New Area and companions...in American Fork!

So I know I have been slacking on my weekly emails lately.  I am going to be a lot better now, hopefully! I am going to try and sum up what has happened these last couple of weeks!

First off, thanks Charles and family for the package!! I loved it! Also the snacks, the bag, and CDs.  The CDs are seriously great, they have a nice variety of music, good job!

Well I had to say goodbye to Provo and it was super tough.  I really didn't think I was going to be transferred so it was a little bit of a shock but that is part of the mission.  We have to be transferred so that we can learn and grow.  Heavenly Father needs us in other places.  I got a letter from a good friend of mine recently who is serving in Puebla Mexico and one of the things he said was "If we are comfortable, that means we are no longer progressing.  The Lord will push, nudge, pull, and pry us out of our comfort zones time and time again.  He does NOT want us to be comfortable....but he does want us to be happy, and that requires a willing heart, and a mind ready to submit to all that he sees fit to give us".  It is so true, we learn and grow with change.  I was getting really comfortable in Provo so it was my time to go. 

Tuesday we went out to lunch one last time as a district.  It was bittersweet because we all have gotten really close this last transfer.  We have all learned a lot from each other.  The rest of the day I said goodbye to members, investigators, and less actives.  It was tough to say goodbye.  Saying goodbye to the a particular family was really bittersweet (they were the family that we were working with our zone leaders to get them transitioned)...I got to Provo just a few weeks before they got baptized.  I have seen their testimonies of the gospel grow so much.  They aren't transitioned to the other ward yet but I know they will be...they finally get it now.  They told me that the gospel has helped them so much as a family and that the church is the same wherever you go.  When they said that, that is when I knew I fulfilled my purpose with them.  Their son is turning 8 this month and his Dad will baptize him which will be way exciting! I am planning on going back to Provo to be there for that.

I definitely learned a lot of things serving in Provo.  I learned a lot about myself and who I want to be and become and I really learned how to love people.  The love you develop for people on the mission is seriously incredible.

That night I was finishing packing and while I was packing my companion, Hermana Smith put on the song One day More from Les mis to listen to.  That song applies so much to us as missionaries especially with transfers.  The part where it says "Tomorrow we'll discover what our God in Heaven has in store one more dawn, one more day ONE DAY MORE".  I got chills when I listened to the song because I knew that Heavenly Father had something in store for me...a new area and a new companion.

The next day was transfers.  President called my name and said that I was going to be in a trio with Hermana Figueroa and Hermana Holladay and that we would be serving in American Fork.  I was in complete shock that I was going to be in a trio.  We all gave each other a big hug.  Hermana Holladay

is from Pennsylvania and has been our a year now and Hermana Figueroa is from Mexico and she has also been out a year.  Hermana Figueroa mostly talks to me in Spanish which is great so I can get better with the language!  I have to say now that I have been in a trio for almost 2 weeks, it is definitely a blast, we have a ton of fun together and are able to get a lot of work done!

A little bit about my area.  We cover American Fork, Highland, and Alpine.  We cover 14 stakes which is crazy!! Our area is huge and because our area is huge we have a car.  I went from a walking/biking area covering just one stake to now a very big area.  I am going to be completely honest, being in a car again isn't very fun.  I got so used to walking/biking that I go crazy in a car now haha.  But I know I have to get used to it. 

This area is very different, there are not many hispanics so we have to rely on a lot of members and work really hard to find them. We cover a branch, it is really small.  My ward in Provo was huge.  It has defintely been different but the members here are really great and are very willing to help us.

We have a lot of great people we are teaching now, most of them are less actives but we are working on trying to find new people to teach.  We do have a baptism coming up in 2 weeks for a good brother.  His fiance is a member in the Spanish branch.  We taught him the first lesson and we felt super prompted to invite him to be baptized and we did for the 29th of this month.  He said he would, he knows already so much and is super ready.  We are very excited for him!

This week we also went to the temple.  So far on my mission I have only gone to the Provo temple, now that I am serving in American Fork I get to go to the Mt. Timpanogos temple.  It is so pretty, I love it!  I learned a lot from going to the temple this past week.  A lot of my prayers were answered to a lot of things. 

This area is very different from Provo but I know I need to be here and I know I will grow to love it here.  Next week I will hit my 9 month mark on the mission, I can't believe I have been out that long.  I have definitely learned so much these past 9 months.  The mission is seriously a blessing.  It changes you so much in such a good way. 

I am so excited for General Conference coming up, those weekends are seriously the best!

Thanks everyone for all the love, support, letters, packages, and everything.  I am so lucky to have such great friends and family! I love you all!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Leaving Provo

Well we just found out about transfers.  I am being transferred and my companion, Hermana Smith is staying here.  I am so sad but I know the Lord needs me to be somewhere else right now.  I have served in the Provo Slate Canyon area for 4 and half months now.  It has been such a pleasure to serve here.  I seriously love Provo.  The ward has been amazing! I have grown so much in this area and have seen so many people progress.  Serving my first 2 transfers in this area with Hermana Bumstead was a blast, she helped me so much in so many ways and this past transfer serving with Hermana Smith has been great!  She has helped me a lot seeing what my full potential really is.  Transfers are so tough especially when you have grown so attached to the area, to the people, to the missionaries you serve with, and other things.

I have to say this past week was really good.  There were so many little miracles that we had.  We were able to teach a lot of lessons.  We had a lesson with the mother I mentioned last time, this week and she only had 15 minutes.  Usually our lessons are kind of long with her.  It is always an adventure when we teach her, she gets really distracted so it kind of takes a long time.  A lot times things never go as planned haha.  So she has been working on quitting smoking and we taught her the Word of Wisdom and it went so well.  She was really focused and we were able to teach everything with her.  She understood it well and knows that she needs to live it to be ready for baptism.

On Wednesday was my 8 month mark, it is crazy to think that I have been out that long. As a district we did some service for some members that were moving and then we went to lunch afterwards.  Usually when we go to lunch we pray about where we should go so we can meet people and talk to more people.  We felt super strongly that we should go to Panda Express.  When we got there I ran into one of my really good friends from back at home, Brynne Townley.  We have grown up together and are in the same home ward.  It was sooooo good to see her.  It made my day so much! It was something that I needed, it was a good reminder of a lot of things. 

We also had our last district training meeting of the transfer.  It was pretty emotional.  We didn't know who was leaving or staying but we decided to all share our testimonies.  Everyone got really emotional.  We have grown a lot together and have experienced hardships, miracles, and many other things together.  Everyone wanted me to go last haha one of my zone leaders, Elder Page said "Sister Garces needs to go last because you know we have to save the best for last" haha.  I cried a lot as a bore my testimony, I have learned a lot this past transfer especially about myself.  My testimony of so many things have increased so much.

So yesterday was my last Sunday in my Spanish ward.  I felt really prompted to bear my testimony to the ward, maybe I should have taken that as a sign that I was going to be transferred.  I felt really prompted to and it went really well.  I felt the need to share what I know to be true and express gratitude to the ward.  My ward mission leader said he didn't want me to leave and had a feeling that I was staying...he was way off haha.  He has been so great to work with and just everyone in the ward.

We went by to see the a wonderful that has a tremendous impact on me.  They heard that we were having transfers this week, they didn't want either of us to go.  They said no Hermana Garces, you can't leave, we love you so much.  They don't know I am leaving yet and many other people don't know yet but I know I have to trust in this and that I am needed somewhere else. 

These next two days are going to be saying goodbye to everyone.  I am so grateful to be in this mission.  I have learned so much and I have seen so many blessing from serving.

Next week I will be with a new companion and in a new area.  I have been 4 and a half months without a car.  I have been so used to walking/biking...if I get transferred to an area with a car, I might go a little crazy haha.  Anyways I love you all, thanks for everything and all the support you all give me.

Hermana Veronica Garces

Great experiences!

Hey everyone sorry I wasn't able to write a weekly email last week, I was short on time.  Again this week I am short on time so this email will be a little short. 

I don't even know where to start, so many things have happened. 

We had zone conference on Valentine's Day and it was amazing!! It made me reflect on how I want to be better as a missionary. So many inspired things were said that I needed to hear.

So we are teaching a mother and she is on date to be baptized on March 22 and this past week we got her daughter on date to baptized for the 22nd as well.  We are so excited for them.  The good mother is still struggling with quitting smoking but we gave her a program from the church that will help her stop.  Its like a 15 step program that really works.

We had a miracle this past week.  So a ward mission leader from an English ward asked us to stop by this lady who is less active and she has a daughter that is 13.  Anyways we have been by her house so many times at different times of the day but she's never home or doesn't answer.  We finally got in her door this week.  She let us in and to be honest at first I didn't think she liked us.  She was speaking English to us and then we started speaking Spanish to her and she opened up a lot more.  She is less active but her daughter is super active.  She is from Venezuela.  It ended up going really well with them.  She invited us back over and wants to make dinner for us and she even gave us a ride home.  It was such a miracle because my whole time I have been in this area we have tried her house and we have had no luck.  We are really excited to start teaching them.

Also next week is transfers, I don't want to leave this area yet.  I have grown so close to a lot of people here and I am just not ready to leave yet.   But if I do leave I know it is for a reason.  I am so grateful for this gospel and to be serving a mission.  It has taught me so much to be better in every aspects of life.  I love you all and thanks again for everything. 

My email next week will be a lot longer!

Love,
Hermana Veronica Garces

Missioning it up!

So this week was pretty good.  Unfortunately we weren't able to teach as much this week but we were still able to have a successful week.

The wonderful Sister that was scheduled to be baptized on the 22 of February is having surgery this month on her arm and it is going to take a bit to recover from it so we pushed back the date for March 22nd.  And we are hoping we can help her daughter to be ready for that date to be baptized as well.  The mother still has such a strong desire, she's amazing! She is trying to quit smoking and it is hard for her but she is really trying and has cut back a lot. 

We have some other people that we are teaching that could be really great, we just have to get them to be more committed so they can progress. 

We found a new investigator this week.  He's 17 year brother and we found him in the trailer park.  We had a lesson with him last night on his doorstep, we couldn't go in because there was no woman in the house.  It was super cold and we were doing this lesson in English, we were teaching him the Restoration and I was kind of nervous about it because it has been awhile since I have taught this lesson in English, I have been so used to teaching it in Spanish (I never thought I would ever say that haha teaching in English is harder than teaching in Spanish, wow!) Anyways the lesson went amazing.  As soon as we started I wasn't nervous anymore and just listened to the spirit.  I could tell he could feel it too.  We invited him to say the last prayer at the end and he was a little hesitant at first because he has never prayed out loud in front of anyone but he did.  It was such an amazing prayer, after he said the prayer he said he felt so good and that it really felt like he was talking to Heavenly Father.  David has a lot of potential, we are super excited to be teaching him.

This week we also had a zone training meeting.  The zone leaders called us and asked if we could do a 15 minute training on being guides as missionaries.  So we decided to do an activity with the zone, we made an obstacle course and one person was blindfolded and one person guided this person throughout this course.  One of our zone leaders, Elder Page volunteered to be guided on the course and then Sister Hadley guided him while the rest of us shouted him and tried to distract him to go other ways.  It was actually pretty hilarious watching him go throughout the course, there were times he was really lost and he had to really listen to Sister Hadley.  After the activity we had a discussion on how this can apply to us as missionaries being guides to our investigators.  It shows that we need to help our investigators and invite them to do things as pray, read scriptures, attend church, and other things.  They really have to be in tuned with the spirit to get the answers they want. 

Another set of missionaries did a training on asking inspired questions.  I still struggle with this problem, a lot of times I ask questions to investigators that aren't maybe the most inspired.  Sometimes during a lesson we don't want there to be an awkward silence so we fill them up with questions.  We have to not be afraid of silence, we have to go to heaven and really discern what they need.  We did a role play on this.  I don't really like doing role plays but they can be really effective.  It was a really good experience, I feel like doing this really helped.  We need to be in tuned with the spirit to get us where we need to go with our investigators.

Anyways, I am about out of time! I hope everyone has a great Valentine's day! This week we have zone conference on Valentine's day which I am excited for!

Thanks again for all the love and support!

Hermana Garces

Another great week in Provo!

So this week was amazing! We had so many miracles happen this week and we were able to teach a lot this week!

We have an investigator we are teaching from the Dominican Republic....she is super hard to understand haha.  We have her on date to be baptized on the 22 of February and she is so ready.  She has such a strong desire.  She smokes quite a bit and we thought it would be a problem to try and help her to quit but we had an appointment with her this week and she threw out all of her cigarettes and she said she hadn't smoked for 4 days! We were super excited to hear that, she said she wants to do everything it takes to get baptized the 22nd because she knows that's the day she can be ready for.  She has a daughter who is 15 named Bernice.  She is very interested and has been going to church and loves young women's.  We are working with her to try to get her on date to be baptized as well.  She is so ready, she just doesn't know it yet.


This week we started teaching a 17 year old brother.  His Mom is a member and goes to our ward but he is not.  Our ward mission leader told us about him and said that we should start teaching him.  Our first lesson with him was amazing, before we started teaching him the first lesson he said that he wants to be baptized.  So we taught him the lesson and put him on date for the 1st of March.  He accepted and said he would pray alot and make sure that it is something that he wants to do.  He has been going to church every Sunday for the past 2 months with his mom, has already read some of the Book of Mormon.  He is so ready, we are super excited for him!

We also found a few other new investigators this week that could potentially be really good.  We found them in a trailer park in our area.  We have appointments with them this week so hopefully all goes well with that.

We also were able to teach a lot of less actives this week.  We have been doing a lot of family home evenings with less active families to strengthen the families.  We had a lot of less actives come to church this Sunday which was great!

There is this less active lady we are teaching that I absolutely love.  I think I have talked about her before.  She is a single mom with a 5 year old son, she is from Chile.  This week she really opened up to us about her life and why she has doubts and why she has been less active, we shared the Mormon message of "Waiting on the road to Damascus", she loved it and started crying because she realized that video applied to her a lot.  She has been going to church the past month now with her son and I can tell she is doing so much better.  I love her son.  He is so cute and loves it when we come over, when he sees us he is always like "Hermanas, mis amigas" haha.  He loves to play with us. 

We had a lot of other great lessons this week, I am so grateful that I am still in this area and I hope I stay in this area for awhile.  There is so much work for me to do here to build this area back up. 

Also this week during our district training meeting we talked about talking to people wherever we are.  When we are walking, in the store, anywhere.  We should talk to everyone we see throughout the day.  We did some role plays on how we could start talking to people.  My district leader called on me to be a random person on the bus and the zone leaders were called to be the missionaries that were going to talk to me.  So role plays can either go really well or really bad, sometimes they are just super awkward and everyone just starts laughing haha. But this one went super well.  I put myself as an investigator and the zone leaders started talking to me to get to know me first and then they brought up the gospel and testified to me of the truthfulness of it and asked if would be interested in it and I said yes of course.  I started to have tears in my eyes and the elders did too. It was like this role play was so realistic.  The way they testified to me of the gospel was amazing and I thought to myself how could someone not want this to be apart of their life.  It was a neat experience to do that role play even though it wasn't a real scenario, it felt like one.

So also last week for Pday we hiked "The Y".  O my goodness it was really tough but super fun, making it to the top felt so good.  As we kept going up, I felt like I was enduring to the end.  It made me think that life is super rough sometimes and that it is not easy but if we keep going we will make it to the top.  If we keep reading our scriptures, praying, go to church and other things we will make back to our Heavenly Father.

Well I am out of time.

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


Hermana Veronica Garces

Parting with Hermana Bumstead, new companion Hermana Smith

So this week was really bitter sweet.  I had to say goodbye to my companion Hermana Bumstead after being 3 months with her.  On Tuesday we spent all day visiting less actives, investigators, members so that my companion could say goodbye to everyone.  It didn't hit me she was leaving until Wednesday when I was helping her lug all of her luggage out of the house.  She has been so amazing to me and I know our companionship was truly inspired. 

So my new companion is Hermana Smith, she was my sister training leader last transfer and we were in the same zone! So we already know each other pretty well, we were super shocked that we got called to be companions because we were not expecting that at all! We are super excited to be serving together! She is from Oklahoma and she has been out almost a year. 

So I was pretty nervous taking over the area because I never I have had to do that before.  One of my zone leaders asked me before getting my new companion how I felt about taking over the Provo Slate Canyon area and I said "I am pretty scared but what is keeping me hopeful is that the Lord still wants me here and that there is still work for me to do here".  He said "You are going to do awesome this transfer, Sister Garces...it is your time to shine and your Spanish is going to get a lot better and you will have a lot of success, I know it".

This week I have had to take more initiative in teaching lessons and making phone calls in Spanish and using a lot more Spanish than I am used to.  This week was really great, we were able to teach a lot of lessons.  We got really lucky with getting rides, a lot of members were able to come out with us to teach.  We even committed one of our investigators to get baptized.  We set a date for her for the 22 of February.  I am so excited for her, she is so ready and has a really strong desire.  Her daughter is super interested too, we didn't set a date yet for her because we didn't feel it was the right time but we are hopeful this week we can! We were able to teach a lot of less actives this week as well.  And church was amazing, we had so many less actives that came back to church and several investigators that came.  We haven't had that many people come in a long time.  Out gospel principles class was full and it hasn't been that way for awhile.  Our ward mission leader was so happy with us, he was so amazed how so many people were at church. 

I am so grateful for the success we had this week and I know it wouldn't have happened without the help of my Savior.

I know I am still in the Provo Slate Canyon area for a reason.  This area is really great and I am looking forward to building up the area even more!

Thanks again for everything, I love you all!!

Love,
Hermana Garces

Staying in Provo!

Well this morning we found out about transfers.  This past week I kept thinking that I was going to leave, for some reason I felt like my time was done in Provo.  But we found out this morning that I am staying in Provo, and that my companion, Hermana Bumstead is leaving.  We knew one of us was going to leave.  These next few days are going to be a little tough saying goodbye to each other.  We have grown so close.  I have learned on the mission that you get really attached with people especially your companion.  They are with you 24/7 and they know so much about you.  So saying goodbye is tough.  Hermana Bumstead said to me, I feel like we are breaking up/getting a divorce haha but its true it kind of feels like that.  We are going to make the best of it, our last 2 days together.  I don't know who my new companion will be but I know that it will be someone that i am meant to be with this time in my mission.

This week, we went to the temple twice!! The whole month of December the temple was closed.  So it was super nice to get to go again.  We went as a companionship and then we went as a district.  They showed a new video, not the new one that people talked about for awhile, they started showing this video over a week ago so its brand new.  It was soooooo good.  I got a lot of answers to my prayers this week when I went to the temple. 

This week I also went on exchanges.  It was a very good experience, I like going on exchanges to learn more from other sisters. 

Also this past week, we taught a family that is not super active these days, the Stancliffe Family.  They live on the other side of the area up this huge hill so it is always an adventure when we go visit them.  They had us over for dinner and we talked to them about the importance of attending church because they haven't been coming to church recently.  It was a really good lesson with them, Brother Stancliffe works for a vending machine company and he had all these vending machine snacks that were about to expire that he can't put in the machines anymore but they are still good.  He gave us this huge box of snacks, it was HUGE.  We had to walk with it down this hill and it is still pretty icy.  The box was super heavy and it seriously looked like we robbed a convenience store haha.  We kept laughing because we looked so ridiculous and it was so cold.  We realized that we wouldn't be able to carry this huge box all the way home walking so we called our zone leaders to come get us and they were like "Sisters what are you doing" haha.  They thought we looked pretty ridiculous.  Let me just say the mission is full of adventures haha. 

We are still working on trying to find more people to teach.  We are meeting with our Stake President this week to see how we can help more and get more involved. 

I am super excited to be staying in Provo, I know my work is not yet finished in this area.  Next week, I will tell you all who my new companion is! Today we are meeting as a district/zone and doing a journal signing because some other people are leaving too! It is super sad but the Lord knows where we need to go or if we should stay.

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

Love,
Hermana Garces