana Garces

Week 18

This week was so crazy but then again every week of the mission is crazy haha. Last P day I got a call from the mission office saying that there were 4 packages for me and they were all from my parents! Thanks Mom and Dad for all the Christmas goodies especially the tree, it is so cute!

Thanksgiving this week was really nice.  We started our morning having a turkey bowl, we played with 2 zones! Our zone leaders made us have football practice the morning before at 6 in the morning so we could win haha.  They showed us sisters how to play football because none of us really know how to haha.  They made us do a bunch of drills, it was actually pretty fun even though we were all dead tired.  So Thanksgiving morning my companion and I woke up at 5 and the zone leaders picked us up to go to Orem to get donuts for breakfast for the 2 zones.  Long story short, there is a less active lady we are teaching and she works at krispy kreme and in the past she has given us free donuts because they throw them out because they can only sell them fresh.  The elders really wanted donuts for this turkey bowl and the lady said that the only time we could get them would be early in the morning.  So we were like ok elders if you want these elders you got to pick us up at 5 and take us to Orem to get the donuts.  They did, it was quite the morning we were all sooooo dead tired haha.  The turkey bowl was really fun, President said that Sisters have to participate so that the elders don't go too crazy.  Our zone ended up winning, the practice paid off.  The first house we went to was the Villalobos house (our ward mission leader's family's house), we love this family so much, they make us feel so at home.  They didn't make the most traditional Thanksgiving food but the food was still very good.  We suggested that we go around the table and share what we are grateful for and we did! After that we went to the Zavala family home for dinner.  She made turkey, empanadas and a bunch of other food.  It was soooo much food.  I kept looking at Hermana Bumstead and was like "I CAN"T EAT ANYMORE".  She was like I know but we have to haha.  I literally sat there after I ate everything and really thought I was going to throw up, I felt so sick.   We got home and felt so sick and tired and we went straight to bed haha.  I never want to have 2 thanksgiving dinners again, it was crazy!!!!

The next day we were so sore and still felt really sick, our stomachs were upset the whole day.  We still kept working though and the end of the night the elders saw us going home on our bikes and we talked to them for a bit and went home and then they came back to give us some sprite so we could settle our stomachs, it was really nice of them!

On Saturday we had a baptism for 8 year old Amber and it went really well, she was so excited! We have another baptism coming up on December 14th which we are really happy about.  We are trying  this week to get to know the ward members more and get them excited about missionary work.  We are going to visit a lot of the ward members this week and hopefully we can find more people to teach this way and have them come out with us to teach.  Also its a good way for them to have missionary opportunities as well.

Well I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! This time of year is so special.  I hope everyone is enjoying this Holiday season.  Thanks again for everything!

Also next Monday we find out about transfers.  I hope I stay, this area is amazing and I hope I stay with Hermana Bumstead, she is super great!

Hermana Veronica Garces

Week 17...

Well first off I want to say how grateful I am to all of my family and friends that support me.  I have been so lucky to get so much mail from you, thank you so much! It really means a lot to me.  I am so blessed to have such a great family and great friends. 

This week was really great.  Last Monday for P Day we made lunch as a district, it was way fun! We made enchiladas and taquitos.  The elders had to go to Orem to the Missionary Mall and they were giving us a ride (they are in a trio so they can give us rides) so Hermana Bumstead and I decided to go to the Sister Missionary Mall and we splurged and got ourselves a skirt haha, it was great!

On Thursday we went to the temple as a district and a lot of sisters from my old zone in Payson were there.  It was so good to see them again! Going to the temple that day was really good for me.  I reflected a lot about my mission so far and how I have had a lot of wonderful experiences but also have has a lot of tough experiences.  It made me think how grateful I am to be here serving a mission.  I have learned so much these past 5 months that have helped me to grow and gain a stronger testimony especially of my Savior. 

We also had out District Training Meeting which we have every week.  We each wrote 10 things we were thankful for being that Thanksgiving is coming up.  We went around the room and shared them.  It was really nice.  It felt so good taking the time to write down the things that we are thankful for.  Also I went on exchanges this week which was really fun, I got to be in a car and I totally forgot what that felt like haha. I am actually really grateful that we walk and bike, it sometimes stinks because its raining and cold but the members feed us so much here so its good for us to burn it all off haha.

Also this week our ward mission leader came out with us and we tracted this big trailer park that is in our area.  We found a lot of Hispanic people to teach and we set up a lot of return appointments, it was great! We also got a lot of referrals!

On Friday we had zone conference and it was sooooo good! We talked a lot about the "why" we do things as missionaries.  It was probably my favorite zone conference so far.  President McCune is amazing, its amazing how much he is aware about all of the 270 missionaries in our mission.  He knows and cares about each and everyone of us.

We had a Thanksgiving Fireside yesterday in our stake and they had a choir that sang beautifully.  Also the former President of the Nauvoo temple spoke with us, he was really good.
We have a baptism this Saturday for Amber.  She is 8 years old and we have been teaching her and her family and getting them reactivated.  We're really excited, it will be a good day for them.

In Provo there is a lot of Spanish people from everywhere not just Mexico.  In our Spanish ward there is people from Mexico, Chile, Argentina, Venezuela, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, etc.  I am started to point out the different accents from the different countries especially from Chile and Argentina.  People from Chile speak super fast and Argentina has a different kind of accent.  It is also really neat because we have been able to eat a lot of things from these different countries because we eat with the members in our ward. Our ward spoils us so much, its crazy!

For Thanksgiving we have to go to two dinners, I don't know how we are going to do it! We will probably fast the day before haha.  We are going to the Zavala family, they are from Chile and feel us a ton.  And we are also going to the Villalobos family, the family of our ward mission leader who is basicly like our second family.  They feed us a ton too! Hermana Bumstead and I decided that we are going to make some pies this week to bring so it is at least somewhat traditional haha.  The Villalobos family asked us to explain the traditions of Thanksgiving and how it all started because they don't know the story of thanksgiving so we are going to explain it to them!

Well I hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving this week! Remember the things that you are grateful for.  Thanks again for all the support!

Family- Mom I am so happy you got called to be a ward missionary, you will be awesome at it! I can't believe I will be able to talk to you all in about a month for Christmas! Dad I will try to only talk in Spanish with you! :)

Hermana Veronica Garces

Week 16...

Well this week has definitely been an adventure, so many crazy things happened.  I will explain later in my email!

So last Monday for P-Day my district went bowling on BYU-campus.  It was way fun, it was weird walking on campus because I kept thinking that I was going to see people I know haha.  We also went to the BYU bookstore to buy some pictures of Christ for the Gonzalez family that just recently got baptized.  Shoutout to Hermana Sablan! I saw your sister Casey at the bookstore.  She asked if I knew you, and I was like O my gosh of course I know Hermana Sablan she was in my MTC district! She told me to tell you hi and we are now officially Facebook friends.  Small world that's for sure haha. 

We got 2 more people this week to be on date to be baptized! We are super excited for them! There is this less active lady that we see a few times a week.  She is so awesome, we really love her.  She has been through a lot in her life.  She is from Chile and has lived here for 3 years, she is a single mom with a 5 year old son.  We go over there to share a little thought with her, talk with her, and help her fold boxes.  She works for this oil/nutrient company.  I don't really know how to describe it and she just fold/puts together boxes all day and it takes her hours to do by herself.  So we come and help her.  She hasn't been to church in a very long time, we got her to come this past Sunday with her son.  It was great, you could tell she was really happy to be back.  Her son is so cute, he likes to play a lot.  So when we are over at their house, he always likes me to play cars with him and legos.  I try to speak Spanish with him so I can practice and he always responds to me in English, its funny haha.

So craziness that happened this week, it started snowing/raining this past Friday and Saturday.  When it does start to snow and rain, we can't ride our bikes, we have to walk.  So it was very interesting for us.  On Friday we had to do the temple booth for a 2 hour shift and walking from the temple booth from our house takes a good 45min to an hour to walk over there.  So we walked over there in the cold rain and snow.  Also the temple booth is outside so we were there for 2 hours freezing.  There was this really nice lady that saw we were really cold and she brought us hot chocolate! Our shift for the temple booth was from 11-1 and we can't leave the temple booth until the next set of missionaries come to take the next shift.  It was like 1:45 and no one had come yet so we were like this is crazy, we have been here almost 3 hours and it is sooooo cold!! So we just left and called our zone leaders and they were like you didn't get our text and we were like what text.  They said they texted us and said that we could leave at1 and that the other set of missionaries would be coming late.  Well we never got that text haha.  They felt really bad.  We ended up walking to the mission office to go to the bathroom and when we walked in we looked ridiculous because we were so cold/wet/full of snow haha.  The zone leaders actually ended up being in the mission office and offered to take us home because they felt bad we have to walk and that we were at the temple booth for almost 3 hours in the cold haha.  They ended up treated us for lunch too, it was nice!

So we had other appointments that we had to walk to that were on the other side of our area.  Walking to the other side of the area takes a very long time.  This person that we were going to lives super up hill and we were super close to their house and then we get a call saying they have to cancel.  So we were like ok this is great, we walked all the way here in the rain/snow and they cancel on us.  So we decided to say a prayer to see what we could do on that side of the area.  There was a house that we felt prompted to stop by at so we did.  It was a lady who is a member but she's been going through a hard time. She has 4 little boys. We shared a thought with her and helped clean her house.  She was so grateful to us and really needed us in that moment.  It is amazing how Heavenly Father works in those moments! She also drove us home which was nice because the snow was getting worse haha.

So yeah I am still loving it here! I love my companion Hermana Bumstead! We really work well together and we find the humor in walking/riding a bike.  We complain that we don't have a car and the elders do but we keep going and that's all we can do!!

Thanks again for all the love and support! Family-I can't believe I will get to talk to you soon at Christmas! Dad, I will talk as much Spanish as I can with you!

Hermana Veronica Garces

15th week...

Well first off thanks for all the letters I got this week, I really appreciate them, keep them coming! Also thanks Dad for sending the Christmas CD's, we have listened to all of them already!

This week has been crazy but its been so good! We have had a lot of adventures walking and biking haha.  We have biked to the other side of our area for an appointment and they weren't there, we got a flat tire on one of our bikes, our skirts have gotten caught in the bike, there are some crazy hills in our area that are hard to bike etc.  Even though those things have happened we couldn't help but just laugh about them haha. 

Last Monday our district had dinner together at our house.  My companion, Hermana Bumstead cooked for us (she's a really good cook).  It was fun to bond with our district.  Today we are going bowling together on BYU-campus which should be way fun!


Its super nice serving in Provo because we are really close to the mission office so we go there a lot and I can pick up mail/packages I have gotten.  And we complain that we don't have a car haha
.  The mission hasn't given us a car but one thing that they did give us was a blender haha.  We were actually super excited about that, we make smoothies every morning now! If we can't have a car we can have a blender haha.  We harp on the Elders in our district so much that they have a car and we don't haha. Its ok though we make it work!

On Saturday we had the baptism for the Gonzalez family.  It was such a great day for them.  I love this family so much! It was Jaimie, Alicia, and their daughter Jasmine that got baptized.  Jasmine turned 8 this past Friday so we surprised her with a birthday party. Our Ward mission leader's mom made her a cake and Hermana Bumstead and I went a little crazy and bought her a bunch of stuff, we got her markers, coloring books, jump rope, puzzle, headbands, hair clips, bubbles, candy etc.  We also got her a big thing of balloons.  We wanted to make it really special for her because this family doesn't really have much money so we made a really big deal about it for her.  She was so excited when we came to surprise her, she is such a cute little girl!

Their baptism was amazing! The day before we asked Jaimie and Alicia why they wanted to be baptized and they said because they feel like they have truly repented and they want to be right with God, that is seriously like the best answer you could say! A lot of people were there for the baptism, the ward has been really great about supporting them.  Our ward mission leader, Saul baptized Alicia and his brother in law who is one our fellowshippers for this family baptized Jasmine and Jaimie.  The spirit was felt super strong.  After the baptism we had like an after party to celebrate their baptism at the Bishop's house.  They made so much food, it was delicious!

On Sunday all 3 of them were confirmed and they invited us to come over for tamales.  They invited our ward mission leader and his whole family to come too!  I guess in Mexico when you have tamales it is a really big deal.  They only have them on special occasions to celebrate.  They were sooooooo good! After we blessed the food Jaimie got really emotionally and said you know we have lived here for about 2 months and we came here with nothing, we had no friends, no jobs, etc.  Now we have a job, we have amazing friends like all of you, and more importantly we have the gospel in our lives now.  I couldn't help but start crying too! It is seriously amazing what the gospel can do for us.

Our ward mission leader Saul is so awesome! He has only been home from his mission for 2 months.  His whole family is wonderful.  They treat us so well.  His parents feel like my parents away from home, they will do anything for us.  Its really nice!

I love serving here in Provo a lot! There is a lot of Spanish people here! There's a lot of work to be done here.  I am so grateful to be serving with Hermana Bumstead! We have been together almost 2 weeks and she already feels like my best friend. 

Thanks again for all of the love and support.  I love you all!

Hermana Veronica Garces

14th week...Provo Slate Canyon area.

So I got transfer calls 15 minutes after I finished emailing last week.  I have been transferred to the Provo Slate Canyon area.  My new companion is Hermana Bumstead, she is awesome! She has been out a transfer longer than me and her Spanish is really good! We cover just one stake (Provo Stake). 

Tuesday was my last day in Payson and we had President Interviews that day.  My interview with President McCune was amazing, one of the most spiritual experiences I have ever had.  President asked me how I was doing and without getting into too much detail I told him that I have learned to be a lot closer to my Savior.  I said I know I went through this tough time so that I could gain that Testimony of my Savior.  He asked me if there is anything that I needed help with.  And I said I have struggled with listening to the Spirit and to feel it.  I have shared the first vision and every time I share it I don't feel the significance of it for myself.  I have felt it super strongly when I shared it in the MTC but it hasn't quite had the effect on me out in the field.   I have been studying it really hard and praying that I feel that strong spirit again but I haven't yet.  He then asked me if I had the first vision memorized in English and I said actually I don't, I just have it in Spanish memorized.  So he then pulled out his scriptures and turned to Joseph Smith History and asked me to read the first vision to him and he asked me to read it slowly and to read it as if it is the first time he is hearing this.  So I started reading and paused between phrases and halfway through reading tears were coming down my face.  I kept reciting it but the crying didn't stop.  When I finished I looked up at President McCune and he was crying too.  He said that was amazing Sister Garces, that was the most powerful reciting of the first vision I have ever heard.  You have power Sister Garces, you are an amazing missionary.  Share your strong testimony to the people of Provo Slate Canyon because this area needs you now.  I couldn't stop crying, the spirit was so overwhelming.  It finally hit me again in that moment, the spirit was brought back to me.  That experience was something that needed to happen to me, I will forever be grateful for that experience and to be able to share that with my Mission President was amazing!

Later that night our ward was having a trunk or treat so I got to say goodbye to a lot of the members in our ward.  It was a little sad saying goodbye but I knew that being transferred to Provo was going to be the best thing for me.  One of the less active family's we are teaching their daughter who wants me to play the violin for her baptism was so sad I was leaving.  She was like nooooooooo Sister Garces you can't go, I don't want you to gooooo.  I said Sammy its ok, I promise I will stay in touch and that I will be back for your baptism and play the violin for you. 

Wednesday was transfers! We met at the chapel in Provo by the temple and MTC and met our new companions! I also got to see Hermana Read, Hermana Sablan, Hermana Derges, and Elder Hodges! I always love seeing my MTC district! O also I have been out in the field for 12 weeks so I am officially done being trained as a new missionary! I said goodbye to Hermana Lish, she definitely has taught me a lot and we had some struggles but I know we learned a lot from each other! She is an amazing missionary! I met with my new companion Hermana Bumstead and like I said she is awesome! We relate to each other so much! After our first day together we were already like best friends.  So my area is a biking area which is interesting especially in a skit haha. It has been adventure that's for sure! We are hoping we get a car because its gonna start snowing a lot here.  The first day we taught a few lessons and I met with our ward mission leader.  Our ward mission leader just got off his mission a few months ago and he is awesome! His whole family is so nice, they were so welcoming to me! And I can already tell that I love the people we are teaching.  Thursday was Halloween.  We were locked up in a church building from 5-9:30 with our district!  We made breakfast burritos, brownies, salsa, and all other kinds of good stuff.  We also got to watch the movie Ephraim's Rescue, it is a lot like 17 miracles. It was such a good movie, we were all crying during it.  My MTC district is so much fun, I already love all of them.  We have 4 elders and 4 sisters in our district.  We are already like super close, it is going to be a fun transfer!

O also the people I live with are so nice! They are an older couple (the Andersons).  They are so sweet and will do anything for us.  What is super awesome about being in Provo is that there is a temple booth by the construction of the new Provo City temple that is being built.  And we as missionaries get to take turns working at the temple booth and get to watch the construction of the temple and answer questions to people that are walking by.  It is way cool, I have already done it twice since being here!

Sunday I went to church and met our ward.  The Bishop invited me to introduce myself and bear my testimony to the ward so I did.  It went well with my broken Spanish haha. This ward is amazing! They are so sweet and welcoming! O and guess what Dad there is a lady is this ward that is from Quito, Ecuador! We bonded super well haha, she wants to know what part of Quito your family is from because she said she has heard of the name Garces.  So ask your Dad what part of Quito they are from.  Also there were these two young women ages girls that came up to me and they were like are you from Burke and I was like yeah.  These two girls used to be in the Little River Ward and recognized me and they knew all these people from the Burke ward.  I felt bad cause I didn't recognize them but small world, crazy! They said they moved to Utah this past summer!

We had dinner at our ward mission leaders family's house.  They are so amazing, I love them! They made us tacos and they were like real Mexican tacos that were to die for! And we had a FHE at their house with the Gonzalez family that is being baptized this Saturday! They are such a sweet family, I met them my first day in Provo and I immediately fell in love with them.

So yeah it has been an amazing first week in Provo! I love my new companion, my ward, my district, my area, and just everything! I know I am supposed to me here right now, it is amazing how Heavenly Father works and knows where you are supposed to go!

Anyways thanks for all the love and support! I love you all!

Hermana Veronica Garces

13th Week...

Well I am still waiting to hear about transfers.  We should be getting a call anytime now! So maybe by the end of this email I will know haha! Thanks for all the letters this week.

So this week we went to the temple as a district, it was a great experience as usual.  Afterwards we went to a Mexican restaurant for lunch.  We got it for free, I guess that's the perks of being in the Utah Provo Mission! That same day I went on exchanges with Hermana Derges (she was in my MTC district).  It was so nice to be with her for the day, it reminded me of all the fun times I had with my MTC district! They will forever be my family!  We were able to teach a lot of good lessons and just have a good time together. 

On Thursday I was on exchanges again and this time I was with Sister Harroff.  She is an english speaking sister and it was a good experience with her.  It was although a bit of a challenge because she doesn't know any Spanish so I had to pretty much teach the lessons by myself which was a little scary haha.  Surprisingly it went ok, a lot of Spanish came out which was good.  We also had members with us during our lessons so they could help me out.  Spanish has still been a struggle but I have faith it will get there eventually! That day we went by for this less active family that we are teaching the Godinez family.  They are amazing, I love them so much! We are teaching the whole family to get them back to church but we are also getting their daughter, Sammy who is 9 ready to be baptized.  She is so ready but we are waiting on her Dad, Miguel to be ready.  He wants to baptize her but he wants to do it right this time.  He doesn't just want to baptize her just to baptize her and then not go to church.  He wants to be serious about this and be fully committed.  This whole family is super close and they are so much fun! They are the one's that surprised me with cake and icecream for my birthday.  Before leaving their house Sammy said to me Sister Garces I want to get baptized before one of you gets transferred, Sister Garces I want you to play the violin for my baptism.  My heart just melted when she said that.  I told her that if I would get transferred that I could get permission to come back for her baptism so I could play.  And plus I definitely want to be there for that special day!

Tomorrow we get to have interviews with President McCune.  Each interview is about 15 minutes.  I am actually really excited to talk to him about how everything is going.  He is so amazing and I can tell he really loves and cares about each and everyone of us in the mission.  Also tomorrow our ward is having a Trunk or Treat and we are going to help our at it which will be fun!

Thursday is Halloween! So we can't proselyte from 5-9, so we are basically going to be locked up haha not really.  We get to a church building and hang out with our district.  We get to watch a movie and play games and just have a lot of fun! It should be fun!

Well I still haven't gotten the call yet about transfers so I guess you all will find out next week what happens!

Thanks again for all the love and support!

Hermana Veronica Garces

12th week...

First off thanks Mom and Dad for the package! I loved it so much! Melissa thank you so much for the cards you made me! Mike, Cristen, Luke, and Cailyn thank you so much for the scarf, I love it! And Charles thanks for the package of Sour Patch Kids and Swedish Fish, you know me too well haha.  Also thanks for the I love Taiwan key chain.  Thanks to everyone else who sent me letters this week!

So Tuesday was my birthday! It was way fun!  Hermana Lish got me some of my favorite treats, made me a poster, and blew up balloons everywhere!  On Monday my district surprised me with cake and icecream and sang to me! It was very nice! On my actual birthday I was on exchanges with Sister Jeppson and she is so awesome! We had a fun day together and taught a lot of good lessons.  We taught Eduardo (the one who got baptized in August) and he's actually been struggling a lot lately with some things so we really wanted this lesson to be a spiritual experience for him so that he could feel that spirit again.  It was the first time I guess that I took over this lesson because Hermana Lish is always with us when we teach him.  I decided to talk about the Joseph Smith Experience with him and really apply it to him.  I was a little nervous reciting the first vision to him because I actually haven't really recited it in a lesson since being at the MTC.  I knew I had to just go for it, so I looked at him directly in the eye and recited it.  As I recited it, I could feel the spirit so strongly and when I finished saying the words Eduardo looked at me and smiled and had tears in his eyes.  I knew that he could feel it.  It was such a great experience and it made me feel good knowing that it was something he really needed.  It was a great lesson to have on my birthday! At the end of the night Sister Jeppson, Sister Baker, and Sister Derges treated me for ice cream! It was way fun! The next day my birthday still wasn't over haha.  We had an appointment with a less active family that we absolutely love.  The Godinez Family, they heard it was my birthday from the Elders and they surprised me by making me a cake.  It was way sweet!

The rest of the week was pretty good, we taught a lot of lessons.  On Saturday we had a activity for the ward missionaries in our ward which are pretty much all youth.  We had them all invite their friends and we had a cookout and played games outside.  It was really fun but I got a major sun burn haha.  Also on Saturday we went to do service for a less active women we are teaching, Margaret.  She is so sweet! I mowed a lawn for the first time in my life, it was pretty fun and I didn't do too bad haha.

This week is the last week of the transfer, time is going by crazy fast! We have to do two more exchanges this week and its in my area so I will be driving and taking over the area.  We are going to the temple tomorrow as a district which I am really excited about! Going to the temple just always makes me feel better. Today we are actually doing an activity with all the sisters in our zone! We are going to be carving pumpkins, I am really excited because I have really gotten to know all of the sisters in our zone by going on exchanges with them.  They are all so nice!

So this time next week I should know about transfers! We will see what happens.  Thanks again for all of the love and support. 

Family, enjoy your time with Charles.  I really wish I could be there with you all.  Just pretend I am there haha.

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

11th week...

So first off thanks Mom and Dad for the birthday package! Don't worry I haven't opened it yet, I am waiting till tomorrow! Also thanks to everyone else that wrote me letters this week, I really appreciate it!

This week was crazy! We are always busy but we were really busy this week.  I went on exchanges  Tuesday with Hermana Baker.  We have two sets of Spanish sisters in our Spanish ward and she is part of the other set.  She is awesome! We clicked right away, we taught a lot together! We got really close after just being together for one day, we are hoping that in the future we will be companions!

Wednesday I went on exchanges again but this time I was in my area and I had to drive and basically take charge of everything.  I was super nervous but I was able to do it! The sister that I was with was so nice, she's only been out 3 weeks so we learned together haha.  I had to take charge of Jose's baptism interview, I had to go over the questions with him, fill out the form with him.  Some elders in my district came to help me with that and they came to do his interview.  He did really well and seemed so ready for his baptism.  He was able to go to conference with some of the young adults in our Spanish ward and he loved it.  I asked him if he had any more questions about anything and he was like yes I have one, How soon can I go to the temple? He's super solid, he can go pretty much right away to do baptisms for the dead.  We taught other lessons that day and they were in English which was good cause the companion I had was English speaking haha.

So on Saturday was Jose's baptism.  It was kind of crazy because we didn't know how many people were going to be there because it was last minute.  We really wanted to get a musical number together and we asked a lot of people in the ward but they couldn't do it.  So then Friday night we were able to figure something out.  We found a flute and flute music from a member in our neighborhood and we asked Hermana Derges if she could play and she said yes! Hermana Derges was in my MTC district so it was super sweet that she was able to play.  She played Joseph's Smith's First prayer, it was so good, the spirit was felt super strongly! The whole baptism turned out really well.  A good amount of people showed up and Eduardo (he got baptized a little over a month ago) gave a talk on baptism.  He did so good, he is such an example to everyone.  Jose's mom was there (Carmen), she got baptized when Eduardo did. She seemed so happy for Jose.  His sister was also there, Jesenia. She is 16 and we think that she will be the next to be baptized, we hope!

Well I don't have much time! Thanks again for everything! I can't believe my Birthday is tomorrow. I haven't really thought about it much haha. 

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

10th week...iPads!!

Well first off thanks Mom, Dad, and Melissa for all of the encouraging letters, they have really helped me! Also thanks everyone who keeps writing me and emailing me, I really appreciate it!

So Tuesday I was on exchanges and I got to drive again!! It was in Spanish Fork again! We had a little adventure because we got locked out of the house so we ended up going to the other sisters house in the area.  It just so happened to be the house of Hermana Read and her companion! She was super confused to see me at her house haha.  It was great to see her though, it always makes me super happy when I get to see my MTC companion.  It was a good day, we taught a lot.

Wednesday I went on another exchange with an English sister in Santaquin.  It was good for me to teach a lot of lessons in English so that eventually I can start feeling more comfortable teaching the lessons in Spanish haha. 

On Friday we had zone conference.  President McCune started zone conference with a little scripture study and he told us that there will be an interruption because he is expecting a phone call from salt lake.  We read in 1 Nephi about when he is commanded to build the ship and what tools he had to use.  We then talked about what tools we use for missionary work like preach my gospel, scriptures, facebook, etc.  And then the phone rang and he was like o well I am just with the missionaries talking about tools we use and then he was like o your have another tool they could use.  And then people started walking in with Ipads.  President McCune then said an early Christmas present, you all will be getting your Ipads today!! We all cheered! So we got our Ipads set up and basically everything is on there, the gospel library, our whole area book is on there, we can access facebook, and do everything on there to bring forth missionary work! We are the 4th mission in the world to now have Ipads! We also get to keep the Ipad with us throughout our mission and then we will have to turn it in after our mission.  It is definitely going to help with hastening the work.  It is indeed a very exciting time to be a missionary!

So General Conference was amazing!!! All of the talks were so good! I especially liked President Uchtdorf's talk! His talks are always so good! I also really liked Ulisses Soares of the seventy's talk.  He talked about meekness, I feel like that is an attribute that I have been blessed with while I have been on my mission.  If I didn't have that gift I know things would be more challenging for me.
I also really liked Elder Holland's talk.  HE emphasized that we should never lose hope in our Heavenly Father and that God's love for us is always there no matter whether we deserve it or not.

We have a baptism this Saturday that we are really excited about! His name is Jose, he's 20.  He's the son of Carmen who got baptized a month ago.  He's so ready and is going to be such an example to others.

Thanks for all the love and support from you all!

Also Happy Birthday to my brother, Mike this week! You are getting so old haha! Have a good one!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Ninth week

Well first off thanks Mom, Dad, and Melissa for all of the encouraging letters, they have really helped me! Also thanks everyone who keeps writing me and emailing me, I really appreciate it!

So Tuesday I was on exchanges and I got to drive again!! It was in Spanish Fork again! We had a little adventure because we got locked out of the house so we ended up going to the other sisters house in the area.  It just so happened to be the house of Hermana Read and her companion! She was super confused to see me at her house haha.  It was great to see her though, it always makes me super happy when I get to see my MTC companion.  It was a good day, we taught a lot.

Wednesday I went on another exchange with an english sister in Santaquin.  It was good for me to teach a lot of lessons in english so that eventually I can start feeling more comfortable teaching the lessons in Spanish haha. 

On Friday we had zone conference.  President McCune started zone conference with a little scripture study and he told us that there will be an interruption because he is expecting a phone call from salt lake.  We read in 1 Nephi about when he is commanded to build the ship and what tools he had to use.  We then talked about what tools we use for missionary work like preach my gospel, scriptures, facebook, etc.  And then the phone rang and he was like o well I am just with the missionaries talking about tools we use and then he was like o your have another tool they could use.  And then people started walking in with Ipads.  President McCune then said an early christmas present, you all will be getting your Ipads today!! We all cheered! So we got our Ipads set up and basically everything is on there, the gospel library, our whole area book is on there, we can access facebook, and do everything on there to bring forth missionary work! We are the 4th mission in the world to now have Ipads! We also get to keep the Ipad with us throughout our mission and then we will have to turn it in after our mission.  It is definitly going to help with hastening the work.  It is indeed a very exciting time to be a missionary!

So General Conference was amazing!!! All of the talks were so good! I especially liked President Uchtdorf's talk! His talks are always so good! I also really liked Ulisses Soares of the seventy's talk.  He talked about meekness, I feel like that is an attribute that I have been blessed with while I have been on my mission.  If I didn't have that gift I know things would be more challenging for me.
I also really liked Elder Holland's talk.  HE emphasized that we should never lose hope in our Heavenly Father and that God's love for us is always there no matter whether we deserve it or not.

We have a baptism this saturday that we are really excited about! His name is Jose, he's 20.  He's the son of Carmen who got baptized a month ago.  He's so ready and is going to be such an example to others.

Thanks for all the love and support from you all!

Also Happy Birthday to my brother, Mike this week! You are getting so old haha! Have a good one!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Eighth week...

First off thanks Mom and Dad for the package!!! I really appreciate it and thanks for all the letters I got this week! Keep them coming, I really appreciate them!

On Tuesday I had the opportunity to drive a little in Spanish Fork, Utah! My companion had a meeting in Provo so I went on exchanges with another sister in Spanish Fork and got special permission to drive! It was nice and it made me realize that I miss driving! Also on Tuesday we had a meeting for all the Spanish missionaries in our mission in Provo.  We talked about how to better work with stake leaders/ward leaders to better bring forth Spanish work.  There's over 100 Spanish speaking missionaries in our mission, crazy!! What was super great was that I got to see my MTC district, Hermana Read, Hermana Derges, Hermana Sablan, and Elder Hodges!!! It was so good to see all of them and catch up!! I miss them so much!!!

On Wednesday I went on exchanges with a sister in my zone, Hermana Flores.  It was a great and positive experience with her.  I was able to grow a lot with her.  I will be going on a lot of exchanges this transfer because my companion is Sister Training Leader so she has to go on exchanges with all the sisters in our zone!

On Saturday we had the baptism for Alex!! He seemed so happy and he said he felt so clean! He is such a cute kid! We gave him a picture of Jesus and the Children to remind him that Jesus Christ will always be there for us. 

On Sunday we went to Alex's ward for his confirmation and we actually gave talks in his ward.  I talked about the power of conversion with the Book of Mormon.  I planned a 10 minute talk but it had to be like 20 minutes and somehow someway I spoke for 20 minutes, the spirit was definitely guiding me!

This week I will be going on exchanges again with another sister.  Also this week we have zone conference and rumor has it that we will be getting our Ipads and Iphones!!! It is exciting! Also this week is general conference which I am super excited for! my companion gets to go to a session, I won't be able to go this time but I will be able to go in April and October next year! It is seriously inspired that we have General Conference every 6 months, we really need it!

Thanks again for all of the love and support!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Seventh week of mission...Staying in Payson.

Well it is official, I am staying in Payson! I honestly thought I was going to leave but deep down in my heart I felt like I was supposed to stay! I am happy that I am staying because we have a lot of potential people that could be really good. 

This week wasn't as busy as some of our other weeks.  We have a baptism this Saturday for Alex.  He's 10 and he's so much fun to teach, he's such a smart kid.  We met him a lot this week to make sure he knew everything for his baptism interview.  Our district leader, Elder Harpole interviewed him for his baptism interview, he passed! And when Alex came out of his interview, he got a little emotional, it was so sweet! He realized what an important step he is making by being baptized. We went over the program for him and he picked the Star Spangled Banner and Nephi's Courage for the songs for his baptism haha.

Also this past Sunday Eduardo brought his nephew, Victor to church! It was way cute and Victor seemed to like church very much! Hopefully that will soften his Mom's heart so we can start teaching her!

We also have been teaching a lot of less active families and trying to make it a family effort for all of them to go back to church!

Tomorrow we are having a training meeting for all Spanish missionaries in the mission which means I will get to see Hermana Read, Hermana Derges, Hermana Sablan, and Elder Hodges (my MTC district)!! I am so excited to see all of them!! They will forever be my family!!

Sorry this email is a little short but I don't have much time today!! Thanks again for all of the love and support!! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Sixth week in the field...

Well I am sitting here writing this email to you all and we are waiting to get a phone call to find out if we are going to be transferred.  My companion Hermana Lish will most likely stay but I will most likely be leaving, we will see! I will go to my new area on Wednesday if I do get transferred.  What is great about a mission is that wherever area you are assigned to, that is where the Lord wants you to be at that specific time!

We moved into our new place, the elders in our district helped us move in! The people we live are so nice! They spoil us! It is a nice place, lots of space but it doesn't compare to the mansion we used to live in haha.  What is nice is we are more close to people we are teaching so it saves us a lot on miles.  I didn't unpack everything because I don't know if I will be transferred or not!

This week we taught a lot.  We got 4 people on date for baptism!!! There is this 10 year old boy named Alex that we are teaching, he is set to get baptized on Sept 28th!!! His family is a little less active so we are working on getting his family back!! They have been going to church regularly for the past few months which is good! Alex is such a cute kid, he's so smart for a 10 year old.  We teach him in English because he knows it better than Spanish.  We taught him the word of wisdom this week and we asked ok so alex why do you think the word of wisdom is such an important commandment that we should live and he said so we can be skinny.  We bursted out laughing, he's so much fun to teach haha

This week we also have been meeting with Eduardo (the one who recently just got baptized) to read chapters in the Book of Mormon with him.  He lives with his sister and her 3 kids.  Eduardo's nephew, Victor who is 7 decided to come in join us and read with us, we gave him a cartoon version of the Book of Mormon and he loved it! Eduardo then taught him how to pray, it was so sweet! And we met with them again and Victor told me I have been reading the Book of Mormon, it is the best book I have ever read and I have been praying with my Uncle Eduardo and I want to pray many times a day.  I feel so good when I pray.  It was so sweet! So we are kind of teaching his nephew now, we are hoping that Eduardo's sister will want us to start teaching her but we will see!  Eduardo is doing so good, the Bishop gave him a calling to be ward missionary! He's already been going out to teach with us and helped a lot! He's amazing!

Carmen Lopez (she also just was recently baptized), her son wants to be baptized now! He's been going to church with her every Sunday! He's 20 and he is so ready, basically Saturday and Sunday we taught him pretty much everything he needs to know and he's going to be baptized Sept 27th!!! He's so ready!  We're hoping maybe he would want Eduardo to baptize him, we'll see!

On Saturday a ward invited us to help with a youth activity.  They were doing like a mini MTC mission experience for the youth and they asked us to come in to be teachers at the MTC and explain preach my gospel and teach them how to teach the first lesson.  It was really fun and the youth really liked it! They fed us breakfast and lunch which was nice and we watched the 5000 day project with the 2 brothers.  I always heard about it but I had never seen it so I was so excited that I would finally be able to see it! It was so good, it made me cry! It made me think of you Mike and Charles, you both are the best brothers ever!! Also on Saturday our Spanish ward had a big party.  It was Mexico's independence day and other countries independence days.  Our ward has 17 countries represented but most of them are from Mexico! They had so much food there, it was crazy but it was sooooooo good!!! They also had different dances and skits that they did haha.  Latino people seriously know how to party haha!!! They had the primary kids dance to gangham style, it made me think of my Nephew, Luke who always wanted to dance gangham style haha.

We have also been teaching a less active family, The Godinez family.  I love this family so much!!   The dad is from Mexico and speaks Spanish but his wife and 2 kids don't so we teach them in english.  We are getting their daughter who is 9 ready to be baptized! We have seen this family grow so much, they have been reading and praying together everyday as a family and they have been struggling with the Word of Wisdom especially the Mom.  But she has been trying really hard to give up on drinking coffee and she's getting there.  Before she refused to give it up but now she is trying which is a big step! Also we have been working on the Dad to be ready to baptize his daughter, Sammy.  He has been afraid to commit and just feels like he's not ready to be fully back into the church.  We talked to him and we gave him a date October 12th, that's when he would baptize his daughter Sammy! He committed to it so we are super excited for him and his family! Also yesterday the whole family went to church!! They have come such a long way! We are going to meet with them tonight, they are such an amazing and fun family to teach!

Well I am about out of time, still no word on whether I will be transferred or not! Also rumor has it that we are getting Ipads really soon meaning this week! So that means I will be emailing you all using my Ipad which is exciting!! Anyways thanks again for all the love and support, I love you all!!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Fifth week in field...

Well first off Mom and Dad thanks for the package of food! I loved everything in it especially the oat squares (you know that's my favorite cereal) :) 

Last P-day was really fun! We went to a parade that they have in Payson.  They do it every year for labor day and it is a pretty big deal.  We went with a less active family, it was way fun!

This week was really good.  We taught a lot of less active lessons.  We are really trying to work with the members in our ward to bring less actives back to church.  We were able to bring 2 less active families back to church this week and they seemed so happy. 

Another exciting thing we did this week was we went to the temple with Eduardo.  We did baptisms and we went with a few other members.  It was such a great experience for him.  We wanted to see if they could do the confirmations and baptisms for Eduardo in Spanish because he doesn't really know English.  Unfortunately they weren't able to but he still understood the point of it.  It was kind of funny because the man that confirmed me thought I didn't speak English either, he kept talking to me really loud and saying phrases really simply and I was like I speak English, I'm still learning Spanish haha.  My companion, Eduardo, and the other members thought it was super funny haha.

This month we are eating with our Spanish ward which is nice so we can get to know the members more.  The only problem is they expect you to eat everything they give you or they will be offended haha.  They just keep piling our plates haha.  So far the food has been pretty good expect one member gave us these sweet potatoes that was mixed with something and it was gross.  She gave it to us for desert and it was a ton.  My companion and I were like o boy we have to eat this so we did.  It was so gross, after we left their house we wanted to get the taste out of our mouth so we went to McDonald's to get a milk shake haha. 

So our ward is basically all family.  They consist of the Martinez and Garcia family.  They all are related to each other and then there is other families in between.  Its hard to keep track of them all because there is so many of them and they all are family haha.

To answer some questions people have asked me mainly my dad haha.  Most of the people that we teach are Mexican but we do have some others that are from Hondures, Peru, El Salvador, Chile etc.  But most people we contact are Mexican. 

So today we are actually moving to a different place.  We will be leaving our Mansion, we are super sad because we love the Wisdoms (people who we live with).  But it will be nice because we will be closer to people we are teaching so we won't go over miles.  Also it is the last week of the transfer which is crazy, I feel like I just got here.  So next Monday we will know if one of us gets transferred or not.  It will probably most likely be me that gets transferred because they will probably have my companion train another sister since many more sisters are coming into the mission.  So yeah I'm not sure what's going to happen with that, we will see.  It will be sad to leave because I have already grown close to a lot people we are teaching and the members but I know if I get transferred that's where the Lord wants me.

I have learned so much being out in the field, it has taught me so much and I can't wait to learn more!

Thanks everyone for all the love and support!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Fourth week in field...

Well first off I have to wish a few people Happy Birthday this week! Happy Birthday Melissa, I hope you have a great day! I love you and miss you! Happy Birthday Dad! It is a big one for you haha! Hope its great, you are the best Dad ever!

This week a lot of great thing happened! We had a follow up training meeting in Provo this past week and I was reunited with my MTC district!!!! It was so great to see Hermana Read, Hermana Sablan, Hermana Derges, and Elder Hodges! It felt like I was reunited with my family again!! Everyone seems to be doing pretty well!  Our trainers were in a separate room and us new missionaries were in another room with our mission president, President McCune.  He asked us what we learned so far in the mission field and I raised my hand and said learn to trust in the spirit.  He looked right at me and said Hermana Garces that is amazing that you said that, we are not alone in this work we have to trust in the spirit, the spirit will lead us the way.  Do not ever put yourself down, you are of worth and you are called of God to be here.  I almost started to cry when he said because I have been struggling a lot with trusting in the spirit since being out in the field and feeling of worth.  Everyday keeps getting better!

So this past Saturday we had our baptism for Eduardo and Carmen!!!!!! It went so well!!! The spirit was amazing! Watching them come out of the water was great, they seemed so happy and they said they felt like a new person! It was such a great day! Then on Sunday they both were confirmed and Eduardo received the priesthood and got a temple recommend! He is so solid! We are going to go with him this week with some members to do baptisms at the temple! He says he wants to go out and teach with us! He's going to be such an example to others! Also Carmen's son went to the baptism and he said he wants to get baptized too so we are going to start teaching him!!

Sorry this is short but I don't have much time! Thanks again for all the love and support and all the mail that I received this week!! You all are the best!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Third week in the field...

Well first off, Mom and Dad thanks for the letters and packages this week!  I loved it! This week a lot of great things happened!

On Tuesday we went to the temple with our district! We went to the Provo temple since that temple is the closest to use! It was weird thinking that I was in Provo just a few weeks ago at the MTC and now I am out in the field, crazy!! Anyways the temple was great, I loved it! Going to the temple was something that I really needed this week and it really helped me! It was good to feel that spirit! After the temple we went out to lunch with our district which was fun! It was fun to bond with other members and in our district!

Also on Tuesday night we had that service project that I was telling you about! It was such a good turn out! So many young women and young men showed up and really worked hard to clean the apartment complex.  We picked up all the trash that was inside and outside, scrubbed the walls, and many other stuff to clean the place up! It looks so much better now! A lot of the little kids that live there even helped clean up!

Wednesday we had zone conference! I was hoping I would see someone from my district in the MTC and guess what I did! I saw Hermana Read ( my companion from the MTC).  We walked in and I didn't see her and she came up behind me and gave me the biggest hug!!! It was sooooo good to see her! I have missed her a lot even though it has only been a few weeks! It was so good to catch up with her on everything! She was seriously the best companion I could have ever asked for in the MTC, I love her!  Zone conference was really good.  President McCune told us a lot of things especially how we should effectively work with the ward council, ward mission leaders, stake leaders etc.  He also told us that very soon we will be getting our ipads! We will have access to use Facebook on it, email, and pretty much everything a missionary needs.  It is exciting stuff!

Friday we met a lady named Rosa that was moving and we offered to help her.  We ended up helping her for over 4 hours! It was really great though and she really appreciated it, we are hoping we can start teaching her! Also Friday night was pretty slow for us as for teaching lessons, I guess as missionaries we forget that a lot of people go out on Friday haha.  So we had a hard time finding people to teach so my companion and I being the rebellious missionaries that we are decided to get a treat and by getting a treat I mean we went to the gas station and got 2 big bags of M&Ms haha.  It was super great haha!

Saturday Eduardo and Carmen (two people that are getting baptized this Saturday) had their baptismal interviews and they are both so ready! We are so excited for them! Saturday night we were invited to this ward social that is in one of the stakes we cover.  IT was at someone's house outside on their lawn.  The elders in our district were also invited! They has us scoop ice cream for everyone and they had a band there that was really good.  So that means we got to listen to some real music haha.  They sang lots of country songs which was fun!  It was an English ward and it was nice to get to know more people. 

So since being out in the field for almost 3 weeks I have learned that it is very tough to learn a language especially being in the states because we are not fully immersed in it.  We work primarily with Spanish people but we also have to work with a lot of the English wards too.  And a lot of the young people that are Spanish speak English and they prefer for us to teach them in English so that has been a challenge here.  But I know it will get better with time.  Also with the Provo mission we cover stakes not wards so we work with a lot of the stake leaders which is different.  Also a lot people think there is not much work to be done in Utah but o my goodness there is a ton of work to be done here.  People have told us that some of the wards here only have 30-40% that attend church and that maybe half of the pews are full on Sundays.  There are so many less active people here, it is really sad.  And there is a good amount of people that aren't members here so there is PLENTY of work to be done here.  I have also learned that we really need to not let Satan bring us down.  I have felt him bring me down pretty much everyday but we really need to rely on the spirit and trust in the Lord.  It is super tough sometimes but I know that listening to the spirit will really help us.

So this Saturday we have the baptism for Eduardo and Carmen! We are looking forward to it! We are going to meet them everyday this week to make sure they stay on track.  I'm so grateful to be serving in Provo, Utah.  It has definitely been a blessing and a learning experience for me. Thanks for all of the love and support. Also happy birthday to my nephew Luke this week, I can't believe he is turning 6! Hope he has a great day!

I LOVE YOU ALL

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Second week in the mission field...

So first off I just want to say Happy Birthday Charles!!! I hope you had a great day!

So this week was really busy for us! You know how I said in my last email that we were supposed to have a baptism this past Saturday for Eduardo??.....well it didn't happen.  He's been having some word of wisdom issues and he was doing really well but then this past week he caved and starting smoking again.  The whole situation was crazy how it happened.  My companion and I had just finished a lesson and we were heading back to our home but felt prompted to go home a different way where we would pass by Eduardo's apartment.  As we were driving past it we saw him in his car and he had just lit up a cigarette.  We ended up talking to him for a good half hour.  He felt so bad and couldn't believe he had done that.  We didn't bring him down at all, we told him it was ok and these things happen and that if anything this is going to make you even more strong.  We then had to tell him he couldn't be baptized this week and that he would have to wait another 2 weeks to get baptized.  He took it a little hard but knew the reason for it.  We were worried he might be embarassed to go to church but he still went and you can tell he's super solid now! His testimony is amazing! His new date to be baptized is August 31st! It will be such a great day for him.  He has had a pretty messed up past but he has changed and grown so much.  We are very proud of him!

We also have another baptism on August 31st! Her name is Carmen and before I came here, my companion and her other companion taught her the first lesson and in that lesson she already wanted to be baptized and committed to a date! So we have been meeting with her a lot to teach her the other lessons to make sure she is ready! She seems so ready, she loves coming to church! She says she gets such a good feeling when she comes to our church! It will be a great day for her too!

Also this week I went on exchanges with Sister Drevins.  She is the sister training leader in our zone.  I had the opportunity to teach all lessons in English with her since she is english speaking, it was great haha! It was good for me cause I was able to participate more in lessons that I do in spanish and with more practice hopefully I will be able to do that when teaching lessons in Spanish!

On Saturday, our spanish ward had a picnic! Lots of tortillas, meat, rice, etc....They know how to throw a feast!! It was really fun and it was good for me to get to know the ward members and try to talk to them in spanish haha.  Some of the younger people in our ward speak english which is nice haha!

So Sunday was another crazy day!! I had to give a talk in our spanish ward and it  well! I practiced it a lot with my companion and she helped me a lot with it which was really nice.  It was maybe about 5-7 minutes long haha.  The ward members were really sweet and said I did a good job.  Also we had to speak in another english ward and I had to talk for like 25 minutes.  I only prepared a 10 minute talk so I was a little nervous but I did it, I spoke for 25 minutes haha.  My mouth was super dry by the end haha.  We then taught a lesson to eduardo and then we had a 3 hour training with a few of the stakes we cover and then we went to a mission prep class and shared some experiences on how missionary life is and then we taught another lesson.  It was such a long day, we crashed when we came home!!

Tomorrow we are going to the Provo Temple as a district which I am really excited about and we have zone conference this Wednesday! Also on Tuesday the Young Women and and Young Men in our ward are doing a service project.  We are cleaning out an apartment 8 plex.  All 8 families in the apartments are hispanic.  It is super trashed so we are going to clean it up.  Eduardo actually lives there so we are hoping that he can be a great example to the people that live around him!

Anyways I am out of time! Thanks again for all of the love and support! Keep sending letters, I really appreciate them! Love you all!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

First week in the mission field!

Ok so here is the new address you should use.  It is the mission home address, they said it would be easier to just send things there and then they would just forward it to me wherever I am.

Sister Veronica Garces
Utah Provo Mission
Provo, UT 84606

So lets see I left the MTC Tuesday and we went to the mission home! We met the mission president and his wife (President and Sister McCune), had dinner, orientation, interviews, and a little devotional.  The mission president told us a lot about the mission.  We are able to go to the temple twice a month which I am really excited about! A big thing that he told us is that we have access to facebook now.  I can only use it for missionary purposes so I had to take a lot of things off.  It will be a great way to share the gospel with others and communicate with the investigators I am teaching.  The Utah Provo Mission is one of 8 missions in the world that is using Facebook! Also we will each be getting ipads in the next couple of months!! The internet will be a great way to bring forth missionary work.

So the elders stayed the night at the mission home and all of us sisters went to different members homes to stay the night.  I spent my last night with Hermana Read, it was really sad.  But I know we will see each other throughout our mission here.  The next day we had a little bit of training and told us some rules about the mission, etc.  One thing President McCune said that really stood out to me was "Don't ever say a mission is hard because it is not, you just wake up in the morning and go be a missionary.  It can be a challenge at times but challenges can be overcome".  He's really great, I can tell he cares about each and everyone of us.  O and by October we will have 270 missionaries in our mission which is a lot!!

Ok so we also met our new companions (trainers).  My new companion is Hermana Lish. She has been out over a year now.  She started her mission in Chile and then was reassigned to the Utah Provo Mission because she got sick.  She is from Idaho and goes to BYU-Idaho, like me!!! She's 22 and she goes home in December.  She's really nice and super good at spanish.  She speaks really fast, she learned how to speak fast being in Chile.  We are serving in the Payson East area, it is about 25 minutes away from Provo.  Something unique about this mission is that we cover stakes, not wards since there is so many members here.  We cover 5 stakes.  It was a new area that was opened last transfer.  We have a car to drive! It is a 2013 Corolla!! Hermana Lish drives though cause she knows the area and she's training me.  I will probably start driving next transfer.  So we live in a mansion, its so big!! We live in a members home, we live in the basement.  We have a room we share, the bathroom is huge, and we have a kitchen too! They even have a basketball court in their house, its crazy!! But sad news we will have to leave that house soon because they are having family move in so we will have to move to a different home.  We don't know when that will be though.

So first day we were already teaching lessons.  Second day we taught like 8 lessons.  We are busy all the time.  We are non stop working.  I thought the MTC was exhausting but the mission field is much more.  We get home arounf 9/9:30 and we plan for the next day and then I go straight to bed.  I am so tired by the end of the day.  We teach some lessons in english especially to younger people because the prefer english.  We have a ton of people we are teaching, a lot of investigators, less active families, and part member families.  We have a baptism for this Saturday!! Hermana Lish and her old companion taught him last transfer.  His name is Eduardo, he is from Mexico and he's 20 yrs old.  He seems super ready.  From what I heard it has been a long journey for him so it will be exciting to see him get baptized!

So as for my Spanish, I really wish I knew more.  When we teach in Spanish I only say like the prayer and maybe a few phrases here and there.  When they see my last name they all think I speak fluent spanish.  They will just ramble to me and assume I understand them but I don't.  I just keep saying estoy aprendiendo (i am learning) haha.  Dad, you should have taught me spanish growing up haha.  It has also been tough for me to understand what people are saying because they talk so fast.  Seriously some spanish people talk wayyyy toooo fast for me haha.  Hermana Lish has been helping me a lot and we spend an hour each day to study spanish so I can get better at it.  I really hope I can get better so I can start really feeling comfortable teaching people in spanish. 

So Sunday was crazy busy.  We had to go to a 6:30 correlation meeting in the morning with one of the stakes we work with.  Then we had our spanish ward at 9 and I had to introduce myself and bear my testimony in spanish during sacrament meeting.  I was a little nervous about that but it went well.  Everyone in our spanish ward is so nice and welcoming, its great! Then we has to give 2 talks in english wards.  They sometimes ask the missionaries to come to wards and give talks.  So my first sunday in the mission field I gave 2 talks but they were in english which was good haha.  The topic was serving others and I tied it into missionary work.  I was worried my talk wouldn't be long enough because I didn't practice it but I ended up talking for a good 15 minutes which was good I guess.  I know I had the spirit helping me.  We had other meeting too we had to go to, Sundays are so busy for us! Next Sunday we have to give another talk in a english ward and we have to give a talk in our spanish ward.  I'm so nervous to give a talk in our spanish ward because it is all in spanish.  I really hope I can do it! I will be praying a lot this week that I can. 

So yeah first week in the mission has been good.  I'm taking it a day at a time.  I'm sure things will get easier for me as time goes on especially with spanish.  I am already loving the people that we are teaching.  There is a lot of potential for a lot of them. 

Thanks again for all the love and support.  Keep writing to me, getting mail is the BEST!!

Hermana Veronica Garces

Last week at MTC...

So I am emailing my last time here at the MTC! These past 6 weeks have gone by so fast, I have learned so much here.  My testimony has been strengthened so much and I know how important it is to listen to the promptings of the spirit.  I am so excited to get out into the field! I am a little nervous with my Spanish but I know I will get better with time.  Since I am leaving the MTC this means no more Dear Elders which is sad because I loved getting those everyday.  Just snail mail and email.  In my next email I will post my new address! Thanks again for all the letters, dear elders, and packages!

So I am leaving tomorrow at 4:45pm at the front desk of the MTC! All of us that are going to Provo got a letter from the mission president and he said him and his wife are going to pick us up! He also told us that we will be spending the first night in the mission home and it will be an evening of orientation, interviews, dinner, and sleep! Wednesday is when I will find out who my new companion will be (trainer) and where my first area will be! Also we asked the front desk if we will be able to call home and according to them they said probably not because usually it is just missionaries that are going out of state or country that get to call.  We're thinking maybe the mission president will let us but then again we don't really know.  So Mom and Dad if you don't hear from me, i'm sorry! Just look forward to Christmas and then I can talk to you!

So my last week here at the MTC has been amazing! Hermana Read and I finished up our last lessons to our investigators and they went really well.  During language study Hermana Read and I have been studying with our district leader, Elder Hodges.  We would read a chapter out of the Book of Mormon in spanish, we each would read a verse in spanish and then try to figure out what it said and then we would read the verse in english to see how well we did.  It actually helped us a lot with spanish and understanding the words.  We were able to study our Spanish and have spiritual insight of what we were reading at the same time, it was great!

So Thursday we had In field orientation which was for all missionaries leaving this week.  It was an 8 hour long workshop thing.  We had different workshop classes on things such as planning with your companion, working with members, contacting, and many other useful things that we need to know to go out into the field.  We practiced contacting people with each other.  They told us that we need to take advantage of talking to every person we see whether it be at an airport, park, out in the street, etc and give them a pass a long card where they can find out more about our church at mormon.org.  We can't let those moments pass, we need to share what we know to be true to everyone!  

On Saturday night we had out departing district testimony meeting for our zone.  It was so emotional.  All of us pretty much cried as we bore our testimonies.  We all pretty much did it in english and then closed with a little spanish.  It is amazing how close we have gotten these past 6 weeks.  All of the elders in my district feel like my brothers and all the hermanas feel like my sisters! We are such a close family, I know we were put together as a district for a reason.  I know I was put together with my companion for a reason, we have progressed so much together as a companionship these past 6 weeks. 

On Sunday we had mission conference which was really great!  As a zone we sang God be with you till we meet Again in spanish.  We sing that every time a district leaves and it was crazy to think that we were singing because MY district was leaving! Whenever a district leaves they do a musical number in sacrament meeting and like I said in my last email we sang the EFY medley in spanish.  Not gonna lie I wasn't sure we were going to be able to pull it off cause none of the elders in my district can sing haha.  They are all pretty much tone deaf haha.  Us Hermanas had to work with them a lot and we were able to pull it off.  It sounded amazing actually.  When the elders came in to sing armies of helaman they sounded so good.  We were so proud of them! We had our last temple walk and then had a departure devotional for all departing missionaries giving us instructions on cleaning, packing etc.  We also had our last Sunday devotional ever at the MTC! As a district we decided we wanted to get there early to get good seats for our last devotional.  We got to sit in the second row and I saw Jenny Oaks Baker and all her kids there and freaked out.  I was like no way, I can't believe she's here!  And then I saw on the screen that she was the speaker for our devotional and she was performing!  My district was all like it is a good thing we got good seats for this! She talked about having spiritual gifts and that we all have been blessed with spiritual gifts.  She played Beautiful Savior, Amazing Grace, A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief, and I know that My Redeemer lives.  All 4 of her kids were there and played an arrangement of I am a Child of God, they are incredible! She is seriously so amazing! Watching her play brought tears to my eyes.  It made me realize how much I love music and how powerful music can be to touch peoples lives.  Her passion while she plays is so amazing to watch.  Since we were in the second row we could see everything! It was awesome! My whole district was like "Hermana Garces, you need to talk to her after this and get a picture with her!" So after the devotional since we were so close to her I went up to her and talked to her for a little bit.  I told her that I love her music and that I have her CDs and that I have some books of hers and she was like awe that's great keep up playing the violin, the power of music can touch so many peoples lives.  I then got a picture with her! My whole district was like this was the best last devotional ever for us! It was so awesome!

Tonight is our last class time with our teachers, Hermano Roden and Hermana Taggart. It will probably be very emotional! Our teachers are so amazing! They have been such incredible examples to my whole district.  Again I know they were assigned to teach us for a reason.  As a district we got them their favorite candy bar and each wrote them a note about how much we are so grateful to them and what an amazing impact they have been to us.

So I am pretty much out of time! I love all of you and thanks again for all the support.  I can't believe my next email will be when I am out in the field! I am so excited!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces