Friday, October 31, 2014
Things that make me happy
Things that make me happy.
This list has no particular order of the things
that have made me happy.....a lot of them are simple things and
some are bigger things
My list could honestly go on forever but these
are some of the things that I specifically wanted to share with you all!
Charles and Mike, I challenged Mom and Dad to do
this and they have! You two should do it too!
Making the time to have dinner as a family every
night when we could and just talking about how our day was. A
lot of families don't do that so I'm really glad that we made that an
effort as a family, it meant a lot.
Going out every Friday night to Baja
Fresh....seriously that was the best! I looked forward to that so much. I have
had a lot of Mexican food on my mission but I have not had Baja Fresh
at all so that will be something that I will want to do when I get
home, I have missed it!
Mom, it always made me really happy that you
always would take the time to talk and listen to me especially when I
came home from school. I loved that I could talk to you about everything
whether my day was good or bad.
Dad, growing up it always made me happy when you
would come home from work and Melissa and I would run up to you to
give you a hug. I know as I got older, I stopped doing that....I know I
was a brat, sorry about that. It made me happy though that even if
I didn't greet you when you came home you still always found me and
said hi and asked how my day was.
Mike, It made me happy that I could tease you and
give you a hard time....haha that's what little sisters do. I
have changed a lot on the mission but that part of me still has not
changed....I will always give it right back and give the last word haha
but really I do it because I love you and let's be real, it's pretty
funny!
Mom, I loved having girls nights with you and
Melissa when Dad worked late on Saturdays. I loved watching I
love Lucy and laughing really hard. I loved that we would make our own nachos
or make something fun to eat. I remember being really happy during
those times.
Charles, I loved going on trips to 7-11 to get
piña colada slurpees with you. It was something so simple but getting
one with you always made me happy.
Mike, the day you graduated from George Mason. I
am so grateful that I was able to be there for that and that the whole
family was there. I know it was a long journey for you but you finally
did it! I was so happy and proud of you that day.
The day of my high school graduation was amazing!
The highlight of that day for me was when Charles came all the way
from China to be there for me. Seriously, Charles to this day I
don't know how you pulled that off. I remember Denise telling me,
hey that's your brother. I couldn't see super well and I assumed
it was Mike because I
knew you were all the way in China. And I was
like o yeah Mike and she said no it's Charles and you came closer and I
realized it was you, what a surprise that was!
Melissa, I loved that you would always ask how my
day was at school when I would come home. I love watching movies
with you, those times made me really happy. I love listening to you
sing while you listen to your iPod haha. You crack us all up Melissa haha.
You keep us all in line, I love it. You truly are an angel to our
family.
The day Abuela died, actually I think it was a
day or two before she died. She wasn't responding and we thought she
was going to go anytime and she woke up and we were all in the room with
her....all of the grandchildren. I remember specifically she saw
Mike at the end of her bed and she said "O, Hi Mike". I
remember we all laughed a little bit. She recognized each and everyone of us and we
were all able to say goodbye to her. I remember feeling so happy
and at peace with everything. I knew she was going to a better
place. She was able to die peacefully and say goodbye to all of us. She
made it to Christmas just like she wanted and what a great Christmas
that was! Dad, I know that your Mom is very proud of you for doing that
ride. You are an
inspiration to many people.
Being involved with Les Miserables my Senior year
made me really happy, that was such an amazing experience to be involved in!
All of the hours of practice and everything that was involved with it was all
worth it. I think a lot about some of the lyrics in some of the songs
especially One day More....."Tomorrow we'll discover what our God in
heaven has in store', I always think of transfers when I think of that song
haha. But seriously that whole production will be something that I will
never forget.
The day I finally made symphony made me really
happy. I wanted to be in symphony so bad and I finally did it, my senior
year was the best playing in symphony! We got to do Handel's Messiah and what
an experience that was!
My Mission, I have so much to say about my
mission of how it has made me so happy. I don't know where to
start. I remember the day they made the announcement about the age
change, I was actually in Provo at the BYU dorms, who knew that I would be
called to that mission haha. I remember being so happy that day because I
knew I wanted to serve a mission, nothing was holding me back. I just had
to, sister missionaries blessed our family so much and I just had to do the
same. The day I got my mission call was such a great day, all of the
anticipation was finally over and I was going to find out where I would be
spending the next 18 months of my life sharing the Gospel. Utah Provo
Mission, spanish speaking. I honestly was very happy about it, I felt so
at peace with everything and knew it was where the Lord needed me. I know
a lot of people's reactions were like "o, Provo Utah, are you
disappointed".....I have not been dissapointed one bit about it. A
lot of people have said "the Utah Provo Mission is the worst mission to be
called to but the best mission to serve in", that is so true. I love
this mission so much and it seriously has been the best. I have met some
of the most amazing people on my mission that I will never forget, I have had
some challenges but I have grown so much because of them. I know who
Jesus Christ means to me now, my testimony of him and his Atonement have
strengthened so much. I love sharing the Gospel with others, it makes me
so happy. The Gospel of Jesus Christ really does make us happy, I would
not have it any other way. I don't regret coming on a mission at all, the
sacrifice has been so worth it and honestly I don't see it as a sacrifice as
much anymore....yes, I left a lot behind, friends, family, school, and other
things but I truly love this work so much and I know I needed to come on my
mission at this specific time so that I could meet the people I have met and
help change their lives. It will be a sacrifice to come home and take off
that tag, but I know everything will be ok. My mission will always be a
part of my life. I am so grateful that we will be together forever as a
family, I know sharing that with others. I am so grateful to all of you,
we are so lucky to have such a great family. You all mean so much to me,
thanks for supporting me with everything....I pray for you all everyday.
I will see you all soon, December 18th, start counting down the days!!! haha
maybe don't do that because that will freak me out about how much time I have
left haha Love you all!
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
Catching up
I have to do a little bit of catch up with this email and explain what has happened these past couple of weeks. It has been a roller coaster for sure but it has all been good.
We had a really good lesson with a good sister. She is the less active that we have been working a lot with. Our ward mission leader gave us this really great idea we could use with her. He said have her write for 45 minutes about this question "what would my life be if I didn't have any limiting beliefs? A limiting belief is something that holds us back. He said even if she gets stuck tell her to keep writing, whatever comes to her mind to keep writing. My companion and I also did the exercise and it was really interesting and actually helped with a lot of things. From what she wrote we set goals with her physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially. She has been to church the last 3 weeks in a row! That is the most she has been since I have been in the area. She has met with the Bishop to try and get things better. She told us "ever since I have gone back to church and have met with the Bishop, I feel more happy and I don't even know why". That was the best thing I could have heard from her. She has changed so much these past 4 months I have been here in Pleasant Grove. She really does seem more happy and she is glowing. It is so neat to see.
We have been working with another girl as well. It has been a little up and down with her. We have prayed so much for her and how we can better help her. My mom sent me her conversion story a couple of months ago. We decided that we should read it with Brenda and talk about it.
Sister Lutz and I both felt that she could really relate to it. A lot of things in the story really applied to her and her family. I was telling her that she is so ready, that she already knows so much and has a testimony, I told her you know what a great blessing the Gospel has been for your family. You can be sealed to your parents and whole family. We put her on date to be baptized for the 27th of this month.
She was very hesitant about it but said she would pray about it. We met with her again and talked about the fears she is having and what is holding her back....she said she didn't feel like she would be
ready for the 27th. We don't want to pressure her. Not gonna lie...Sister Lutz and I were pretty crushed...we have fasted and prayed for her so much. We have done everything we can for her, it's
up to her now, we just need to be patient with her. She has been taught by a lot of sister missionaries. A sister (M) day she finally gets baptized will be a great day for her and her family.
We have been teaching a brother as well, he is from Mexico. He is actually roommates with another brother who was baptized in July. This new brother is a really great guy and has a desire to learn more. We are taking things really slow for him because he doesn't understand things very well. His roommate has been amazing fellowshipping him. When we have lessons with his, his roommate is there and always steps in to bear his testimony...its so neat seeing the change in him. He is such a strong member and a great member missionary.
We are continuing visiting all of the members in our ward to get to know them better and share the Restoration with them. It has been going really well and we have been able to get a lot of referrals from it.
We had Emily Smith come out with us one night. She was one of my companions in Provo, she is at BYU now. She actually used to serve here in Pleasant Grove. She has also been companions with Sister Lutz, we had such a great time with her. She came with us to 4 lessons! She is amazing! She still bore such a strong testimony of the gospel to the people we were teaching. She mentioned an experience that her and I had when we served in Provo, she shared it to a less active family we were teaching, it was such a great reminder to me of a lot of things. I actually shared a status about it on my facebook, I want to share it again...here it is:
"Yesterday I was reminded of how much The Book of Mormon has helped me in my life. I was reminded of an experience that I had with one of my companion's when I served in Provo. I was going through a difficult time, I was having a lot of doubts about certain things. I had prayed many times about what I was going through but never felt like I received an answer. My companion and I decided that we needed to pray again. We went to separate rooms and got down on our knees and prayed out loud. We then came back together and turned to The Book of Mormon and the page that we turned to was literally an answer to our prayer. I finally knew what my answer was. I felt such an overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort. I knew in that moment that Heavenly Father was mindful of me and that he does answer our prayers. I know that the Book of Mormon can help us receive those answers. I am so grateful for The Book of Mormon, the more I read it the more I feel Jesus Christ in my life. I know it can guide us in the direction we need to go. I know The Book of Mormon changes lives because it has changed mine. I will forever be grateful for that experience I had with my companion."
We also had stake conference last week, it was actually regional conference so it was broadcasted from the Marriott Center in Provo. Elder Richard G. Scott spoke and Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke. They were amazing talks. Elder Scott talked about the power of prayer, some notes that I took on his talk were:
Just talk to him, you are his precious child
Take the time to tell your deepest feelings
When the answer is no, it is to help you prevent error
When he withholds an answer it is to have us grow and increase our faith, he expects us to be obedient
When you are sensitive to the promptings of the spirit, you will receive peaceful confirmation that your choice is correct
He will prompt you in peaceful moments
His pattern allows you to grow, be thankful that God has you struggle for awhile....your character grows
Never feel you are too unworthy to pray
Prayer is most effective when we strive to be clean and obedient
I loved this talk so much by him, it was a great reminder of a lot of things for me about the power of prayer.
Yesterday we didn't have normal church, it was the rededication of the Ogden Temple, it was broadcasted in all of the stake centers in Utah, it was so neat. I love the temple so much, my companion and I were actually able to go this week for a session, the temple helps us so much, I love it.
Well I think that is about it, I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for all of the love and support.
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
We had a really good lesson with a good sister. She is the less active that we have been working a lot with. Our ward mission leader gave us this really great idea we could use with her. He said have her write for 45 minutes about this question "what would my life be if I didn't have any limiting beliefs? A limiting belief is something that holds us back. He said even if she gets stuck tell her to keep writing, whatever comes to her mind to keep writing. My companion and I also did the exercise and it was really interesting and actually helped with a lot of things. From what she wrote we set goals with her physically, spiritually, emotionally, and financially. She has been to church the last 3 weeks in a row! That is the most she has been since I have been in the area. She has met with the Bishop to try and get things better. She told us "ever since I have gone back to church and have met with the Bishop, I feel more happy and I don't even know why". That was the best thing I could have heard from her. She has changed so much these past 4 months I have been here in Pleasant Grove. She really does seem more happy and she is glowing. It is so neat to see.
We have been working with another girl as well. It has been a little up and down with her. We have prayed so much for her and how we can better help her. My mom sent me her conversion story a couple of months ago. We decided that we should read it with Brenda and talk about it.
Sister Lutz and I both felt that she could really relate to it. A lot of things in the story really applied to her and her family. I was telling her that she is so ready, that she already knows so much and has a testimony, I told her you know what a great blessing the Gospel has been for your family. You can be sealed to your parents and whole family. We put her on date to be baptized for the 27th of this month.
She was very hesitant about it but said she would pray about it. We met with her again and talked about the fears she is having and what is holding her back....she said she didn't feel like she would be
ready for the 27th. We don't want to pressure her. Not gonna lie...Sister Lutz and I were pretty crushed...we have fasted and prayed for her so much. We have done everything we can for her, it's
up to her now, we just need to be patient with her. She has been taught by a lot of sister missionaries. A sister (M) day she finally gets baptized will be a great day for her and her family.
We have been teaching a brother as well, he is from Mexico. He is actually roommates with another brother who was baptized in July. This new brother is a really great guy and has a desire to learn more. We are taking things really slow for him because he doesn't understand things very well. His roommate has been amazing fellowshipping him. When we have lessons with his, his roommate is there and always steps in to bear his testimony...its so neat seeing the change in him. He is such a strong member and a great member missionary.
We are continuing visiting all of the members in our ward to get to know them better and share the Restoration with them. It has been going really well and we have been able to get a lot of referrals from it.
We had Emily Smith come out with us one night. She was one of my companions in Provo, she is at BYU now. She actually used to serve here in Pleasant Grove. She has also been companions with Sister Lutz, we had such a great time with her. She came with us to 4 lessons! She is amazing! She still bore such a strong testimony of the gospel to the people we were teaching. She mentioned an experience that her and I had when we served in Provo, she shared it to a less active family we were teaching, it was such a great reminder to me of a lot of things. I actually shared a status about it on my facebook, I want to share it again...here it is:
"Yesterday I was reminded of how much The Book of Mormon has helped me in my life. I was reminded of an experience that I had with one of my companion's when I served in Provo. I was going through a difficult time, I was having a lot of doubts about certain things. I had prayed many times about what I was going through but never felt like I received an answer. My companion and I decided that we needed to pray again. We went to separate rooms and got down on our knees and prayed out loud. We then came back together and turned to The Book of Mormon and the page that we turned to was literally an answer to our prayer. I finally knew what my answer was. I felt such an overwhelming feeling of peace and comfort. I knew in that moment that Heavenly Father was mindful of me and that he does answer our prayers. I know that the Book of Mormon can help us receive those answers. I am so grateful for The Book of Mormon, the more I read it the more I feel Jesus Christ in my life. I know it can guide us in the direction we need to go. I know The Book of Mormon changes lives because it has changed mine. I will forever be grateful for that experience I had with my companion."
We also had stake conference last week, it was actually regional conference so it was broadcasted from the Marriott Center in Provo. Elder Richard G. Scott spoke and Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke. They were amazing talks. Elder Scott talked about the power of prayer, some notes that I took on his talk were:
Just talk to him, you are his precious child
Take the time to tell your deepest feelings
When the answer is no, it is to help you prevent error
When he withholds an answer it is to have us grow and increase our faith, he expects us to be obedient
When you are sensitive to the promptings of the spirit, you will receive peaceful confirmation that your choice is correct
He will prompt you in peaceful moments
His pattern allows you to grow, be thankful that God has you struggle for awhile....your character grows
Never feel you are too unworthy to pray
Prayer is most effective when we strive to be clean and obedient
I loved this talk so much by him, it was a great reminder of a lot of things for me about the power of prayer.
Yesterday we didn't have normal church, it was the rededication of the Ogden Temple, it was broadcasted in all of the stake centers in Utah, it was so neat. I love the temple so much, my companion and I were actually able to go this week for a session, the temple helps us so much, I love it.
Well I think that is about it, I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for all of the love and support.
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Sister Lutz and some goodbyes!
I am so sorry I have not written in a while. So many things have happened and I don't know where to start.
We had transfers last week and I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Lutz and she is awesome! We get along so well together. She is very motivated to work hard which I love! She has 2 transfers left and I have 3 left. We both want to finish our missions strong and want to give everything we got. She served with one of my old companions, Sister Smith and she just came from my old area in Provo.
We had the opportunity to go to the final testimony of the missionaries that were departing. 2 of my companions were going home, Sister Smith and Sister Holladay and some other missionaries that I have grown really close to. We sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me". Hearing their testimonies was bitter sweet. There was a lot of crying going on, I had mixed emotions about everything. I was going to miss my mission friends so much but it was also emotional because I am going to be up there soon bearing my testimony for the last time as a representative of Jesus Christ. All of their testimonies were amazing, a lot of them focused on their testimony of their Savior, Jesus Christ.
Our area also split, we are no longer covering 2 wards in Spanish. We just cover 1 ward in Spanish and now we only cover 6 stakes instead of 14. It was really hard to leave the other ward I was covering because I loved the members and people we were teaching but it is nice that we can just focus on one ward now.
I was a little worried about not teaching as much now that the area is split but we have been so blessed. We have found so many more people, we have received a ton of referrals. The members are more willing to help us and we have been working a lot more with leadership. It has been really nice to just work in one Spanish ward and focus all of our time there.
My companion and I set a lot of goals for this transfer. We set a goal to find 100 non members and so far we have been finding on average about 2 a day and have been getting a lot of referrals. We have worked so hard and Heavenly Father is really blessing us for our efforts. We also want to visit every family in our Spanish ward and teach them the Restoration and invite them to read the Book of Mormon for 5 min a day. We want to strengthen the ward and have them be more excited about missionary work.
We also have a new ward mission leader. He is amazing! He is so organized and knows how to delegate really well, he has amazing ideas and he wants us to be busy, we love working with him.
We also had a Spanish meeting for all Spanish missionaries in our mission and they talked about an initiative that we are going to be doing. Starting September 15- December 15 there is going to be a website up called mormon.org/preguntas. It has 8 questions of the soul like Why am I here on earth, How can I find peace and happiness in this life, How can I have a happy marriage, what can I learn from the challenges in life, etc. They gave each companionship a box of mormon.org cards that have these questions on them. We have been asked to show these questions to people as we contact them. We have also been asked to show members how they can use these cards and share them with their friends....we have already started using them and we have seen a lot of success with them. It is amazing how much the work is really hastening.
We also had zone conference this last week, and this is one of my very last zone conferences which is crazy! It was amazing, we talked about wonderful things. President McCune is so inspired, seriously I love that man. He gives the best council, I am so grateful that I have had him as my mission president. We talked a lot about goal setting and what we are going to do as companionship's to try a little harder in our areas and specifically what are we going to do to accomplish them. He called on a companionship to share what our goals were and guess what...he called on Sister Lutz and I haha. We shared with 60 something missionaries and our Mission President what our goals were and how we were going to accomplish them. One of our goals that we shared was that by the end of this transfer we want to be teaching 30 lessons a week, our first week we taught 12, last week we taught 18. He asked us straight up if we have faith that we will get 30 lessons and we both said yes we do, we want to work so hard and do everything we can to accomplish our goals and bring this area back up. We were put on the spot a lot but it was a good thing, it gave us even more motivation to work even harder, President and a bunch of missionaries know what our goals are so we better accomplish them haha but really we need to so we can see miracles! President also talked about obedience, he gave this long lecture on obedience, it was sooooooo good. He was so straight up but I loved it. He said, we need to just be obedient, we know the rules, we know we can't see miracles if we aren't obedient, we know we won't be happy if we aren't obedient then why be disobedient...it just doesn't make sense. We are so blessed when we are obedient in everything that we do. I have learned so much about obedience on my mission, I have a strong testimony of it and know that we really can receive those blessings from being obedient in everything that we do.
We are teaching a wonderful family, I am pretty sure I have talked about this family before. The parents got baptized a year and half ago and went to the temple recently to be sealed. None of their kids are members yet. We are working really closely with their daughter who is 14. She goes to church every week, she went to girls, she acts like she is a member already. She is such a sweet girl. For some reason she doesn't feel ready to be baptized yet, she gets really shut down when we bring it up and sometimes will cry. She just found out this week that she has diabetes, she has been a little down about it but still is being positive about it. She seems more willing to meet with us and talk to us more, we have been walking with her a few times a week so she can get more exercise and she has been opening up to us more. We feel like she is really close, we are going to try and bring up baptism again this week with her and hopefully it will be a good experience. We are hoping we can get all of their kids baptized, that would be so great for the family. The parents don't want to pressure them, they want it to be their decision.
We are also teaching this less active lady. I have worked with her my entire time here since being in Pleasant Grove. I love teaching her, she is in a abusive relationship and has made a lot of mistakes. Its a long story but she is such a strong lady, she has been through so much. my entire time since being in Pleasant Grove, she has not gone to church. We always invite her but she never comes but yesterday a miracle happened. She walked into church with her kids, I had tears coming down my eyes and so did she, I was so happy to see her. She looked so happy to be there. I love seeing the change in people, Tiana has really stepped it up and has a desire to change her life.
Our new ward mission leader told us "Sisters people say that you are here to teach the gospel to others but really you are here to change peoples lives through teaching them the Gospel of Jesus Christ". It is so true, we are helping people come unto Christ to make that change in their lives.
I am so grateful to be serving with Sister Lutz, we have already seen a ton of miracles together. I am looking forward to see what else is in store for us.
Happy Birthday Melissa, Iove you and hope you have a great day! Also Happy Birthday Dad, hope your day is amazing!
Also this is a little late but Happy Birthday Luke, I can't believe you are 7 years old now, where did the time go??
I love you all, thanks for all the support.
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
We had transfers last week and I have a new companion. Her name is Sister Lutz and she is awesome! We get along so well together. She is very motivated to work hard which I love! She has 2 transfers left and I have 3 left. We both want to finish our missions strong and want to give everything we got. She served with one of my old companions, Sister Smith and she just came from my old area in Provo.
I was a little worried about not teaching as much now that the area is split but we have been so blessed. We have found so many more people, we have received a ton of referrals. The members are more willing to help us and we have been working a lot more with leadership. It has been really nice to just work in one Spanish ward and focus all of our time there.
My companion and I set a lot of goals for this transfer. We set a goal to find 100 non members and so far we have been finding on average about 2 a day and have been getting a lot of referrals. We have worked so hard and Heavenly Father is really blessing us for our efforts. We also want to visit every family in our Spanish ward and teach them the Restoration and invite them to read the Book of Mormon for 5 min a day. We want to strengthen the ward and have them be more excited about missionary work.
We also have a new ward mission leader. He is amazing! He is so organized and knows how to delegate really well, he has amazing ideas and he wants us to be busy, we love working with him.
We also had a Spanish meeting for all Spanish missionaries in our mission and they talked about an initiative that we are going to be doing. Starting September 15- December 15 there is going to be a website up called mormon.org/preguntas. It has 8 questions of the soul like Why am I here on earth, How can I find peace and happiness in this life, How can I have a happy marriage, what can I learn from the challenges in life, etc. They gave each companionship a box of mormon.org cards that have these questions on them. We have been asked to show these questions to people as we contact them. We have also been asked to show members how they can use these cards and share them with their friends....we have already started using them and we have seen a lot of success with them. It is amazing how much the work is really hastening.
We also had zone conference this last week, and this is one of my very last zone conferences which is crazy! It was amazing, we talked about wonderful things. President McCune is so inspired, seriously I love that man. He gives the best council, I am so grateful that I have had him as my mission president. We talked a lot about goal setting and what we are going to do as companionship's to try a little harder in our areas and specifically what are we going to do to accomplish them. He called on a companionship to share what our goals were and guess what...he called on Sister Lutz and I haha. We shared with 60 something missionaries and our Mission President what our goals were and how we were going to accomplish them. One of our goals that we shared was that by the end of this transfer we want to be teaching 30 lessons a week, our first week we taught 12, last week we taught 18. He asked us straight up if we have faith that we will get 30 lessons and we both said yes we do, we want to work so hard and do everything we can to accomplish our goals and bring this area back up. We were put on the spot a lot but it was a good thing, it gave us even more motivation to work even harder, President and a bunch of missionaries know what our goals are so we better accomplish them haha but really we need to so we can see miracles! President also talked about obedience, he gave this long lecture on obedience, it was sooooooo good. He was so straight up but I loved it. He said, we need to just be obedient, we know the rules, we know we can't see miracles if we aren't obedient, we know we won't be happy if we aren't obedient then why be disobedient...it just doesn't make sense. We are so blessed when we are obedient in everything that we do. I have learned so much about obedience on my mission, I have a strong testimony of it and know that we really can receive those blessings from being obedient in everything that we do.
We are teaching a wonderful family, I am pretty sure I have talked about this family before. The parents got baptized a year and half ago and went to the temple recently to be sealed. None of their kids are members yet. We are working really closely with their daughter who is 14. She goes to church every week, she went to girls, she acts like she is a member already. She is such a sweet girl. For some reason she doesn't feel ready to be baptized yet, she gets really shut down when we bring it up and sometimes will cry. She just found out this week that she has diabetes, she has been a little down about it but still is being positive about it. She seems more willing to meet with us and talk to us more, we have been walking with her a few times a week so she can get more exercise and she has been opening up to us more. We feel like she is really close, we are going to try and bring up baptism again this week with her and hopefully it will be a good experience. We are hoping we can get all of their kids baptized, that would be so great for the family. The parents don't want to pressure them, they want it to be their decision.
Happy Birthday Melissa, Iove you and hope you have a great day! Also Happy Birthday Dad, hope your day is amazing!
Also this is a little late but Happy Birthday Luke, I can't believe you are 7 years old now, where did the time go??
I love you all, thanks for all the support.
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
Grateful for the Gospel!
Well this week was a little up and down but it still ended up being really great. We didn't teach as many lessons this week, a lot of appointments fell through which was a little frustrating but we still were able to see a lot of miracles.
We had a really great lesson with a less active lady we have been teaching for awhile. She is the only member in her family, she has 4 kids who are younger. Her husband is not a member. Her one son really wants to get baptized, he is 10 so we have been working with him a lot. He has such a strong desire to be baptized, he is such a sweet boy. Her husband has always been really friendly with us but has never sat in on a lesson. He is very catholic and respects the church but he hasn't really had an interest. But a miracle happened this week, for the first time he sat in on the lesson with us and he has somewhat of an interest now, he is willing to learn more and supports his son for wanting to be baptized. We are really excited for this family and have a lot of hope for them. She came to church this week with all of her kids and she hasn't been to church in a very long time. She would say "yeah I will be at church this Sunday but never came, there was always an excuse. So seeing her and her kids at church was such a great thing. We are praying really hard for this family, especially for the husband that he will have that desire and that he will want this for his family.
We have another investigator that we are working really close with. She is really close, she is 14, her parents are members and got baptized over a year ago. She goes to church every Sunday with her family but she for some reason does not want to get baptized. She went to girls camp this past week and had a wonderful experience. She has opened up a lot with us and this week, we are hoping that we can sit her down and talk about baptism with her and put her on date. We think that she just needs a push and that if we put her on date, it will give her something to work towards. We have been praying for her a lot.
This past Saturday we had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Mt. Timpanogos temple. We did the session in Spanish, that was the first time I have done a session in Spanish. We have been teaching a couple recent converts. We love them so much, and they were receiving their endowments. We got permission to go. Sister Traini, my last companion also was there which was really nice. What a special experience it was to be there for them. A lot of ward members were there and a lot of people from American Fork were there that I knew. It was really neat to do the session in spanish, I was able to catch onto things that I haven't before. We are hoping in a few weeks that they can be sealed as a family with their kids. There are some personal issues with that, we are praying really hard that they will be able to.
We had a zone training meeting this past week that was so good. We talked a lot about talking with everyone. When I served in my Provo, my zone leaders there were very good about talking with everyone and really helped the zone to be more excited about talking with everyone. When we would go out to lunch as a district they would make us kneel down and pray and ask specifically where we should go eat so we could find more people to teach. I definitely opened up a lot serving in Provo because we did that and because I was in a walking area and was able to talk to more people. I know it is something that I need to keep getting better at. Sometimes its really uncomfortable or awkward to talk to everyone that we see. The zone leader that I had in Provo was actually at our zone meeting, he is an assistant now and he is very good at talking with everyone. And he said something really interesting that I never thought of before he said "The Atonement of Jesus Christ has helped me so much in my life, I truly love my Savior and I know that he loves each and everyone of us and I want everyone to feel that, that is why I do everything I can to talk to everyone, I want them to feel the significance of the Atonement in their life...we have that message to share with everyone, we don't want to hold back". My testimony of the Atonement has been strengthened so much since I have been on the mission, I truly know Jesus Christ and what he means to me. Relating the Atonement to talking to everyone has given me the motivation to really do everything I can to talk to as much people as I can.
I love serving a mission so much. I really know that obedience brings blessing, and we can see miracles as we are exactly obedient and fully committed to serving the Lord.
I am so grateful for the gospel. Virginia, I am so proud of you for being baptized, it sounds like it was a very special day for you.
Family- I love you so much, I miss you all a ton especially since the whole family is together and I am the only one gone but I know why I am here. The gospel has blessed are family so much and I need to be here to share that with others.
Transfers are next week: I have no idea what is going to happen at all. We will see what Heavenly Father has in store for me.
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
We had a really great lesson with a less active lady we have been teaching for awhile. She is the only member in her family, she has 4 kids who are younger. Her husband is not a member. Her one son really wants to get baptized, he is 10 so we have been working with him a lot. He has such a strong desire to be baptized, he is such a sweet boy. Her husband has always been really friendly with us but has never sat in on a lesson. He is very catholic and respects the church but he hasn't really had an interest. But a miracle happened this week, for the first time he sat in on the lesson with us and he has somewhat of an interest now, he is willing to learn more and supports his son for wanting to be baptized. We are really excited for this family and have a lot of hope for them. She came to church this week with all of her kids and she hasn't been to church in a very long time. She would say "yeah I will be at church this Sunday but never came, there was always an excuse. So seeing her and her kids at church was such a great thing. We are praying really hard for this family, especially for the husband that he will have that desire and that he will want this for his family.
We have another investigator that we are working really close with. She is really close, she is 14, her parents are members and got baptized over a year ago. She goes to church every Sunday with her family but she for some reason does not want to get baptized. She went to girls camp this past week and had a wonderful experience. She has opened up a lot with us and this week, we are hoping that we can sit her down and talk about baptism with her and put her on date. We think that she just needs a push and that if we put her on date, it will give her something to work towards. We have been praying for her a lot.
This past Saturday we had the wonderful opportunity to attend the Mt. Timpanogos temple. We did the session in Spanish, that was the first time I have done a session in Spanish. We have been teaching a couple recent converts. We love them so much, and they were receiving their endowments. We got permission to go. Sister Traini, my last companion also was there which was really nice. What a special experience it was to be there for them. A lot of ward members were there and a lot of people from American Fork were there that I knew. It was really neat to do the session in spanish, I was able to catch onto things that I haven't before. We are hoping in a few weeks that they can be sealed as a family with their kids. There are some personal issues with that, we are praying really hard that they will be able to.
I am so grateful for the gospel. Virginia, I am so proud of you for being baptized, it sounds like it was a very special day for you.
Family- I love you so much, I miss you all a ton especially since the whole family is together and I am the only one gone but I know why I am here. The gospel has blessed are family so much and I need to be here to share that with others.
Transfers are next week: I have no idea what is going to happen at all. We will see what Heavenly Father has in store for me.
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
Tuesday, August 5, 2014
Another great week!
I need to do a little catch up. Sorry I didn't do an email last week. These past two weeks have been crazy but it has been a good kind of crazy.
We had a baptism for Faith, a wonderful sister last Saturday and what a great day it was for her. There was a lot of craziness beforehand but it all worked out and she did get baptized. Her mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and they have been less active for a long time so it was a big deal that she was giving a talk, she was really nervous about it. She did such a good job, probably the best talk I have heard on the holy ghost. She got really emotional. She said something a long these lines "Faith I am so proud of you, I know we all say this a lot but you really do live up to your name, it is because of you and your desire to get baptized that we are back at church, I am so sorry I forgot how it felt, the gospel really does bless families and I know it will continue to bless ours". My companion, Sister Traini, and I were crying so much. This family has come such a long way since we first started teaching them. They want to start preparing to enter the temple to be sealed together as a family.
We had a really great district training meeting. My companion and I were in charge of the training and the theme for this month for our mission is "Making use of our time and making it more effective", we talked a lot about diligence and accountability in our training. In Preach my Gospel it says that we need to be accountable our entire mission not just at the end of the mission, when we are set apart to be a representative of Jesus Christ we are accountable to the Lord. We want to end our mission knowing that we were fully committed to the Lord and that we were accountable. We ended our training listening to a song that was very fitting. It is called "The hardest thing I have ever loved to do". It talks a lot about the mission and just how we spend our time. We told our district to reflect on their mission so far as they listen to this song. One thing that I really liked that the song says is "the most sincere prayer I ever prayed, I thank my God each and every day". The song starts with beginning the mission and saying goodbye to your families and all the other struggles that come from the mission that we deal with and then it ends with saying "the hardest thing I have ever had to do was getting on this plane and coming home to you". Our whole district was crying by the end of the song, we all got very emotional. The time that we have on the mission is so precious, we don't want to mess up that time. We want to fully be committed to the Lord. We closed with a scripture in Alma 36:24-25. We invited our district to give an account to the Lord on our mission so far. The spirit was so strong in that meeting, I know it was something our district really needed and they needed to feel that spirit again. The spirit was not at our district meeting last week due to some things but this really helped our district come together and to be more unified.
We have been teaching a lot of people. We have had a lot of work to do which has been great. We are getting the wards more involved with helping with missionary work. We have gotten a lot of referrals. We have some really great investigators that could get on date for baptism soon.
I want to give a shoutout to my niece Virginia, who is getting baptized this Saturday! I wish I could be there but know that I will be there in spirit. I am so proud of the decision that you are making. You are following the example of your Savior, Jesus Christ. I will be thinking of you on Saturday.
I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
We had a baptism for Faith, a wonderful sister last Saturday and what a great day it was for her. There was a lot of craziness beforehand but it all worked out and she did get baptized. Her mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost and they have been less active for a long time so it was a big deal that she was giving a talk, she was really nervous about it. She did such a good job, probably the best talk I have heard on the holy ghost. She got really emotional. She said something a long these lines "Faith I am so proud of you, I know we all say this a lot but you really do live up to your name, it is because of you and your desire to get baptized that we are back at church, I am so sorry I forgot how it felt, the gospel really does bless families and I know it will continue to bless ours". My companion, Sister Traini, and I were crying so much. This family has come such a long way since we first started teaching them. They want to start preparing to enter the temple to be sealed together as a family.
We had a really great district training meeting. My companion and I were in charge of the training and the theme for this month for our mission is "Making use of our time and making it more effective", we talked a lot about diligence and accountability in our training. In Preach my Gospel it says that we need to be accountable our entire mission not just at the end of the mission, when we are set apart to be a representative of Jesus Christ we are accountable to the Lord. We want to end our mission knowing that we were fully committed to the Lord and that we were accountable. We ended our training listening to a song that was very fitting. It is called "The hardest thing I have ever loved to do". It talks a lot about the mission and just how we spend our time. We told our district to reflect on their mission so far as they listen to this song. One thing that I really liked that the song says is "the most sincere prayer I ever prayed, I thank my God each and every day". The song starts with beginning the mission and saying goodbye to your families and all the other struggles that come from the mission that we deal with and then it ends with saying "the hardest thing I have ever had to do was getting on this plane and coming home to you". Our whole district was crying by the end of the song, we all got very emotional. The time that we have on the mission is so precious, we don't want to mess up that time. We want to fully be committed to the Lord. We closed with a scripture in Alma 36:24-25. We invited our district to give an account to the Lord on our mission so far. The spirit was so strong in that meeting, I know it was something our district really needed and they needed to feel that spirit again. The spirit was not at our district meeting last week due to some things but this really helped our district come together and to be more unified.
We have been teaching a lot of people. We have had a lot of work to do which has been great. We are getting the wards more involved with helping with missionary work. We have gotten a lot of referrals. We have some really great investigators that could get on date for baptism soon.
I want to give a shoutout to my niece Virginia, who is getting baptized this Saturday! I wish I could be there but know that I will be there in spirit. I am so proud of the decision that you are making. You are following the example of your Savior, Jesus Christ. I will be thinking of you on Saturday.
I love you all!
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
Sunday, August 3, 2014
Another wonderful week on the mission
This week was pretty good. It was a little slower as far as teaching lessons but we were still able to keep busy.
We had a really great lesson with Brother M's wife. He is going through a really hard time and it has been really hard on his wife and she is starting to lose a bit of faith. We talked to her about the Restoration with her and we felt very prompted to invite her to be baptized, so we did and she paused and didn't say anything for like a minute and I was like o boy what did we just do and she said "yeah, I will do it, I need some time though, but I know for sure that it is something that I need to do". I was in shock that she said that, I thought she was going to say no and be offended that we are pushing her too much but she said yes. We were so excited with her answer. We didn't set a date for her but this week we are going to pray about a day for her to be baptized and we hope that she can have that strong desire to prepare for that day.
We are teaching this family that is so awesome, we love them so much. The parents were baptized over a year ago and before I got to the area they just went to the temple to get their endowments and get sealed. None of their kids are members. They have 2 daughters, that are 10 and 14 and they don't want to be baptized. No one really knows that reason why. They go to church every Sunday with their family and they go to mutual and the one girl is going to girls camp. A lot of the past missionaries have tried working with them but they haven't been able to get them to be baptized. So my companion and I have just tried talking with the girls to get them to open up more with us and we even had them paint our nails haha so that they could see we are normal people. They have opened up a lot with us and they say they love it when we come over. We were able to help Julissa prepare a talk about Baptism and Confirmation and we explained why we need to be baptized because Jesus Christ set the example for us. We also had a lesson with the whole family last night and it went really well. The girls participated and they have never done that before. We are very hopeful for them. We are going to pray really hard this week and see if we can commit the girls for a baptism date. It is going to take a lot of faith with them.
The English family that we are teaching has been going so well, their daughter Faith just had her baptism interview and passed! She is so excited to be baptized, she has such a sweet spirit. This family has come such a long way since I first started teaching them, they have progressed so much. They now are talking about working towards being sealed together in the temple, that will be such a special day for them. Faith is getting baptized this Saturday and we are very excited for her and for the whole family.
We got a lot of referrals this past week that we need to contact which is awesome because we need more people to teach! We are very excited for what the rest of this transfer has for us.
I love being a missionary, it is the best thing that I have done. I never want it to end! It will be the saddest day when I have to take off my missionary badge.
I love you all, thanks for all the support.
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
We had a really great lesson with Brother M's wife. He is going through a really hard time and it has been really hard on his wife and she is starting to lose a bit of faith. We talked to her about the Restoration with her and we felt very prompted to invite her to be baptized, so we did and she paused and didn't say anything for like a minute and I was like o boy what did we just do and she said "yeah, I will do it, I need some time though, but I know for sure that it is something that I need to do". I was in shock that she said that, I thought she was going to say no and be offended that we are pushing her too much but she said yes. We were so excited with her answer. We didn't set a date for her but this week we are going to pray about a day for her to be baptized and we hope that she can have that strong desire to prepare for that day.
We are teaching this family that is so awesome, we love them so much. The parents were baptized over a year ago and before I got to the area they just went to the temple to get their endowments and get sealed. None of their kids are members. They have 2 daughters, that are 10 and 14 and they don't want to be baptized. No one really knows that reason why. They go to church every Sunday with their family and they go to mutual and the one girl is going to girls camp. A lot of the past missionaries have tried working with them but they haven't been able to get them to be baptized. So my companion and I have just tried talking with the girls to get them to open up more with us and we even had them paint our nails haha so that they could see we are normal people. They have opened up a lot with us and they say they love it when we come over. We were able to help Julissa prepare a talk about Baptism and Confirmation and we explained why we need to be baptized because Jesus Christ set the example for us. We also had a lesson with the whole family last night and it went really well. The girls participated and they have never done that before. We are very hopeful for them. We are going to pray really hard this week and see if we can commit the girls for a baptism date. It is going to take a lot of faith with them.
The English family that we are teaching has been going so well, their daughter Faith just had her baptism interview and passed! She is so excited to be baptized, she has such a sweet spirit. This family has come such a long way since I first started teaching them, they have progressed so much. They now are talking about working towards being sealed together in the temple, that will be such a special day for them. Faith is getting baptized this Saturday and we are very excited for her and for the whole family.
We got a lot of referrals this past week that we need to contact which is awesome because we need more people to teach! We are very excited for what the rest of this transfer has for us.
I love being a missionary, it is the best thing that I have done. I never want it to end! It will be the saddest day when I have to take off my missionary badge.
I love you all, thanks for all the support.
Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces
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