Transfers and Baptism

This week was pretty stressful but it still was amazing!.  I was a little nervous about this past week because I was taking over the area and getting a new companion and we had 2 baptisms on Saturday and it was just a crazy week. 

Transfers can be a little crazy.  We wonder who our new companion is going to be or what area we will be in.  We wonder what Heavenly Father has in store for us.  President McCune said "ok Pleasant Grove Spanish area, Sister Garces you will be serving with.....he paused for a couple of seconds and said Sister Montanares! Sister Montanares and I both screamed a little bit and ran and gave each other a big hug.  I know Sister Montanares really well, we were in the same zone when I served in Provo.  She was companions with one of my former companion's, Sister Smith when she was sister training leader.  I have gone on exchanges with her a few times and we saw each other a lot when we served in Provo.  Every time we would see each other we would say "I could totally see us being companions one day, it is going to happen" and guess what we are companions now! We are so excited to be serving with each other, we already know so much about each other.  The end of our first day together we could tell that this was going to be a good transfer and that we would get a long very well!

I am the designated driver which has been interesting haha.  Its been good though, I actually know my way around Pleasant Grove more than I thought.  Also they changed our zone boundaries a little bit.  American Fork is now in my zone, so my old area is in my zone now which is pretty cool!

We had a lot of miracles happen this week, the first week of the transfer is always crazy.  I didn't think we were going to be able to teach as much but we did! We met all of our goals and taught 23 lessons and had 2 baptisms!  There was a little bit stress before the baptisms, we didn't think the font was going to be filled in time and then we thought it was going to over flow and all this other crazy stuff that happened.  The baptisms happened though, it was so great! After over 10 years investigating the church, brother F finally got baptized.  When he went in the water, I started to tear up because I knew that this has been a long journey for him and he finally did it. Anderson got baptized too, when he came out of the water, he smiled and looked so happy.  All the stress and craziness that was happening before the baptism didn't matter anymore, what mattered was that they were getting baptized.  A ton of missionaries were there, about 7 companionship's of sisters were there.  Brother F has been through a lot of set of missionaries.  My old companions Sister Smith and Sister Traini were there.  Sister Traini and I went through this whole process with Fabian and Anderson together and I will be pretty straight up, Sister Traini doesn't like to hug but she gave me a big hug.....and said "we did it, they did it, they are baptized, I love you Hermana".  We both had tears in our eyes.  I was kind of emotional through out the whole day because 2 other investigators that I taught in Provo and American Fork were getting baptized at the same time.  I was so sad I couldn't go to them but I was so happy for them that they were finally taking that step. 

We also got some referrals this week for new investigators and that is exactly what we need.  We just baptized 2 people and now we need to find more people.  We are so excited for what this transfer has in store.

We have another baptism coming up the 26th of this month for a 9 year old girl.  We got special permission to teach her and her family because there are English speaking and felt more comfortable having sisters.  The family has been less active for awhile and want their daughter to be baptized.  The whole family has progressed so much since we have taught them.  Their daughter, Faith is so cute.  We are really excited for her to be baptized. 

Family- So I heard that Germany won the world cup! That is awesome! Mom, I bet you were so happy! Charles and family, that's so great that you will be here for the summer...you all have fun together!

I love you all, thanks for everything.

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Grateful to serve in Pleasant Grove

Well, we have transfers this week and I am staying in the area and my companion, Sister Traini is leaving.  What an incredible transfer we have had together.  These past 6 weeks have gone by so fast but we have done so much together.  The beginning of the transfer we were only teaching about 7 lessons a week and this past week we taught 25 lessons this week, that is the number of our standards of excellence for our mission!!! So we were really excited last night when we reported numbers to our district leader and realized that we reached that number!

4th of July was so much fun!!! The entire mission walked in a parade in Provo.  I got to see all of my old companions and all the missionaries that I have served around.  It was so nice to catch up with everyone.  During the parade, I also saw a lot of people that I knew from my old areas! After the parade we had lunch with the entire mission and watched our mission slideshow.  Also later that day we were locked in a chapel from 5-9 with our district.  We watched Frozen, what a cute movie! We also played a lot of games.  We also saw some fireworks from our house but nothing compares to the fireworks in DC!

Brother F and Brother A had their baptism interviews and they both passed! They are ready! Keep them in your prayers this week.  Satan likes to work extra hard on investigators when it is close to their baptism! There is going to be at least like 15 missionaries there who taught brother F!

Tonight we have a lesson with big Brother M and his wife.  We are hoping to put his wife on date for baptism, we are going to have to trust in the spirit a lot for this lesson.

I am so grateful to be serving here in Pleasant Grove, it really is a great area! I am excited to take it over and a little nervous at the same time but I know that I need to still be in this area and that my new companion needs to be here too!

Shoutout to my Mom, I hope you had a great birthday this past week, I love you so much!!!

I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Miracles and David Archuleta!!!

I don't even know how to start this weekly email. So many things happened this week.  I have come to realize that being a missionary is seriously the best thing in the world! I hit my year mark this week and have done a lot of reflecting.  I have come such a long way this past year, all the experiences, trials, etc have changed me into a better person.  I know what it means to truly love my Savior.  I have such a strong testimony of Him and His Atonement.  I can't believe I only have 6 months left, all I know is I am taking everything in and enjoying every second of it.

So Thursday we had a zone training meeting that was awesome! We talked a lot about setting goals.  We set a goal as a zone for how many baptism we could get for the month of July.  We set a goal of 30, we are all committed to it.  There is a lot of great things in store for the month of July.

That night we had a lesson with Anderson, we were on splits so I taught the lesson by myself with a returned missionary who just got home from Guatemala.  We talked about prophets, why we have prophets, and that we have a prophet today, Thomas S. Monson.  We watched a Mormon message with the prophet speaking and I told brother A to pay attention and think in his heart is Thomas S. Monson is really a prophet, watching him watch the video was neat, I could tell by his face that he really was feeling the spirit.  He's a little 12 year old boy and after the video, he said, wow, I believe he really is a prophet.  It was a great lesson.

On Friday we had such an amazing lesson with brother M's wife.  She was not interested at all at first, she would never sit in on the lessons.  She vented to us a lot about what she is going through with Miguel, he is a drug addict and he is still using.  He is up and down a lot.  I thought about my Dad a lot, I told her about my Dad that he used to drink, and take drugs and he met my Mom and she helped him overcome it and that the Gospel helped him and our family so much.  I told him, My Dad is so strong now, he knows this Gospel is true, he wouldn't have it any other way, and he needed my Mom by his side.  I told her brother M needs you, I know it is hard but he needs you by his side, you need to be there to life him back up again.  I was crying, my companions was crying and she was crying.  We invited her to start reading the Book of Mormon, we testified to her that reading everyday will help her to feel peace and that it will give her the strength to help brother M.  She told us that every time we come to her house she feels the spirit and feels so good.  It is amazing as a missionary that we carry this special spirit with us that people can really feel.

So another amazing thing!! Big Brother F (eternal investigator that has met with missionaries for over 10 years), he is getting baptized the 12th of July....it is happening! We met with him Saturday and he was like ok I am going to do it, the 12th it is!!! We are so excited for him.  We finally started telling members and missionaries about it, there is going to be a ton of missionaries there about 12 if not more!!! The members are so excited for him because they know it has been such a long journey for him.

So last night we had a missionary night fireside with one of our Spanish wards that we cover.  2 returned missionaries who just got home talked about their experiences, the purpose was to get the ward more excited about missionary work.  Anyways, someone walked in and I almost freaked out.  It was DAVID ARCHULETA!!!!!! Apparently he is friends with the Bishops family and they invited him.  I always knew he was a really great guy and all that.  I watched him on American Idol and I love his music...meeting him in person was really neat.  He is so humble.  He came up to my companion and I after the fireside and shook our hand, we had a conversation in Spanish. It was awesome, and he said my Spanish was really good haha.  Never thought anyone would say my spanish was really good and having David Archuleta say that to me was unreal....I asked him about his mission in Chile....he loved it so much, he told me these last 6 months of my mission is such a precious time that I need to take everything in and enjoy it because it will go by fast...he said you are blessing so many lives because you decided to serve.  I could feel the spirit so strongly when I talked to him.  I felt like I was talking to a normal person that I have known forever.  You can tell he has such a strong testimony of this Gospel.  I would of asked for a picture with him but I felt like that would have kind of been inappropriate since we were at a church event and I am a missionary haha.....so yeah never thought in a million years that I would meet David Archuleta on my mission...but then again I serve in Utah haha. 

So yeah that was my week, pretty awesome stuff!

We have transfers next, who knows what will happen.  All I know is that I don't want my mission to end. 

I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Pleasant Grove parade

Well I don't have much time this week, so this email is going to be a little short.

This week was really great! We had some great lessons with our investigators.

Fabian has his baptism interview tomorrow, he is so ready! We are so excited for him to finally take this step.  He has been investigating the church for over 10 years and he is finally going into the waters of baptism!

We had a parade in Pleasant Grove this week.  All of our zone participated in it and passed out programs, it was really fun to talk to people and be seen.  There was a ton of people there.

We had some great lessons with brother A this week, we are continuing to teach him so he can be ready for his baptism.

Miguel is doing pretty good, he has gone through so much in his life.  The day he can finally get baptized will be such a special day for him. 

Also we found out the movie we get to watch for July 4th is Frozen!! The whole mission is so excited!

I hope everyone has a great week!

Love you all!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

An Amazing Week/Happy Father's Day!

This week was amazing! We had so many miracles happen.  We were able to exceed our goals.  When you work really hard and with more diligence, we can see the fruits of our labors.

First off, Dad, I hope you had a Happy Father's Day! Also to my brother's Mike and Charles, I hope you enjoyed your day.  You all are great Fathers.  Thanks for being such great examples. 

On Tuesday, Sister Traini and I went to the temple.  We can only go every quarter now so we were really excited to go.  Everything just comes into place when I go to the temple, I love it so much. 

We had some pretty great lessons with the brother we have been working with.  The desire that he has is so amazing, he wants to get baptized so bad.  His wife is not really interested and never sits in on the lessons but a miracle happened.  For the first time she sat in on a lesson and we were teaching about the Plan of Salvation.  We are hoping with time, she will want to have that desire as well.

We had a lesson with the good brother F.  He is doing so well, he has been praying and reading the Book of Mormon every single day.  He says he knows he needs to be baptized but he just feels like he hasn't received that answer.  He said he has faith that he will receive it soon and that it is something he wants to do.  We told him to keep reading and praying and his answer will come.  He goes to church every sunday and knows so much, he just needs to get in the water already and get baptized.  His kids are members, we told him.  Your kids are going to need you, you can live with your son and daughter forever.  He had tears coming down his face.  We are so excited for him when he finally does get baptized.  So many people will be there for him.

We have another investigator.  He is 12 years old.  He just came from Guatemala.  His Mom is a recent convert, she was baptized in December.  She wants her son to be baptized, so we have been teaching him the lessons with the family.  We want to make sure he makes the decision himself and that he doesn't just do it because his mom wants him to do it.  He seems to understand things really well.  He has been praying and reading everyday since we have taught him.  We asked him straight up, so Anderson when do you want to be baptized and he said can I do it today, I feel so right about it, I feel so happy when I pray and read.  We could tell he really genuinely meant what he said.  We put him on date for the 28th of June.  He seems really excited and his mom and the family are really happy.  The mom has a nephew that is living with them and he was baptized a really long time ago but he has been less active for years.  He has been sitting in on the lessons with us and he wants to come back, he went to church yesterday with the family for the first time in years.  It's so neat to see things like this. We are really excited for his baptism.

I am so grateful for all the miracles we had this week.  I am so grateful that I am representing Jesus Christ.  I am really learned to become a true disciple of him.

The gospel can changes people's lives.  I know this because it has changed me and has been the best thing for my family.

I love you all! 10 more day and I hit my year mark, crazzyyy!!!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Leaving American Fork/Transfered to Pleasant Grove

Well first off I want to wish my Dad a Happy Father's Day.  I hope you have an awesome day! You are the best Dad ever! Also a birthday shout out to my nephew, Peyton! I can't believe you are 4 years old now, I hope you had a fun day!

Well, I have been transferred to Pleasant Grove, its basically right next to American Fork so I didn't go too far.  I am serving with Hermana Traini, she is from Alaska.  She is so awesome, I can already tell that we are going to have an amazing transfer together. 

This area is a little similar to American Fork.  We cover 14 stakes but we also cover 2 Spanish wards, so there is a lot of members that I will need to get to know! We cover Pleasant Grove, Lindon, and Ceder Hills.

We have a golden investigator, seriously he is so awesome.  He has such a strong desire to be baptized but has to wait due to some personal things.  He has changed his life so much already.  He is such an example to a lot of people.  We are really excited for him for when he can be baptized!

We have another investigator. He has been investigating the church for over 10 years now.  He has 2 kids that have been members for awhile.  He goes to church pretty much every Sunday.  He has been through so many missionaries, he knows the church is true but can't commit himself to a baptism date.  We had an amazing lesson with him this past week.  We planned on just starting over with him and teaching all the lessons.  We started with the first lesson, we just wanted to go into the lesson and see where he was at.  We taught him lesson 1 about the Restoration and it went really well and then we talked about baptism.  He said he just doesn't feel ready to be baptized, he said he doesn't think he will ever be ready.  The spirit was guiding Sister Traini and I so much during this lesson.  I had something in my head that I wanted to say but wasn't sure if I should say it but I did it anyway "I said, Hermano, we can set a baptism date with you today and if we need to change it we can, it can be a goal for you, you know this church is true, this Gospel can truly bless you and I know you know that.  We can set a date for you and you can pray about it and ask specifically in your prayers if you will be ready to be baptized on that day.  Also to help you with your answer, you need to pray and read every single day.  I promise you Heavenly Father will answer you.  Sister Traini then looked at the calendar on her Ipad and she pointed to the 19th of July and I said yes.  And she said, brother...will you prepare yourself to be baptized on the 19th of July?  And he took awhile to answer but then he said ok I will do it, I will pray about it....I know it is something that I need to do.  I need to commit and just do it.  We continued to keep testifying to him that he will be so blessed for taking this step.  We came out of that lesson so happy, we were like jumping up and down.  So many missionaries have taught him and have never been able to commit him to a baptism date.  We were on such a high the entire day.  We didn't expect being able to put him on date at all, but the spirit spoke to us so strong.  It is his time.  We are so excited for him.

We are also teaching a lot of less actives.  This transfer our goal is to find more people to teach. 

We also had stake conference and it was amazing! Lawrence Corbridge of the seventy was there....he was amazing! He said so many great things.  President McCune and his wife was also there.

I miss American Fork but I know I need to be in Pleasant Grove right now serving with Sister Traini. 

This area is amazing! I already have connected to so many people here!

I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

The Plan of Salvation

This week was really great! We accomplished all of our goals! We haven't been able to do that for a very long time so it was really exciting when we reported our numbers last night and realized we accomplished everything.

We had a super fun activity this week with the youth in our branch.  The leaders put together a very special activity about the Plan of Salvation.  They asked us to invite any investigators, less actives, recent converts that were youth age.  We invited some recent converts that we are teaching that attend an English ward.  It was a very good turn out.  I know my ward back at home did an activity like this a long time ago.  The youth didn't know what was going to happen during the activity.  All they knew was that they were going on a "vacation to Hawaii".  The activity started on a plane.  Everyone was on the plane heading to Hawaii and then the plane crashed and everyone "died".  We went to all of the three kingdoms, the Telestial, Terrestrial, and Celestial.  It was really neat.  The decorated the Celestial room so nice. It was all white and they had some people in our branch that work at the temple in the room with their temple clothes.  At the end of that activity they asked us to talk about the whole plan of salvation with the youth.  We basically just taught them the lesson that we teach.  It was such a good experience.  I could tell the youth really felt the spirit. They had a lot of questions but understood this is the path we need to take.  We can all make it to the Celestial Kingdom to live with our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ.  It is all possible through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. 

On Saturday we had a Spanish Leadership training meeting in Provo with all the missionaries in the mission that are Spanish speaking.  That meeting was amazing!! We had a seventy come to speak to us, Elder Clark.  He said so many amazing things on how we can better work with Hispanics.  He said something that really hit me.  He said "We need to spend time with the people that really want the Gospel", we need to help them with their commitments.  A lot of them can't read and a lot of them don't have that much education....we need to help them.  They want something in their life that will bring them such happiness, we need to help them get there and progress".  He said "They need to learn to love the Book of Mormon".  They need to know that they can trust you.  It was such amazing meeting to be able to talk about Spanish work and how we can better help the Hispanics we are teachings and how we can in general bring forth more work.  It was so nice to be able to see everyone.  I saw all of my old companions that are still here Sister Bumstead, Sister Smith, Sister Figueroa, and I got to see Sister Derges and Sister Sablan (my MTC buddies), and a lot of Elders that I have served with before.  It is so nice to be able to catch up with everyone.

Later that night we had a really great lesson with a less active family we are teaching.  They have 4 little kids that are so cute.  We read The Book of Mormon with them and talked about the importance of reading together as a family.  One of the daughter's who is 7 started talking to us...she said "I love Jesus, I know that he helps each of us....I feel so happy when I read the Book of Mormon, it makes me feel more close to Jesus".  It was so sweet, her simple testimony touched us all.  She's only 7 but she gets it.  I almost cried when she shared that.  Little kids testimonies are some of the best!

Well it was a great week! Next week we have transfers....I have no idea what will happen.  All I know is I need to serve like its my last week here just in case if it actually is.  I have loved serving here in American Fork.  Only the Lord knows what is best to happen for next transfer.

Thanks for all the love and support.  I love you all.

Hermana Veronica Garces