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