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